Holy Ghost Warnings

So let's get into the word tonight, because the word of God is just incomparable and the word and the spirit working together it's making all the difference in your lives and my life.

Let's lift our bibles up, as our custom around here, wave our bibles, make Jesus glad in the devil mad, and say this together say Heavenly Father, I've tuned in on Wednesday night because I'm hungry for more.

I'm pressing into the good things that you have laid up for me and they're coming out toward me and overtaking me, blessing upon blessing in Jesus' name, amen, amen.

Let's turn in our bibles to Acts, chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

, and we'll start reading with verse 17 and talking about Paul and from Meletus, he came to Ephesus and called the elders of the church and when they were come to him, he said unto them you know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner that I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying and weight of the Jews and now, and how I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks or the Gentiles, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

And now, behold, I go, bound in the spirit under Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.

Say that the Holy Ghost witnesses.

The NIV says warns in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me or wait for me, but none of these things move me, neither.

Count on my life, dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

So now notice that Paul says that the Holy Ghost is warning him in every city, and so I wanted to talk to you tonight about Holy Ghost warnings.

You know the Holy Ghost will warn us, and warnings prepare us for what's ahead.

And when you heed the warning, grace is released, either to get you through the situation that's gonna happen, help you to avert it all the way.

Sometimes we can just go around danger, we can go around trouble, or we can get the grace to go through it and be unharmed.

You know, in John 16, 33, jesus said about the Holy Ghost that he guides us into all truth and he shows us things to come.

You know, you don't have to be a prophet of God in order to get warnings from the Holy Ghost, and sometimes you know the Holy Ghost will use others.

That's why it's so important to be a member of a good, bible believing church.

I have friends and members that gather around you so continuing to read here in Acts, in verse 25.

In verse 25, and now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more, wherefore I take you to record this day that I'm pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock of God over the witch.

The Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he had purchased with his own blood.

For I know this that after my parting shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock Also of your own selves, shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.

Therefore, watch and remember that, by the space of three years, I cease not to warn.

Here that word is again.

He warned every one, day and night with tears.

And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them, that all them that are sanctified.

So we see here that Paul warns the ministers yet again three years and he's called this special meeting.

He's been doing this night and day for three years.

He calls them back again.

I mean, I wonder.

I mean, do we have that type of man of God now that'll just stand up and warn people over and over and over?

I do believe that they exist.

I count myself one, so not like Paul, but I'm a person that doesn't mind warning when I get the warning and notice he warned them of two things wolves from the inside, wolves from the outside, rather, and perversity, twisted wrong ministry from the inside.

And because he warned them, they had a chance to repent.

All they had to do was repent.

They didn't.

There's no record of them repenting.

There's no record of them getting down on their knees and crying and say oh, paul, be it not.

So about me, rebuke me now.

Am I one you're talking about?

Is it me?

I mean, at least the apostles went around the table when Jesus said my betrayer is eating with us.

Is it I, lord?

Is it I?

And so he didn't get anybody.

Nobody was willing to admit that they could be in this group.

But so, paul, then, after he released the warning, he is released from further responsibility.

See, there's a tremendous you know, once the Holy Ghost reveals something to you and tells you to warn, then you have a responsibility to sound the alarm, just like a soldier that's taking a watch and you're in the middle of the night and you're standing your watch around the camp and that camp is asleep and they're tent and they're depending on you.

You've got the watch and you see something amiss.

You've got to sound the alarm, you've got to wake people up, you've got to let them know, otherwise you're at fault.

So Paul is now released from further responsibility because he's done his job.

You know, another example of warning is Paul's voyage to Rome in Acts 27.

And the Bible and let's turn over there, it's a few pages over to the right, paul 20, acts 27, 10.

And he said under them serves.

I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and the ship, but also of our lives.

So he picked up.

He said I perceive he didn't say Jesus appeared to him.

He didn't say the Holy Ghost told me His Spirit picked up.

From the Holy Spirit a warning about the voyage.

