welcome today to our online internet
around the world church service i am so
happy
that you are here today and i believe
that god's word will build you up
will feed you spiritually and will
provide the power
the strength that you need to do all
that he has called
you to do now today let's go to the book
of philippians chapter four
i want to show you one verse and
we're going to use this verse to release
our faith and trust god for
his wonderful care and provision
praise the lord and we're going to
receive the holy tides and offerings
we're going to bring them into the
storehouse of god
but as we do we want to do it based upon
god's word
now philippians chapter 4 verse 19 the
apostle paul said
and my god shall supply
all your need according
to his riches in glory by christ jesus
now i made careful search i i did an
examination
and i did not see any disqualifying
scriptures for this
that would negate this verse this word
of god from performing
or working in your life based upon
the limitation of coronavirus now pastor
stephen verse 19 is true
and my but it actually should say and my
god
shall supply all your need unless
there's covet 19.
no that's not what it says is it
the word of god is true if you dare to
believe it
it will work for you and my god shall
supply
all regardless of what season
the nation might be in regardless of the
various
difficulties and challenges that perhaps
not only our nation would face but the
world would face
god is faithful he again says my god
shall supply all your need
according to his riches and glory by
christ jesus
god is not limited there is no struggle
in heaven god is not laying off angels
god has not
stopped new projects
because of a shortage or because of some
type of epidemic or outbreak those
things as you know
they don't exist in heaven so when you
have a covenant with god
the supplier of your need is god
and it is coming from his realm now i
know that he works through people
and i know that we live on a planet but
you have to understand the covenant
extends from god
directly to you through the cross
through the blood of christ and
you have an exemption from all the
calamities and tragedies
that are upon the earth and if you will
take
god at his word and lean on him and
trust him
you will find out that philippians
chapter 4 verse 19
works not only when everything's going
good
and you got a bonus at work and the
economy is doing well
and the nations of the earth are moving
along because the economic engine is
working good
you'll find that this verse this word
from god will work
for you any time but you must believe it
and you must hold to it praise god i
tell you what some christians are for
the first time in their life
for the first time in their christian
journey they're actually finding out oh
i'd better start believing the promises
of god because
i'm up against some negative
circumstances so in
certain conditions it's easy to trust
god when everything is going well
but if there is a layoff if there is
a shaking perhaps in your career field
then
oh then you're gonna have to really
dig in which is what many of us have had
to do for quite some time
uh i have no corporate sponsor the
ministry doesn't have a corporate
backing i don't drive a vehicle around
with logos on it from corporate sponsors
when i leave the studio today i can look
back at the studio
there's not sponsor tags and placards
and stuff like that
this building and this ministry
sponsored by the so-and-so corporation
we don't have that this ministry is
sponsored
by people who are touched by the holy
spirit
and they see the vital work that this
ministry is
and because you engage in kingdom
dynamics
literally spiritual laws of sowing and
reaping
giving and receiving you find and you
know
that god supplies all of your need and
so because my trust is in the lord the
lord supplies the needs of this ministry
the lord takes care of me and my wife
the lord takes care of the staff of the
ministry
and we keep not only moving forward we
keep it
expanding so you'll find out where your
faith is
during times of testing and if you're in
one of those times right now
i say unto you rejoice because god's
word will prove
true to you i dare you to believe it
praise god
i want this word to be a living reality
in your life
but i've got one more scripture for you
today praise the lord
this one many of you know but if for
some of you perhaps that are new
to perhaps the christian faith or even
you to my ministry
here's one that you're going to come to
love psalm 112
verse 1 praise the lord blessed is the
man who fears the lord
who delights greatly in his commandments
i like it when god says no i like it
when god says
that's off limits i like it when god
said
don't go into that area that area is
trespassing in the sin
i like it when god tries to protect me
and keep
me from danger i like all of god's
commandments
not just the ones where he says yes this
is good
enjoy that as much as you like i also
like the commandments that say
stop don't go any further don't go into
that you're on satan's
turf you must delight in god's
commandments delight greatly in them
his descendants will be mighty on earth
the generation of the upright will be
blessed
wealth and riches will be in his house
now this scripture does not promise you
a 40 000 square foot home
and for many of you you probably
wouldn't want that because of the
heating and air conditioning bill and
lighting bill that would be associated
with that but nevertheless you can have
some wealth and riches
in your home and if your home is an
apartment or condominium or town home or
or or whatever it is praise god
traditional type home
there can be some wealth and some riches
in your house praise god
well pastor stephen how do i step into
that well by delighting greatly in the
commandments of god serving god living
for god with all of your heart praise
god
and as you do as you do he'll bless you
he'll take care of you
right in the midst even of a financial
storm that could be swirling around
you'll find out that god is a covenant
keeping god
and you'll find out that your source who
is god
is not limited by the things that take
place upon the earth such as famine or
pestilence
or these other things that at times
cycle throughout the earth this is
nothing new to the lord the lord knows
how to take care of his people
his covenant people during times
of plague or calamity or whatever the
case might be the lord's
the lord's done it over and over
throughout church history throughout the
history of the jewish people going about
thousands of years
even to when he protected his people uh
the israelites in
egypt while the egyptians were being
blasted
with the judgments of god with literally
the ten plagues
but yet god's people covenant people
were
uh just moving right along moving along
just fine praise god and i believe that
you
will experience blessing that as you
trust the lord
you'll see the provision is there always
don't doubt him stay in faith praise god
let your praises be
high unto the lord glory to god now let
us bring the tithes
and the offerings into the storehouse of
the lord the lord says
that ten percent of all of our income
belongs to him
and as we honor him with the tithe and
as we
give offerings unto the lord then we are
now
in a workable financial covenant with
god it's a binding covenant praise god
hallelujah glory to god aren't you glad
that in these perilous times we have a
covenant
with god covenant of salvation yes
and we have also engaged him on the
platform of a covenant of financial
provision
praise god now those of you that are
mailing in your tithes and offerings
please send them to
stephen brooks international p.o box
717 moravian falls
north carolina the zip code here is
28654
if you prefer to bring in your tie then
your offerings in online
safe and secure and you can do it from
anywhere in the world
please visit the ministry website of
stephenbrooks.org
stevenbrooks.org and you can click
there on the home page on that little
red
tab it has a heart on it and it says
give
and right there you can bring your
tithes and your offerings directly into
the ministry storehouse
so that we may continue to preach the
good news
of the lord jesus christ and his full
salvation
all around the world praise god now
father i pray for your people
as they delight greatly in your
commandments the commandment the tithe
the commandment for us to honor you with
our finances
they're delighted in that this is not a
drudgery this is a this is a moment of
joy
father i thank you i pray father god
that
they know your goodness and your
faithfulness and that they would
actually
increase in these times that are in the
earth that would appear to be so
distressing
they would be increasing so they are in
that position to be blessed to be a
blessing
they are in that position of overflow
that way they could be a good samaritan
when those moments come up they can help
they have the money the pour in the oil
and the wine
they have the money for the hotel bill
they have the money to be a blessing to
other people because they have more than
enough
father let your people always be in the
more than enough
we thank you that you supply all of our
need
according to your riches in glory by
christ
jesus in his name we pray let's
shout around the world amen
praise god now
