Spirit Lead Lifestyle | Part 2

Thank you for listening to the Colonel Christian Center podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging today.

For more information on KCT and how to connect, visit us at KCT.net.

Thank you, team, for leading us to the workshop.

Let's give them a hand today.

Thank you, team.

Uh Dania, come on up.

Would you come?

You want to share?

Sure.

There's a microphone right here, sorry.

Hello.

I just wanted to quickly just um while we were worshiping, I just had a thought, like, especially with that song, um, I just had such a feeling of like community in church.

And Churchill actually spoke an amazing word about this about worship on Thursday night at our young adults.

But when we sing songs like this, like this is church, this is community.

Like, we need to be contending for each other as well.

Like, God contends for us, but we also contend for each other, and that's the body of Christ.

So I just had a word, like, even if you don't know what to sing or what you are struggling with, or you're not struggling with anything, like, contend for other people around you, contend for the person next to you, contend for the person across from you.

Like, just really, I just want to encourage you in that, just to contend for people in this body, because people are facing stuff everywhere among this whole congregation, and you don't even know.

So, if God's putting someone in your heart, pray for them, contend for them, worship for them.

Even if you're not facing anything, worship for them because that's the body of Christ.

Amen.

You can take it down.

Thanks.

Hey, that's a great message for us as a church.

You know, there's power when we link arms together, right?

And uh one of us can send a thousand a flight, but two of us can send a legion fleeing.

So when we're working together and there's community and we're working together, this is where we can make uh a difference.

Uh turn to your neighbor and tell them you're glad you're here.

I'm glad you're here today.

Uh, you know what?

I I just gotta affirm this because I gotta affirm this because when you come to church, church isn't necessarily like we try and provide the most comfortable place for you to be because you know what?

Church itself is really uncomfortable.

It's super uncomfortable because it requires us to change every Sunday.

You are virtually getting up on Sunday morning and saying, I'm going to go, and through song, through message, through community, people are going to be twisting and helping me turn to a direction that I don't want to go.

And you're going to feel that pressure, and you're going to feel that that that turn in your in your in your gut.

And so, you know what?

I'm glad you're here because even this last song, we fight our bat, this is how we fight our battles by not fighting.

And you know what we want to do when we're being fought against, we're being pressured?

We want to pressure back.

When I'm being fought, I want to fight back.

But the scripture says, you know what, this is where we trust in the Lord.

We lean on him, we trust him.

It says we don't lean on our own understanding, but we lean on his.

We don't fight with our own strength, but we fight by his strength, by his spirit.

That's where we do our battle.

And so today you're in this place where you're like, you're being told not to do it your way.

And I applaud you for being here.

That's great.

I'm glad you're here.

Uh my dad, uh Pastor Dave, is in Windsor, Ontario, preaching at uh Windsor Christian Fellowship this Sunday morning.

He's probably already done, probably, three hours ahead.

And then tomorrow he's asked that the church keep him in prayer.

Uh he's going to the national prayer breakfast, uh, where afterwards he'll be meeting with a number of uh a number of political uh leaders, and he'll be talking about the primacy of parents over the educational values of their children.

And he'll be talking to them about the uh the the fact that a children's education should be held in the hands of their parents.

And so that's a that's a huge step, it's a huge battle that's happening in Canada, and it's a big part of who we are as Kelona Christian Center, and so we just want to just continue to lift them up in prayer and just keep them keep them in your um prayer time.

Um during this series, we are talking about KCC at our best, KCC in our sweet spot, and we talked about Jesus being first, it's his mission and his message.

We talked about uh belonging, how people are our passion, people are our pursuit, people are our privilege.

Helping people is what it's all about.

That's why Jesus came.

He died for you and for me.

He died for people.

He died for the people on the street right now, he died for the people uh at work today, he died for those in their homes this morning.

Jesus died so that people wouldn't have to live in death.

The wage of sin would be death.

He came to bring eternal life to everyone.

