Cleansing Power of the Word as Water

Today's message is about reading the Bible, meditating the word, which is the essential

part of our spiritual life in communicating with the Lord Himself.

We live in an age that we have more versions of the Bible now than there ever was, and

we also have it electronically.

We can not only read it to our gadgets, but we also can listen to it.

Unfortunately, the majority of the believers do not read the Bible.

I did a quick search to see if there is any survey about this subject.

Of course there was, out came a number of articles.

The ones I read, they all say the same thing.

There's a very small percentage of the believers that read the Bible, and a great majority

of them don't even open the Bible, and what they do know from the Bible is what they hear

in their churches.

This is despite the fact that God repeatedly says in the Old Testament, meditated upon

my word, and he says it in so many different ways that it's almost unbelievable that as

believers we all fall in the category of the majority that do not read the Bible.

You see, Christianity is a marriage relationship.

Every relationship is established and maintained by communication.

Just think of a couple that they never communicate, and if there is any communication, it's just

one of them keep wanting something from the other one.

That kind of a relationship, she will never work with us.

The Lord wants to have a relationship.

It's not just coming to him, wanting things from him.

He wants a relationship, and he always speaks.

People often ask, does God speak?

Can we hear his voice?

Yes, the answer is, of course.

God always speaks.

Jesus said, my sheep will hear my voice, and we have the ability to hear his voice.

Well, that's where we are, most of the Christianity, that having all these blessings, especially

nowadays having all these phones and this and that, but yet still they don't read the

Bible.

I want to begin today with three important principles when it comes to understanding

of the Bible.

First and foremost, that God is eternal, with God there is no past and future, every time

for God is present time.

He can look at our whole life in one single straight line, and he can intervene in any

moment in our history, and he will always be present time for God.

It's difficult to understand because we're confined in space and time, we don't understand

eternity.

Time doesn't tick in eternity.

He gets old and dies.

All of that is here.

So that's why it's difficult for us to understand that every time for God is always present

time.

In the same way is his word, is always eternal, and it is always for present time.

Paul says that the Scriptures are inspired by God, or NIV says, all the Scriptures are

God breathed.

It's the breath of God Almighty.

It's eternal and always can speak to any generation.

God's word can speak to us that live right now.

It inspired the past generation, and it will also inspire the future generation.

Any time is always right now.

So he can speak to any generation, past, present, future in the same way, direct, it's always

now for God.

That's how relative God's word is, that he can speak to any generation.

So never entertain this thought that says, well, Bible was written so many thousands

of years ago.

How can that relate to me?

God's word is always now.

He speaks to his own people at any present time.

That's why it can be very relative.

It is eternal like he is.

So leave those thoughts for Bible critics.

There's so many of them.

There's no shortage of Bible critics at any time.

So that's the first principle of understanding the Bible.

God is eternal.

There's no past and future with him.

He is always now at present time.

And so is his word.

That's why I said he can always speak to any generation, past, present, and future.

Second important principle is that Christ Jesus our Lord is the interpretation of the

Bible.

No one can understand the Bible until they come to know the Lord Jesus.

Think to know the Lord Jesus, then you can understand the Bible.

More you know him, more you can understand the Bible and the other way around.

I want to give you an example from Apostle Paul.

He was a Pharisee.

They were highly educated people and they lived in a strict rules and regulation of the Old

Testament.

On the top of it, their own rules and regulations, their traditions of their fathers and whatnot.

And they meticulously tied everything to the ounce of the spices that they collected.

They were highly educated and in order to graduate and become part of the Pharisees,

they had to memorize the first five books of the Old Testament.

That's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and the Oranomy.

You know that's a good chunk of the whole Bible.

They had to memorize the entire five books in order to become a Pharisee.

Now Apostle Paul says, I'm a Pharisee of Pharisees.

He talks about his zeal that none of his contemporaries had it.

Zeal for the tradition of his fathers, the Old Testament laws and all that.

That's why he was persecuting the church.

Just think, all that education, all that knowledge and memorization of the Bible did not bring

Apostle Paul to come to know the Christ.

What happened to him?

Well, on his way to Damascus, he met the Lord Jesus.

From that experience, you know, he was blinded for three days.

Three days later, Ann and I, prayed for him in Damascus.

His eyes opened.

In the Book of Acts, when you read this account in the ninth chapter, it says that Paul began

immediately preaching the gospel and proving from the Scripture that Jesus is the Christ

of God.