today before we jump into today's
message let me share
some uh fun news a fun report about
what's going on
with the podcast now we have different
branches
of the ministry tree we have
different ways of getting the gospel out
there we have books
we have all kinds of formats we have
it's like branches on a tree just
reaching in all different directions
and uh we have the television ministry
and some people they're very good
visual learners they like watching on
television others prefer
you know maybe youtube or these other
places where we post
uh you know our videos but then you have
other learners that prefer books but you
also have a lot of learners
a lot of students of the word
who are audio listeners and their
number one way of learning is through
listening
that they don't even really care if they
see it now if they see it that's cool
some people like that
and i understand that i like to be a
video learner i like to see
uh the expression the tone and all of
that
but audio you can catch so much just
through audio
and this works really well because there
is a place
for many people in their careers where
you can do what you need to do with your
hands because you're so good at it and
you've done it for so long
and it frees you up to listen so you're
working while you're listening
also at the same time and that's why we
have made a big push
on our podcast and
it has really really grown so i would
like to share with you the top
10 listening nations of the world to
the podcast our weekly messages and the
number one nation
that listens more than any others we
have the highest amount of
listeners is the good old united states
of america
followed by number two canada and then
number three
surprisingly how about this south africa
praise the lord four united kingdom
five ghana followed by indonesia
germany australia india and
the russian federation praise god
isn't this interesting many of these
countries i've been to i've been of
course the united states most of the
states in our country have been the
canada multiple times to minister been
the uk multiple times to minister
indonesia quite a few times to minister
germany multiple times
india been all over india preaching
so south africa i haven't been there yet
if you want me to come to south africa
those of you way over on the other side
of the world at the bottom
of the african continent hallelujah give
me a holler praise the lord because in
2021 we're making uh our our tr
our itinerary and it is our
international
itinerary is filling up and uh let's see
what else do we have on here
uh russian federation nope haven't been
to russia yet would like to go sometime
pastor steven uh pastor stephen are you
plotting a russian collusion
perhaps uh with the gospel yes i'm i'm
plotting to preach the gospel
all over the world and that requires me
at times to sometimes
be there in person praise the lord so
uh the following countries are after
uh number 10 then we move into number 11
which is kenya
followed by mexico barbados trinidad and
tobago
argentina singapore malaysia belgium
angola ireland
nigeria pakistan austria netherlands
brazil
ukraine so we have a lot of people that
are
listening through the podcast and
let me share this um we have developed
the podcast
so that you can pick the podcast
platform that you prefer
because everybody likes their different
uh you know listening
app and so for many of you uh you'll
hear one that you'll like and all you
have to do of course is go to the
settings on your
smartphone or your tablet and uh just
go go to seti excuse me go into your app
store
and then just type in in the search area
the uh you know the podcast that you
would like to choose
and we have itunes we're available on
itunes
and uh we are available on see which one
is this
soundcloud and we're also available on
podbean podbean i have to admit is
probably
my favorite we're available on podcast
addict
we're available on spotify we have a lot
of viewers or listeners on spotify
we're available on the amazon and alexa
podcast we're available on the deezer
podcast we're available on stitcher
which is also sirius xm
we're available on the blueberry podcast
uh here's a new one that was just added
and it's a really good one it's the
iheart
podcast player we're available there you
can listen if you prefer on
castbox.fm also pocketcast
or google podcast or you could turn into
uh what's called
tune in radio we also have overcast
fm app and the castro fm app
and then listen notes praise the lord so
that's 13
different podcast platforms and um
they're all good it's just kind of
whatever one you know tickles your
your your fancy so to speak but my
friends if you're um
if you're driving or on a long trip or
something like that
and you don't really have reception for
video streaming
well just download it on your podcast
and then click to follow
and then every time that we upload the
new messages for a new message for
sunday
a new message for wednesday it will go
directly to your podcast and you can
you'll get a notification and you can
keep up with the good word
that's coming out praise the lord so we
praise god
for these efforts to present the gospel
in as many different platforms as we can
praise the lord all right now let's jump
into today's message
which is called how about this
i want to take you today on a journey of
deep diving so i'm going to title this
go with me on a deep dive praise god
let's pray
heavenly father as we go into your word
we we rejoice
that your word is worthy of being
proclaimed
all around the world and father
everybody that participates
in supporting the preaching of your
gospel we just thank you for the
the thrill of the opportunity of being
able to send your word
and see people saved and see your people
that are already born again
built up strong in the faith so father
as we jump into
your word today we ask that your holy
spirit
would anoint it and that he would
illuminate the eyes of our understanding
so that today's message we can take it
and begin to work it into our lives and
enjoy
the beautiful fruit that your word
produces now we thank you for this
we give you praise in jesus name let us
say
amen praise the lord all right
so what i would like to do
before i jump into the first scripture
i would like to read to you an email
that i received
that caused me to consider
teaching on today's subject and the
email that i'm going to read to you
seems to be uh quite repetitive of what
i've been getting over particularly the
last
two or three weeks and so when i'm
getting a consistent email request
for me to speak on a particular subject
and it's coming in
through multiple people then i know well
if that many people are actually
contacting me
there's probably a lot more that have
actually thought about this particular
subject
and they would like some more
information on it we're going to talk
about this subject today and this is the
email that i've gotten
pastor stephen how
do i get quiet in prayer
i have the praying in tongues part down
pat
and there's lots of time that the holy
spirit quickens me about things
while i'm praying but the hardest
part is to getting very very still part
i know you taught on this but what's
your advice for me
i haven't been able to stay still longer
than 15 minutes this is sent from one of
our online church members
and i want you to understand my friends
that this is a very
common question this is something that i
asked
uh years back when i was on the same
spiritual quest of drawing near to the
lord
how do you get quiet how do you
uh get into this place where you and the
lord actually start having
maybe we could call it like you know
direct conversation
because if prayer is only one way uh
just us talking to god and that's all
that ever happens then
that that's not even the description of
prayer prayer is
uh two-way communication it's us yes
talking to the lord
but it's also the response can you
imagine the futility
of praying and god never answered or
never talked you'd be like well
uh there's not much to this well it
wouldn't be in it
you would have to redefine prayer so
prayer is two-way communication
it's us and god uh we're talking to him
and he's also
talking back and let me be the first to
say yes god is alive
he certainly can talk wow just moments
before i came to preach this message to
you i'd been in prayer
for quite some time quite some time and
an apostle in nigeria
he had contacted me and said pastor
stephen do you have a word for me
would the would the lord give you
something for me to
share with me going into the new year
and
because he's so close to my heart and
he's he's a very godly man this is a man
that prays hours and hours every day
and has a beautiful work of the lord uh
i i told him
i emailed him back and i said i said
give me some time and let me see what
the lord would say
and right before i stepped up to speak
to you today
just out of the blue the lord spoke to
me and told me
this is what i want him to step into in
the in the coming year and if he'll do
it i'll bless him in it
i said lord i'll be sure uh to share
that with him
after i have ministered to your people
today well pastor stephen how did god
just like talk to you like that
i want to get into that subject today
praise the lord
now let me take you to
first kings let's go over the first
kings chapter 19.
