Following The Holy Ghost

The Bible is around.

Make Jesus glad, the devil mad and the Democrats if they happen to stumble, they'll get mad.

They might stumble along and watch us.

Makes them mad.

When we exalt the Word of God, let's say this to God say heavenly Father glad to be here today.

I'm listening for myself.

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing not by having heard.

So this Word today is watering the truth that's in me, planting new truth, perhaps that I haven't heard.

And I will live by the truth because I'm a lover of the truth in Jesus' name.

Amen, praise God, you can be seated.

Turn your Bibles, please, to Romans, chapter eight, and first John, chapter five, and we'll get into the Word.

And verse 14 of Romans eight.

We read this last week For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

And I believe the converse is absolutely true as many as are sons of God, they are led by the Spirit of God.

Everybody said I am being led.

See, the question is not whether we're being led, the question is whether we're following Amen.

And then verse 15, for you have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, father, the Spirit itself or himself beareth witness, with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

Everybody say witness, all right.

And then first, john chapter five, the first part of verse 10.

And he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.

Everybody say I've got the witness, amen.

So today I wanted to preach the or teach.

The companion message last week was being led by the Spirit.

Today we're gonna teach on following the Holy Ghost.

See, it's not a question of whether we're led, because every believer is led and every believer has, according to the verses we read, has the supernatural equipment called the witness of the Spirit on the inside.

Every one of us have that supernatural equipment, so that it is not a matter of whether we're being led, but whether we are following the leading that we have.

And in order to follow the leading that we have, we need to train up our spirit, we need to have faith, and the faith cometh by hearing the Word.

That's why I'm teaching this to you, because when you absolutely know that, in every circumstance of life, that you are being led, then you will.

If you don't know what to do, you're gonna find out how to hear what his witness is or what his leading is, how to find it out?

Amen.

Thought about listening to voices, it's about following the witness, and so the greater one.

First John 4, 4,.

Greater is he that's in us and he that's in the world.

And so that's true.

The Holy Spirit has been given to us.

He lives on the inside of us.

First Corinthians 6,.

What know you not that your bodies of the temples of the Holy Ghost, which you have of God and you're not your own, you've been bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, with your gods.

So we have the Holy Ghost living on the inside.

Is he hitchhiking?

Is he saying to himself well, you know, wherever they go, I will follow.

I mean, wherever they happen to just stumble around in life, wondering, wandering, I'll just go along with him.

No, he's gonna provide leadership, he's gonna provide guidance.

And he is providing guidance, whether we've picked up on it or not.

That's what we wanna talk about today.

How to pick up on it.

I mean, if you wanna pick up on what the Holy Ghost is showing you.

I mean it's vital right now.

Vital, and so one of the primary duties for the Holy Ghost is to lead us, and then our responsibility is to follow the Holy Ghost.

You can't follow feelings.

We talked a little bit about this last week.

Why?

Because God's not a mind.

Feelings are the voice of the flesh.

He's not a person, he's a spirit.

The Bible says in James that God is the father of spirits.

Let's break that down just a moment.

He is the father of spirits.

Is he the father of the devil?

Devil's a spirit.

No, he's not the father of that spirit.

Is he the father of demons?

The demons are spirits.

Is he the father of demons?

No.

Is he the father of angels?

No, he's their God, but he's not their father.

The only people he's father of are born again, ones like us.

So when it talks about the father of spirits, it's talking about we are spirits.

It'll help you immeasurably if you quit looking at your outward body.

As you, you live in that body.

The real you lives in there and the real you is invisible.

No one's ever seen the real you.

We talked about that last week.

So it'll help you to realize it.

So you can't follow feelings.

Feelings of the voice of the body, god's not flesh.

You can't follow reason.

Reason is the voice of the mind.

God's not a mind, amen, but he is a spirit, he's the father of spirits.

It just makes sense.

Then he's gonna lead you in your spirit and in your spirit you have the witness, you have that supernatural equipment, and don't stumble over the supernatural looking for the spectaculator.

I'm not teaching on the spectaculator, that's a whole other thing.

I've got information out at the media center where you can bone up on all the details.

I mean, you know there's dreams, there's visions, you know there's appearances, there's what I call spectacular guidance is available and you don't ever ask for that because God and His wisdom will give you whatever you need for whatever situation.

All I can tell you about spectacular guidance, which is visions, dreams and that type of thing, is that when they occur, that means you're gonna have a real challenge ahead of you.

So don't be asking for more trouble.

Trouble comes, amen.

In the world you shall have trouble.

Jesus said we don't need any more than what we need, so we don't ask God.

Oh God, give me a vision.

God, if you would ride it across the sky, I would do it.

No, you wouldn't Amen, because you already know what you should do and you haven't done it.

