Living A Lifestyle of Testimony!

Joyless thing to the Cross Kingdom Sermon of the Week. We help you enjoy

this message from Justin Carpenter. Are we h am I forgetting anything? Oh

yes, ma'am. So if anybody would love to help with childcare Wednesday,

Yeah, Wednesday night, so you know, folks like Brandon and Daisy could

come and we you know, with the way we're growing with children, we

may need more than one childcare worker because Brandon and Daisy alone might hit the

max just for one. Thank you. Scripture says that that the Lord put

a portion of his spirit into marriage specifically, and he said he did that

so that there would be godly offspring. So you need to understand that when

you enter into marriage, that there's a portion of his spirit that goes into

that. And so I want to encourage y'all, especially if you're struggling in

marriage right now, fight for your marriage, because when you tear that apart,

you're you're actually pulling against the Holy Spirit himself in the midst of that.

And I think now more than ever, it's high time that we stand

up as the Church and we are a beacon of light. We are a

voice of reason, sound reason with all the chaos going on. I had

a really weird warfare dream last night, and I think I figured it out.

But one, we're in significant transition and in this dream, I saw

like all of these tribal spears like flying in the air coming over, and

uh, I mean like tons of them. I'm like, there's no way

we're not going to get hit with that. And Uh, out of out

of all those spears flying U, rt Kendall just obliviously come comes walking up

and in the dream, And for those of you that don't know Rtum,

he is eighty six years old I think now, and he has done word

and spirit conferences with Jack Taylor and Charles Kerwin and Uh, anyways, art

really really represents the Word to me and UM. Anyways, later on in

the dream, UM, some other things happened, and I just want to

encourage you to be in the Word right now and protect the word. UM.

This issue of UM redefining love is not going away, and it's gonna

increase. So you as believers need to be aware that you need to stand

up and speak the truth and love because there's going to be increased opposition to

those of you that want to hold onto the Word and hold on to a

biblical definition of love and a biblical definition of marriage. And this is just

where we're at. And if you want to have if you want to be

a change agent in this culture, you're going to have to learn how to

do that without getting angry. You're going to have to learn how to do

that without bashing and condemning, but loving and resisting, because we have to

love everyone but resist their sin. But I think over the next twelve months

we are going to begin to see some very significant resistance in the arena of

towards the church. So stay in the word. There's my exhortation into you,

And oh, I get to finally pick my wife and pull the son

back up from the airport tonight. Three weeks is a very long time,

people. Mike and I went to the beach for a couple of days and

managed to have to have fun just the two of us. But it was

good. So I struggled this morning on what to actually talk about, and

I went back and forth quite a bit. But I want to talk to

you about testimony, actually living a lifestyle of testimony, building building testimony.

The English the English the English word witness and testimony A da are both from

the Hebrew word odd, which is formed from the letters ion and dalit,

which in their ancient settings mean to see or observe. The door. The

door of a house is the most repeatedly used part of the whole structure.

We constantly go in and out of the door. It is a repeated action

and probably one of the most daily cyclical things we do. The ancient meaning

of this word and its root is to observe or repeat an action. This

word has many meanings, of which all have something to do with the root.

It is translated as forever and ever in Exodus fifteen. Remember Hebrew is

cyclical, not linear, So when you're trying to understand the word and you're

thinking in a Greek mindset, you're going to have a very difficult time because

the Hebrew mindset is very cyclical, spiral, not linear. But the pictograph

for that word is the tabernacle of the testimony is seeing the door. The

covenant, the tabernacle the testimony is the eternal covenant. That's the pictograph meaning

of testimony. Interestingly, and in Matthew twenty eight, Jesus says, oh,

there we go, all authority in heaven on Earth, has been given

to me. Go therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them

to observe all that I've commanded you, and behold, I am with you

always to the end of the earth. In I knew I was going to

do this. In Luke, he specifically tells the disciples that you're my witnesses.

