The Blazing Ministry of The Spirit

Go to Genesis 1. Father, we really want to find out something, not new, but we just want to know your Holy Spirit better.

All of us, old, young, new, old. Just teach us now. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

If you go to Genesis chapter 1, Genesis chapter 1 starts off there.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention Genesis 1 · chapter mention

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void.

And darkness was over the surface of the deep. And there we hear his first mention.

He's been so faithful. He's been so tolerant, so gentle. He likes humanity.

He likes the universe. He likes the world. He put it together. He just so enjoys being in the universe.

He's not someone removed. If there is any person of the Godhead who just enjoys dwelling with people, it's the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was with us for 33 years and then he died and rose again and ascended and is at the right hand of the Father.

But the Holy Spirit has forever been present on earth right from the beginning. He was present before the earth was present.

This is why Jesus said, you can say stuff about the Father, it's okay. You can say stuff about Jesus, the Son, it's okay.

But don't blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Don't say things about the Holy Spirit.

He is deeply in love with the universe and with humanity. He has a strange desire for man, woman, child.

And so you have the scene where everything is formless. It is void. It's empty. It's dark. And then there is this light of hope.

And I love Genesis 1, 1 and 2 because every time things are chaotic, things are dark, things are confusing, things are empty.

There is always this hope, not because I'm hoping, but because there is the Spirit of God always in the background.

And this will never change. For the rest of my life here on earth and in eternity, the Holy Spirit,

the Spirit of God will always be in the background. In Hebrew, it's called Ruach. In Arabic also you talk about Ruh, the Spirit of God.

Always there. Always there because he won't leave till the entire universe collapses. He'll always be there.

The moment he leaves, everything will implode because he's the one who put it in place to begin with.

And so then it says, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. The Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

And there is a sense, guys, that when you are stagnant and static, the Spirit is still active.

When you are stagnant and static, when I am into a place of dullness, when things are not working out,

when all the deals you thought would come through aren't coming through, when the people that were supposed to help you aren't helping,

when family and friends abandon, then there is the Spirit of God actively hovering over turbulent waters saying,

please, please let me in, please, please let me in. Not that he needs permission, but he doesn't like to manipulate, control, break, destroy your will.

And so he waits. He is so trustable, man. He will present himself as a person that you can really like and get to know this afternoon.

Like you've never heard of him before and like you've never seen him before.

This is who he is. And then God said, let there be light and there was light. God saw that light and that was good and God separated the light from the darkness.

And when God said, let there be light and there was light, it was again the work of the Holy Spirit. Again the work of the Holy Spirit.

And then you go to Joel chapter 2, verse 28, Joel chapter 2, Joel chapter 2, verse 28.

Joel 2:28 Joel 2 · chapter mention Joel 2:28

The book of Joel is after, if someone can help me.

And the shirt is so full of smart people.

Joel chapter 2, I know where it is, I'm not helping you guys anymore.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

Joel chapter 2, verse 28 onwards.

Joel 2:28

And here's what it says.

It will come after this, that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind and your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.

Even on the male and female servants, I'll pour out my spirit in those days.

It will come after this, that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind.

That's the great thing about the Holy Spirit. He isn't favored towards Christians.

He isn't favored towards a particular denomination. He loves mankind.

He's willing to fall on chains, the life of every Hindu, Muslim, Christian Jew.

Today I was in a church in Vernon and they didn't know it but there was a new guy sitting in the church.

Went and prophesied on him and we just got a text message saying he's a Jewish man who had just come to the church.

And here the words that God was saying now make sense.

And so he just happened to come into church because he wants to discover the Messiah.

And so he's sitting in church there.

And the beautiful thing is the Holy Spirit couldn't care less if you're a Hindu, Muslim, Jew or Christian.

Because he is interested in you because he was there when you were formed.

He was there when you were formed. When you were being made, he was there.

When you were in your mother's womb, he was there.

When your parts were being knit together, who was knitting it?

The Spirit of God.

He's the knitter. He was the knitter when the world began.

When the earth was first formed, who do you think was knitting the trees?

Knitting the core of the universe, knitting magma, lava and everything else.

Who was doing it? It was him.

If he can do it with inanimate objects like the earth, who do you think was knitting you when you were in your mother's womb?

Knitting you together.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit. He knits things together.

He takes what is broken and brings it together.

Why am I emphasizing this? Because we have to understand his speciality.

Because he's always active over us.

He gets particularly active over turbulent waters.

Because that's his favorite thing to do.

It's just that we resort to every other thing.

We resort to everything from taking pills to calm ourselves down to stress tests, to sticking things up our nose and doing all kinds of things.

When there is a Holy Spirit just hovering over us saying,

Please let me into your stress because this is my speciality.

And so in Joel 2.28 it says that he will pour himself out on all mankind.

Guys, all mankind. We must understand all mankind.

The Spirit of God can do strange things with anybody.

It is we who have formulated how he should work and he couldn't care too much for that.

While we are waiting that a person must do it this way, that Jesus must be pronounced this way,

don't say Jesus, say Yeshua. It just gets more and more cranky by the minute.

And all the Holy Spirit is saying is, I said I would pour myself on all mankind.

All mankind.

Then he goes on to say,

Hey, by the way, the Holy Spirit does not come to a person when he receives Christ.

The Holy Spirit is the one who began the process of even finding Christ.

We have somehow monopolized the pathway of the Holy Spirit saying,

Once you receive Jesus Christ then the Holy Spirit will come.

No, the Holy Spirit had started the work ages ago.

When he moved you into someone's room and you became his roommate,

when you happened to get admission into a particular department in UBC and there was a Christian there,

when you happened to come across a guy who was sitting next to you on the plane,

he first began to tell you about Jesus.

When you happened to go to a church because someone took you there and you had absolutely no reason to go there

and you hear about the Holy Spirit, that's when the Holy Spirit began the work.

He indwells you as in comes and settles in you,

finds you as his favorite resting place after you receive Jesus Christ and we'll explain why.

But please understand that the Holy Spirit has been at work before you even knew the name of Jesus.

Why? Because he was there when you were knit together in his womb.

Why wouldn't you be there for the rest of your life?

Wooing you back, wooing you back to the one who you belong to.

This is how intense and personal he is.

And who, by the way, is the Holy Spirit?

But the personal presence of God himself.

Beautifully knitting you together.

And so he pulls himself on all mankind.

And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams.

Again, we've separated prophecy and dreams into a special category that Christians engage in.

And yet what he's trying to say is, I will show you God's will and I will reveal it to you.

I'll show it to you in dreams, I'll show it to you in dreams.

I'll show it to you in dreams.

I'll show it to your sons and daughters who aren't as mature as you.

I'll show it to those that haven't learnt much.

But I will show it to you.

At the end of the day, what is prophecy?

At the end of the day, prophecy is not giving someone direction.

Prophecy is not what you may hear in this church.

At the end of the day, the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.

Meaning, prophecy always reveals Jesus Christ and the nature of who Jesus is.

That is what prophecy really does.

And the Holy Spirit is continuously, every day, trying to be prophetic in your life.

By showing you, hey, this is the nature of Jesus.

Look at Jesus and your other problems will become less.