See it's, you know Bible's full of that, and so it's not always about that.

We have availability, but I'm talking about the bulletproof way to follow the Holy Ghost, and that is by the inward witness, and so it's the number one way, witness of the spirit.

But say, I have the witness in me.

And what is the witness?

We talked about it a little bit last night or last week knowing, perception, intuition, the peace, the ease or else the interruption of that that put on the break.

You know, sometimes the witness will be stop hesitancy.

That's just as much guidance as the green light.

You know, red light is guidance.

Aren't you glad for a red light ever?

Now then, especially when an 18-wheeler is whizzing through the intersection, it's good that you have a red light where you can stop Amen.

So we need guidance and the witness of the spirit, and the way to set yourself up for success in that area is to constantly feed on the Word of God and to constantly pray, and especially pray much in the Holy Ghost.

Some of us are in various grades.

I would call it, you know, some of us in first grade, some of us in fifth grade, some of us in eighth grade, some of us are sophomores in high school.

Some of us are seniors in high school, some of us have gotten our doctorate degree, but nobody in here has ever graduated from the school of the spirit.

We just progress along life in certain stages.

In certain stages, god will do things to guide you.

So don't be intimidated and don't wall yourself off from God's supernatural guidance system.

Don't say, oh, I don't know that I could ever.

Yes, you can, and you will Remember when I asked you to give me a year of your life, that's what I do.

Why do I do that?

Well, I think he did that to me 30 years ago.

He said give me a year of your life, and it turned into 15, you know, and it takes a year for a pastor to get into the Word and teach you all the precepts, and one of those is that I count a privilege to teach you is following the Holy Ghost, because I see so many Christians and they run aground, they have shipwreck, and then they say well, god led me this way and I must be teaching.

No, you didn't follow the Holy Ghost, amen.

So let's decide.

John, chapter 14, let's look at that real quick.

John 14 · chapter mention

Jesus is speaking to the disciples and he's gonna get around and teach them about the Holy Spirit on the night before he's crucified.

He gives them a little heads up what's gonna happen.

Not very many days from then.

You know about a little over 40 days from this night they're gonna get filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost.

And they didn't know that much about the Holy Ghost.

And he said in verse 16, they're sad because Jesus is gonna go away.

And he said in verse 16, john 14, I will pray the Father, he will give you another comforter.

Now that word comforter is a poor translation in the King James of the Greek word pericleet.

That's the Greek word that's translated comforter.

And I said comforter is a poor translation.

It really should have been helper, helper.

He's a helper.

Comforter means he's gonna slobber on you, he's gonna pat you on the head, just like Jesus didn't do that.

He didn't come up to Peter and say, oh, peter, nice, try, here's a participation trophy.

Way to go.

You sank, I saved you, but no, he said oh, you have little faith.

Why'd you doubt?

See Jesus.

If you look at how Jesus did, he didn't pat people on the head and give them a participation trophy.

He was always expecting faith.

He was expecting people to rise up.

He was expecting people to wake up.

He was expecting people to connect the dots.

How is it that you have no faith?

Didn't you hear what I just said?

I multiplied the five lobes.

How is it that you have no faith?

He asked him one time so see, the comforter's not like that.

He will comfort you when you're sad, but that's not the main thing he does is he helps you, he helps you, he's your consultant, amen.

And so he said.

Now he said I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna give you another identical comforter like me, pericleet, helper just like me, that he may abide with you forever.

See, I'm not gonna abide with you forever.

It's gonna be good for you that I go away, because if I don't go away, the Holy Ghost won't come.

See, that could only be helped in the presence of Jesus Himself.

If Jesus is over across the sea and thereby themselves, they don't have the comforter with them, they don't have the Pericleet with them, they're separated from Him, or you see what I'm saying, but now we've got the Pericleet on the inside of us all the time.

Oh, that's key for us to get our faith working in this area.

What faith am I talking about?

The faith to be led by the Spirit, the faith to follow the Holy Ghost, the faith to follow the Holy Ghost.

Are you with me?

And so he says I will pray the Father and give you another comforter.

He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it sees Him not and neither knows Him.

But you know Him, for he dwells with you and he shall be in you.

How did he dwell with them, jesus?

They didn't have the Holy Spirit on the inside of them yet.

Why?

Because they're not born again yet.

Jesus hadn't died on the cross.

But he said I will not leave you comfortless, or in other words, orphans.

I will not leave you as orphans, I will not leave you fatherless.

I mean, what about?

A lot of our generation of young people and the nuclear family has been attacked for decades and decades.

Not just the black family, all families have been under attack.

And we talk a lot about young black men with no fathers.

Well, that's true of young, poor white men as well.

There's no fathers in their house either.

There's a whole lot of lack of fatherhood.

Well, the church is not one of those.