What happened to him?

Before, he couldn't see anything.

But once he met the Lord Jesus, that whole Scripture he knew opened up for him to know

that Jesus is the same Christ from the Old Testament.

You have to know Christ Jesus.

And for us born against, we begin with that.

We know him as our Lord and Savior.

Then we would read the Bible.

That's why we can understand the Bible.

So that's second principle in understanding of the Bible.

Third one, equally important, the Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the Bible.

There's nobody else can interpret the Bible.

When you came to the Lord Jesus and you were born again, it was the Holy Spirit that brought

you to our Lord Jesus.

And Jesus being the Word of God, it is only the Holy Spirit can teach you the meaning and

understanding of the Bible.

So therefore, the entire Bible inspired by God, written by spiritual people, guided by

the Holy Spirit, for spiritual people that at this age, they are the born again people

of God.

And that's the three most important principles that you need to know when it comes to the

understanding of the Bible.

Having said that, I'm going to take you to Psalm 105.

This is about the Israelites in the desert.

Verse 40, he says, the people ask and he brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of

heaven.

He opened the rock and water gushed out.

He gave them meat.

He gave them the bread, the manna.

He also gave them water from the rock.

And here's the next verse from 1 Corinthians 10.

About the same experience, this is how a possible pope puts it.

He says, all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they

drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ.

Just listen to these two verses that I read, one from Psalm 105 and 1 Corinthians.

In Psalm, he's talking about the physical manna that God gave them and physical water

that came out of the rock.

What rock is that?

You all remember that rock.

That's the same rock that God told Moses, strike the rock and the water will come out.

Don't ever think of that rock as like you turned the faucet.

This water that came out of the rock fed two and a half million people plus their animals.

In my mind, I'm picturing water of a good size creek that came out of that rock that

fed that many people.

And apostle Paul, looking at that picture, he says, they all ate the same spiritual food.

What was the food?

The manna.

And they also drank the same spiritual water which came from the rock and he says the rock

was Christ.

What they ate was physical.

What we eat today and drink is spiritual.

Here's the two sides of God's word or Jesus being the word.

On one side is the manna, is the physical food.

Just think of the food we eat.

What is it for?

To give us the energy for us to go on living in this life on this planet.

In the same way, we drink water.

Same is true for physical.

Same is also through the spiritual.

We have two sides of God's word.

On one side is manna to sustain us, to make us go on with the Lord.

At the same time, we have the water.

Now I'm going to talk about manna first from John 6.

As Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life and he who comes to me shall never hunger

and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

Two ways when we come to the Lord Jesus or believe in Him.

One that we will never hunger and the second that we will not thirst.

In my early Christian years, when I became born again, I had this burden to teach right

from the beginning.

I didn't know much about the Bible.

It was something new for me, but I had this burden.

I couldn't ignore it.

So I would prepare messages, reading different books, and I would share with very small group

that got together praying and teaching the word.

It would take a long time for me to prepare a message basically because I didn't know

much about the Bible.

But all of that changed over the years to a point that when I get inspired by any subject,

whether I read a verse or paragraph from the Bible or I read some article or I hear a message

from somebody, in any case, once I'm inspired by having a potential of a message, then I

begin and pray, meditate, and that's where all begins.

And most of the time, there's this versus that comes to my mind very related to the

subject that I pray for, not just haphazardly from here and there, but meditating and praying

about the subject that is related to that.

And this is very important for every believer.

Jesus said to His disciples, when the Holy Spirit comes, He will remind you of what I

have said.

For three and a half years, they heard Jesus speaking, teaching, and all that, but they

didn't get the real understanding of it.

But the Holy Spirit reminded them when the time came.

And here's what I always say.

You got to have the word in you in order for the Holy Spirit to remind you of it.

Over the years that you hear or read the Bible or meditate that you accumulate or you bank

God's word in your heart, then whenever the time comes, the Holy Spirit can remind you.

There was this Sunday, I was speaking that Sunday, and as usual, I get up early in the

morning to gather all my thoughts for the message.

There was one part of the message that I understood very clearly, but I did not have a practical

application of it.

And I remember in our house, I was standing when I prayed next to one of the walls, and

I prayed, I said, Lord, I do not see a clear application of this.

Immediately the Lord spoke within me and just showed me from the Bible the practical application

of it.