Uh we talked about a generosity, and how generosity is another one of our privileges that we we live to give and we give to live.

We live, we believe in generous living, we believe in generous giving.

And we talked last week, the first part, we talked about the Holy Spirit.

And how the Holy Spirit is a person that we all can embrace, a gift that we can possess ourselves in the person of the Holy Spirit.

And it's a by when we carry the Holy Spirit, it becomes a uh it becomes a comfortable thing for us to carry, but it also becomes uh a challenging thing, a powerful thing for us to carry.

I was telling the kids today, it's the Holy Spirit gave us power, but power, that word power comes from the word dunamis.

And dunamis is where we get the word dynamite from.

And dynamite is like it's a good thing to have when you're facing a huge obstacle in your way.

But it's something you just don't carry around in your back pocket everywhere you go.

You don't, you'd be if you don't keep it like a block of it in the trunk of your car while you're driving, like it's just one of those things that we're grateful that we have it.

It's power, but it's something that we it takes great responsibility to carry.

So today, talking about the Holy Spirit-led lifestyle, I want to continue talking about the Holy Spirit.

Last week we talked that there was always been a challenge to the Holy Spirit.

There are many people who have received their salvation, but like those in Ephesus, they received their salvation, but they didn't ever hear of the Holy Spirit.

They didn't know who the Holy Spirit was, they didn't know what baptism, what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit, what that would look like.

And today in the church, we have so many different models.

And the church has different models that they can follow.

They've got the secret-sensitive model, they've got the Pentecostal, charismatic, spirit-led model, they've got the multi-site model, they've got the small group model, the contemporary model, purpose-driven model.

They've got all these different models.

And what one of the things that I've really liked about Kelowna Christian Center is that we're a non-denominational, interdenominational church, and that we believe that we need to stand on where the we feel the Holy Spirit is leading us to go.

At the time where he's leading us to go, and we're look asking the Holy Spirit, Lord, what do you want us to do today?

Where do you want us to go today?

Do you want us to have an open door to the community?

Do you want us to be spirit like spirit, signs, wonders, powerful in this point, in this service at this time today?

Or do you want us to be open to the visitors in the community in the neighborhood and to those who are seeking in a different way?

And this is always the tension that we carry as a church where we move with the Holy Spirit.

Because there are times Jesus just walked up to someone, spit on the ground, made mud, and slapped it in the person's eye so that they were well.

And then there were times just they just got prayed for and they were well.

There were different models of ministry Jesus operated on, but no matter where he went, he was always doing what he felt the Holy Spirit, what his father was telling him to do.

So we're trying to move step by step where the where we feel the Lord is actually moving us to go, where to go.

And we believe that when we do that, we actually will operate our at our best.

So the Holy Spirit, in some part, the church has made it confusing to understand who he is.

They have big pictures of the dove, the uh the fire, the tongue of fire.

I don't like tongues of fire, um, the ghost, the Holy Ghost.

What the Holy Spirit actually looks like in the church can get confusing.

I talked to my kids about it on the way even to church today.

I said, this is who the Holy Spirit is, and I'm continually having to refine what they see and what they believe Holy Spirit to be.

And I know that the challenge sometimes is communicating about Holy Spirit, is that Holy Spirit is a person, and it's something that I can't actually adequately communicate fully to you.

The best way for you to understand who Holy Spirit is, is to know him yourself.

I can read a book about Steve Jobs, I can hear about the creator of Apple, I can talk to people who have known him, but if I didn't meet him, if I didn't spend quality time with him, I'd never really truly know that person.

The same way with the Holy Spirit, this message is a tense one because to each of you, your relationship with the Holy Spirit will be different.

Your relationship to the Holy Spirit's gonna be different based on your past, on your background, on your history, on your own experiences, and the way Holy Spirit relates to each of you is unique and personal.

It's not private, but it is personal.

Our desire, though, is to help you all develop a deep relationship with not only God the Father and God the Son, Jesus, but with Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit is critical.

All three members of what we consider to be the Trinity.

