good morning my friends i'm pastor
Steven brooks welcome today
to morning glory our midweek bible study
i'm so happy that you are here today i
want to invite you
grab your bible and meet me today in
psalm
109 we're going to talk about what
happens when you give yourself to prayer
praise the lord let's open up in prayer
heavenly father as we jump into your
word we ask that your holy spirit would
quicken
would illuminate the scriptures so that
they would be
alive to us let them leap off the page
into our heart
and bear good fruit the word producing
one hundredfold in our lives now father
we thank you
we give you all of the praise in jesus
name we pray
we all agree and say amen
we are in psalm 109 verse 1
this of course is a psalm of david do
not keep silent oh god of my praise for
the mouth of the wicked
and the mouth of the deceitful have
opened against
me they have spoken against me with the
lying tongue
and we are seeing more persecution
against christians within our society
here in
america i do believe the lord has some
surprises
some good things that he's going to do
and i believe the enemy
in a sense has overplayed his hand and
we're going to begin to see god do some
very special things
for his people verse 3 they have also
surrounded me with
words of hatred and fought against me
without a cause
isn't that fascinating fighting against
david without a cause
now verse 4 in return for my love they
are
my accusers but i give myself to prayer
now this psalm in a sense
many jewish scholars believe it's in
reference
to a certain person that was very close
to david we'll cover that a little bit
more in just a moment
but it also has overtones
that would be messianic of things that
christ experienced
in his own life such as verse 8
let his days be few and let another take
his office
so even as david went through a great
betrayal
at the worst possible time in his life
so the lord jesus also ventured
through this betrayal with judas that
his days be few and let another take his
office and we know that the days of
judas were shortened
that he killed himself and we know that
another person
took his office his apostolic office was
replaced so we see a lot of
prophetic shadows of what's coming many
of the difficult things that the lord
went through the attacks
the hatred that was against him but he
stayed on his assignment
he went to the cross and he got it done
praise god and so we are blessed today
and we are more than conquerors in
christ
jesus now again
he's talking about all of the hatred
all of the betrayal and we also have
perhaps what we could call more of the
literal contextual meaning of verse 8
let his days be viewed and let another
take his office
and many of the jewish sages the rabbis
believe here that david
is addressing the betrayal of a
hitherfail
and i hit the fail for those of you that
are familiar with his story
was the king's top advisor i mean this
guy was brilliant
he was wise he was smart
and his counsel it was like
if he shared something i mean you could
take it to the bank it was like
it was almost like on the edge of
supernatural type counsel everything
that he said to do or would recommend to
do
it would always work out the right way
and so we're talking about
a hitherfail but when absalom
rose up to betray his father and
persuaded enough people to join the
rebellion
and then the the rebellion went in the
full swing mode where
uh the conspiracy uh it worked in a
sense where
he took temporarily the throne
and david is on the run for his life
with his small group of loyalists
while absalom is taken over the throne
and in david's most trying moment
of his life guess what a hitherfail did
he joined absalom and so that was an
extremely uh cruel blow
dealt to david at the lowest point
in his life and so
i think it's very important at what
we're looking at today
to understand that we know the value of
wisdom
and god places a high priority on
walking in
light walking in wisdom but i believe
that you can still
be brilliant you can be even
genius level intellect and you can be
able to counsel
and advise others with good advice
but you can do all of that
but if you have some areas in your life
that are not that are not submitted to
the lordship of jesus
christ then you can still run my friends
into trouble you know it was
years back when i ran into a minister a
very well-known minister
and i met him behind the scenes uh at a
television studio
and we were both doing some things for
tv
and uh we talked just for a few minutes
and he he appreciated the anointing that
was on my life
and at the same time i could appreciate
the different type of anointing that
was resting on him and
he said something to me that no other
older type minister had ever said
he said stephen he said at this stage in
your life
he said it's very important that you
begin to
get a good grasp on the wisdom of god
and god wants you to walk in his wisdom
and i knew
when he said that that was something
that i had hungered for and i needed to
venture further into
and so he prayed for me because it was
all over his life
and he was a very wise man well pastor
stephen that's wonderful
that's wonderful where's he at today
are you ready for this one right now
he's sitting
in prison you can have a lot of wisdom
you can be a pretty sharp smart cookie
you can be and a hitherfail where you're
advising the king
and all of your advice is good
but my friends if you focus
on some of these areas that
can be a uh they're supplemental
you can get enthused into these areas
where you begin to come
lopsided spiritually and if you're not
careful
you'll start to drift and we never want
that to happen
that minister was a good man of god but
he got off track
he had tremendous wisdom but he deviated
from something that we want to talk
about today
and because of that deviation his heart
began to deviate away from the lord he
began to cheat on his taxes
sometimes he wouldn't file or report
certain taxes or income
other times he made up some of the
wildest
fraudulent tax forms and filled them out
they're all fake and false and
turn them all in and he got busted for
all of that
and he'll probably be in prison for a
few more years
so we need something more than just