I tell you, no matter what your earthly situation is, you have a father and he fathers you by the Holy Spirit on the inside of you.

You're not an orphan, glory to God.

You're not drifting around just waiting to get into trouble.

No, he's guiding you.

Oh, come on, let's thank him right now.

Hallelujah, I will not leave you orphans.

And then in John 16, I love this verse.

How be it when he, the spirit of truth, has come, see again, he hadn't come yet.

Jesus hadn't died on the cross yet he's getting them ready.

When the spirit of truth is coming, he keeps calling the Holy Ghost the spirit of truth.

Let's remember that he's not the spirit of lies, he's not the spirit of jokes, he's not the spirit.

Hey, he's a spirit of truth.

The spirit of truth has come.

He will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but that, whatsoever, he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come.

So God desires to lead and guide you and you have to trust that he is doing that.

Part of the biggest gap we have is trusting in the leadership of the spirit, and once we really get confident that he is leading us at all times, whether we know it, what it is or not.

He has got leadership, he is your guide right now, regardless of whether it's occurred to your brain tissue, and so, therefore, it's just a matter of you recognizing it, and that's a spiritual thing.

It's a spiritual thing and it takes faith.

It takes faith, it took faith for me to obey.

When God spoke to me early one morning.

I mean, he didn't speak these, he spoke these words to me.

I was seeking about what was wrong in my life.

Why am I going broke?

Why am my house is not selling?

In early one morning he spoke to me.

He said, son, you're a minister of the sanctuary.

He told me who I was, and I instantly called a hold of that.

A minister.

Sanctuary means holy things.

That's the first part of Hebrews eight to.

I went and wrote Gladys up at five o'clock in the morning.

I said, honey, a Holy Ghost just spoke to me.

He called me a minister of the holy things.

It's time for us to release the unholy things and dedicate our life full time in the ministry.

You know, I'm out of the will of God.

We need to start that church.

We can't wait around for somebody to call us.

We've got to do it ourselves In just an instant of time.

In an instant of time, I found the answer.

Where, how did I find that leadership?

Oh man, just praying and praying and inquiring.

It was there all the time.

I didn't identify it for a long time.

In fact I was two years late, two years late and but when I finally identified it took faith to obey that leading.

Are you with me now?

Thank God, we're building our faith right now by listening to this message.

So the main ingredient for us is faith in his guidance, amen.

So I've got one, two, three, four things I want to share with you about faith to follow the Holy Ghost.

Everybody say faith to follow the Holy Ghost.

See, it does.

It takes faith.

You've got to know where you're standing in the Word of God in order to do this.

A lot of people don't have proper grounding, they don't have proper teaching, they don't have proper examples and they shipwreck.

And I don't desire anybody do that.

I desire everybody.

I mean right now, the hours late.

Jesus is coming soon.

Let's let.

We don't have time to take dead in rows.

Amen, all right.

The first one is John 14, 16.

He says you know, let's look at it again, get in front of us.

I will pray the Father, he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever.

So the first thing to say is God is interested in what you're interested in.

He's interested.

How in the world would you say that I'm interested in coloring books?

I mean, you know, I'm interested in bridge.

You mean he's interested.

No, he's not interested in that.

But he's interested in what you're interested in because up to now he is leading you.

You've basically got here.

You heard enough of the Holy Ghost to get here.

That says something to him about you.

Oh, a whole lot of people hadn't made it here yet.

A whole lot of people are wandering around outside and they're wondering why their church isn't open and they're wondering this and they're wondering that, and they're wondering why their pastor gets up and tells them that they've got to repent for being white Stupid.

As if you've got a choice.

Give me a break.

See, this is that spirit of the world.

It's in the church.

Folks.

People are deceived.

They threw the Bible out a long time ago.

Let's keep with the Bible.

So he's interested in what you're interested in because he knows that you're interested in following him, amen.

And so he's interested in you.

He's nothing to.

It's too small or too great.

I said nothing is too small or too great.

I told the story about Gloria Copeland your light is on in the car.

I mean that seems like such a small thing, but God taught her on a kind of a seemingly insignificant thing about her dome light being on in the car.

And yeah, it had consequences, though I mean that battery could have run down and she would have been without an audible bill there until her husband got back on.

So but he's the comforter, he's the helper, he's the assistant in Acts 26, 22.

Paul is standing before King Agrippa.

He's a prisoner of the Roman soldiers and he's giving his testimony and he tells Agrippa this day I have received help from God as my ally, that's in the amplified help from God as my ally.

The Holy Ghost is your ally, he's on your side, he is for you, he is pro you.

He's not working against you, he's working for you, he's helping you.

When you give him something to help you with, he will be there to help you.

He's not gonna do it for you by himself, or he's not to do it himself, or he's the helper.

