Touched by the Glory

It was hilarious like how secure I was how protected how he had me in his hand

It was like funny just like how we allow so many worries and cares and things to come into our hearts when we had the

Omnipotent Omniscient creator of the universe that says that you will never leave us or forsake us

It was like I was experiencing them like the reality of those statements

You you've got me. I'm your I'm your child. I'm your daughter. You care about me

Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.

If you want to connect with City Light Church feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com

That's citylightnyc.com

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds

As you listen to today's teaching remember that you are deeply loved by God that you are surrounded by his grace

And that he has a real hope and a future for you

I gotta stop doing these impromptu surveys

Well 50% of the people don't participate at least 65% of the time

But I just wanted to see who was here last week because I was talking about the anointing

And the ministry of Jesus and how we can encounter the anointing

Today and how we should encounter the anointing today

You know when you read the Bible you should pay attention to what the Bible emphasizes

And that's the emphasis we should have in our modern day life

When you read the letters to the first century church that's actually God's heart for the first century church

Through the Apostle Paul through John through Peter

So if they're putting great emphasis on it that must mean it's very important and we should put great emphasis on it

But I find that often we put a whole lot of emphasis on things that you notice the Apostles hardly even mention at all

Or we ignore a topic that they were very passionate about

And the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is very passionate about the power and the presence of God and the anointing

Jesus as his custom was the Bible says he went into the synagogue and he asked for the scroll of the prophet Isaiah

And he read from Isaiah 61

And Isaiah 61 begins with the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me

So Jesus's number one message was on the anointing

Yet you can be a Christian for decades in America and never ever hear a sermon on the anointing

When I first started out pastoring I would just talk about the anointing and people would come up to me after service and say

What does the anointing what is the anointing?

I just took for granted I was young in an experience I just took for granted that everybody already knew

The anointing by the way is the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit

It's the good stuff

When Jesus ministered he ministered by the anointing and when that good stuff got on the people

They became whole they got freed up

They started to look more like Jesus

And so one of the things that you see that's emphasized in the New Testament particularly in the prayers that the Apostle Paul prayed known as the Pauline prayers

You can find two great ones in Ephesians

If you ever don't know what to pray go in Ephesians see what Paul prayed for the first century church and prayed in the first person over your own life

And one of the things he prays for is for people to know the love of God that can't be known

You know for years I read that and I would just kind of skip over it because I just thought it was one of those things where the guy in the Bible is waxing poetic and being deep

Because that sounds deep, doesn't it?

Know the love of God that can't be known

But okay, well I don't like deep if I can't apply it to my life

So what does that mean?

How do I know the love of God that can't be known if you can't be known I should just give up

But when I dug into it and I saw that there were two different Greek words used there

The second no is Nosty which means to know intellectually to know with your mind

But the first one isn't that kind of no just bear with me here track with me

The first one is experience

So what Paul is praying he's saying I pray that you would experience the love of God which cannot be known with the mind

You cannot know the love of God by reading about it, by being rational, by processing it mentally

But something that must be experienced and a lot of things of the spirit are that way they're caught not taught

And so to have an experience with the power and the presence of God with the Holy Spirit is something Paul prayed over the first century church

It's something that I pray for you, it's something that's a major emphasis on this church because it's a major emphasis in the Bible

Right off in Genesis we see that Abraham had an encounter with God and his life was forever changed

Jacob he went to go Betty by put his head upon a rock

A ladder came down from heaven he wrestled with God all night long he had an experience with God and he was forever changed after that

You keep on reading you see Moses in the wilderness with the bush that burned but wasn't consumed

He had an experience and an experience is important because a man with a theory a lot of theories out there

But a man with a theory is never at the mercy of a man with an experience

God is a God that can be known

I wouldn't be a Christian still if I was just reading about him I want to know him

You get to know him

I definitely wouldn't be here today I wouldn't have even planted city like church all those years ago

If I hadn't had multiple not just one multiple God encounters where I experienced him

Hallelujah

Elisha had an encounter Elisha had an encounter Jesus had an encounter and an experience