Yesterday, May sent me a text and she said that when her uncle who is in hospital was feeling unwell,

she began to sing a song and she said,

Jacob, I wish there were people who could sing better than me.

But she said, I decided to sing and the song that she sang that brought calm into her uncle's life was,

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.

At the end of the day, the Holy Spirit is continuously singing the song in my situations, in my trouble, in my distress,

in the things that are going wrong and in the things that are going well.

The one thing he wants to show you in the midst of all your confusion, all your dullness, all your distress is,

Can I prophesy?

As in, can I bring to you, young men and women will prophesy.

As in, can I show you who Jesus is?

Because if I showed you who Jesus can be for you in this situation,

you will be surprised at how things will change.

I'm not saying there's nothing called a prophetic.

I'm saying please understand the work of the Holy Spirit from a different angle.

Otherwise, we make him a Christian Holy Spirit and he ain't a Christian Holy Spirit.

Because God ain't a Christian God.

Why is it important to see it this way?

Because if you see it this way, then you will see the activity of the Holy Spirit even in non-Christian situations.

And you will jump into it and change it for Christ.

But if we make the Holy Spirit our domestic pet, then we will take him along,

expecting him to enter into a situation after you have entered into it,

not seeing that he has gone far ahead of you, set the whole thing up.

And then you jump in and put the dot on the eye and suddenly the word spells right.

Let's go from Joel 2, 28 to Luke 4.

Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Different times the Spirit of God came, showed up and he began to do things.

Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Where is the baptism scene?

Okay, let's go to Matthew 4.

Matthew 3, chapter 3, verse 13.

Matthew 3, 13.

Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him.

But John tried to prevent him saying, I have need to be baptized by you.

Guys, if there's anybody here who needs to be baptized because you believe in Jesus Christ

and want to publicly declare that you actually belong to him and don't belong to anybody else,

let us know because we would love to do what Jesus did.

But more on that later.

Let me read that verse again.

Verse 16.

Guys, one of the things that the Holy Spirit would love to do in my life is

open the heavens whenever I'm obedient in the face of whatever is happening.

The Spirit of God loves obedience.

He is the Spirit of truth. He loves it when someone is obedient.

One of the names for him is the Spirit of truth.

The Spirit of truth.

The thing with truth is when it is presented to me, if I resist it, try to argue with truth,

then first Thessalonians says that when you resist the truth, a delusion is waiting in the wings to follow.

Whenever I resist the truth, there is a delusion or a deception waiting in the wings to rush in.

One of the names for the Holy Spirit is he is the Spirit of truth.

The Spirit of truth.

And so every time truth is received or truth is obeyed,

especially when you don't understand why and you still obey it,

then know that God literally parts the heaven open.

What is open heaven?

An open heaven is a ridiculous favor of God who swoops in, like it says in Psalm 18,

to rescue you or to help you in your present situation.

If you want an open heaven, an open heaven is not created by worship.

An open heaven is created by simply obeying the truth.

Therefore, it is required of you that in all your situations, business, work, parenting, church, worship,

simple decisions in the face of opposition, be it from your parents, be it from war, be it from the demons,

one thing I have to find out, only one thing, and that one thing is,

oh God, what is the truth that you want to speak into my life that I need to align myself with?

Because the moment I do that, the heavens will open,

as in God will part the heavens so that he can come either to my rescue or to my favor.

Because he's called the Spirit of truth.

The more you resist the truth, here's the thing guys, when truth stares you in the face,

and you know it is the truth, and you resist it, it is only because of the traditions of men,

or because of convenience, or because of a love for that which you are presently doing which you don't want challenged.

And when truth is something that comes to you and faces you, if you resist it,

let me assure you, this is what God is saying, there is a delusion or a deception waiting in the wings

that will come rushing at you because I was foolish to resist the truth,

now here, deception can have you.

Never resist the truth when it's facing you.

Never resist the truth, because there's another guy waiting in the wings.

The Spirit loves bringing truth to us, he opens the heavens,

hey man, I was just talking about your singing yesterday.

Just in case someone comes after the service and says, hey sing for us.

I spoke well of you though.

Yeah.

Guys, here's the thing, I mentioned this in December last year,

if you want to enter into what the Spirit of God is doing,

then it is required of you that you hear with faith, that you hear with faith.

Here's a strange thing, we have three ways of hearing.

The first way of hearing is to hear with reason.

So the first way of hearing that we do is we hear with reason.

Hearing with reason is to use your mind to immediately process what you hear.

That's hearing with reason.

So you say something and the person immediately tries to figure out how does this work,

how does this fit, how does this apply given my situation, my circumstances, my past and my education,

or my experience.

Then there is hearing that comes with natural ears, natural ears.

As in you just hear and that's what happens a lot in churches.

As the preacher is preaching or teaching, you are hearing with your natural ears.

And when you hear with your natural ears,

what you hear becomes information that may or may not be used in the future.

Information or knowledge that may or may not be used in the future.

And then finally, the Bible talks about hearing with faith.

Hearing with faith is the ability to, as you hear, recognize within you that this is the truth.

I don't know where the scripture is, I don't know why I know it is the truth,

but it is the truth.

It is not the way I live, I don't want this, but I still know it is the truth.

And the moment you hear with faith, the Bible says the Holy Spirit begins to find the truth.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit begins to flow lavishly and begins to accomplish in your life

things that otherwise could not be accomplished.

Galatians chapter 3 verse 2 says,

Galatians 3:2

Did you come into the place you are in right now by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

In Galatians chapter 3 verse 5 it says,

Galatians 3:5

Did he who supplied you lavishly his Holy Spirit do it through works or through hearing by faith?

So there is this thing called hearing with faith or by faith that immediately brings you into the realm of the Spirit.

This is when what could happen in many days happens in an hour.

This is when God can ask the question, can a nation be born in a day?

And the answer is no, and yet he births a nation in a day.

This is when a person who has been hearing about Jesus every so often for the last 20 years,

one day hears with faith and the day the person hears with faith, the person gets born again.

Why is it that most of us heard about Jesus many times?

And then one day a guy who wasn't much of an orator, a guy who didn't know too much about Jesus came

and said something about Jesus which you've heard 10 times before.

But that day for some strange reason you heard it with faith and something happened where the old man died,

the new man was born again.

Hearing with faith is what brought you out of darkness into light, out of the devil's claws into Jesus.

This is so critical but what happens is we hear with faith very rarely

because most of our hearing is hearing with reason and hearing with natural ears.

Yeah, hearing with reason, because we live in the times we live in,

hearing with reason is to try to process with our minds what God is saying

and it leaves you unconvinced about what God can do.

Therefore if Joshua heard with his natural ears he would have said,

hmm, I will go and examine this strategy at home, roaming around the walls and watching them fall.

I'll go think about it, I'll go check the history books, I'll see whether this matches up with what God has done.

That is hearing with your natural ears, it's just information and knowledge that can be checked out later.

Tons of people do that because we always afford ourselves the luxury of delaying decision making that is inconvenient.

Then there is hearing with reason, hearing with reason says walls, 8 feet thick,

whispers, can't bring it down, 7 days of whispering, won't do anything,

shouting, 120 decibels, can't crack glass, can't crack stone.

This idea is not a good idea, wasn't God and if it is God it ain't going to work.