You're my witnesses of the testimonies. Everything you've seen me do, you're

my witnesses. You have been with me when Judas hung himself and they cast

lots for the very last time. In the New Covenant, they cast lots

for the Disciple, and he One of the prerequisites of casting lots is they

had to be around Jesus as an eyewitness. Now today, obviously most of

you are not eyewitnesses. Anybody had a face and face encounter with Jesus like

literal visitation, All right, lying spirit stopped, no plane, no,

but there. So the point is it's very rare that we have face to

face encounters like literal visitation. And the Disciples, the original disciples, they

had to actually be with him, and they actually all saw him risen from

the dead as well. Matthew five sixteen says, in the same way,

let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works

and give glory to your Father who's in heaven. And Matthew our acts won

six to nine, it says. So when they came together, this was

the scripture I was looking for. They asked him, Lord, will you

at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, and

it's not for you to know times or seasons that the Father's fixed in his

own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon

you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria,

and to the ends of the earth. And when he had said these

things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud

took him out of their sight. So the Holy Spirit one of the last

things Jesus says, as he goes up in a cloud, as you're going

to be my witnesses. But they were told in John twenty to stay there.

He breathed the Holy Spirit inside of them, and they were told to

stay there until the Holy Spirit came upon them. For what empowerment of ministry.

It's for the empowerment to actually be a witness of the Lord Jesus.

And too many times we are trying to intellectually argue people into agreement or into

a place in their relationship with God, rather than actually relying on the Holy

Spirit and his power to actually be a witness and display his power. And

as some have coined power evangelism, Wimber said that or prophetic evangelism. And

so if you're not acquainted, well acquainted with the Holy Spirit, being intimate

with the Lord's spirit, you're going to many times miss when he's moving on

your heart because a lot of times he's not moving with lightning, thunders and

earthquakes and fires, and you don't have to fall down by the power of

God for him to get your attention. Many times it's just the slightest,

the slightest nudge, where at many times it will even feel natural. You'll

find yourself in an encounter, led into an encounter, and more than likely

you thought it was just your thoughts, and you were obedient to that thought,

and all of a sudden you realized it was actually the Holy Spirit that

led you into that place. A history of testimonies. I don't. It's

never optional. So hear this. But in order for us to actually be

a change agent, to be the light and salt that God's called us to

be, we need to be storing up history with God. We need to

be storing up testimonies with him. I remember early on that and I've shared

this a few times, so you just have to hear me again. But

I remember watching videos and hearing people talk about, you know, miracles and

limbs growing and all of these things. And the very first time that I

got a word of knowledge for a limb to grow, I actually asked the

Lord please. As I was set the lady down, lifted her leg up.

I was like, Lord, please don't let her leg be short.

So that was where my faith level was. I was literally praying, Lord,

don't let her leg be short. And I lifted her leg up and

it was like two inches short. I was like crap. And so I

was like, all right, now, it's it's not It's not like,

you know, it's one thing to be an Internet champion of the Lord.

You know what I'm saying. There? There there's there's lots of keyboard champions

online, lots of self promotion, but all of a sudden, when somebody's

in front of you and you're praying for them and you're asking God to do

something that you can't do. Now, I've you know, I've heard people

say, oh, they just pull on your leg. Folks, You're not

gonna pull on somebody's leg two inches. They could, they could be out

of alignment a little bit, and you you pull some stupid stuff and manipulate

their leg a half inch, but you're not going to move it two inches.

And I remember scared to death praying with my eyes closed. I opened

my eyes, nothing happened. I look at her. She's kind of looking

at me, like, how do I get stuck with this guy? And

I closed my eyes. I pray again. I look up. Now she's

praying because we both have no clue what's going on. And I'm an emergency

prayer mode underneath in my spirit, and I'm like, Lord, you know

I can't do this. Lord, you know you're the only one that can

do this. You know I can't do this. And I'm praying and praying

and praying. She's praying. It feels like an eternity and somewhere between me

closing my eyes, just begging God to do something and opening my eyes,

her leg grew halfway out. Well, all of a sudden, I was

a man of faith now, all of a sudden, I was all pumped

up, and I was like, yeah, come here, her leg's growing.

