GloryCruise 20' // DanielKolenda // Baptism of the Spirit

I remember I was in a city in Nigeria and there was a lady I learned the backstory later I didn't know this at the time obviously but there was a lady that came to one of the meetings and she was a famous witch doctor in the region and even among among the people that practice animism and voodoo she was into the dark stuff now for us it's all dark right we understand that that that stuff is all from a dark satanic realm but they see even within that levels and there's some of it that they consider good some of they consider bad well even by their standards this was one of the bad ones and a pastor told me he said I'm personally know ten people that have died after she's put a curse on them and she said two of them were her own family members she said this pastor told me this woman is no joke so and this was after obviously but she came to the meeting to put a curse on me I was the preacher to kill me now you might say why would anybody want to kill a nice guy like you well I wonder the same thing but the truth is we are very bad for their business because one of the things that I tell the people is I say you do not have to live under the fear of these evil spirits any longer the blood of Jesus will set you free that's one of the main messages and one of the things I do in every crusade is I get the from the local pastors I bring them together and they give me a list of the curses and the spirits that are sometimes going back many generations in that region and these spirits just to give you an idea that the local people often live in such fear of these evil spirits that they will not say the name of the spirit out loud they may write it for you but they will not say it and I'm talking even about pastors they're in such fear of these things that they're worried that to even say these names out loud might bring some kind of a curse upon them so I get the list of these names and then I stand up in the crusade with the microphone and those gigantic speakers and I call those things out by name I challenge them and I break their power in the name of Jesus and then I have all the people come with their charms and fetishes and amulets and idols and all the things given it to them by the witch doctor we pile them up and burn them right in front of everybody and the people dance around it and and and the people go wait a minute the did that and he didn't die his Jesus must be more powerful and they turn away from witchcraft they turn away from animism so anyway coming back to the story of this woman she'd come to the meeting to kill me and I don't know what she had some kind of juju you know that's kind of the generic term we have for their hocus-pocus and that's their terminology by the way that's not me being disrespectful and they bring all this stuff as she's got it in her hands that she's about to conjure up this curse to throw at me and suddenly I'm preaching by the way on the blood of Jesus at the moment which had to have been the Holy Spirit that put that on my heart because I didn't know she was there or that she was gonna do that suddenly as she's getting ready to put to put this curse on me I hear a blood-curdling scream that's when I became aware of her presence and I look over to my right side and there's this woman she's fallen to the ground as she's writhing like a snake on the ground foaming at the mouth white foam coming out of her mouth well you know what I did what do you think I did I ignored her and kept preaching you know why you say well why didn't you stop and cast the devil out of it listen that's my platform I'm not gonna give the devil one second of the time that I have to preach Jesus there's a half a million people standing in front of me waiting to hear the gospel I'm not gonna give that platform to the devil I don't care how loud he screams however we've trained the pastor's to handle that so the local pastors grab this lady they pull her into the back we have a tent set up back there for deliverance we call it the snake pit and the local pastors cast the demons out of her they let her to the Lord they brought her up on the platform and she introduced herself to me like this she said I came here tonight to kill you and I said wow it's nice to meet you too she said but instead I've given my life to Jesus because tonight she said I've learned that your Jesus is more powerful than my witchcraft and this this is not just spiritual warfare it's not just something that applies to evangelist going to the third world doing mass gospel Crusades the principles that allow us to have victory in that setting will give you victory in your life as well because the principles are the same and so I would really encourage you to get that book somebody said to me today one of the things that she really liked about it is that it was unlike many books she'd read on spiritual warfare it wasn't giving her fear let me tell you something fear is a weapon of the enemy and if any book on spiritual warfare creates fear in you of the demonic then it's actually doing the devil's work we God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and a sound mind and that's what I hope to impart to you through that so obviously we don't have them here on the boat because you guys don't carry money with you so what are we gonna do but you get it wherever you get books Amazon or Barnes and opal or whatever and I know it'll be a blessing to you amen is that okay I told you earlier when you spend so much time investing your life into something like a book you you want people to read it and I really believe it will change your life amen can you open your Bible to the book of Acts with me how many of you are looking forward to the fire tunnel what a rich time it's been here this week every message that we've heard has just been so incredibly timely and I don't know if you've sensed it or noticed it but there's also been a theme through each message you can see the hand of God just weaving it all together I had intended to kind of carry on with that theme tonight and I had some things I really was looking forward to sharing with you but I I just feel to take a little bit different direction and I want to just take a few minutes I know this is the last night of the cruise my goal is that I will be the shortest preacher you've heard this week okay and we're gonna get to the good stuff you've heard enough preaching already to last the rest of your life if you applied 1 percent of what you know you would change the world you'd probably be like inna God would just have to take you home because the world would