i'm pastor stephen brooks welcome today to our online internet around the world church service i'm so happy that you are here today and i believe that the holy spirit has given me a message that will build faith in your heart and it will move you forward into the plan that god has specifically tailored for your life praise the lord now before we jump into today's message let's first honor the lord by bringing the holy tithes and offerings into the storehouse of god and i have a scripture for you which is found in the book of first samuel chapter 10 verse 25 and let this verse just bless your heart because i believe that god has wonderful plans for your finances and he's really going to bless you in this new year that we're going to step into and it begins even now because god's word is already working in your life but verse 25 is something that you need to be familiar with then samuel explained to the people that would be the people of israel the nation of israel the behavior of royalty and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the lord now you don't need a prophet to stand before you and explain to you how to act silly or how to act foolish or how to act in a way that would maybe bring embarrassment upon yourself no nobody needs any help or teaching doing that and also you don't need anybody to help teach or instruct you how to act impoverished or how to act poor nobody needs any teaching on anything like that but my friends there is teaching and instructing on behavior when going upward praise the lord it is true that if you're raised in the british royal family there are etiquette classes that are taught for the children when they're young on how to behave like royalty when you are royalty there is a way that you smile there's a way that you wave you know you don't just go like that you just kind of stand and turn your hand like that all these little things they teach and as they're all combined together eventually the compilation of that teaching produces somebody that knows how to act and behave like royalty praise the lord now i believe that the lord wants that royal anointing to touch your finances praise god and some of you are going to find yourself in places where you may think i've never walked in this realm before but the holy spirit will anoint you he will instruct you on how to behave as you come into greater levels of prosperity praise the lord and with different realms of prosperity you encounter different type of people hallelujah maybe you're used to an environment where uh the locals uh you know they dip snuff and they're really into who can spit tobacco the farthest well you have to understand there's there's realms where you don't do that and you know what i'm talking about and i'm not talking about being snobby or you know being rude or you know or something like that but i i am talking about there is a way that you conduct yourself as god is going to bring you into greater levels of prosperity and that's an anointing that you have to understand and the israelites all of that was new to them because they were getting a king for the first time and there was explained to them the behavior of royalty it was written in a book why there's going to be other kings that will follow after saul and it was laid up before the lord praise god i believe the holy spirit is going to be instructing you in the ways of financial royalty and you need to be ready for that while you also as you walk in new realms of blessing you also hold to steadfast biblical principles that got you there in the first place you don't want to deviate from righteous practices of ethics and morality especially also in the area of business and finance we see that in the next chapter first samuel chapter 12 where samuel stood before the nation and he said here i am witness against me before the lord and before his anointed whose ox have i taken or whose donkey have i taken or whom have i cheated whom have i oppressed or from whose hand have i received any bribe with which to blind my eyes now think about that just for a moment how many politicians could say that that are in our political scene today senators house of representatives and you know congressmen and so forth how many people could stand before the nation and say i have never taken a bribe and it's truthful you know they're telling the truth praise the lord whom have i oppressed or from whose hand have i received any bribe with which to blind my eyes any time any man or woman ever receives a bribe they lose their spiritual vision they lose the ability to judge properly he said i will restore it to you and they said you have not cheated us or oppressed us nor have you taken anything from any man's hand now many years later hundreds and hundreds of years later the apostle paul would make that same direct quote now we know ministers need to be on the ball spiritually speaking and they need to live a life that honors the lord because so much of what we do is in the public and we don't want to do anything that would hinder the message of christ or misrepresent the gospel message praise the lord and samuel and paul we're able to clearly make that statement my friends we all need to be able to be transparent yes we have private areas of our life but should there need to be inquiry we should be able to come up clean hallelujah god's going to help you to walk in greater levels of blessing he's going to instruct you in the ways of royalty and at the same time as you're walking in those places enjoying perhaps some new liberties and new freedoms new uh larger areas of financial refreshing my friends always guard your heart there is a lot of greed and there's a lot of lust that are floating around in the american culture today sometimes that tries to penetrate into the church into the lives of believers and it's possible even for a pastor to become very very greedy and these are things that we have to guard our hearts against enjoy what god has for you enjoy the blessings but also make sure that whatever the lord has for you that it's obtained through the blessing of the lord you know david had an opportunity to kill saul and saul fell asleep in the cave and the lord caused all of saul's army even his personal bodyguards to fall into a deep sleep and david uh was actually hiding in the back of the cave and one of david's assistants said hey this is your time to become the king you know just let's just kill him right now and david said no he's the anointed of the lord and you have to understand that even though saul was way off in certain areas i mean he was even oppressed by an evil spirit and he was doing many things that were grievous in the eyes of god yet still he's standing in that office and you have to be very very careful the way that that you go forward in life you must let the lord lift you up don't ever cheat anybody thinking well they're corrupt anyhow so it doesn't matter no we have to do what's right even if there's cheating all around this falsehood all around us you do what's right and by the way a lot of this fraudulent stuff it's all eventually going to come out it will eventually all come out in the wash just like in sports we've had times remember the tour de france where you had one particular winner from america that won it year after year but there were a lot of rumors and they seemed to be very well grounded in in truth that the winter was doping heavily a lot of blood doping and a lot of cheating and you know of course the winner denied it over and over oh no no i've passed the test i've taken a lot of tests well he did take a lot of tests but they were cheating those tests and they knew how to get around that but you know later he he eventually after the evidence was overwhelming years later he eventually came out and said oh yeah we were running a very advanced uh cheating scandal so you know we've seen this in the olympics we've seen it in many sports and there are people they'll do anything to win they will do anything for pain uh for fame they will do