All Consuming Fire!

You're listening to the Cross Kingdom Sermon of the Week, we hope you enjoy

this message from Justin Carpenter. Oh so Mark Piper is gonna come up and

give us the teaching. I'm joking how he's coming. Hey, So I

just want to say something because Sarah was not in first service, but I

talked about accusations towards the end of herst service and actually break it because there's

been a intensifying of accusing spirits recently, and so you have to understand the

battles for your mind. And if you don't recognize your thoughts that not all

of those thoughts are yours, you're going to begin to partner with the enemy's

thoughts. And that's how familiar spirits work. You're not in charge of what

thoughts come into your mind, but you're in charge of what you let rent

space, what you meditate upon, what you say lah, what you focus

on you make room for right And so last week I gave a word about

God's fire pruning. Anyways, I believe it was Monday night that we had

we had dinner with the morals, right, was it Monday night? Okay?

My weeks are running together and that word really really fired Bill up.

I mean really fired them up. And I actually want to do something a

little different than I did first service. I actually want Bill, if you'll

grab the floor, mic, and I want you to read that article that

you sent to me. I read it first service because you weren't here,

but I gave it my best scholarly tone. And uh, if if you

feel like I'm putting you on the spot, that's because I am. You're

welcome, and uh and and and yeah, we're unmute them. And then

if y'all would Bill, if you would let them know what your career was,

just so to give them a little background. It just slides right up

there you go. It was not it was not electronics. Check check there,

look at that. Uh well, if you come up here where the

camera is? And then Cole, my camera guy, Cole, where's Cole?

Hey? Will you zoom the main camera in? Please? Okay?

Well, my background is in in wildlife biology and and I went and got

a PhD in ecological planning, which is a big term meaning that the way

ecosystems work, and then how they work in the world. And then later

on, by the way, I was in radio in San Antonio for about

six years. I have a face for radio. So this is a new

experience looking out and seeing people rather than an empty room on the other side.

Did I send that to you? Can here? Let me let me

pull up. But uh. Within ecological systems, when when we look at

them, we we have a tendency because we're human, we want to lock

into it and know everything about it. And it's not going to come as

any surprise to anybody that we don't know everything. There is an individual that

does, actually three of them, and so that dovetails into what I know

happens. And that way, the natural world and the spiritual world are two

real worlds that mirror each other, and the things go on along that line.

So I'm going to read this. Wow, guy's long winded. All

right, here we go. Ecological systems, forests, grasslands, and estuaries

are all systems that recycle nutrients and energy. Energy is neither created nor destroyed.

So think about it. Within a system that energy keeps flowing regardless of

what it looks like, regardless of what's happened to it. An old growth

forest, tall trees holding nutrients in their old structures provides shade that restricts plants

below them. We call these mid story and understory. But a consonant in

all ecological systems is each is dynamic and relies upon disturbance. I'll explain that

in the section it's regularly changing grasslands and forests. As forests do have periodic

fires. These are disturbance and these fires can be moderate in nature, meaning

a maintenance fire that merely recycles nutrients and does not dramatically change the structure are

catastrop catastrophic in nature think Yellowstone fires that devastated the ecological system up there.

The older the growth, the more stagnant the nutrient cycles, the less productive

and dynamic the relative health of the dynamic of the nutrients cycle. Conversely,

the maintenance fires are smaller, less catastrophic, and because of the relative health

of the dynamic middle aged forest recover more quickly, capturing nutrients in readily available

seas in small protected plants. The process then begins to move from a dynamic,

diverse ecological system to one that matures with stability and adaptive cycles until the

next disturbance. Simply put, disturbance, fires, flooding, storms, hurricanes,

all things are all necessary to rejuvenate the ecological system to keep it vibrant

and healthy. This disturbance, if experienced on a regular basis, is moderate

and results in refining without catastrophic effect. Catastrophic, by the way, is

in our terminology human terminology. The energy the does not change. It still

flows throughout the system. It just doesn't go in a way that we want

it to. Necessarily, this disturbance, if experienced, I said that,

all right, remember Smoky the bear's admonition. Only you can prevent forest fires

the resulting catastrophic fires in you. Heleston's Old Growth Forests and eastern California's Tahoe

regions are examples of the systems that prevented fires until the fires came anyway,

with devastating effects to homeowners to the system as we want it to flow.

