Men Of God, Men Of Faith, Men Of Power

You get on that blood stuff, it gets me excited, amen.

Hallelujah.

God is so good.

If you have your Bibles, before we turn this into a Gaither thing,

we might as well preach just a little dab.

Amen, just a little dab.

2 Timothy chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Beginning at verse 10.

Covet your prayers this week, Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.

I'll be preaching our morning service at the state camp meeting,

which takes place over here at...

Yeah, you better say that.

Y'all will be the only ones doing that time I'm done.

Over at Westmoor, Bishop called me last Friday.

I think Brother Sims, who was scheduled, I think was his name,

something come up, turn about, and he told me just as soon as he hung up the phone with him,

the Lord put me on his mind to call, so he called me, he said,

Man of God, do you have a word for Wednesday morning?

I said, no, but I can get one.

Amen, we can find one.

So we're going to do that.

If you can, come on out.

It would be good to see a few friendly faces.

Amen, and if y'all could surround my covenant group, I'd be even happier.

Because if you want to know what is wrong with what I've got to say Wednesday,

just see one of them after it's over.

And they're going to have a whole list.

And what they're waiting on me to do is go over one hour.

That's what they're waiting on.

And if the Holy Ghost hits me just right, we will, and not even check up.

Amen, but we don't want to do that.

Pray for us.

So we're going to do that on Wednesday morning.

See what the Spirit of the Lord says to the church.

It's the KEMS graduates morning, and the MIP graduates will be getting their certificates.

So it's going to be an opportunity to speak into the lives of some young ministers

about what's ahead of them as the Lord tarries his coming.

If he doesn't tarry, we ain't going to have to worry about it.

If you're ready to go, amen.

All right, enough of that.

Commercial over.

Second Timothy 3, 10 through 17.

But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,

long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions,

which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.

The persecutions I endured, what persecutions I endured,

but out of them all the Lord delivered me, my Lord.

If there's one part of a sentence you need to underline, right there it is.

But the Lord delivered me out of them all.

Amen.

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,

but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of,

knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known

the holy scriptures which we are able to make thee wise unto salvation

through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

That all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine

and reproof for correction, for instruction and righteousness.

That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

I want to talk to us all this morning, obviously,

as the Word of God will apply into all of our hearts,

I want to just raise up just a little bit and draw our attention to being men of God,

men of faith and men of power.

Whether you are a father or not today, if you're a man in this house,

you may be one day, and if you are, you need to have some instruction.

If you decide to live single all your life, you still need to know how to be a man of God,

a man of faith and a man of power. Amen?

Whatever your lot in life lends out to you to be,

I want to emphasize to us as men this morning,

but there's nothing wrong with emphasizing being a woman of God,

a woman of faith, a woman of power. Amen?

So this will apply to all of us, and I think it's a place we need to be.

Father, I love you this morning.

Thank you so much for your goodness and your mercy and your love toward us.

Help us, Lord, to be expedient.

I know the day, I know the hour, I know the opportunity,

I know what's laying beyond this time that we're together

and what this day holds for many.

Lord, as we celebrate together,

now Father, over this household that is standing here this morning,

if there be those standing whose fathers are already passed and going on,

they're no longer with them.

I ask for a comfort and for a peace over each of them.

My God, let your hand settle upon them today.

Many are not here this morning because of the pain that it brings

and the pain that it causes.

Many are here in spite of the pain and the emotions that they feel

and what it brings to mind,

and I ask God that you comfort each one today

with your wonderful, wonderful grace and your love

as we glorify your name.

In Christ's name, and everyone say it.

Amen. You can be seated today.

The further we go, the more I become convinced

that if the idea of family and the family unit,

the biblical principled idea of family

is to survive beyond this 21st century,

there's some things that are going to be needed,

and one of those, I believe, is a resurgence

of strong male biblical leadership.

If the family is to survive in this 21st century,

they're going to have to be led by godly men where men are present.

If a man is not present,

then therefore it's going to take a godly woman.

Hello, come on now.

A woman of faith, a woman of God, a woman of power

to arise to the occasion.

The reason that I feel this way

is because one of the main targets of attack

in our post-culture Christian ideology

is the attack on the family.

Mothers are urged to have their careers

and seek careers to supersede.

Being homemakers, matter of fact, in our culture today,

if you're a homemaker and you stay at home,

you're kindly criticized.

If you want to stay home and raise your children,

you're kindly criticized for not going out

and striving, mama, after your career.

Oh, you put your career on hold.

You put yourself on hold.

You're just, no.

That's what our culture tries to portray today.

You need to put you first.

Children, oddly enough, are encouraged

to choose their own identity.

When they get to school, like parents,

you don't have enough sense to raise your own children.

They get into public school systems,

and their minds are being formed and shaped

and warped and transitioned.

So the modern family is under attack,

but the center of the bull's eye,

I truly believe, is on the head of the home,

the head of the biblical home,

the head of the family, God's idea.

It's on the father and the man of the house.

How so?

Because they have been marginalized and minimized.

How so?

Well, go back to the day where you have Homer Simpson.

And the portrayal that that does toward fatherhood.

Al Bundy and some others,

gone are, leave it to Beaver dads.

Oh, yeah.

Some of you saying, who?

Who's Beaver?

Google it.

See who Mr. Cleaver is.

You know, I never could understand

how the ladies are to vacuum in pearls

and an apron in a dress and high heels.

I thought, if there's an unrealistic picture out there,

there's one, right?

But she pulled it off.

She made it happen.

There is that attack today.

Godly men have to arise.

We have to turn toward God, men.

We have to turn our hearts toward him.

And for families to not only survive,

but to thrive in this culture,

we need to be men of God, men of faith, and men of power.

We need to be the man of the hour

for our home and for our families.

Amen?

We need to strive to know more of God,

to be closer to God,

and allow God to speak into our heart and into our lives

as we are endeavoring to lead our families.

Because as the family goes, so goes the culture.

Why do you think the devil is attacking the family

so desperately and just without whim,

he's just unleashed this attack against the family?

Because the devil's got more sense than most people have.

Because the devil knows that if we are aligned

with the word of God and the will of God,

then there's nothing that can stop us.

If God be for you, then who or what can be against you, right?

Because God's grace and God's power,

and there's no situation or circumstance

that can enter into our families

that the grace of God will not enable us

and empower us to rise up over and to be victorious from.

Amen? And the devil knows that.

So if he can start to pervert the minds of children

and distort and just tear down the structure of the family,

he knows he can undermine the foundation of a society.

But when men begin to decide of their own selves,

their need for God and the help that they must have from him,

there's nothing more powerful than a man

who is humbled before an almighty God.

And he knows who he is. He knows who his God is.

There's nothing more powerful in a culture, in a society,

than a man in his rightful order,

into his home and over his family. Amen?

Because the devil knows when a man gets it, he's got it.

It just takes us a while to get it sometimes.

Ladies, there's your part. Right there is it.

You should have shouted me down right there.

When we get it and we finally get a hold of it,

there's nothing more powerful.

Ezekiel put it this way in 22 and 30 from the heart of God

as he's moved upon by the Spirit.

God says through him, I search for a man among them

who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me

for the land so that I would not destroy it.

But hear what God said, but I found no one.

What a travesty. Amen?

When God said out of search, I'm just looking for a man.

I need some man. I need one man. I need somebody

who will stand in the gap so that I might not destroy the world.

My, my, my, that's hard to conceive,

but even harder is this.

God said I couldn't find not one. Amen?

How far did he have to look?

How far did the eye of God rove over the earth in Noah's day?

When his heart, God's heart is turned,

he's convicted of himself because of the condition of humanity.

His heart only on evil forever.

Man's heart turned away from God and finally God's had enough.

And he said, I'm going to destroy this earth.

But thank God he found a man that day in that time in that era.

He found a man by the name of Noah. Amen.

And Noah found grace in the eyes of God.

When we think about being that man,

the first item on our list that we need to be is become a man of God.

A man of God is a description given to a man

that follows God in every way, who obeys his commands with joy,

who does not live for the things of this life,

but for the things of eternity, who willingly serves his God

in giving freely of all his resources,

yet gladly suffers as the consequences of his faith.

Amen. Perhaps Micah has it in six and eight.

It sums up the man of God in one neat verse package.

He has showed you, oh man, what is good

and what does the Lord require of you to act justly

and to live and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

It's pretty simple. We are the ones who overcomplicate it.

It's neatly packed together to love mercy, to love God,

to humble ourselves before the hand of God and to act justly.

Oh, we need to become men of faith because the man of God can only live by faith.

The first person called a man of God is Moses in Numbers 12 and verse 3.

He's called a man of God. Why?

Because Moses has decided to forsake the things of Pharaoh.

When he became of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh

because he was not an Egyptian. He was an Israelite. Hallelujah.

And he refused to compromise and give up the identity that God had given him

because God had his hand on Moses.

Can I find a man in the house who knows that God has had his hand on you?

I know for a fact that God has had his hand on me.

And there is a refusal in me to compromise in the day and the hour in which I live.

Whether I'm a preacher or not, whether I'm a pastor or not,

I refuse to give in a compromise to the things of this world

because I am first of all a man of God.

I want to serve God. I'm going to love God. I love mercy.

I'm doing my best to walk justly and upright before him.

And I refuse to compromise and to give in on my manhood.

The world needs men who are not ashamed to be identified as a man of God.

The phrase is used 78 times in 72 different verses throughout scripture.

So it's a fairly noted phrase, a man to be a man of God.

1st Tim. 131, Joshua 14.6 in our text, 1st Timothy 6 and 11.

It is in that text in 6 and 11 that we read that Paul is instructing Timothy,

but thou, man of God, flee these things in 1st Timothy.

He just finishes saying this, that the love of money is the root of all evil.

And he lists a whole lot of things above this verse talking about envy and strife,

railings and evil suspicions and the love of money.

And he said, but thou, man of God, this isn't you.

That is not your character. That is not to be your character.

That's not to be who you are. You are to be one who loves God. Amen.

Who seeks after righteousness, who seeks after holiness.

That's who we are to be as a man of God.

In order to be a man of God, I have to be a man of faith because without faith it is impossible.

Can somebody help me with that? Without faith it is impossible to please God.

So if I'm going to be a man of God, I've got to be a man who believes in God and trusts in God

and who's accepted the sacrifice of the Father, which is his son, Jesus, for the sins of my life.

I can't repent for you. Oh, I wish I could. I wish I could repent for all of us.

I wish I could live upright and holy for you, but I can't do it, man and woman of God.

I can't do that. It's a full-time job, trust me, to keep old brother Waters down on his knees.

It's a full-time job to keep Pastor Waters' cross squared between his shoulder blades

and carrying it and bearing it day in and day out.

It's a full-time job to keep me at the foot of Calvary and keep a fresh coat of blood applied to my life.

That's the reason singing about the blood means so much to me because it is at the cross.

My God, it is a power and there's nothing else that can cleanse me and I am aware of that.

Man, hear me today, men and boys in this room, you need faith in God, not in yourself, not in your ability,

not in your skill, but in God and in God alone. Hallelujah.

I'm not talking about being perfect because a man that was after God's own heart wasn't perfect,

which was David. David had his struggles with his own sin,

but he had enough sense to have a Psalm 51 experience not just once in his life, but often in his life.

When he would repent before God, I think part of our problem is our faith begins to wane

because we fail to remember we must remain repentant. It's not a one and done deal.

It would be if we only sinned once.

Let's don't start keeping score this week now.

If I were to give you a pen and paper, how big would your list be?

I try to keep some red out applied to mine as I go through the week.

I try to keep some blood over it.

I know we live in a culture that's gross to them. Well, it is gross. Sin is gross to God.

He detested. It's an abomination before him. It stints in his nostrils when you and I sin against him.

You know we don't just sin against others and sin against ourselves.

Every sin is a sin against God. So we have to become men and women of faith.

Faith brings us to a point of repentance when we trust in him.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever does what,

believe within him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

And it's through that wonderful gift of faith and trusting that we repent and we confess

and we allow him to cleanse and purge us.

You know, he could force that cleansing on us, but God doesn't force himself on us.

He waits till we get to the point where we can believe him and have faith in him.

Abraham believed God and is accounted unto him as faith to follow after God.

To be men of faith. Scriptures filled with examples of men of faith.

But few stand out any greater than the man we mentioned earlier, the man Noah.

Noah was just and Noah found grace. Abraham believed and Abraham obeyed.

Joseph refused and had Joseph heard said over him by Pharaoh himself

that Joseph was a man in whom the Spirit of God is.

Joshua J. Iris, the prodigal's father, just to name a very few that are in Scripture.

When we can really do a deep dive, we can find it filled with men of faith.

I think about that prodigal father.

Had a pastor when I was young preach on that text one Sunday and I've never forgotten it.

About that prodigal father.

And after the son, the prodigal son is gone and left and he's in his wild stage in his back slid and condition.

He talked about a knock at the door.

And when the father goes to the door and he opened the door and said there was a clean cut,

nice looking gentleman standing there and he said, my name is love.

I'm going after your son and I will bring him back.

Time comes and time goes, but love never shows back up.

Love never comes back.

He goes through a couple more characters until the father is waning and he hears another knock at the door

and he goes and knocks and opens to the knock and standing is this old,

shriveled, narrow, tough, rough looking individual old standing on the porch, looked like shoe leather.

And he said, hello, my name is time.

I won't come back without him.

Love couldn't get him wisdom, couldn't find him.

Truth was forsaken.

But time brought the prodigal son back.

My Lord, I began to think about how about that father?

You know, it said he's seen him a far off and he ran out to meet him because time didn't fail him.

Some of us need to hold on because God is heard.

Man and woman of faith, God is heard.

The prodigals that are wondering, the prodigals that are wayward.

I don't know what time will do.

I don't know time's effect on them, but time, time, time is after them.

We know that the day and hour in which we're living, time is at a premium.

It's in a valuable moment.

So we must seek the face of God so that we be fathers who are able to stand and present

and stand ourself whole with our families.

Men of faith.

Abraham, by faith, took his son Isaac, his only son.

Isaac, you and I know he had another son, but he only had one son, a promise.

By faith, he took him to Moriah.

All these mentioned distribute and demonstrate faith and power.

Noah protected his family, though.

Noah protected his family with his faith and by his faith.

He prepared an ark.

Noah protected his family with a spiritual ear.

He was listening to the voice of God.

He heard the voice of God.

Men, are you tuned in to hear what God's saying to you about your family?

We need to realize that one day when we stand before him, we're going to have to give an

account as the head of our home.

Oh, I know that we don't like to hear that, but it's still a reality.

We're going to give an account.

And you know what?

I want to stand blameless.

I want to stand and say, yes, Lord, I told him.

Yes, Lord, I warned him.

Yes, Lord, I taught him.

Yes, Lord, I demonstrated it in front of them.

Yes, Lord.

So that he can't look at me and say you failed in your spiritual responsibility.

I don't want to hear that.

So I'm doing everything possible not to.

Is it popular sometimes at home?

No, it isn't.

It wasn't when you chunk CDs out the window, had nothing but garbage on them.

And then you start hearing the fit.

That wasn't mine.

I borrowed that from so-and-so.

I said so-and-so should not have loaned it.

Chunk.

Not in my car, not in my ears.

Do you really believe that?

Yes, I do.

Did you really do that?

Yes, I did.

Ask him.

Because I know where the sounds penetrate.

How do you know that?

Because it's where they penetrated my mind and my soul, and I had to get victory over it.

So what are you doing trying to spare them the battle?

Get in there, mama and daddy.

Get in that game room.

Get that junk out of your home.

Destroy it.

Let them puff up.

Let them get mad.

But you're overwatching their soul.

Whoo!

Happy Father's Day.

And if they puff up, yeah, come on, somebody say that again.

Jack them up.

Spare the rod, you spoil the little heathen.

You'll come closer to making a saint out of one of them when you do not spare the rod.

God chastises the son that he loves.

If you love them, don't let them smart off to you.

That's a pet peeve.

I don't know if it's preaching or what.

Every man in this house, thank you for being here today.

Before I walked up here, I looked up the stat on the least attended Sunday of the year.

Guess what it is?

Father's Day.

Thank you for being in the House of the Lord today.

I'm trying to pick you up, not tear you down.

I'm trying to help you out, trying to support you here today.

To be a man of God, to be a man of faith, to protect your family with your faith like Noah did.

To protect your family with the reverence and the fear of God.

Part of our problem today is people have lost their fear and awe and revere of God and who God is, right?

Noah protected his family in his preparation of the ark.

He saved his family.

He protected his family with his faith that he had in God, trust he had in God.

You can protect your family in a lot of different ways.

Smith and Wesson is one of them.

Winchester is another.

These are just examples.

Rottweilers, Dobermans.

There's different ways you can protect your families.

Ring doorbells can help protect your family.

Secured properties, secured locks on your doors can help protect your family.

But there's no greater protection than the faith that you have over them

and how you bring them and present them to the house of God.

There is no greater protection.

I know they're going to be prodigals.

I know they're going to go wayward.

But one thing they cannot say when they find themselves in the hog lot of life

is that they don't know what was right.

Noah protected his family by faith.

Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet.

Being warned of God of things not seen yet.

Not one drop of rain had ever fell in Noah's time.

Not one drop.

It didn't rain.

The earth was watered with the dew of the ground.

That's how all the greenery was watered.

That's how life was sustained.

Not one drop of rain.

But then Noah hears from God, build an ark.

It's going to rain.

It's going to what?

Being warned of things that had never been seen.

Can I tell you there's some things coming the way of these youngins

that have never been seen in our lifetime?

I've watched mine go through things and situations that I had no clue about.

Amen, until I was way grown and had had them and raised them before.

I even knew some of this stuff was out there.

And it's the same way going on in their generation.

And we need to hear the warning.

If God tears, if the rapture don't take place soon, they need to be warned.

And we are the ones who warn them because God is sending a word to us

to be men of God, men of faith that we become men of power.

Faith protects.

Faith watches over.

Faith delivers and faith preserves.

Faith saves.

Did you know that?

Acts 16, 31.

And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

And thy house.

This is the Philippian jailer who comes in, Paul and Silas,

who he had been given charge over.

The place is shaken.

They've prayed.

They've sung hymns.

And the glory of God moved.

The doors are open.

The shackles are off their hands and feet.

And here comes the jailer running in because he knows his life is in jeopardy.

If they're not there, he comes sliding into the room.

Hold on, son.

Everything's going to be all right.

Don't take your life.

Believe in God.

And you shall be saved.

Faith saves.

You're not with the confession of our mouth, the believing of our heart,

who he is, Romans 10, 9, and 10.

That's how we're saved.

That's how we're delivered.

As we protect our families, as Noah protected his,

you realize our faith is demonstrated in our worship.

Men.

I think that's one reason that I'm so moved every time we have a Men on the

Mountain gathering.

Anywhere from two to 400 men over the past 20 years have gathered at Men on the

Mountain to worship.

And it never ceases to amaze me when I see men.

I'm talking rough.

Some of them, ooh, hardcore.

Redneck.

Come on.

That's what I'm talking about.

And they're standing there with mud on them where they've been out over the

mountain trail riding their four-wheelers or horses, and they just come right in

right down to church, and they lift those hands.

I told the band, Brother Brian and them, we're doing the worship one year, and I

told them, I said, y'all go down there about 30 minutes early and just start

jamming.

Well, they got down there to start jamming, they sprung up like a jack-in-the-box

lid come open, and they stood for 30 extra minutes and they worshiped.

And the presence of God come in, and the glory fell, and men, grown men wept.

Hot tears as they worshiped God.

You talking about a moving experience to see men worship.

And then we sprinkle back in on Sundays, and we got to revive that spirit on us.

I'm closing with this.

Somebody say hurry up, quit.

Men of faith, men of God, men of power.

There are several characteristics that accompany a man of power.

Integrity.

Humility.

Loyalty.

Having a teachable spirit.

Honesty.

Qualities.

Revealed in scripture as well as through men who believe God.

Job, he had his own set of troubles, didn't he?

Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him.

David had his own issues with sin, didn't he?

But he was a man after God's own heart.

Because he, when confronted, would repent.

When confronted, would repent.

Cornelius, Cornelius ended up being a man of power.

A man outside of the covenant.

But yet, when the angels stood before Peter, he said, look, there's a man over here you

need to go see.

Do you know what got God's attention about Cornelius?

When the angel met him to give him his message to sin for Peter, he said, your alms, your alms, your giving.

Not his faith, none of those things.

His giving.

Your alms have come up before the Lord.

It's important, folks.

And because of that, God is going to move on you and your household.

Isn't that something?

Because of your giving, your generosity, sin for Peter.

Cornelius, he gets saved.

His whole house gets saved.

And while they're standing there, the Holy Ghost fell.

Ah, the Holy Ghost fell on Cornelius' house.

As it did in Jerusalem in the upper room.

And he became not only a man of God, a man of faith, but he was endued with power from on high.

Like what Jesus said in Luke 24, 49.