And he, you know he didn't care what they thought of him.

He had an obligation to give them the warning, which they did not heed.

And later on, when there was a big storm and all hope that they should be saved was taken away and who took it away?

The devil.

Suddenly he became a very important person on the ship and but he delivered the warning.

And when it was not heeded the fact that he delivered the warning grace was relieved and their angel appeared to Paul and the height of the storm and said Lord God has given all them that sail with thee.

Not one person is going to be lost on this ship.

The ship was broken into pieces.

It was broken into pieces and they had to ride the pieces to the shore.

I mean, it's a massive miracle that they, not one person, lost their life and it was because grace was released over the whole situation when Paul gave the warning.

I was reading recently about another place.

I could go through the Bible.

There's lots of these examples of Jesus warned Peter.

You know, simon, simon, the double enunciation of God Satan is desired to sift you as wheat, but I prayed for you that your faith fail not, you know.

And then, and then he, you know, peter was kind of, oh, I would never, I would never turn my back.

He said, oh, before the cockroach, you're going to deny me three times.

So he warned Peter.

And since he warned Peter, there was grace to released over Peter.

And yes, it was difficult when he denied the Lord.

But he, he got over it and he became a mighty apostle.

No-transcript Over.

In Isaiah 38, I was reminded of the testimony of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was one of the mightiest kings of Judah and headquartered in Jerusalem.

And in verse one, isaiah 38, in those days, Hezekiah was sick unto death and Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amos, came unto him and said unto him thus, saith, the Lord set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.

That's not exactly good news.

You'll die and not live.

Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed unto the Lord and of course, he repented.

And before Hezekiah got out of the courtyard, god told him.

He said you go back and tell him.

The Word of the Lord came to Isaiah, verse five.

Go and say to Hezekiah.

Thus saith the Lord, god of David, thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears and behold, I will add unto thy days 15 years, 15 years.

And so then God granted him a sign.

He turned back the clock, he turned back the sundial 10 degrees.

I mean, who ever heard of not only the time standing still, which happened under Joshua, but time went backward, and as a sign that God was gonna perform this extension on His life?

And the thing about it is that he died at the age of 54.

So, you know, there's something wrong with this picture.

In other words, he was warned and he did respond, but then he let the whole warning slip.

If it'd been me, I would have thought you know, listen, I'm only in my 20s and he's only gonna give me 15 years.

What's wrong with me?

There must be some other changes I need to make, and there's no record.

I mean, in fact, he got kind of proud and he showed His palace off to the Babylonians and made God mad that he was allowing these heathens to come into holy places and see all that God had done.

And what they were doing is, they were scouting ahead of time to see what spoil they were gonna gain, and they gained it eventually and he died in His 50s, see.

So he didn't extend His life and so, because he showed all of His riches to the Babylonians, the prophet had to rebuke Him again.

And he said you know, there's gonna come a day when all of this will be gone, but it won't come in your days, it'll come in your seed's days.

And he said well, good is the Word of the Lord.

He was satisfied with that.

He didn't repent then.

He should have repented then and asked God to forgive Him.

You know there's no telling.

You know God is a great mercy, but warnings.

You know, when we hear a warning, we need to pray and find out what all the extent of it is and we need to warn whoever it is that needs to be warned.

If it's us, then we need to find out what our course of action should be.

I just think about examples that we've had in the church over the years.

Just amazing things.

Back in March of 1999, we just passed the 24th anniversary of that warning that God told me to wake up the church or just like you, sleeping their beds with the covers pulled over their heads.

So he was warning me and he was warning me to warn the rest of the church to wake up.

I want you to wake up the church.

And I had to wake up and I didn't even know.

It took me several years to find out what I had missed.

What is it that I've slept through?

What is it that I'm not aware of?

And, of course, I realized it was Israel and the significance of Israel in the last days.

What a sign they are to the church and how we should be Israel's friend.

I read where Rice University has a bunch of protesters and they don't want to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Israel becoming a nation.