And when you endeavor, even if it's not something, that's really the center of his will for your life.

You know what he'll help you anyway.

Brother Hagin pastored churches for 12 years and the Holy Ghost sure helped him.

I mean, he helped him teach those people, he helped them watch after their souls.

As one that gave an account, he was an excellent pastor and then at that time, at the end of that, he had a stirring to go out on the field ministry.

He couldn't get peace about taking the next church that asked him to come pastor and so he launched out into the field ministry and the Holy Ghost was so pleased he said this day you've entered the field ministry and entered to the first phase of your ministry.

12 years he's been putting to keep in mind, 12 years of pastor.

And the Holy Ghost said this day you've entered into the first phase of your ministry.

And he kind of offended Brother Hagin.

He said first phase, first phase.

I've been pastoring 12 years.

He said yeah, I permitted you to do that.

I never did call you a pastor.

I mean, you know that I love it when men of God like that, under that stature, just go ahead and tell you what they've heard from the Holy, don't you know?

That just had to make him go tilt.

What you never call me, but he sure helped him, didn't he?

Why?

Because he was interested in that.

So the Holy Ghost helped him, even though it wasn't his best.

See, god's not, he's not intimidated, he's not worried about you.

He's gonna guide you until you get it.

I think we spend way too much time wandering and wondering.

Let's just follow the Holy Ghost the best we can, and he's gonna help you.

I said he's gonna help you.

He's your ally, amen.

Oh, when you get it straight, he's not there to hit you inside of the head with a two by four.

He loves you.

He's for you.

Years ago, 40 years ago, I hadn't been saved very long and I just got baptized, the Holy Ghost, and so I spent time.

Every morning I'd get up.

We had a room downstairs.

It was like a game room.

We didn't use it for that, but it was big enough for a pool table and I had built that house.

Nobody wanted to buy it, so I moved into it and I got a mortgage on it 14 and 3 quarter percent mortgage.

So I mean, if you can get a two and 3 quarter percent mortgage, that's a pretty good deal.

I had to pay 14 and 3 quarter percent and that's what builders did.

Builders would live in their own houses in order to liquidate one off of the market.

And so that's what I'd done.

And so I'd go downstairs to that plan.

And then I got in there and I'd pray.

I'd spent a couple of hours praying in the Holy Ghost, I'd read my Bible, I'd just spent time, and then I just got kind of tired and I shut up for a while.

That's what we do sometimes.

We tend to do all the talking.

Well, let's have a little quiet time.

How about shutting your mouth and just sitting there and be still and know that he's God and give him a chance to talk back?

And so that's what I did, and just so sweetly.

And again, it's not about hearing voices, but this morning I heard this voice which I know is the Holy Spirit, and he's a little louder voice than your still small voice, which is the voice of your conscience, and I'm not talking about that today.

Conscience is the voice of your own spirit.

Your own spirit has a voice.

That's called conscience, and it's the still small voice.

It's a very low volume voice.

You have to be sensitive to hear your own conscience.

Most of the time, you just feel bad when your conscience is grieved.

That's the witness.

It's not the Holy Ghost, it's the Holy Ghost's own spirit saying stop doing that, stop saying that.

Amen, oh, I was convicted of.

No, the Holy Ghost didn't have anything to do with it, it was your own conscience.

All right, we're not teaching on that, particularly this morning.

But this morning I heard his voice and he and very sweetly he said you are my intimate companion.

And I just broke I mean tears running down my face for him to say that to me, so tender and so loving.

I've never forgotten it, at 40 years.

I mean, he spoke to me 40 years ago and it's still just as alive now and I remind myself of that every now and then because we're companions.

He sees me as his companion.

You're my intimate.

Just think of what he said there.

He's the third person of the Godhead and I'm his companion.

Are you kidding?

No, he's not kidding.

Oh, come on, let's lift our hands.

He didn't just say that to me, he says that to all of you.

You're his companion.

Why?

Because he lives on the inside.

I mean, where you go, he goes and he wants to lead you.

He wants you to follow.

He wants you to follow.

Praise God, he's your ally.

You getting anything out of this?

All right.

Number two guidance from the Holy Ghost often comes in waves.

Often comes in waves, in other words, when spirit is speaking.

Sometimes we get so ex when I say speaking, I don't mean words, I mean the witness starts to operate in a certain manner.

Let's just say, for instance, I was praying about this church, praying about what to do.

First thing I was praying about is what I missed.

Why are my houses not selling?

Why am I broke again?

See a pattern in my life at that time Business failure, money problems.

It was a pattern.

It always.

It was always not following the Holy Ghost.

I said it was always not following the Holy Ghost.

When you follow the Holy Ghost, you won't have money trouble, you won't have health trouble.