That's why you don't read much about him

Before his baptism little snippet there when he was 12 13 years old but it was at his baptism that the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit came upon him and he had an encounter

And Jesus is our example and Jesus everything you see Jesus experience the whisper to you is you can too

He's your example he's your role model and his ministry began after an encounter and an experience

And I so desperately want you to have multiple multiple God encounters

Christians seem to well it's easy for them to fall into two camps one is just all frontal lobe and egg-head-y everything has to make sense

Some people even wear it as a badge of honor you know well I'm very logical that's great that means you pay your bills on time

You don't jaywalk definitely file your taxes every year be logical be responsible

But don't think that your mind can now apply to an infinite God you're gonna pitch and hold him you're gonna try to put him in a box he's gonna blow your mind away

So he's not the holy brain he's the Holy Spirit and you cannot understand the Holy Spirit with your holy brain

Your spirit is gonna engage the Holy Spirit

I want to show you something from Corinthians that's second Corinthians I believe yeah chapter 12 verses 2 through 4

Paul is talking about himself let me let the cat out of the bag right away

In the third person I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago whether in the body I do not know or whether out of the body I do not know

Paul is talking about an encounter he had with the Lord here he says it was so intense that I didn't even know if I myself was in my own physical body or if I was taken out of my physical body

He doesn't even seem like that's important what's important is that I met God but it was to such a degree where I don't even know if I

I mean I've never had that I've had incredible encounters with the Lord but I still knew I was in this old temple

That's something where you go you're looking around am I still in my physical form or not

God knows such a one was caught up to the third heaven the Hebrews believed in three heavens one was the sky the heavens the clouds

like in Genesis it says God created the heavens on the earth it's something about that atmosphere

The second heavens is the spiritual realm

The third heaven is the heaven that we normally think of when we say the word heaven the abode of God

Where God dwells where his throne is he said I was caught up into the third heaven the very abode of God

And I know such a man whether in the body or out of the body I do not know God knows how he was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words

Which it is not lawful for a man to utter can you imagine the Apostle Paul inside we don't know what he was singing he could have been praying maybe he was just walking

And he had a God encounter where he didn't even know if it was in his own body or not

It was caught up into heaven and he heard the language of heaven what did he see?

He could be he got the whole gospel that way because he said he got the gospel by revelation the gospel of grace

He heard the language he heard words which were beyond human comprehension but he spirit understood them

Said but it's not even lawful it would be inappropriate even to even say them

And I know a little bit what he's talking about because in one of the encounters with the Lord

Probably top three most profound encounters I ever had was when I was 17 years old

When I had this encounter I

Wasn't allowed to even talk about it for 10 years you say how were you not allowed

I went to tell a few friends in the moment even thought about telling my felt like the Lord just shh

Don't don't talk about this

This is between you and me

This is special this is holy this is private

After 10 years

It was like he said now you can share for 10 years I kept that to myself not no other human you

This makes all the difference in the world

You want to have staying power with the Lord you want to experience abundant life you're going to need two things

The word of God and the spirit of God

And some people are just word Christians all word you dry up some people are just holy spirit Christians

But if you don't have the word as your barometer of truth and as your foundation you become flaky and weird

All word you dry up all spirit you blow up you put the two together you grow up

Amen

When the trumpet sounds you'll go up

Church on Sunday you'll show up

The QR code comes up you pay up hey

Hallelujah

Makes you solid

Jesus he rebuked the Pharisees he said you know not the scriptures

Nor the power of God you just caught up in your religion in your tradition

What we're doing is raising up a people here who know both the scriptures and the power of God and the two go hand in hand

He's just a bunch of bread which is the word you get crusty and dry if you only drink wine no bueno

Eat some bread a little bit of wine

So I've shared I've shared my encounters

I believe it's important that you hear from people who've had encounters with the Lord

Because that'll help open you up to receive from the Lord he wants to visit you

Prayer is not supposed to be dry

Prayer is not supposed to be one way it's supposed to be a two way street

He wants to minister to you meet you in those times touch your spirit

Show you what's to come

Some of you have

Questions that are circulating inside of your your souls

You may be confused when he shows up all that is just cleaned right out it's wiped away