wisdom we see something uh that i think
is fascinating in the book of
ecclesiastes chapter two
ecclesiastes chapter two now listen to
this
concerning the wisest man that ever
walked on the earth
outside of jesus now when we're also
talking about the wisest man
uh and we're referring to solomon you
have to understand
that that wisdom that he had not all of
that in a sense
is spiritual wisdom a lot of it was
natural wisdom
i mean he could lecture on all types of
things he could lecture on plants and
animals
but really after you've heard him talk
about animals and plants
now from today's perspective of being
born again which they didn't have that
back then
of being in the new covenant and having
the the life and the nature of christ
imparted into you upon the new birth
experience
you know there would probably be a point
where you if you were back in that time
and you had this
same experience you would probably say
now solomon this is really nice
i've really enjoyed you lecturing on the
hyssop plant
and i've really enjoyed your talk on the
leopard but can you tell me about
kingdom living and how to live and walk
in the spirit
well no he did not have
that type of wisdom and that's the type
that we need to have that's the type
that is a higher dimension of wisdom
and uh it's spiritual look at verse 1
ecclesiastes chapter 2 verse 1 this
would be solomon
i said in my heart come now i will test
you with mirth therefore enjoy
pleasure but surely this also
was vanity this was a man that had
unlimited
financial ability to explore anything
natural that he wanted to as far as
uh you know the pleasure of like i
wonder what this is like i wonder what
that's like
he was able to do all of that verse two
i said of laughter
madness and of mirth what does it
accomplish
verse 3 i searched in my heart how to
gratify
my flesh that is not
the higher form of wisdom he's going to
explore ways to gratify his flesh with
wine
he said while guiding my heart with
wisdom
and how to lay hold on folly so
he had this ability to retain
that incredible wisdom that god gave him
but yet while he's holding that
retaining that wisdom
he's going to explore folly and he's
going to explore how to
you know pamper the flesh and things
like that and that
is what got him into trouble verse 9
so i became great and excelled more than
all who were before me in jerusalem
also my wisdom remained with me
while he's exploring how to gratify his
flesh with wine
he retained that wisdom while he's
exploring how to gratify his
flesh by building a new swimming pool
he's retaining all of that wisdom so
he's indulging in all of these things
but he still has this ability to govern
the kingdom
and to function in a way where he can
carry on
about business but but
he's drifting he's drifting so we need
to remedy
the shortcoming of being brilliant
we need to remedy the shortcoming of
being
very wise and prudent and even able to
help others
by giving them the right answers and by
the way that's what solomon could do he
could tell others
what they're supposed to do but yet he
himself
was deviating from making those
applications
to his own life now
we need to find out what will
stabilize us more than what
wisdom alone can do and we find that
actually
back in psalm 109 let's turn back over
there
psalm 109 and let's go to verse 4.
david said in return for my love they
are
my accusers but i give myself
to prayer now
let's dig into this just for a moment
those of you that are bible students
know that when you're reading through
the old testament
which is written originally in hebrew or
if you're reading through the new
testament which is originally written in
greek
if you see something in italics it means
that it's not there in the original
hebrew or greek the translators
added a few words to help bring out the
context
of the sentence sometimes adding those
words
helps sometimes it can actually
diminish the punch of it because while
they're trying to help us
to be able to relate it to an english
mindset
or a western mindset it could miss the
thrust of what's being said
so let's look at it and what it
literally says
in return for my love they are my
accusers
but i notice give myself
give myself is in italics that means
it's not there in the original
hebrew what is david actually saying
but i but i prayer
but i prayer he basically
just moved into a place under this
tremendous stress and pressure
that he was under with the overthrow of
his of his kingship
by his own son of all people he just
thought lord this this is beyond my
ability to fix this this is not good and
my son is trying to kill me
and so he just became prayer
what else could he do he just became
prayers
praying all the time praise the lord and
this
really will do some very unusual
things in your life when you begin to
touch
this look at it again but i
prayer but i gave myself to prayer
but i prayer wow
praise the lord he became prayer well
what does that mean pastor stephen he
became prayer
well i i believe he just got caught up
in this prayer life with the lord and it
was so blessing him
that he was able to sail through that
difficult time pop out on the other side
get his kingdom back get the throne back
and then put
everything back in order the way it's
supposed to be
now what if his son solomon
had developed a prayer life like his
father david had
can you imagine what that would have
been like with that wisdom
coupled with a deep walk with god
uh you talking about a golden age of
israel that would have been
well that would have been very much
messianic type
overshadowing for sure but solomon had
uh incredible natural wisdom he could
touch
a little bit of that divine wisdom
but that is a higher level where it's
spiritual
wisdom praise the lord and so he could
not really in the sense of being under
the old testament get
into that but david was able to
have an understanding of that because of
his deep prayer life
praise the lord now when you enter
into a new level you still encounter
the same devil but his tax
his attempts to get at you
they actually can become more
sophisticated and that's why
when you are moving into
the next chapter or the next season of
your life
you need to have extra time it might
not even be the norm but you need to