not be worthy of you but I want to help you tonight just to get ready for that moment of impartation how many of you believe in impartation how many of you believe that there is something that you can receive even through the laying on of hands if you don't believe that you should probably go because that's what this is about tonight ok we are going to be laying our hands on you in prayer for a release of an importation of the power of the Holy Spirit if you've never been baptized in the Holy Spirit you're gonna get baptized in the Holy Spirit tonight what is baptism into the Holy Spirit it means to be immersed into God because the Holy Spirit is God I think sometimes we treat these things we we take these biblical concepts and we create cliches out of them and we use them to the point that we forget what they mean the Holy Spirit is God baptism is immersion baptism and the Holy Spirit is to be fully immersed into the person of God himself which has to be a life-changing experience wouldn't you agree I mean you you we cannot come listen if you stood on a train track and you came face-to-face with a locomotive you would never be the same again that's just a train now imagine coming face to face with God the creator of the universe you cannot be the same your life will change I believe that in Jesus name now you say well Daniel I've already been baptized in the Holy Spirit listen to me my friends there is not just one dimension of the Holy Spirit you can be baptized again and again and again and each time you receive it can be deeper it can be profound it can be greater than it was the last time because God is a limitless ocean one of the great tragedies I feel even within the Pentecostal church is that the concept of the baptism in the Holy Spirit has led many to believe that once they speak in tongues in a prayer meeting that's it for them and now they just ride on the vestiges of that experience for the rest of their lives listen you can have the daily experience of the Holy Spirit he wants to encounter you here tonight that's what we're believing for and that's why we're gonna lay our hands on you so I'm just gonna say a few words from my heart that that I think will help you listen I have laid hands personally laid hands on hundreds of thousands of people that's not an exaggeration I don't I don't mean just prayed over crowds I prayed over tens of millions that way but I'm talking about one-on-one took my hand and put it on somebody else's head I've done that with hundreds of thousands of people Todd how many did we pray for in that one service you were talking about yesterday 12,000 we prayed for in one service okay so when you pray for 12,000 at a time it doesn't take longer to get to hundreds of thousands and one of the things that I've noticed over the years is that some people receive very easily and other people they've been looking for years and years and years and years for a touch from God and they haven't received it yet and I have I'm one of those people that is not the easy to receive types I'm the guy we were talking about this the other day when I was a teenager I sang in the Benny Hinn choir and I think there was probably 500 people in the choir and Benny turns and he goes Chuck Shh and everybody in the choir fell to the ground except me and you got to remember this is in a stadium there's 10,000 people there 500 on in the choir loft are laid out on the ground and I'm there like this and how many times I felt in my life Lord don't you know that I'm here did you forget about me and so I there's there's a soft space in my heart for those that maybe have not been the ones that have received so I would help you is that okay and so if you're if you're looking for that experience if you have not yet received that I believe this will help you and if you are easy to receive as we call it well it'll just make you even more easy to receive that's a good thing too so I want to just walk you through a little bit of the text here in the book of Acts let's just begin with the beginning it's always a good place to start Acts chapter 1 and again I'm not gonna take a long time but please pay attention okay so the book begins with Luke how many of you knew that Luke who wrote the book of Luke also wrote Acts and many theologians even talk about the book of Luke and acts as one they call it Luke acts hyphenated because these two books are two volumes it's like part one in part two in the first part Luke is telling the story of the life of Jesus but what you have to understand is that the life of Jesus didn't end with the resurrection that wasn't the end of the story you know there's one passage in the scriptures where it says that if everything Jesus did was recorded all of the books in the world would not be able to contain it and some people think that's an exaggeration but I want you to understand that the things Jesus did are replicated and multiplied millions of times over through all of our lives by the Holy Spirit so that it literally is impossible for us to be able to record all the things that he's done and Luke shows this he shows that the Ministry of Jesus does not end with his physical resurrection and his ascension it moves on and the work of Jesus goes on through the power of the Holy Spirit and by the way just skipping to the end of the book of Acts the book of Acts ends in a very particular way that is characteristic in Greek literature it ends with an open story which is always meant in that genre to indicate that this story is not over yet it continues on and this is why it's such a tragedy when you have people in the church that believe that the gifts of the Spirit died with the Apostles not only did the gifts of the Spirit and not die with the Apostles but we were intended to go from glory to glory to glory I believe the Apostles are jealous of our generation because I believe we are walking and we have the ability to walk today in things that they never even dreamt of I think when I get to heaven this may sound very arrogant but I think it's true I think Paul's gonna come up to me and say what was it like to see the Holy Spirit fall on a million people I have seen more people saved in one service than Paul saw saved in his whole ministry earthly ministry think about that not because I'm great because we are living in a season where the Holy Spirit is increasing everything to such a degree we're living in a dream it's the day of the Holy Spirit the best days there could ever be so and so I better come back here control myself Luke writes the former treatise I've made to you over the awfulest talking about the book of Luke