So some people in the church have just rejected Holy Spirit because of some of the packaging of what they've come to see on who he is.

Some people see Holy Spirit to be a uh a product of maybe a late-night TV evangelist's um, you know, expression of who Holy Spirit is, or maybe something that's flowing or glowing.

It's it may be something that's weird or wacky, it may be an experience that that we don't quite understand or connect to scripturally.

So what I want to do is I want to take us back to the scripture, and I want us to look at who the Holy Spirit is, and then from that experience allow you to develop your own relationship with him.

And by doing so, you'll actually act, you'll actually be able to walk out your relationship with him on a biblical uh level.

So last week we talked about him being a fresh breath.

Another uh word for him is being a like a blast of air, something that just refreshes the room, refreshes the place.

I I've loved that the sun is out in Kelowna right now.

It's wonderful.

Um we were just in Ontario this week, and it wasn't so nice there.

And you get on the plane and you're flying for four or five hours, and uh you've got, you know, the air in there is all recycled air.

But we flew and we landed in Calgary, and it was windy in Calgary.

And when they opened that door to the to let all the people out, thank God.

They let all the people out.

All of a sudden the air just blew through, like you knew when the door opened.

It was like a blast of fresh air that was like, oh, thank God we're here, we're on the ground.

We're we're feeling good.

It's like I'll be able to get out of this plane and be able to walk around, like actually be able to enjoy that fresh air.

The Holy Spirit is like that wind in your sail, He's the one who will help carry you forward without having to expend your own effort, you lean on Him and His ability, not your own.

So, what does it look like for an individual?

I've I've been in ministry for a little while now, and my experience in the church has been that uh I've been able to go through different revival type movements.

Uh and we I remember being in the during the season where the Holy Spirit was uh there was a refreshing movement, there was the father movement, there was a uh a time where there was just a blessing movement, where the where the church was just relating to the blessing of God on the church.

And what was awesome is that during these movements they were really exciting, it was a healing movement, but they were movements, and during those times I was able to embrace everything that God had for me during those times.

But I found that those seasons were seasons, they were times, and the church knew how to engage during that season, hold a big conference, get together, yeah, come under one roof, and cheer God on, and cheer what God was doing on, and then be able to share it with the world.

And it was an awesome missions movement, transformational movement.

All these movements were awesome.

But I found the church was doing this, jumping from movement to movement.

And what was happening is that in between the movements, there was like this vacuum of where is God?

Where is God outside of this movement?

And instead, I believe that God didn't leave, his Holy Spirit didn't disappear, his Holy Spirit didn't move on.

In fact, he was still at church, he was still here, he is still here, and he's still doing something, but it's always something fresh, and it's not to be contained in these four walls of the church.

Holy Spirit was to be carried by each and every one of you into the world to make a difference in your community, in your nation, to empower you, to anoint you, to be able to uh go out yourself and see signs, wonders, miracles.

We believe that this happens when you're at work, whether you're an accountant, whether you're a teacher, whether you're a videographer, whether you're an insta-famous individual influencer.

It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter who you are.

I believe that the Holy Spirit can move and work through you.

So let's look at this, the Acts chapter 1, verse 8, where it talks about the power of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:8

The scripture says this.

So Jesus is has left.

He left and he said this to the church.

It's better that I go, because when I go, I'm gonna leave with you my spirit, this Holy Spirit.

But before you can receive this, it's a gift to you, you need to wait for it.

You need to wait in Jerusalem and tarry long for it.

So you've got a number of the disciples, 120, in fact, who were there in the upper room waiting for the Holy Spirit.

And just like the scripture says, who He is, all of a sudden, uh at one point the doors blow open and a blast of air goes into the upper room.

In the upper room, all of a sudden, everyone who was in that upper room who had been waiting for the Holy Spirit was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And in that moment, tongues like uh fire like tongues of fire, the the scripture says it was like it was resting on each person, and each person began to speak with a new tongue, so much so that people who are walking around outside that building looked at their clock as it would have been right now and be like, are those people drunk?