Now I'm not saying if you're going through something, that you miss God, but I'm just saying if you're following, if you get attacked, he will lead you out of the attack.

That's what I mean by that.

Don't get under condemnation.

Oh, I'm going through this because I missed got.

No, just stay with him and he'll guide you out of that mess you're in.

And so, anyway, I had to find out what the deal was.

So he talked to me about.

What did he talk to me about?

He said, son, you're a minister of the sanctuary.

And so I got on that and then in the next few weeks God began to guide me in, like only thing I can say is like a wave, like a surfer.

You know, have you ever seen anybody serve before?

We don't live in surfing country.

I mean, surfing in Galveston is pretty crummy.

I mean, they go about 10 feet and that's it, no waves.

But I was at the North Shore of Oahu and Hawaii a number of years ago and I went to where the surfers are pros.

I mean, you know, those waves are 50 foot tall and especially we were there like February, I think it was, and that's right after the peak.

Peak time is around December to January.

That's when those waves are the biggest.

Well, this was just past the peak.

If that was past the peak I wouldn't want to be on one of those waves.

I mean, but you know they don't.

They can't surf with the surfboard stuck in the sand on the beach.

No, they can't surf from the hotel room looking out over the water.

They have to get in the water, they have to paddle out there where the waves are breaking, and so my point is is that when the Spirit of God is giving you leadership, don't just take one thing and go.

Hey, stay in his presence and let him finish up the leadership.

Let him, let him finish what he's talking about.

It may not all be this in the next 10 minutes.

It might be a season where, where he will begin to lay things out.

God's never gonna give you the whole picture, cause he wouldn't need faith, but he will give you enough steps to keep you in success.

He's for you.

I said he's for you.

Are you getting anything out of this?

So praying and reading your Bible every day builds the basis for his guidance.

You know, like John 16, 13, he said, you know, said, when the he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you.

I've been on a few guided trips.

You know, we went to Israel in 2003, right after the outbreak of the war in Iraq.

Nobody was going there.

We went there and, boy, those Jewish shopkeepers and everybody they were.

So they were.

There was one lady that was that was right on the sea of Galilee, and you know she?

She owned the boat that took us out on the sea, and then she had this little restaurant there, right on the dock, you know, right on the sea of Galilee, and she was weeping.

She said Christians are the only ones that are supporting us.

And I just want to, I want to tell you how much I appreciate it.

Lunch is on me and she, she served us a lunch like you can't believe.

I mean, we had duck breast, sauteed.

You know, we had all this fancy food sitting out there on the sea of Galilee, looking at the sea of Galilee.

Your Jesus was on the sea, walking on the sea, and I'm eating duck breast and I'm, you know she was.

She was just weeping over.

Anyway, we had a guide that was a general in the IDF in 1967.

Well, actually he was a colonel.

Then he got promoted to general after the war, but in 67, that was the war to reclaim Jerusalem and he was in a tank.

And the gates of Jerusalem are not.

They're not intended for tanks, they're intended for camels and donkeys, so that's, that's how big they are.

They're not big enough for a tank.

And he was driving a tank and he got stuck in the gate, one of the gates, and the Syrians are holding the city.

So they, they attacked him and he was wounded and went into a coma for weeks and weeks and was just.

It was amazing that he lived through it.

And then he was in the hospital six months, got promoted to colonel and he's our tour guide.

I mean, I want to hear what he's got to say.

He's the guide.

He's going to tell us what's coming up.

He's going to tell us the history of what we're looking at.

He's going to show us this.

He's going to show us that.

He's going to tell us that's what the Holy Ghost is like a guide for you.

He's going to inform you.

He's going to, he's going to familiarize you with the territory.

Is this helping you?

I mean, oh the Holy Ghost, he's your companion, he's your guide, he's your tour guide.

Wouldn't you want to listen to the tour guide?

He knows the places to eat.

He knows the places that will give you tomein.

Stay away from there, go here.

Amen.

We used to call them tomein trucks, but anyway, they've got a better reputation now.

So, like a travel guide, you know, step by step, place by place, praise God.

So stay around his guidance.

Don't just get ahead of him.

Don't just take one more soul.

This is what I've done in my life.

I took one more soul of truth and ran with it.

I didn't wait for the rest of the story.

A lot of times, some of the I started off oh, I heard that, but then I didn't hear the rest.

I didn't hear the rest.

He's your guide, amen, all right.

The third one many times the Holy Ghost will indicate what he doesn't want before he indicates what he does want.

Amen, amen.

Now, he's not trying to be funny, although it can be funny.

That's not his intention.

But even a closed door is guidance.

Even a no is guidance.

I mean, if God, if you're praying about something and God says no, aren't you glad to have heard that, instead of going through a door that he said no and you don't know what's on the other side of that door, but he does and says don't go there, little darling, that's not the door for you, but I want to go there, I'm going to go there.