At the same time, he also showed me or reminded me of an experience that I had earlier, some

time before, that how God intervened in my life and got me out of a situation with the

same application.

Here I am praying for guidance from the Lord to show me a practical application of it.

Not only he showed me that, but he also showed me how he helped me in a situation and an

experience that I had.

And I do not have to tell you that how emotionally you get when the Lord speaks to you that way.

That is the type of manner he feeds you.

I am speaking about communicating with the Lord two ways, like in a marriage relationship.

You know the Lord cares.

I mean, he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

But when you get to have that experience, it is something else.

You say the Lord cares for me.

I mean, who am I?

You know, you go through that emotions.

It is one of the greatest experiences that I have as a believer.

Now you may hear all this and you say, well, that's because your teaching comes with the

territory and yes, it does.

Here's what Paul said to Timothy in the second Timothy.

Paul says, all scripture is God breed and is useful for teaching.

The first thing he says is useful teaching.

That's what I've been saying about that.

Rebuke him, correcting, training and righteousness so that the servant of God make thoroughly

equipped with every good work, all of them through.

But it is not always that I teach that the Lord speaks.

Four years ago, I've shared this when it happened.

I'm going to share it again because it's appropriate.

Right after my open hours surgery, when I came home, it's the time of recovery.

Every time I put my head down to sleep, I was so very much conscious of my heart beating.

First of all, it was very loud and I would listen to it.

I would say, oh, it's beating too fast or it's beating too slow.

Oops, it skipped a beat or something.

All of a sudden, for some reason, I became an expert of how heart beats.

So all of that thoughts kept me from sleeping until the Lord spoke to me from Psalm 4 verse

Psalms 4:8

8.

This is what it says.

Psalm 4, I will both lie down in peace and sleep.

For you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety.

That verse is a manna.

That's how manna works.

When the Lord speaks to you, it is always specific.

It is always for you at that moment.

That's what manna does.

It sustains you.

It always gives you comfort.

It always gives you energy to go on with the Lord.

That's how manna works, just like the food we eat.

In Revelation 2, 17, this is what the Lord Jesus said to the church in Pergamos.

Verse 17, he says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat.

What is manna?

Spiritual food.

What is hidden manna?

It is hidden always unless the Lord shows it to someone.

Psalm 4, verse 8, was my hidden manna.

Psalms 4:8

It was specific for me, specific for my condition.

It was specific for that day.

That's how manna works.

And that's how the Lord, when He speaks and gives you manna, spiritual food, again, it

sustains you.

It gives you comfort, really shows you that He's with you and He cares.

I mean, for a believer, there's nothing more you can ask from Him.

That's the side of the word as manna.

Praise the Lord for it.

It always comforts.

Now, you come to the side of the word which is water.

The power of the word as water.

This is what Paul said to the Ephesians.

Verse 25, husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself

for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her.

Listen to this, with the washing of the water by the word.

Manna always gives you comfort, but when the Lord speaks to you to the power of the word

as water, always cleanses you, always washes you, corrects you, rebukes you in order for

you to get in the right track.

In Book of Revelation, this is what it says.

And to her, speaking about the bride, it says, and to her it was granted to be arrayed in

fine linen.

Clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Did I read it right?

The linen robe these believers are wearing is the righteous acts of the saints.

That's what it says.

It's not the righteousness we have that is a gift from the Father.

You see, when we were born again, God literally took our sins and punishment and put it on

Christ in the same way He took His righteousness and put it in our account as righteous.

That's why we have right standing with God.

That's the gift of the Father.

He will never change.

That's the immutability of God.

That is God's unchangeableness that you will always have the right standing with God because

that's what He did.

That's what Christ did.

You can never do anything to cause the Lord to love you less or more.

I can live my entire Christian life as righteous as I can or I can live my entire spiritual

life as unrighteous as I can.

That will not change our right standing with the Lord because that's the gift that the

Father gave to whoever believes.

That's a great work that our Lord Jesus did.

However, what you lose is your standing towards God and every time we live unrighteously or

sin or continuously sin, we are defiling the garment that we are wearing.

Not to become perfect, but we lose that stand.

In my own experiences, I'm going to share one of them.

When something like this happens, the Lord speaks to you by the power of the word of

washing.

You always have the choice and the choice is to repent or not to repent.

As a believer, you know you're sinning.

You know you're not in the right track, but somehow you convince yourself this is okay.