And I feel this really in my spirit as we close out because we're now in September

Got what one or two more days is it tomorrow September the first that's it

Sometimes I wonder about those scriptures where it talks about the days getting faster and the Lord would need to lengthen the days and

Because I know time goes faster as you get older but everybody's saying it my own son is like 2025 he's 11 he sounds like he's 65

Dad how's it how's it September already but it really feels like we like everything is in fifth gear now

Time is moving faster

And now we're we're closing out 2025 in just a few months

We need the Lord we need his presence

So I want to ask a few people to just share an encounter they had with the Lord I'm going to ask my wife to come up first

Just come on up and share

Where's the mic oh he has a mic for you

So I shared this in first service at just a Sunday about eight or nine months ago

We were here worshiping and I guess it was just a season where I felt

Distracted and worried and my mind was more full of those things than the reality of the Lord and I sort of just in my mind saw Jesus right in front of me here

And with his hand out to me and I just felt him saying it's great to see you and I guess I

What I took away from it was just

Being overwhelmed by his nature

I cried and cried that Sunday because it was I was coming in feeling guilty and there was things I hadn't done that I meant to do and

But just overwhelmed by there was nothing else I needed to do but just that the Lord was happy to see me awesome

Chris will you come up and share

Now she cried and cried you said for several hours I

Remember that Sunday I didn't you know I got to get my wife to test my to find out what's going on because I didn't hear any of this until the first service

I didn't know I didn't know any of that we just got back home. She asked me what I wanted for lunch that was it

But I remember you were like guns though for a couple of hours and that's all it takes sometimes to realign us

That's why we you know the old time is saying those songs like just one glimpse of your glory just one touch of your hand

And that moment you you're as you're pressing in and your expectors out and then you see a glimpse of his glory and you and then it's in those moments you realize how messed up you got

Because you're thinking everybody things are kind of doing fine and then you see him and he quickly straightens you out and you go overwhelmed with his love and then you go whoa

I was in a bad spot and all it took was one look from your eyes to get me in the right spot

Hey man, I think it's on yes

So I grew up obviously here in New York grew up in an imperfect family grew up going to a religious church

So by the time I came to City Light I had a lot of stuff on me paying hurt religion

I remember having one encounter at our Friday nights in Seven Street

And I remember just being just experiencing the presence of the father experiencing his love

That'll be feeling like fear and pain and hurt fall off of me and change being

Was this during worship or during worship during worship during worship during worship

Just literally feeling that the spirit just break stuff off of me feeling love and like for me

I grew up hearing about God and I grew up hearing the God of the Bible and growing up in churches like that

But to have a moment where I can actually experience his love and experience his presence

And experience the love he had for me because I like in reality as you can always hear about somebody

But you don't know what they're like until you actually experience them and encounter them

And I was able to encounter him and then I understood his love for me because I literally could experience it for myself

And like my testimonies are like I've been transformed by his love because all the religion left

All the frontal lobe that you would say stuff left for me because like obviously I had all these thoughts or preconceived notions

What I thought God was like but was like upon meeting him and actually encounter him

I got to know who he really was and then he like showed me who he who I was too

And a big part of our walk is because growing up in religious circles you can think life is all about service and ministry

And even doing things for the Lord when really it's about knowing him

And the Lord gave me this revelation that like like we can do all these things and not know him and miss it

And the Lord has shown me how important it is to actually know him for myself

So the thing I want to share with everybody here today is that God wants to know you and wants to encounter you

And when I was praying for these encounters I had a hungry desire

And I didn't know if the Lord was going to meet it but he did

And like the Lord said this the Lord will meet people if you're hungry for it

And his desire is to reveal himself deeper if that makes sense

I think that's my testimony

Awesome, thank you Chris

Yari will you come on up and share?

Here you go

Hi city light

So when Pastor Bo asked me to share about my encounters we got

He brought me back to my first encounters with him

I was raised in Puerto Rico and I was Catholic

And interestingly even though my life was like a checklist

I do all my sacraments, I did all my sacraments, went to church every Sunday

My relationship with God was really distant

I never had an encounter with him

And when I came here in 2015

And I came with my walls full of fear

And really not understanding God's love because the relationship I had with him was a very distant one

And my focus was more of me

The focus was on me, what can I do?