They don't want to have any Jewish speakers on the campus.

Well, good for you.

You just go ahead and walk in the curse, you goof balls.

I mean, they're our only ally in the Middle East.

They're the only democracy and we've got these people.

They're openly anti-submitting, openly.

I rebuke Rice University, I rebuke those students and I rebuke the people that allow that.

James Baker is a reason why, too.

James Baker is a big, famous alumni.

If you don't know who he is big fat lawyer, worked for Secretary of State under Bush 41.

He invited Yasser Arafat to Houston.

That's his legacy.

Anyway, I'm off the subject, but warning, if you're hearing this, any of you, rice people, be warned, speak up for Israel.

Anyway, god told me to wake up the church, you know.

And because we made a move and we started going that direction, god began to give me some other warnings.

A few years later he told me, in December 1st of 03, there's a dearth of the word.

And I didn't realize.

I said Lord, how can there be a famine of the word?

There's more churches than ever before.

He said your children don't know what you know.

And I wasn't sure if he was talking about my children's church.

At the time.

We had some people teaching in there.

There were several men.

We like men teachers.

But these guys were kind of stuck on themselves.

They all fancied that they were the experts in children's ministry and they were competing for the most favorite teacher by buying the kids bicycles and pizzas and all of that kind of thing.

And I heard who's your favorite teacher?

And I didn't like it.

And then, when God spoke that to me, I thought you know what?

They're not teaching the word.

They're in there having a popularity contest.

So I made some changes and some of them got mad and left.

I said, well, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

This is our church and we're gonna do when we're warned, we're gonna listen to the warning.

And so we made sure that we started having curriculum for the children to learn and began to teach the word at their level, and we'd always done that.

But it kind of drifted away and so we doubled down on that.

I was reading a book on apostles and prophets.

It was written by Rick Renner Brother.

Rick is a major Bible teacher.

He started a church, built a church in Moscow After the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR ceased to exist and just went back to Russia.

God told him we'd go build a big church.

We built a big old church there, 1,000 seats, right in the middle of Moscow.

Man, that was a tough, but he did it and pastured it for a while.

But he travels now in the ministry and preaches in churches.

And in this book I was just reading the other day he said his major.

He said the church has got some of the best music it's ever had.

He said this is amazing.

The music is coming out right now, the worship music.

They know how to write beautiful worship music, but in the churches where I'm going, he said, the Word of God is not being preached.

There's a very, very little revelation of God's Word.

And he's very concerned because the church is just, it's losing its influence.

Well, it goes back to what God warned me about all those years ago.

It's been 20 years ago now that there's a dearth of the Word.

You know, that's why we're coming to you on a Wednesday now.

We're preaching the Word, we keep preaching the Word, we preach the Word at every service and we let the Holy Ghost move the Word of the Spirit.

So another warning that I got again because I listened, I'm convinced that.

You know.

I went to interview Dr Orwell Roberts in 2005, january, and God saw that I was warning to obey his warning about the waking the church up.

And here's Dr Roberts basically saying the same thing the church isn't ready for the second coming.

So a few months after I got back, in April of 2005, I was in Galveston praying and the Holy Ghost warned me.

He said Pope John Paul, who was the pope.

He said Pope John Paul, who was the pope at that time, is about to die and the next pope won't last very long.

He happened to be, you know, later on, when John Paul died, it wasn't just two or three months after that that they elected Benedict and he said he won't last long.

And that was puzzling.

I thought, oh, I guess he's gonna die soon after he gets elected.

Well, he didn't die.

He was the first pope in 600 years to resign, and he resigned after a short time it's a short time for popes and he said the one after him is gonna be anti-Semitic.

Well, that's France's, that's the one we have now, that's the communist.

I'm quit calling people socialist.

He's a communist and he's doing great damage, great damage.

There's gonna be a recompense to all the cardinals that elected that guy.

There's gonna be a recompense on him, but there's gonna be a recompense on the cardinals that have elected him, cause God sees it all.