of all the things that Jesus began to do and to teach a way you don't notice that he didn't say that things that beat Jesus began to teach and to do he said all the things that Jesus began to do and to teach that order is not incidental you know in our Western Way of thinking we always put the teaching before the doing and often there's no doing at all it's just talk how many people have you heard that talk a lot about things that you never see them actually do or they talk about things they've never actually seen or experienced themselves that is not the way Jesus was often his teaching was actually an explanation of what the people had already seen him doing because he did it first then he taught it in fact even in Luke 1:3 it says that that that Jesus where was it that he was oh no I'm sorry - Luke 24 19 it says that Jesus was a prophet mighty in deed and in word again you see the action coming before the teaching and I believe we need one of the things that Patricia talked a lot last night about what God is doing in our time I believe one of the things God is doing in our time is changing the order of things that we are not just teaching about the work of the Holy Spirit we're not just talking about glory we're not just theorizing about healing but we are actually walking in the demonstration of these things that is the desire of God just jump ahead with me because of the sake of time I want to go down to verse 4 it says and being assembled together with them he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait everybody say wait for the promise of the father which he said you have heard of me for John truly baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days from now and I want you to think for a minute about the significance of Jesus sending his disciples to the Upper Room the disciples had been with Jesus for three years plus they had heard all of his sermons they had seen his miracles firsthand they didn't just read the New Testament they wrote it at least part of it they were the most qualified believers that had ever except up to that time and I would say even to this day the most qualified believers that there ever have been if they were alive today they would receive honorary doctorates from every Christian University they would receive honorary credentials from every denomination they were qualified because they had been with Jesus not only that they have already by this point seen miracles through their own ministries they had already been preaching the gospel as Jesus told them to do when he sent them out when he sent them out even before he died he said house you go preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out demons freely you have received freely give that was pre crucifixion and resurrection so these guys were not novices they had a lot to give they had a lot to say they had a lot to offer and Jesus tells them you are not ready because there's something coming now that is of equality you have never imagined because you see up into this point you have been operating under my delegated authority but what is going to happen now is that the same spirit by which I myself have healed the sick and cleansed the lepers and raised the dead is going to come and abide in you the way it came to abide in me and it will never leave you again it was not just different in in some incidental aspect it was qualitatively different what was about to happen it was so different think about this that when John is talking about Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit which is to come remember jesus said rivers of living water will flow out of out of remember that passage and then John says this he said he Jesus said these things because up until that time the Spirit had not yet been given now think about this the Holy Spirit is all through the Bible go back to the Old Testament he was on the prophets the priests the kings you can read about what he did through every page of this book and yet John says that compared to what was about to happen the Holy Spirit had not even been given yet that's how different these two eras were think about this what I'm telling you now is not just academic I'm explaining something that you can enter into John the Baptist was the greatest person under the Old Covenant and Jesus says under this New Covenant under this new era the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is not because you're better than John but because you have access to a better covenant you can enter into that which Jesus himself modeled and you will in Jesus name for John truly baptized with water what you'll but you'll be baptized in the holy spirit not many days from now and then they came together and he asked them this is verse six saying Lord will you at this time restore again the kingdom unto Israel and he said unto them it is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the father has put into his own power but you will receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you'll be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and to the other most parts of the earth I just want to I want to pause here and point out what's happening because I think it's it's relevant to us so the Apostles the disciples they had this idea that what was going to happen is that the Messiah would come it was very common in that day they believed that the sign of the Messiah is that he would come he would set up his kingdom on earth he would overthrow the Roman Empire and he would rule and reign on the earth and so even after Jesus had died on the cross well well imagine this first of all that's what the disciples thought Jesus would do then Jesus got arrested he goes to the cross and dies all of their hopes are shattered but then he rises from the dead and all those hopes come back to life now even more than ever and so now he's teaching with them he's talking to them about things pertaining to the kingdom of heaven and they are still thinking this is gonna happen now this is a physical carnal natural kingdom that's about to be set up on the earth and so they ask him will you now at this time restore again the kingdom it to Israel now how many of you know that that Jesus will actually rule and reign on the earth how many of you know your inheritance is the earth I need to let that sink in because a lot of Christians don't understand this they just can't wait to leave this old forsaken world behind your assignment is the earth you will rule and reign with Christ on the earth and so this is coming this is part of what is in the prophetic timeline of God however the disciples begin to ask