Bishop C.M. Wright | Session Two: M.E.A.T. Meeting Annapolis | May 2021

praise god while prayer in these sessions is very important the main purpose of prayer here is not for the word to be finalized but that you submit yourself to the word of the spirit so that as time goes the lord leads you and reminds you and talks to you you will you will let the word work in your life jesus name jesus name praise god praise god hello now we're not i'm not i'm just trying to follow the holy ghost we're not trying to rush through what was happening but again again while the lord is willing and capable of doing significant work in your life right now uh it's kind of like what brother shelton said about uh brother cole not praying for that lady right at that point i've watched way too many times when there was a powerful move of god and the lord spoke very deeply and then somebody would come to the altar and they'd pray for a few minutes and pray that conviction away and they convinced themselves that they had dealt with what the lord said and really all they did was they prayed enough to escape conviction and so it's a very delicate balance in uh participating in this a meeting like this between knowing how much to allow prayer to go and how much you don't allow it to go because we need to pray enough that we get that we acknowledge the influence that we submit to the influence that we embrace that word but the real business between you and jesus is something you're going to need to focus on for a while when it's just you and him and so i have seen major major things happen to people in this type of meeting where the change was dramatic in fact i know people literally who one man went home his wife didn't even recognize him he had changed so much his countenance his spirit his attitude and everything that she set the airport to pick him up she says what happened to you you're not the same person and she wasn't speaking rhetorically he wasn't the same person it has not been since then uh i have seen numerous situations where there were dramatic changes in people in these kind of meetings but at the same time i've also seen situations where the lord was trying to do a dramatic work and people just prayed along enough to get rid of the conviction and most of you this is not your first meeting of this kind and uh so you as the cliche goes you know the drill uh we're trying to follow the holy ghost trying to be obedient to the lord i can't tell you what's going to happen tonight i can't tell you who's going to be speaking how long they're going to be speaking i can't tell you the same thing for tomorrow if it looks like there's a pattern don't be deceived every session is considered uniquely i didn't say every session is considered unique yes we consider every session unique but our consideration is of that is uniquely of that session we're not trying to duplicate anything else we're just trying to find the mind of god one step at a time to do whatever he wants and he does things very differently uh two weeks before the meet meeting in houston in january the lord gave me very specific instructions for my part in each session and then the meeting we had in california in uh april the lord gave me some things and i'm going lord i that you know your will whatever you want to do but i can't cover all of that in this in that meeting and then situations came up where it was impossible for brother shelton to come in the meeting and then i had the whole meeting by myself and i covered every bit of that he had given me and maybe this is the wrong thing to say but i've been saying the wrong thing for a long time i've been waiting on god waiting on god for what he wanted me to do in this meeting and he's not giving me any forewarning for the most part um in a lot of ways i believe it or not i prefer that because i like it when i don't have time to dwell on it where i have to just hear repeat which is the plan anyway but whatever but there's uh there's something he hasn't told me what it is yet but i sense there's something very here's that word again unique of course when i'm plea poking at my wife teasing her i don't say unique as a unicu you know that kind of just being silly with her which we have a little game that we play 52 years i see if i can get a rise out of her and she does her best to act like i'm not even talking and we see how long we can do that and it's we don't say okay the game starts now that we we just know when the game started see and uh so anyway um but there's something unique uh it's just uh there's just something different that uh he is doing and saying and it's just it just feels like there's a destination he has in this meeting it's it's [Music] different i i i don't know how long it's been i don't know i wish you could say it was all my life but it hasn't been all my life it took many years for what the traditions that i had learned growing up in pentecost it took many years for those traditional concepts and practices principles to be purged out of my life they did not die easy they didn't die easy and yet in that process he uh he just it's like he's taken everything from out here and it's just slowly slowly slowly just absolutely continuously narrowing the focus as a new pastor starting a church with no one except my wife and i you know your focus was everything you your mind was on everything you were praying on everything you're trying to get everything done you had all this stuff you had to do and all these years he's just so deliberately kept bringing the boundaries down just gets narrower and narrower focused and i i i would probably say that at this point in my life this day that my focus is about as narrow as it's ever been and the challenge and this is what i'm talking about today that i'm that i know of i think i have direction this is just i had a prophet of god that was involved in my life when i was in my 20s and early 30s and he would come and preach and he'd just stand and talk like this and he'd tell us every once while he said i'm waiting for my angel to show up and all of a sudden things would change and he'd say i think he was here the angels showed up there i i don't do that i don't i just i'm flowing in it okay i think this is where he's told me to go and i'm hearing and repeating and and i can't predict the point that that kicks in whatever that is whatever so this is really i don't believe what i'm focusing on today but it's important uh i sat and listened to brother shelton last night and then of course today and i'm thinking to myself i wonder how much significance we're giving to each of these principles that he's speaking these are just major eternal principle after major eternal principle after major eternal principle so much so that if you're trying to receive this intellectually you are failing has nothing to do with your capabilities it's that these things are spiritually received they are spiritually discerned i've said this many times and i'm saying to you now i'm not trying to talk to your mind i don't have any interest in talking to your mind by the spear of the lord i'm trying to speak directly to your spirit because the mind slows the process down i'm sitting there hearing and trying to figure all that out everything that's said and while i'm trying to figure that one out i'm missing the next thing being said and then the next thing being said i have learned to listen very passively meaning i'm just trying to let it be put in my spirit i'm not dwelling on individual points being made i know that if i can allow that to be put in my spirit i've learned over years that the lord will then come back when it's just me and him and when i least expect that he'll bring something up and then he'll begin to talk about that he'll begin to work on that in my life so i i just want to receive i want to i want to receive i want that whatever he's saying uh i want to receive that i want and i don't want it i don't want my brain to clog up my ability of my spirit to receive so while i'm here while i'm listening with my spirit my spiritual mind my conscious mind or whatever it is uh it's listening to what god is saying to me in addition to what is coming in i'm i'm listening for that i'm just