Demonstration Of The Spirit

And we wave our Bibles around.

Make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Say this together, say, heavenly Father, we're so glad to be in your presence.

In your presence is fullness, and we don't take it for granted.

Thank God for this atmosphere.

In this atmosphere, all things are possible.

I see the sound of, I hear the sound of an abundance of rain, and rain is signs, wonders and miracles.

In Jesus' name, amen, you can be seated.

Let's turn in our Bibles, please, to 1 Corinthians, chapter two.

And you know, jesus went around all of Galilee in the synagogues, teaching, preaching and healing.

Those who received the teaching and the preaching got the healing.

A lot of people think that Jesus just healed everybody.

Well, he did heal many people.

At times the gifts of the Spirit were in operation, but typically he operated on this track teaching, preaching and then healing.

People's faith had been healed, atmospheres had to be built.

Have you found 1 Corinthians, chapter two?

Yet Verse one?

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not to do anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and I was wishing to be in the same place and crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing or persuasive words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration.

Everybody shout demonstration and demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith should not stand or should not consist in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

And so tonight I just wanted to share a message entitled demonstration of the Spirit.

Demonstration of the Spirit, and it's only used.

The word demonstration is only used one time in the Bible, but yet examples of demonstration are all through the Bible.

Everybody shout demonstration.

It's a major part of the early church and without demonstration, when you take the miracles out of the book of Acts, you don't have much.

It's just one demonstration after another, one miracle after another.

It's the Greek word apodexis, and that word comes from a root in the Greek which means to show off.

We could call it showings off of the Spirit.

You know the Holy Ghost knows how to show off.

He knows how to lend authenticity to the message.

You know you can preach to God.

You know the Bible says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation everyone that believe it, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

So, yes, the word is anointed, the word produces, but it's designed to be demonstrated by the Holy Ghost Showings off of the Spirit.

The glory of God is demonstration of the Spirit demonstrated.

You know, when the gospel is preached with demonstrated demonstration, the demons are in dire straits.

Some of you can laugh, y'all laugh.

Later you'll get the joke.

He doesn't think it's a joke.

He has no answer for miracles.

Well, you know, the devil works miracles.

Well, the devil just does it.

He's a man.

He's a man.

Well, you know, the devil works miracles.

Well, the devil just.

He has supernatural power, but God's power is so much more superior.

There's no comparison.

Paul said that demonstration was there so that their faith would rest and be in the power of God rather than in the human philosophy or the perhaps the fancy preaching the oratory.

You know, we've got people out there that have a gift of oratory.

They can spin a yarn, they can tell a story, they can put a sermon together.

I don't do sermons, I have messages.

But there there are people that are gifted at that and they've gotten much learning and they might know more Greek in Hebrew than I do.

I can.

Just I read when I need to know about Greek in Hebrew.

I've got books that tell me what the words mean.

I don't, I never took a class and you know, I used to know a preacher.

He was a young Holy Ghost preacher.

He was just really a nice guy, a good guy, and he just, you know word of faith and cemetery.

I mean seminary just ruined him.

He went to seminary and took classes in Greek and he just lost all of his spontaneity.

I mean, he just thought he was some kind of professor or something.

What are you?

The Dean of a Bible school or what are you?

Are you trying to help people?

Paul, you know, he was, had a much learning.

His background was at the feet of Gamaliel, who was a noted Hebrew scholar.

He was a fair, he'd said by his own, by his own testimony, he was a Pharisee of Pharisees.

I'm telling you, he knew this.

He knew the Bible, he knew the law, he knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards, he knew everything about it.

But he didn't know Jesus.

And he said I count all that but refuse.

I call it garbage, it's just nothing but dung.

But for the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Savior, he said, yeah, I came to you and he didn't say it this way, but he could have.

I know a whole lot more than I as far as scholar, scholarly wisdom.

I could have shared all that with you.

I could have wowed you with how that connects in and the history of that and this and that and the other.

And he said I determined, see, he decided himself.

You know what?

I'm not preaching that way.

I'm going with demonstration of the spirit and of power.

If he doesn't show up, I'm going to fail.

How many of you know God showed up.

He was preaching one time and right in the middle of his preaching he looked at this guy that had never walked.

He was lame from his mother's womb.

He's sitting there listening to Paul preach and he must have been preaching on healing Because this man.

Paul looked at him and he perceived that the man had faith to be healed.

And he said stand upright on your feet.