This is how the church has sterilized and sanitized Christianity from miracles, healings, wonders,

signs and come up with theories that actually rationalize the non-existence of them or the seizing of God.

No, one was hearing with ears saying, I'm going to examine this later.

No, the reason one is trying to process things in your mind and not being able to process it.

They are close together but they are not the same.

They are close together but they are not the same.

Hearing, in churches like this one at Acts 29, a lot of hearing happens not with reason but with ears.

I mean what if and I've asked this before in December, what if you actually believe the songs you sang?

What if you actually heard those words with faith and sang them?

What if Maurice, who is involved in a land deal at Presson that has taken time to work out,

what if Maurice heard and sang those songs with ears of faith, he would be at great peace?

What if I, who is going on a trip eight days from now, actually sang those songs with ears of faith?

I would be at great peace and I would know my direction.

What if Nick, who is going through some of the most grueling exams he's been through,

actually sang those songs with ears of faith, he would find the rhythm of God, enter the grueling exam rigor?

We do not sing and hear with faith, we hear with ears of reason or ears that are natural.

And therefore, what can be achieved by the Holy Spirit in a day or two takes days and days, months and months, years and years.

Unfortunately, nothing God does is in the natural, all of it is supernatural.

Therefore, if I do not hear with ears of faith, I will not be able to participate in the things of the Spirit

and the Spirit of God will not be able to participate in my life.

I cannot enter into the things of the Spirit and the Spirit of God can't enter into things that he wants me to do

because I do not hear with ears of faith.

Because everything that you receive in faith must be heard with faith first.

Hebrews 4 verse 2 says this, that Israel did not benefit from the promises of God

Hebrews 4:2

because they did not receive it with faith.

But you cannot receive it with faith till you hear with faith.

One of the Holy Spirit's desires, listen to this really carefully and wonderfully

because it's a strange, wonderful desire that the Holy Spirit has every day, every morning.

The Holy Spirit's desire is, Jacob, can I prove God trustworthy to you this morning?

I delight in doing that.

Jacob, can I prove God trustworthy to you this morning?

Because I delight in doing that.

Can I prove God trustworthy?

He loves doing that. He loves coming into situations and saying,

hey, can I prove God's nature trustworthy to you?

But then it requires that I hear with faith what he asks me to.

Otherwise, I'll be, guys, many of our lives are caught in whirlpools.

Like sometimes when I see little insects in the sink,

and I've seen cockroaches in sinks and in pots,

ten cockroaches in a pot, and you flush it and it's,

I'm sorry if it's, what's the word, grossing you out.

Yeah.

And I watched, and there's this, you flush it and, trust me,

in Australia and in Canada it flushes just one way.

I tried it out.

And so as it's going down, I thought I'd heard down under it flushes the other way,

but it's not true.

Yeah.

So that, yeah, it isn't the other way.

I went and tried it.

Oh well, okay.

Okay.

I mean, I don't want to get into an argument with you on the flushing of toilets in Australia.

Okay.

Well, maybe he's right.

He's got science to back it up.

I just have faith.

So.

Yeah, it's not very much faith.

Okay.

I might be wrong.

Anyways, guys, at the end of the day, as these roaches would go down,

they would cling to dear life and try to claw themselves up.

I had to flush that toilet eight or nine times before I dared sit on it.

The point being this, guys, that some of us,

and it is just pointless to go to the cockroach story,

but anyways, too late.

The point is this.

Many of us spend our entire lives holding on in faith,

and that is so not a God way of living.

Holding on in faith has nothing to do with Jesus Christ.

Nothing to do with it.

We don't hold on to it.

We don't hold on to it.

Nothing to do with it.

We don't hold on in faith.

Holding on in faith is clinging for dear life to something that you hope won't break.

That's not holding on to faith.

That is terrible.

That's a horrible way to live.

This is different.

This is hearing and saying, oh, God, I have heard you.

I will now walk in peace because you supply the peace.

You, Holy Spirit, have been doing it since the beginning of time.

I just receive it and I will obey.

And as I obey, Heaven is open to rescue me or to give me favor.

And I'll keep walking because I'm absolutely sure that no sword, no pestilence, no persecution,

nothing will separate me from a God who is faithful because, oh, no, he's no promise breaker.

He keeps his promises.

So I keep walking.

I keep walking.

I keep walking.

And my words will express his goodness, not as a positive confession.

My words will express his goodness because in here I know

that this God is good and no circumstance colors that.

This church cannot exist coloring the face of God because of your circumstances.

If I hear it, I choose not to tolerate it.

I shall show you no sympathy.

There are others in this church who will show you sympathy.

Go and get sympathy from them.

And it's a good thing.

Some should show sympathy, but I won't.

Not when it colors the face of God.

Because every time we complain about God as bad, not faithful, unreliable,

anyone who encourages that is encouraging something that should not be encouraged.

You wouldn't encourage your son if he insisted that the earth was flat

and that once you cross Surrey, you would fall off the face of the earth.

You wouldn't encourage your child to say that.

Why would we encourage anything said about God that is not true?

I don't know.

A violence rises in me when I hear about God being seen through your circumstances

and then him being painted as not good.

Because the Holy Spirit is only good.

He is really good, really good.

Imagine how he's been tolerating mankind happily.

I can't even use the word tolerate.

He was there when Sodom and Gomorrah happened.

He was there when the flood happened.

He was there through all the wickedness and the evil that has happened.

If you think these times are wicked, Sodom and Gomorrah is far, far more than this.

And we are heading that way because it shall be as in the times of Noah.

We haven't reached anywhere there.

People don't grab you off the streets and abuse you.

That was what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah at one time.

And the Holy Spirit was there.

And in Sodom and Gomorrah, the Holy Spirit is going street after street to find one righteous man,

one righteous man that I can get out of here.

He's taken so much, so much.

It's not where I wanted to go, but it's where I went.

John chapter 20, Jesus has risen from the dead.

John 20 · chapter mention

And after rising from the dead, he goes to his disciples and he says,

receive the Holy Spirit and he breathes on them.

That's John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

Towards the end of John chapter 20, that happens.

John 20 · chapter mention

He says, receive the Holy Spirit and he breathes on them.

And as he breathes on them, you don't know what may have happened.

But shortly after in Acts chapter 2, which brings us to this day,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

let's go to Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Guys, I need to correct myself.

Sometimes we need sympathy and lifting up, and it is deserved.

It is deserved.

But when I begin to badmouth God through my circumstances,

just because there is a bittersweet pleasure in it,

then it must not be encouraged.

It must not be encouraged.

Because the tendency of people is, they'll go and tell Betty,

hey Betty, you know, I've been trusting God, but God hasn't come through.

And Betty will say, stay on, God will come through.

Hey Karen, you know what, it's been 20 days, God hasn't come through.

I don't know, maybe God doesn't care for you.

She says, no, but God will never leave you nor forsake you.

So you're not getting what you want.

So you go to Chris and say, hey, you know what, it's been really difficult.

I've prayed and prayed, but God isn't coming through.

I don't know. I'm not sure of this faith thing.

Now all you want is sympathy.

It is a form, self-pity, and it's a form of control.

And you badmouth God for self-pity and control?