Will those systems recover ecological health? Yes, But the recovery that will require

longer periods of time is struggle to distribute the seed sources necessary for that recovery.

The soils will be without plant roots to hold together in other complications.

You want the whole thing, okay. I have not mentioned that since God

created the heavens and the earth, his systems are all natural. The natural

word world mirrors the spiritual world, and vice versa. The pattern ecological systems

relying upon disturbance to stay healthy, and the longer period between disturbances, the

greater the seeming impacts. They are also mirrored in our walk with God.

God refines with holy fire. Small fires or corrections seem to be debilitating to

us, while larger fires troublesome in our livelihood can often have catastrophic impacts.

The disturbance to our human life if experience on a reoccurring basis, while seeming

uncomfortable, lead to a more dynamic, faith filled life with the rewards that

result in a close relationship with the Father. Think of holy fire as correction

adjusting our path with God. Fire matures us, refines us, and gives

us correction Isaiah forty eight ten. I have refined you, not as silver

is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.

Sanctification is the suffering that causes our folks to turn inward to face those parts

of ourselves we might otherwise ignore. God can use suffering, or we can

use it to then develop us into better people. The people who can love

it and joy him forever. It has been my experience that this is the

time to ask the question, what is God wanting me to see? What

is the lesson? No matter how painful, he wants me to learn?

And in my life, if I've got it the first time, I didn't

have to get it a second time. Although I have gotten it the second

time in certain times instances, live life to the fullest, not why I

am suffering? Well, what is God trying to teach me? Thank you

very much? All right, thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Don't quit your day job. That was pretty good. That was a very

intelligent article. You know. It kind of reminds you of I mean,

the fact that what's true in the natural is true in the spirit. But

also that in Romans when it says that we're without excuse because we can clearly

see the Creator through the creation, and so it's not abnormal for the Lord

to speak to you through nature. You see the prophets prophesying to the mountains,

You're like, huh, literally prophesying to the earth. And God says

prophesy to the earth. In fact, he says that if we don't worship,

even the rocks would cry out right, And it's really important that we

understand the times and seasons that we're in, that we understand what time it

is, that you understand those around you what season they're in, because all

of those things affect the way you lead and the way that you lead others.

It says, says, a word fitly spoken is like apples of golden,

settings of silver. Right, A word induce season is like a tree

alive. Anybody ever gives somebody a word out of season. And it was

a right word, wrong time, and that went over like a fart in

a spacesuit. Yes, I hadn't. I hadn't been able to use that

one in a long time. Lisa is like, I hate that saying I

was being. Yesterday was Isabelle's graduation and her dad has a love for dad

jokes and he let a few fire off yesterday and it just really inspired me

this morning. So I'm sorry. But the reality is, y'all, disturbances.

It goes with whatever can be shaken will be shaken. And when we

as humans try to get in the way of these natural occurring disturbances, these

fires that are meant to purify, then when they actually do come they're very

disturbing. They're catastrophic in nature. And although I think COVID was absolutely man

made, hopefully that word doesn't get us banned. The reality is God,

according to Roman's Aid, is working everything together for our good. Correct,

so he's using everything. But we had this disturbance that started in twenty twenty,

and in case you han't haven't figured it out, we've not returned to

how things were pre twenty twenty, and it seems like this disturbance is actually

almost escalating, and it's still affecting the earth. It's affecting the kingdoms,

it's affecting politics. It's absolutely in case you have if you've not been paying

attention, it's absolutely affecting the church leaders. Trees represent leaders in scripture,

canezer chop the tree down and in other places. And so God is God

is causing a disturbance. Now you can get caught up and focused on what

the enemy's doing, but that's actually not very smart spiritual warfare. Right,

do I have your attention? So it doesn't Anybody can walk into a room

and if there's a bunch of nonsense in the atmosphere, it doesn't take a

profit to the kingdoms to recognize there's stuff everybody has atmosphere around them, every

one of you, whatever's in your soul, you're releasing whatever you're feeling.