anything to hold on to power or to gain power but my friends the lord will lift up his people through the blessing let the lord bless you and when you get there you'll be able to talk like samuel did said i'm here i'm blessed i didn't cheat anybody i didn't steal anybody's stuff i didn't pull strings because you know i'm a famous prophet i can get away with it and i can shut the little guy down and we can silence that person he didn't do any of that he did not misuse his position for personal gain praise the lord the lord is going to lift you up learn the ways of royalty that way when you stand in that place there is such a security why god put you there hallelujah and it is a real blessing and i see that that's where you're going and i see that the holy spirit will help you to navigate through the various icebergs that are out there but don't be concerned about those things he will help you and you'll just keep moving forward and god's plan for your life and yes that includes the touch of royalty in your finances and the behavior that goes along with that let me say one of the things just briefly one of those types of behavior is you're not jealous of the success of others and one of the reasons of course is that you're blessed yourself you don't need to be jealous i mean god's blessed you and oftentimes that's why people get jealous they look at somebody else maybe who's doing things right and it's working for them so they're blessed and others who are disobedient they see the person walking in the blessing and they get jealous because they don't have it well when you have it yourself it's a different story but you know what there'll always be somebody else out there who has more so just be content be thankful and don't be jealous be happy for other success and you'll see that god will just continue to lift you up as you go on in your walk with him praise the lord now let me pray for you heavenly father i see the touch of royalty moving into the purses and into the wallets and into the checking accounts and the savings accounts and the investments of your people i see new levels of prosperity and i see i see that at times father some will have to make some modifications um and they're gonna have to work with their appearance they're gonna have to work on presentation because to go into certain areas requires a different type of presentation and so father we thank you that your holy spirit is going to help your people in those areas and we thank you for teaching the ways of royalty oh god we give you praise we give you praise and glory thank you father bless your people we thank you for integrity and character always being put first that we might honor you thank you father in jesus name we pray we all agree and say amen now as you're bringing your tithes and offerings into the storehouse of the lord as you're honoring the lord with your giving if you prefer to mail them in please send them to stephen brooks international p.o box 717 moravian falls north carolina the zip code here is 28654 now if you want to bring the ties and offerings in online you can do so from anywhere in the world please visit our ministry website stevenbrooks.org and on the home page there's a link that that says giving and has a red heart on it and you can click that and bring the tizen offerings in electronically through safe and secure transaction right there on the website praise the lord hallelujah father i thank you for royalty in the finances and in the behavior of your people in jesus name amen one more little tip as the blessing increases act like you belong there because if you if you think you're out of place other people pick up on that so you have to be confident in who you are in the lord and when you're confident in the lord and you're walking in faith you'll fit right in as a matter of fact if you're real confident you can fit in even into uh high level wealth areas with blue jeans and tennis shoes you know because that's what steve jobs wore most of the time at apple was just a pair of jeans and you know casual shoes and a turtleneck sweater so a lot of it is just knowing who you are and your confidence in the lord and you know you walk in the wisdom and the leading of the holy spirit and you will be just fine and of course there are the times when you need to step it up and the holy spirit will help you with that too those are all the ways of royalty i i see some of you are going to get some real downloads on that some some real downloads praise god thank you jesus hallelujah lord we give you praise now let's today go to the book of acts chapter 10 and i want to talk about a subject that will really help you get ready for the moving of the holy spirit in your life we're going to be in acts chapter 10 and as we're turning there let's pray heavenly father we ask that your holy spirit who is much of the subject of today's message we ask that he would come and begin to stir our hearts for revival and that he would anoint the eyes of our understanding so that we can see that just that there are ways of royalty there are also ways of the spirit concerning preparation for how it is that you want to take us to the next level so father we thank you let your holy spirit get us going in the right direction and reach our destination now we thank you we thank you for great strides forward in jesus then we pray and let's agree and say amen now we're going to be in acts chapter 10 and let's start in verse 7 and when the angel who spoke to him had departed cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually so he had servants praise god that's a blessing so when he had explained all these things to them he sent them to choppa the next day as they went on their journey and drew near the city peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour so it's still in the morning and it's not lunchtime yet or anything like that but he's praying then he became very hungry and wanted to eat but while they made ready he fell into a trance i believe that hunger hit him so strong that he just said um you know i need to eat i am so hungry can somebody cook something for me and while that was going on the cooking the preparation of the food he fell into a trance and it's very very uh rare in my life when i've had the supernatural hunger i've had it a couple of times the strongest i ever had it was when the lord worked through me to win four young people back to the lord two of them were pastors children that were backslidden the other two had never been saved but by the holy spirit's help i was able to win all four of them to the lord and it was a very powerful experience and it started because a supernatural hunger came over me that forced me to deviate from my plans that day and i was driving somewhere and i just i took the first exit to try to find the first restaurant because i was literally engulfed with hunger it didn't make any sense i had breakfast i mean it was only like 11 o'clock in the morning but i was so hungry but by going to that restaurant i encountered those four young people and was able to minister to them in a very very uh uh adverse situation but the anointing was so strong i was able to break through to them and my hunger was so strong that i was impervious to uh all the stuff that was kind of go all the craziness that was going on i didn't even pay attention to i was so hungry while the craziness was being caused by those four young people and i was able uh to minister to them be be on the alert of that that could happen to you where that same type of hunger hits you and just go with the flow praise the lord it says while they made ready he fell into a trance a trance is a vision there are three types of vision a spiritual vision a trance and also the open vision so a trance is the second type of vision it is the uh it's the second highest type of a vision just underneath an open vision and it's when the trance is when all of your physical senses are suspended as far as you know you're in a different realm you're in a