and the first thing that you're going to
need to do
you're going to go with me we're going
to dive deep the first thing that you're
going to have to do
and i'm i'm talking symbolic just for a
moment is you're going to have to go
find a cave
that you can go into now i'm just going
to tell you how i dive deep
i'm going to tell you uh how i hear from
the lord
so that my ministry is effective not
just in preaching
and by the way i have to hear from him
in in preaching also i don't just get up
do canned sermons
and even if a minister did do that but
you did
you didn't have an anointing it's still
not going to go that well
the truth is with an anointing you could
do all kinds of things you can preach a
canned sermon
but it'll come alive if there has been
preparation and there's an anointing
but the first thing that you're going to
have to do to get into a place of really
getting still
and really getting quiet is you're going
to have to go
into a cave let me see if i can explain
this to you
first kings chapter 19 let's go to verse
8.
so he that would be the prophet elijah
now if you're a prophet and you can't
hear from god
uh you're probably in the wrong
occupation
out of all the fightful ministries you
have the apostle
prophet evangelist pastor teacher we all
identify the prophets ministry with the
one that has more weightiness of
actually
hearing from god and and it does i would
have to say
that while the other ministries
do center around hearing from god
the prophet's ministry requires even
more so
because the prophet's ministry is going
to have
the gifts of the spirit associated with
it and one of those gifts will always be
the gift of prophecy
now you're also going to have some
revelation gifts that would need to be
involved in that and the holy spirit
will give those as supernatural
equipment
to the man or woman called into the
ministry office of the prophet
but you will definitely have the gift of
prophecy associated with any
uh true prophetic ministry office
calling
and so that requires hearing from the
lord and that's what we're talking about
today
diving deep so that we can hear now
he arose and they didn't drink and he
went in the strength of that food
40 days and 40 nights as far as horeb
the mountain of god wouldn't it be nice
to eat a meal and it's so satisfying
you're so filled up because of
supernatural meal that you wouldn't have
to eat again for another 40 days
i mean i i like eating simply for the
pleasure of taste
but sometimes you know you it just takes
up so much time you know
you got to stop again go go drive
somewhere and
go eat and maybe there's a line or
something like that you'd save a lot of
time wouldn't you if you didn't have to
eat for 40 days
you could just spend the whole time with
the lord in a cave
praise god now
verse 9 and there he went
put yourself in that place uh there
joe went there john went
there susie went okay whatever your name
might be
and there he went into a luxury palace
not that god can't speak in a hotel or a
nice
nice place or something like that but
i'm just talking about
simpler ways that you can be very
consistent in the deep dive
hearing from god and there he went into
a cave
ooh pastor stephen but aren't there like
scorpions in caves or
maybe like a snake could crawl into a
cave pastor stephen maybe a bat
pastor stephen what if you sat down on a
rock in a cave and what if there was bat
guana
on it i mean pastor stephen this this is
a cave
well you know this is where he went
and there he went into a cave and spent
the night in that place
and behold the word of the lord came to
him
and he said to him what are you doing
here elijah
well i i would be willing to crawl into
a cave
not that i would be excited about that
because there probably could be a snake
or scorpion in there
but if that's where god wants to meet me
at and that's where he's going to be
talking at
well we're just going to go ahead and go
into the cave
the truth be told prophet william
branham
and he passed away many years ago but
those of you that have read his
biography or
have read into his life you probably
eventually came across
the story of where he actually had a
cave that was revealed to him by an
angel
and he went into that cave and that's
where he had many angelic visitations
and it was very hard to get into it he
had to crawl
down into it and then crawl kind of like
over a certain rock or a boulder
and then he could go into this area
where it opened up and he would just
sometimes spend days in there
just laying there was a stone slab area
just laying in that cave
uh praying and uh
he said sometimes people would come
looking for him one time a couple of men
were looking for him and
brother branham where are you at and
they came right
to the foot of the cave but the entrance
of the cave was only about this big
you had to crawl into it and you
couldn't see it because of the the
bushes and the grass and the weeds and
stuff like that
and he he said he was laying inside the
cave and he could hear them talking
outside
where do you think he's at we've looked
everywhere for him but he never told
anybody
where that cave was at but later in his
life
he did tell one man and uh that man
actually
later went and uh verified it and uh he
took pictures of it i think it's on the
internet and stuff like that
of the cave but of course uh please
don't ever forget a cave
a cave is still a cave it's still just a
cave
uh it's dark it's damp uh but here's
here's the thing with the cave for me
i find it very difficult to pray
in a room with windows
on a beautiful sunny day where i can
look outside
while i'm trying to pray and i can see
how beautiful the weather is
not a cloud in the sky and i you know
and my
soulish nature thinks you know
you know it's such a beautiful day think
of all the things we could get done you
know what maybe we should just pray
later
you'll fight that you'll fight that all
the time in these settings unless
you're in a cave-like setting so you're
gonna have to do something to fabricate
a cave whether it's a prayer closet
which is what the lord referred to
basically a place that will block out
all of the distractions uh and a lot
there's distractions not only of what
you can see
but also preferably you want to try to
block out as many distractions of sound
as possible now of course before i do
this i have to tell my wife
where i'm at and i usually tell her how
long i anticipate
being in there now if i start running
overtime or i feel like
you know what i think i'd like to stay
longer then sometimes i'll pop out uh
but i don't just pop out randomly i kind
of like set
time goals like if i want to go an hour
i'll stay an hour if i'm going
two hours i'll stay two hours then if i
need to i'll pop out
check things that i need to check talk
to my wife make sure everything's cool
so if i feel i need to go back i'll go
back in
but while i'm in there i tried to
eliminate
as many distracting type possibilities
as i can that would include sound
and so if i have to i'll take my phone
and i've got the the noise machine on my
phone which is an
app and you know you can have the white
noise pink noise brown noise
brown noise has a little more bass in it
and uh
you just turn the brown noise up and it
sounds like a fan well i can i
i take that and i put that over by the
door and then if i'm there
in a dark area maybe there's light on
but i can't see anything
then then knowing that i'm freed up and
that i'm
not going to be interrupted then i can
really start to
dive deep praise the lord but i can't
dive deep
um you know with all this stuff going on