Literally, they've proven scientifically that your heart is radiating. So if you're not

abiding in peace, how are you going to release peace? It's too easy

for us to have a pseudo spirituality, smoking mirrors without transformation, a lot

of talk without power, a lot of action without intimacy. And we're in

a season of disturbance. God is disturbing the way the church has been doing

church. He's disturbing the way leaders have had a good old boy system and

have been so willing to cover each other's junk at the expense of the bride.

And it kind of reminds you of Jeremiah when he talks about the shepherds

that were not good shepherds, and he begins to rebuke those shepherds. And

so we're in a season of disturbance where God is dealing with his leadership.

Because leaders are more accountable. Not many of you should seek the desire to

be leaders. Why, because you're on a choker chain. That's why you

know, I never get away with anything. I remember one time headed to

church at Impact a long time ago, and we were literally we had just

been talking about. I was like, hun, you can go five miles

an hour over the speed limit. They're not going to pull you over.

Well, Sunday morning from our house to Impact, all of a sudden,

I saw these lights behind me and it was not the fourth of July,

and uh I got pulled over. And you know, sometimes your bride will

add insult to injury. And so as we're pulled over on the side of

the road, and he asked me where I'm going. I'm like, we're

going to church. We're late, and h h has he come? He

is coming back to give me? Did he give me a warning or a

ticket? He gave me a warning? Yeah, Lee, I don't know.

Lisa goes officer, could you please tell my husband that we that you

will pull him over for just going five miles an hour over. I was

going five miles an hour over and uh yes, he he he clarified.

He took her side and made it clear that it was not okay to go

five over. And Lisa and I have this agreement with each other that we

live our lives in the light. A key to not allowing the enemy to

use anything against you is that you actually live in the light, your whole

life, everything, even your weaknesses. If you're looking for a perfect leadership,

you should leave now. If you're am I right, I'm not looking

for a perfect body. That's why I'm still here, So don't get offended.

But understanding the times and seasons we're in is everything. The suns of

Izikar understood the times and seasons. If you don't know what time it is,

how are you gonna stay aligned with him? It says when we're out

of sync, and Deuteronomy it's twenty eight. I think it says when it's

day, you'll wish it was night, and when it's night, you'll wish

it was day. That means when you're out of sink and out of step

with the Lord and walking with him, no matter what you're going through,

you're never gonna have peace, never gonna be satisfied. It's never gonna be

enough. And we have been taught in the American Church to have a consumer

mentality, because that's our culture. Our entire economy is based on consumption.

And so when we move into a new town, instead of going Lord,

where do you want me to go serve. The first thing we do is

me, me, me, me, me me when we're looking for a

church, and then when we go there, the first moment one of me's

don't get matched. We pack our legos up. Well, I'm going to

different church, not y'all, you know those people over there. But it's

the simplicity of the gospel. At the end of the day. Remember when

the entire earth shut down in twenty twenty, so many people just went back.

We didn't get a break because it's ministry, but so many people,

you know, they started working from home and everything was closed. I remember

Sean and I were eating a meal in the parking lot of grape juice because

we couldn't go inside. Remember that we're just eating out of our styrofoam.

But everything simplified, and we have a crazy ability to complicate things instead of

understanding the simplicity of the gospel, y'all, the basics of the Kingdom.