If you all do that from time to time, it happens to the best of us.

But when the Lord speaks to the power of the word as washing like the water, something

happens when the Lord speaks and something clicks in you and you turn around.

You repent and you say to yourself, enough of this, whatever it is you're in, enough

of this, I want to live for the Lord.

You turn around, that turn around is repentance.

That's always it is.

In your mind, you turn around and you decide you want to live for the Lord.

There's many things that happens.

These experiences, I call them my turning points.

In past messages, when I speak of my turning points, that is exactly my experience.

When the Lord speaks, you repent, you turn around and you want to go forward with the

Lord and none of this nonsense that you were in.

The letter to the Hebrews talks about the old and new covenant and compares constantly

that old is this, new is this.

One of them is about the blood.

He says the blood of goats and animals in the Old Testament could never cleanse the conscious

of the worshipers.

But the blood of our Lord Jesus, He offered that once for all can cleanse our conscious.

The first thing happens when the Lord speaks to you by the power of the word that washes

you as cleansing is your conscious becomes clear.

Because up to that point, you know you were sinning, you know you were in the wrong track,

but after repentance, your conscious becomes clear.

Another thing that happens, and this is very experiential thing that you go through when

the Lord speaks through by the power of again, spiritual water, not manna.

Manna I said, it's always comfort.

It always gives you energy and it's speaking to you in that way, but not the water.

You're rebuke by the Lord for correction.

Another thing that happens during that time, you're bombarded by the accusation of the

enemy in your mind.

The book of Revelation says the accuser of the brethren day and night, he's accusing

to the Father about all of the believers.

At the same time, in your mind, we are bombarded by his lies and his accusations.

It is so interesting that once your consciousness is clear, even your mind is cleared from all

that nonsense.

I want to take you to book of Revelation to church at the Laodiceans.

This is a longer text, I'm going to read it for you.

And the angel of the church of the Laodicean, right.

These things says the amen and faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation

of God.

I know your works that you are neither cold or hot.

I could wish you were cold or hot.

So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

Because you say I'm rich, I have become wealthy and I have a need of nothing.

And do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

I mean, you just said it all.

Verse 18, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in fire that you may be rich and white

garments that you may be clothed, that your shame of your nakedness may not be revealed

and anoint your eyes with I self that you may see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.

Therefore be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him.

And he with me.

To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and

sat down with my father on the throne.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The loudest scenes, which is the last church that Jesus addresses, the first six churches,

Jesus acknowledges their good points.

After telling them their points, he says, nevertheless, I have this against you.

This is the only church that Jesus did not have anything positive to say.

They were so far gone.

These are born again believers.

They are so far gone that they thought they were rich, but the Lord says you are poor,

wretched, blind and naked.

That's the condition of the church.

This verses that it says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

Whoever opens the door, I will come in.

I'm sure you realize that the Lord Jesus is speaking to the believers, born again believers.

Here's one more experience I want to share with you.

This is the years ago again.

I was going through some financial difficulties.

One time I came from work home and then I went out for a walk.

I walked about an hour or so.

I just prayed for the finances.

I was in a situation that I didn't know what to do.

So I prayed.

I mean, how much can you pray for your financial situation?

I mean, verbally, how many things can you say?

Not much.

It will take over one or two, three minutes telling the Lord this is the situation, you

know, like he doesn't know.

You don't know what to pray.

So I ended up praying in tongue, prayed in spirit.

I would say 95% of the time I just spoke in tongues.

I'm praying in tongues until by the time I turn to our street, there's a spot that I

always stand because I get tired sometimes walking after an hour, just for like 30 seconds

or a minute.

Then I regain my energy and I continue.

As I stopped there, the Lord spoke within me, never audible voice, always within me.

And what he said was, whatever is going on, it will be for your benefit.

Again, I don't have to tell you how comforting that was that the Lord spoke after praying

for an hour.

It was very satisfactory what the Lord said in that day.

And I just didn't think of it anymore.

So I continued.

Now years later, with the same verses that I read from the law of the sea and when the

Lord says, I stand at the door and knock whoever opens the door, I will come in.

The Lord spoke to me in another area of my life that I never opened up my heart to the

Lord.

As he spoke again, this is through the power of his word as water.

This is spiritual water, not manna.

I keep saying this for you to distinguish between manna and the water.

Because in our physical life, we both eat physical food and water.

Just think of it this way.

