Reinforced With Power

Get your Bibles out and wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad, and say this together Say, heavenly Father, we honor you tonight.

We're so glad to be in your presence.

We're walking carefully and we're looking around closely to make sure we don't miss one thing that you have hidden for us.

Oh, we have divine mysteries that are being revealed in these days to this generation.

I'm glad to be part of this generation, the terminal generation.

In Jesus' name, amen, let's look at Ephesians, chapter three tonight.

So enjoyed brother Mark and Trinna Hankins being here last week, I meant to say and tell you how much the church was able to give them.

How many of you wanna know?

How many of you think it was $10,000?

You think it was 10,000?

Was it less?

More?

Okay, all right.

How about 15,000?

More, your faith is growing, okay.

How about 20,000?

How about 35,000?

Woo, amen.

Now 19,200 came in, so we added to it.

Now, that's our customer around here.

I mean, you know if I don't, you know.

I just knew that they were headed down the road with a lot of things that they're involved with and they always have a tremendous report of their ministry and where they're headed and going and moving all the time.

I don't know anybody that works harder than Mark and Trinna.

They're always, always preaching, and I just admire them and so glad to be partners with them and I know that blessed them and there's more to come.

Amen.

And so in our seed.

And you know, sunday morning he talked about Ephesians prayer and we preached in Ephesians, chapter one, which I've heard many times.

But I mean he just delivered such, a such a powerful message on the value of praying these prayers.

And of course I've been praying these prayers for 40 years, you know, and I pray them every day over myself.

And sometimes, when I know that someone is struggling I can't pray for everybody like this but especially family or people I'm close to I'll pray those prayers for them every day, for a month or two months sometimes, sometimes longer.

And you know, it's the kind of praying that opens up revelation.

Ever breakthrough in faith comes as a breakthrough in revelation.

That's what we need.

We need, we need for God to unveil information that we are not aware of.

There's no new things, but there's fresh revelation available.

And of course, another prayer is the one where I'm praying.

I'm about to read here in Ephesians, chapter three I pray this every day over myself, verse 13, ephesians 3, 13,.

Wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations.

For you, which is your glory.

For this cause, I bow my knees under the Father of our Lord, jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.

Now, this is written to believers.

Why would you pray that?

See, I mean legally.

We know that when we gave Jesus our heart, he came and lived in the person of the Holy Ghost.

That Jesus himself did, because Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, jesus and the person of the Holy Ghost and they're identical because he's another comforter.

So it's the same thing.

But notice, we're praying that Christ may dwell in one and I amplified says and have a happy home in our heart by faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of what of his love.

It's unfathomable about the love of God and to know the love of Christ, which passive knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Just listen to what you're praying to be filled with.

All the fullness of God is available.

It's available.

What will the church look like when the church becomes filled with all the fullness of God?

Now, unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us.

To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end, on all the ways of God Without end, amen.

Now let me read you verse 16 in the amplified in the King James, that he would grant you, according to riches, his glory to be strengthened might by spirit and inner man.

Listen to the amplified that he may grant you, out of the rich treasury of his glory, to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man, by the Holy Spirit himself dwelling in your innermost being and personality.

The Holy Spirit himself dwelling in your innermost being and personality.

I mean we can have the personality of the Holy Ghost.

Now I was talking closing the service, I guess, sunday night.

What did you get out of the you know this Sunday?

And I said you know one of the greatest things I got over this whole Sunday was the boldness that we all need to have.

We need to have a boldness, we need to be able to talk to the devil, we need to be able to have a bold confession.

You know, there's nothing mealy-mouthed about the Holy Ghost.

There's nothing weak about the Holy Ghost.

Even though he's a perfect gentleman and will not override your will, he's still very bold and he wants us to be bold about some things, to have his personality.

So now, why did Paul pray this prayer for the Ephesians?

Well, we read that first verse because he was concerned that they were going to be, that they would faint because of the afflictions that he was going through.

I mean, he's their apostle, he's the one that birthed the Ephesian church.

Back in the book of Acts, he went by and saw certain disciples in Ephesus.