That should not be allowed.

That's what I'm saying.

But there are times when you'll feel terrible and you need help.

At times like that, sympathy, empathy, pity must be given.

Compassion must be shown.

Compassion must be shown.

But not when it is deliberate.

That's what I meant to say.

I dislike it when that happens.

Does that bring good reception?

Do you consider it a public fact?

Yeah, but what scares me more is that we may start sympathizing

and then we become part of that delusion.

Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

When the feast of Pentecost came,

they were all together in one place without warning.

Without warning. I love that.

I'm reading from the message.

Without warning.

In other versions it says suddenly.

Without warning, there was a sound like a strong wind.

Gale force wind.

No one could tell where it came from.

And it goes back suddenly to what Jesus used to say in John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

In John chapter 3, Jesus says,

John 3 · chapter mention

What is born of the flesh is flesh.

What is born of the spirit is spirit.

And the way of spirit? Who knows?

Because you can only recognize the spirit by the wind that is on the top of the trees.

And you'll say, oh shucks, there is a Holy Spirit.

Oh shucks, there is a Holy Spirit.

This is the way of the spirit, which is why hearing with faith is critical every morning.

Every morning hearing with faith.

Because you have, I assure you, to everybody sitting here,

you have no idea how many times the Holy Spirit in a day tries to attract your attention

to things that he would like to show you or like you to do.

Every day.

Every day.

Different from what you normally do.

I'm telling you a truth under the light of God.

I'm not exaggerating or lying.

If I took the last one year, I cannot remember one day

that I was not either shown or I did not hear

something that the Holy Spirit showed or spoke that I needed to do.

Not one day.

And I'm missing lots.

Not one day.

Is there a day in your life that you do not interact with your children?

If you're at home.

You'll always interact with them.

Fathers interact with their children.

What makes us think that the spirit of God does not?

Every day.

But his desire is, listen, I'm very strategic, says the Holy Spirit,

but I will launch everything spontaneously.

Listen to this, guys.

God is super strategic.

He has amazing intelligence to do things strategically,

plan things through blueprints.

But God will always start things spontaneously

because spontaneous starts require faith.

And without faith, there is no hearing.

Without faith, there is no receiving.

And without faith, there is no stepping into the things of God.

And therefore, everything will start spontaneously.

And by spontaneously, I mean suddenly.

But it is appearing spontaneously to us.

It is appearing spontaneously to us.

But when we want strategic things first and spontaneity later,

it won't happen.

You have to step into it when he commands.

But you have to step into it when he commands.

You have to step into it when he commands.

You have to step into it when he commands.

You have to step into it when he commands.

Because after that will come, now that you've stepped into it,

let me show you what you need to do.

Classic example, Acts chapter 16, verse 1 to 6.

Acts 16:1–6

Paul knows that he has been sent to the nations, to the Gentiles.

So he begins his journey.

He begins his journey and comes to Mycea,

and the Spirit of God says, you ain't going through.

So he goes to Bithynia, and the Bible says the Spirit of God forbade him.

And so he goes to sleep.

And when he sleeps, he gets a dream.

And in the dream there is a man from Macedonia saying, come to Macedonia.

And the next verse says, Paul got up and concluded that God is calling them to Macedonia.

Duh.

And then he wakes up in the morning, packs his bags, and heads off to Macedonia.

And in Macedonia now starts the Church of Philippi.

Beautiful.

And the Church of Philippi was built strategically.

First through Lydia, through the woman who was saved from divination,

through the jailer, a house was built.

People were brought up strategically, but it was started spontaneously.

I plead with you, get used to this.

If you want the rest of your lives, I speak to the ones who are over 50 here.

If you want to go out blazing, go this route.

Go this route.

Practice hearing the Spirit.

Practice hearing the Spirit directly.

Practice hearing the Spirit through the Word.

There are three things that bring together this whole aspect.

And they're very simple.

We've talked about it before.

There must be a passion to live this way and to cultivate hearing with faith.

There must be the practice of hearing with faith.

And then there must be persistence to hear with faith.

Passion is brought by God when you desire.

And this one thing I don't doubt about the people sitting here.

You have such a desire to live like this.

Well, then the passion has been supplied by God,

because he's both the passion supplier and the passion satisfier.

And then it comes to practicing this, because it is available every day, every day.

Every day it's available.

It's like manna.

Some things that God does, he still keeps doing.

Manna strewn across the desert of your life every day to go pick up.

Quail flying to cat.

This has been standard.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit, who was in the desert during the wilderness times,

because it says in Isaiah, you were there, O Holy Spirit, undoing the demonic,

causing water to come out of a rock.

The Spirit of God was there in the wilderness.

He is there in the wilderness today.

This is who he is.

Everything he does has such a supernatural flair to it.

Such a supernatural flair to it.

Church, I'm encouraging us that our lives must have a supernatural flair.

It must have a supernatural flair in terms of how you hear, how you receive,

how you step out, what you do.

A supernatural flair to your life.

And my God, dare you not grow old without it.

I dislike it when people who did well when they are young

ride into the sunset when they are old without a supernatural trail behind them.

Bothers me, the older I get, the more frightened I get of older people.

Elmer, Wayne, you guys better blaze into the sunset.

If you die quietly, we'll come and dig you up.

Supernatural flair, guys.

Without warning, there was a sound like a strong wind gale force.

No one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building.

Hey Marcus, thanks for first being told that there was no worship,

then being told there was worship, and for playing in the end, I forgot.

Did you get my email?

Okay.

Then like a wildfire, I love it, then like a wildfire,

the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks and they started speaking

in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them to.

Guys, please understand something.

The Spirit does not like working with one or two individuals.

He's always been, can I get a whole people?

The working with individual thing was in the Old Testament.

A Samson, a David, a Isaiah, a Jeremiah, but he's so not into individual people.

He likes this wildfire thing.

He likes setting things on fire and having it just rush across a whole forest as quickly as possible.

His favorite resting place is the people.

It just so happens that people are made up of individuals,

but his favorite resting place is the people.

He spread like a wildfire.

If you have a family and you're the man of the house or the husband or the guy who leads the house,

beginner ask God, oh father, I don't want this just for myself.

I want my one year old, two year old, 20 year old and 14 year old,

and my wife and my dog to be caught up in the blaze of the Spirit.

That is the way we think.

There are some exceptions to it.

So, I didn't know there were people who were offended, who would get offended in Vernon.

I said something about cats and one lady actually came and said to me,

may you have a sleepless night?

So, I had to pray, father, I don't repent of what I'm saying,

but please give me a sleep-filled night.

She literally came and...

Cat people are strange, huh?

Oh, sorry, I shouldn't be asking you.

So, guys, God is interested in having the entire family.

One of my prayers that I haven't prayed enough is, father, you've got to set everybody ablaze.

You can't not set everybody at Acts 29 ablaze.

Everybody ablaze.

And what does ablaze look like?

Because everything in Christianity is either named fire or river.

So, we've got to explain that a little more.

So, when we say on fire, what do we really mean?

When you say on fire, it is, one, a passion for God's purity,

and two, a passion for obedience.

That is basically fire.

Those are the two things that constitute fire.

It is not anything else but a passion for purity and a passion for obedience.

Between those two ends, you've got everything.