I also typed it in search.

I said, how long can we last without food?

Again, out came many different articles.

Most of them said between one month to two months.

That's all you can survive.

It all depends on many factors.

I'm sure body weight and this and that are many factors.

Taking the biblical account of fasting, Elijah, Moses, and Jesus fasting for 40 days, I would

say putting all together somewhere between 40 days and two months is the most somebody

can last without food.

Think of it this way.

How many days can you last without water?

Well, most of what I read is between four days and eight days.

If you compare, both of them is not much compared to, let's say, 78 years of somebody's lifespan.

But it's shorter for water.

That tells you water is more important than the physical food.

Physical food is praise the Lord for it.

I mean, I'm talking about spiritually when he speaks, there's so much comfort.

I just already shared that with you.

But the water when he washes you is much more important than the physical one.

Here's two sides of the world.

One was manna, spiritual food, and water.

There's also a third one.

Paul says, all scripture is God breath.

That's breath of God.

How long can you last without air or oxygen?

Four minutes is the most you can last.

I mean, I don't think I can last even 30 seconds or one minute.

Those who last four minutes are divers or some special people that they train themselves

for years.

But see how important God's word is.

Breath, water, and solid food.

Same way, spiritually.

So years later, the Lord spoke to me from this verse that I stand at the door and knock.

And the same experience, as I said, I call it turning points, conscious clear, all that

happened.

However, he also reminded me of the day I was praying for finances.

Because what I saw from these verses is simply this.

God cares for your spiritual wellness.

I don't want to say less than what he cares for your physical wellness.

Let me say it this way.

The priority is, first, he cares more about your spiritual wellness than your physical

wellness.

I was praying for my finances.

In fact, when the Lord showed me this, I was even ashamed that I was praying for my finances.

Finances can change overnight.

Everything we do in life can change overnight.

If you go by these principles, the Lord says, seeking His kingdom and His righteousness,

everything else will be added on to you freely.

That's given if you follow Him.

He cares more for your spiritual wellness.

He says, I counsel you to buy from me gold.

This is spiritual wealth.

I counsel you, buy for yourselves, for you to see.

These believers could not see.

And the worst part of it, they were naked.

What happened to their garment?

This is their own garment of righteous acts.

What happened?

Well, I'm assuming it got defiled so many times that it wasn't worth wearing it.

And that's how the Lord Jesus looked at them naked.

The only other church that the Lord talks about the garment, Revelation 3.7, you have

a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me

in white for they are worthy.

In this church, He says, there are those who have not defiled their garments.

And the word defiled in this particular one in Greek is sexual defilement.

What is it?

Sexual?

Well, fornication, adultery, and probably pornography in these days is right up the same alley.

These are the sexual defilement.

But that's not the only way we can defile our garments.

There's many ways when we are rebellious against the Lord or sin against the Lord in any direction.

Think of this way.

Some people, what they need is having the control of their tongue as believers.

Again, think of it this way.

Has your tongue ever given you in trouble as a believer?

Apostle John says this, love not the world and neither the things in the world.

For the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life does not come from the

Father but from the evil one.

He talks about three things.

Lust of the flesh, that's probably sexual in nature, lust of the eyes.

You can have lust of eyes in any direction you can think of.

You will go for power, lust for power, anything you lust after in this way, it's open and

pride of life.

These are three of the deadliest sins you can get in.

Let me show you how deadly lust is from the Bible.

Later to Ephesians, Paul in the sixth chapter he says, our fight is not against flesh and

blood but against the principalities and the powers that do exist in the air.

But there is a solution.

These are the demonic forces that work with Satan.

There's a solution, solution he tells you.

He says put on the whole armor of God and having done all, stand on your ground.

Stand, that's the solution he's telling you against all these principalities, demonic

forces.

James in his letters he says submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

All of this thing happens for the believer because the authority we have.

He says submit to God, resist the devil, he will flee from you.

But when it comes to lust, the Bible says flee from the lust.

You cannot fight against it, just like you fight against the demons and you cannot even

resist it like the resisting the devil that he will flee from you.

The thing to do the Bible says run, flee from it.

Don't fight it, don't resist it because nobody can.

That's how deadly lust is.

Now again, I'm not only speaking about sexual lust, but any kind of lust you go after.

You see the problem is when you read the Word and meditate you are storing God's Word in

you.

That's the most important part of it, storing.

God always speaks.