He said have you received the Holy Ghost, since you believe?

Well, we had never heard of the Holy Ghost.

Who's the Holy Ghost?

Well, what are you baptized?

Well, we were baptized in John's baptism.

So then he preached Well, you can't stop with John.

You got to get on with Jesus.

And they got saved.

And he laid hands on them and they all got filled with the Holy Ghost and that was the beginning of the 12 disciples, were the beginning of the church at Ephesus.

And you know, later on, when he was arrested and tried, you know that's those were the some of the elders that he called together and rebuked him.

He said For three years I've been ceased not to warn you day and night that some of you are, you know that the wolves are going to come in and and and spoil the flock, and even of your own selves, some of you are going to try to recruit your own people out of here for your own benefit.

I warned you day and night for three years with tears.

So it's the church at Ephesus, I mean this is and he's praying for them.

He's, he didn't leave them alone.

He didn't.

He left them, but he kept praying for them.

And now he's arrested and he's concerned that they will faint because of all the trouble he's going through.

The word faint there means to be worn out or dispirited because of all the suffering that he had to undergo.

And so many times we pray about things from the outside perspective instead of you know circumstances, we're always praying about circumstances.

And you know this prayer deals with something else.

It deals with the inner man or another, another place.

Peter calls the spirit of man the hidden man of the heart.

Nobody's ever seen you.

Remember I was saying that this morning.

This message kind of hooked in with the message that I preached this morning.

So if you didn't, you weren't here.

Be sure and go back and listen, because they kind of are twins and it also hooks back to what brother Mark was preaching last weekend.

And these prayers are so powerful that if you will pray them for yourselves and do the things that are necessary to receive the things that you're praying, it's not enough just to pray.

You've got to do some other things to receive what this prayer says is available to you, to be filled with all the fullness of God man.

That's to be strengthened with his mighty power and reinforced in your inner man with his mighty power.

Strengthen and reinforced in your inner man and in your own personality.

Sometimes we just need a stronger personality to overcome the things that we are facing.

Now's not the time for weakness, now's not the time for you know, sissy, you know you spend time in the Holy Ghost.

He'll take the sissy out of your voice.

Three people got that.

The rest of your full grown men, all right.

So this prayer deals with the inner man.

The more you pray about your inner man, the less important circumstances become to you, Because when you're strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in your inner man and in your personality, I mean that is the recipe for overcoming everything that comes your way.

You're not so intimidated and you're not shocked.

Oh, I can't believe this happened to me.

No, you're ready.

You're not believing for trouble, but you know it comes anyway.

You're not intimidated by it.

Jesus said you're going to have it.

It's not a shock.

So it deals with the inner man.

You know, second Corinthians, full force says the outward man perishes, but the inward man is renewed day by day.

Who's going to renew it?

Well, it isn't going to happen automatically.

That's our part.

Our part is to pray in the Holy Ghost, to build ourselves up on our most holy faith.

Pray in the Holy Ghost.

You know, we mentioned this this morning.

But you're inner man, your spirit, yes, you were born again.

It was made in the image and likeness of God.

But after that we have a part to play in our spiritual development.

And then, when we don't do our part, then our inner man has got some deficiencies, it's got some lack.

It's got some gaps.

Anytime you believe a lie and live as if a theory that you heard preached is true.

You have got a deficiency.

It takes more than just snapping your fingers to get rid of it.

You've got to pray much in the Holy Ghost and the Bible says he that prays in an unknown tongue edifies himself.

Edify means to build up from a foundation, to repair, restore and rebuild.

Isn't that amazing?

Sometimes you've got such bad doctrine that you've got to rebuild something in your spirit, man, and if you don't, you will never have a foundation upon which the fullness of God can come.

You'll never get to the place where you can really overcome all the things that come against you Because you've got this crumbling part of your inner man.

It's not God's fault.

He gave you a perfect replica of Himself.

But then what happened?

Well, we kind of fell down.

We got involved in the wrong place at the wrong time, the wrong people listening to the wrong thing.