They sound like everyone's just like jabbering on, and what are they saying up there?

And they said, It's so early in the morning, they can't be drunk, and then others are listening, they're going, I think I hear my own language, I think I hear someone saying something in my own tongue, and at that moment things changed for the church.

All of a sudden, Peter, who could know who at first denied Christ in front of a little girl, goes out and with boldness and confidence and courage goes out and at that point begins to speak and share the gospel in such a way and with significant boldness that 3,000 people came to know Jesus at that one moment.

No longer afraid, no longer hiding in an upper room, they go out and it to impact the world.

And that's the Holy Spirit's beginning, the start of the Holy Spirit being given to all people as a uh as a result of prophecy from Scripture, where the Scripture says that at one point all the Holy Spirit would be poured out onto all flesh, men, women, children, equipping them to do some to do incredible things.

So the role of the church, the role of the church is to equip you to do the work of the ministry, to equip you, to go and activate you, to inspire you to go out into the world and to do miracles.

How many of you feel that power right now?

This is not my job.

This is your job, this is your ministry, this is your capability, Holy Spirit in you, the dynamite in you, the power in you to go out into the world and do something impressionable.

To make the whole world go, wow, signs, wonders, they're A sense of awe.

Now look at Acts chapter 2, verse 42, says this, shortly after the Holy Spirit was poured out on the upper room.

Acts 2:42

It says this, they devoted themselves, these people devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to hanging out together, to studying the scripture together, and to the breaking of bread, eating together, and for praying together, trusting God together.

Everyone was filled with what?

Awe.

This is such a great word.

Awe.

Because I think the church ought to be a place where people walk in and go, oh, wow.

Be filled with a sense of awe and wonder.

And so what we've done is not only should there be awe in terms of our excellence, awe in terms of our skills and our and our gifts and our talents, doing the best to our ability, but they should walk in and be able to see a love for one another, a joy that's unspeakable, a peace that passes understanding.

No matter what the situation you're going through, there's a peace and a righteousness and ability to be able to walk with your head up and not with your head down.

That's why Trisha today, when she shared that scripture, she says, Lift up your heads.

Lift up your heads.

Where the kingdom of God is, there's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

The place of the church where people walk in and they see the community of God assembled together, worshiping God, filled with the Holy Spirit.

There should be a sense of wonder.

Wow.

Awe.

Wow.

Joy.

Wow.

When they come to church, there should be a place of like, no matter what we're going through, God is with us.

Faith.

An ability to actually like, it doesn't matter what the circumstances, we're going to keep believing and keep pressing on.

Doesn't matter what the circumstance, we know that the Lord will give us wisdom, the Lord will give us help.

The Lord will give us how counsel.

The Lord will help us.

He'll become that paraclete, that counselor towards us.

This is the church alive.

And that's often why the church, they consider this a revival, a reliving.

The church coming to its best, finding its sweet spot.

Now, when you look at your neighbor, do you see that?

Do you see that life?

Do you see that awe?

Do you see that wonder?

I love it.

I love it because you know what?

I see it.

I see the church alive.

I see the church growing.

I see the church pressing out its borders.

I see the church extending to embrace as many people as possible.

I see the church full.

I see the church alive and in who God is.

I see the church expressive, dynamic, moving, alive.

That's the way the church is to be.

I love this.

It doesn't matter if uh if if you're outside it, if you're in a church in the middle of like a service where the worship is just awesome or the preaching is just going like going great, it doesn't matter where you are, or if you're in a cafe or an airport lobby, the Lord is there with you, and you're making a difference wherever you go.

You're contemporary in your lifestyle, just living life, and they don't know, but every place that you touch, every person you communicate with, is being infected with Holy Spirit.

Affected by that life and that love and that power that we carry.

Um, one of the great examples, like in our our life, uh, my wife has a quick testimony.

Come on, I'm I know I told you I would say it, but you're gonna say it this morning, okay?