He speaks to his people through his Word.

At the same time the enemy is speaking.

He speaks all lies, all accusations.

And then you speak.

God says the truth, the enemy lies.

At the end it all comes to this.

Which one are you going to believe?

The truth or the lies that the enemy talks?

And what you say will come out of the bundles of your heart.

And it will always come down to this.

Remember if you side with the Lord, the truth, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word

of God.

When the Lord speaks, faith increases.

Every time there's a fear involved, it comes from the enemy.

And you choose whether you stay in the fear and speak it that way out of your the bundles

or you believe the Lord by faith, which increases your faith and you speak and that's where

you stand.

Now this is the church that the Lord says, behold I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and

he with me.

That word dine in Greek language is the full meal.

During the biblical time, breakfast is very minimal, usually bread dipped in wine.

Lunch is the same way, something as a snack or same thing, bread dipped in wine.

But come dinner time, that was the meal that they spent time together and they made a feast.

They made a feast to their means, every family made a feast and they spent time together

for at least, not at least up to three hours they would spend together in fellowshiping.

The Lord says, if you open your heart, I will come in and I will dine with you.

What do you think the Lord will do when he comes in?

He's going to come in and physically sit down and have dinner with you?

No.

He will come in and feed you with the scripture and have time with you, fellowshiping with

you.

Here's what Amos says.

Amos 8 verse 11 says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send

Amos 8:11

a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, not a thirst of water, but of the hearing,

the word of the Lord.

It's very interesting, once you see the two sides of God's word as spiritual food and

spiritual drink, a ton of verses will open up for you to see.

This is just one of them.

Not a famine of bread, he's specifying it, not a famine of thirst, but of the hearing,

the word of the Lord.

There's never a shortage of God's word.

He always speaks, both for spiritual manna and spiritual water.

The famine is the hearing, the Lord.

And in this book of Revelation, seven times he says the same things.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

It's always singular, it's always to the individual.

He is singular, who has an ear, one ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

What churches?

All of them.

All the six churches.

What he said to the Laodiceans, it was not just for the Laodiceans.

So whatever he said to any churches, it applies to all of us.

That's the thing, as a believer, you need to get to in the habit of saying after you read

the Bible or even you're hearing a message, Lord, what are you telling me?

What is it you're saying to me?

What I'm simply saying today is this, when the Lord speaks to you through the spiritual

water, he wants to correct you.

In what directions?

Just think of any direction that you have not opened your heart to him.

Also, he wants to come in, he wants to spend time with you.

Again, I give you many examples, the areas that you've been rebellious against him or

unfaithful against him for many years.

I'm talking about the sins that you constantly commit and you constantly repent.

That's the word for today.

And if you're hearing the Lord, that's all he wants to do.

Just get you in the right path and cleanse you to have that garment, which is the righteous

acts of the same.

At this point, I want to ask you all to stand up, bow your heads and close your eyes.

If you want to open your heart to the Lord in any direction that you know of, nobody

else knows, I know that we are not like the church at Laudicine's.

We're not in that condition.

Of course we're not.

But I know this as believers, we all sin.

But the point is God doesn't want you to go on sinning.

He wants to correct you.

He wants to correct me.

I've shared my experiences, how powerful it is when the Lord speaks to you.

If the Lord is speaking to you at this point, just say, Lord, I'm opening my heart to you

in this specific area that I never did.

You know, in the previous church, to the church in Philadelphia, the Lord Jesus said, I have

the keys of David.

I can open any door I want, I can close any door, but he will not open your door.

You have to do it.

Here's the Creator behind the door.

To the believers, he says, I knock and you open, even though he can open any door.

That's our responsibility.

And you know where it is.

I'm going to pray.

And as I pray, you can pray also in your mind and agree and just open to the Lord.

Let him do what he wants to do with your life.

And it's always to cleanse you, to put you in the right track, to put you in the right

direction.

If he speaks to you that way, just respond to him by opening your heart.

Heavenly Father, I thank you, Lord, for today, for your word that whenever you speak to us,

it's as powerful as just a manner that gives us comfort, just as the spiritual water that

cleanses us.

Bless you, Lord, for your word and your promises and your directions and the work of the Holy

Spirit in our lives.

I thank you that you care more about our spiritual condition.

It has more higher priority for you than our life.

But spiritual wellness and spiritual welfare, you care for every one of us, that it will

last for eternity to come, Lord.