We've had all to fill with people that were in that kind of case, come from abusive churches, come from cults, come from all kinds of things.

I mean, there I'm gonna tell you something right now.

It does damage After you're a Christian when you get involved in something like that, it does damage to your inner man, and these prayers are part of the solution, but then there's parts that we've got to play to access it.

So, talking about strengthening and reinforced, you know, in Haiti we've done a lot of work.

In Haiti, we got hooked up with Brother Max Manning.

He just turned 94 this past week, 94 years old, still working in Haiti.

I mean, we got hooked up with an apostle, we got hooked up with somebody that's got some longevity and his wife went to heaven here, oh, I don't know, six, eight years ago, and he was just grieving so badly and he just, you know, he just wanted to go join her, married for 60 something years and the last number of years she had had a stroke and he was her caregiver and then, when he would leave town, he had people that would help take care of her.

And then she went to heaven and he was just so brokenhearted and Jesus spoke to him, says you know, you can come, you can join your precious wife.

And he's about to say, yes, lord, I'm ready to go.

And then the Lord says or you can finish the work that I've called you to do.

Oh, my just man, it just makes you go wow.

And he chose to stay here and still laboring all these years, goes out on how many times a year he goes over and it's not an easy trip for him.

Preaches every day on the radio, gets up at, you know, way early in the morning for the chickens and preachers on the radio.

I mean, he just works, labors.

But in Haiti we've done a lot of work over there through him and sent, you know, helped, send a lot of help and we helped during that when Ike, in fact Lord said, you know, you had Ike when it was a category two, why don't you help?

Well, haiti had when a category four?

And then so we did.

We sent aid way back then to Ike, you know.

And then after that, a couple of years later, was this massive earthquake.

It just finished off the capital city there and just hundreds of thousands of people became homeless overnight.

I mean, the buildings collapsed in that earthquake and they found out that they were built with concrete with no steel.

They had no steel in the.

There was no steel reinforcing in the concrete.

I mean, if you don't have, if you're not reinforced with mighty power, you're inner man, your inner man is gonna collapse.

Are y'all with me now?

Well, I don't know.

But Jesus, do we tell I was born again?

I know that, but we've got a part to play.

That's the point of this whole thing.

We've got to do something Besides, sit around and twiddle our thumbs, twiddle your D, twiddle your Dumb Amen.

In Southern California, where they have the earthquakes, they've retrofitted buildings.

They were built before standards and the idea of those big skyscrapers falling down and killing tens of thousands of people.

So they've retrofitted them with cables on the outside of the building ugly looking things, I mean.

You know they did what they can.

After the fact, they run these cables up and over the building and design them to where you know, if they sway, at least they won't fall all the way down to the ground.

And they do sway, I mean, when that ground starts starts turning into jello, it starts moving like this and actually a wave goes through the ground, a wave like a tsunami, only it's going through soil, it's not just shaking, it's a wave that goes through there and buildings fall.

Well, you know, they need this reinforcement and Paul didn't want this church to collapse and God doesn't want you to collapse.

He has given us the ability, through the Holy Ghost, to stand and withstand no matter what type of pressure the devil throws at us.

We do not have to collapse because of the pericle.

Now the King James calls it the comforter.

And you know, comforter is a poor translation of the Greek.

It really means helper.

John, chapter 14, verse 16, you know, I'll send Jesus, told the disciples, I'll send another comforter, I'll send a paracletus, just like me, but he's going to live and abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive Because it knows me not and it will not know him and it won't know you either.

John 14:16

See, that's why we're different.

We've got the Holy Ghost and he is the paraclete.

And really what I wanted you to see is the paraclete is to urge or exhort, like a general does his troops.

My favorite example is Patton, the opening scene of Patton.

I went to see that movie back in 1970 when it first came out, and he's up there and it's a little bit profane, but I mean it was effective.

I mean he encouraged those troops.

He said God, you know, god doesn't want you to die for your country, he wants you to make the other guy die for his country.

And he encourages the troops before the mighty D-Day invasion and Barkley wrote a commentary and he said this about the paraclete, or the comforter.