Because to be on fire without purity is a false fire.

It's a fire that is not prescribed by God,

and therefore it will bring out of that fire things that are ugly.

And a fire that does not have obedience will be a fire that will set things on fire that should not be set on fire.

Because it will be indiscriminate.

But when you have purity and obedience, now God can light fires.

Both are required.

That's what being on fire for God is.

If anyone says I'm on fire for God, ask them two questions.

How are you doing with purity?

How are you doing with obedience?

Let's go to 1 Corinthians 16.

1 Corinthians 16.

Oh, sorry, 1 Corinthians 6.

1 Corinthians 6.

I'm going to read from the...

1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20.

I'm going to read from the message.

Just listen to this and then you can read from your version.

Didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit?

Don't you see that you can't live however you please,

squandering what God has paid such a high price for?

The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you.

God owns the whole works, so let people see God in and through your body.

Didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit?

And so, I've said this before and I love saying it to myself over and over again.

When I wake up in the morning, the Holy Spirit says,

finally, because this is my body, how long were you planning to sleep?

This body, he actually thinks, is his.

When you receive Jesus Christ, how does Jesus Christ come and live in you?

By his Spirit.

And his Holy Spirit actually begins to think that this body is his.

One of the things that will happen as we begin to think that this body is his,

is that your body is quickened here on earth and in the ages to come.

Understand that.

One of the things I'm so confident about and discovering, and I can't talk about it yet,

but one of the things that I'm discovering is that when you realize that this is the sacred space

that the Holy Spirit occupies, that this physical body is his property and that he occupies it.

When you actually begin to think that every day, a strange thing begins to happen.

Your mortal body is quickened.

As in, your mortal body is given life.

You age well.

It doesn't mean you won't have gray hair, but you age well.

It is hard to age badly when you know that this is the residence of the Spirit of God.

He quickens your mortal body.

Most people postpone quickening of the mortal body to when you die, he will give you a new body,

which is absolutely true.

I'm just saying, examine the possibility of understanding that this body is sacred to him,

that he loves this occupying Jacob.

He thinks this is his own body and he takes great care of it.

So your question must be, but shouldn't we take care of our body?

Yes, you should, but please remember, I've met far too many people who ate homemade cheese and yogurt

and greens and cucumbers and carrots and died terrible deaths.

So all I'm trying to say is it is good to live well and healthy,

but please don't think that living good and healthy will give you long life.

It is the Holy Spirit that is able to do things with your body that nobody else can do.

So live healthy, but please don't begin to think that running and eating vegetables

is going to solve your problem, because at the end of the day, run, eat vegetables,

but be highly dependent on the Holy Spirit.

Be highly dependent on the Holy Spirit.

Be highly dependent on him, because he's able to do things with your body that no amount of running or vegetables can.

One of the things that Dano says every time you give him vegetables is,

this is the food my food eats.

Guys, I'm not dissing eating vegetables. I am, but I'm not.

But all I'm saying is, if you are into health diets, and I know this has nothing to do with Pentecost,

but for that matter, if you're into eating healthy foods and running and maintaining your body,

good on you, because the Bible says that that is part of what you're supposed to do.

But the tendency I've seen in people again and again and again who begin to live a healthy lifestyle

is that their healthy lifestyle becomes the kingpin in their mortality.

And that is always a recipe for health disasters.

God put it this way to King Asa.

My problem was that you decided, God is saying to King Asa,

my problem is not that you went to the physician.

My problem is that your first resort was the physician.

Therein lay God's problem.

It was not that God had a problem that King Asa went to the physician when he had a need.

The problem was you did not trust me. You chose the physician first.

Obviously, I'm not the guy to advise you on health and how your body should look,

because there's no way you could attain this perfection.

But be encouraged. There are others in the church you can follow.

1 Corinthians 2.

Beautiful, huh?

1 Corinthians 2.10.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I

Beautiful, huh?

1 Corinthians 2.10.

But God has revealed them to us.

What to us?

Look at verse 9.

But as it is written, I has not seen, nor ear heard,

nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

Meaning there are things that you and I haven't seen yet that God wants to show us.

But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit.

For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

For which man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?

Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

Let's read it again.

As it is written, I has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

But God reveals to us these things through his Spirit.

For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of a man?

Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given us by God.

Here's the thing guys.

So it's like if you go to Mark's house with a car that has a problem and you say,

I got a problem with my spark plug.

He'll go into his garage and there'll be two or three big boxes and he'll start rummaging through them and he'll pull out what you need and he'll come and give it to you.

And then you'll say, my seat, the upholstery is beginning to tear.

He'll go pull out another something from his box because he's got everything for anything in life in his garage and he'll fix it.

Lawnmower, vacuum cleaner, your dog, whatever you need, go to Mark, it's in his garage.

And he pulls it out, gives it to you and your problem is fixed.

This is exactly how the Holy Spirit is.

Whenever there is a situation, the Holy Spirit searches the minds of God, mind of God.

He goes, starts rummaging through the father's mind saying, father, what shall I give Jacob?

What does he need for the situation? Because he belongs to you.

Jesus lives in him. What can I give him?

And the father says, give him the spark plug. So he comes, gives me the spark plug.

And now I've got a new problem. He goes rummaging through the father's mind saying, father, what do you want?

This is the wisdom of God. This is why in James, James puts it this way.

Do you have a problem? Ask for wisdom because God will give it without grudging.

And there is wisdom for every day. All we have to do is learn this simple principle of hearing with faith.

I know it's a simple principle, but it has a complicated, not a complicated practice.

It has to be persistently practiced.

But imagine a life that is supplied with the wisdom of God, that is supplied with the solutions of God,

that is supplied with the answers of God, that is constantly supplied because God said this in Isaiah.

He said that I am not like other gods who whispers nebulous riddles that you don't understand.

You seek me, you will find me, you ask me something, I will give you an answer.

We have turned him into a crystal ball that might be moody.

So you never know whether he'll come up with an answer or not.

This happened in church in Bahrain, I think the Friday before last.

So the pastor, the legend was talking about faith and enacting in faith.

And there's this person called Dushan, who is from Sri Lanka,

but he is kind of the person that if you think Christ can do anything with him,

think Christ can do anything with anybody else, you know, because he's that kind of a guy.

He's a gentle guy, but he's big, burly, and he's been on both sides of the river, as you can see.

So he's been coming to church regularly of late, and he's having a tough time with his work.

A few years back, six or seven years back, he had done a course in flight dispatching,

and he had just let it go because he felt that in Bahrain, a small country,

where the aviation industry wasn't doing so well, there was no future for him.

So he just let that go, and he was working with a mobile operator.

So he's sitting there listening to this thing, and suddenly he feels, gets this thought,

I should go back to mobile, sorry, I should go back to flight dispatching, I should go back to my aviation industry.

And he has not been thinking about it for the past few years, and suddenly this thought is coming to him.

And he's freaking out because this is something that he thought he had buried and settled.

And all through the service, the rest of the conversation about faith is going on,

but this is the only thing that he's sitting on, you know.

And he can't keep it to himself. He goes to his car, and he tells it to his wife, saying,

this is what I'm feeling. And his wife gets excited because she's got a little more of a spiritual bone in her.