If we are not loving God with all of our heart, all of our

soul, all of our strength, and loving others, we have a counterfeit

spirituality. I don't care what you look like on the outside, how many

hoops you're jumping through there's something not lined up correctly, and in the midst

of this disturbance, it's an invitation for us to take an evaluation of where

we're at with the Lord. It's as leaders. I know this. I've

always had a healthy fear of the Lord to finish well because over the last

nineteen years of doing prayer ministry and working with missionaries and ministers in the Fivefold

Ministry and hearing stories, I've heard way too many battle stories and if I

sat and recounted them, too many needless casualties of war. And it always

starts with a slow compromise, and every one of them could go back and

recount when they begin to get away from the Lord. Little by little,

maybe you just go a little bit numb and lose a little sensitivity to God's

spirit and is leading, and then the next thing you know, it's snowballs,

and fifteen months later you hadn't had fifteen times or fifteen minutes of prayer

with the Lord. I remember after Lisa and I got married, I had

been burned in ministry for the second time as a youth pastor. Felt like

I was completely stabbed in the back and I was done and I lied to

myself by saying, Lord, I will get close to you, but I

don't want anything to do with your people. What Yeah, I said,

Lord, I will get absolutely as close to you as I possibly can,

but I am done with people. I am done with ministry. And I

said that I vowed I was done with ministry. Don't make vows. And

I remember there was about a three year period i'd really hardened and gotten away

from the Lord, and the first for the very first time in years,

I remember waking up one day and not remembering the last time I was in

his word, the last time I had quality prayer, And all of a

sudden fear struck my heart because I'd realized how far I had gotten away from

him, how I'd hardened my heart. We were living in Virginia at the

time, Lynchburg. Lisa was finishing up her degree at Liberty, and I

was in the nuclear industry at the time and working on the road a lot.

And I'd just gotten so numb and callous to it all. And then

God allowed disturbance to come into our life. See, we always look at

these disturbances as are these shakings. You know, we always want to rebuke

the enemy first, and most of the time it was our own stupidity that

brought on the season. And are you all with me? We blame a

whole lot on the enemy when it was like he's like, dude, I

just was, you know, magnifying your stupidity a little bit. But that

was on you. See, it says, there's a way that seems right

on the man, but in the end it leads to death. See,

we have a pseudo spirituality where we partake of the good from the tree of

good and evil, and we're in deception thinking it's the tree of life and

that's Jesus because we're leaning on our own understanding and judging what we believe good

is. Hebrews twelve twenty nine says for our God as a consuming fire.

Many of you may be in a place right now, in the midst of

this disturbance where you feel numb, jaded, worn out, you feel like

you just don't know what to do. And the quality of a person's character

isn't when things are going well. The true test of our character is when

the disturbance comes, the shaking comes, the fire comes, and what is

left through the flames is what we really are. In Him. And if

we are constantly trying to live from a false identity of what people think we

should be doing, what we think they think we should be doing, then

we're never going to live out of our identity in Christ. We're going to

live as orphans trying to earn approval through performance. And when we're performing well,

when we're juggling all the plates, many people will like us. We

will love ourselves. Oh, look at how many plates I can juggle.

But then when it hits the fan and we can't juggle all the plates,

what happens? What do we look like when no one's around and you're all

alone? What does it look like when it's just you and the Lord and

your thoughts? What does your life look like? What are you thinking about?

Because make no mistake, God is after our heart. Proverbs for guard

your heart, for out of it flow the issues of life. And in

this this disturbance, this catastrophic disturbance, in some ways right now, within

the political arena, the church arena, I won't even go into the debate,

moving on, what is he dealing with? What are you stiff arming

him? On? Are you? Are you? Are you yielding your heart

to what he's trying to talk to you about. You know, the average

a man that graduates college, very few, very small percentage actually gets there.

They actually go into the career that they studied for very few tons of

people running to and fro in the earth and doing all of this stuff,

and yet there's this massive void inside of them, and they're wondering why am

I here? And the simplicity of the Gospel says that we're the ones with

the answers the Gospel make disciples. Do you understand that every one of you

are in ministry. Don't you don't need to to have a brand new podium

like this, a short podium because you're in ministry. And if we can

actually get the fullness of this disturbance of what the Father desires to put into

our hearts, as his fire is burning and he is purifying, because he's

an all consuming fire, we're baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, and

all through the Old Covenant, the fire of God would drop on sacrifice.

If you want the fire a God in your life, then be a living

sacrifice, because fire always falls on sacrifice. David said in the Psalms,

I set my sacrifice and I watch what is he watching for. He's watching

literally for the fire of God to fall, because he knew when the fire

fell, that was acceptance. Y'all with me. Matthew three to eleven.