It's the kind of comfort and consolation in distress that keeps one on their feet when, if left to themselves, they would collapse.

It enables one to pass the breaking point and not break.

Oh, come on, let's lift our hands for that one, lift our hands for that one.

Oh, how important it is to realize we have the Holy Ghost on the inside, we're strengthened and reinforced with mighty power and we don't have to collapse.

What a waste for somebody, for a Christian, to collapse when we don't have to.

I said we don't have to.

No, no, no, now I don't know.

I watch war movies, mostly World War II movies, but then there's some movies that I've watched a lot of, and recently when I've watched them, I just weep because of what Biden did in Afghanistan when he left that country in the hands of the Taliban, our mortal enemies, and went off and left all of the millions and billions of dollars worth of arms and military equipment and a Bagram Air Force Base.

Our own Pete served several times and spent a long time over there, six months at a time, wasn't it, irma?

One year.

I mean, here's Irma, stayed at home by the stuff and her husband is there at Bagram for one year and it's all gone.

Now it's all well, it's not gone, it's in the hands of the enemy.

Yes, sir, and lone survivor, mark Wahlberg.

You know they've got the Navy SEALs on the side of that mountain in Afghanistan and every one of them died a horrible death, every one of them.

I mean they just overwhelmed the Taliban found out they were up there and they went up there.

And the whole story is about the lone survivor, which was Mark Wahlberg, played that part of that soldier and he died on the helicopter ride back to the Bagram.

That's where he was going, that's where their mass, that's where their sophisticated medical team is, and he did survive.

And look, marcus LaTrell.

And it makes me wonder why did they let me weep?

Because what they've died for and what they, the price they paid, was literally for nothing.

I don't care how you want to portray it or paint it up, I don't do that to make anybody feel bad, it's just a fact.

I want to see these people hang.

I want to see them hang Now.

You know later on they're going to pay either way, but still there's something in me who wants to see them punished in this life.

We might not get to see that, but we will see the other.

Anyway, getting back to this movie, I watched American Snipers another movie that makes me cry.

Chris Kyle he survived four tours of duty 170-something kills, one at a time with a sniper rifle.

Amazing patriot, amazing gift that he had.

And you know I'm not real thrilled about the actor, but he did a good job, I have to say.

Bradley Cooper played him in the movie and he's not from Texas but he sounded like he was.

He had a good Texas accent and he played Chris Kyle right down to the details.

And Chris was motivated to join the Navy Seals because of what had happened in Africa.

We had our embassies bombed and Clinton covered it up and that was the first al-Qaeda.

See, that was the first al-Qaeda attack.

And that's US soil.

That's what an embassy is, is US soil.

And they attacked us and we did that.

We bombed an aspirin factory.

That's what Clinton did about it.

Clinton had Osama bin Laden.

They had him in their gun sights and he would not allow them to kill him Way back in the 90s.

So you got Chris Kyle and he joins the Navy Seals.

He's out there and going through SEAL training.

So SEAL training is everything they can do to make you leave.

They don't want you there unless you can overcome everything they throw at you and basically it's torture.

You go through waterboarding, you go through waterboarding.

All these soft-headed politicians, oh, we can't have waterboarding.

We're waterboarding the SEALs.

What you mean?

They're not any good, but we got to be careful about these Muslim freaks that are killing us, blowing themselves up anyway.

So he's out there and his rear end is on the ground and he's got his hand behind his back.

So he's raised his shoulders and he's back up off the ground and his legs are off the ground.

So he's like this and they've got him down on the ground and they're wetting him down with this ice, cold water.

They're on the Pacific in San Diego and everything they do is in the Pacific Ocean, with salt water coming over their face.

They're all at the edge of hypothermia and they're lifting these big logs and carrying these big logs down the beach.

I mean, they are just on them and they've got a bell ringing over here.

If you go through too much and you can't stand it any longer, you can go, ring the bell and you're thrown out.

You can go home to mama, and they're always the drill.

Instructors are always telling them well, is it too much for you?

Just go ring the bell.

You want to quit?