And she said, you should speak to somebody.

And then the night I get a message from Dushan, saying, Dano, I need you speaking out.

Something is happening to me. I'm freaking out.

And what he's freaking out over is the fact that for the first time in his life,

he's assigning a thought that he has got as a thought from God, and he doesn't know what to do with it.

And he knows enough that this is, I can't just rubbish this because there could be something else in it.

So he chose to receive that with something more than just, well, that was just a thought.

So that was a spontaneity of which he said that there could be something more.

And then he did the other thing. He messaged all the other leaders there, you know.

It's just that because my timing was right, I happened to pick up on the message first.

And then as I'm hearing it, I'm encouraging him that this is the voice of God,

because you couldn't have thought of this. And I'm encouraging him to go.

So now based on that one little thought that he had when he was hearing about faith,

he chose to hear it as the voice of God, and he's acting on it.

So that was a spontaneity aspect of it, you know. And I was going along that line.

So he had that option to minimize it into just, oh, that was just me, you know,

maybe struggling with work or thinking about a new career job, and you know,

my mind just working up. Or, hey, I'm listening about faith, and I'm hearing something.

And I had to tell him about hearing from God and the mind of God and all of those things.

And it all worked together for him. And so he just acted on that.

So spontaneously, a new pathway has been developed for him.

Guys, I cannot imagine us living any other life but this,

because every other form of life would be substandard.

Anything else would be substandard. Anybody can live the other life.

This is the only life we were meant to live.

And make your ground fertile through two things, purity, obedience.

Purity and obedience then allows God to drop multiple seeds into the ground,

because he knows that, aha, the blazing ministry of the Holy Spirit

can be effectively executed through this person, because he's got two things going for him.

Purity, obedience to the truth. That's why he's called the Holy Spirit.

Purity, obedience to the truth.

And then ground becomes fertile. The more fertile the ground is, the more productive it is.

And then the blazing ministry of the Holy Spirit, I call it the blazing ministry of the Holy Spirit,

because it always will carry in it something that is tremendously supernatural,

that is very little effort on your part and ridiculous results.

Then you can embrace this marvelous scripture, be anxious about nothing.

There are two kinds of people when it comes to that verse.

One is the kind that say, I won't be anxious about nothing,

because God loves me and he's in charge and he's in control and everything he'll take care of.

There is nothing wrong with that. That is a godly viewpoint.

But that is not the most excellent way.

There is a more excellent way which goes like this.

I will be anxious about nothing, yes, because God is in charge, God is in control,

he is good and he will take care of my life as he always has.

But besides that, I will without hesitance go and ask him for wisdom in this situation

and he gives without grudging and I will show the world that I just don't trust a God who takes care of me.

I know that God's mind.

And when you know the way God thinks, people see God.

Because now you begin to do things in your situation, not just dependent on his goodness,

which is basic, fundamental and must be done.

But now, besides his goodness, you're also saying, I also want to show you how he thinks.

Because in this situation, I've asked for his wisdom. This is what he's saying.

I'm going to just do this simple thing, obey and walk out.

Both have to come together, guys.

Both have to come together.

And you are the only person in your street, in your segment of society, in your state of life

and in your sphere of influence that can show this.

Nobody else can. I can't, Elmer can't, Marcus can't, May can't,

because where you live, where you work, in your state of life, in your section of society

and in your sphere of influence, nobody can show others how God thinks and what he is like, except you.

And it must be shown when there is a storm.

You must always be the pillow on which Christ can lay his head.

Not because you just trust his goodness, but you also trust what he's going to do next.

Because disciples could have had two reactions, three reactions they had.

One, they could have all pulled out pillows and gone to sleep saying,

if we sink, we sink, our lives are in the hand of the Lord.

And they all sink and Jesus escapes because he's gone.

That's one option.

The second option is, let's start scooping out water and let's scoop it out as fast as we can,

because our master seems to be fast asleep.

And so they're scooping out water and at some point they get frustrated and say,

Jesus, don't you care? Why don't you wake up?

Or three, imagine what Jesus would have said.

Because thus far he's only said, oh, you of little faith.

Three, Peter or John or Bartholomew or any of the others would have stood up

and turned to the waves and the wind and they would have said, be still.

And the entire thing calms down.

They get to the other side. Jesus wakes up and said, did I miss something?

What a cool thing, eh? If the story went that way, did I miss something?

The Holy Spirit wants to prove to you the character of God as trustworthy.

He wants to show you the mind of God, first Corinthians 2, so that you may know how he thinks.

Desire this, hunger after this, thirst after this, crave after this,

because blessed is he who hungers or thirsts after righteousness.

What is righteousness?

Righteousness is right relationship with God.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after right relationship with God,

for they shall be satisfied.

Trust the Spirit.

Then, then guys, the glorious blazing ministry of the Spirit will begin to happen through you,

through the unadorned clay pot of your ordinary faithful life,

through the unadorned clay pot of your ordinary faithful life.

It will begin to happen.

And if you're in a difficult situation, this is when you can really try it out.

So, in your grueling exam situation, let's see what it looks like, Nick,

for you to go to sleep at the helm of the boat.

In your situation where you're struggling with this land thing with your family, Maurice,

let's see what it looks like when you speak of God in glowing terms

and care two hoots about it, walking knowing that a word was given years ago and it'll come to pass.

In May's situation where she goes and sits with her uncle in hospital,

she begins to hear God and knows how to respond to everything that's happening to her uncle,

because she's not responding as a nurse, not responding as a niece,

she's responding as, this is what the Holy Spirit is saying.

I'll start on my notes now. All that stuff wasn't in my notes.

So now the real thing starts.

That was the introduction.

Guys, here are some things you can ask every day from now on.

I'm going to start with a question.

I'm going to ask a question.

I'm going to ask a question.

I'm going to ask a question.

I'm going to ask a question.

I'm going to ask a question.

Guys, here are some things you can ask every day from now on.

Just go and read these scriptures at home, perhaps it'll be easier.

Every day ask him to open doors for you to engage those that he paid a price to rescue.

Or every day ask him to open doors for you so that you can be engaged in the blazing ministry of the Holy Spirit here on earth.

Every day ask him to open doors for you.

Make this, like we have prayers that we say every day, right?

I have certain prayers that I've been saying every day and I mean it every day.

I know them by heart but I mean it every day when I pray them.

Try to include this.

Ask him every day that, Holy Spirit, I would like to be engaged in your blazing ministry today.

Because it says in Colossians chapter 4, verse 3 to 5, here's Paul saying it to the church in Colossus.

Colossians 4:3–5

He says, pray also for us that God may open us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I'm in prison.

That I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best of every opportunity and the use of type.

Paul's sentences are as usual difficult.

But here's what we're saying.

Oh God, tomorrow morning it's a holiday but I would like to be engaged in your blazing ministry, Holy Spirit.

Colossians 4, verse 3 to 5.

Colossians 4:3–5

Next thing.

Ask for clarity in your words.

Ask for clarity in your words.

Father, when I speak this unadorned, ordinary clay pot that I am, with limited knowledge,

Father, when I speak, would you please begin to give me clarity in words?

Would you please begin to give me clarity in words?

Because it says in Ephesians 6, verse 19, Paul says, ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God's mysterious plan.