different world and you don't really know what's going on with you know the food that's being cooked or anything like that that's all out the window you're in the spirit realm it says that peter saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners descending to him and let down to the earth in it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth wild beasts creeping things and birds of the air and a voice came to him rise peter kill and eat verse 17. now while peter wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant behold the men who had been sent from cornelius had made an inquiry for simon's house and stood before the gate now one time i was ministering in a house meeting and it was a beautiful house this this man used to work for bill gates for microsoft and uh he had sold some of his stock and with that stock he had this beautiful large very rustic log home built and i was at that house doing a home bible study for his family and another family and so a whole bunch of families had come together so this was like a big home bible study meeting and everybody kind of from the surrounding area had come up on the mountain to the log cabin uh to go to this service and we were going to have it record it with some uh well with one particular television camera but it had these big large windows and the sun had it was coming up and it was just blasting through those windows and so somebody said let's get some sheets and uh let's hang them up and so they could only find a one sheet for whatever reason but the one sheet did the job they put it over the big center beam there in the log cabin and they secured it and it was blocking all of the light that was coming over and uh causing all the glare and the problems with the video camera anyhow so the big sheets hanging up and it secured and they said okay now stephen you can go ahead and start the message we're ready well i got into my message and i started preaching and for those of you that know when i minister in a live service i usually just kind of start walking around and so i had my bible and i was walking around walking kind of all over the place and and teaching while i was uh walking and i stopped and i was talking to the people and when i stopped i wasn't really thinking about where i was standing but as i stood in this one spot suddenly something happened very unusual that large sheet that had been secured suddenly came loose they never could figure out how it came loose when they secured it so well but suddenly it just came loose and fell and when it failed it fell right over my shoulders and you would think well that would fall over my head but it didn't it somehow came down and spread out and fell right over my shoulders perfectly even and then just you know as a big sheet and they just kind of went down like that on the sides and there it is standing there on you know kind of like clinging to me like a new mantle or something like that and there was a jewish rabbi dr tesler that was in the meeting a messianic rabbi and the moment the sheet fell and went on my shoulders he stood up and he began to prophesy and he he said basically something like this thus says the lord just as peter saw the sheet come down and the sheet and the animals on it was a representation that the gospel was for the nations for everybody in the whole world the lord says you are called to the nations and i will send you to the nations and everybody rejoiced and praised the lord and you know i i can't remember i think i just preached for a while with a sheet on me and uh we all had a wonderful time that day and of course the lord opened up many nations for me to minister in and we're still you know going to the nations preaching the gospel but there is something very interesting about what is going to take place when peter is going to go to the house of cornelius who is not a jew he is a gentile and he's got his whole group his servants his family everybody there at the house waiting and they're all gentiles now the word gentile basically is a word that just simply means nations non-jewish nations so these would be people that were all non-jewish okay so let's go a little bit further now verse let's drop down to verse 22 and they said cornelius the centurion a just man one who fears god and has a good reputation among all the nation of the jews was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear words from you so peter is going to go to a house meeting just like i did then he invited them in and lodged them on the next day peter went away with them and some brethren from joppa accompanied him and the following day they entered caesarea now cornelius was waiting for them boy when when you see something like that you see indicators of hunger they're waiting they're looking for you they're they're they're like when you're going to get here we want to hear him preach you're seeing a lot of hunger that's being demonstrated through these uh the subtleness of the scriptures to unveil the attitude the heart attitude of the gentiles now cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends i mean he's into it this is a epic moment and of course it is he's going to go down in history as the first gentile ever converted to uh faith in christ through what we would call christianity and it's it's recorded here now let's follow along as peter was coming in cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him but peter lifted him up saying stand up i myself am also a man and as he talked with him he went in and found many who had come together well they're obviously the whole group they're hungry they're ready this is very very exciting they're very very ready hunger is essential for a strong moving of the holy spirit praise the lord let me let me say this it doesn't matter what nation it is it doesn't matter your skin color it doesn't matter even the setting of the meeting whether it's like a traditional church type meeting maybe a conference meeting maybe you're meeting in a movie theater doesn't matter it doesn't matter if those that are assembled or young or old have gray hair blue hair brown hair orange hair or whatever it doesn't matter if you can get a group that are hungry i can already tell you the direction of where that meeting is going to go and it's going to be really really good praise god if you can get together a group even if it's a thousand people if you got a thousand people together but they're all extremely hungry i can go one by one down that line if you lined them all up i could go one by one if they're all hungry and i can prophesy over every single one of them and if they're all hungry i can dig deep spiritually into every one of them into every one of their lives if they're hungry i can i can because i've done it i've done and the hungrier they are the more that they're going to pull pull on that anointing in late 2019 the apostle over my life called me and let me know that a great prophet was going to be ministering in his church this was an esteemed prophet that was coming known around the world as a father uh somebody call him the father of the prophetic movement and he's going to be he's going to be speaking and he said uh so the apostle said to me he said you know you should really pray about coming out here well the media was going to be in california i live in north carolina i prayed about it and the holy spirit he didn't say anything but he witnessed something on the inside of me that basically was a strong witness that was like do whatever it takes to get into that meeting and so i told kelly we're supposed to be in that meeting and so we bought two round trip tickets and we flew over 2 000 miles to get to that meeting and i'm going to that meeting in faith because i believe god is going to give the bishop the prophet a word for me not a word hi how you doing no no a prophecy i believe that that man is a prophet and i believe that god's going to give him a word for me so i'm coming i'm paying airline tickets i'm going to pay hotel expenses to