And so it was proven that he was anti-Semitic, cause one of the first things he did was go to Israel, and he did meet with the prime minister Netanyahu at the time.

But then he went over and met with a boss and he laid and did a prayer at the Palestinian memorial on the other side, where they used to blow up and have the bus bombs.

So he gave homage to the terrorists, anti-semitic.

Well, why would God tell you that?

Well, I don't know.

He looks at people that are faithful to issue warnings and then he'll give you some more warnings.

It was a sign.

I mean, you know, it's a sign.

That was an old five, that warning, then in old nine.

You know, most of the time when I schedule a time of prayer, I schedule it myself, but this time, in April of 09, again I believe, because God saw that I was sincere about obeying him, about the warnings, I was called away to pray.

I mean, I woke up one morning and I was man, I was heavy, I needed to go to Galveston to pray.

I had no reservations, hotel reservations.

I just drove down there quickly and found a hotel room and checked in and began to pray in other tongues and God warned me of a terrorist attack.

There were gonna be five terrorist attacks coming on America and if we pray, houston and Texas will be spared.

And I had read where Houston was on one of their major short lists of places that terrorists would love to operate because of the ship channel and the oil refineries.

And so we began to pray against those things and take that seriously.

A few months later the Fort Hood incident happened and that was a terror attack.

Obama didn't call it that, he called it workplace violence.

That was wrong.

It was a terror attack by a Muslim who hated, and here he was in the service and he killed all those service men.

It was horrible.

He got away with it and he's insane.

See, he got away.

He should be hung, but he was.

He did not punished and somebody said, oh, that was Texas.

I wasn't Texas, that's US soil.

That's not Texas soil, that's US soil.

So God was faithful.

He didn't allow terrorism in Houston or in Texas.

All the George Floyd riots happened.

We prayed against all of that.

We didn't.

We had big demonstration downtown but we had a funeral here.

You talk about an opportunity for death and all kinds of horrible things that happened and burning and all that.

The looting that they happened.

And we had some looting, but not nearly like they had in Portland and Seattle and different places in the Northwest and Midwest.

But I tell you, when you obey the warnings of God, god releases grace.

Well, pastor, this is all fancy kind of.

I mean, this is what ministers get.

No, you have the same Holy Ghost.

I do.

Yes, I have responsibility for this church and this ministry.

So I have another level of warning.

But you can have warning in your life, your personal life, your house, your home, your marriage, your children.

The Holy Ghost can warn you.

He can show you things, and when he shows you those things, he doesn't show it to you to make you worry.

He shows it to you so that you can begin to pray and receive the grace to get you through whatever that is that's gonna happen.

So one other testimony about going to Galveston Gladys and I went, and it was not a time of prayer, really, it was just a time for us to go rest.

We took Labor Day weekend of 2012, and we went to stay in Galveston at a different hotel than I go to.

I go to the Holiday Inn, but next door is the San Louis, and so we were in the San Louis and that Saturday night it was.

I heard this loud, it sounded like a helicopter, and so I opened the drapes of the room and we were facing the helipad and here a life-flight helicopter is landing right there in the parking lot of the San Louis, right off of Seaworth or Boulevard, and we began to pray.

And then I looked at the clock and the clock said 9-11 pm, saturday night.

And here is a 9-11 event and I knew it was more than just a wreck that we needed to pray over.

This was a sign and God spoke to me.

He said you're not through with terrorist attacks.

There's gonna be more terrorist attacks and you're gonna have to stay alert and pray and receive my warnings ahead of time.

If you'll do that, I'll spare Houston.

You know he's been faithful.

Come on, lift your hand right now.

God has been faithful to spare Houston what I know the enemy would love to demonstrate here.

He would love to demonstrate all kind of violence and terrible stuff.

Yeah, I know we have lawlessness in the streets, but I'm telling you it's not as bad as it could be.

It's not as bad as the devil wanted to have it, because we've been warned.

Grace has been released, praise God, and so so our Holy Ghost warnings extend to everyday life.