listening just receiving jesus said take heed how you hear it is uh quite distressing to know that such a small percentage of pentecostals know how to hear faith comes by what hearing hearing by the rhema of god and so many years ago brother barnes brother barnes said to me brother right don't pray for anything else right now but just pray to be sensitive to the voice of god you don't need to know anything else but how to hear god speak to you well then it really hasn't changed i thought i was doing that before he said that but he brought he brought a focus to that because i was i was trying to do that but i was trying to do this this and this and all this other stuff people are talking about i try to do all that so the focus right now has for me has come down to nothing but i want to know him and i want to know his voice i want to know his will for me those are they're kind of one and the same i can't know him without knowing his voice and i can't know his him and his voice without knowing his will because he wants me to know his will far more than i will ever want to know his will but again as has been said if my will is in the way to any degree i will not be able to discern here know his will and in my opinion the closer you get to this focus the simpler all this becomes it gets to be so uncomplicated it's simple uncomplicated and the easier it feels the more you know you know you're relying on him and his grace it doesn't become easy because you learn how to do it it becomes easy because there's less of you involved and the ease the less the less and less of you that's involved the easier it feels it's it's not a strain it's not a pressure it's it's not it's not hard it's not difficult or any other synonym you want to put on it because and i've said this so many times he's not sitting in the throne wringing his hands saying gabe hey mike get up come over here would you we need to talk about this i don't know what i'm going to do about this all the plan of god was established before the foundation of the world all of the mind of god was established before the foundation of the world all of the will of god was established before the foundation of the world and because he is unchangeable and because that was established before the foundation of the world it cannot be altered it cannot be adjusted he is unchangeable his word is unchangeable his will is unchangeable his plan is unchangeable his purpose is unchangeable all of that is established before the foundation of the world all of that and so this is quite a ways from pentecostalism but because i was taught as a pentecostal the purpose of prayer was because prayer changed things prayer changes things so you pray to change things that's what i was taught you pray to get god to give you what you want or you pray for god to take away what you don't want or you pray for god to fix what you i was taught that so were you but it's now my opinion that the purpose of prayer is first and foremost to change me not god not his mind not what he's doing but me to get me in alignment with him not to get him in alignment with me and this has happened a couple of times and it it it's not comfortable to do but it's the will of god i've been on the phone with people and they say well you know this is going on this is this terrible tragic event is happening in my life and they're looking for comfort and assurance that all of this is going to change and the lord requires to be said are you praying for god to change the circumstance are you praying for him to help you know what he's saying to you in this circumstance what's he saying to you what is he saying if i pray for him to change the circumstance before i get the message he has for me in the circumstance i am doing myself and the kingdom of god a great great disservice now here's something that none of us are really going to like some of us are going to like it worse than the others and this is you know oh my it'd be a lot safer if i could talk about what i thought he was going to give me but what's safety to a dead man right so if the plan of god the purpose of god the word will of god is forever settled if it's forever settled now it had to be forever settled before now there's no point in time that something that's forever settled can be adjusted and be called forever settled so the forever settled word heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall never pass away if the word of god is forever settled it has to have always been and we always will be forever settled and if if if the word is forever settled and god is the lord he is god of heaven above and earth beneath that's biblical terminology if he is the king of kings the lord of lords the god of all gods if he is the creator of the universe those ifs are rhetorical as [Music] points to be made to get to the conclusion then i have to accept about me that who my father was and who my mother was was settled from the foundation of the world that the circumstances i was born in and raised in was settled before the foundation of the world what opportunities i have and have not had are settled before the foundation of the world oh yeah i know yeah yeah we we want man to fix all that but the problem is god placed you he placed me in a certain situation where whatever glory he wants to bring to himself out of my life is dependent upon me making peace with whatever circumstance i'm in that doesn't mean my circumstances are going to stay like that for forever and every day amen but he can't take me to my next circumstance till i'm truly at peace with this circumstance i just said read we don't have anybody on the computer do we right oh praise god how about hebrews 13 verse hebrews 13 verse 5. i'll read it up here let your conversation of course the word conversation in 1611 when the king james was first published didn't doesn't mean uh chatting with one another it is it's the way that the greek word translated lifestyle manner of life was translated that greek word that's what the greek word meant and they translated it conversation so i'm going to give the literal greek let your manner of life be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said i will never leave thee nor forsake thee next verse so that we may boldly or with confidence say the lord is my helper he's my empowerer empowerer and i will not fear what man shall do unto me but what was the foundation of this what is the foundation of my empowerment what is the foundation of my my uh confidence verse 5 again let your lifestyle your manner of life be without covetousness without their means absolutely devoid of covetousness covetousness to be covetous it means i'm looking at what you have and i don't know why i don't have it because i should have a right to have it as much as you have it so therefore if god doesn't give it to me he's being he's being a respecter of persons because he let you have it but he didn't give it to me well what if i got cancer you want it to work that way right no that's not the way we want to play it right whatever good you have that i don't have i want now whatever bad you have that i don't have i don't want that i don't want that you know i don't want to go through what you've gone through i just want to get whatever you have that i don't have but the book says let your manner of life be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have well if i am jealous envious of what you have i don't have i i am offended by god telling me that i should be content with not having what you have because that proves he's a respecter of persons i mean some of you have never heard of helen keller why would god let someone be born blind and deaf and what kind of quality of life could a person born blind and deaf ever hope to have because our two primary senses with which we interact with other people and our world around us are sight and hearing it's enough of a challenge you would think to be born either blind or deaf how do you describe an elephant to someone that's never seen anything how do you describe a sunset how do you describe a flower you can put their hand on a petal and they can feel a petal but how do you feel color how do you feel shape how do you know that how