And the man leaped up and walked for the first time in his life.

You talk about demonstration, glory to God, talk about showings off of the Holy Ghost so that their faith would rest in the power of God, rather than human philosophy and Human personality.

The demonstration is proof that God is present.

When God shows up in demonstration, he's not.

He's not afraid to back up what's being said by his presence and by certain what we call showings off healing gifts of the Spirit.

We'll get into some of the ways that demonstration occurred.

It also brings transformation for believers.

It brings conviction for sinners.

Brother Hagen tells a story.

One time it was there, I believe it was their Sunday morning service.

A Sunday morning, you know, was For the town to come and be part of the.

You know he's had a small community church and everybody's there.

And you know, during the service, a holy hush fell.

What do you mean by that?

Well, just, all of a sudden, and just everybody was present, the God's presence became very Weighty.

You know, the glory.

Glory means weight, weighty.

Sometimes his presence is so heavy that we don't want to speak Every now and then it'll happen in this church.

Well, we're just.

You don't even hear a cough, you don't hear a sneeze, you don't hear an eye blink.

I mean, it's just total silence Called it a holy hush.

And so here it is.

Sunday morning, church is packed with, you know, people, and there was a sinner man that everybody knew to be a sinner.

It was outside and he was Trying to decide whether to come to church or not.

He was standing outside the door.

Brother Hagan had a message and he couldn't preach it.

He said this holy hush.

And there he just sat down on the on in a chair and on the platform and everybody just was silent for like 15 minutes and all of a sudden then the door opened and this sinner man that everybody knew to be a sinner, he was a drunk and he was a Nair do well, and he was, you know, kind of a troublemaker and he come running down the aisle and fell at the altar crying and gave his heart to Jesus and the Holy Ghost said you know, if you hadn't let me move the way I did, that man would not have been saved.

Talk about demonstration, and Everybody that participated in that, everybody that stayed quiet, everybody that was there that day got to witness, because they all had part of that.

They obeyed the Spirit of God.

Who will robot us that?

To me, that can tell you.

Oh, so you know, we got fancy preaching, oratory, homiletics.

I call it fluff and bluster.

Fluff and bluster is not the anointing, really.

Fluff and bluster mostly is just human flesh.

It's just prepared, canned, practiced, choreographed Movement and speech Turning of phrases practiced end on end so that they don't get tongue-tied.

Listen, folks, that's not the anointing, that's not demonstration of the Spirit of power, oh my God.

But the Word and the Spirit preached under the anointing brings growth and glorifies God.

In second Corinthians.

You know the second letter he wrote to this church, which, by the way, this church was carnal.

He told him so.

He said your carnal, carnal means body rules you.

You, you're in the flesh.

You can't please God in the flesh and You're in the flesh.

Corinthian church.

But they had gifts it, gifts of the Spirit.

He's talking about those Demonstration of the Spirit and of power in a church full of carnal people.

What was that doing?

Well, that's God moving in their midst to get them out of that Coronality, getting out of that minding of the flesh.

The carnal mind is enmity with God, and and and the law of God cannot and will not apply to a carnal mind, and someone that walks according to the Carnality of their mind cannot please God.

And yet God was there to move them out of that it.

What was it?

What was he doing?

Hell, he was moving in their midst, say.

But in second Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 12, he said surely the signs of an apostle, the signs of an apostle Were wrought among you and all patience, notice he.

2 Corinthians 12:12

He started with patience.

The signs of an apostle were paid, boy, you know it took a lot of patience to be the father of the Corinthian church, because they had a lot of mess.

You know, they had a young man come into church and open sin.

He was living with his stepmother.

Man, I mean, he said such a sin is not even named among the Gentiles.

Even the Gentiles don't live like this.

This is, this is the dirtiest thing I've ever heard of.

How do you put up with a man bringing his stepmother to church and sitting in there like everything's cool?

I've already heard about this and I've decided to turn this young man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit can be saved in the day of judgment.

See, it kind of ties in with what I was saying this morning about a hardened heart.

I mean, hardened heart for a believer is dangerous because you can finally get so hardened in your heart through the deceitfulness of sin and Practicing sin as if you are a sinner and you're not.

You're not a sinner, you're a righteousness of God.

You've been saved, you've been washed in the blood, but you're not living like it and you're not owning it and you're not repenting from it.

You're not turning from it, you're living in it over and over and over and over.

So I've decided and you need to do this with me you need to turn him over to Satan For the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit can be saved in the day of judgment.