stay in a hotel and i'm also going to bring an offering and i believe that god's going to give me a very powerful word through that servant praise the lord okay so we get there we we we fly we check into the hotel and uh it's it's uh sunday rolls around it's time for the meeting the the meeting is full it's full it's a lot of people there and the prophet has just returned back from a long international trip from seoul south korea he's very fatigued very tired he preached a good message but he he said i'm very fatigued and he's he's in his 80s so he's son very tired so i'm only going to minister the one couple and it was a couple that uh some of the local pastors had said why don't you use this couple as a touch point you want to just prophesy over them and it'll bless everybody else to see them be prophesied over and it it's just kind of like a uh like a a good thing to do he said so he'd already agreed that he would prophesy over this couple so he prophesies over this couple and it was a good prophecy i wouldn't say it was deep i would say it's a good prophecy you know they had pre-planned that that he would minister to them so he he fulfilled this obligation by ministering to them and and prophesying over them but uh i had come not for something that was you know kind of like structured by men i had come because i'm hearing from the lord and i believe that the lord is going to move and so after he prophesied over them over that one couple he was getting ready to just wrap it up turn the service back over uh to the pastor in charge but he looked at me and kelly and he doesn't he doesn't even know us he looked at us and said he said i want to prophesy over those two right there and he called us up and he called us up and he gave us a word that was i i would i would actually call it spectacular it was a prophecy that was spectacular and it bore witness with my spirit and when that word came forth everybody was was stirred and happy and the pastor and all the associate pastors are like wow stephen you got that word and you know what they knew they all knew all of those associate pastors and the pastor knew exactly why i got that word it's because i came by faith there was nobody else in that large meeting that flew 2 000 miles to come into that meeting i did there was nobody else also i found out later because the associate pastor told me there was nobody else either that gave an offering the way that me and kelly gave either because you know they're the ones that count the money and stuff like that they said oh yes you gave you guys gave the largest offering in in the meeting praise the lord i came in faith hallelujah um well pastor stephen that's just luck no it has has nothing to do with luck it has everything to do with hunger and if you are hungry like cornelius and this group that he's rounded up all i can say is that if you're somebody like peter walking in on something like that be get get ready get ready because i can tell you right now something good is going to happen something good is going to happen and i'm going to explain why here in just a few minutes praise the lord now let's go now to verse let's go to verse let's see here let's drop down a little bit further we've already covered that let's go to verse 42 and he commanded us to preach to the people now this is the sermon of peter this is the house sermon if he wanted to know what it what did he preach in the house service this is it okay and he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who was ordained by god to be judge of the living and the dead to him all the prophets witness that through his name whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins i mean he's preaching right along he's already started earlier some of that is recorded in previous verses and he's preaching a really good message now verse 43 to him all the prophets witnessed that through his name whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins oh what beautiful theology and doctrine he's teaching it perfect verse 44 while peter was still speaking these words the holy spirit fell upon all those who heard the word the holy spirit fell right in the middle of peter's sermon to that packed out house group meeting wow praise god the holy spirit fell upon all those who heard the word thank you jesus i was ministering some years back in northern india in a city called kalanpong very high altitude and very much influenced by tibet you see all you see the prayer wheels the prayer flags all of those things blowing in the wind and put up on many of the houses because of buddhism and things along that line but we were there to minister to the christians and i was hosted by brother uh sadhu silva raj he had been there before many times and he brought me there because there were about 400 young people that had tremendous hunger not only did they have hunger but many of the adults had been in prayer and fasting for a long time i think i think some of them even did a 40-day fast so that when we did this conference the young people would be delivered of the many things that challenged them and faced them you had high unemployment you also had a lot of drugs that were there and when you have young people that don't have a job and there's uh you know bad stuff floating around out there they get into trouble so you had many that were christians but even for the christians life was tough life was tough and there were those that had demon problems and uh there were those that were oppressed and so there needed to be the touch of god in the meetings well the meetings were going along uh really good but we had not yet after about a day and a half had like what we would call a breakthrough and everybody wanted a breakthrough that's what we're there for not just nice messages that's good but there needs to be the power of the holy spirit to set people free so on one of these days i was supposed to minister in the evening and so they gave me all day long to prepare and i said lord we're having a good time but we haven't broken through yet i said lord you're gonna have to give me the message that will be a message that will hit their hearts and really touch them because i said i can't i can't you know i can't deliver them you're going to have to give me what it is that they need well after waiting on the lord all day in prayer he told me the message he gave me the sermon and when i went out that evening and began to minister that message now my translator was standing right next to me as i began to minister the message and i knew i had the word from god and it was already starting to touch the heart but as i began to preach that sermon right in the middle of my sermon the holy spirit fell he fell on every single person in the meeting and because i had never seen him fall that strongly in a service before i i didn't didn't quite know what to do so i i tried to keep on preaching but the first person that really began to just lose it completely was my interpreter and he started laughing with such joy and such hysterical laughter that after about 15 or 20 seconds he was he was totally useless he couldn't translate he couldn't say anything he just totally overcome with laughing and laughing and it was like a river of laughter poured out of him and he just went with it he was he he was done he was done for the rest of the night so you know there wasn't much for me to do at the same time there was another lady she was standing at the front she had really really prayed for the meetings and when the holy spirit fell on her she began weeping she began weaving because the holy spirit was healing her heart of some things that had been very difficult in her life but the healing was being poured into her heart so while one person's laughing real loud there's another person crying and weeping real loud and then it began to break out just everywhere everywhere there's laughter everywhere some people are crying some people are being delivered and it was wild it was wild and the service which would normally