Instead of who God is and His love for me and how much he wants to give me

The axis, all the axis that I have

So I just want to make sure I'm understanding

When you say your focus was on you and what I could do

You mean from a religious perspective

My works

Your works

Your focus, I think this is important

Our focus was on what she needed to correct

And what she needed to do to earn more of his favor

And it resonates with me because one of my earliest encounters, the one that I wasn't allowed to talk about for 10 years

I was in God's palm

I mean I was 17 years old, I was in a hotel room with like 16 ages around me and a youth leader strumming a guitar

But I went to the carpet closed my eyes, I was in his palm

And it was a profound experience, I felt immediately his anointing started bawling

And he was lifting me up towards his face and I braced for impact, I thought, here comes the rebuke

He's going to now tell me everything that I'm doing wrong

Because that's what was in my mind

You know, we're very religious creatures

Even though I came from an agnostic atheist family with zero religion

But we always have a predisposition towards religion

And towards trying to work on ourselves and do something for God

So I'm thinking now I was going to come to the big correction, the big rebuke of everything I needed to do

And instead, he just smiled at me

And I never saw such love emanating from a face

And then I was already crying like a little baby shaking like a leaf

And then he smiles at me with pleasure

And I'm like, ah!

So what do you mean you don't want anything for me?

You just want me?

It was incredible, but go on

Yeah, so I felt that I had to earn his love

So it was very distant

And yes, I remember when I started coming to city light and really understanding

God's grace and his love for me and really grasping and understanding

My identity in Christ, that I was a daughter of the most high god

You know, Wall started to fall and I remember my experiences with God or a few of them were lily

It was at home

I was at home and I just got good news

And I just started laughing

The Holy Spirit took over and I was laughing and it was funny because my room was cat

Was in my room at that moment

And I was just laughing non-stop

And my core was hurting

And the cat really was looking at me like

And it was so simple

I felt that in that moment that God was just smiling at me

Like what you said, he was just smiling at me

And he was just letting me know

I was just experiencing that joy and that peace

Like I caught you, you know, I love you

And there is more that I want to give you

And it's always laughter

I remember I know the time this is a short one

I was in a lot of pain, physical pain

And I just surrendered to him and I started sharing with him

And again, I just like started feeling that joy

And laugh that I couldn't contain

So it's about experiencing the love of God

And I think that's just a reminder of knowing who you are, who God is

And he will just reveal to you his love

That was awesome, thank you

And some of you need to know that God will touch you to the point where you laugh

I don't think all of you know that

Some of you hear people laughing and you're thinking that's so rude

They must be scrolling and so are funny tiktok

And now they're laughing in church

They got a funny text

No

Psalm 126, when the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion

We were like men who dreamed

Then our mouths were filled with laughter

The scripture says

Doesn't just say we laughed, our mouths were filled with laughter

It seems to denote a higher level of laughing

Imagine what could happen if you took the breaks off

In your relationship with the Lord and quit playing it safe

And you didn't view prayer as just coming in quickly and giving him your grocery list

But you wanted to engage the Holy Spirit

You'll be safe

The Lord goes with you

Some unholy spirit is going to come in instead of the Holy Spirit

And that when you're calling on the name of Jesus

And a God encounter will change you forever

Mauricio, let's hear from you

This started to feel like those old Pentecostal churches

Because he was sitting all the way in the back

So it's like his brother Mauricio here

And he's like, I'm here and then a slow walk all the way

People don't like the silence and they clap

They're like, all right, brother Mauricio

But you blessed the people with your testimony

Oh my God

Get the towel out

Well, good morning city light

My name is Mauricio, as you know

I used to write a thoroughbreds for a living

I used to be a jockey

I used to write an aqueduct Belmont in Saratoga

And I had my life set where I wanted it to go

I was writing races, I had what the world wanted

I was set, but yet inside my heart there was a hole

But I didn't know it, I knew there was something missing

But I really didn't know

I had a background from Catholic background

When I was a young in church

The Catholic priest would go around shaking his hands

Because me and my brother were left and he came and smacked me

Because you're not supposed to laugh in church

I said to myself, if that's God, I don't want anything to do with him

So I was just done with religion

Now that I've moved to Long Island, I can't tell you how many stories like this, I've heard

Long Island, a lot of Italians, a lot of...