So it's mercy.

He's not gonna go to hell, he's gonna die young, but he's going to heaven.

God is gonna take him off the scene before he denies the Lord.

See, that's where he's headed.

He's gonna get to a place where he gets so cold and so hardened in his heart that he could deny the Lord that bought him.

And let me tell you something we're not robots.

I mean, we're saved.

When we confess that Jesus is our Lord and we believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we can get so hardened with God that we can say God, I'm just tired of it, I don't wanna serve you any longer.

You're no longer in charge of my life, I'm in charge of my life.

Guess what the Bible says?

That's the sin unto death.

Now you have to qualify to commit that sin.

It's not easy, oh pastor.

I'm so afraid I think I might've committed the sin unto death.

No, you haven't, because if you're worried about it, you haven't done it.

When you commit that sin, you no longer care.

You don't care about what Jesus thinks.

Oh pastor, that's impossible.

Noel, the Bible says it's possible.

Hebrews chapter six.

It gives you five things that you have to be in order to qualify to commit that sin I just talked about.

But this young man, this young man knew enough of the Bible and his round demonstration of the Spirit.

He's around Holy Ghost's power.

He knew he was saved.

He spoke in tongues.

He's not a novice and he is in danger if he continues this way, to tread underfoot the precious blood of Christ and do despite unto him.

And so Paul handed him over to Satan.

What does that mean?

Well, they disfellowshipped him, they put him outside the church and the devil started eating on him.

And after the devil, we don't know just what happened.

We don't know whether he got mental trouble, we don't know if he got sick, we don't know.

But he came back and he repented.

By the second letter he said okay, he's repented, Let the boy come back to church and restore him.

You know you've gone far enough.

In fact you've gone a little too far.

Come on, have some mercy on this kid.

He's got his.

He moved out from his mother-in-law and step mother, I mean, and got rid of that and he's hey, have mercy on him, bring him back in See.

That tells me that there's protection from demon powers when you come under the rod of a pastor in a local church.

But outside, man, I'm telling you you're vulnerable.

Are y'all with me now?

So that's demonstration.

He said.

Surely the signs of an apostle are wrought among you and all patience, patience and signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

The signs of an apostle patience first, but signs and wonders and mighty deeds I just think about.

I mean, paul was had so many miracles associated with his men.

He should think about shaking that viper off in the fire.

Viper fastened on his hand after he survived the shipwreck on the Isle of Malta and he goes over there and starts warming himself next to the fire and a viper comes and bites him on the hand and he just shakes it off and he's like, oh, I'm gonna go and get him On the hand.

He just shakes it off and felt no harm and everybody said, oh my goodness, it's a God, tried to worship him.

He got the father of the governor healed and they had revival Signs and wonders and mighty deeds signs I preached on this Wednesday night.

You might go back and get the message the importance of signs and wonders.

Signs and wonders are part of the brand of heaven.

The Coca-Cola have a brand, I don't know way back, I don't know 20s or 10s or something, 1910, 1920.

I don't know.

They came out with that script Coca-Cola.

I mean, it's a script that is their logo and it's a symbol of their brand.

Their brand is this drink that's been so popular for a hundred and some odd years.

I remember back in the 70s they tried to change the formula and they almost went broke.

They came out with new Coke and they did not execute brand integrity.

They messed with the.

Why are you messing with a taste, you idiot?

Everybody drinks Coke.

Down here we don't even call, we don't call things.

Call it soda pop.

Down here, up the Yankees call it soda pop or a soda.

You wanna pop or you wanna soda, you know.

But down here we say you wanna go have a Coke, you wanna go get a Coke.

I go buy and pick up Gladys for a date.

I say you wanna go get a Coke?

I mean I didn't say go get a pop, her Coke was a Dr Pepper with pickle juice.

But anyway, I digress.

She's not here so I can talk about her.

See, god, the church has lost the brand integrity of heaven.

We have not had the kinds of signs and wonders that we should have.

When we're losing a generation of kids that are gravitating toward all kinds of weirdness because the church hasn't executed brand integrity, that's all changing.

I said that's all changing.

Glory to God, hallelujah, everybody say signs and wonders, mighty deeds, but patience, patience.

I was reading about Maria Woodworth Edder.

Her ministry was started in the 1870s and by the 1880s I mean, she had revival meetings that were so powerful.

She had revival meetings that were so powerful.

People spoke in tongues.

Hey, that's before the Pentecostal revival, that's before Azusa Street.