do you how do you def how do you describe the sound of cicadas to a person that's never heard sound how do you how do you do that but how do you interact with someone that has never seen anything and never heard any sound and yet helen keller did not grow up bitter i was raised not going to dances and uh when i and i go to the naval academy there's no church to see what i'm doing or not doing there's no preacher spying on me and i was expected in fact required to go to dances and if i didn't know how to dance the naval academy was going to require me to take dancing lessons and go but this was my conviction not finding fault with anybody else this is what i felt was the way i was supposed to live and so i wrote a letter to the naval academy superintendent and i requested to be excused from dancing classes and from being required to go to dances because of my personal conviction of faith and i concluded the letter this way if you choose to not grant this request consider this my letter of resignation i wrote it just like that i submitted it to my company officer which he was my immediate supervisor he was not a midshipman he was a naval officer and he he recommended disapproval but i wrote it to the superintendent so he had to pass it up the chain of command the battalion officer voted to disprove it the commandant midshipman signed that he disapproved it the superintendent of the academy approved it well i had some guys say to me don't you miss dancing i said you don't understand how can you miss something you've never done i don't miss it i have no interest in it i mean frankly between me and you i don't see how anybody has a moral thought in their mind i mean let's be really honest okay i didn't tend to talk about this i don't even know why i am but how does anybody have a moral thought in their mind rubbing up against somebody that's not your husband or wife in gyrations that are imitating the sexual act and and somebody wants to question why would you think that's wrong my question is how can you not see that someone wanting to be pure in heart mind and spirit would ever consider doing such a thing as that i've read some about the regency period in england and how lewd they thought the waltz was and many of their social events they would ban the waltz why because of the contact between two people especially considering they weren't married even husband and wives were expected not to dance more than two dances together it was rude well then you i got to be honest with you i i want all the holy ghost i can have right but i'm going to have a little bit of problem having the holy ghost watching some guy holding my wife tight on a dance floor i'm going to have a little problem with that i'm being facetious about the little problem part but my point what i was really talking about was you say how can a blind person miss the sunset the mercy is they've never seen a sunset to miss those that have been have been a sighted person for some point from period of time in their life and lose their sight whoa or a person has been a hearing person but at some point their life they lose their hearing i'm not being facetious or callous or uncaring or whatever when i say that you know i don't hear the cicadas can you hear them right now if you can hear them well the building is insulated with foam and if you could hear them there must be some going on with the foam insulation because this is like being in a thermos bottle literally but in the house i don't hear them i don't hear them at all my wife says boy they're driving me crazy i'm going must be a short trip because i i can't hear them now when i first got my hearing aids all that i didn't know i couldn't hear kind of drove me nuts i mean how irritating was just to hear my hand sliding on the steering wheel i didn't know i couldn't hear that and after i could hear it i didn't want to hear it i didn't i had adjusted to that so i have to believe that god put me exactly where i was supposed to be you know most of you know that i was molested when i was five years old i suffered with that for 33 years but as god healed me and over time as he used me he brought me to the place where i can't imagine what my life would have been the kind of person i would have been if i had not been molested i thank god for it i thank god for the brokenness that i went through i thank god for the suffering i experienced i thank god for the ability that it gave me to relate to people and their suffering because without that i i wouldn't had a clue and of course you take my personality and give it military training and somebody's suffering and there's only one response you wimp suck it up my personality with my training without my those experiences would have produced the hard ogre that some think i am but i'm not those experiences give me compassion i i was ministering in eureka the other sunday night i said who do you think is more shocked when you fail you or god not god he knows the second that i subconsciously began to rely on myself and he just stepped back and says okay let's see how long it's going to take them because failure is coming the very moment [Music] that without even consciously being aware of it that i choose to rely on my ability my intellect my experience my wisdom my talent rather than rely on god failure is coming because he goes like this i'm not helping you succeed doing it yourself i'm not helping you do it therefore you're going to fail and you're going to be shocked that you failed and i'm not even surprised i knew it was coming i knew it the moment you trusted yourself we think god is horrified when we fail no no he doesn't make us fail he just won't help us not fail if we're mixing any self in it at all and if you think that's a one time experience [Laughter] could you please tell me how old you have to be and how how long you have to have the holy ghost where you're never ever ever failing to make a subconscious decision to trust yourself because i haven't got there yet that's why it is a day by day every morning event to position yourself for that and if you don't what's going to happen i've said this many times you have two different types of people that backslide you have those who backslide because of their wrong spirit spiritual sins are rebellion center witchcraft stubbornness same as idolatry a love for false doctrine why would i love false doctrine because all false doctrine ultimately lets me be in control etc etc i have never in 52 years of being in ministry in annapolis maryland ever seen someone who backslid because of sense of the spirit come back to god i am not saying it's impossible because all things are possible with god but you had two people who denied jesus two people that failed one sold him for thirty pieces of silver the other cursed three times and swore that he did not know him one in despair goes out and hangs himself the other goes and finds a place of repentance they were both apostles one goes out and hangs himself because his sin left him with no hope in his own mind now question could judas have repented if it was impossible for judas to repent and be forgiven then his death would be on his own on god's head but he couldn't get past himself and we get the hints you know here's mary magdalene which i won't go into the long story on this who's the same person as mary of bethany you say there are two different people one from batman magdala and one from bethany you mean like jesus was jesus of bethlehem and jesus of nazareth was he two people but she is washing his feet with her tears and drying them with the hairs of her head and anointing him with very expensive ointment and judas says this is a waste this should have been sought but was sold which because it was very expensive and this should have been sold and the money given to the poor and the bible says he said this because he kept the purse and obviously he was he believed he should be paid for his services because he was taking money out of the purse for his own personal benefit without the permission of the lord i can't say he was doing it without the knowledge of the lord because the lord was god he knew everything but he did it without the permission of god deal without the