I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me

is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will

baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Y'all understand this, it's the

same. It's the same fire. In Exodus three to two says and the

angel a Lord appeared to him in the flame of fire out of the midst

of a bush. He looked and behold, the bush was burning, yet

it was not consumed. Just like when you're set on fire by God,

you start burning, but you're not consumed. Wesley, would I think it

was John Wesley? It said, I set myself on fire so the world

can watch me burn. The Wesley brothers were so committed to holiness they wouldn't

even commission a leader unless they were fasting two days a week. They ministered

in such power, not just word, that they would send a forerunner in

front of him and tell the people to stay out of the trees. Because

the power of God would come and would knock them out of the trees.

And then fast forward to today with the United Methodist denomination and what's been going

on in the Shakings and the division and separating. It's absolutely heartbreaking. And

the founders of that were John and Charles Wesley. And look how quick things

can turn when they're not stewarded, When at some point we get more focused

on the comfort of our life than our children's legacy. See, I'm not

planning on the United States to fall apart right now. I'm looking at the

Shakings. I'm looking at the fingerprints of God. I'm looking at the fire

of God, the purifying. I'm looking at him dealing with his leaders.

I'm looking at him purifying his bride. I'm looking at him dealing with the

political injustice and the system. And I don't for a moment believe that he's

done. Do we have very difficult times ahead of us, Yes, But

he is not done with this nation. And it says that a father should

leave an inheritance to his children's children. That means we have to be there's

five generations on the earth at any given time. So when we get all

these prophetic words from the prophetic movement, and it's always about one generation or

this generation. Do you think he doesn't care about the other four. Biblically

speaking, the elders like literal older age. The elders are supposed to be

teaching the younger. And how many times do we have people in retirement.

They come into the church and they feel like there's no point in being here,

like they don't have anything to do. Yes, you do equip the

body, release wisdom. Even if you screwed up a whole bunch in your

life, you can show them how not to do what you did. He

cares about all five generations, with your children's children. Right now, he

is purifying the body of Christ, not to punish it, but to bring

it closer to him. He is moving closer, and that which is darkness

is being exposed by light. That is the reality of what's happening right now.

And if we are so consumed with protecting our little empires, we're gonna

miss it. God will move with or without you, Make no mistake.

It is a privilege for us to co labor with him. But if you

want to be stiff necked, proverb says that you can be so stiff necked

that literally you withhold for so long that you're destroyed, and that without healing.

Well, there's a scripture for the fear of the Lord, because too

many times we're so full of ourselves that we think we can use God anytime

we want, and we're in charge of this thing. Wrong. God says,

I hold the heart of the king, and I can turn it any

direction I desire. Mark ninety nine says everyone will be salted with fire Psalms

twenty nine to seven. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire

Psalms one oh four to four. He makes his messengers wins his ministers a

flaming fire in Deuteronomy four twenty four. For the Lord, our God is

a consuming fire, a jealous god. He has a holy jealousy. When

we fall into things in our life that we have no business doing, he

is jealous. He is a god who leaves the ninety nine to pursue the

one. I have three pictures on my wall in my office, and then

a shepherd's staff above it, and it's all about leaving the ninety nine for

the one. He spent his ministry going after those that were lost, the

ones that the religious wouldn't pay attention to you know how many of y'all get

kicked out of most denominations. I would I would be kicked out. I

guarantee it. We'll keep moving on second chronicle seven to one. As soon

as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt

offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

You know, there was a time after Eli died and his sons, remember

Eli, he heard the news that the ark had been taken, and he

fell over and broke his neck, and his sons were killed. And then

all of a sudden there was somebody born named Ichabod, which meant the glory

has departed. And you have to wonder, when it's all said and done,

when all the smoke is removed out of the churches, the fancy lights,

the amazing marketing, all the decor, when all that's stripped away,

what's left. I think we've been entertained by a lot of counterfeit glory.