And in her meetings people spoke in tongues.

Now, they didn't know what they had.

They didn't know how to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

But one of the demonstrations of the Spirit in her meetings was the Holy Ghost would come in in such manifestation that people would just.

They would just go and pray, that people would just begin to speak in other tongues.

Now they.

It would have been better if they could have had some teaching on how to keep doing it.

It was a long time before people understood that that wasn't just some kind of unction that would have fallen on you one time and then it was over with the rest of your life.

A lot of Pentecostals, that's what they were taught.

They were taught well, oh, you had the unction fall on you and you spoke.

No, I just Paul said I speak in tongues more than y'all, so it was a matter of his will.

He was able to speak when he wanted to speak in tongues.

They didn't know that back then, so the revelation hadn't hit yet.

But what I'm saying is the demonstration.

In her meetings people were healed, people spoke in tongues, people fell out as if they were dead.

That was a common demonstration.

It happened in George Whitfield's meetings.

Whitfield was critical of John Wesley, because John Wesley would preach and people would just fall right where they were crumpled to the ground and they laid there dead.

Well, they were slain in the spirit.

They didn't know what to call it, but it was a manifestation of the spirit.

It was a demonstration that God is authenticating.

He's granting this sign, he's granting his signature of authenticity.

The sign is the signature.

It's the Holy Ghost signing his name and saying this is me.

Oh, glory to God, this is what the church has lost.

Oh, it's coming back.

Everything old is new again.

Everything that receded is advancing again.

We got some momentum going.

Woo, glory to God.

And so you know, he didn't understand it, george Whitfield didn't understand Wesley and he kind of critical of that and some of this high this is weirdness until it happened to him and then he realized it's the Holy Ghost.

Oh, we stand on the shoulders of great men and women of God that have forged a pathway for us.

Everything old is new again.

Peter Cartwright would preach.

He was a big old guy, about six foot three, 245, big old guy, big strong guy.

He preached all in the Kentucky and Tennessee.

He preached in some rough places and people would climb up trees to hear him preach.

He'd start preaching and people fall out of the trees, lay on the ground like they're dead.

You know, if you're gonna get slain in the spirit, it'd be better not to be up in a tree, I think.

I think the next building we're gonna have conveyor belts, like the luggage at the airport, you know, just rotating where people fall out here, and it just takes them out, deposits them on the parking lot next to their car.

Maybe by then they'll be sober enough to drive home.

Maria Woodworth-Ettner had a meeting with some preachers of her day in 1880s.

Now you gotta understand.

Back then, I mean, women preachers were not widely accepted.

Pentecostals were about the only ones, and the Pentecostals hadn't been born yet.

This is 1880s, so the Pentecostals are the first.

Next century, 1905, 1910, 1920.

I mean, you really didn't have the Pentecostal.

Denomination did not exist.

So most of the denominations back in the 1880s they didn't like women preachers.

They took a damn view of women preachers but they couldn't take a damn view of her because of the miracles that she had.

I mean, the spirit of God would move in a city where she was and it would go up and down away from the meeting place and go into neighborhoods and people would fall out on the sidewalk.

People would drop to their knees weeping over their sins.

Five, 10 miles away from where she was having a meeting.

Oh, come on, lift your hand.

Right now I'm telling you, god hasn't forgotten how to move.

We're gonna see greater things than that.

It's coming, folks, I'm telling you, it's coming 140 years ago, before the Pentecostal revival, and she had a meeting with a group of ministers and she said, brothers, you know, I used to preach hellfire and brimstone, but this generation doesn't listen to that.

They'll listen to a message on hellfire and brimstone, she said you know, I used to be able to preach that and people would shake with the conviction of the Holy Ghost and they'd get saved and everything.

But this generation, when they hear that, they'll just look at you and turn around and leave.

And I'm telling you, it's demonstration of the spirit and of power that will win this generation.

She was talking about this right here and she would give testimony of what God would do in the cities where she would go.

And she went to a place called New Hartford.

I'm not sure exactly where that is, but there could be New Jersey, hartford, connecticut.

I don't know Hartford, Connecticut.

Okay, new Hartford.

I never heard of New Hartford.

I don't know where that is, but talks about New Hartford and that was what I was talking about.

It went out into five and 10 miles away from the place where she was meeting and people were falling out under the power.

People were kneeling down, weeping over their sins.

I mean miracles, healing miracles.

She said it's demonstration of the spirit and she just preached to those guys.

She said this believed God.