You know, last week we had at the Capitol I hope I don't know if you know what's going on at the Capitol, but because of my God votes and Gloria's Way Church.

Well, we've got church going on at the Capitol on Tuesday nights and it's beginning to get to the end of the session.

If they call a special session, well then we'll have to re-up some of the churches to goes and pray.

But it was Gloria's Way Church night a week ago.

James was on the list of preach, our worship team all went and led worship.

It was so powerful.

I watched the whole thing on live stream and I was just rejoicing at everything I saw and heard and the participation.

It just heavy anointing and it was over.

I shut the television off.

Gladys was sitting across the room from me.

We were watching it on our television.

I just put it on from my phone and put it up on the screen of my television so we could watch it on a big screen and the sound and everything.

And when I shut it off I just had an unction to speak over the travel of everybody coming home.

I just spoke in Jesus' name.

We just thank you that everybody that's traveled there comes home tonight and they're delivered from harm, accident, injury, tickets, mechanical breakdown.

I just spoke.

I spoke protection, psalm 91, no accident shall overtake them, in Jesus' name.

And just a little while later we got a call.

Claire had come up on an accident on right in the middle of 290, just on this side of Giddings and cows had rescaped the pasture and a car had hit the two cows and killed them.

Airbags went off in that car.

They didn't know for sure how, if they were bad off or not.

That they weren't, I don't think they were injured to speak of.

But Claire had to put on her brakes so hard that she just she's rolled right up to within 12 inches of the cow.

I mean, if she'd have hit that cow going 70 miles an hour, I mean it would have been disaster.

And so a warning, just a little unction, just that little unction where we were able to take our place of authority and avert that.

Oh, thank God for the Holy Ghost.

I mean he will do that in your life, he'll do that for you, your children.

You know you can rest knowing that the Holy Ghost is in you.

He's one that loves to warn.

One last testimony years ago and I hadn't been saved very long started going to Lakewood Glad it's not always wanted to give our offerings and tithes to Brother Osteen, and you could do that.

You could split up.

There were four boxes, pastor Osteen, and there was missions, general fund, building fund, and so we put a lot of our tithes and offerings in his box.

So he called me one night at home.

I was just shocked.

He said Brother John, this is your pastor.

I said, oh, pastor Osteen, oh my, what an honor you're calling me.

Yeah, I just want to thank you, me and Doty.

You've been blessing us.

What do you do for a living?

I said, well, I'm a home builder.

Oh well, do you sell custom homes?

Do you build them for people and sell them built?

I said, well, I build mostly specs.

I don't do a lot of custom building.

I build mostly specs and we sell them after they're built.

He said, oh, john, be careful, don't get overloaded.

There's tough times are coming, don't get overextended.

You know, just be real careful.

And so you know.

He was real sweet and we hung the phone up and I thought, man, if I don't build, I don't have any money.

I'm gonna build.

It's the only way you get any kind of cash flow is build houses.

And I just kind of, I just didn't.

I didn't take it as a Holy Ghost warning, I didn't take it as my pastor, who sits in an office that I have sown, seed into his office and there was a word of warning for me.

All I had to do was pray it out.

All I had to do was pause and say God, what about this warning?

I mean, I'm kind of instead, I just kind of lightly, I was young and dumb, okay, didn't know any better, and I just kind of threw it away.

But I look back on it now and because of the lack of honor that I gave that warning and the fact that I didn't pray it out and I didn't receive instructions ahead of time, then I got overextended and it led to a lot of pain and suffering.

It left a mark and so you know, sometimes God will use other people to warn us.

Sometimes he'll use your pastor to warn you.

Sometimes he'll use a staff member to warn you.

Just be sensitive to the warnings of the Holy Ghost and God will release the grace that you need to get through anything.

Hallelujah.

Let's lift our hands and receive Holy Ghost warnings.

Praise God.

I hope that blessed you tonight.

Hallelujah to God.

I just believe that all of you are walking in the fullness of the witness of the Spirit of God.