Well, you know he'll let you, amen.

So it's good to have you know.

And the greatest, one of the greatest examples is Acts, chapter 16, paul and Silas they're under taking their first missionary journey together.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

And so it says there in Acts 16, he said we have saved, we determined, we plan to go to Biphynia, but the spirit suffered us not.

Doesn't say how he suffered them not, but maybe the witness, maybe they just got a red light, they?

Okay, let's pack up our stuff in the morning.

You know, Silas, we're going to go to Biphynia, we're going to go there.

And then somehow he got the stop, the stop sign.

Nevermind, silas, put it all back, we're going to stay here for another while.

And then they started thinking didn't they have going to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature?

Didn't they have that word?

Yeah, that's the general will of God.

Going to all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, that's the general world of God.

But see, you can't go by the general will.

God has got a specific will and his specific will was not Biphynia.

So then they started talking about Asia Minor.

Well, you know, asia Minor is in need, I know some places where we can be a blessing, let's just.

And they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the gospel in Asia Minor.

They had two noses, they had two noses in a row.

What is that?

Well, that's guidance.

And so then Paul has a dream, that spectacular guidance, and in the dream he has a Macedonian man.

I don't know how they knew he was from Macedonia.

I don't know if he had a baseball cap, macedonia.

I don't know the Macedonian murderers, the Macedonian I don't know, but anyway they knew he was from Macedonia.

And the Macedonian man said come over here and help us.

Well, that's, the Macedonian man was the jailer that had thrown them in prison after they had been laid on many stripes.

You see, he had to have spectacular guidance to endure that kind of punishment.

They would have doubted If they had just walked by the witness of the spirit and they got over there and started getting beaten.

They might have doubted the witness, they might have doubted their ability to hear from God.

So God gave them spectacular guidance to hold them steady while they were being beaten, with many stripes, thrown in the inner prison, their feet in stocks, and they couldn't move, and what they did was they prayed and they sang praises at midnight, and it was so loud.

The other prisoners heard them, including the devil, and he sent an earthquake to kill them.

God invaded the earthquake.

It broke them out of jail, broke the stocks open, broke the cell doors open.

The jailer was gonna kill himself, hurt not thyself.

We're all here Preached to the jailer and his family.

They get saved, they get baptized.

Oh, come on, praise God, praise God, help him.

I guess he did During eternal life.

It's not that he couldn't have been a help in Bithynia or Asia Minor.

That wasn't the best.

God wanted to send him to an emergency.

Are y'all following me now?

Sometimes you just know know is an answer and that's guidance.

One of my favorite stories about this Reggie Scarborough, pastor Reggie Scarborough and his wife, pastor in Lakeland, florida.

But I heard his testimony years ago and he was a Ramah graduate, just graduated, was about to graduate and at Ramah you know, if you're a pastor in the pastor's training.

He knew he was a pastor and had the pastor's training and a lot of times churches would call Ramah, have you got any graduates that you could recommend?

Because our church has a need.

But nobody called and so he didn't have a place to pastor.

So he and his wife decided well, we're gonna go back to my wife's folks home in Florida and we'll go there and just start a church with her parents and that'll be kind of a beginning of our work.

And they agreed and that's what they decided to do.

So he sent his wife out San Augustine, florida, way down in the south end of the state.

And so his wife gets, the U-Haul trailer, goes, and so the next day is graduation.

So he's in an empty apartment, no furniture, no bed, no chairs, and he's gonna graduate.

And then the next day he'll make his way down to Florida and they're gonna do what they plan to do.

And so he's just praying, reading his Bible, you know, passing the time, and he got quiet and the Holy Ghost says San Augustine is not it.

And he said well, that's just great, god, that's just great, san Augustine, we can, we can.

We can ask one city out of the entire United States, in fact the whole world.

We can ask one city out of the entire world.

That's not it, that's just great.

You want me to call my wife and tell her it's not it.

And he just he was mad.

You know, and you know what he could have done.

I would like to preach this to you if you ever hear this.

I'm one of those that always tell you what you should have done.

You should have thanked God for a closed door.

Just think if he'd have done what he'd planned and it wasn't God, and how much work it is to start a church and do it all in vain because it wasn't God's plan.

Say he should have been shouting, but he, you know, he was just.

I know he's embarrassed.

He's got to tell his wife and then she's got to tell the mother-in-law.

Oh, my goodness, it doesn't make you look good.

It makes you look like a week, you know, like you don't know what you're doing.

You know, and we don't.

A lot of times we don't know what we're doing.

That's why we have an ally, that's why we have the Holy Ghost.

He's so smart, he's so brilliant.

He'll make you look brilliant if you just listen.

Praise God.

So he calls his wife.