and all these distractions i could if i
needed to i could i could press
past all of that but we're talking about
your daily
walk with the lord so as far as a daily
walk with the lord
i have to try to eliminate visual
distractions
i have to try to eliminate audio
distractions so that i can
focus on getting quiet and getting into
the presence of the lord there are
some things that can help also in this
one of these things is actually very old
and uh
let me give you a scripture uh regarding
this acts chapter 18
praise the lord let's leave the cave and
of course elijah didn't stay in the cave
forever that was just a visit
by the way i have been to the
residence of the apostle thomas
the original one of the original 12 and
you know of course after the lord
ascended into heaven
the various apostles they you know they
just merged into their various apostolic
ministries
and the apostle thomas did a lot of
travel but he ended up
in india now he also ministered in
pakistan
or that which is much farther north and
it's reported that he also made a trip
into china
as well as a trip into the area of
modern-day
iran so he covered tremendous mileage
but he spent a lot of time in
south india in the area known today as
chennai so there in
south india is the cave that the apostle
thomas
lived in and yes it is a real cave and
of course when you go into it
you think yeah a cave is just a cave you
can only decorate a cave
so well it's just a bunch of stone and
it's um
you know it could be a little bit
claustrophobic but
uh that's where he lived at until he was
martyred praise the lord now we're
moving on beyond the cave
and find yourself a secluded place
that buffers noise and visual
distraction
distractions and go into that here's
something that helps me
acts chapter 18 verse 1.
after these things paul departed from
athens and went to corinth
and he found a certain jew named aquila
born in pontus now remember he uh he's
jewish
a certain jew named aquila born in
pontus who had recently come from italy
with his wife
priscilla because claudius had commanded
all the jews to depart from rome
and he came to them so because he was of
the same
trade so this is this is a type of work
career field
he stayed with them and worked
for by occupation they were tent makers
okay so we're going just for a moment
from the cave
which helps us to deep dive into a place
where we can get quiet
inwardly now we're going over here to
the subject of
paul and aquila and priscilla
who were tint makers but remember
they're all three
jewish and there are
theologians in the church reaching back
into the the roots
of the faith which are uh
judaic roots and there are many
theologians who say that the rabbis have
taught
that this tent making is
not the making of a camping tent pastor
stephen let's go camping this weekend
and let's load up the cooler with food
and drinks and let's take our kayaks and
our canoes
go down to the river have a campfire and
stay in the tent
but uh certain theologians say that's
not the kind of tense
they made the tents that are being
referred to
are what we know as the the prayer
shawls
now here's my prayer shawl that i use
and i i got this
from a rabbi in jerusalem
on ben yehuda street and of course i
like this because as you can see
we have the north carolina blue here
that that's the sky blue colors
and they made it just for me well not
really they didn't make it for me they
made it for whoever would buy it
but it's not very often you see the sky
blue
or the carolina blue colors so i said
that one is the one for me
but here's the thing there have been
times
when i have deep dived and i'm in the
spirit
and i have actually had the holy spirit
tell me
begin to pull out a prayer because
you're you're about to get a phone call
and you've left the volume on your phone
all the way up and you didn't turn it
off
and the phone's right next to your hit
he's actually told me this
and if if you don't pull out that's
gonna go off and it's gonna
it's gonna shock you it's gonna it's
gonna disturb this deep peace that
you're in
and i said oh oh thank you holy spirit
reach up to grab my phone turn the
volume down the moment i've turned the
volume down the phone rings
and i said oh thank you holy spirit and
it would be something that i needed to
catch
so he's very very um
helpful why because you go into a holy
place
and you don't want that interrupted it's
it's sacred
it's worship and the thing with the
prayer shawl
is that when you go into this tent
you go into your oh pastor stephen but
if i use it it's going to mess up my
hair yeah it probably will who cares
you know fix your hair before you go out
as you go into your tent
you can have more of a secret chamber
in other words you may not have a cave
you can slip into
but you can go over into the corner of
the room you could put your
uh your prayer shawl over yourself and
that way if somebody walks into a room
all of a sudden goes maybe you can't
walk the door uh you can't lock that
door so if they come in real quick
and they you know if you're just openly
praying it's kind of awkward
not only for you but for them too but if
you have your prayer shawl and you're
covered with that
uh they don't they don't you're still
kind of in your little secret place
and you don't need a prayer shawl uh for
it you don't have to
go buy your you know like a tent at the
camping store
you can get a big towel get a beach
towel it does the same thing
but of course if you're uh on a plane
underneath the beach towel
they might think i wonder what that
person's doing we better check make sure
he's not doing anything suspicious
but if you have a prayer shawl and i've
seen i've seen rabbis pulled these out
on airplanes before
on long international flights and
they'll cover themselves with it while
they're praying they don't want to be
distracted
praise the lord hallelujah glory to god
yes my friend so uh deep diving
do your part to try to eliminate various
distractions
and as you do that uh the lord sees that
effort
praise god well by the way we are
working on the initial plans for a
2021 israel tour it's going to be in the
early part
of november and those of you that go
with me and pastor kelly
i'll take you to the store that has the
most
beautiful prayer shawls in the world
ones you can't get anywhere else ones
you can't buy
on the internet with colors that are so
beautiful
and uh you hardly see anybody wear some
of these creations
that have been made by these experts
who put these beautiful prayer shawls
together i'll take you there
praise the lord amen glory to god
we'll have more information about of
course the israel tour
on the website soon as we get all of
that together and we'll put that on an
email and stuff like that
but you need a you need a place where
you can go into
and get quiet that's that's very very
important
number two and it's a big one are you
ready for this
in order to deep dive and get into the
spirit and
really hear from the lord you will very
quickly realize
that the greatest thing that you will
ever contend with
in life is not the devil
it's your flesh remember if the devil is
is going to attempt you he's going to
have to tempt you through the medium of
your flesh
or i would say it like this his
temptation will be directed to one of
your five physical senses
because that's how he has to work he is
a flesh devil
he's not made of flesh but he's what i'm
trying to say is he's carnal
he's sensual he's on like a dirt level
so he's a spirit being
who is spiritually dead but he is going
to attack
you and that attack will come against