about that and listen to what Jesus says to them he says it's not you it's none of your business essentially he said don't don't worry about don't don't get caught up in this this is in your control this is not in your power now I have a lot of people they ask me what do you believe about the tribulation are you mid-trib post-trib pre-trib are you a millennial post-millennial all these different things and I don't get caught up in those discussions do you know why because number one no matter which interpretation is true my my opinion doesn't change it so why waste your time you understand but second of all that thing which is not in our power should never overshadow that which is in our power to do and what is in our power jesus said when the Holy Ghost comes upon you you shall receive power and you shall be witnesses unto me in other words all of that endtime eschatological truth that's that's none of your business let me tell you what's your business get the power of the Holy Ghost and go change the world now if you're if you're if you're thing is Bible prophecy you will invariably disagree with me and I've had people rebuked me over this but I'm telling you right now if you live a life theorizing about the end let me tell you some prophecy is always perfectly understood after it's fulfilled and almost never before so don't waste your life getting caught up in things that are none of your business go out there with the power of the Holy Spirit and change the world but it brings us to this reality that we need the power of the Holy Spirit so let's come on over into chapter 2 chapter 2 yes glory to God I believe that Acts chapter 2 I like this one and when the day of Pentecost had fully come they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven the sound as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire and it sat upon each of them say to each of them and they were all filled say they were all filled they were all filled with the holy ghost and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance skip over to verse 14 actually let's back up a little bit this is too good to skip so the people obviously heard them speaking in tongues in verse 12 the crowds were amazed they were in doubt saying to one another what does this mean and others mocking said these men are drunk they're full of new wine but Peter standing up with the eleven lifted his voice and said unto them you men of Judea and all that dwell in Jerusalem by the way this is the same guy that denied Jesus three times just a few days earlier a coward a chicken a loser suddenly the Holy Ghost comes upon him and he becomes the first crusade evangelist filled with boldness standing up in front of the crowds preaching the gospel and declaring prophetically what is happening at that moment for these are not drunken as you suppose but this is that which has been spoken by the Prophet Joel it will come to pass in the last days saith god I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh your sons and daughters shall prophesy your young men shall see visions your old men shall dream dreams and upon my servants in my handmaidens will I pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy and I will show wonders in heaven signs on the earth beneath blood and fire and vapor of smoke the Sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before that great and terrible day of the Lord and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved he links this incredible outpouring listened with the past what has been spoken by the prophets of old and he links it with the future the great and terrible day of the Lord but in between there is this amazing season of grace where whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved and I want you to know something my brothers and sisters we are in that moment right now we are living in the day of salvation now is the day of salvation now I want to just take a couple of minutes and I want to set some to rest I want a mythbuster is that okay anybody ever watched Mythbusters now I told you earlier that I was raised in the church I was particularly raised in the Pentecostal church my Pentecostal ancestors go back to the Azusa Street generation you cannot have been in the modern Pentecostal movement longer than me as my family goes back all the way to the beginning and so again there are some really good things there are also some bad things there's some misconceptions that have come up and I think I have this suspicion that many times what keeps those people I was mentioned earlier from receiving are these silly misconceptions that we need to do away with you know one of the great challenges as Christians especially those of us that have been around for a while is we need to unlearn a lot of the things that we think we know because very often what happens is we have piled our theology up so high that the Holy Spirit's like under this pile of books and he can't get out we we have literally written the book on the Holy Spirit and we think that he has to read our book and follow our guidelines and one of the very first things you realize when when the Holy Spirit touches you is he don't care about your rules and and I hear I hear people saying all the time you need to let God out of the box I Got News for you he was never in your stupid box the only one in your box is you you you think you're boxing him out you're just boxing yourself in that's all and so you can you can live in that silly little box if you want or you can come out and you can say Holy Spirit have your way do what you want to do so here oh here's one of the one of the things in in the Pentecostal church where I was raised we used to have these things called tarrying meetings how many of you ever heard of a tarrying meeting the the word tarry means to wait and what a tarrying meeting was we would get together and it was basically like a really long prayer meeting and everybody was praying and praying and praying and waiting and waiting and waiting to be filled with the Holy Spirit now I was a little kid going to these meetings and I didn't understand what was happening so I would ask the the older believers I would say what's happening here they would say this is a tarrying meeting and I would say what's that they said we're waiting for the Holy Spirit to come I said why are we doing that they said well if you read the book of Acts you'll see that they were waiting they were tearing Jesus told them to go in tarry in Jerusalem so that's what they were doing they were waiting in the upper room and if we they had to wait in the book of Acts then we have to wait