perish of god so so the question then comes down to why why did you judas kill himself and peter you know peter the boaster boasted that he he would never forsake the lord and of course as you know jesus said before the rose i never can keep it straight two or three times you're gonna deny me three times whatever it is and when the when he had denied him the third time the crowed he went out and found a place of repentance and still was the guy with the keys to the kingdom the lord never took them away david commits adultery has the woman's husband killed so he can marry her and cover his sin because she's pregnant and god never moved him out of being king saul offers a sacrifice that he had no right to offer and disobeyed god and letting a man live and some sheep live and god said i'm done with you finished finished and of course that's the problem you see we judge like men but god judges like god so how can i go forward if i don't believe whatever my circumstances are whatever my situation is i am in that perfect situation in the mind of god i mean it would be funny if it wasn't so painful that i i was raised in the navy and lived in rhode island rhode island and d.c and california and other places and yet i come to maryland to pastor with this accent and of course they immediately people immediately made assumptions about me based on my accent first of all they automatically assumed that i was prejudiced they also automatically assumed that i was a dumb redneck hick that was exactly the way it was still is to some degree why would god do that why would he send a jew to reach gentiles named paul why would he do that why would he send a missionary any place to reach someone of a different culture want me to do that of course when i was younger and a lot more dependent on myself i realized what a great advantage it gave me when people thought i was dumb because by the time they were had by the time they caught up that i wasn't dumb it was a done deal whatever the deal was it was done praise god but of course the other struggle has been you know bad enough to be white but to have this accent and the automatic assumptions of that 52 years of those assumptions but god gets glory you see i'll tell you what's amazing i've never used drugs in my life i have no knowledge of anything but medicinal alcohol ever passing my lips and that medicinal alcohol is breathwash you know scope or something like that right i did go to a pentecostal church in in naples italy when i was on my last cruise before graduation from the academy and this family that couldn't speak english i couldn't speak italian they took me home and they gave me something to drink i didn't see where where it came from and out of courtesy i took a sip or two and i thought to myself this may be wine and if this is wine i can't imagine why anybody would ever eat drink this foul taste of stuff the first time i'd ever had any drugs i was 19 and the naval academy required me to have my tonsils taken out and they gave me demerol before surgery i didn't like that and i can't tell you the number of people who have been alcoholics and drug addicts that the lord himself has been able to use someone who has no experience with that but an experience with god to reach them i said how's it possible how's it possible because he gets glory if i love those that are like me jesus said there's no grace working in me well the king james says if you love those that love you what thank have you but the greek word there is normally translated grace charisma so if i only can relate to and love people that are like me racially culturally you name it then i am confessing that there's no grace working in me because only by the grace of god can i relate to and love people that are different from me god gets no glory when i only go to church with people like me and i only relate to people like me he gets no glory out of that at all because sinners do that jesus said if you love those who love you what they give you sinners do the same doesn't take any work of god to love people like you my my my he is amazing i would have never thought in 10 000 years i'd be talking about this today but here it is this this point right here is so critical it's going to become a dividing line between the church world and true christianity and the sight of the whole world the whole world is going to watch the great divide the gulf that's going to come between christianity that divides up according to culture and race and economics and all that stuff it's going to divide that from the body of christ or they're going to divide themselves from the body of christ the division's coming in fact it's already effectively working there just hasn't been the pressure point from culture and society that would cause that division to be obvious but that division's obvious it's obvious why because the world understands loving people like yourself and tolerating everybody else but the world doesn't understand loving people different than you and god getting the credit and glory for that the world doesn't understand that the church world doesn't understand that it is hilariously sad that the schools in maryland weren't segregated until 1966 and most churches in maryland are still segregated wow how's that possible because the church doesn't want to be one the church wants to be divided we have the privilege of having a few koreans in antioch but reaching koreans has been really really hard why because you can't leave a korean church without leaving the korean culture and community you are considered that you're betraying your community if you stop going to a korean church right here like you know right here in our county that's the mindset and when we've had especially korean young people visit they've gotten pressure from the korean church because you're betraying your people you're betraying your people you can't go to church where with people it's not of your culture you're betraying your people and yet you go places where there's where everybody's the same everybody's treated the same everybody's loved god gets the glory and the world gets angry why because when the church truly loves everybody no matter how different we are from one another it condemns them and that's not our motive it tells them how much of a failure you are it tells the government how much of a failure it is that it couldn't bring people of different backgrounds together where they truly care about each other because the government can't do it not possible only the grace of god can help someone like you love someone like me only the grace of god that's the only way possible because our pro what's our problem you have your experiences i have my experiences when i judge you by my experiences rather than listening to what the grace of god says to me in the way the grace of god is affecting me i judge you by by my experiences i determined that you are like my experiences so you are the evidence is presented you are tried convicted and sentenced and you don't even know it because you resemble my experiences you resemble someone i had a bad experience with well that doesn't just work racially and culturally it it works a lot of different ways my dad worked his way up as from me the lowest enlisted men all the way up to be an officer over 30 years but you know i go to the naval academy and i'm not a blue blood i was appointed by a congressman or a senator i got appointed because i was the son of a military veteran and in the hierarchy structure i don't know anybody i don't know anybody and then you add to that i'm pentecostal and i talk in tongues and all of a sudden i am on the outside with it hopeless for me to get in now if i had been a star football player they would have let me in partially but when i couldn't contribute to their being able to brag about themselves and their institution then i'm on the outside now if any man be in christ he's what what what wait it didn't stop there does it if any man be in christ he is a new creature what does that next part say old things or former things are passed away behold all things become new now here's the problem and it is the problem the only way i can demonstrate the love of christ is to love you no matter