But if you're younger and used to be Catholic, you're like, wow, that's weird

I'm talking to anybody who's Catholic over 60 in Long Island

They have a story of a priest hitting him

It's just wild

As a church

I just like to say that for 23 years now, 23 and a half, I've never hit anyone of you

Never struck anyone

There's freedom here

So my heart was like, I don't want nothing to do with that God

Absolutely not

So I wasn't my own lane

Going doing what I wanted to do in my heart

Riding races, having fun

But yet, like I said, I had a hole in my heart

And then I was going out with this girl

And her brother kept inviting me to this Bible study

And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, one day I'll go

And he kept inviting me like five, six times, all right, this six time, I was like, all right, I'll go

So I walk into this basement place and they got guitars

And it was all strange to me, I'm like, wow, what is this?

I've never experienced anything like this because you got the bells in the Catholic church

He got the incense, but this was like so weird

I said, okay, I'll just chill, check it out

And then I just felt this liquid love coming to my heart

I was like, wow, and I just started sweating

Like, what is going on?

And I asked the pastor, what's happening?

And he goes, this is Jesus

And he goes, is he's real?

And I was like, that was like the turning point of my life

To understand that the love in God is waiting for us to be open to be love

Because we're objects of his love

And every single one of us here today, he wants to love on us

Because he put this specific touch of his love that he only you can understand

As you touch by the master, by the king, by his love

That you can render your heart

Because the religion, I gotta tell you religion sucks

But what relationship with Jesus and the father and the Holy Spirit

You can walk with them in such a manner that it makes you whole

It makes you whole so that that was my testimony that changed my life

Thank you

I'm gonna be praying for you this week

I'm gonna be trusting the Lord and asking Him to visit you while you're praying

And it begins with you just expressing to the Lord that you want more

You want more of Him, you want your relationship with Him to deepen

Open your mouth and just whisper to Him, Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit

Fill me a fresh

Lord, I want more of you

And then get out of your head

Don't get bound with the paralysis of analysis

You cannot be a controlling person and experience God's presence

You gotta relinquish control to Him

Take the breaks off and just say, Lord, whatever you want to do, do in me

This week, are you ready? How many of you were ready?

I...

Can you put another mic in the Amazon cart for next week?

Kate, want you to come on up? We gotta broken mic for you

Hi guys, I'm Kate

I wanna talk to you guys about freedom and worship and how I first experienced it

So growing up, grew up in a Presbyterian church

So what I saw from the worship leaders was that the posture of worship is reverence to God

And physically it looked like this

And so growing up with just that idea that I couldn't really fully express or dance in front of the Lord

Even though David did, but we don't do that anymore

It was so confusing to me and I remember growing up hearing that, you know, if you had any hidden sin

Then you couldn't take communion, children weren't allowed to take communion

So I knew that God was holy, I knew that He was good, I knew that He was good

What's hidden sin?

I don't know, they didn't tell me

I don't know either

I've heard that too, if you have any hidden sin

Like, don't we all hide our sin?

Yes

I don't broadcast mine

I mean, I show it to the Lord, but they see you hear all these things

If you have hidden sin in your life, don't take communion

Well, it confuses everybody

Then you got like half the church wondering if they should take communion and not less the lightning bolt hits them

And communion is God's medicine

Communion is how you get better

And I'll have the people aren't taking God's medicine because they have court-unquote hidden sin

Anyway, that was just my commercial break

Kate

Thank you

Yeah, so, and what's so funny is that people would just flood up, I was like, oh, they don't got hidden sin

But I have hidden sin? I was like, I didn't understand, anyway

But the Lord plucked me out of the world at a really young age, I grew up Christian my whole life

And then as quarantine hit, I lost all my friends from school and the Lord really just, I feel like He still is putting me in a season of hiddenness