your flesh so
the greatest challenge of getting quiet
getting into the presence of the lord
that you will ever face
is the silliness
of the adamic nature that we all have
it's having to deal with the flesh
and we see that very clearly in romans
chapter 12
verse 1. well pastor stephen i thought
that was just me
no it's for anybody that's human
praise god not take it of course that
that would be you now verse
1 i beseech you therefore brethren
so he's writing to believers by the
mercies of god
that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice holy acceptable to god which
is
which is your reasonable service so
here's the great challenge
of your body being presented to god in
prayer
your prayer time your devotional time
here's the challenge you run into
with presenting yourself in your because
your spirit soul
and body is that as a living sacrifice
any think about it in a real way if you
have an altar
and there's flames on it and there's
fire on it and you're not putting the
dead
sacrifice on the altar that's already
been killed you're going to put a living
sacrifice on that altar
that thing's going to be kicking that
thing's going to be squealing
struggling fighting get me off of here
this hurts
this burns this is killing me and god's
going yes
it's wonderful experience the flesh is
getting
barbecued finally they are allowing
their flesh to be crucified and that is
why you can feel
so edgy and agitated not
not when you're out having fun doing
your hobby or doing your fun thing
but when you're praying why
it's the living sacrifice kicking
squirming
fighting the dying process that you go
through the dying of what
the adamic nature the flesh nature
praise the lord and wow can it ever make
a big fuss
on the sacrificial fires it'll give you
a million reasons
why you shouldn't pray now it'll give
you a million reasons
uh of different things that you could do
that would be supposedly
more fruitful or more beneficial wow i
mean i'm telling you
you'll you'll be shocked at the
creativity of your flesh
to get off the sacrificial fire and to
go
do something else instead pastor stephen
what should i do
well you're already there you're already
on the fire just go ahead
and die out to the flesh
pastor stephen but i'm i'm going through
all of this uh edginess and
squirminess and all of this i just it's
normal
it's normal this is really helping
somebody praise god how about this one
you ready for this one
first peter chapter 2 verse 11.
beloved again he's writing to believers
beloved i beg you as surgeons and
pilgrims
abstain from fleshly lust
which war against the soul
that's that the soulish nature that you
have remember you are a spirit
your spirit's been born again you have a
soul your soul is not
born again your soul is being renewed
your mind your will
your emotions they're being renewed and
you know your flesh is not saved
now one day we will have glorified
bodies
that were raised up with but right now
you have to crucify
the flesh nature and not let the soulish
nature
hijack the life that your spirit wants
to live
so there are these raging lusts which
wage
war against the soul so you go in your
the prayer closet
you go in your cave with your bible your
pen maybe a coffee
oh pastor stephen i'm gonna go have
peace with god
pastor stephen i'm going to go lay down
beside the beautiful streams
on the green velvety grass of god's
garden
and you get in there and suddenly
there's like a war going on what in the
world is happening
it's your flesh not wanting to go into
the presence of the lord
whoo not wanting to deal with issues
not wanting to deal with addictions not
wanting to deal
with uh you know uh whatever it's
getting away with if it is getting away
with something wow
and it'll it'll put up quite a uh a ball
and a squall
and a big kick where you have to just
keep diving keep diving deep
don't don't don't surface just keep
going down
keep don't going down as you're going
through this process
of being the living sacrifice on the
fire
it is extremely normal it is
very very normal to have drifting
thoughts oh well pastor stephen i
thought that didn't happen to moses and
elijah
and to peter and nepal and all of the
great ministers of today
nope happens to every single person
that's human
woo praise the lord drifting thoughts
weird thoughts you'll be trying to pray
and you start
stuff starts floating up in your soul
from 40 years ago
lord i i'm having thoughts of when i was
on a swing when i was eight years old
boy that's weird lord i'm having
thoughts of that pizza i ate at that
restaurant
there when i visited that city uh 28
years ago
and all kinds of weird stuff starts
floating up what's going on
it's the soul nature the flesh nature
burning off let it let it rise to the
top and just burn off and evaporate
that's the goofy stuff coming up it's
getting cooked off
let it go praise the lord
hallelujah pastor stephen how
how long does this burn off take
that's that's that's a phenomenal
question
and that's what the emails have been
asking me basically how long until i can
get quiet and peaceful
even if you don't know the mechanics of
it which we're discussing today
perhaps the behind the scene behind the
scenes mechanics of
of the deeper prayer life of diving deep
how long
it can be different every single time it
can be very
very real very literally it could be 30
minutes
that all this goofy soul stuff goes on
drifting thoughts
can't get locked in mind all over the
place
wondering thoughts it could take 30
minutes before that starts to evaporate
and leaves you
and if you walk out of your prayer
closet if you leave your cave before
then thinking well
i i don't i don't get what's up with
prayer it doesn't do anything for me i
feel like i'm wasting my time
then you never you never dove deep
enough
to where you could start hearing from
god you you surfaced and you left
and you never got into that place
that you can get into if you'll just
keep diving
deeper and it takes time and there have
there have been times that it's taken me
and i'm not i'm not exaggerating it has
taken me sometimes
several hours just to get into that
place now
here's what i want to say i'll give a
little cavite to that
caveat or however you say it
if there is resistance like that where
you're like what's up with all these
distractions and you try and it just
it goes on 30 minutes an hour or an hour
20
uh antennas up there could be blockage
because you're going to push into a
revelation or you're about to push into
something supernatural
and that's why sometimes the enemy
although he doesn't know
what god is doing because the enemies in
the spirit realm
sometimes they can pick things up or
maybe see things from a distance
that you cannot quite pick up yet
because you haven't pushed into it and
they'll put up a big
smoke and mirror job and you'll feel
like nothing's going on
and it'll seem like as it says in the
bible brass heavens
and you'll think well what am i even
praying for i might as well just go out
and do
something else that's usually a major
fakeout that the enemy is trying to do
trying to really fake you out so you
will walk out and leave
and not stay you should know that if
you're pushing and pushing
and you're just like what is going on
you should know something's up
the enemy is on purpose now trying to um
divide your attention or get you just to
leave so i would actually say
on unusual cases like that um
push push harder one time i pushed to
the point of
uh it was right at three hours right at
the three hour mark
and i was totally depleted totally