how you're treating me that's grace and if you choose to receive that love fine if you choose to reject that love not my problem it's your problem and his problem but it's the only way that i can demonstrate i'm a christian christian jesus said by this shall all men know that you're my disciple that you have loved one for another and of course you've probably heard this before the three types of lovey rose filion agape and agape is god's love god is agape and it's the love that gives no matter with the it's the love that gives with no guarantee of receiving anything in return he he as love initiates giving without any guarantee of what the decision of that the will of that person you're giving it to is going to be no no effort to manipulate coerce control here it is i'm giving you myself i'm giving you my love here it is what you do with it is between you and god and so there's an account there but i'm not the one that's required the account right if i'm loving no matter what the return is i'm not the one that has the right to bring that person to account for not loving back because if god is love and i'm the love i'm giving is agape that's god that i'm only a conduit for that love i have no right i have no right to bring that person to account or judge that person for what they do with that agape because the agape is god all i'm is a conduit the second greatest commandment hello love your neighbor as yourself that's talking about conduit i can't love me without love that's the first greatest commandment hero is the lord our god is one lord thou shalt love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength so if i receive agape from god so that i can give him agape back that gives me worth his love his agape given to me gives me worse and freely i receive that agape so that i can have word i now freely give that agape and give worth but i it doesn't say anything about what that person's response is to my giving agape nothing now of course the real catch here is sometimes god's agape is tough love when you realize the cost of tough love but again that tough love is him it's not you i have no right to punish anybody in any way because they have rejected my love this may sound strange to you but there's people in this building notice absolutely true there are people in this area who used to be a part of this church to hate literally hate my guts i am the worst thing that's ever happened to them all of their problems are ultimately mine my fault all their problems are ultimately my fault that's literally true that's not me feeling sorry for myself i wouldn't even begin to name names but i know i know very clearly specifically people who feel that way well how do you live with that there's only one way i could live with that by the grace of god i did the best i can to let him love them through me and what they it's it's it they can't blame god so it's too easy to blame the conduit that's their choice so be it but with all of that being said there's not one person that's ever been a part of this church in the history of this church that i wouldn't be thrilled to death i guess that's a not a necessarily good statement but whatever to see them walk through that back door find a place to pray repent and become a part of this church again there would be no hesitancy there would be no reservation there would be no everybody but you not you there wouldn't be any of that there isn't any of that not one of them because ultimately and this is what dying out means dying out doesn't just mean i doubt to the bad stuff i die to the good stuff too but i die out to being anything more than the conduit and even though we know it's human nature to reject the conduit if i am the conduit and what's being done or said through me is god now i started to say it's self-defense but i there's no there is no self-defense i'm not i don't have to defend it he goes it gets up here and tells these stories all these horror stories right the the the bottom line is i mean i'm sure he remembered them if those things happened to me i'd remember them the problem is i don't remember them at all no i don't you know why it wasn't me the last conversation he referred to was just a couple weeks ago i'm praying minding my own business the lord begins to say this this this this i call him up and tell him that i had this i had the awareness that while it was flowing this may be one of the most significant things the lord's ever said to him through me and i couldn't tell you what it was if you put a gun to my head literally i don't remember i don't remember it you think the hose remembers every gallon of water passes through it no i don't now my wife she is we're she and i are really unique from one another we are the two halves that make the whole we couldn't be any more different and the grace of god has made this work thank god now she her when she's done with your text message gone delete delete delete delete when she's done with your email address or your email delete delete delete delete now she says she saves a few i don't know where they are me if you have ever text me it's in the cloud and i have access to it ever if you've ever emailed me i got thousands and thousands of emails i don't know why i just have it saved every bit of it we're so different she's all she does that because she's afraid that she'll text somebody and it's says something that's the wrong person i do that it's just oops sorry wrong person now thankfully i'm not saying bad stuff about somebody so it's not me texting uh brother so-and-so and said scott shelton's always telling bad stories about me man what do i do about that and it sent it to him but that'd be a good idea to accidentally send that to him and say can't you teach without talking about me it would be deeply appreciated no you can't like i know i get it i get it yeah i get it i get it i yeah right yeah yeah i get it praise god the focus this is the focus him is it wrong to seek for a move of god wrong i guess not but what's more effective seeking a move of god or seeking him is it wrong to seek for revival and harvest i i don't seek for it i confess i believe it but is it wrong to pray for that i guess not but wouldn't it be just easier to seek for him is it wrong to seek for seek to be used of his spirit i don't guess so but wouldn't it be just easier to seek for him if i get him i get everything and anything he wants to do through me i can i can obtain spiritual gifts by covetousness by coveting them paul admitted that i can covet the gift but there's a better way i'll show you a more excellent way charity love well what's love god is love i'm sick if i'm seeking for love i'm seeking for god if i'm seeking for god i'm seeking for love if i get him he will do through me whatever he chooses to do but my motive will be right because i'm not seeking for stuff from him i'm seeking for him and then whatever he chooses to do he gets all the credit because he initiated it he initiated it he did it through me so he gets all the credit all the credit but if i'm if i'm seeking to be used in tongues of interpretation or seeking to be used in prophecy or miracles or signs or wonder what okay i i've said this a couple times recently we are of the opinion that miracles having great numbers of miracles will solve everything there's a slight problem with that you haven't read your bible he fed 5 000 men not counting women or children we know that there were women and children there because he multiplied a little boy's lunch where'd he get that little boy's lunch if there was no little boy there he fed 4 000 men we don't have any women and children that it was he was disrespecting the women children by not numbering them no he was trying to make the point that the actual number is his business alone he was just trying to give us a scope of the miracle period you know he healed everybody he healed everyone that came to me came to on certain occasions we don't know how many it could have been fives tens fifty hundred thousand ten thousand we don't know but in his lifetime it certainly appears like he healed thousands of people all of those miracles eating miraculously multiplied bread and fish and i like both and eating and