For demonstration of the spirit, this is what we need to reach this generation.

And I'm saying right now this is what we have to have to meet this generation's needs.

This demonstration of the spirit.

They're not going to listen to just an old sermonette by a preacherette with a choreographed bunch of baloney.

It's going to have to have the Holy Ghost behind it.

Come on, lift your hands right now.

Glory to God, showing's off of the Holy Ghost.

I'm preaching this because I want it.

I found out a long time ago you can preach.

You know you get what you preach.

So I'm preaching it.

I mean signs is a signature.

It's evidence, a logo if you will, of the brand.

The brand has got expectations associated with the brand.

The brand has got a.

You know the people that want that brand.

They have an expectation of what need they have is going to be met by that brand.

When you buy tied, you expect your clothes to smell good after they come out of the washing machine.

If they stink, you won't buy tied and what the church has delivered is an abomination.

It's not God's brand at all.

It's not what Jesus did.

It's not what Jesus gave us authority to do.

Oh, but it's changing Glory to God.

It's changing Woo.

Well, you know, demonstration is not all up to the preacher.

It's whether we cooperate.

You can help or you can hinder demonstration just by your own participation or lack thereof.

I've been in meetings where there was heavy demonstration, all kinds of things going on odd things, funny things, holy laughter, drunkenness, dancing and when I'm saying dancing, I'm not talking about the charismatic can-can.

That's not the dancing I'm talking about.

I'm talking about supernatural.

A Holy Ghost gets in somebody's feet and they do things with their feet that you can't do.

That's dancing that I'm talking about, not this manufactured little hippity hop or worldly dancing in disguise to the Christian music.

I mean, that's that's.

I'm not.

I'm not trying to tell people don't do it.

I'm just saying that's not really Holy Ghost demonstration.

I will dance like David dance.

Well, david was a spiritually dead man.

We don't have to do that.

That's not what we're supposed to do.

We're not supposed to emulate David, because David wasn't born again.

We are and we're filled with a Holy Ghost, so we should be able to have a demonstration then in response to the Holy Ghost when he moves in a service, and we can either hinder that or we can help it, Whether we respond, say will you respond or will you yield?

See, sometimes people are too proud to laugh, they're too proud to get drunk.

But don't be unwise, but understanding what the will of God is.

But be not drunk with wine, but be drunk on the Holy Ghost.

Really, that's what that Ephesians 5, 18 is saying be drunk, be continually and habitually drunk, be an old drunkard.

I've been drunk in the Holy Ghost.

I want to get drunk again.

Wouldn't be bad to get drunk right now.

I'm not drunk.

I'm not drunk.

It ought to be something that we experience on a regular basis.

Why?

Because it's part of demonstration of the spirit.

But if you resist, say some people just cross their arms and they observe, and that all by itself you're hurting yourself, but you're also putting a lid on the atmosphere.

Don't do that.

We're all one body.

If God is moving over here, he ought to move all the way across the whole place.

Everybody say I will yield to the Holy Ghost when he's moving.

So a couple of different kinds of demonstration or manifestations of the Holy Ghost one, the physical demonstration, and number two, the spiritual demonstration.

Revivals bring back what is waned.

Healing has always been present.

Jesus healed them all, but healing would recede.

And then God and His love and mercy for human beings.

He loves the sinner, he wants to see people.

You know, healing is God's dinner bell.

When the chuck wagon, when the cook out of the chuck wagon in the you know, out in the middle of the cattle drive, rings that triangle ding, ding, ding, ding.

Well, the cowboys come from everywhere because they know it's time to eat and healing does that.

I mean the sinner comes and they get healed, and when they get healed they get many times get saved.

Healing is God's dinner bell.

It's God's signature that he's there and he's ready to meet the needs of human beings.

Raymond T Richie coined that phrase Healing is God's dinner bell.

He had a magnificent healing minister here in Houston, pastor of the great evangelistic temple, assembly of God.

It's gone now.

Flash, ate it, flash, ate it.

We're still here, though, praise God, it's our 30th year.

We're gonna be here till Jesus come.

Flash ain't gonna eat us, amen, amen.

So revivals bring back what's Wayne?

Doctrines, demonstrations, even offices.

I remember in the 80s the prophetic ministry was revived and more prophets started answering the call to become a prophet.

Brother Hagin was a prophet, you know, back before anybody knew what a prophet really did.

And he was a reluctant prophet because he wasn't comfortable flowing in the prophetic or the office, I should say the office of the prophet.