I came to City Light in 2021 when I was just turning 16 and the Lord just really spoke to me clearly about a calling and worship ministry I have

And so I started leading worship here and it was amazing, but I just had all of these old ideas, these old mentalities about how I needed to approach worship

And as a type A person, it got even worse because I was like, well, now I got to lead people well

And now if God's not pleased with me, then how do I do it? I don't want to let down other people

And there is just a constant dialogue of the fear of men

And I remember in 2023, I went to a worship conference

And I will never forget what the worship leader said, it was just a small group of us who came after service

And he said, the presence of God is here, this is your home, lie down, cry, laugh, this is where you meet your father

And you have permission to worship here

And I remember that being such a new concept to me that I could, that I could worship God freely because I've heard it

But I never experienced it before and I will never forget the guy next to me was full on doing the running man

And me a couple years ago would have been like devil

But it was just the most healing experience watching somebody do the running man in the presence of the Lord

And it just broke something in me, it broke the mental walls that I had, it broke the hard hardness that I had

And I realized that the father wants me to come as I am

That even though he's placed an assignment on my life, all he wanted all this time was just me

And that was the most freeing thing ever

And I remember that as I also joined in the running man, that the words that I was saying started to actually mean something to me

That I was actually becoming an object of worship unto the Lord

And it broke down all those barriers that I had to perform, that I had to do good, that to earn his love

Even though I knew that I didn't have to, it was just all had knowledge before

And it finally sank into my spirit and all the shame left me and I realized that when you do have distractions in worship

As I know we've all experienced those intrusive thoughts, the purpose of coming into the presence of the Lord reveals all the darkness that we've been hiding

And so it's his mechanism of healing us, of restoring us

And music has such a special way of uniting heart, mind, spirit, body, all to be a line in the presence of God

So I experienced true freedom in so many ways that night

And whenever I do have those thoughts of performance, I can think back to that moment and just thank the Lord that his freedom was given to me and that he's never going to take it back

Amen, thank you Kate, awesome

Natalie, won't you come on up?

Is this blessing you? A plethora, an abundance, a cornucopia of different experiences

I'm trying to find you, each person has a different story

I want you to see that maybe you're not that unique in the struggles you may have

In the obstacles you think are ahead of you

Sometimes the way it's presented from the pulpit, you can believe the lie that God just visits a special few

But he longs for all of his children

Amen

For me, one of the most powerful encounters that I had with the Lord was different how I'd always experienced him before

I was very comfortable with crying in the presence of the Lord

Weeping, I was like, okay, I got that that's comfortable to me

And what Pastor Born was sharing really resonated because I didn't realize how much control that I had

That I was like, okay Lord, you can touch me this way, you can touch me in these kind of confines in this kind of environment

But I don't think I even realized I was saying not in these but really like my heart was

And when people would especially laugh in the presence of the Lord, it would really bother me

For those that know me, I know that that's funny

But it really would, it would just like...

And again, I don't think I ever said verbally, like don't do that to me Lord but I in my heart I was like, yeah, not like that

That's ridiculous, they look ridiculous

And it was in this, I went to this meeting and I remember sitting there before and I was really...

The Lord had definitely brought me to a place where I was hungry and I wanted more

It felt like there was just... I don't know, there was just so much more that he wanted to do in my heart

Like just things that were going on in my life that I wanted freedom from

And so I was very, like I was coming with an expectation

But I remember like Holy Spirit led me to kind of say, you can touch me however you want to

And I remember like even saying that I was like, oh, do I really like...

Do I really mean that? Like you know, like...