Honey, holy Ghost spoke to me.

Oh yeah, st Augustine, is not it?

Well, where is it?

Where are we?

You know?

Blah, blah, blah.

Well, honey, I tell you what we got to find it.

So let's just, I'll get out there, you know, next couple of days, and we'll just get in the car, leave our stuff at your parents' house and we'll head north and we'll start driving until we get to witness.

Now, that's the best thing he could have done.

He could have said all through the whole thing.

And so, because if you'll wait for God's plan, it's already blessed.

It's already blessed.

At least they made a plan.

It was wrong and God stopped them.

See it's again.

It's not negative.

God kept them.

Are you with me now?

Let's look at it correctly.

I said let's look at it correctly.

So they got in the car, they started driving north and when they got to Lakeland Florida, which is up, you know, northern part, north central, I guess I don't have a map of Florida, but anyway they felt the witness when they came into the city limits of Lakeland Florida and they knew a pastor there by the name of Carl Strader and he was pastor of big, huge church there at that time and they stopped in and by chance he agreed to see them.

It didn't have an appointment and they told him his story and he was very kind, very yeah, we need another good Holy Ghost church in Lakeland.

And he had prayed with them and encouraged them.

None of this competition, none of this.

You know well, I'm the apostle of Lakeland.

You have to come under me, tithed me no, none of that, just real sweet and really encourage them and come to find out.

All these years later, this is their church.

They're pastoring 25 years later in Lakeland Florida, 30 years.

I guess it was God's plan.

Are you with me now?

So many times the Holy Ghost will indicate what he doesn't want.

I remember we were planning on this building.

We had hired an architect, we had worked with him over a period of time and developed a 30,000 square foot equivalent of phase one of this building, which would be the sanctuary, the lobby and a small children's church.

Wasn't big enough for ultimate, but a seat of 1,000.

This actually seats 1,000.

When we close it, close the rows in and get them a little closer together, it'll seat 1,000.

And so that's what I felt in my heart to build.

And it was just a metal building.

It was kind of plain, jane, and I'd just say I was underwhelmed.

This was before James came along, so it was just Claire and Jay and Selena and we just looked at it.

We went all over town, we took pictures of other buildings and took pictures of outsides and how to spruce up the outside, make it look kind of cool and everything.

And finally, at the end of all that, in December of 01, god just said one morning he said I don't want this little building.

That's what he called my plan little building.

I don't want this little building.

And I wasn't sure if it was talking about the size of it or whether it was talking about just all of it, but we started praying more directly about the building and God began to speak on Thursday night prayer and he gave us these words.

He gave us non-institutional, center-friendly, high-tech, first-class, state-of-the-art those five phrases.

And then he began to show me a building like this with.

This looked like a tent that I had investigated a couple of years before when we lost our lease on the church down the street and we had to move quickly and I was looking on a temporary building that we could put on our land and found out you can't do that in Harris County.

You can't use your land pretty much for anything you want to.

You've got to go through all kind of bureaucratic nightmares to use property you own.

For instance, we couldn't drill a water well, we couldn't have a sewage treatment plant, we couldn't do anything.

We had to dig a detention pond.

Even if we didn't have a parking lot Detention pond, it didn't matter.

No, we gotta have denture pun.

Oh well, you don't have one now, yeah, but if you get on it and have one service, you gotta have a did-hits.

I mean, they put all the roadblocks in front of us.

Anyway, I was reminded of this type of building.

That's what this is, what God wanted us to build.

Are you with me now?

Thank God for guidance.

But he first said no to something.

He first said no to something.

No is guidance.

Amen, all right.

The last one is for guidance to occur, you must stay connected to the truth.

So in John 16, we've read it already, but he said that he will show you.

How be it when he, the spirit of truth, has come.

He will guide you into all truth, verse 13,.

How be it when he, the spirit of truth, has come?

How many of you know he's come.

He lives inside, he's the spirit of truth and he will guide you.

He's your guide.

So for guidance to occur, you have to stay connected to the truth.

It's kind of simple, isn't it?

But now we see how much, how many lies are being put out there in the world.

I mean, you can't turn on the television hardly and get the truth, unless you turn on a Trump rally.

Then you get the truth.

The Trump rally.

They call him lying.

He's saying he's lying, but they're the ones that are lying.

They're lying all the time.

They lie at the door.

I mean the lady that he's got, amy Coney Barrett, coney Barrett, coney Island I'll get her name right Coney Island, amy Coney Barrett.

So she's a Catholic woman, seven kids, two children she adopted from Haiti, and one guy one Democrat said she's a racist Because she thinks she's got something.

You know, those Haitian kids are black and they need a white.

No, they just need anybody.

They need anybody that will take care of them.

Racist, how do they get this?

See, they're just.