The office of the prophet's different than just prophesying.

The office of the prophet is seeing and he would sometimes see things that he didn't particularly wanna see and God would give him a to-do list and I mentioned one of those this morning.

That's just one of those times.

But because it wasn't his personal preference, he kinda got out of the will of God in that he knew he was a prophet and a teacher and he was more comfortable teaching than functioning in the office of the prophet because he's got a traveling ministry so he would just lean on teaching because God told him to go teach my people faith.

But he's a prophet.

So prophet, apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher.

I mean, you know, the office of the apostle is not that they outrank the pastor, it's just that there is more equipment that has to be demonstrated in the apostles' ministry and he was not releasing that demonstration in his meetings.

So in El Paso, texas, 1959, he fell off the platform and broke his elbow and he was in the hospital, kinda bummed out, because he'd never been in the hospital.

Even when he was sick he didn't go to the hospital Bedridden, and he didn't go to the hospital Paralyzed, and he didn't go to the hospital.

This is the first time he'd been in the hospital, except for visiting Aretha when the kids were born.

He broke his elbow and so he hears these footsteps.

And here comes Jesus walking down the hall, comes in his rooms, sits down on the side of the bed.

He said now your elbow's gonna be fine.

He said you're gonna recover from this faster than the doctor says.

His cast has come off quicker, as I've already moving on your behalf on this thing.

But the reason you're here is because you didn't obey me fully.

What, well you know.

You've been saying that you're a prophet, that you've been saying that you're a teacher and a pastor, and you're a pastor, you've been saying that you're a teacher and a prophet, and that's the emphasis that you've given.

Your ministry is teaching and then the prophet comes after the teaching and he said it's the other way around prophet, teacher, you're gonna have to get back into obeying me in the office of the prophet and flow in that anointing that I have given you because it's vital to the body of Christ.

It's not optional.

Church needs the office of the prophet and of course he was a precursor of really when it happened in the 80s.

He'd already been flowing that in the 40s and 50s.

So it was important for him and the body of Christ to manifest the office of the prophet.

And there were others.

William Branham was a prophet, but you know, if you look at church history and some of those prophets got off, they just got off because they didn't have a proper church government, they didn't have a proper amount of people around them that had a revelation of what that office was supposed to be like, to hold them accountable to certain things.

And of course, branham went off the rails and thought he was Elijah and he died early because he got off into error.

John Alexander Dowey got into error, thought he was Elijah.

See, evidently that's one of those things that people, they get lifted up because of the seeing, being able to see things, and they get lifted up in pride and somehow they just do without the proper government around you, the church government.

I'll tell you, every minister needs a pastor.

Somebody will tell you the truth when you're off, somebody that'll just sit you down and say well, look, you know you, that's error right there.

But you know, sometimes with big ministries and powerful ministries that have big miracles, they tend to surround themselves with yes people and then nobody has the guts to tell them the truth.

Amen, the emperor has no clothes Till it's too late.

So these revivals would bring back offices.

Nineties was the apostolic.

In the 40s and 50s healing was restored back in the body of Christ more, and the healing was the gifts of healings in the gifts of the spirit.

They weren't faith healings, they were by gifts of the spirit.

Very little teaching on how to keep what you got in a meeting like that.

So the record was a lot of people lost their healings.

You'd have numb skulls and I've heard them in person say well, if it's really God, you won't lose it.

Well, that's a lie.

Why don't you read your Bible?

The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy.

He'll steal what God gives you.

If you let him, if you don't have any revelation of how to keep what God gave you, then you'll lose it.

So it takes the teaching of faith.

You've got to learn who you are in Christ, what you have, what your covenant says, and if God gives you something through the gifts of the spirit, you're gonna have an opportunity to lose that thing unless you learn how to keep what you've got by faith and walk by faith.

Amen.

So you had the faith revival in the 70s.

You had all these teaching centers and faith centers.

They quit using the word church and they started reaming, aiming all of their buildings of centers and worship center, faith center, and they had seminars.

That was kind of a revival.

But I've always been a church man and I believe the local church is really God's plan, not against those other things, but the local church with a pastor in charge.

I don't count out to anybody else.

I'm in charge of this right here.

Nobody's over me when it comes to this church.

If anybody comes in this pulpit, they're subject to my approval.

There was error on that in the 90s where you had apostles that come in and well, I'm the apostle over Houston and you need the tithes to me and all of that baloney.