Because again when you're thinking like, I don't know where I got these ideas

But like people would just like, swing off the shit, just doing these wild things

And I'm very prim and proper and I was like, that just does not go online with my personality

But anyway, long story short and even in that, like the Lord actually ended up calling me out through the minister

And that was something that I was not comfortable with, I was like, oh gosh, no, I'm gonna be in front of everyone

But I kind of just surrendered, I went up and he spoke over me, he said, no more sorrow, only joy

And I fell out under the power of God

And it changed my life and it was so amazing because I didn't know that joy could actually heal you

But like as I was laughing, I'm just laughing, like these sounds are coming out of my mouth

That I was like, are these human sounds? Like they were just ridiculous sounds

And I'm laughing and laughing and laughing on the floor, like rolling around

And I'm like, what is going on? But I literally just felt like I had experienced a lot of pain, a lot of grief, a lot of sorrow from different people in my life

They're close to me passing away and just, you know, the hurts of life as we go on our journey

And I literally felt like as I'm laughing, just like these things are being broken off of me

I saw Jesus like removing shackles from my wrists and from my ankles

And it was just so profound that I was like, I knew that like when I got up off that ground, I'm like, I'm not going to be the same anymore

Like this was something that like marked me for life

And one of the most beautiful things that Jesus did in that encounter as well as that

I had lost my best friend and I had so much guilt because I didn't really share with her the love of God

I didn't really talk about my relationship with him even though I wasn't following him that closely

And I was just like, I just had these like dread this dread that she was in hell

And then I'd never see her again and it tormented me and in that moment the Lord showed me that she was in heaven with him in it

And it blessed my heart so much and I just feel like in that encounter it proved that like in that laughter, it wasn't just joy

It was like this like sense of security that it was like hilarious how much she loved me, it was hilarious

It was hilarious like how secure I was, how protected, how he had me in his hand

It was like funny just like how we allow so many worries and cares and things to come into our hearts

When we have the omnipotent, omniscient creator of the universe that says that he will never leave us or forsake us

That we are in the palm of his hand and so it's like as those like those verses and those affirmations that all again like people say they were in my head

It was like I was experiencing them like the reality of those statements by just the laughter of being like, oh my gosh, yeah

You've got me, I'm your child, I'm your daughter, you care about me and even in the simple little thing like my friend, you're in that end

It matters to you because it matters to me

Thank you

I'm getting a distinct impression in my spirit, there are some people here you really think you're on the mothership right now

These testimonies are not making much sense to you and you might have even had the thought I've never heard of things like this

Which is when people say it in the wrong spirit a really arrogant statement because what they're saying is I've heard of every way that God moves

But not this way therefore it can't be real because I have never heard of anything like this

I want to ask you a question, Acts chapter 2, it's when the Holy Spirit was first given to the church

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It's the day the church was birthed

There was 120 people in the upper room, Mary, the mother of Jesus was one of those people, 11 of the disciples, Judas had gone away

120 of them in an upper room, the Holy Spirit has poured out on them, they're filled with the Holy Spirit, the Bible says they speak in other tongues

When they step out the people on the streets of Jerusalem think they're drunk

Why did they think they were drunk?

Some people might say well because they were all speaking in other languages

But that's really weird because here we are in the story of Queens

You go walk down Steinway, you'll hear a lot of different languages

But you don't ever think look at that alcoholic

Look at that drunkard

Sunday, noon, sounds like they're speaking Lebanese but they're probably just a drunk, maybe they're high on crack

No

You never think that

So there must be something else they were doing to warrant all the Jerusalem thinking they were drunk

What could it be?

Well how do drunk people act?

They're free, they're not self-conscious, they laugh, some cry

And the drunkenness that the Holy Spirit gives it gives life and not death which is what natural alcohol does

Anika, I want you to share your testimony

Hi everyone, so this encounter happened a few years ago, I was a sophomore in college fall semester

And I just was having doors time ever, I was miserable, I was sad, I wasn't happy

And I just didn't know what to do

It felt like there was a big black hole in my heart and was getting bigger and bigger and taking over

And I did everything that I knew I could, I was just falling the trends, I was going out with my friends, partying, whatever

But it just kept getting bigger and blacker and was just taking over it

And I just didn't know what to do

At the time I was friends with some people, they were in Pentecostal and they would tell me about Jesus

And they would say, God loves me and he wants to have a personal relationship with me

Coming from the background of being Catholic, I was like, what? This is news to me

And I just didn't know what to do with it, so just kind of put it away, tucked it away