And a group of us got to watch her leg grow out in front

of us the rest of the way, and she was in high heels that

next Sunday, paying free. But the role of the Holy Spirit is to

sanctify you first and foremost, to change you so that you actually look like

Jesus transform you. But there's an empowerment that I think that we've lost that.

I think I think he saw a big display of it in the eighties

and nineties when you had the renewal movements, when you had Toronto and Pensacola

and in other moves like that, God was displaying his power and his authority.

I actually think there's some things we need to recover back from that.

I actually think it's awesome when God does something in front of you and it

scares the dickens out of you, and you're wondering, where do I find

that? And you get nervous because it's out of your control. Most moves

of God have stopped because we got in the way and we wanted to start

to administrate what the Holy Spirit was doing, or i e. Control it,

and then that's when it stops. No, there are no clean bursts,

and as God moves, we don't want to shut him down. And

get what, folks, When God starts moving, there is going to be

stuff that's from the enemy in the middle of things of God, and then

there's going to be things of the soul. And if we're not okay with

allowing God to be God, then when God begins to move in a significant

way in our lives, will inadvertently shut it down. Because we like formulas,

We like things to be in control. We like time, like we

go two hours every Sunday, which is probably thirty minutes longer than most churches,

and yet we can still find ourselves falling into traps on Sunday going through

the motions, are thinking, okay, are trying to enter back into the

presence of God the same way we entered in the week before. And first

John five six to eight through eleven says this this is he who came by

water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by the

water and blood. And the spirit is the one who testifies, because the

spirit is the truth. The spirit and the water and the blood. And

these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of

God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he born concerning

his son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.

Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he's not believed

in the testimony that God has born concerning his son. This is the testimony

that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his son,

you know. Revelation nineteen ten says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of

prophecy. We've heard that a thousand times. But one of the things is

when you share your testimony, I don't care what it is. When you

share something fresh what God's doing, You're setting the atmosphere, like fertilizing soil

for that to actually happen. Again, we've had your daughter's eyes where she

at? Is she here? Oh? She had to go home. Her

eyes were healed. She was color blind. Did that happen at camp as

well? Dale. Yeah, so that happened at camp last summer. You

know, her leg straightened out. We had all these amazing things happen.

But it's crazy if we don't meditate on our history with God, if we

don't meditate on what God's doing, how quickly we forget what he did.

And all of a sudden you have distance in your mind between you and the

last amazing thing the Lord did, and hallelujah and so and then, and

then you end up feeling cold. You end up fighting this feeling of distance

from the Lord. UM. I heard John Beavere in a video this week.

He was having a hard time connecting with God and a season, and

all of a sudden, one morning in his prayer time, it had been

very, very just, you know, through the motions, and he started

to just ponder all the things the Lord had done, you know, creating

the earth and all of these amazing, all supernatural things the Father had done,

and all of a sudden, the presence of God landed. And then

the next day he began to think about what the Lord had done and think

about creation and all. And it says that man's without excuse. He can

clearly see the Creator through the creation, and he started to think about all

these all reverence, things of reverence for the Lord, and he said,

the presence of God came again. And he was baffled because he went from

a wilderness experience in his time with the Lord, so all of a sudden,

the presence of the Lord was just coming every time. And he's that

it totally tie. The Lord told him, He says, hollowed be my

name. You were holding my name as holy and his presence came when he

did that. And that's I pray the Lord's Prayer every day, not out

of religious habit, but out of trying to set and keep my spirit in

alignment. And you can open the Lord's Prayer verse by verse and you will

find yourself encountering the presence of the Lord, even in a season where you

feel like you're in a wilderness. Thirty six. But the testimony that I

have is greater than that of John for the works that the Father has given

me to accomplish. The very works that I'm doing, bear witness about me

that the Father sent me. Remember Paul, when he's dealing with these people,

Paul says this. He goes, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna find

out what power, because it's not the kingdom is word and power. I

want to find out what power you're moving in because it's word alone, aren't

cutting it. And somehow we have gotten into a mindset and much of the

church culture that we think we're just going to always debate, we're always going

to debate truth through and we're going to get people to just totally go,

oh, my words, you're just so, you're totally right, y'all.