Ephesians 6:19

Third thing.

Ask for deep conviction in your hearers.

Ask for deep conviction in your hearers.

Father, when I encounter people, could you bring deep conviction with the words and with my actions and with the things I'm doing?

Deep conviction.

First Thessalonians 1, 5.

The message puts it this way.

When the message we preached came to you, it wasn't just words.

Something happened in you.

The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.

Here's another thing to ask for.

Ask that what you say will be accompanied by miraculous supernatural works.

Ask that what you say will be accompanied by miraculous supernatural works.

Romans 15, verse 18 and 19.

Romans 15:18

Ask that what you say and do will be accompanied by supernatural miraculous works.

And then finally, ask for boldness.

As in finally, as in these five points.

Not finally, as in I'm closing.

Ask for boldness.

Ask for boldness.

Because in Ephesians 6, verse 20, Paul prays that, pray that I'll keep on speaking boldly for him even though I'm in chains as God's ambassador.

Ephesians 6:20

Pray that I'll speak on boldly.

Ask for boldness.

One of the things that the Holy Spirit provides is boldness.

Every time the church needed boldness and boldness was a mark of the early church in a very hostile environment.

They would keep asking the Holy Spirit for boldness.

If there is one thing I lack, it is boldness.

I've got to ask for boldness.

But here's the thing guys.

Boldness is always subdued when proclamation is subdued.

Whenever you stop declaring who Jesus is, boldness will disappear.

Boldness disappears when proclamation is subdued.

Boldness loses momentum and disappears when proclamation is subdued.

Everything happens in the name of Jesus Christ.

And the Spirit of Jesus dwells in me.

He wants to wake this entire church up every day and say, hey guys, I live in you.

Your body is mine.

Jesus paid a price for it.

Let's go.

I want to use your hands.

I want to use your mouth.

I want to use your money.

Because I provided all of that.

It all belongs to me.

You're a steward on my behalf, Jacob.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Be foolish, Jacob.

Just listen to me.

Hear with faith.

Every morning I'm providing you manna.

Hear with faith.

Pick it up.

Let's go.

When we begin to live this life, dullness flees.

Dullness flees.

Dullness flees.

Dullness happens when water is stagnant.

And he is called a river of living water, not a stagnant pool of water.

I do not count preaching on Sundays as a great activity of the Holy Spirit.

I do give it much honor.

I love doing it.

But this is not what I am satisfied with.

This is not what I'm satisfied with.

If preaching was what satisfied with me, then that would be too easy.

It is leaving church this afternoon and while you're driving, being aware of hearing with faith.

What in the world can happen?

You know, one year ago in July, and I'm sharing this because of a deliberate reason,

one year ago in July, I'm flying from Seattle to Dubai.

And suddenly on the screen, the TV screen, comes the words, go to Mandalay.

Go to Mandalay.

And I didn't know where Mandalay was.

I thought it was a casino in Las Vegas.

It is.

But there is a real place called Mandalay in Burma or Myanmar.

And go to Mandalay.

So I wrote it down on my phone.

And then I went looking for it again because I wanted to see what this was about.

And I'm going through every channel to locate this statement and I can't find it.

I spent about half an hour trying to locate this channel.

And it's a static number of channels.

It's not like you're on regular TV.

It's recorded TV.

And I can't find the thing.

And I'm thinking to myself, did I imagine it?

But I don't think I imagined it.

I wrote it down.

I went to India and I showed a guy this simple statement, go to Mandalay.

And there were some other words after it.

I don't remember.

That's why I'm not flipping.

So go to Mandalay.

And so I showed him the thing.

He said, when you want to go to Mandalay, let me know because I know a guy there called Andrew.

That was in July of last year.

And then ten days ago, I'm looking at my phone and I find it again.

I don't know why, but I felt that go check this particular writing on your phone.

Again, it's this whole thing of hearing with faith.

And so I go check what I've written and it says go to Mandalay.

And I think to myself, boy, it's almost a year.

So I write to this pastor again.

Hey, remember you said you knew somebody in Mandalay.

Can you put me in touch with him?

So he gives me the email.

Here's the crazy thing now.

While I'm writing to this pastor, the guy in Mandalay and his wife, his wife's name is Marilyn and his name is Andrew.

Andrew and Marilyn are sitting there and here's their prayer.

Oh, God, we don't know why, but could you give us a connection in Canada?

They're praying this. I'm talking about four days ago.

They're praying this. Could you give us a connection in Canada?

And here I'm asking, could you give me a connection in Mandalay?

And so I write to this guy.

This guy says, you won't believe this.

My wife and I were sitting together and praying this three days ago saying, oh, God, could you give us a connection from Canada?

They've been in ministry for 18 years.

It's not some guy who wants to come to Canada or something.

And so I write to them and I'm thinking to myself, Father, how do you work all these things out?

What hearing with faith does is it places you in the center of time at the right place, center of God's will at the right place.

And so if you hear late, it gets later.

So that's the other thing that you need to know about hearing with faith.

If you hear with faith on a regular basis, you will be on time in the framework of God.

If you don't, then what happens is things may happen later or before,

but the baby will either be premature or whatever the other word is.

But when you hear with faith, things happen in perfect time.

Time is critical, guys.

And God can arrange it where you come exactly on time.

And so I apply for a visa to Mandalay and I get the visa in 24 hours.

And so now my question is, Father, when do you want me to go?

Do I go when I go to Jakarta and Mongolia in eight days time or do I go another time?

Because the visa is for 90 days.

So just because I get the visa doesn't mean it's still okay to go.

The question now is, Father, when?

Because if you land there at the right time, he's been orchestrating things for the last 6,000 years, and you land there right on the button.

In two hours, you will accomplish what would take others two years to accomplish.

This is the blazing ministry of the Holy Spirit.

And listen to this, if Jacob isn't responsive, he'll go and ask Dano.

He'll go ask Diana.

He'll go ask anybody with the name starting with D.

Then he'll go on to E and F. I'm kidding.

The point is, because Chris is thinking, darn, there goes my chance.

If he starts at D, it'll take a long time to come back to C.

But the point is this, guys, if you have no idea how many times God has come to Jacob, to Nick, to Ruth, to Joan, to Marcus, to Laurie, and said,

hey, you heard right.

You want to take a chance.

And because we either thought it was not God or we thought this was in the right time or because it was inconvenient, it goes now to these five.

And whoever picks up runs with it and experiences the blazing ministry of the Spirit.

Very rarely are the guys in this room the first ones that God has called.

Usually.

We are sometimes, you won't believe this, Dano and Blessy who are now here, they were my fourth choice to lead the church in Bahrain.

I had three better choices.

Three better choices.

Far more experienced, able people.

And all three decided not to.

And then finally someone introduced me to Dano and my first words were, with a name like that, what good can come out of him?

So that was my first reaction.

But then that's sometimes how God does things.

Three others I approached and all three didn't work out.

The blazing ministry of the Spirit.

Yeah.

And yet Laurie and I sometimes have this question.

What about the first three?

They had an opportunity and they let it go.

Sometimes I think God knows.

God knows.

In His knowing He plans it.

Because I don't think Aaron was ever supposed to join Moses.