experiencing the dead being raised blind eyes open deaf ears and stuff his testimony to john the baptist when he was in jail go go tell john what you've seen blind eyes opened after your son stopped lame walking lepers cleansed dead race and the poor having the gospel preached unto him isn't that amazing that he made the poor getting the gospel preached unto them a miracle equal to blind eyes being opened deaf ears and stopped the lame walking the dead raised lepers cleansed he considered it just as much of a miracle that the poor would have the gospel preached to them why because the poor can do nothing for you you can only love them they can't give back to you so you can't make your church payment from offerings given by the poor you can't get an increase in your pay as a preacher by offers given to the poor so who are you going to reach for the folks that when they give they can have a financial impact and that's what jesus knows that's why he equated the miracle of the poor having the gospel preached to them equal to blind eyes being open deaf ears unstopped the lame walking lepers cleansed the dead being raised so he he goes and says go tell john what you've seen but out of those thousands 500 people show up as ascension above 500. we don't know how many that is that's the that's the way paul phrased it in first corinthians 15. above 500 showed up for that i don't know about you but i think it would be quite a an amazing thing to see a dead man alive that was christ i think it would be even more unique in watching him walk on water seeing him ascend in the heavens with your own eyes and watching men disappear in the clouds that's pretty miraculous and then watching two angels appear for all the crowd to see them with their own eyes eyes and then them speak to them with their their voice and everybody heard them speak that's all pretty miraculous and yet 10 days later 380 of them weren't even there if miracles are the answer by themselves if we're seeking miracles thinking that is the solution for reaching the world how effective it was it in jesus own ministry the purpose of miracles is to confirm the word miracles without the word to confirm deceive that's why we're warned about the the miraculous power the miracle working power of the spirit of iniquity in second thessalonians chapter two and those miracles were going to produce deception and delusion causing people to go to hell forever read it thessalonians 2. in fact even the old testament says if someone prophesies to you and it comes to pass but then they say to you let's go serve this other god the scripture says don't do it this was a test from god even a prophet who speaks prophecies that come to pass cannot be counted on on the on the equivalent letter level of the word of god and i know this is an ipad but this is my bible i've got them all in here so forgive me for using this right but the bible is the only reliable source of god knowing god knowing about god knowing how to have a relationship with god because everything the spirit speaks to me has to be judged by the bible so the word takes precedence over god speaking to me and that voice speaking to me may be speaking the truth but i i still have to verify that by the word beloved try the spirits try them test them so that's what i'm saying you know how can i seek to know god without knowing his word i don't know the lord jesus christ one bit wetter than i know his word grow in grace and in the knowledge of the lord and savior jesus christ the only way to grow in knowledge of the lord savior jesus christ is to grow in knowledge of the word and obviously myself and many many others have done teaching and it's all available online and blah blah blah and all of that is good but it's not a substitute for your personal study of the word of god nobody's ministry is a substitute for your personal study of the word of god it may inspire you to study it may give you direction for study it may confirm what you've studied after you've studied but nobody no minister no pastor nobody's ministry is a substitute for your personal study of the word of god and i was raised and had pastors that the culture had taught them that you don't question the pastor that's rebellion and you do it because i'm the pastor i say so you know what i got a problem because i've been reading the bible and the bible doesn't say that the bible says if the blind lead the blind they'll both fall in the ditch that's what the bible says the bible says the bereans were spiritually noble i know some of you have heard this before but some people here the holy ghost was talking to he hadn't heard it before okay so just be patient with the lord and maybe he won't need it to refresh you on this but the bereans were considered spiritually noble because when paul spoke to them they went back to the scriptures to verify that what he was saying is what the scripture actually says i've said this before i will say it to you again okay i don't trust anybody's preaching i don't trust what anybody said till i verified in the word of god for myself if you say that's offensive not doing it is offensive to god i choose to not offend god rather than being offensive to man i'm not accepting anything anybody says if i can't find it in the book i'm not not accepting it and therefore i don't expect anybody to accept anything i say because brother wright said it i didn't i don't have nail scars i don't have a spear scar my back hadn't been beaten with a plow i didn't buy your salvation and i'm not the word made flesh if i don't know the logos if i haven't hidden logos in here then when i hear the voice of a spirit the spirit i have nothing to compare what that spirit is saying to me with the logos therefore i open myself up for deception because satan is an imitator he does not announce to you this is the devil i want you to do what i say he tries to imitate the voice of god in your life and if he can't get you to accept his voice as the as god's voice he wants to get you to accept his voice as your thoughts the last thing he wants you to do is to identify those thoughts as being him as the source last thing so as i as i focus on jesus not religion not organizations not the church world not the latest book out there but jesus and to seek jesus i want to fellowship with his spirit and i want to devour his word blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness they shall be filled i hunger for the bread of life which is the word of god i hunger for the living water which is the spirit of god i don't get to choose one or the other because both of those are necessary to have god god is spirit and word he's not spirit or word he's spirit and word so if i'm hungry for him i'm focused on him i i i have to invest time in fellowship with him in the spirit but i i don't know maybe i'm just weird maybe he just loves me better than everybody else i guess but when i fellowship with him i i never fellowship with him in prayer that he doesn't point me to something in the word that he's saying to me in the word and that's why that's why this number of notes in my yellow note app is constantly growing right now i'm up to 7 130 notes in my yellow note app and 99 of them have something to do with something he said or something i'm working on listening to him on it because he doesn't give me all the pieces at one time it's usually a piece here piece here and he begins to put the pieces together if i don't know him if i don't know his word i can't trust his voice and hear me being able to hear the voice of god is everything it's everything i you can be the most moral person in the world you can have the tenets of your christian faith down the doctors of your christian faith down where people will think you you know them so well you must have written them you you can be the kindest gentlest person in the whole world you can be the most giving person in the whole world and yet not know his voice brother ryan i just don't agree with that um then you can put acts chapter 10 verse 1 on the screen for me please so if you don't agree with me let's read this there was a certain man in cornelius called cornelius caesarea called cornelius a centurion of the band called the italian