Thank God I had good teaching and I'm off the subject, but anyway, let me get back on demonstration.

I'm talking about demonstration and the devil will always try to counterfeit what's real amen.

So you have these spiritual revivals.

You know the charismatic revival, the Jesus movement I know guys that got.

You know there were hippies and dope fiends.

We used to call them hippie-dippy dope fiends at A&M.

But they got saved.

The Jesus movement, it was a legitimate.

The Asbury revival in Kentucky, asbury College in Kentucky in the 70s.

I knew a good friend of mine who was a prophet, doug Reeves, and he came out of that revival.

He got saved and filled with the Holy Ghost in that revival and God used him as a prophet A lot of the prophetic gifting that I have rubbed off on me just hanging out with him, the good man, and so forth.

So the charismatic revival millions of Catholics filled with the Holy Ghost.

How many of you have a Catholic background?

Look at all these Catholics.

How come you're not in church?

No, I'm just, you are, you are.

And then there's the physical manifestations, spiritual manifestations.

God adds back to the church what has waned, what has decreased, and remember that word for this year that which is old is new again.

Everything old is new again.

It's new to some people that have never seen it.

It's not new in the sense it never happened.

It's new to a generation that have never experienced the demonstration of the spirit.

Everything old is new again.

Everything receding is advancing again.

A tsunami first has to draw the water from the shore and drain the harbor.

To get the water that it's gonna then return in that power when it hits the beach it's gonna.

All that water had to come from up in front of it.

It gathers it up and the water levels fall.

If you've ever seen that that the pictures of that tsunami in Indonesia in 2004, I mean it's amazing.

The whole harbor just went, whoa Boats were just sitting on the bottom and then here comes this tsunami and so everything that's receded is advancing again.

God's move is coming, hallelujah, and with it there's gonna come a repeat of the physical manifestation of the Holy Ghost.

I mean, when the Holy Ghost falls, physical bodies respond and yes, it can be flesh.

People can wanna have a.

I've seen people get in the flesh and just act out.

But then there's the real.

I've seen people act drunk when they weren't.

It's kind of hard to tell that unless the Holy Ghost shows you.

As pastor, I'm kind of.

No, I can tell.

I've had these manifestations come in our church services and we had some laughter in that Baptist church down the street.

It was champion forest Baptist before it was great.

Before it was Christ church right down the street.

We rented that building for 13 months and we would have manifestations of the spirit there.

In fact, rodney came there.

Rodney Howard Brown came when we were in that building.

We had a whole week and it was wild.

I mean, people were drunk, people were laughing, people were.

You know, charisma Magazine called it the laughing revival and you know, rodney begged them.

Don't call it that.

It's not just a laughing revival, it's revival.

There's lots of different facets to it.

It's not just about laughing, it's about the Holy Ghost.

He begged them not to label it.

They labeled it, you know.

Hmm, yeah, laughter occurred.

You know there are certain manifestations that are more common in certain flows.

I've noticed around Brother Hagin when the spirit of God would move in his meetings there wasn't as much drunkenness, there was more exuberance, leaping and Holy Ghost getting in people's feet and they'd start dancing and twirling or running.

Brother Mark, when he's got a Holy Ghost meeting, a lot of people run, they run and run all the way around the church.

Well, how is that the Holy Ghost.

Well, if you've never experienced it, see, first time it happened to me was at Lakewood, and Lakewood was not known for demonstration.

Brother Osteen kind of kept a tight ship when it came to all of that.

He didn't mind prophetic words, tongues and interpretation.

That was okay.

But anything else like holy laughter when we moved into the new building, I don't think we ever had anything like that happen.

But one evening, sunday night this was probably 1990 or 91, something like that Gary Simons was leading the worship for those steen sun in law at the time and it was exuberant.

It was a I don't know how to describe it.

It was just a higher level.

That night, praise and worship was just on a high level and I was sitting next to a pastor and his wife that I knew from San Antonio.

They were sitting next to Gladys now on the front row, and we just were just.

It was just I don't know how to describe it.

We were just full of joy and I just kind of saw myself running.

I mean, I just saw myself running.

I had a desire to run and so I said well, lord, it died down.

I didn't do it right.

Then it died down.

Brother Osteen got up on the platform.

He was ready for all that to end and he was gonna start his message Praise and worship is over.

And they had already revived a couple of times, they quit and then they started back up and so I'd waited too long and I thought, well, lord, I've kind of waited too long, but if it comes back up again I will run.