Anyway, go ahead and quit.

It's right over there, just go ring the bell.

So they were going through that with Chris Kyle, who happened to be the oldest guy they had there.

He was older than the rest of these young recruits and so they were making fun of his age.

Oh, come on, old man, you know you've had more than you can take.

You've had more than you can take.

Just go ahead and quit.

Don't you feel like quitting?

How do you feel, kyle?

How do you feel I feel dangerous?

So I've been confessing that since last weekend.

I've been.

I feel I'm feeling dangerous.

I'm feeling dangerous.

I hadn't gone through everything.

I've gone through the quit.

I haven't gone through everything.

The Holy Ghost has helped me get to where I'm at and I'm feeling mighty dangerous right now.

Everybody say I'm feeling dangerous, right in the middle of the highest trial.

I mean, I mean he is getting, he is getting.

That guy is on his case, he's shivering with just on the edge of hypothermia, exhaustion.

I'm feeling dangerous.

Glory to God.

Everybody say I'm feeling dangerous, your personality we tend to just think about the spirit, the spirit, the spirit.

But you know your personality needs to change.

Your, your, your mind, will and intellect have got to click over into this end time way of thinking.

We just got to get tougher.

There's no possibility of ringing the bell and quitting.

Amen.

Are you getting anything out of this?

I'm feeling dangerous right now.

I'm telling you about that.

I watched that movie a half a dozen times before I really understood what he was saying, cause he's shaking and it's just a real quick thing.

And it wasn't until I got my hearing aids that I could actually hear him say I'm feeling dangerous.

And then I just laughed and laughed and laughed.

Thank God for hearing aids If you need them.

I got tired of being deaf.

Say amen, all right, how many of you want to grow in the things of God?

Strengthen and reinforce your inward man?

Well, you know, number one pray much in other tongues.

Let's just I'm giving that this day this.

Let's just read you know this fallen out of favor in the church.

You know, at Lakewood we've prayed in tongues the whole service.

It seemed like when I first got saved, I mean it was amazing to go to that church.

I heard all these people praying in these weird languages.

I thought it was foreign language.

I didn't know what it was.

I found out a month later it was speaking in tongues.

I never even heard of speaking in tongues as a Catholic, and I'm not saying that we come to church and just pray in tongues, but I am saying that it's something that we ought to utilize, build ourselves up, of course, feeding on the word.

Number two, let's feed on the word and then, that way, when you read this and pray this prayer, then you're eligible to receive everything it says you can have.

You could pray this prayer and not be baptized in the Holy Ghost, and you're never gonna get it.

You could pray this prayer and you never read your Bible and you're not gonna get what it says you can have.

Is that God's will?

No, it's not God's will.

God, we're cheating ourselves, amen, hallelujah.

Let's look at Colossians, chapter two.

Next chapter over two chapters over Colossians two.

We'll start with verse 18.

Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels and truiting into those things which he's not seen vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind and not holding the head.

That's Jesus, not holding the head.

Capital H, from which all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment, ministered and knit together, increases with the increase of God.

There's that word again.

We could say fill with all the fullness of God.

So the third thing that you need to do is develop divine associations.

That's part of church.

That's why it's so important to be part of a local church and have a pastor, because without a pastor and without the assembling yourselves together like we are tonight, then you're gonna be missing a vital part of how the Holy Ghost can strengthen and reinforce you with mighty power and your innermost being and personality.

So there again, see people that are kinda just, you know, freelance in people since COVID, really, there's a lot of people like that.

They're not attached any longer.

Their church left them and they haven't reattached.

They got used to not going to church.

They're not even looking for a church and they're just trying to fill the void by watching YouTube videos and trying to hear a little here and a little there.

I'm telling you right now they are in definite distress and you're gonna have to minister to these people.

Help them see the error of their ways.

They're in peril and danger of being deceived.

They already are deceived.

Hebrews 10, very familiar, or sub 23,.

Let us hold fast to profession of our faith, out wavering his faithful promise, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good work.

So you can't do that online.