now I said okay I said how long do we have to wait they said we don't know I said well like give me give me some idea a week a month a year how long nobody ever had an answer to that and some of them I have I have to tell you they're still waiting and then I got a little bit older and I opened up the Bible and I read the Bible for myself and I discovered something amazing you want to know what I found out I discovered the reason they were waiting do you know why they were waiting because the Holy Spirit had not yet been given they waited for ten days between Jesus command to go to Jerusalem and when the day of Pentecost had fully come and Luke is very careful to tell us that the day of Pentecost came and that the prophecy was fulfilled and that was 2,000 years ago what that means my brothers and sisters is that for the last two thousand years it is the Holy Spirit that has been waiting for you now I don't know who the first person was to show up here in this room tonight they say the early bird gets the worm but I have bad news for you there was somebody here already you weren't the first one in fact there was somebody here before you got on the boat there was somebody here before you got saved there was somebody here before you got born the Holy Spirit since since you were just a dream in the hearts of your father God he has been waiting for this moment because he wants to fill you and that's why I'm telling you tonight in the name of Jesus this is not a tarrying meeting this is not a waiting meeting this is a receiving meeting in Jesus name and you can come to your father with faith the next thing is this they were all filled say they were all filled there was a hundred and twenty of them how many of them were filled Oh 120 out of 120 here's what you have to understand the Holy Spirit is not a lottery some people wonder when they lay hands on me will I be one of the lucky ones that's not how this works the Holy Spirit is not a lottery for a few lucky Christians there are not winners and losers here tonight it's for every one of you you all have access and let me tell you something else it's not for a few very important Christians you know the past there's been this idea that these powerful gifts these powerful experiences were for the great preachers and the great leaders I want you to understand something my friend this Holy Spirit was not given for the leadership it was given for the body was given for all of us you have this access to the same Holy Spirit that I have you have access to the same Holy Spirit that Patricia King has that Billy Graham has that Benny Hinn has that Ryan our bunkie has you have it all now that does just because you have access doesn't mean you know how to access it but you do have the access because the very thing that bought Benny Hinn access the blood of Jesus buys you the very same access they were all filled I remember it was I was in Nigeria for one of our Crusades and we do these fire conferences we call them fire conferences in the day for Christian Church workers pastors bishops and we have it these meetings some of the highest profile leaders in the country will be there and so it used to be in the old days when when Reinhard was around we would actually go out into the crowd and lay hands on people that was dangerous we got our clothes tore and we'd come back with bruises all over black and blue it was a wild thing back then and I decided to do something a little more modern and efficient so what I did is I said I want all the senior leaders the bishops the you know the big boys I want you to all come up front I'll lay hands on you guys and you go into the crowd let's you get all bruised up and they'd like that anyway so it worked well but I was I was in Nigeria and I had all these guys come forward and you know in Africa I don't know if you've ever been to Africa in Africa they don't dress like this in church hey somebody's been average okay good for you they don't dress like this at church they they dress up and the bishops dress up even more and and you know a bishop from a mile away when you see one and so these guys are coming in and they're dressed to the nines the most amazing shoes I don't know how they do it I walk from the car to the stage and my feet are covered in dirt they'll walk all around the field another not not a piece of dust on their shoes it's like an amazing gift and so these guys are all lined up in the front I'm about to go down and lay hands on them and I watch this funny little scene take place I was actually chuckling about it on the platform there was this kid he must have been like 18 or 19 and I see him while I've raised heads are bad their eyes are closed I see him doing this and then all these bishops are coming forward and he slips in with the bishops and he comes right down in the front he's standing there like this and and I'm just kind of chuckling at him I thought that's cute you know and then I see one of the bishops look at him go hey what are you doing here then the other bishop on the other side goes hey hey you're not you're not a bishop and I see him kicking the guy back go go back go back go back and they send him back to his seat and I see this guy he goes back to his seat and he looks so dejected and so heartbroken and the Holy Spirit speaks to me he says go down there and lay hands on him so I went down and I pushed my way past all the bishops I would I go out to the crowd I lay my hands on this this 18 or 19 year old kid and the Holy Spirit touches him and he begins to stagger and he begins to sway like like he's on the ship you know when it gets really rocking and and the people have never seen this before I mean this is not like charismatic central they've haven't seen this stuff so the guy he is he's like whoa like this and somebody one of the ushers comes over to kind of stabilize him and the moment the usher touches him he gets blasted I mean flies back and I look at the people they're all look at each other like this so another Oscar comes up from the other side and when he touches him he gets blasted - so now ordinary people start coming out of the crowd and just touching him and everybody that touches him is getting blasted and then this this pandemonium ensues where people are running up out of the crowd it's it's the most amazing thing and they're running out of the crowd and they're just flying from all directions and this kid he's not praying for anybody he's just stand-in there he's still swaying you know and people are gonna blast it and and the pastor's the bishops look at this and their eye are like saucers they can't believe this kid that