So let's give her a hand as she comes up.

You look fantastic today, by the way.

You dress for the occasion.

I said, you can share it.

He says, but it's not my testimony, it's yours.

Yeah, that's right.

That's true, that's true.

Anyways, um, I was um when I was in high school, I used to deal with migraines really bad.

Does anyone has anyone ever dealt with migraines?

It's like people would be like, well, take an aspirin.

I'd be like, no, so I'd have to lock myself in a dark room and just get through it for the four hours.

And anyways, I was at a um uh a church and they prayed for healing, and they they just said, come on up if you have anything.

And I thought, yeah, I've I deal with migraines like twice a month.

So I went up and he prayed, and I walked away that day and never experienced a migraine again.

And so, yeah, it was awesome.

Now, Amen.

Now, it in this situation, like in this situation, did you feel like was there like the doors blast open and the the glory like the clouds sh hovered over to over top of people, feathers flew around and dust was gold dust was flying.

Did it you know no?

You feel that?

I actually didn't I didn't sense a lot, and I actually said, God, I don't have a lot of faith for this.

Help me with my my unbelief or my you know, help me with the faith.

And so that was my experience.

I didn't feel any bit different.

I just walked away and never had it again, never had it again.

Yeah, you had another situation, right?

You were like falling apart before you met me.

And um the Lord put you together and the two joined.

He had to build my faith, and so that's what he did.

So what happened?

What else?

Um, yeah, I had a uh situation with my foot that was uh really bad.

I couldn't walk on it, and another I had a doctor's appointment the next day, and I was um again praying for healing and just said, God help, you know, I trust you.

And they prayed, and um the next day I woke up and I never had any pain in my foot, and I went to the doctor and I was so excited, and I said, I she I said, Well, I was supposed to be here, I actually had an issue with my foot, but I was healed.

And she looked at me and said, Oh, that's good.

And yeah, and you were.

I was healed.

Yeah, amen.

So that's the Lord, that's what thank you.

That's that's what the Lord does in our lives.

Now, there are different forms of miracles, they're the ones that are like dramatic and drastic and very visual.

Like, I'm there are situations I don't take lightly when I talk about the cloud and the uh those things, those things can happen.

Gold can happen, like that.

Those are the parts of when the Holy Spirit comes, there will be signs and wonders.

There'll be some things that just make you go, you wonder.

You go, what?

Like, what was that?

And it's like, well, it just was a wonder.

Another time, come on up here again, Natalie.

Let's come on up here one more time.

Tell them tell them about in Bible school what you started hearing.

Come on.

Oh my goodness.

I needed another water break, so um, I gotta think of this.

Oh, yeah, we were in a room and um I heard a guitar playing.

I was like, wow, I look around and there's like no guitar anywhere.

And then um I someone else said, Did anyone hear that guitar?

And I said, Yeah, I heard that guitar.

And there was only about 10 or 12 people in a room of 40 or 50 people that heard this.

And uh, yeah, it was just I know for sure I was not hearing things.

It was a guitar, and it was just it was a really, really neat experience.

Now we don't know why that was.

I don't know.

Maybe you're supposed to be a musician in your next.

I was just in wonder.

Now, every day Natalie wakes up, she looks over for me at me, and she she's in a state of awe, and she's like, Oh my Holy Spirit is here right now.

I I can sense it.

But thank you for sharing.

But she like is walking in the spirit.

She is she is I would say like there are things that she does and how she is that are very like subtle when she but she is walking in the spirit every day.

I've learned with her, I don't, I don't uh under my I just walk with her.

But everything she says, Brody, what do you think about this?

Or she has a thought, I know that's Holy Spirit working through her.

Because she's got a gift and she and she's a she's learned how to embrace that relationship with the Holy Spirit to actually grow her faith and cause her relationship to grow.

So every day we believe that wherever we are, the Holy Spirit would flow into people.

That there would be activation.

I believe there's activation opportunity in every engagement.