maybe end at ten o'clock at night it went on until three o'clock in the morning matter of fact it uh i was told that it even went on i think right around to four o'clock in the morning because people were so out under the power of the holy spirit but he fell he fell in tremendous power and burns were being removed yokes of bondage of the enemy were being broken off of people it was a very powerful service matter of fact when they took me back to my hotel room and as i laid in my bed in the hotel room i could still hear the young people that were being delivered screaming with joy being filled with the spirit i could still i could still heal uh hear them i was probably about oh 300 yards away from the theater where the event was held i could still he'll hear them at like three o'clock in the morning 3 30 in the morning oh it was powerful it was a glorious time well pastor stephen what's that like when the holy spirit falls well if you've never had it happen all i can say is trust me you'll know it when when you see it well how do you see it when the holy spirit is a spirit i mean it's not like you saw a big hand come down or you know like a you know like a like a dove type of thing come down no it's it's invisible to the natural eye but the power and the presence suddenly just engulf the room and you'll know and of course there is evidence that is involved verse 44 while peter was still speaking these words the holy spirit fell upon all those who heard the word and those of the circumcision who believed were astonished as many as came with peter because the gift of the holy spirit had been poured out on the gentiles also so here's evidence that although it's a spiritual thing that in a sense if you want proof with your natural eyes well here's some here's some natural proofs for they heard okay they heard these proofs they heard them speak with tongues and magnify god praise the lord by the way when there is an outpouring of the spirit like that any christian it's it's instant all hands up and praise just poop begins to come out woo hallelujah why the king just came into the room and the holy spirit will lift up christ he lifts up jesus so i'm i'm teaching this message on purpose because i believe i believe the holy spirit is going to fall on you and you can be at your house not in church you could be your house running the vacuum cleaner he can come right in the house fall on you you could be in the garage putting decorations away hope he can fall on you right there praise god get ready for the visitation of the holy spirit by the way while i was in that that meeting in india it was the very next day because now we've broken through and it's kind of like everything's really flowing and we're having a really good time now everybody's real happy well the next day there was another minister pastor alvin from uh south india from chennai and he got up to minister and he kind of he kind of fumbled a little bit and struggled he's trying to get some notes together and uh it was kind of funny everybody was kind of sitting there wondering like i wonder what's going to happen oh something was about to happen all right when he finally got kind of pulled things together and started rolling he uh he started uh presenting some things and the holy spirit fell again uh he had fallen the night before with me but he felt when this minister was ministering and when the holy spirit fell this time it was a different manifestation of power and when he felt this time in the entire assembly and everybody there experienced it because i i had my associate come from moravian falls he he came after me i got there before him but he flew when he caught up he had a flight delay but he caught up and he was there standing next to me he was a businessman and still a good friend of mine and he witnessed it too every single person in the meeting we're inside we have a roof over our heads we all got rained on on the inside it was the craziest thing in the world and the holy spirit fell with power suddenly just out of the blue you would say fell with power and the rain that was coming down was golden rain from heaven it was golden drops and it made you look up because of the light the glory of god and when you look up as you were looking up the raindrops would fall they would fall all over your face and it would make you laugh and it would make you smile and it charged everybody with with energy there was there was there was nothing you couldn't believe for in a moment like that wow and yes it made you laugh a whole lot too and because me and my my friend we're looking at each other you're looking at everybody then you realize that it's falling on everybody there golden rain so there are different manifestations as the spirit falls there can be laughing there can be weeping there can be fragrance there can be uh sight and other sensations of of rain and things like that whoo praise the lord but get ready get ready for the holy spirit to move in your life praise god by the way when the golden rain came down instantly everybody was up off their feet because there were a lot of people sitting down because you this was like in a theater type setting so the chairs are real comfortable but the moment that rain fell the same way the night before when the holy spirit fell everybody stood up every hand was up every mouth was open and if you were not filled with the holy spirit anybody that wanted it got filled instantly with the holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues i mean it was like a river like a river flowing glory glory to god praise god and remember the holy spirit can come to you right where you're at if you're in a persecuted country there is no wall there is no dictator that can hold the holy spirit back from getting to you you can be in jail you can be in prison you can be on death row but the holy spirit can come right where you're at and he can come and minister to you and he can come and fall upon you we see peter re reinforcing this experience because he has to retell it because the word gets out hey peter is hanging out with the gentiles and you have to understand that all the early believers they were all jewish so this this is new this is out of the box uh and so he's having to explain what took place and we see that in verse 12 of acts chapter 11. then the spirit told me that he's explaining to them then the spirit told me to go with them doubting nothing moreover these six brethren accompanied me so he has witnesses and we entered the man's house that would be cornelius house and he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house who said to him send men to joppa and call for simon whose surname is peter who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved see angels won't preach the gospel but they help orchestrate and arrange things and set things up so that messengers can preach men and women can preach the gospel praise god verse 15 and as i began to speak the holy spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning well we all know what he's referencing to there but he's basically saying hey hey fellas what happened to us at the beginning is the same thing that's happened to them so the gospel is for the it's for the jews it's for the gentiles it is for the whole world whoever believes in christ puts their faith and trust in him shall be saved well this is where it all initially began in acts chapter 2 verse 1 praise the lord when the day of pentecost had fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting then there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire and one sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance praise the lord hallelujah i've had other times where the holy spirit has fallen upon me and i'm talking about uh times besides the initial and feeling of the holy spirit now as long as i live and throughout eternity i'll never forget the day i gave my heart to christ and i was born again and i received christ into my heart and i will also as long as i live and throughout eternity never ever forget the day that i received the baptism in the holy spirit and i spoke with tongues for the first time in a small charismatic type pentecostal church that was pastored by a young fellow he was 27 years old i was probably about 25 years old and there was a whole bunch of us college students were all getting filled with the holy spirit at that church and it was it was like the time of our lives we we're having we were having so much fun because so many of us had come out of mainline denominational churches that did not believe in modern-day miracles or the baptism in the holy spirit so we were just having the time of our lives and that's when i got filled with the holy spirit but i've had many other times when the holy spirit has fallen upon me and some of those times when he has come upon me there have been manifestations of what i would call a river of joy that's expressed through laughter one time it happened to me i'd only been filled with the holy spirit for a very brief time just a little over a year and i was over at another church one time visiting there and i went to their their prayer meeting they had a prayer meeting friday night and it would start at six o'clock at night and it would go until there was a lifting of the spirit now sometimes it would go till three o'clock or four o'clock in the morning but usually it would end right around three o'clock in the morning but that's that was a lot of prayer so uh nevertheless one night i was at the prayer meeting and i was usually the only guy there and of course i was also by far the youngest person there i was just in my mid-20s and most of the people that were there were 70 and up and it was usually what you would call the grandmother type ladies the you know the normal what you would think the the old prayer intercessors holding the line where uh well they were the ones that were there so maybe there'd be about 10 people there and so one night uh the head prayer intercessor said stephen uh the pastor wanted us to you know lift him up in prayer and we we're gonna certainly pray for him but it would it would be good if we would have somebody kind of like in proxy stand in and why don't you stand here and we're going to anoint you with oil and we're going to lay hands on you and we're going to like pray over the the pastor as we're praying for you well i thought okay i'll do that let's pray for the pastor i had no idea what god was about to do uh and so when i kind of went up into the center and they they all got around me and uh as the the head prayer intercessor her name was angel she was a lovely lady she had immigrated from germany and uh she had a great walk with the lord she was an elderly lady but when she took that vial of oil and she poured it on my head the moment that oil hit my head with nothing planned it was all spontaneous because that's what the falling of the spirit is when he falls like that suddenly the moment that oil hit my head the spirit fell on me now remember oil is so often a type of the symbol and uh a symbol a type or symbol of the holy spirit and when the holy spirit came on me with that oil when that oil came on me every bit of strength in my body went out my legs went out my everything went out and i just fell to the floor and it surprised them and laughter began to pour out of me unlike anything i've ever had happen before and i've seen plenty of funny things you know watched three stooges and you know you see goofy things in life but i have never in my life had laughed or poured out of me like what hit me that night laughter poured out of me like a river and then it got on them they started laughing too and we had a hilarious time that night we had a lot of fun that night and it was all by the holy spirit it was the holy spirit falling on me now this happened again about a year ago when we finished concluding the recording of our first series of the pure gold television program so we recorded the first 13 shows it took several days to do it about about three days to do it and on the final show show number 13 when we finished recording it that was the final one for the series when we finished recording it and the producer said cut that's a wrap the moment the producer said that right when he finished saying that the holy spirit fell on me now all the camera people are watching everybody is around but he fell on me and laughter began to pour out of me as the joy of the lord burst it out of me like bubbling grape juice hallelujah it just began to pour out of me and i got so happy and i started laughing and laughing and some people were wondering why is he laughing but you know what i i knew that that because it's the holy spirit it's okay i don't have to explain it but for about 45 seconds i laughed and i laughed and uh right when it began to lift is right when all of the uh i guess you would call them like the senior executives began to come in because they wanted to congratulate me for you know having uh completed the first session and it was a lot of fun it was a lot of fun but oh the joy of the lord and you just never know you never know when the holy spirit's going to fall on you all i would say is that when he does just yield and go for it praise the lord i have had him fall on me in weeping also and one time when i was about to make what would have been a mistake that i don't know if it could have been rectified because it was a destiny moment in my life and i had reached a point in my life where i came to a fork in the road where one way is going this way and the other way is going this way and god's way was to the right and my way was to the left and if i didn't do something that day i would have gone left instead of right and i would have i would have i would have made it very very difficult i don't even know that uh if i would have made it into the ministry if i would have gone left i don't think i ever would have and that day the holy spirit fell on me and he stayed on me for about 10 hours and i wept and i wept and i cried and i cried and i couldn't understand why i couldn't explain it and it's like a river of tears poured out of me and i cried and cried and you would think how can you keep how do you have much that much moisture i don't know but i kept crying kept crying and i knew that if i didn't do something that day to make a commitment to take this different route i would have grieved the holy spirit in a way there probably would have been some irreparable damage that would have altered my destiny in a way where some things could not be changed later but you know what at the end of that day i and i i was wrong out like a rag you could imagine 10 hours try that for crying and weeping and sobbing for 10 hours non-stop that's what was going on with me i couldn't explain it to anybody i just had to get along and um it was the holy spirit working through me and he had to do it because i was about to go a wrong way and i was still very very young in the things of god very very young in the uh what we would call the spirit-filled experience so i'm trying to figure all this out without having uh you know anybody that could guide me or coach me or help lead me through it so you know i didn't have a prophet that i knew that i could say hey what does this mean i didn't have anybody like that around me that i that i knew at that time but it was so strong that's why he did it so strong to help me make to help me to realize i've got i'm going to have to lay my life down fully and go after the lord and i did and i got on the path that god had for me and i'm never coming off of it and never will you ever come off the path or destiny that god has for you for anything you will reach your destination and you will cross the finish line to the glory of god praise the lord the lord is good now when the holy spirit falls on you what is the effect that it produces in your life well i would have to say that the instant effect that hits you is this anything that god told you that previously maybe seemed you know what lord i know you've put it up on my heart but it just seems so distant it seems so impossible suddenly instantly it turns and you stand there and you're like it's going to happen it's going to happen and that's my best description of the result when the holy spirit falls on you your faith goes through the roof you're happy you're refreshed and you're ready to keep on going praise god all right now this is what i want to dig into today a little bit deeper who does the holy spirit fall upon oh well pastor stephen he falls upon the believers to strengthen them to edify them or to build them up or well we we want to see this more clearly who specifically does he fall upon well about two months ago there was a storm that blew through i think it had something to do with the hurricane that was kind of passing through the state so we had some high winds and we have a certain area in our yard where there are some old pine trees they're very tall and they've uh they've been there for quite some time well one of those pine trees got blown over and it landed perfectly just uh right on the inside of our line of our property line and didn't follow anything but an open field so it's totally fine and i had uh one of my workers go out there and take his chainsaw start you know uh cutting it down into pieces so that we can get it removed well we took those pieces that were cut and we thought well you know we'll use that for firewood now we know that this is green wood and it's not really going to burn but nevertheless let's stack it over here and eventually it'll get dry and we can use it well the next night we decided to have a cookout so we we had family come over and uh we had a nice uh bonfire that we had all prepared we had the uh before we started the fire we got all the kindling all the little small pieces of dry wood and got the little small twigs and stuff like that and uh we thought let's let's try to burn some of this uh wood that was just cut down we know it's green but let's try to burn some of it anyhow well you know what as much as we tried we couldn't get it to burn yes we could get the little kindling to start but it wasn't enough fire to get one of those green logs going you have to understand that you can hold a piece of wood that's just been cut down freshly cut and it looks like a dry piece of wood but the truth is it can have like 30 water or moisture content in that wood and you know that wood it's got sap oozing out of it and it's just wet it's really wet wood and wet wood green wood it just is very very hard to get lit praise the lord but wood that is dry can catch on fire so easy and that my friends is who the holy spirit falls on in the body of christ who the greenwood not necessarily now if you do get a big raging bonfire that's going and you have enough volume of heat and fire well yeah then you can eventually throw some of those green logs in there and that they're going to catch on fire because you have so much heat it's going to do that and so what we had to do with our our fire we had to go and get some of the dried out wood uh that's already dry get the good fire going and once that was really going big we did put one of those big green logs on there and after about two hours it actually caught on fire but you have to have a lot of uh intense heat to get the green wood going so the holy spirit falls on the dry wood the the souls the people that are so hungry for god that are so desperate and dried out for god oh that when the holy spirit comes just what spark the whole thing goes up and god wants you to have that hunger he wants you to have those qualities the characteristics of the dry wood now in in first corinthians chapter 15 in verse 3 paul said for i delivered to you first of all that which i also received that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and that he was seen by cephas that would be peter then by the twelve after that now listen to this after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remained to the present but some have fallen asleep so the lord appeared to over 500 people after he was raised from the dead there were certain people that he appeared to even in group meetings but yet here at acts chapter 2 we see that there were 120 that were in the upper room well what happened to the other 380 where where where did they go to i don't know and i don't really know if it was required of them to be there but i know one thing i would have liked to have been in that 120 that's where the fire fell so what i'm saying is that you can have a larger majority and that's good god's blessing god loves them people are saved and serving the lord but i tell you you you get around the ones that are hungry and that's where the spirit is going to be moving where the dry wood is at and of course he did fall there in the upper room i think we see these principles even in the old testament in the book of leviticus we see symbolism of this chapter 6 verse 9 command aaron and his sons saying this is the law of the burnt offering the burnt offering shall be on the earth upon the altar all night until morning and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it verse 12 and the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it it shall not be put out well if you're going to keep that fire burning all the time you're going to have to fuel that fire and that's going to take a lot of firewood and it continues by saying and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt offering in order on it and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings a fire shall always be burning on the altar that's verse 13. a fire shall always be burning on the altar it shall never go out that means for the priest particularly for the levites that the workers there at the tabernacle system temple system they're the ones that are going to be chopping all the firewood and they're going to know hey the green wood doesn't burn set that aside until it's dried out and it's in a good condition well it'll burn so let's have a lot of dried wood because we're going to be doing a whole lot of sacrifices and we're going to need a lot of dry firewood and i believe that's what the holy spirit's doing right now he is looking and he's looking at people that are the people of god and he's looking for the dry wood and there are uh unitings together there are uh coming togethers of the spirit connections divine connections and friendships and relationships that are being established that are what i would call dry wood relationships praise the lord pastor stephen what about the green wood we get the dry wood burning and get a huge maybe we could call it bonfire going then the greenwood can get thrown on and that'll get consumed too because even with greenwood just throw a bunch of gasoline on it and that's going to burn but but you have to get the dry wood going first and that's the way that god sees us and that is how the spirit falls and that is how the revival goes forth through the burning of the dry wood one more scripture first kings chapter 18 and let's go to verse 30. see when the fire is burning because you've got the good dry wood and it's burning good all you have to do to keep the fire going is just keep putting the dry wood in there so we have to stay dry as as wood as we're speaking symbolically here so that the move of god is not only begun but it is more importantly sustained who praised the lord now first kings chapter 18 verse 30. then elijah said to all the people come near to me so all the people came near to him and have repaired the altar of the lord that was broken down and there are many nations around the world where the altar has been broken down and it's being restored right now and elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of jacob to whom the word of the lord had come saying israel shall be your name then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the lord and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two saiyas of seed and he put the wood