Yeah, this isn't just a charismatic issue in this season. It's not just

charismatic leaders that are being pruned. Tony Evans was not a charismatic leader.

Cessationist Robbie Zachariah was not spirit filled. He was a cessationiist God is dealing

with his leaders in the church, and we have to see the marriage of

the Spirit and the Word come back. RTI. Kendall said it the best

I've said it before. He said, there's been a silent divorce in the

church between the Word and the Spirit. And just like divorces and the natural,

some kids go with Dad, some kids go with mom. We've seen

that in the church, and we've watched decades of fighting over word versus Spirit.

So you have some people trying to intellectually argue people into the kingdom without

power. Then you have some that are screaming at the top of their lungs

for Dad. Some are like Samson's all gift and no character Luke twelve forty

nine to fifty. I came to cast fire on the earth, and I

would that it were already kindled. I have a baptism to be baptized with,

and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. We spend most

of our lives avoiding pressure, conflict, and pain, and I think the

Holy Spirit spends a whole lot of time trying to get us into conflict,

pressure and to deal with our pain. If God didn't give us a spirit

of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind, why is

so much of the church medicated for anxiety and panic? So what you didn't

just hear me say was I'm condemning people that take meds. Right, So

don't mishear that. But Jesus said, my peace I give to you,

not as the world gives and says. Let his peace rule and rain,

Let it rain Isaiah twenty six to three. He will keep him in perfect

peace whose mind has stayed upon him because he trust in him. So what

if a lot of what you're going through right now is actually an issue of

trust? What if? What if all of this stuff is being pruned and

stripped and cut and burned away in your life? So he can ask you

one question, do you love me more than these? What is these to

you? Anything you're doing in this moment right now to preserve your life,

you will lose it. You're struggling with addiction. All you're doing is masking

pain. You're masking trauma, and it doesn't go away. I don't care

how much heroin you've shot, how much meth you've smoked, how many mushrooms

you've taken, how many hits of acid? When the high goes the pain

is back, do what Yeah, like a champ. Maybe you mask your

pain with food. Maybe it's with houses, cars. See, we don't

look at idols in the American culture the way they did back then. Not

many of you are walking around with literal, little baby idols and worshiping them.

But the purest definition of an idol is anything you put in the place

that only God belongs, anything that you're looking to for safety, protection,

peace, comfort. See when Jesus Sarah said earlier, he's in the dirt

riding. There's a couple of things about the dirt. One thing is,

if you look in the Old Covenant, if a husband thought his wife was

being unfaithful, and a spirit of jealousy came upon him and he went to

the temple, priast would prepare a curse, and part of that curse they

would take the dirt of the earth and put it in water, and then

she would have to take an oath and she would drink it. Had she

not been unfaithful, everything would be fine. Had she been unfaithful, and

she was lying her thigh would rot off. I'm not just pigging on the

wives. I'm just saying that. But he's down in the dirt. If

you have a Hebrew culture mindset, and those men understand that, that's got

to be one of the things running through their head. It's also been said

that Jesus was actually writing their sins down in the dirt, and from the

old to the youngest they left because the old had way more wisdom, that

they'd done a whole lot more stuff than the arrogant young guys who were blinded

by their pride. But the point is, if he didn't come to condemn

us. The son of Man did not come to condemn man, but to

save. He came to seeking to save that which was lost. How is

it we embraced his mercy, his forgiveness, his grace, and as we

go through the cross, and then all of a sudden we become self righteous

and condemning, and we don't want others to receive the same mercy we did.

And how do I say that the moment you hold on to unforgiveness towards

your brother, you just said, I'm worthy of forgiveness, and you were

not Isaiah six one seven. And in the year that King Uziah died,

I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the

train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim, each

had six wings, with two he covered his face with two he covered his

feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said,

Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of host The whole earth

is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the

voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And

I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am

a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people

of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of

Hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand

a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he

touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your

guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned. For the seraphim are

the fiery ones that are around the throne, saying Holy Holy Holy, Now

have a news for you. If you were in that encounter, you would

be going woe is me too and hitting the dirt. I'm pretty sure if

a seraphim manifested in this room right now with six wings, we'd be on

the floor. Now. The Lord spoke with you face to face of the

mountain, out of the midst of the fire. Remember what they saw on

the mountain Israel was fire and smoke. You know that mountain today is burnt.