they just kicked out of the prayer line because he wasn't fancy enough is now the center of attention and I think the Holy Spirit just did it just to show them that he is not looking for the best dressed he is not looking for the degrees he is not looking for the titles he is not looking for the pedigree he is not looking for the high offices and the lofty names he is looking for someone who is willing he is looking for someone who is hungry he is looking for someone who is not ashamed he is for you tonight if you're hearing you're saying I'm I I don't have a ministry guess what the Holy Spirit's for you say Amen another one is this the Holy Spirit is a gift not a reward let me say that again the Holy Spirit is a gift not a reward I know many of you if you're like I was when I was a kid you come into a meeting like this and you are aware of your sin you're aware of the way the ways that you've fallen short you're aware of the way is that often you don't feel very spiritual and you know it's deceptive in a room like this when you see other people shouting and dancing and worshiping and you may feel like you're the only one well first of all let me tell you something you're not the only one the way you feel all of us have felt many times but beyond that the Holy Spirit is not coming to you because you're such a good person he's not coming to you because you're so holy some of you're thinking you know I'm on a boat and it's been fun and I've been having fun all week and I'm not feeling so spiritual and feeling a little carnal and I don't know if the Holy Spirit can touch a person like me listen the Holy Spirit doesn't come to you because you're so holy in fact let me put it this way if you couldn't make yourself holy enough to receive the Holy Spirit then you wouldn't need the Holy Spirit let me say that again if you could make yourself holy enough to receive the Holy Spirit then you would not need the Holy Spirit you know when you run a race at the end of the race you if you win if you do good you will be rewarded you know what a reward is right a reward is you get for doing something well for running your race well but let me ask you a question do you need power at the end of your race yes or no no when the race is over why do you need power this is why the Holy Spirit is not a gift a reward he is a gift he's not given at the end of the race he's given at the beginning of the race because you can't run the race without him the Holy Spirit doesn't come to you because you deserve him come on say that the Holy Spirit does not come because I deserve him but he comes because I need him how many of you need the Holy Spirit if you really need the Holy Spirit just lift your hands and say Lord I need you I was in Singapore Todd was there he can tell you the story and we were there for I think it was three days of conference meetings and my session was scheduled for the very end and I it was a meeting like this where we were gonna pray for them for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit but these Singaporeans had they were not charismatic and you remember Todd they were very stoic they just sat there like statues the whole very respectful very respectful but they weren't saying amen they weren't raising their hands they were of a different theological persuasion if you know what I mean and and I'm sitting there the whole week knowing my session is coming and thinking oh Lord what in the world how are you gonna break this one open and so the time comes I get it behind the pulpit and I look out at the people sitting there like this no expressions on their faces all dressed in suits and ties and I said out loud you know sometimes sometimes we evangelist we we don't have that filter in place and I said out loud over the microphone I said you are a very difficult crowd but then I said don't worry the Holy Spirit will fill you anyway and I think I was saying more for my benefit than theirs I was trying to encourage myself and build faith in my own heart and I said well let's bow our heads for prayer I was not feeling very excited about this I was kind of dreading you know maybe having a just total flat meeting so I bowed my head and I began to pray lord thank you for your word and thank you for your presence just a very ordinary opening prayer and all of a sudden there's a a blood-curdling scream and I opened my eyes and there's smashing of chairs and I see commotion and somebody in that opening prayer which was not nothing to write home about I promise you they had gotten just blasted I thought well praise God you know it can happen any it can happen you know these things happen so I just kept praying and then it happen again and then to happen again and then it happened again and and by this point Todd you remember this it's just bananas all over the place people are screaming falling to the ground chairs are falling all over the place and the fear of God came on me I put the microphone down and I went back down to my seat there was no preacher nobody praying nobody leading worship nobody's saying anything just God moving for the next 45 minutes the Holy Spirit moved across that crowd in the most glorious and powerful way it was so powerful that it was almost frightening because it was so far beyond you know what one of the things I'll just say this as a as a bi you know just as an aside thing when God begins to move like that I get out of the way because you know so many preachers they want to just hold on to the reins I'll tell you God can do more in 10 seconds when he's in control of a meeting then you can do in 10 years of manipulating everything in your own wisdom and so I I've had people tell me I should never I should never do that I should state control of the meetings at all times I don't agree I let the Holy Ghost but if the Holy Ghost moves I get out of the way I said to the Lord one time I said well why do you do this when I preach I should do it in somebody else's message sermon and the Lord spoke to me very clearly this is what he said I do it in your meetings because I know you will get out of the way and I've learned this for those of you that are pastors for those of you that are administered how many of you are in ministry in some capacity and maybe those of you that are in ministry I know one of the things that you're often hungry for is how do I get the move of the Holy Spirit into my church into my conference into my you know my outreach whatever it is and it's very simple you just have to learn how to get out of the way what I've discovered and Michael I know you believe the same thing what I've discovered is he is