See, I finally I didn't yield as quick as I could have, but I finally did, I yielded and so it all started back up again.

They started, started kind of upbeat song and everything, and man, I took off.

I didn't even, I just didn't care.

I took off and I hit the first aisle.

Then I turned down that aisle and, of course, one of the ushers I think it was Sam.

Sam, are you here tonight, sam?

I think it was Sam.

I think I ran right by Sam and Sam's eyes was big.

He didn't know whether he stopped me or, but he knew he couldn't stop me.

I was gonna run over him if he tried to stop me.

And I went whizzing by him and my coat was flapping in the breeze like this, had a towel on my ties flapping in, my coats flapping, and I had the most feeling of exhilaration.

It was like I was almost gonna be raptured.

I was giggling, laughing, running full speed.

Now I'm not in shape.

I don't jog, I don't exercise, I don't do anything much.

I mean I go to work every day but I'm not an exercise guy.

But now I'm running flat out and all the way around the downstairs of that big old building and I mean the music kept playing, everybody was hollering and man, you know, I went all the way around and came back to my spot and I was not breathing hard, I had a normal breath.

I did not.

The hand of the Lord came upon me like he did Elijah, when Elijah outran the cherry at 20 miles.

Come on, lift your hands right now, say, I'm telling you, I know, say, I know Now I had had this.

I had had a holy laughter before.

I'd been drunken, the Holy Ghost before.

But I had never run like that.

I'd never had the hand of the Lord come on, and I mean I've been.

I tried to run myself.

It's not wrong to run, if you want to run, run but I've never had the hand of the Lord come on me when I ran.

I'd get back and I'd be breathing heavy, you know, sweating and everything else.

So I don't do that so much anymore.

Forgive me, but if the hand of the Lord comes upon me, everybody say physical manifestation.

You know, in our first building we had people roll on the floor.

You ever know about holy rollers?

I grew up in Refurio in the Pentecostals church.

They called them the holy rollers.

I never knew why until we had holy rollers in my church in the first building.

I mean we had a woman that was just dressed to the night.

She had just a nice dress on, not pants, suit, a dress.

I mean you know you're kind of nervous when a woman is rolling on the floor in a dress.

I mean you know you're just kind of thinking, oh my God, this could be bad, but not a hair out of place, nothing immodest.

I mean she just rolled and then, you know, she started rolling back toward the platform and there was a short platform, it was only two steps, and I thought she was going to roll up the steps and then that's I mean.

But she stopped, she hit the, she hit the step and then she rolled back the other way.

I mean she just rolling up and down, up and down, and another time laid hands on this lady very similar kind of thing, had a business suit on, dressed to the night, dressed to the night.

It's Coyf, very elegant lady, very elegant.

And I noticed in the in the when, during worship, she'd just have tears running down her face, her hands would be raised, or husband sitting next to her like a lunk, you know, with his arms folded, bored.

When I preached, he didn't care, she's sitting on the edge of her seat, couldn't wait to drink in what I was preaching.

And she was hungry for God, wanted him, wanted everything she could get.

Talking about demonstration of the spirit, she came up one Sunday for prayer.

I laid hands on her.

She hit the ground.

The catcher couldn't catch her.

She was kind of a tall lady, she's close to six foot tall and and you know she wasn't heavy, but I mean she's a big lady and you know we just didn't.

The catcher wasn't behind her exactly and she kind of turned and hit the ground and I was like ow, you know, and she laid there for quite a while.

When she got up, you know, she, she kind of weaved back and forth and somebody kind of steadied her and she turned around and she ran down that aisle and she started running toward the back of the church.

She ran in high heels.

She started running and she was stumbling and she didn't make the turn and she fell against the Formica cabinets Remember, lisa, those cabinets back behind that wall, behind the right there by the door as you go out the door.

She tried to make that turn.

She couldn't make the turn.

She fell right into those cabinets, crashed in there.

Her hair now, her hair sticking out, not quite as elegant as she started at See, she didn't care, she was full of the Holy Ghost.

Hallelujah, demonstration of the spirit and of power.

Glory to God.

And then, of course, you had the gifts of the spirit, the spiritual manifestations, the power gifts, healing, deliverance.

We're gonna see some magnificent things ahead, but we have to be prepared.

And so let's learn to respond and to help in usher.

Help to usher in the great.

You know the greater works.

That's what Jesus said.

He said the works that I do shall you do also, and greater works than they shall you do, because I go to my father.

Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight.