YOU CAN HEAR GOD — Episode 5: The Inward Witness

Sharing good news of great joy to all people.

Elation Church. Today's week number five. Everybody

say week number five. In our series that we've

entitled, You Can Hear God. Look to the person

beside you or behind you or in front of you and

say, You can hear God. You can hear God. You

can hear God. As a matter of fact, we learned

this in week number one. If you are a Christian,

you have heard God. You might say, Like a lot

of people tell us, you know, that's just not

my relationship with God. I don't hear God. That's

not my experience. Well, if you're a Christian,

you have heard God. You have heard God. So, this

week, we're going to take another direction.

We're going to talk about the inward witness.

Everybody say the inward witness. Last week,

if you were not here, I encourage you. to go

to podcast, anywhere you listen to podcasts,

and look up Galatian Church, because last week

we talked about hearing God through Scripture,

hearing God through His Word, and that's one

of the most important ones. All right? So, if

you haven't heard that one, you need to hear

it. As a matter of fact, just go ahead and listen

to all four of them, if you haven't been here

for this series. It won't take too long. You

can hear God. Romans 8, 14 says this. For all

who are led by the Spirit of God are children

of God. All who are led by the Spirit of God

are children of God. So how do you follow? How

do you follow the Holy Spirit's leading? How

do you follow any leading? Well, you've got to

know, right? You've got to hear the directions.

Before you can follow. A characteristic of being

a Christian is that you're led. That means you

hear and follow. It's not just hearing. It's

also following. Because if you just hear and

don't follow, then you're not led. Somebody smile.

This isn't that hard. This is easy. So a characteristic.

One of the big characteristics of being a Christian

is. that you hear and follow the Spirit of God.

Not just show up to church every week. Rub a

little Jesus on you every week. Coming to church

and thinking that that makes you a Christian

is just like standing in your garage all week

and thinking that you're a car. That's not original,

but that's... You could even make car noises

with your mouth. You still won't be a car. So

you can come to church and you can make noises

with your mouth. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

And still not be a Christian. My car noises were

pretty good. Is that what you said? I can't sound

like one of them little Hondas with a motorcycle

muffler on it that goes down there. Anyway. I

can't. That wasn't as good as the other one.

Wasn't as good as the other one. Put that with

my dancing from last week. Is that what you said?

Oh, man. People online are wondering what in

the world is going on. Because they can't hear

you. All they can do is hear me. Come to church.

Come to church. If you want to know what's really

going on at Elysian Church, come to Elysian Church.

Because there's a lot more going on than what

you see through this camera, I promise. So here's

my question today. What do you do when you don't

hear words? We said that faith comes by hearing

and hearing by the Word of God. That means that

we hear the anointed utterance of God, the anointed

voice of God when you look at those words. So

what do you do when you don't hear words? Because

let's be honest. We don't just walk around and

hear words, right? We don't always walk around

with our Bible open saying, God, speak to me,

speak to me, and then all of a sudden He causes

a word to come alive in your heart. And that's

not the way we live our lives a moment -by -moment

basis. Now, we need to hear Him. We need to hear

Him. But like we talked about, I believe, in

week number... Three, there's a lot of ways that

He speaks to us. A lot of ways, a lot of different

ways. And today, we're talking about Him speaking

to us. We're not hearing words, but He speaks

to us through an inner witness so many times.

And we have to be aware of that in order to hear

Him. Some of you are looking at me funny. But

when He speaks to us through an inner witness,

when the Holy Spirit speaks to us through an

inner witness, we have to acknowledge that He

is speaking so that we can know how to follow

Him. Because those who are led by the Spirit

of God are the children of God. So it's important

that we are hearing and following. What if you

don't hear words? What if you don't hear those

anointed utterances? directly concerning the

life issues that you're facing today. I'm telling

you, God is speaking. God is speaking about everything.

He wants to communicate with you about every

part of your life. A lot of people think, oh,

God wants to talk to me about spiritual things

and not natural things. No, God wants you to

follow Him in everything. We're going to drive

that truth into your heart if you'll receive

it by the time we're done today. And we've talked

about this a lot of times, and I'm not going

to go back and completely explain everything,

but everybody say, God is a spirit, and we are

created in His image. Okay? So this is something

that a lot of people have never recognized before.

You are a spirit being. Unlike any other living

thing on this earth, you are a spirit being.

You're not just flesh and blood and soul. You

are a spirit created in the image of God. You

have a soul. And you live in a body. But you

are a spirit. Your spirit comes alive when you

come into a relationship with Christ. That's

the description of being born again. Because

our spirit man is dead in trespasses and sins.

But when we are born again, our spirit becomes

alive. We are born again. We're new. New creation.

Now, up until the time when we came to Christ,

we just lived our life in a soulish and fleshly

nature. That's all we had. So we just survive

in this world. With what we have. But then when

we're born again. Our spirits come alive. And

we're connected to God. We're connected to the

Holy Spirit. We're alive. Look at the person

beside you and say I'm alive. I'm alive. I'm

alive. In Christ I am alive. My spirit is alive.

Now. You can't just live being led by the flesh,

by everything externally, you know. Just living

by human nature, living by the flesh. You can

live being led by the soul, and that's where

most of us, after we grow up, most of us get

pretty good at letting our soul lead us and direct

us. Your soul is made up of three things. It's

made up of your thoughts. Everybody say thoughts.

Everybody say thought life. You can say mind,

will, and emotions, or you can say thoughts,

desires, and feelings. Okay? That's what we're

made up of. Our reasoning, our intellect, our

thoughts, our developed mind. Then... Your soul

is your emotions. And we have positive and negative

emotions. And a lot of times when we're talking

about emotions at church, we're talking about

the negative ones. But there are some godly emotions

and some positive emotions. Just like there can

be some godly thoughts. But how many of you know

that all of our thoughts, every thought that

comes to our mind is not godly? Come on. Let's

be honest. And then our desires, our wants, our

will. That's our soul. Romans 8, 16 says this.

For His Spirit, everybody say the Holy Spirit.

For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm

that we are God's children. So when we're born

again, His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm

that we are God's children, to affirm that we

are born again. So we are connected and we're

joined. Our spirit joins with the Holy Spirit.

Connection takes place with God. A spirit connection.

takes place with God. So at that point, things

are going to have to change. The way we live

needs to change. When we come to Christ, what

does the Bible say? Old things pass away. Behold,

all things become new. So, after we come to Christ,

We begin a process of spiritual growth and spiritual

maturity. We're not supposed to stay the same

we were before we came to Christ. Now, some people

do. Okay, I'm saved now, so I'm going to go to

heaven one day, so I'll just keep living in my

flesh and living in my soul until the trumpet

sounds or I take my last breath and I'm in the

presence of God. And so many people do that because

they don't know any different. Never been taught

any different. They don't understand that they

are spirit beings. And their spirit, they can

yield to the Holy Spirit and yield to their spirit.

Your soul needs to yield to your spirit who is

connected to the Holy Spirit. Your flesh needs

to yield. to your spirit that's joined to the

Holy Spirit. And when that happens, God will

begin to give you the desires of your heart.

That doesn't mean whatever you desire, He's going

to give it to you. No, He's going to give you

desires. There's multiple verses. Jeffrey's already

shared one of these. But God gives you desires.

See, when we're led by the Holy Spirit, the flow

is from the Holy Spirit to our spirit to our

soul. God will give us godly desires. How many

of you know that all of your desires are probably

not godly? So we need some godly desires. Holy

Spirit to our spirit. To our soul. He will stir

our emotions. In a good way. Good emotions. Joy.

Peace. Come on. He stirs us. He wants to renew

our minds. So we think different than we used

to think. Do you know God wants you to think

different than the world thinks? Do you know

your thought life can be different? Do you know

your emotions can be different? Do you know your

desires can be different? Well, if you don't

think that any of this can happen, it's probably

not going to happen. You've got to realize that

God wants to impact you and transform you in

all the areas of your soul. And He's big enough

and powerful enough to do it. But we're talking

about now, okay, so God's going to give us desires.

God's going to give us emotions. God's going

to give us thoughts. He's going to renew our

thought life. So I've just got to tell you, when

we're talking about being led by the inner witness,

we need to know something. Not every feeling

that you have is from God. Because you can say,

I feel afraid. We know that's not from God because

God hasn't given you a spirit of fear. But you

can also feel something in my spirit doesn't

have peace about this. I don't have peace about

this. See the difference? Not every desire is

from God. There's a difference between boy, I

really want this. I really want this. And God's

producing a desire in me. This desire that I'm

having, I mean, this is coming from God because

this is not like naturally, it's not like naturally

the way my desires flow. So God's given me. He's

producing. a desire in me. Not every thought

is from God. This one's the easiest one to see.

There's a difference between, listen, this really,

this makes good sense to me. I have reasoned

this out and I have researched this and I have

come to this conclusion and this makes really

good sense to me. There's a difference between

that and I have an inward witness that this is

right. I just know that this is right. And sometimes

this is in contrast to your human reasoning.

But you can just know by the inward witness.

This is just right. It's the right thing to do.

It's the right thing to say. Proverbs 14, 12.

JT knows this one very well. But he knows it

like this. There's a way that seems right to

a man. But the end, oh, and crickets. Chirp,

chirp. Anyway, if you were here when Ken Freeman

was here, he preached this text a lot. Listen,

Proverbs 14, 12, that only humored a few people

in the room. Proverbs 14, 12 says this, there

is a path before each person that seems right.

But it ends in death. There's a path before each

person that seems right. I mean, to you, it seems

right. To do what feels good. To do what seems

right in my own eyes. And so many times that's

in opposition to what God says. But it seems

right and it feels good. But God is warning us.

It's going to end in death. It's going to end

in death of some form or another. Something can

seem right intellectually and still not be God's

direction. I see some of you shaking your head

and some of you looking at me like, I hope you're

looking at me like, I wish somebody would have

told me this a long time ago because I'm just

about to change some things. Something can seem

right intellectually and still not be God's direction.

Even good things. We're not just talking about

bad things. We're not just talking about sin.

We're talking about life. We're talking about

everyday life. But listen, the Bible does not

say all who are led by their feelings, desires,

or what makes sense at the moment are children

of God. Is that what it said? No, it says all

who are led by the Spirit of God are the children

of God. So we can't, I mean, if we want to experience

the life and the victory and the joy of God,

we can't continue living soulish lives. Because

we're going to experience the goodness of God

when we live Spirit -led lives. Let's take a

look at a story. A very good application of what

we're talking about. Acts 16, verses 6 through

Acts 16:6–10

10. Next, Paul and Silas, they're on their missionary

journey, right? Next, Paul and Silas traveled

through the area of Phrygia and Galatia because

the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching

the word in the province of Asia at that time.

What? Does that sound like a good thing? To preach

in Asia and tell people about Jesus and tell

people about... Yeah, I mean, it seems like a

good thing. Even with good motives. But the Holy

Spirit said, nope. I know you have some pretty

good plans in your own thought life and some

pretty good desires in your heart. Somebody listen

to me. You've got some good plans in your thought

life and you've got some... You've got some good

desires in your heart. You feel like this is

what you're supposed to do. Nope. The Holy Spirit

had prevented them from preaching the word in

the province of Asia at that time. Then coming

to the borders of... I should have looked up

the pronunciation on all these words. Pronunciation.

Then coming up to the borders of Mysia, Mysia,

Mysia, they headed north for the province of

Bithynia. But again, well, God, if you don't

want us to preach in Asia, if you told us you

didn't want us to go there, well, then obviously,

you know, I know where you want me to go. So

the next best place to my human reasoning and

understanding would be to go to the province

of Bithynia. That's where I'm headed. That's

where we're headed. But again, the Spirit of

Jesus did not allow them to go there. Good plans,

good motive, good desires. Nope. So instead,

They went through Mysia, Mysia, to the seaport

of Troas. That's where he's from, right? Let's

go to some familiar place here. Let's go to Troas.

And that night, everybody say that night. That

night, Paul had a vision. A man from Macedonia

in northern Greece was standing there. pleading

with him, come over to Macedonia and help us.

Everybody say vision. Now we're not talking about

visions, but that was one of the ways that God

speaks, right? Dreams and visions. Now he's having

a vision. God has stopped him from going to two

different places, and then when he goes to sleep,

all of a sudden, A Macedonian call. For those

of you who know that hymn. We have heard the

Macedonian call today. Send the light. How many

of you know that one? Anyway. Come over to Macedonia

to help us. So, we decided to leave from Macedonia

at once. Having concluded that God was calling

us to preach the good news there. I had some

good ideas, but God gave me a vision, and we

need to go immediately and do what God said to

us. And guess what? God didn't stop them that

time, because that's where God wanted them to

go. Paul had a good plan. He wanted to preach

the gospel in Asia. There's nothing sinful about

that. There's nothing selfish about that. It

aligns with what God had called him to do, right?

But even then, the Holy Spirit prevented them.

Then he decided to go to Bithynia. The Spirit

would not allow them. Then he received the Macedonian

vision. Did anyone go through a red light on

the way here? Most people did. I didn't say you

ran it. I said, did you... When the light's red,

what do you do? Stop. When the light's green,

what do you do? Go. So I want you to think about

the red light, all right? Asia, red light. Myzit,

red light. Green light, go to Macedonia. When

we're led by the inward witness, We need to be

aware of when it's time to stop and when it's

time to go. And I'll tell you from experience,

you don't want to go when it's red. Can anybody

say, I can look back at my life and I had some

good plans and I was going after it, but there

was a red light, but I just went ahead and ran

the red light. Spiritually. Ah. Ironically enough,

JT ran a red light, guy was telling him not to

buy a car, and then somebody ran through a red

light, totaled the car. But he got out of his

bad decision, but he, you know, had some physical

issues. Financial issues after that. But God

took care of you. He saw you through. Sometimes

God leading gives you direction without giving

you any explanation. I'm going to say this happens

more, you know, instead of just sometimes, I'm

going to change that to most often. God's leading

gives you direction without giving you a full

explanation. And so many times we're like, well,

God, I need everything spelled out before I'm

going to go. Anybody remember Abraham? Abraham

said, all right, it's time to load up, head out.

Where do you want me to go, God? I'll show you.

If he would have never loaded up and headed out,

God would have never showed him. He had to take

that step first and had to trust, had to keep

going, had to move by faith. And the more he

went, the more he knew. But if he would have

stayed in Ur, he would have not, it would have

been over. You'd never know his name. We wouldn't

know his name if he would have stayed in Ur.

Been somebody else. Listen, you don't have to

understand the why to obey the what. You don't

have to. You might want to, but you don't have

to. And this is very important. Because I've...

I've got multiple testimonies to go with this

statement. Don't run every red light in your

spirit and then ask God why you crashed. God

said, you run a red light, you on your own. Don't

blame me for the crash. Blame yourself for the

crash. I tried to lead you. I tried to help you.

You wouldn't listen. You wouldn't hear. You wouldn't

follow. You thought you were smarter than I am.

And you thought you had to know all. everything

about it. You've got to have it all written out

in spreadsheet form and all this stuff. And you've

got to understand everything before you take

a move. Listen, don't blame me for your crash.

Because the way you're going is not the way I

want you to go anyway. We always want to blame

God for the crashes, right? Anybody beside me

every once in a while think, well, God... Why

did you let me down? God didn't let me down.

My decision got me into that mess and God was

trying to stop me. I'm going to share one of

those with you here in a minute. Listen to what

the Bible says. Let the peace that comes from

Christ rule. In your hearts. If you're going

to follow the inward witness of God, you need

to know this right here. Let the peace that comes

from God rule in your hearts. Now here's that

word rule. Brabuo. I put the phonetics on that.

Here's what it means. It means to rule. Let the

peace of God rule in your heart, right? It means

to arbitrate. It means to decide. It means to

govern. And if you look this up, and just Google

it, you know, this verse, Colossians 3 .15, interlinear,

and look it up on the Bible Hub. Is that where

it is? I think that's what will come up if you

Google it. You'll find this information. We're

supposed to let the peace of God Decide as an

umpire. Let the peace of God be the umpire in

your life. Now what does an umpire do? An umpire

makes the call in a conflict between two contending

forces. Let me see if I've got this up here before

I describe it. Yeah. So there's two contending

forces. There's the pitcher, if we're talking

about baseball. There's the pitcher throwing

the ball. There's the batter. If you know anything

about baseball, the pitcher always thinks it's

a strike. I threw a strike. And the batter, if

he doesn't hit the ball, it's always a ball.

I love it. I love it when it's full count, and

the batter just stands there, and then he throws

the bat, and he starts trotting down the first

baseline, and then the umpire says, you're out.

That was a ball. The umpire makes the final call.

Here's the deal. We always have contending issues

going on in our lives. We always have the Spirit

and what the Spirit is leading us to do, and

we always have our soul. You're never going to

grow up to the point that you never have to deal

with your soul anymore. Your thought life, your

desires, your feelings, your emotions, none of

us will ever get to where those things don't

affect any of us anymore. Okay? And peace. Everybody

say peace. The peace of God is the umpire. We

need to allow the peace of God to make the final

call because we're not... This might hurt some

of your feelings. Bless your heart. You're not

capable. Your soul is not capable of always through

intellect and reasoning to make the right call.

We're not capable. We just have a 50 -50 chance.

But the peace of God. The peace of God. Because

so many times, if we're following our flesh,

we're not going to have the peace of God. But

if we're following the Spirit, we're going to

have the peace of God. As a matter of fact, anytime

you are led by the Spirit of God, you're going

to have the peace of God. And the peace of God

is the umpire. Go. Stop. The peace of God is

the red light. Giving you a red light. He's giving

you a red light or a green light. He's the umpire.

Peace is the umpire. And here's the good news.

The peace of God always, always, always, always

makes the right call. He always, you know, unlike

an umpire at a baseball game, he might make a

bad call every once in a while, but the peace

of God is always going to make the right call

in your life. 1 Thessalonians 5 .19 tells us

this, do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not quench

the Holy Spirit. Most of the time when we're

looking at this verse, we're saying, oh, sin's

going to stifle Him and sin's going to quench

Him. And we just always focus on sin when we're

talking about don't quench or stifle the Holy

Spirit. I want to bring a new application to

you. Do not override the Holy Spirit. Do not

override the peace of God. Every single one of

us have overridden the peace of God in situations

in our lives. We've overridden it. Sometimes

we've crashed. Sometimes we've came out okay.

But none of the times we've came out... Completely

victorious. So don't stifle the Holy Spirit.

He's wanting to lead you. He's wanting to guide

you. Don't stifle Him. Don't quench Him. Don't

say, no, I know the right way. I know I'm a little

uneasy about this, but I just know it's the right

way. And I know I need to keep proceeding. And

I know I got this, you know, I don't have a velvety

feeling on the inside. I just want it so bad.

I desire it so much. I think I've figured it

out. It seems right to me. This will make me

happy. God's saying, hmm? That uneasiness on

the inside of you is telling you that this is

the wrong way. Peace. It needs to be your umpire.

Never ignore or mentally override an uneasiness

in your spirit. Never. Don't do it. Don't do

it. If you want to be led by the Holy Spirit,

do not do it. And listen, don't make permanent

decisions during an emotional turmoil. When you're

frightened, when you're angry, when you're offended,

when you're anxious, when you're exhausted, when

you're desperate. Listen, the loudest voice you're

going to hear during those times is not the Holy

Spirit. The loudest voice is going to be your

soul screaming, not your spirit. So don't be

quick. We could say this is yellow light. Philippians

4, 6 and 7 says this, don't worry about anything.

God says it, if God commands us not to do something,

we can do it. Don't worry about anything. Instead,

instead of worrying, pray about everything. Tell

God what you need and thank Him for all He has

done. So when you're in those situations, that

are giving you, you know, I just read them all.

When you're frightened, when you're angry, when

you're offended, when you're anxious, when you're

exhausted, desperate, you know, just be still.

Start praying. Tell God what you need. And begin

to thank Him. You're like, how could I thank

God in the middle of this? You've got something

to thank God for. We all have something to thank

God for. Like the song that we sang, counting

every blessing. I mean, look at God's faithfulness

in your life. Start thanking Him. Thanking Him

for what He's done, even in the middle of you

just don't know. Thank Him for all He has done.

God knows. See, God knows what we need. Some

of you are thinking way too hard. God knows what

you need. He knows that you need to stop the

chaos and start talking to Him because what you

need is to hear from Him. That's what you need

about the situation that you're experiencing.

You need to hear from Him. And if you'll do that,

if you'll turn to Him, What does it say? You

will experience his peace. You will experience

God's peace, which exceeds anything you can understand.

His peace will be your umpire, but his peace

will also guard your hearts and your minds as

you live in Christ Jesus. Look to the person

beside you and tell them, always follow peace.

And if you don't have peace, pray till you get

peace. Talk to God so that you can hear His voice

and receive His peace. Because He's going to

lead you by peace. I shared this at Bible study

at our life group over at Salo's house the last

time, I think, or two times ago. But when we

were on the road, if you don't know it, we were

on the road for 20 years. Going from place to

place, event to event. You know, it's all over.

One of the events that we were going to one time

is an event that JT was putting on in Montgomery,

Alabama at Delray to Baptist Church. We were

having hearts, hearts on fire. Revolution of

the Heart was the name of JT's event. One hit

wonder, he said. Revolution of the heart. And

we were going and we had like, was it two bands?

Three bands, full bands. You know, with drums,

bass, guitar, vocals, all that stuff. And we

had, Ken was there. George Smith was there doing

the power team kind of stuff. Breaking stuff.

A magician, a Christian magician was there. I

mean, it was a big deal. And part of what we

were doing is we were leading worship, and then

we were also providing sound for everybody. Well,

our sound mixer has 18 channels. That's what

we run church on every week, 18 channels. How

many of you know when you've got full drum kits

and you're micing everything and micing all the

instruments, running direct boxes and a bunch

of microphones and singers, you've got to have

more than 18 channels? I've been wanting to have

more than 18 channels a long time. It just so

happened we were coming from South Carolina to

Alabama and right in the middle of Atlanta, Georgia

is the original Guitar Center. They sell a lot

of equipment. I bought... Me and my friends had

bought a lot of equipment from Guitar Center.

We went in that day, on the way to the event,

and there it was. A used 40 -channel mixer. 40

-channel, not 18, 40. I'd had Mackie mixers before,

that's a brand name, and they had served me well.

This one was used and on sale. It had been over

$8 ,000. It was on sale for $3 ,000. For you

today, $3 ,000. Boy, I wanted that. It's a good

buy, wasn't it? It's a good buy. Made a lot of

sense. I'm going to this event. I mean, in between

everybody, I'm going to be having to unplug stuff

and plug stuff and do all this, you know, do

cartwheels to make it all work. But if I had

that 40 -channel mixer, it's going to make this

thing good. And I did a lot of events like JT's

event myself, so I needed that because we would

have bands and different people and stuff, and

I said, boy, I need that. So my feelings got

stirred up. My desires got stirred up. My thoughts

got stirred up. It's worse than that, Irv. My

credit card got stirred up. Because I didn't

have the money. I didn't have the money. And

then the salesman just worked me. He's like,

well, we just put it on the floor. We just put

it on the floor. You know, the first person that

says they want it is theirs. And I'm just, all

of a sudden, had this bad feeling on the inside.

I just, I mean, you know, just, I didn't have

any peace about it. There was pressure. Everybody

say pressure. I wanted it. I said, I got to walk

outside and think about this a little bit. So

Gannon and I and Jeffrey, we all went outside

and we're all talking in the parking lot. And

he said, well, if you wait too long in the parking

lot, if somebody comes in here, they're going

to buy it. You know, first person that wants

it is going to get it. I'm not holding it for

you while you go to the parking lot. I needed

it. And I can persuade people pretty good. Gannon

didn't have a good feeling about it. Jeffrey

was too young to have a vote. And I was like,

giving all these pros, you know, we've been needing

it, we need it, it's a good deal, we can put

it on the credit card. You know, it's going to

make today and future big event days, it's going

to make it so much better. So I persuaded Ghana.

And I went in there and put out my credit card

and bought this $3 ,000 mixer. Having a red light

in my gut the whole time. But I let my soul override

my spirit. Because God was saying, don't buy.

Don't go into $3 ,000 worth of debt. This is

not what you need. But my soul said it was. And

my soul won. And if I would have allowed peace

to be my umpire, if I would have allowed peace

to be my umpire and make the call, I would not

have bought it. I don't want to blame anybody,

but nobody ever told me what I'm telling you

today. And I've learned the hard way through

experience that we all need to hear this. Bought

it. As is. Can't bring it back tomorrow on the

way back to South Carolina. I mean, this is it.

No road case. Big old long board. Put it on the

bed in the RV. That's the only place it would

fit. Got there, pulled it out. Some of these

channels ain't working. But we had enough. We

had like 30 something. So we had enough to do

the event. But I took it to, I think we went

to Myrtle Beach from there. And when I took it

to the guy to work on it, because I had a guy

who could work on equipment there. And I was

like, he can get these channels working. You

know, it's just. They come in like sections of

four and they just can replace that section and

everything will be good. Right when I brought

it into his shop, he went, hmm. He said, they

didn't make this more modular. So I can't just

pull out a section of four. And it's so long

and it's not rigid enough. And when you carry

it, it bends. and the circuit board breaks and

cracks. He says, as a matter of fact, Mackie

has recalled the mixer, and they'll give you

$300 if you leave it here, and let me smash it

with a sledgehammer and send them a picture.

That was a bad deal. I got my $300, but I still

had $2 ,700 on my credit card. I'm telling you,

let the peace of God be your umpire. Don't override.

Don't quench Him. When you want to do something,

but the Holy Spirit puts a check or uneasiness

in your spirit, He's not trying to deprive you.

He's trying to protect you. Because he knows.

Everybody say, he knows. He knows. He knew that

Mackie's first attempt at a 40 -channel mixer

had fatal design flaws. God knew that. Dean didn't

know that. You couldn't even Google it at that

point, right? This is before that. Listen, God

is able to deliver us from the fallout of our

bad decisions. Say amen, JT. He delivered you

when He told you not to buy the car and you bought

it anyway. I was able to pay off the credit card.

God is able to deliver us from the fallout of

our bad decisions. But this is what He wants

more than delivering us. He wants to lead us

in a way to avoid the bad decisions in the first

place. And we're just talking about regular life

stuff here. See, it's not just about the spiritual

stuff. God even knows about mixers, and God knows

about cars, and God knows about all this stuff.

I know I'm not the only one who's ever done it.

Listen, but here's what we need to know. Peace.

does not always mean it's the easiest path or

the most comfortable path either. That's not

peace either. Sometimes we confuse that. The

easy way is God's way. The comfortable way is

always God's way. Not always. God called our

family. To plant a church. Yeah, see, it's not

always bad. And I'm going to give you a good

one. God called us to come here and plant Elation

Church. We didn't know anybody within this five

-mile radius. Now, we had met Jeff and Pam, who

are watching right now from Citrus Ridge. We

met them in Myrtle Beach. And we knew that they

lived here somewhere, but we didn't even know

at the time where they actually lived. We just

knew that they were in Davenport. How many of

you know Davenport can be a long distance? I

mean, you know, it's spread out. I didn't know

if they were even going to be close to even potentially,

you know, other than just show up every once

in a while. I had no idea. But God called us

to move here and start a church, not knowing

anybody. I want to tell you something. That was

not the easiest thing. I had to choose from.

Me and my family had to choose from. It wasn't

the easiest thing. I was getting a... Jeffrey

and I were getting a paycheck every week. Like

clockwork. Every week. Gayna and I had a 1 ,800

plus square foot house with two golf carts. On

the beach, inside of a gated community. All these

people, you know. All these people coming who,

you know, over 5 ,000 people accepted Christ

in the nine years that we were there. Life is

good. I hadn't had a paycheck every Friday since

before I went on the road. Some weeks would make

nothing. Some weeks it would cost us more to

go somewhere than we left with. You were on the

road, you know that. Some weeks we were blessed.

It wasn't all bad. There were some great times.

But moving here to start the church wasn't the

easiest step. Because I could still be drawing

that paycheck every Friday for the last five

years. After we came down here, they kept calling

me and begging me to come back. When we had 12

people at church on Sunday morning. Outside with

love bugs and termites. Ants. All of them found

Alyssa's pocketbook. No paychecks. Having to

take money that God had given us, not from here,

to pay for it, to rent. Love bugs and mosquitoes

and termites, not mosquitoes, but ants. Moving

in here for years. Moving out of an 1 ,800 plus

square foot house. into, what is it, 380 feet?

Our bus? A 1981 Prevo bus that we customized

ourselves? Is that the most comfortable thing?

Hello? Come on, somebody. Is that comfortable?

Is that easy? I mean, we were on Easy Street.

If I sat down with spreadsheets and budgets and...

And human reasoning, did it make any sense? No,

it don't make any sense. But when we drove down

here, never been on Highway 27 ever in our life.

When we drove down here, I mean, I just opened

up the computer. This is before you could just

have it on your phone and stuff, GPS on your

phone. opened up the computer, or at least we

didn't do it that way. I Googled and I said,

let's go drive this road right here. And if there's

a church in every little strip mall and all,

if there's just a bunch of churches, we'll know

that this isn't God. And we came and we could

find one church. And then we searched, searched,

searched, found another church, all these places.

And now they built way more. And it's just like,

but when we drove from I -4 to 192, Our entire

family, all four of us, just had a peace. Didn't

make any sense. This is it. This is it. So don't

confuse peace with easiness or comfortableness

because that's not the same thing. Being led

by the Spirit doesn't mean you never have conflicting

feelings. It just means your feelings don't get

the final vote anymore. When you're led by the

Spirit, your feelings just say, nope, you're

not getting the final vote. The peace of God

is going to be my own power. Your desire can

say, I don't want to. Applying it to what we

said. I don't want to move out of 1 ,800 plus

square feet into 380 square feet. I don't want

to. Your reasoning can say, this just doesn't

make sense. This will never work out on paper.

Your emotions can say, what in the world is going

to happen if it don't work? We're going to be

in a mess. Because we've been off the road for

20 years, so it's not like I can just pick up

the phone and go right back on the road and be

booked and just wait on people to call me like

I was before we went to Myrtle Beach. What if

it don't work? We didn't know that they were

going to keep calling us and saying, why don't

you come back? Because then it's a temptation,

right? It's like, well, you don't have as much

money as you used to. You don't have as much

room at your house as you used to. There's only

12 people coming. Why don't you come back? No

peace. When they invited us, when they're begging

us to come back, there was no peace to go back.

The peace was to stay. But listen, this ain't

about me. This is about what you face every day.

This is about the situations that you're in.

This is about what you're looking at, what you

need to do or don't need to do. I'm just sharing

these practical stories so that you can understand

that this is the way it works. I've already told

you, I don't always follow it correctly. But

when I do, there's peace. When I don't, there's

an uneasy feeling. When it's not the right direction,

there's always an uneasy feeling. Your soul can

be doing all those things while your spirit is

saying, this is what God's leading me to do.

This is the direction I need to take. Isaiah

46 .10, this is God talking about His omniscience

prophetically. He says this, and He's telling

you this today. God is saying, hey, I'm God,

and only I can tell you the future before it

even happens. I can tell you the future before

it happens. Don't need witchcraft. Don't need

Ouija boards. Don't need the little, you know,

the little Swami machine, put a quarter in, it

spits out some kind of fortune. Only God can

tell you the future before it even happens. How

many of you know if you knew the future that

you would probably make some better decisions

along the way? Hindsight is always 20 -20. Man,

I mean, you can look at it and say, if I would

have only known this, I would have made this

decision. Well, God knows this. Your mind only

knows what you know. The Holy Spirit, He's God,

so He knows what God knows. God knows what you

don't. And He wants to lead you for your good.

Everybody say good. For your good and for His

glory, He wants to lead you. You don't know what's

around the next corner. But God does. God knows.

Everybody say, God knows. You don't know what

the opportunity that you're confronted with or

the opportunity that's been set in front of you,

you don't know what will become of that. Listen,

good or bad, But who knows? God knows. Everybody

say, God knows. You don't know the consequences

attached to the decision that you're about to

make. You don't know. But who knows? You're catching

on. Say, God knows. You don't know what you're

being protected from. Who knows? God knows. Everybody

say, God knows. Psalm 32, verse 8. This is God.

Psalms 32:8

He's talking again. He says, only I know. Only

I know. And then he says, I will guide you along

the hardest pathway. Are you reading? Somebody

should have said no, that's not what it says.

God says, I will guide you along the best pathway

for your life. He says, I will advise you. I

will watch over you. I will guide you along the

best pathway. Listen, the shepherd isn't speaking

just because he wants to control you. He's not

a control freak. God is not a control freak.

He's not doing it for kicks and giggles. He's

speaking and leading and guiding you because

he sees what you can't see. He knows what you

don't know. In every area of your life. He's

concerned. He cares. You don't have to say, oh,

well, I'm just on my own on this. God don't really

care. So I just got to figure it out myself.

God cares. Sometimes He's going to say go. Sometimes

He's going to say stop. Sometimes He's going

to give you peace. Sometimes He's going to...

Do something inside you that says, no, don't

do it. Don't do it. And he's doing it because

he knows. John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice.

This is God talking and he's calling you a sheep.

He's saying, my sheep hear my voice and I know

them and they follow me. God's heart is the heart

of a good shepherd who wants to lead you beside

still waters. He wants to take you to green pastures.

And when trouble or terror comes your way, he's

going to be right there with you to guide you

through and to lead you through. Because he's

a good shepherd. He's not going to abandon you.

He's there. He cares. He wants to lead you. If

we'll follow him, we won't crash. Listen, your

responsibility is not to understand everything

the shepherd knows. Your responsibility is to

know his voice and to know it well enough to

follow him. Again. The inward witness is not

words. We might talk about this later. I don't

know how long the series is going, but every

time God has given me a word, I mean, a big -time

word, it's always been because I would probably

get it wrong. If I didn't get that word, it's

always been about something big that I probably

wouldn't even, it would just lock me up. But

because I had a word from God, I wasn't locked

up. Like the day during the revival service when

he told me through an evangelist, any security

outside of Jesus is idolatry. He had to tell

me that, and it had to be crystal clear for me

to go in and quit my job the next day and tell

my wife that, you know, who's, I mean, Jeffrey

wasn't even one year old yet. Dana had already

quit work to take care of him, and then now I'm

going to quit my job and go on the road in evangelism?

I better have a word from God. Because the warm

fuzzies on the inside wouldn't have worked for

this one. I mean, that was a big one. So don't

say, oh, I've got to have a word from God. I've

got to have some kind of supernatural thing.

If you get that, it's only because you've got

to have it to survive the next instruction. I

don't know why I got into that. Our responsibility

is to know His voice, to know His inward witness

enough to just follow Him. Let peace be the umpire.

No peace, no go. When you don't have peace, that's

the red light. When you have peace, that's the

green light. This online worship experience was

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