They're so deceived and don't think it hadn't leaked into the church.

It's leaked into the church, and so we have to stay connected to the truth.

I want a good example of this is, like you know, living in Houston.

Like we do, we have relatives and friends that come to see us, and not so much now that you have GPS on your phone and on your car, but back before that, when people would hit town and they're not used to Houston, I would offer to come and meet them and bring them to my house, and so we had some relatives come and I met them on 59.

And well, I wasn't gonna say it was your family, but now that you've opened that can of worms, they are absolutely not used to Houston traffic.

I mean living in East Texas, I mean their idea of a traffic jam is four cars at a light and that's it.

And there aren't any freeways, there are no exits.

You know they're just, you know just country roads, and so you know.

So they're coming down 59.

So I said, look, I'll just meet you at 59 and the Beltway.

And they kind of knew where that was Beltway, 59.

So I said I'll, and I had a restaurant there and I'll meet you there at the restaurant and y'all can follow me around to the house.

But I mean I said, now, y'all, and I didn't give them specific enough instructions.

I just said, now, just follow me, now, ken, don't let me get too far ahead.

And so we get up on the Beltway.

Well, they didn't follow me very close and 10 or 15 cars got between us, just like that.

I mean, you're driving on the Beltway, you know people are gonna cut in front of you and I'm in the slow lane.

That's not a good lane because people are getting over there to get off, see.

And so they're cutting in front of you and before I knew it they were so far back I couldn't see them, which meant that they couldn't see me.

And you know they didn't know that when I was exiting the Beltway to get off, in my exit to go to my house, well, they didn't see the blinker and so they just kept going and I'm off and I see them going.

Whoo Well, thank God they did have a cell phone.

I eventually got them to answer it, because they usually.

They had a cell phone but they didn't use it.

Have you ever known anybody that has a cell phone and they don't use it?

Forget about calling them.

They're not gonna answer their cell phone.

Why would they cause money?

They cause a half a cent.

They're not gonna answer the phone.

We've got to follow close.

I said we've got to follow the truth.

We've got to stay connected up to our eyeballs in the truth and not let the truth be an offense to us.

I mean we've got to.

The Bible says in Proverbs buy the truth and sell it not.

And also wisdom, knowledge and instruction.

We've got to be lovers of the truth above everything else, because the people out there in the world have lost the love of the truth and they have embraced deception as a way of life.

So no truth.

See here at Glorious Way you're gonna mature in truth, all kinds of truth.

See why do I talk about politics?

I just well, because if you're deceived in one area, you are candidate to be deceived in the next area over, and then the next area over until you're totally deceived.

Do you think the devil's just gonna have you vote Democrat and then he's gonna leave you alone?

No, he's gonna move you over into salvation by works.

He'll move you over into error.

This is how people don't get lost overnight, especially if you're saved.

You know to get unsaved it's a lot of trouble, but it's not impossible.

Anybody who says well, once saved, always saved.

I believe that for me, I was once saved and I'm never gonna be unsaved.

Why?

Because I've committed myself.

It's not that I couldn't be lost.

See, you can be lost.

Oh well, no, there's no.

You need to read your Bible a little closer.

There's a sin unto death.

And people don't get there overnight.

They get there with making one bad decision after another, deceived, deceived, deceived, deceived.

And the minute you actually believe the blood of Jesus is not real and that Jesus is not the Son of God, you're no longer saved.

And there are lots of cults out there that teach that and preach that, and Christians get involved in them Doesn't happen all the time, but it's happening more now than it ever has in preparation that Jesus is coming.

I mean, he's dropping a plum line, folks.

So if you have no truth, there's no growth and little or no supernatural guidance, because your guidance is in your what?

In your spirit, and if your mind and your body are overwhelming your little old spirit, your little spirit's like a little worm.

You know, it's just little bitty and it has no influence.

See, that's where a lot of Christians live.

They live in their brain, they live in their flesh and their spirit.

Yeah, they may be saved, but it's.

Their lives are not really lives of faith.

Their lives are not lives of the Lordship of Jesus.

See, well, let's not, let's get away from that.

Let's make sure that we're followers of the Holy Spirit.

He will lead you into all truth.

I said he will lead you into all truth, amen.

So don't let there be any gaps in your following the Holy Ghost, amen.

And build your faith on the idea that it's the Holy Ghost that, as he does, lead you, and you, by faith, must follow the Holy Ghost, amen.

Lift your hands and receive.

Follow in the Holy Ghost.

Do you get anything out of this today.

Come on, let's lift our hands, let's thank him.

Right now, everybody say this I am being led by the Spirit of God and by faith, I follow his leading.

See, it doesn't feel good to say that, see, we need to say that every day, because it does take faith to follow the Holy Ghost.

Amen, praise God.

God is so good.