in order this is very important he put the wood in order cut the bowl in pieces and laid it on the wood and said fill four water pots with water and pour it on the sacrifice and on the wood so they did that once they did that a second time soaking it completely they did it even three times where even the trench that had been built around the altar area the trench was now completely full of water everything is soaked everything is wet but my friends here's the part that we have to play verse 33 he put the wood in order the lord wants you to put your life in order what is order order is the proper arrangement of things well pastor stephen what is the proper arrangement then of my life how am i to put my life in order spirit comes first soul comes second body comes third that would be found in first thessalonians chapter 5 verse 23 where the divine order is spirit soul body if you have that order your wood will burn if you flip it around backwards and your body comes first and your body governs you and the carnal senses rule you and the lower senses govern your decisions you're you're gonna have a hard time catching on fire and then if your intellect tries to shut everything down that the spirit of god would would want to do uh that's gonna make it difficult so if you're led by body or soul soul being mind willing emotions it's hard to get lit on fire but my friends get it in god's divine order spirit soul body that's putting the wood in order and then make sure that your life is surrendered as a sacrifice as a living sacrifice totally sold out to the lord and then god will do his part pastor stephen what is god's part verse 38. then after the wood's been put in order see the altar is restored the woods put in order put your life in order the sacrifices laid on top let your life be a living sacrifice to the lord then the fire of the lord fail fire and oil are types and shadows of the holy spirit under the old covenant you could say then the holy spirit fell then the fire of the lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and it licked up the water that was in the trench praise the lord my friends the lord jesus has those moments where he sees your life and he sees these times where he is going to send the holy spirit i know the holy spirit lives in you but this is a different type of manifestation where the holy spirit falls on you the anointing on the inside is for your strength it's for your character it's for integrity it's for honesty it's for doing the right thing when nobody's looking but the falling of the holy spirit or the anointing that would come upon you and that sudden falling of the spirit is for empowerment it is for revelation it is for strength it is for power praise the lord and i see i see an important time a destiny very near when the holy spirit is going to fall upon you oh yes pastor stephen that will be on the day of pentecost you can have your pentecost tonight at seven o'clock while you're combing the hair on your head just get your hair styled or something like that and the holy spirit can fall he can fall whenever he wants to praise the lord he doesn't have to just wait uh for one day out of the year on the day of pentecost or one week out of the year he can fall on you whatever he wants to praise god and bring deliverance and bring healing and bring in feeling and bring blessing and bring freedom and bring revelation whatever it is that you need maybe even something that you need that you don't even know that you need but jesus knows and the holy spirit's going to come lift your hands father i pray for your people that they get their wood in order spirit soul body that they be dry hungry hungry not distracted by all the things in life would they be pushing in with everything they got there would be their wood getting dried out dried out all it takes is a little spark a little match and up they go hallelujah thank you father god let their lives be sacrificed daily unto you as a living sacrifice and we thank you o god that you're going to do your part and you're going to fall at the right time and at the right moment thank you father in jesus name amen praise the lord hallelujah my friends you're close keep pushing in keep pushing in and the fire will fall on you the spirit will fall on you praise god for many of you it's going to be a shift to a whole new level a new anointing praise god father we give you praise in jesus name amen if you're watching today's program but you have never made christ the lord of your life jesus died for your sins receive him today and receive his eternal life and then you can receive the fire of the holy spirit the blessing of the holy spirit the infilling of the holy spirit as well if you've never made christ your savior pray this prayer out loud pray it right now say lord jesus i'm a sinner but you died for sinners so jesus come into my heart wash all of my sins away i give my life to you now i turn from sin i surrender my life to you no more running from you jesus save me right now write my name in your book of life i belong to you i take you as my lord and savior thank you jesus in your name i pray amen and amen praise god praise god welcome to the family of god praise the lord the lord has heard that prayer and you now belong to him hallelujah let's proclaim the goodness of the lord let's take holy communion together glory to god i i sense heat right now some of you are having your own moment with the lord right now let the holy spirit minister to you grab some unleavened bread grab some grape juice praise god and if you're feeling that heat that is a manifestation of the holy spirit praise the lord father we thank you for the bread and the juice we thank you that we pray over it and and blessed and set this apart as holy this is now the body and the blood of christ our savior father as we receive the body of jesus help us to put the wood in order help us to put you first you will have no other gods before you you're a jealous god because we are your people and you demand preeminence in all in every chamber of our heart so oh god as we receive the body of christ let us make any needed adjustments now thank you father in jesus name amen let's receive father we ask that you would forgive us for any time that we tried to rebuild the altar when we just threw the stones together and just randomly threw the wood up there throws up some kind of sacrifice acting like we're giving our best when in our hearts we knew we weren't giving you our best we ask that you would give forgiveness and mercy and we thank you that it's a new day and that your mercies are new every morning and that this time it's going to be right the the sacrifice will be right and the fire is coming so we thank you father god may our lives bring you glory and may our lives be used by you to bring the lost to you o god we thank you we give you praise thank you for the blood of jesus and complete and full pardon and forgiveness of sins to the degree that you don't even remember our sins anymore and father we give you the praise for that in jesus great name we all agree and say amen let's receive praise god anything that keeps your wood wet so that it's hard to get lit make those adjustments the holy spirit's showing things right now corrections modifications some of them are just small tweaks so make those adjustments and your wood will be dry you'll be ready heavenly father bless your people we thank you that you are moving that although it it's not pentecost week but yet there is pentecost scheduled for many of your people so father thank you let us make the preparations let the fire fall in jesus name amen and amen many of you are going to be baptized in the holy spirit for the first time just when it happens open your mouth begin to speak out the utterance that the holy spirit's giving you and tongues will come out and just yield if it's laughter if it's joy whatever yield and go with the holy spirit as he falls upon you thanks for watching i look forward to seeing you back next time bye-bye