It actually shows there's still burnt rock on the top of that mountain today

where Moses meant Mount Sinai. One of the things I love is that in

Genesis six when the Sons of God took the daughters of Men, that was

Mount Herman. That that took place on when Jesus told when Jesus took the

disciples and went up the mountain and then revealed his glory to Peter, John

and James, guess what that was Mount Herman, same exact mountain. So

it was defiled in Genesis six when the watchers left their proper abode and went

into a covenant to stay in human flesh and took the daughters of men,

and then he redeems that mountain when he goes up the mountain and says,

I'm yahweh, I'm the King. All right, I'm landing you all ready.

I'm gonna start landing safely, Bill your pilot safe land. Okay.

There's a Hebrew word salak, and it means to rush. It also means

to cleave or penetrate, or advance. And what's interesting about that is in

Judges fourteen six, then the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. You

see, you see this rushing upon his people all through the Old Covenant.

So, in other words, when it says the spirit of the Lord rushed

upon him, the spirit of the Lord penetrated him, he cleaved to him,

or the hand of the Lord was upon him, he rushed upon him.

You can do nothing of eternal significance without the Holy Spirit being upon you.

This is exactly why he told them in John twenty to wait for the

Holy Spirit to come upon you, to rush, to penetrate, to cleave,

because it's for the empowerment of ministry. It was the baptism of the

Holy Spirit and fire. You ever pray, remember the first time you got

prayed for and you felt the presence of God like tingling or fire, and

you're like, is this you know, you're all nervous and you're trying to

figure out is that God? Is that me? Is my emotions? What

is this? Anybody go like, what is this? What is that?

Not that long ago I had a guy he was a level seven reiki master,

which reiki is not Jesus okay period, and he uh, he was

talking about how he was throwing energy one day and he wasn't in a good

place when he was throwing energy, so he got the Kundalini flu. You

understand, the Kundalini spirit is a false holy spirit that wraps around the spine

and it's imparted through yoga, through yogi masters, and then it's a It

gives you false sensations just like of love, and it's it's complete counterfeit.

I don't have time to go into that, but anyways, he was talking

about throwing energy and I, as a believer, you can touch people without

touching them your spirit, right, But cool guy like I had just you

know, cool guy, I had nutt and against him, he just was

on the wrong path. Remember, it says in the Last Days that God

is pouring out his spirit on all flesh. What does that mean? All

flesh, whether you're saved or lost. He's pouring out a spirit. Why

because he's drawing all men unto him, because it's not his heart that any

peerish, but all come to repentance. And if we don't realize that God

is actually giving unbelievers dreams and visions and giving them a spiritual hunger, then

we can miss we can miss the hand of the Lord. If you don't

understand that many of these people that have gone into these other spiritual paths,

they're simply responding to a God given spe spiritual hunger. But they've not had

light and salt around them, so they're going down the only path they know

because the church has been too caught up with perfecting services and staying comfortable rather

than going and fulfilling the great commission. Go. He didn't say stop,

He said go make disciples, so that means to break out, come mightily,

go over, be good, to meet profitable. The spirit of the

Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he

tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did

not tell his father or his mother what he had done. This is Samson.

Again, the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went

down to Ascalon and struck down thirty men of the town, and took their

spoil, and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle and hot

anger. He went back to his father's house Judges fifteen. When he came

to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the spirit of

the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became

his flax that had caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands for

Samuel sixteen thirteen. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in

the midst of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David.