exhausted but i said lord um
you know i haven't even gotten to your
presence yet but i'm not going to quit
but i had a glorious visitation from the
lord that took place
just about 11 minutes after that so it
took about three hours and 11 minutes
but it was worth it it took me into
something that
had it not happened wow
i would have missed a huge blessing
but i caught it and you're going to
catch all that god has for you too
because you're diving deep
and you're going to be having tremendous
fellowship with the lord
lord we give you praise today so all
this flame-up
stuff of the flesh the soulish nature of
the flesh
agitations uneasiness body your your
body kind of like
also giving you signals hey i'm not
comfortable you know i'm hungry uh
uh you know we should order a pizza or
you know it's a good day for ice cream
and on and on it goes
all that stuff you have to just keep
sitting there
or kneeling there or whatever works for
you but
but just stay there stay there praise
the lord
let's go a little further this now
will be psalm 65
psalm 65 verse 7. we're still diving
deep
we're diving deep praise god psalm 65
verse 7 you this is referring to god
who steal the noise of the seas
the noise of their waves
the tumult of the peoples
now people that don't know god
or sometimes even
we could even apply it to christians who
are
in the flesh are often
symbolically pictured in scripture
as waves you
who steal the noise of the seas
a c can make a lot of noise uh and the
larger the seas get with the wave size
and all that
you have a whole lot of noise going on
the noise of their waves the tumult
of the peoples all this noise all this
agitation
all this noise again that's what you're
wanting to
move away from pastor stephen how do you
do it
you you dive deep now i i'm familiar
with many of the scriptures of going up
isaiah chapter 40 and going up like
like an eagle that has renewed its
strength because it's weighted upon the
lord so there
are the verses that speak to ascendancy
but there's also verses and pictures in
the word
that speak of going underneath it and
going into the place of peace
beneath the roaring waves
and today i would like for you to
continue with me on a deep dive
to the place where
we're going to eventually reach the
ocean floor
of your heart the bedrock of who
you really are in christ praise god
picture yourself please today
as a nuclear submarine
that is aware of what's going on
upon the surface of the seas perhaps
gigantic waves
a dangerous place for any ship to be but
the submarine
realizes it has a unique ability
and that's its ability to go down and it
can dive deep and go down and down
and the further down you go there's the
quieter
and the steeler it becomes almost like
going into
a cave a dark world of quietness
a world of mystery a world where very
few people
ever see or go praise the lord and i
believe that the lord wants you to dive
deep
with him we see another scripture in
jude
right before the book of revelation
jude chapter one and of course we only
have
one chapter so it's very easy to find
jude 1
verse 12 these are spots
in your love feast while they feast with
you without fear
serving only themselves they are clouds
without water
carried about by the winds late
autumn trees without fruit twice dead
pulled up by the roots watch this
raging waves of the sea
foaming up their own shame wow
so there are people that are like raging
waves
and you get a bunch of these people
together or you get all this noise and
you get all of this stuff that's in the
world of this
noise noise raging raging waves
there's a way to deep dive whoo
hallelujah going down
down far far away from all that
craziness
so you're going to go down so that you
can hear from the lord
what the lord is truly saying now i had
something i'm not going to go into the
full testimony
but i had something sacred happen to me
some years back
when i was in my office one night and i
was actually on the phone it was late at
night
and i was talking to kelly she was at
the house i was at the
ministry office and we're talking on the
phone
while we're talking on the phone
i suddenly knew that
something very special was taking place
i said kelly
i said i have to get off the phone right
now she was right in the middle of
sharing something with me i said i have
to get off the phone
right now she said why i said i have to
get off the phone
right now and she understood why she
said okay i'll talk to you later
i hung up the phone and looked up and
there
he was i knew he had come into the into
the office the lord jesus was standing
there
he had appeared to me in a vision and
i'm seeing him in the vision
he's standing right there and he didn't
look happy
because i had gone through a great trial
and in that trial i had allowed some
doubt to come into my heart i had
doubted the the power of god
to deliver and so the lord came to me
and said we need to get to the bottom of
this
and there there have been times i've had
these glorious
encounters with the lord and you're so
happy to see him
but when i saw him this time i knew it
was on a different
uh dealing because i had let him down i
had doubted him
and so when he came this time it's not
like you're like hey you know
i just knew he was there and i knew that
yes this had to be dealt with
he said we need to get to the bottom of
this and he stepped
inside of stephen brooks and we began to
go down inside of my spirit
now there is a scripture in the book of
proverbs that says the spirit of man
is vast on the inside and it is
your spirit has tremendous capacity
well when the lord stepped into my
spirit
we begin to go down it was like we got
on an inside elevator on the inside of
me
and we began to go down i mean like
floor after floor after floor
i'm not talking like 10 or 20 floors i'm
talking like maybe like a
you know 90 or 100 floors we're just
going down down down down down down down
and then finally the elevator
went as far down as it could go
and the door opened and me and jesus
stepped out
of this interior elevator of my spirit
we stepped out and when we stepped out
we were on the bottom bedrock floor
of my spirit we were on the ocean floor
of my heart
now if you go out on the ocean
and you know you you drop something down
eventually it's going to hit the ocean
floor and there may be some sand or
something like that but underneath that
there's rock there's bedrock well your
spirit
also has that that type of a formation
and we stepped out of the elevator onto
the ocean floor of my heart
and that's when the lord shared some
remarkable things with me
one of the things he he told me is he
pointed
uh in a certain direction and we
appointed there was a billboard
there and the billboard had these words
written on it
and i could look at the words and the
lord said to me he said what are you
going to do about that
whoo you know you know what the
billboard said
it said and i read it it said though he
slayed me
yet will i trust in him
wow wow he said what are you going to do
about that whoo
what an encounter while
nobody else like you well the
experience that i had
was something that allowed me again to
see
that with the lord he can go very deep
within you but you need to make that
effort to dive deep
so you can meet him praise god and get
down to
these real issues you know in math you
want to work it down to the lowest
common denominator bring it all down
let's let's understand
this and fix this praise god and that's
what the lord will do
with you but if you're up there on the
surface with all this raging and all
this
stuff going on it is very very difficult