We say as your own, we love you, Lord.

We worship you and we are great for all the good work that you do constantly in our life,

speaking to us constantly in every direction, how grateful we are in all of this.

Father, I pray for every single one today that heard your message, that you will work

in their lives through the power of the cleansing spiritual water.

We all have flaws, but we want to go on with you and we want to be cleansed by your workload

as you do your work.

And we say, yes, Lord, continue doing your work, cleansing us, Lord.

In the precious name of our Lord Jesus, I pray, amen.

Please remain standing.

At this moment, I will ask the ashes to assist you to get the elements.

We'll take the communion together.

I want to read this verses from 1 Thessalonians.

This is what Paul says, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and

may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved, blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus,

Christ.

Your whole spirit first, soul and body.

That's the priority I was trying to say somehow, I was saying, God cares for this more than

that.

No, the priority is first your spirit, then your soul.

Soul is where all the activities are, our mind, emotions and will.

That's where we are being conformed to the image of Christ.

That's where we are renew our minds.

That's where the Lord works and also where the Satan comes in with his lies and all that.

So the priority is always your spirit, soul and body.

Body when it comes to body, God has given us all the promises.

I don't have to speak about them.

Even on the cross, every stripes you took through it, you are healed.

I've been a believer in teaching the word for more than 40 years.

I've never done this just coming to the table of the Lord that I have the congregation stand

up and just open up for the Lord.

I've never done it.

I have one reason and one reason only.

When it comes to the table of the Lord, I 100% believe and have acted this faith every time.

We're going to do exactly what the Lord says.

He says, as often as you come to the table of the Lord, remember me.

Repenting, praying, anything you want to do, you can do it anytime you want.

Whenever the Lord speaks to you, you can repent.

Whether it's He will give you manna or through the power of His spiritual water, you can do

that anytime you want.

But when you come to the table of the Lord, He says, as often as you do it, you remember

me and I've done it all these 40 years.

And that's what we're going to do right now.

His message was exception because of the way the word was.

I just couldn't finish it without having you commit to the Lord what needed to be done

per the message.

What I'd like to remember today for the Lord, as always, there's many ways you can remember

that our Lord Jesus.

As more you know Him, there's more ways.

We can never exhaust Him.

Just the same way you can never exhaust the word of God.

You can never exhaust our Lord Jesus in knowing Him.

I especially want to remember Him today for the power of His blood.

Not only He has forgiven us through His blood, but He can also cleanse our conscious, conscious

of the worshipers.

You see, through the blood of our Lord Jesus, our spirit is cleansed, but through the spiritual

water of His Word, He cleanses our soul.

That's where we need the cleansing.

That's where we wear that white linen garment, which is the righteous acts of the saints.

Don't ever underestimate what that is.

We've been teaching the message that God has given us, the message of the kingdom and everything

along with it, which is great.

That's what we've been doing.

But I don't want us to get to a place that neglects the principles, the fundamental principles

of living righteously.

In today's message, I shared from my own experience more than I wanted to.

Usually I don't want to, but it's appropriate sometimes, and I have to do what I have to

do.

I always remember that I have to be in my Father's business, whether I like it or not.

The reason I don't like that, because I don't want anybody to follow me as my example.

I want you to be inspired by the word of God and by the Lord and the leading of the Holy

Spirit.

Whether I like it or not, eventually all of us are an example for one another.

Eventually we will be.

Again, I like it or not, that's how it is.

I cannot live unrighteously and be a bad example for the rest.

I'm not saying to be perfect.

We will never become perfect.

We already have right standing with God.

That's a gift.

We're not shooting for perfection, but living righteously is our garment that we live.

That's important to go on with the Lord.

Let's take these elements together.

I will pray also for this.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for our Lord Jesus, for the power of His blood that through

His blood, not only you washed us, cleansed us, forgiven us Lord, but you say you don't

even remember our sins.

As far as east is from the west, you have forgiven and you don't remember our sins.

How blessed we are Lord.

Through the blood of our Lord Jesus, you have cleansed us and through your power of your

word as water, you are cleansing our soul, preparing for days ahead and the future Lord.

As you only say we love you and thank you for all the good work that you do Lord.

Blessed be your holy name.

May you be glorified and blessed among your people right here every time you come together.

In the precious name of our Lord Jesus, we thank you.

Amen.

Let's take it together.

God bless you.

See you next time.