Go, tear you in Jerusalem until you be endued with power.

We need a few more men full of the Holy Ghost.

True man of power knows who the source is.

Stand with me and I'm closing.

Second Samuel 22, 31 through 33 reads as thus.

This is a hymn, a song that David had written.

As for God, his way is perfect.

Can you say that with me?

His way is perfect.

The word of the Lord is tried.

He is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

For who is God?

Save the Lord.

And who is a rock?

Save our God.

God is my strength and power.

And he maketh my way perfect.

For some reason, the fall of sin in the garden brought about a stubbornness on humanity.

And that stubbornness sets no greater than it does on a man.

Come on, brethren.

Stubborn.

How many of you have never been lost when you're driving?

But you were so far away from the intended destination.

But you weren't lost.

No matter how many times you were encouraged, are we lost?

No.

No, we're not lost.

Well, stop and ask somebody.

That's a cardinal sin for a man to ask.

First of all, not how do I get there, but where am I?

Where are we?

How many of you still try to get there, brethren, without Siri?

Give in.

She knows better.

Speaking of her, that talk to text, you know, comes through the radio.

I got a text the other day from some of those beloved pastoral friends of mine, and my reply to them was stupid.

That was my word.

Well, Siri took it personal.

I'm not kidding you.

Come on there and said, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to do my job.

Am I not right?

I thought, what?

I was replying to the group, not to you, Siri.

My response should have been when she said, do you wish to reply to the group?

Yes.

But what they said was so far out there, I just said stupid, and she got offended.

Don't be stubborn, brethren.

Meekness is not weakness.

Meekness is not weakness.

Don't be stubborn.

Especially don't be stubborn with God.

He is your strength and He is your power.

You can't do this on your own.

You don't have enough wherewithal to do it without His wisdom and His knowledge.

Oh, I know we like to think we can.

How many of you besides myself get ready to put something together, you do not need the instructions, you need the picture on the box?

And how many of you like myself have had a pretty good pile of hardware left over?

Yeah.

That's the way it is in life when we just try to put this thing together without following the instructions.

There's one thing that you cannot distrust to the picture on the box.

You've actually got to get into the instructions.

I want to pray over us all today because it applies to each of us, male and female.

We need to be men and women of God.

And we do get stubborn sometimes.

Let's don't be stubborn with the Spirit.

Let your heart be pliable.

Let Him speak into your life.

Let Him direct you.

Let Him help you.

Men of God, so that our faith will become umbrellas for our families.

That one day, if they're wayward, if they're prodigal, that one day they'll look back and they can look at you.

And remember, while they were under that umbrella, things were different.

Amen.

I think that's one of the weakest moments I feel in my life sometimes is when I cannot control their lives.

And then, at times I still think there's six, seven, and eight, and I know how to fix it at six, seven, and eight.

But at 30 plus and 30 plus, they're all over 30 now.

I think the only one that would receive anything from that mode would just be me.

Father, I love you today.

Lord, we're standing here in your presence, grateful and thankful.

I pray for every male in this house to be men of God, men of faith, men of power.

Lord, we need your holy name.

If you're in here and you're not baptized in the Holy Ghost, I'm going to encourage you to start seeking after,

start reading after, start longing after, start yearning for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

I don't understand it.

We'll talk about it.

We've been talking about it.

Wednesday nights, a couple months now, we've been talking about the Spirit, the gift of the Spirit,

and indwelling power of the Holy Ghost over the household of faith, Father.

Encourage, strengthen, empower.

How many of you today know that you've got a struggle going on in your homes?

Lift your hand.

The enemy's out there.

The enemy's trying to steal, kill, and destroy.

Father, every hand that's lifted up, I pray, Lord, that you move on their situation.

I pray that you move in that dilemma, that circumstance, that crisis moment.

God, we pray right now that you move in, move over, take over this situation.

We surrender it to you.

Lord, if I've been stubborn, I'm getting out of the way right now.

I need directions.

I need instruction.

I need it today, Lord.

If you're here and need healing today with hands lifted, I know that he's able to heal you,

to touch you right where you're standing, and move situations out of the way.

He is able.

Touch the household of faith this morning, Father.

Move and minister in a mighty and powerful way.

We'll be quick to praise you.

In Christ's lovely name.

And the church says, amen.

Give the Lord a good handclap of praise, would you?