to hear the lord unless he grants you a
sovereign type experience
and you're able to hear him because he
shouts over the waves he shouts over the
noise
but that is not his preferred way of
dealing with his people
praise god so i'm encouraging you deep
dive
woo go into your cave and deep dive
praise god
get quiet get quiet and as you get into
that place
somewhere eventually
the the fires of god begin to burn
up all the anxiety all of the
distractions
everything that you're saying no to that
screams at you
somewhere along your deep dive that
stuff and i can't
tell you exactly when it is you may not
even notice it i usually don't even
notice it
it plays out and it's done and it can't
reach you anymore why you've gone so
deep it's
can't reach that far down and you just
keep going and then
it's just you and the lord and when it's
you and the lord
that's when the the oil of the spirit
starts to drip into you
that's when the life of god starts to
get imparted into you
and that's that's when you start getting
things from the lord
hallelujah glory to god and also that
time
spent with the lord like that when you
come out of it that dripping
of oil stills continues and revelation
still continues to flow
praise god i have seen
[Music]
many christians who
rush into a devotional time
rush into a prayer and 10 minutes later
they're done and they think they have
scaled mount everest
and i understand yes they're young in
the lord but
there must be discipleship
see it must be more than a conversion
i receive christ i don't want to go to
hell so i take christ as my savior
that's good but jesus didn't necessarily
say make
make con converts although there isn't a
conversion experience we understand that
but he said make disciples and he said
commanding them to obey
all commandments teaching them
and instructing them to obey see the
commandments of god
are not optional they're not optional
and so when you teach them when you
disciple them what is a disciple someone
under discipline
and that's not a bad thing it's a good
thing if you don't have
any discipline in your life you're
running wild you're running wild and you
never develop
into the man the woman that god wants
you to be
so you discipline yourself
you say i'm not leaving this place i'm
staying here
i hear i hear all the stuff you know
that's
that's after my attention but i'm
staying with the lord and as you
discipline yourself
the strength of god comes into you
praise god
and yes yes you you enter into deep
discipleship
with the lord and and the commandments
of god become beautiful to you not
burdensome
you're like wow these are liberating
this is freedom this is what real truth
is this is where the real joy is at
hallelujah but oh yes you'll get that
here and here
you absolutely will but you're going to
have to dive deep
and that's not this little this little
thing running run out
um that is a western form of
christianity
that has become i would call celebrity
christianity
and if you try to live it and you try to
walk it out
you're going to become very disappointed
when real trials hit your life
because that um that's not enough to
carry you through
difficult times you're going to have to
go deeper
and trust me if there are difficult
times what are you going to need you're
going to be able to hear from god
so we'll be willing to put the time in
and dive deep
and it's it's different every every time
you know
um it may take 20 minutes
and you're you're there but there could
be other times it may take an hour 20
minutes
don't think that you know oh i
this i must have some kind of a strange
life no it's like that it's like that
for
all believers you have to push you have
to push you have to put your time in
you have to put your time in i've had it
happen with sermons
with other times i needed to hear from
the lord and i'm just like lord i'm not
hearing what do i do
there's only one thing i can do keep
waiting keep sitting
keep diving don't don't resurface well
we need to come up for fresh air and we
need to come up for
you know some beef stroganoff and we
need to look we can pull in the port
later
we can pull into the harbor later and
replenish everything
because really the submarine can stay
under just as long as you've got food
and see yourself as a nuclear submarine
you're submerged
you're submerging until you get the
revelation
praise god hallelujah and then you come
out then you can come out
here's the thing when you have deep
dived and you've been in the spirit
and then you come up
maybe maybe an hour 20 minutes later
i don't know maybe you got lost in the
glory maybe three hours later and you
come up you know the first thing you'll
notice
all those crazy distractions that
earlier were like
go do this go to that dude they're like
they're meaningless you look at them and
you're just like that doesn't mean
anything to me anymore
at least it doesn't right now now
there's something to continue to walk in
but you'll come out of that deep dive
and you'll be like wow
i am so glad i didn't trade
that eternal impartation that
weighty glory that i've just had with
god i'm so glad i didn't trade that
to go out and do that thing that was
just you know
like you know highlighted itself as the
greatest thing you could ever do
and there are a lot of fun things you
can do but
you know what without the lord all those
things lose their life
praise god but in the lord in the lord
when you come out of that
what you do uh walk in it has much
deeper enjoyment
praise the lord first timothy chapter
four
first timothy chapter four
praise god verse 8
for bodily exercise prophets a little
notice that he didn't say it was
worthless that you shouldn't do any
he just said it has a little profit
there's not much profit in it
for bodily exercise profits a little but
godliness
deep diving into spirit but godliness is
profitable
for all things having promise of the
life that now
is that's good and of that
which is to come you get prepped
for eternity while you're down here
you realize what it's all about not when
you die
and go there while you're still down
here you realize what's really valuable
what really counts
what the heart of god is really all
about while you're living here
praise um god you'll never pick that up
if you're just up on the surface all the
time with all the raves all the waves
and the raging and all the noise and all
the chaos and confusion and all the
storm
you're gonna have to deep dive and get
real quiet
take your submarine all the way to the
bottom and
i guess we can't use the word park it
but just take it down there
real quiet nobody can see you you're in
the deep dark
depths and just you know put in the
neutral and just
hang out for a while praise god
thank you jesus now
i i have found personally that while i
do pray during the day at
certain times i always try to pray
early in the morning when it's still
dark why
several reasons first of all this
thing's quiet
okay all these texts are coming in and i
don't mind text i don't mind emails i
like all of that it's a part of life
that's that's all cool
but it really gets real quiet and calm
uh you know three o'clock four o'clock
five o'clock in the morning
so this thing is not uh like a
distraction
so this thing's off all i use that for
is just to check
time praise lord and of course turn the
little light on
so i can see what i'm doing how i can
make my coffee in the dark praise the
lord so i don't spill anything
but my friends you'll find that if you
dive deep
early in the morning your soul here's
something very important your soul
will naturally be quieter