Aaron was like supplied because Moses was hesitant.

God says to Moses, who made your mouth?

Why are you provoking me like this?

I can handle it.

But because you are so stubborn, go get your brother-in-law.

Or brother.

Brother-in-law or brother?

Brother.

Go get your brother.

And so Aaron, and Aaron ends up doing something heinous.

He builds a golden calf while Moses was in Mount.

So I think God in His knowledge plans things and therefore those plans cannot be broken.

It's too complicated.

I could be wrong.

Yeah.

Ask for boldness.

Ask for boldness.

Guys, we'll talk about boldness next time because I've got enough to say about it.

So we won't go there.

We'll end with what we've been talking about.

We'll talk about the second part of the story.

Just remember this line.

Self-preservation is the greatest enemy of boldness and believers.

Self-preservation is the greatest enemy of boldness and believers.

Self-preservation is the greatest enemy of boldness and believers.

Many times you and I will hear the Holy Spirit with ears of faith,

but we'll not be able to step into it boldly only for one reason.

We want to indulge in this thing called self-preservation.

We want to indulge in this thing called self-preservation.

And self-preservation is the greatest enemy of boldness and following the Holy Spirit and believers.

Because self-preservation does two things, three things.

It spawns indifference.

It compromises you.

It avoids the situation.

And by self-preservation, I mean preserving your money, preserving your time, preserving resources,

preserving things for a later day.

Everything gets preserved.

Self-preservation is the greatest enemy of bold following of the Holy Spirit.

Because it spawns indifference.

It compromises you.

It helps you avoid things that need to be stepped into.

Sorry?

It prevents you, yeah, you avoid stepping into things because self-preservation kicks in.

You avoid stepping into things.

Guys, let's do this.

Let's learn how to hear with faith.

Let's learn how to hear with faith.

Every situation you're in, as uncomplicated...

On my phone I've got this, in notes, I've got this page called 333.

And that's basically Jeremiah 333.

Ask of me and I will show you great and mighty things.

And on this page all I write is situations that need solutions.

So if you look at it right now, it'll say...

I'll give you a simple example, guys.

Simple example.

My mom went to the doctor some time ago.

And they told her that she might have a heart attack because there's some thing they saw in her heart that wasn't right.

And so she may have a heart attack.

So my sister writes to me and my mom writes to me saying, what am I supposed to do?

They say that, should I fly to UK? Should I not? What's going to happen?

And so I put it down here and I'm saying, father, how do you answer this?

And that's when reason can kick in, natural ears can kick in, or hearing with faith can kick in.

And so I'm saying, how do you answer it?

And I'm listening to the recordings on my phone.

And in the recordings on my phone are words spoken over my mom by Anne and Joan and Sue and Diana and a few others.

And here's what it says.

And it will be in that day I will answer says...

Here's what it says.

Your strength is going to be restored to you.

He will give you strength this year to rise up like an eagle in Jesus' name.

It will be a year of plenty. More wheat in the storehouse.

The Lord will open doors that you think are closed.

They're actually open and he wants you to step through them.

There is work to be done, life to speak into.

So don't keep saying I'm getting older. It's getting harder.

And I'm reading this and I'm thinking to myself, I'll book your ticket.

You fly to the UK.

Because there's nothing going to happen to you when that word has been released over you.

This is what I mean by faith, hearing with the ears of faith.

In everything, it doesn't matter what it is.

Everything.

Your parents may be saying one thing, your grandparents may be saying one thing.

Doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

You need to hear with faith and say, Father, what are you saying?

And that is what I live by.

Because I have only two things to live by.

Purity on one side, obedience on the other side.

You drop the seeds, it will become productive.

I offer you just two things of God.

A life that I will try to live as pure as possible.

And a willingness to obey when I hear you.

That is the only thing I'll offer you.

And if you offer him these two things, you begin to enjoy the life that is actually yours.

Which is the blazing supernatural life of the Spirit of God.

Who came down on a day like this 2000 years ago.

And he came with gale force wind kind of rushing upon the people settled there.

And he came like that not because he wanted to live like a whisper.

He came like that because he wanted to show the world that things are changing from here on.

I've got this button on my table now.

It's a blue button.

You press it and it says, go big.

It's from famous players, the theater.

So every time you press it.

So every time I walk in my living room, I'll go press it.

And I'll say, go big.

And why am I saying this?

Because at the end of the day guys, do not live life small when you have the Holy Spirit in you.

Do not live life small.

Do not live life small.

Our lives are small.

Our lives are small.

Nick, do not live life small.

Ruth, do not live life small.

Chris, do not live life small.

Joan, do not live life small.

Marcus, Laurie, and do not live life small.

There you go, man.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Danno, do not live life small.

Derek, do not live life small.

Maurice, do not live life small.

Go big.

Ask yourself this question.

Ask yourself this question.

And I ask myself this and I hate it when I live life small.

Ask yourself this question.

Is your life reflective right now of the blazing supernatural spirit of God?

Where are the Pauls?

Where are the Joshuas?

Where are the Noahs?

Where are the Abrahams?

Where are the Josephs?

Where are the Davids?

Where are the Jonathans?

Where are the Peters?

Where are the Johns?

Where are they?

They lived such large lives.

Small people living large lives.

Two small men with big hearts.

Sound like I'm promoting companies today.

Come on, guys.

Come on.

I want to take risks in my life.

I want to be free of being held back by anything.

I want to take risks in my life and follow him with a reckless obedience like that song song.

With a reckless obedience like that song says because he's reckless in his love and wants to send people out that way.

Forget the song.

There's a controversy around it.

But here's the thing.

At the end of the day, please, how risky is your life?

It never starts without a first step.

And you're not honed in on that step.

Guys, I'm not going to let you go till four, so please tolerate me for another five minutes because I've got to take every minute.

And then I'll be away for two weeks after next week.

So I'm back next week.

Don't feel too happy.

But after that, there'll be two weeks that I'm away.

So here's the thing, guys.

Once a step is given, one must hear and go and do something with it.

And then it opens up the next step.

It is always like that.

I plead with you.

Do not get caught up in work, in resources, in saving them, in preserving them.

What good will it do to preserve it?

Who are you going to give it to?

Your children are already very rich.

Or settle down.

Don't do these things.

Do well.

Do well.

Live big.

This church was accomplished.

The ridiculous.

Let me read out Hebrews 11 to you.

It bothers me every time I read Hebrews 11.

Turn to Hebrews 11, verse 35.

Hebrews 11:35

Church, please, you must do this.

I wish I had a syringe full of this serum that I inject into you and me and we become like this.

But that isn't the way it works.

Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32.

Hebrews 11:32

Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32.

Hebrews 11:32

And what more shall I say?

For time will fail me.

Hey, Paul had problems like me.

And what more shall I say?

For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets,

who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of justice, obtained promises,

shut the mouth of lions, quench the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword.

From weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to fight.

Women received back their debt by resurrection, and others were tortured,

not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection.

And others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn into, they were tempted, they were put to death with a sword.

They went about in sheepskin and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated,

men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised

because God had provided something better for us so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect.

I love the verse 38, men of whom the world was not worthy.

Can we just pray into this?

Father, I pray that you will help us to pray into this. Please help us to pray into this.