more eager to move than we are eager to have him move and the real art is just learning to yield that's really what it's all about and so I told you that story to tell you this at the end of this experience I get back up into the pulpit I look out and it looks like just Obama's going off bodies lying all over the place and I see these two people on the side of the room standing there with their arms crossed do I need to tell you they were the two white people in the room is that a significant detail they were completely untouched Ron had used to call those asbestos Christians they're fireproof and I'm thinking how can you be in this environment and be so cold so unimpressed so unmoved and the Lord gave me a picture I saw a vision and I saw the Lord standing in front of those two people and he had a gift in his hand a beautiful present with a bow on top and he was handing it to them and I could see in this vision that they wanted to take it but they couldn't because their arms were full of garbage I didn't know what it was just stuff and the Lord spoke to me and this is what he said I will send no one away empty unless they come full of themselves and I want to ask you for those of you that are waiting to receive what are you why are you holding on to what is it what is it your doctrine is that your preconceived ideas is it is it you know many times especially among those of us that are spirit filled full gospel people we have all of these rules and we want God to move in this particular way those of us that have been through different moves of God you know that there's no cliche that the enemies of one move of God are always the children of the previous move of God why does that happen because we learn a certain way that God moves and we get stuck in this rut and we're unable to embrace something fresh and we miss what God is doing in the moment because our minds are stuck in the past reminds me of you know when Moses was leading the children of Israel to get into the Promised Land you all know the story that at one point the Lord told him he said strike this rock and water will come out so Moses strikes the rock the water comes out then later in their journey just before they're about to cross over into the Promised Land the Lord says to Moses very similar situation they need water he says speak to the rock and Moses strikes the rock and water comes out which is amazing because Moses disobeyed and still got a miracle how many of you know just cuz somebody gets miracles in their ministry doesn't mean they're right with God and I was reading this one day and I said Lord you know I think because what happened was because of Moses is disobedience the Lord said you will not enter into the promised land and I thought Lord that's kind of unfair I mean Moses was a really good guy and he had a really hard job for a very very long time with a bunch of very stubborn people and he makes one mistake at the end of his life he's an old guy by now I mean old people are funny oh my god could you have had a little bit more grace for him and the Lord showed me something that's really profound and I feel like the Lord said this now this is not in the Bible this is my taking this is what I feel the Lord showed me so you chew on it okay what the Lord showed me is this God didn't say to Moses you can't enter the promised land because God was angry with Moses or even because God was trying to punish Moses but when Moses reverted in that moment to the old way the Lord saw he was not going to be able to embrace what was coming in the next season by falling back on his old ways on his old patterns he demonstrated I am NOT able to change the way I think and the Lord the Lord determined at that moment you won't be able to be the one that leads my people into this new season and I think for many of us like the lordís the Lord is so gracious and He loves us so much but sometimes we are stuck in the past and and many times we are not able to enter into what God has for us not because he's mad at us or because he's ignoring us but simply because we can't our spirits are not elastic enough anymore we've allowed ourselves to get stuck in a rut and I would just encourage you that when we pray for you don't come through that prayer line thinking this is what's going to happen to me or this is what has to happen to me or it's not of God throw all of that out the window just open up your arms let it all go and say God whatever you want to do in me I say yes I say yes no matter what it looks like no matter what it sounds like no matter what it feels like I just want you and I want what you want from me in this moment and I promise you he will fill you to overflowing say Amen all right I could keep I could keep going with this for a long time but I told you I'd be the shortest so I'm gonna stick to that promise so let's jump really quickly to acts three and this is this is Peter and John coming down they've come now down from the upper room filled with the Holy Spirit they're going to the beautiful gate to the temple to worship and of course Peter and John are good religious Jewish boys right they went to the temple all the time that was a normal thing for them and there was this guy sitting at the gate of the temple begging for alms and the Bible says that he was laid there every day for his whole life and so it is undoubtable undoubtable that Peter and John had seen this guy before he was begging there every day and what he would do is he would say alms for the poor and he would hold up maybe a little cup and he would wait for somebody to put some money in it and I'm sure that Peter and John being the good religious Jewish boys that they were they were accustomed to taking some of the profits from you know Peter from his fishing business or whatever and putting it in that guy's Cup but this particular day when Peter reaches into his pockets there's nothing in there he's been praying in the upper room for the last 10 days he doesn't have any more money and all he pulls out as a piece of lint and for a moment he feels a little bit bad and there's suddenly he realizes something wait a minute it's true I don't have any money but I just came from the upper room I have something else and you know the story he looks at this man and he has silver and gold I do not have but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and he pulls him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength and he goes running and leaping and praising God let me tell you something everything that is in the storehouses of heaven is available to you you may not there may be a lot of things you don't