band that's not musical instruments that was a group of roman army soldiers and he was an officer over them next verse a devout man and one that feared god with all of his house which gave much arms to the people and pray to god always there's a problem he was lost oh i don't expect you to take my word for it next verse he saw a in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of god coming to him and saying unto him cornelius next verse and when he looked on him he was afraid and said what is it lord and he said unto him thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a up come up for a memorial before god the word memorial there comes from two greek words to stay in the mind and chew it wasn't god being a memorial to cornelius cornelius was devout the greek word there is not just about but well devout he was well devout he feared god with all of his house he gave much arms to the people he prayed to god always and his his life was a memorial before god it stayed in god's mind and chewed and so therefore god had to do this verse five and now send men to joppa and call for one simon whose surname is peter he lodgeth with one simon a tanner whose house is by the seaside he shall tell thee what thou art is to do the greek word there is what is necessary for you to do read your bible from genesis 1 1 revelation 22 21 tell me what cornelius in his house did after peter came that they had not already been doing before peter came search it read it you'll find only two things that this man did and his house did after peter came that he had not already done oh let's just skip down there acts chapter 10 verse 44 please while peter yet spake these words the holy ghost fell on all them which heard the word and they of the circumcision which believed were astonished as many as came with peter because then on the gentiles also was poured out the gift of the holy ghost for they heard them speak with tongues and magnified god then answered peter can any man forbid water which that these should not be baptized which have received the holy ghost as well as we and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the lord okay again find any place in the scripture where they confess the lord jesus christ to their personal savior no where they joined a church nope where they became more devout know where they feared god would uh more with their whole house no gave more to the people and prayed more no none of those things changed what changed was they got the holy ghost spoke in tongues were baptized in water in jesus name now acts chapter 11 and we'll start let's try with verse 7. we'll just try that one let's go verse 5. now i'm going to read quickly uh we'll have to read real quick verse four uh three two one yeah yeah and the apostles brother they were in jerusalem heard that the gentiles had also received the word of god and when peter was come up to jerusalem that they were of the circumcision they that were of the circumcision contended with him and saying thou wentest into men uncircumcised and did us eat with them of auroras but peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order saying unto them saying i was in the city of joppa praying and in a trance i saw a vision a certain vessel descended as it had been a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners and it came even to me upon upon the which when i had fastened my eyes i considered saw four footed beasts of the earth wild beasts creeping things and fouls of the air and i heard a voice saying unto me peters arise peter slay and eat but i said not so lord for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth and but the voice answered me again from heaven what what god hath cleansed that that call not thou common next verse and this was done three times and all were drawn up again into heaven and behold immediately there were three men already come unto me uh come unto the house where i was sent from caesarea unto me and the spirit made me go with them nothing doubting moreover these six brethren he said i brought six more jews with me as witnesses these six brethren accompanied me and we entered into the man's house next verse and he showed me showed us how he had seen an angel in his house which stood in suddenly him send men to jasper and call for simon whose surname is peter who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved what now i don't see anybody go to hell if god can stay god and true to his own word and save every human being in this earth he is never going to hear a word to complain out of me i don't need him vindicating me validating me i don't need any of that i don't want anybody to go to hell that being said how you can read these chapter 10 chapter 11 and chapter 15 of acts which we'll read in just a minute how you can read those and believe that you can be saved without repenting of your sins being water baptized in jesus name by immersion and be filled with the holy ghost it's initially evidence by speaking in other tongues how you can read those things and not believe that then it has to be spiritual blindness it has to be spiritual blindness because this is about as clear as it can get he was devout well devout he feared god with all of his house he gave much alms to the people and prayed to god always and wasn't saved that's not my doctrine that's not my teaching that's what the word of god says next verse and i began to and as i began to speak the holy ghost fell on them as on as on us at the beginning in other words the holy ghost fell on us like it did on us on the day of pentecost then remember thy the word of the lord how that he said john indeed baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the holy ghost so those that say the gift of the holy ghost and the baptism of the holy ghost and receiveth the spirit are separate things the problem you've got those phrases are all used interchangeably as proven by this verse and others here verse 17 for as much then as god gave them the like the word greek word there is the exact same thing in every respect the like gift as he did unto us are in the same exact manner and which he gave it unto us who believed on the lord jesus christ what was i that i could withstand god oh so when you believe on the lord jesus christ you're going to receive the holy ghost like they did on the day of pentecost like the gentiles did what it says next verse when they heard these things the jews heard these things they held their peace and glorified god saying then hath god also to the gentiles granted repentance unto life we'll skip over to acts 15 verse 5. but there rose up a certain of the sect of the pharisees which believed saying that it was needful to circumcise them the gentiles and to command them to keep the law of moses and the apostles and elders came together for the consider of this matter and when there had been much disputing peter rose up and said unto them men and brethren you know how that a good while ago so this was some period of time after cornelius's house hole was filled with the holy ghost peter rose up and said unto them and brother you know how that a good while ago god made choice among us that the gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe devout feared god with all of his house gave much hopes to the people and prayed to god always but they didn't believe the gospel oh wait in acts chapter 10 it doesn't say they believe the gospel it says the holy ghost fell on them they got the holy ghost spoken in tongues and he commanded them to be water baptized in jesus name peter equated that with believing the gospel next verse oh this is this is where it gets gooder and gooder right here listen to this now and god which knoweth the hearts bear them witness what who did the bearing witness of whom it wasn't man bearing witness of god it was god bearing witness of them and so the question is this you say you've accepted christ my question is has christ accepted you has he born witness that he's accepted you and god which knoweth the hearts bear them witness and how did he bear them witness giving them the holy ghost even as he did unto us in the same manner in which he gave it to us you know i got humanity i look at all these