it'll be real calm and real quiet now as
you sit there in that chair
and you pray and you meditate and you
spend time with god
you speak in tongues you just fellowship
with the lord you worship
whatever you do however you do it but
your you and your thing with god
you'll find that as you sit there it
could still
it could still take a little time for
your soul to calm down
but sometimes your soul is already just
it's like
it's like a lake where there's no wind
and it looks like
glass i have seen the sea of galilee in
israel
some days it looks like glass i mean not
a wind blowing
not a leaf moving on a tree and you look
at the water and it just
looks like crystal but i've seen it
other days with high winds and
you won't you wouldn't want to be out
there i could clearly understand
how they were sinking in the boat jesus
and the apostles
with that raging storm i could clearly
see how it could be because i thought
i would want to be out there out there
on a day like today
praise the lord but early in the morning
early in the morning your soul you'll
get a great hit start with your soul
because it's going to be
much more calm and relaxed
praise the lord and if you lean into
that
you'll be very productive very
productive
let me say this in most levels of
athletics it usually requires
a two-day workout and anytime you start
getting serious into a certain athletic
field and you want to do really good at
it you're probably going to have to do a
morning workout and then later
uh that same day in the afternoon you'll
do your other workout
so you'll notice that if you get up
early in the morning
while it's still dark and you pray your
soul's real calm
or quiet you could have a good time with
the lord but you'll also find out
a bonus that because you did that in the
morning if you come back
later in the afternoon and maybe you
want to pray again
that same anointing is still writing so
you can jump right back into that
smoothness
much easier than you could if you had
missed all of that previous prayer time
and now for the first time
you're trying to pray which could be
extremely difficult to uh
get your soul quiet in situations like
that
so you want to do all that you can where
you're building your life you're
actually structuring
and ordering your life actually around
your prayer time
praise the lord hallelujah and when
you're getting
disciplined about uh your prayer time
and you move
other stuff to work with your prayer
time and
and you so you're putting your prayer
time first then um
you're going to have some some of the
most incredible deep dive experiences
with the lord
and that is that place you get into you
start hearing from the lord
praise god you start getting very clear
directions
a very strong inward witness of the
spirit of knowing
what god wants you to do for that day
for that season for that year
and so forth praise the lord
and i believe this is the way the lord
operated we see that mark chapter 1
verse 35.
he got up very early a long time before
the sun ever came up
so there are some things that work
so well i would discourage you from
trying to reinvent the wheel
i would say this works really well and
if it worked for the lord
and he set that standard that would be
the gold standard and if you
implement that it will work well for you
too
praise god but don't be afraid to deep
dive
and get past all the raging waves of
your soul
of distractions of all of that stuff let
it burn up
let it dissipate stay there
with the lord and you'll get into that
quietness and then when you get there
then
push it and take it for all it's worth
and don't leave until you're full
and you'll know when you are hallelujah
father i pray for your people
that they have some
submarine journeys praise god
that they dive deep and they they know
how to make that push
and that they will not ever allow their
soul to trick them
one more time or their flesh to
pull the wool over their eyes one more
time but they will dive deep
intentionally and on purpose to get into
the quiet
inky darkness of your spirit we thank
you for these cave-like places
we thank you for these places of hearing
from you we give you all of the praise
in jesus name amen
and amen praise the lord if you're
watching today's program
and you don't know christ as your savior
you can meet him right now you don't
even have to go into a cave praise the
lord all you have to do is pray this
prayer
from your heart and he will hear your
prayer
and he'll answer it right now if you
don't know him as your savior
but you would like to make christ your
lord and savior pray this right now say
lord jesus
i'm a sinner but you died to save
sinners jesus i give my heart
to you come live on the inside of me
be the king of my life teach
me what i need to know step into my life
lead me and guide me from this day
forward
write my name in your book of life
thank you jesus i accept you now as my
lord and savior in
your name i pray amen
and amen my friends those of you that
have prayed that welcome
to the family of god god loves you so
much
praise the lord let's get ready today to
take
holy communion grab some
unleavened bread and some grape juice
praise the lord let's pray over it
heavenly father we thank you for the
bread the juice
we blessed it we set it apart as holy
through this prayer
and this is the body and the blood now
of christ our savior father as we
receive the body of jesus
we thank you that you speak
that you communicate with your people we
thank you for
very very good clarity with you thank
you father god for
our spiritual sonar
our spiritual imagery of being able to
pick up
what it is that you are trying to convey
to us
by your spirit father let us be close to
you not drifting
not wasting time
[Music]
not trying to wait to the last moment
and then somehow thinking we're going to
flip a switch and decide to be spiritual
lord let us seek you right now with all
of our hearts let that grace be released
we receive the body of christ now
in jesus name let's partake together
amen
the very first supernatural voice that i
ever heard speak to me supernaturally
i heard it was in the spirit but it was
so strong
that my my ears picked it up too
and i heard a voice speak to me i
believe it was an angel
that said to me draw near to god
and he will draw near to you when i
heard that i jumped i was sitting
on the bed i was at my grandmother's
house uh in the guest bedroom
and i looked underneath the bed i
thought one of my brothers had somehow
snuck into the bedroom and
was hiding under the bed playing the
trick on me but there was nobody in the
bedroom there was nobody in the house
i was there by myself and the lord spoke
to me through one of his holy angels
draw near to god and he will not that he
might not that maybe he no
no no he will draw near
to you one of the greatest ways you can
draw near to the lord is
diving deep push go deep
so that you can have that rich communion
with god
father thank you for the blood of jesus
we thank you that through christ
the mediator between god and man
we now have fellowship with you we have
open communication with you
and father since the line is open we
choose to avail ourselves
to the heavenly hotline father we thank
you for instructions from headquarters
we receive the blood of jesus with great
thanksgiving
in his name we pray let us all say
amen
praise the lord my friends thank you for
joining me today
may you have a blessed week i look
forward to seeing you back
real soon till then stay blessed god
bless you
and bye bye

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