I believe you can do it through Instagram, you can do it through Facebook, you can do it through any point of contact, you can do it in prayer at home.

You can even I um I'm thinking about in the scripture where they prayed over handkerchiefs and they use that as a point of activation.

There are different places and ways to actually activate Holy Spirit and activate our prayer in that way.

So, how do I greater embrace the Holy Spirit quickly here?

Number one, remove the barriers that are in the way.

God has more for you in your spiritual journey.

God has more for you in your spiritual journey.

Turn to your neighbor, say, God has more for you.

There's more, there is more, there is more, there is more for you.

You have to believe that you're not some of you, I'm grateful for everyone in this place where you're at now, but God has more for you.

I'm grateful for where you're at, but there is more.

And I need you to receive and move into that next place of our inheritance.

I want you to succeed.

I want you to move closer.

And just like my role is to take people who are far from God and bring them close, those people who are cold bring them a little warmer.

Some of those people are far out in our community or really cold, but we're working every day to bring them closer and closer.

As you're you and I are both doing this, we're making a difference today.

There are families in the church today.

You have families who don't know Christ.

There is a there's a place where you need to actually step forward and actually trust God for more.

Don't stop praying.

Move, be more diligent, be more earnest, be more passionate and perseverant in your prayer.

There are times some of you are in your vehicle for 15 minutes, a half an hour a day.

Make that space a sacred space.

Some of you are finding yourselves getting up earlier in the morning.

Use that time to actually activate your Holy the Spirit.

Some of you just may need to put a sticker on the mirror in your bathroom and say, as long as it takes me to get ready, I'm gonna just pray the whole time.

Some of you could be ours.

Some of you literally ours.

But there you there we are when we occupy, we move forward into every room.

Number two, we request the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, we just ask, Holy Spirit, whatever you have for me is good.

Holy Spirit, I'll take whatever you have.

Whatever you've got for me today, I want it.

I desire it.

I am hungry for it.

And start developing that hunger for the Holy Spirit.

Number three, receive it by faith.

The Bible says it's a gift unto us, but we have to wait on it.

We have to desire it.

And so we wait, and God is inviting you to take that one more step.

So, Father, today, would you just stand with me?

I'm gonna invite uh Bernice to come up.

I just want to activate our heart today, activate our spirit today.

I want us to be able to just reach out today in a way that we haven't reached out, maybe you haven't reached out in a long time.

But we can't put the Holy Spirit in a back room.

He is pivotal to our future growth and maturation.

For us to mature as believers, for us to grow in our faith for our children's sake.

They need to see a God who is alive and present today.

Today and now, and not a God who is feeble or weak or disassociated from us, but a God who is present and here and and now.

So, Father, today would you just lift up your hands and just begin to welcome Holy Spirit.

We welcome you, Holy Spirit.

We welcome that fresh breath of God.

We welcome, Lord, that fire that's in our our belly.

We thank you, Lord, for that living water.

We thank you for the gentleness of that dove and the fire that consumes any any pain, any sorrow, any confusion, any doubt.

We thank you for who you are, Lord.

Even now you're moving in our hearts, you're moving in our thoughts, you're moving in our mind, you're giving pictures and dreams.

And Father, now just bring them to life, we pray, Lord.

Ideas, signs, Lord, of direction where to move forward.

We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you aren't far from us, but that you are here and that you are close.

We love you so much, we love you so much.

Would you just share your heart with Him right now?

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

We thank you, Lord, for your presence, your presence with us.

We thank you, Lord, that you blanket us, you comfort us.

We thank you, Lord, for your counsel towards us, Lord.

You are precious to us.

We love you.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, amen.

After the service, if you've never received the Holy Spirit, we're gonna have a prayer team up in the front, and each one knows how to pray the prayer that will help move you forward.

And we believe that may be your first step, but don't allow that to don't allow that first step to hold you back.

Just take that step and allow the Lord to actually move you forward in your faith.

God bless you.

Let's give the Lord a last hand of applause.

Amen.