He cleaved, he penetrated, he hovered, he stayed. Y'all,

we have been so deceived into doing so many things in our own strength and

our own soul's strength, And then wonder why the glory of the Lord is

not coming. God is a gentleman. We can't force his hand, You

can't force him to move, you can't force him to encounter you. You

don't write out a spiritual menu. I want thirteen dreams, four visions,

two angelic visitations, and seventy to the nations Postmark justin Carbenter. It's not

how that works. But what we can do is go through the I'm almost

done, I promised five minutes. What we can do is go through this

season understanding the times and seasons we're in, Understanding peace in Jesus' name,

Understanding the times and seasons we're in. What time is it? Because the

worst thing in the world for you right now is not to understand what the

Lord is doing. Because that's all right, blaze the trail and everyone is

give me two minutes. Ecclesiastes says there's a time to what. It goes

through all the different seasons, a time to build, a time to plant,

a time to live, a time to die, a time for joy,

a time for happiness, a time to marry, a time and it

goes through all of these things. And if you're not in timing with the

Lord, and the Lord is in the midst of pruning and cutting down and

tearing down in your life and not building up, and you're trying to build

up in that moment, then you're gonna find yourself in a divine frustration because

you're out of sync with the spirit. Are you with me? What time

is it in your life? Because I can tell you prophetically, you don't

have to be a rocket scientist to understand that God's dealing with the church in

a significant way. Why because the spiritual water tables have been very low in

this nake, and the lower the water goes, more rocks get exposed the

spiritual And understand this for those of you that are really fired up about this

political season. Leaders, political leaders, business leaders, what have you.

Leaders rise up out of the culture of a country, and when the spiritual

water tables are low in that country, then the character of those leaders will

be low. But when spiritual water tables are high, like when the church

was actually in its rightful place in this nation, guess what, we had

higher quality spiritual leaders. You know that no one was ever able to say

anything about Billy Graham. Billy Graham, he knew how to go in and

out. Billy Graham knew how to deal with these presidents without taking the bait,

without compromising. He's one of the very few leaders we've had in decades

that didn't end up with stuff on them. Y'all you need to understand how

to be able to go in and out. You need to be like a

Daniel. Daniel served under four kings and he would disappear between those kings at

times, and guess what you heard nothing from him. No whining, no

complaining, no marketing, no Facebook ads, trying to promote himself to get

more speaking engagements, none of that, y'all. He gives grace to the

humble, So we need to stay humble, hungry, and teachable. And

I'm telling you, if he will stay humble, hungry, and teachable,

you're gonna find yourself in a place where you can be significant used by the

Lord in his kingdom in this hour. I don't know about y'all, but

I don't want to miss what the Lord's in the process of doing what he

desires to do. I'm going one way or another, and I'll take some

of you kicking and screaming if I have to. But we're gonna lock arms

and pursue the Lord and do our best to love each other. And when

your processes bump into each other, get over it. Do you want Jesus

riding in the sand or throwing stones? We're all gonna have days where the

best of us didn't come up. Are you with me? His mercies are

new every morning. I'm not saying use that as a license descend, but

I'm saying we are supposed to be full of such encouragement. Why did Paul

said, rather you prophesied than any of these other things, because it was

for edification, exhortation, and comfort. We got enough negative neds and Nancy's

in the world. And if your name's Nancy, that wasn't directed to you.

All right, let's stand. Second Kings three point fifteen says, now

bring me a musician, and then when the musician played, the hand of

the Lord came upon him. Second Kings three point fifteen, if the prayitan

would come forward to listen. There are people in this room right now.

You need to surrender your life to Jesus, period, not if Ann's not.

Possibly, the Lord's been moving on your heart and you need to surrender

your life to the Lord. And there are people up here that can absolutely

pray with you and lead you in that direction. There are some of you

that really need to recommit your life to the Lord this morning, because you

found yourselves stiff arming the Holy Spirit in your spiritual walk and the Lord was

literally spotlighting things in your heart this morning when I was teaching y'all, don't

leave, don't miss your visitation. So I'm gonna pray and I just invite

you all to come for prayer that need prayer. Y'all continue to pray for

David, Robin Perkins and others that have been dealing with stuff, difficult seasons

within our community, lots of sickness. And also, don't forget as you

remember pray for pray for Randy Clarksy as well. So Father to the one

that said it's too late for me, it doesn't matter now, Jesus,

I thank you that it's never too late. Thank you for listening. For

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