So many times Jesus did show and tell. Jesus would show up, he

would heal, and then he would talk to them. He would meet them

right where they were in their lives, what they were struggling with, and

he would move through words of knowledge, words of wisdom, prophecy. If

you look at the way Jesus ministered and the testimonies, there was nothing natural

about what he did. And we have to recover a supernatural mindset because otherwise

you're going to be left to intellectually trying to argue with demons. John fifteen,

twenty six. But when the helper comes, whom I will send to

you from the Father, the spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father,

he will bear witness about me, Psalms one, nineteen twenty four.

Your testimonies are my delight. They are my counselors, so David said,

Your testimonies are my delight, they're my counselors. This gives actually a little

bit of insight to when he was in Ziglag and his own men wanted to

stone him. Even on my worst day of preaching, I've never been threatened

to be stoned, which is probably a good thing. I've I've preached before

and wondered, man that was horrible, did anything even land, and but

never been threatened to stone be stone. David sat there hopeless for a moment,

and his men wanted to take him out. All of his wives and

all the livestock, everything's gone. And it said that he strengthened himself,

and the Lord, well what did he do? He gives you insight in

the Psalms of what he does. He says, my testimonies are my delight,

they're my counselors. Your testimonies are wonderful. Therefore my soul keeps them.

My soul keeps your testimonies. I love them exceedingly. As the Lord

commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it upon the testimony to be kept. So

you see all throughout the Psalms or David's talking about meditating and pondering on the

testimonies of God. He's literally all the time meditating on what God has done

in his life. And if you're in a difficult place, you need to

vary. Number One, you need to remember what God's already done for you,

because it says that he enquired of the Lord after he strengthened himself in

the Lord. It says without faith, there is no pleasing God. So

if you come to the Lord and utter unbelief, how well do you think

that's going to work out for you? Sometimes as mercy's good, like when

I prayed and asked him to not have a short leg in front of me.

Other times we go an unbelief and guess what happens when that spreads like

kryptonite. Then you see a picture of Jesus in his own town. Not

a single miracle happened. A few healings happened, but there were no miracles

because of their unbelief. So many times we are frustrated with the process of

things moving forward in the spirit, and I think we just need to many

times, be honest with ourselves and say, Lord, I'm not going to

blame the person I just prayed for it to spiritual. Where's my unbelief?

Is it unbelief? And we talked about last week. Unbelief can be what

complaining and grumbling? Anybody have any tests last week to grumble? Yeah?

I never grumbled one time. That was real slow right, Psalms one,

nineteen ninety nine. I have more understanding than all of my teachers for your

testimonies or my meditation. I have more understanding than all my teachers for your

testimonies or my meditation your testimony, Psalms one, nineteen one eleven. Your

testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.

He goes on to say, I'm your servant, give me understanding that I

may know your testimonies. So if you want a key into growing in wisdom

as a leader, then you need to study the testimonies of God in your

life. Study the testimonies of God and somebody else's life. Go spend time

with somebody who has had a healing or a miracle happened to their life,

or some sort of huge breakthrough, and spend time with them and ask the

Lord for insight. Ask the Lord to speak to you to show you the

insight so that you can actually grow in wisdom. I mean, how many

times have you actually sat and meditated on testimonies of the Lord for the intention

of actually growing in wisdom with him? I mean, we share testimonies from

time to time up top and everybody applause. But when God does something amazing

in our midst are we taking notes so we can actually go back into our

prayer closet meditate on what just happened so we can get additional revelation and wisdom,

and then also see it happen again. You know, you can share

somebody else's testimony and actually see that that same testimony happened. It doesn't have

to be your testimony. And one of the beautiful things is when you're going

to pray for someone and you feel their faith weak, is in a weak

place, then wisdom says, start sharing testimonies with them to encourage them,

to strengthen them, to build up their faith. So then you create an

atmosphere in their heart for the Holy Spirit to be able to move, because

otherwise you're going to be dealing with lots of unbelief, right, Remember Jesus

move people out of the room. He didn't care if it offended them.