We're online, we're gonna stay online, but that shouldn't be the primary way people you know encounter church.

I was reading about these new mega churches.

Some of these Hollywood stars and personalities are talking.

Justin Bieber and Kanye West and some of those I mean.

You know, look, they're in a ditch.

They say they're believers, but they're over here playing around.

They're not submitted to a true pastor.

They're not really in the church.

They're in there for an experience.

Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.

Not forsaken in the assembly of ourselves together as a man or some is, but exhorting one another, so much the more as you see the day approaching, see.

So spurring each other on, that's the purpose of a church.

Iron sharpens iron.

When one is down, the rest of them come to their aid and encourage them.

No, let you stay there.

Amen.

And then we do this every time we come to church, but praising God with His Word.

It's good to praise God, hallelujah, hallelujah, thank you, jesus.

That's good.

But praise Him with His Word, I mean pray, you know.

In other words, praise God for every verse.

I mean I would take this verse and I would go through it.

I would go through it and instead of praying it, I would praise Him that I have it.

I would call and well, I don't think I have, we'll call the thing that be not as though it were, until it is Just praise Him.

It's available.

And if you read your Bible and you pray in other tongues and you've got a good church that you're part of, like you are, and you're here on a Sunday night where a lot of people don't come back on Sunday night, shame it, shame it, shame it.

I'm glad you're here, n All right.

So, praising God with His Word, psalm 38, let's get it in front of us.

Everybody say I'm praising God with His Word.

We gotta be Word people, we gotta be spirit people.

Oh, I'm sorry, psalm, I didn't mean 38, I mean Psalm 8, verse 2.

Psalms 8:2

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has that ordained strength.

Because of thine enemies, that thou might instill the enemy in the avenger.

You know, when you praise God, you are doing spiritual warfare.

You're stopping the enemy in his tracks, because praise is the proof of your faith, especially in the middle of a battle.

All right, let's keep reading here and go back to Ephesians.

Are y'all getting anything out of this?

Amen, everybody say I'm feeling dangerous.

All right, verse 21,.

This last verse of this prayer Under him, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end.

Amen.

Glory in the church.

Everybody say glory in the church.

You're praying for glory in the church.

Under him, be glory in the church, doxa cabo.

So it means this.

It means wealth numbers, commerce, wisdom, promotion, dignity, power, superiority, authority, splendor, nobility, valor, magnificence, extraordinary privileges and advantages.

Whoo, that's what God wants in the church.

That's what Paul wrote in this Holy Spirit inspired prayer for us to pray that there be glory in the church.

And what is glory?

Wealth, numbers, commerce, wisdom, promotion, dignity, power, superiority, authority, splendor, nobility, valor, magnificence, extraordinary privileges and advantages in the church.

World without end.

Amen, come on, lift your hands tonight.

Hallelujah.

I mean when the church gets this.

I mean just passing by like Peter's shadow, people get healed.

I mean people just in their proximity of a believer, miracles are going to start occurring.

Glory to God, hallelujah.

Everybody say I'm feeling dangerous.

I can tell some of you are just too embarrassed to say that.

So we're working on your personality.

You're going to have to get tougher than that.

Well, I don't want to be dangerous, don't you want to be dangerous to the devil?

I want to be so dangerous to the devil that he kills over dead and then we can invite all the demons to his funeral and kill them.

Amen.

Pastor, you're so bloodthirsty.

Well, that's the reason I watch all these war movies.

I'm trying to develop my personality in the right direction.

I really do think we ought to have capital punishment in public.

I think we ought to open it up.

I think we ought to have everybody come, like they used to do in the wild west.

You know, they used to have the gallows in the middle of the town square and they'd hang these criminals right out there and open.

And I mean it's supposed to be a deterrent.

It's not vengeance, it's justice.

Anyway, I'm off man Bloodthirsty.

Pastor, you're bloodthirsty.

Well, I love the blood of Jesus, I do.

I admit that I'm thirsty for that blood.

Amen.

How many of you are reinforced with the glory?

Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight.

Glory to God, hallelujah, glory to God.

Thank you, lord.