have but when you are filled with the Holy Spirit you have something to give you may not be the smartest you may not be the most talented you might not have the most money you might not have the best brain you might not have the biggest ministry but when you're filled with the Holy Spirit you have something to give to the world and this is why Jesus sent the disciples to the Upper Room because he knew that if they had gone out into the world as they were they would have had great stories and great songs and they could have told people about all the things that they had seen and heard but they would never have changed the world he knew that what they needed was this outpouring of the Spirit because he knew that lay man was gonna be sitting there and listen to me stories won't heal the sick even good doctrine won't heal the sick there's no power in it the power is in the Holy Ghost that's why Jesus sent them to the Upper Room and I want you to see something here I've strayed quite severely from my notes but I I'm just feeling this as it's coming to me I want you to see this very quickly the the people you know they're all filled with Wonder and amazement you know the story right you guys all know this I'm trying not to be condescending I know you've read the Bible but the people are filled with Wonder and amazement in verse 12 Peter when he saw it he answered he said you men of Israel why do you marvel at this and why do you look so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we made this man walk listen Peter is very clear about this his holiness didn't do it his power didn't do it if Peters holiness didn't do it and Peter's power didn't do it then your holiness and your power ain't gonna do it either then look at verse 16 this is incredible right here are you ready to have your mind blown listen to this and his name through faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know yes the faith which is in him has given this perfect soundness has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you also listen to this this is what Peter says it's amazing he says this was healed because of the name of Jesus okay number one and it was faith in the name of Jesus but even that faith came from him do you see that his name faith in his name which is from him so in other words you don't get any credit we don't get any credit we didn't do anything particularly well it was his name and we just had faith in that name but even the faith that was in his name came from him let me tell you something this should alleviate you of all guilt all pressure all striving all fighting it is not about how well you pray you might think listen I what I got to do in that prayer line is I've got to pray really really hard and then I'll get it can I tell you something jesus said in John what is it 16 14 he said I will pray the father and he will give you another comforter and he will abide with you for ever you are not going to be filled with the Holy Spirit because you pray so well you're gonna be filled with the Holy Spirit because Jesus prayed for you and Jesus always gets the answers to his prayers so how do you receive let's just get to the point here how do you receive Luke 11 I want you to see this remember Luke and acts are meant to flow together as one right and so Luke is very very interested in his gospel about the power of the Holy Spirit and you even see that the way that look tells this it's not the only place you find this recorded but the way Luke tells it is different and interesting Luke says in 11 verse 11 he says if any of you has a son if any if a son shall ask bread of any of you that as a father will they give him a stone just that's a rhetorical question but let me ask it to you would you do that yes or no or if he asks for a fish will you give him a serpent yes or no or if he shall ask for an egg will you give him a scorpion yes or no of course not if you then being evil Jesus says if you then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those ask so what are the requirements to receiving the holy ghost we're gonna ask in a minute we're gonna go through this line and you're gonna want to receive aren't you how many of you already how many of you are hungry how many of you need him okay but before you can do that you have to be a child right because he didn't say if a stranger comes up to you and asks you for a piece of bread he said if a child of his son see the this is for the children the gift of the Spirit is for the children you understand what I'm telling you and so there there may be some of you in this room that have not experienced that yet and we've had an amazing week and some of you have seen things and heard things and felt things the Holy Spirit has touched you and drawn you and if you've sensed that I want you to know that that is not just a coincidence the Bible says no one can come unto Jesus except the father draws him some of you have felt that drawing that is not incidental that is not a small thing that is the Holy Spirit of God drawing you to the foot of the cross and I would be so out of line tonight if we went straight from this moment to the fire tunnel without giving every single one of you an opportunity to receive this precious precious gift of salvation that comes through Jesus Christ you say Daniel how do I do that well interestingly Paul or sorry Peter tells us in Acts chapter 2 which we just read after that amazing after that amazing story the people saw this happening and they said this what should we do this is the question that leads to salvation what do I need to do to be saved and this is the answer verse 38 Peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ and you for the remission of sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for this promise is unto you and to your children and to all who are far away even as many as the Lord our God shall call it's a sim as what he said when he quoted the Prophet Joel everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved

Channel: Brian Guerin

Views: 6,718

Rating: 4.9844961 out of 5

Keywords: Father, Son, Holy Spirt, God, Jesus, Holy Ghost, Prayer, Fasting, Intimacy, Son of God, Glory, Signs, Wonders, Miracles, Angels, Power, Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Teacher, 5 Fold Ministry, Prophecy, Prophetic, Stillness, Meditation, Worship, Spirituality, Spirit, Supernatural, Divine, Encounters, Angelic, Glory Nights, Glory Cruise, Jesus 19, Jesus Conference, Jesus' Bride, Bridal Glory, Spirit and the Bride

Id: gjp1KYavhjw

Length: 53min 10sec (3190 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 22 2020