He knew if they stayed in the room, he couldn't raise the dead.

There would be there would be plenty of emails the next day. Huh,

the pastor threw me out of the room. We would never do that,

would we, Josh says. The law the Lord is perfect reviving the soul.

The testimony of the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the

simple. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

Do you understand that means God values you meditating on experiential knowledge, not just

grabbing his word and just reading it every day, but it becoming alive to

such a degree that you can't do anything but be transformed by it. I

went through Bible College, and let me tell you something, it's scared the

heck out of me because of how many people were in Bible College that I

knew that were never in the Word. They were training to be ministers,

and they were never in the Word ever, like once a week on average,

and they had no they didn't have any significant prayer lives. And pornography

was an issue in the Bible College. And that was in aol days where

it took ten minutes to send a text or an email Matthew twenty four fourteen.

And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as

a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. As we're

finishing up, I want to I want to do an activation. But second

Timothy one eight therefore did not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord,

nor of me his prisoner, but Sharon suffering for the gospel by the power

of God. I want to, I want to do something. Does somebody

have a fresh testimony? Um from the last week or two a healing?

You want to come up? I guess I should have. You probably should

have waited until I finished. H Well, come on up. Did you

put new batteries in there? Okay? You sure? First? Yeah?

Go ahead? Uh. Let everybody know who you are too. I'm Christie

Vic and um, my husband running I come here, and also my daughter

Kylie Seifert and her family. Anyway, we um. I don't know.

The Lord's just been dealing with some things in my life, and I've just

been crying out asking the Lord what And we've had a lot of changes in

our life and a lot of trauma and we've been walking through that, and

I felt like I was in a really dry place and I was just crying

out to the Lord. And we've been doing the class with Justin on the

Divine Whisperer and Keith to the Kingdom and really seeking the Lord, and I

had an encounter towards the kind of a long time ago we've really walked in

a lot of deliverance and healing and really walked that way, and we've kind

of really got out of that and away from it. So I've just been

asking the Lord, like show me what's real what isn't. And so the

other night, just in my dream, I've just been crying out for a

little piece of freedom that I feel like I did at have in my heart.

And in a dream, the Lord took me back to my grandmother's house,

and there there was a man that I encountered, and it was as

if he kind of walked with me for a long time, like he was

a safe place, and then he was going to leave, and he gave

me all his addresses where he would be, and I came upon him again

across pass and I looked down and all the addresses were torn up in my

bag and he said, I said, oh, you're gonna leave, and

that's gonna be a good thing. I mean, it's you're going to go

your own way and I won't see you anymore. And he said no,

and so I said, well, I told him kind of, you're going

to go and I'm not gonna be with you anymore. And I said,

thank you for helping me. But then when he left, I knew that

it was a deliverance for me deep in my heart, something that had attached

to kind of protect me as a child, and through that I was delivered.

And the next day I have felt so much freedom and a new passion

and peace. And anyway, that's kind of So what did you what do

you feel like the addresses represented to you? I guess they were random address.

I guess different places along the way that I might be that he would

be in your journey, in my journey. Okay, So here's what I

want you to do. So if you feel stuck right now in a place

in your life and you want to see some addresses torn up and some freedom,

just stand up and I'm gonna have her prey. Overy' all. I

know, I know you're not falling asleep and having a dream. It's okay,

precious Lord Jesus, what you do for one, you promise that you

do for another. And right now, Lord, in all, in these

places that they know and you know, and that you can see, Lord,

I ask you for the keys to freedom for them. Lord, that

you would open their eyes, and Lord, that they would find peace in

you so much so that they would not desire anything so the past or rely

on those things that would tell them that's where the piece is. That you

are that peace and you are that freedom. Lord, that you would stir

up a new passion. Lord, they would not be hindered or blocked by

those addresses or places, Lord, but that it would be a new walk

straight with you on the straight road. And at every turn, Lord,

I ask you to send angels to be there for them, to direct them

exactly the way that they're supposed to go. Thank you for healing, Lord,

because in you, that healing is what sets us free, and freedom,

Lord is what you came for. We thank you Lord in Jesus name.