I was very curious but at the same time I didn't know how to tackle that

Because of my background so I just, okay, interesting, alright, just keep moving

And so that night, that particular night I was in my dorm, I was in a dorm room with four other people

Well, I had my own room but the other three had their own rooms as well

I was in my bedroom, the door was closed and there were people around like outside

But I just felt that night it was just the worst, I don't know what happened

I just felt, you know, just the whole blackness darkness was just all over me all around me

And I just didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to get out of it

So I was laying in my bed and I just started crying and weeping

And I was just like, I felt like something was missing in my life and I didn't know what to do

And I was just weeping and I put my head in my pillow because the walls were dead

I didn't want people to hear me

So I was just like weeping and crying, I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I doing?

What should I do? I have no one to reach out to

And then I remembered, in that moment I remembered what my friend said that God loves me

And he, they told me a bunch of other things and in that moment I think that was the Lord kind of reminding me

And I was like, well, God, if what they said it's real, if it's true, then I really need you right now

Because I don't know what to do and I don't think I'm going to survive this

And I was crying and weeping and then I said this and I cried a little bit more

And then I felt like somebody was in the room with me and took this big, heavy blanket of comfort

And put it and then just covered me with it

And as soon as that fell over me, I just felt perfect peace

And then immediately just like, I stopped crying, I stopped weeping and I felt so good

And then I fell asleep right after

And so the following morning I am waking up

And I'm like, usually when I have those types of episodes, I know that I have to fight to get out of bed

I can't stay in bed, I have to go out, I have to talk to people, I can't stay in the funk

But as I'm waking up, I realize, oh, I don't feel heavy

I don't feel that gross heavy thing upon me, I feel like I am happy right now, I feel so happy

I felt light as a feather and I was like, whoa, this is crazy

You know, I knew that something had happened, I just didn't know what I knew was the Lord

But I didn't have the terminals where I wasn't walking with the Lord but I knew that God did something

So I got up, went to have breakfast and started hanging out with my friends

The ones who were talking about Jesus and then finally I decided to go to church with them

Because I was capping, I was like, I'm not going to church, I'm capping

So I finally decided to go and that's how I received the Lord

But the Lord really, you know, when you hear the word of God when people share those words with you

Even though you have not experienced it but if you bring it to Him, you're like, hey, they said this

Confirm you what and He will and He did that night

He really removed that darkness out of me, that funk and I've never felt it again since that night

And I wasn't even saved yet, so thank you Lord

So awesome, you can give it a try to come up

Worship team, come on up

Hallelujah

Thank you all of you who shared

I want to do this, I want to get services nowhere near over

But just for administrative reasons right now, kind of in the middle, I want to receive our tides and offerings

So be really silent and act depressed and we'll put the giving information on the screens to either side of me

Give with a glad heart, give and faith

Let's try that again, that felt a little not revivalry

We're going to worship and honor the Lord with our tides and offerings

Amen

Do you want to say anything past your mode?

When it comes at the end, I'm no good at it

I got one thing on my mind right now, I want to see them touched

Anything you want to do?

Just know that we do have three different ways to give

If you point your smartphone at the QR code, it'll take you to our safe and secure landing page where you can give by faith and trust the Lord, amen

And the connection card too, do that

Well that's a whole separate thing for you guys

On your chair was a connection card and as the name implies, we do want to connect with you

Not just to get a record of your visit, but here's the thing

To honestly give you an opportunity to be a part of something

City light church literally has something happening every day of the week because it's not just a Sunday morning gig

Amen, being a Christian is not an individual Lord if you will

But it's family, it's connection, it's accountability, it's friendship

So we invite you fill out the connection card

If you're a first-time guest, take that connection card to the VIP table in the front

We actually have a gift for you

Also too, if you're not a first-time guest, the connection card is still for you

If you ever want to meet with a pastor, you ever want to get prayer, put in one of your petitions to have somebody pray with you

Believe with you for something big that's happening in your life

You want to sign up for a volunteer team, sign up for a coming life group in the fall

The connection card is for you, Emma

All right, stand to your feet

This is the City light church podcast

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or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik in City light church

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We pray that you have been encouraged today

that you have been reminded how much God loves you

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