people in this world and you go god how in the world can you send all these people to hell i mean surely there's a there's a loophole someplace it's got to be a loophole god you know how in the world can you send the whole world to hell and just save a few he said you mean like i did with the ark i saved eight that believed and everybody else was lost because here's the problem we've got we're so viewing this from our human perspective that we don't see god's perspective at all he told me last march he said there is no room in heaven for any will but the fathers will and those who are living by the father's will will be welcomed there and those who are living by their own will even if they claim to be saved will not be welcomed and you look at the story of the where jesus said not everyone that says unto me lord lord shall end the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my father which is heaven many will save me in me to me in that day in that day and that day of judgment lord lord have we not prophesied in your name and thy name cast out devils in my name done many wonderful works then will i profess or pronounce unto them i never knew you i never had a relationship with you that i approved of depart from me that's the executed sentence and here was the evidence that produced the sentence guilty you that work iniquity what is working iniquity not doing the will of the father that's iniquity not doing the will of the father lucifer was kicked out of heaven because of iniquity he didn't want to do the will of the father that's how much any will other than the father's will cannot abide in heaven when lucifer decided to do his own will he got kicked out of heaven and yet we go whoo i got friends i got loved ones i got family members i have friends i have loved ones i have family members i don't want them to go to hell i want to be saved but what do you do when people choose to live by their own will rather than god's will you can't make people do right then they're not choosing to do the father's will the only hope they've got according to the word of god the only hope they've got is just for someone to devote themselves to know jesus and know his word and then to be his conduit so he can speak the word of salvation the word of truth the word of life to them but then as paul said we're the savior of life unto some savior of death and others so even after we know the lord and know his word and we've submitted to his voice to be his conduit we can speak those things but only he and they know what their response is going to be and we rejoice over those that get saved and we grieve over those that don't i don't stand here because i'm more worthy than anybody i'm not better than any anybody in or out of the church there's not anybody out there that deserves to go to hell more than i deserve to go to hell the only reason i'm not going to hell is not because i don't deserve to go to hell but because of the blood of the lord jesus christ that was applied to my life because i believed him believed his word and submitted myself to him because i i fully understood i can't save myself i need a savior i need a savior i need a savior i need a savior now i have friends and relatives and acquaintances who don't believe that they believe that if they're good enough that god will save them in spite of the way they live just because they're good people not happening it's not happening and i don't say that with any kind of any kind of joy or or satisfaction it's sorrowful in fact in this life i'm supposed to have sorrow over them because i'm not going to have any sorrow at all in the next life i can grieve for them here i will not grieve for them there and every person that has died in a condition that appears since i'm not their judge that it appears as though that they died not obeying the word of god by not pushing them out of my mind by not refusing to grieve for them i am cheating god of the opportunity to keep me soberly minded over what the ultimate outcome is for anyone which is further motivation for me to give myself to him more and more it's further motivation for me to seek it for his word put it in here and to be more submitted and sensitive to his voice so that he can use me now i didn't set a time limit on how far i was how long i was going to go today and i apologize to you that it's still eight minutes to two and i'm about to quit so forgive me for going so short i know you chuckled and i intended for you to chuckle but there's some that chuckled and knew i meant every word of it so but since i just work here and he's the one doing the talking then i quit when he quits i am i i don't know if this what your attitude or response to this i don't even know why i'm saying it but i'm saying it i am just dumbfounded that this has gone the direction it's going today for me for my part of it um this is twice now i've taken the microphone sure i knew where it was going and hadn't even been within the forget in the state of maryland hadn't been in the same country of where i thought i was supposed to go but i am convinced of one thing the lord has talked to some people today that needed it and that's enough for me whether you and here or those online or people in both places i mean i don't remember the last time i talked about cornelius in this kind of setting on sunday morning i was doing a pentecost sunday service in uh eureka california and it came up there first time in a long time one of my favorite subjects i call cornelius the forgotten man of the bible because you don't hear the nominal world preach about him because he doesn't fit their doctrine and he just happens to be the first gentile got the holy ghost and you know there's only two races in the bible right jews and everybody else called gentiles that's what the bible teaches that's not not denying your culture and where you you know not deny it's just biblically there's jews and everybody else and you and i are part of the everybody else most of you there may be somebody here got some jewish something in the background but of course in our day today that's a bad thing to make everybody put everybody in the same pot in it to treat everybody the same one a tree everybody's saying want to love everybody the same in our day boy that's whoo that's that makes you the people call you bad names for that call on i'm just following the book praise god we will start by seven this evening actually there will be prayer being led before that but you get you something to eat get some rest these type meetings are very taxing physically and i will say this to you there is a method to the madness the method is that hopefully you get tired enough you quit fussing with the preacher when you get tired enough you could argue just listen argue later you and the lord have all the arguments you want but while we're while the the holy ghost is flowing just listen i'm obeying god father we love you this day thank you for the privilege to fellowship with you and with each other thank you for speaking to us thank you for all that you have said to us today by the grace of god give us the ability to receive your word to believe your word to covet to cherish your word in the name of the lord jesus christ in the name of the lord jesus christ i speak an angelic hedge of protection around the soil of the hearts that received this seed last night and today that the adversary would not be able to steal any of this seed out of this ground before it's able to germinate and grow and produce fruit for the glory of god and for the kingdom of god in the name of the lord jesus christ in the name of the lord jesus christ hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah [Music] in the name of jesus in the name of jesus in the name of jesus christ thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus praise god praise god

Channel: Apostolic Iron

Views: 897

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Apostolic, Apostolic Iron, Jesus, Prayer, Pray, Praying, C.M. Wright, Bishop Wright, Pentecost, Pentecostal, UPCI, Call To War, God, Lord, Preaching, Apostolic Preaching

Id: OLj4zdY059o

Length: 110min 5sec (6605 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 11 2021