Amen. Awesome, Thank you, y'all. Give her a quick hand

if you wouldn't that was funny. Oh Um, I want to do I

want to do one more. We got a couple of minutes. Let's see.

Have you just moved here in the last twelve months? Raise your hand,

all right, and anybody in the last twelve months had a physical healing?

A physical healing? Okay, come on up, it is this is

she your support there with me? Okay? Okay, so wow, I

have a loud voice. Um okay. So when I first got here,

we found out I'm like a goat. Uh. You don't know anything's wrong

with me until I'm fixing to fall down and die. So we went to

the hospital and I had two really bad kidney stones. That's around the same

time that John also was going through his kidney stone thing. We were in

the emergency room. I'm sorry, and I had passed two kidney stones before,

but got it also healed me twenty years prior. My head was bashed

in and he rehealed me. And I went on about my way. That's

a weird one. So we were praying and I said, Lord, I

know you've done it before, You've brought me from the dead. I say,

you know what did I say? You could pulver, you think anyways,

so um so we prayed, we prayed, and I felt these two

sharp burning sensations in my side and I grabbed machans. Start thinking him,

start thinking yes because you know, and um so anyways, they took me

in and I was in the ICU for like four days and I ended up

passing two rounds of stones. But I didn't pass a stone. I passed

dust. Uh. That night, I had had a dream. I painted

a picture. It's on Deanne's wall, um, in outer space, and

there was like you know how, like silver outline or aridescent outline of a

lion and all these mears and asteroids and they were bloody, so it's kind

of neat. And she bears witness. So you're saying, you're there were

gall stones, kney stones, kidney stones, and the dream felt like they

were asteroids. Yeah, but a whole bunch of them. They were blasted,

but in your dream were blasted. And when I passed, I never

I never passed a stone, but after I could go again. Right,

um, it was like sand dart in the bottom of the cup. Okay,

sorry, that's gross, but well you did good. You didn't get

too detailed there, Hold on, hold on, stay here, You're not

We're not done, all right, So have you fought kidney stones? I'm

gonna have her pray for you. If John was here. John's not here,

Spencer, Well, well we'll pray for him too. But yeah,

so if you've had kidney stones, anybody, anybody fought kidney stones. Okay,

so if you would pray for them, you can pray for John.

Uh. Yeah, he's had kidney stones. Yeah. If you just pray,

Father God, we come to you. We keep our eyes focused on

you. We keep ourselves low so that your spirit may work through us and

perform the activities and duties that you need us to. Father God, Yeahva

rafa work through the bodies of the people that need it and heal them in

Jesus Heavenly name. I am thank you. Um. If I can get

the prayer teams to come forward, I want to do one last quick thing.

Um. Who's who's had breakthrough over um depression specifically like super hopelessness and

depression. Okay, well come up here and pray for that. Jesus.

We just thank you so much that you are our hope. Lord. I

just ask that just as you have brought me freedom, Lord, over anxiety

and depression. Lord, I pray right now in the name of Jesus Lord,

that you would do it. Do it again, do it for whoever

in here needs it. Lord, Holy Spirit, come speak, move and

I thank you for new freedom. I praise you for new freedom. Thank

you, Lord, what you did for me. Do it again and again

and again and again. We love you. We thank you that there's freedom,

that your spirit is we can be free in Jesus name. And then

thank you so Father. I just Lord, I just pray. Thank you

for listening. For more messages and other resources, please subscribe to this podcast.

We'll go to our website at www dot Cross Kingdom dot org