have extra time where you just give
yourself to prayer
praise the lord and when you do that
when you do that you can get through
some very interesting times
you know there was a man that lived in
the fifth
century and his name was saint simeon
he lived in what is known today as
modern-day
syria and he was known as a stylite
actually he was the first one and that
can be translated as one who lived on a
pillar
so he started a movement and and the
movement really didn't start until
uh at the very latter part of his life
and at his death
but he started a movement of what became
known as the pillar
saints and although i don't know if
there's
any today that are actually uh that
would have a ministry like that
yet in the fifth century there were
hundreds
literally that followed in his spiritual
footsteps but saint simeon
he was a hermit monk and he just wanted
to get close to the lord and serve the
lord
he was admitted to a monastery at the
age of 18
but his his personal disciplines
were so strict that the other monks
thought you know what you'd be better
living on your own
your demands are too high even for us
and because his influence was very
strong
and so he left and eventually had the
idea
of living on top of a pillar i'm just
talking about a tall
column and over time over the decades
the column
the pillar got higher and higher and
higher toward the last pillar that he
lived on
i think that one was about 60 feet tall
and he never came down when he lived on
these pillars he never came down
unless you know like maybe every uh
seven or eight years he's moving to a
different one
but his feet never touched the ground he
never came down to use the restroom he
never came down to eat he stayed up
there
day and night 24 7 out in the desert
uh with 140 degrees in the summer and
freezing temperatures in the winter
and day and night he lived up on top of
that pillar
but he developed a very deep walk with
the lord
and after a while people began to seek
out his counsel
and he would preach once in the morning
on top of the pillar
and then in the evening he would preach
a second time
and so crowds began to come because of
his deep walk with the lord he had
he had answers he had wisdom
and so kings believe it or not began to
show up in that very remote
desolate place and they would king would
be there with his entourage sitting on a
horse
talking up to simeon who's up on the
pillar saying hey this is my this is my
challenge i've got a war with this
nation
you know what would you advise me do and
he was able to have the mind of god to
counsel
and advise uh these men and many other
people many great
uh ladies great queens and princesses
they also came
and so there was quite an unusual
following
but you know what you can get caught up
in it in counseling and advising
and doing all of this stuff and you if
you're not careful
you can start to lose your edge and the
enemy please listen to me today
he never takes a vacation
even if you take a vacation he doesn't
take one now
there there are the rest of the lord
there is psalm 23 where the lord
prepares a table
before us in the very presence of our
enemies so yes we can take a vacation we
can sit down we can relax
we can eat but at the same time remember
he is looking for weak spots
he's looking for uh uh perhaps we could
call it chinks in your armor and he's
not going to attack he's not going to
launch something against you
when you're at your strongest he's going
to come when you're at your weakest and
that's what he did to jesus
when the lord was right at the end of
the 40-day fast he had burned up all fat
reserves he had no more
he's at a very critical place where the
body will begin to start
consuming its own muscle tissue
if you don't eat it's a very dangerous
spot and so that
is when satan launched his attack so he
doesn't play fair
he plays very strategically don't think
of the devil as being somebody dumb or
stupid
he is a supernatural creature now yes he
is defeated
and yes his place is beneath our feet
but
you have to walk in the spirit because
he can be very cagey
he can be very tricky and so you you
want to make sure
that even if you're like solomon and
everything's rolling along really well
don't drift stay close to the lord like
david did and you'll you'll get through
even very difficult times
now st simeon uh he got so busy because
uh
the people are coming from all over the
place and they want us prayers and you
know and the amazing thing is that
when they would give prayer requests and
he would take them
the ones that he could take they would
always the people would get miraculous
answers
so this guy was very solid and uh
one day though while he was up on his
pillar
and this you know he had had this moment
of or the this season of
maybe we could call it popularity or
fame and people are coming from all over
the place to
seek his counsel and stuff like that
well one day
while he was on top of the pillar and
this was like in between the crowds so
there's
there's not really anybody uh watching
kind of what's going on
he was up on top of his pillar and he
was standing up there
and uh by the way the top of the pillar
that he lived on
was no bigger than this desk
that i have my bible my coffee cup and
my notepad
it was no bigger than my desk he could
it was not even long enough for him to
stretch out his feet hung over the side
there was just a tiny little railing
about that high
that would keep him from blowing off
when those desert winds and the desert
storms would blow through
that way he wouldn't get swept over the
side but outside of that he was just up
there
well pastor stephen how did he eat well
they say that he had a little rope and
uh he had a uh he had some spiritual
disciples that would uh you know they
would tie a little bag on the rope and
send some food up
but uh as far as how he went to the
bathroom or whatever i'm not really sure
how he did all that but we do know one
thing
he never came down now one day he was
up on the top of the pillar and
while he was standing up there
a chariot pulled by horses
on fire swept down from the high
sky swept down came and elijah
the prophet was in the chariot and this
chariot pulls
up next to him while he's standing on
top of the pedestal
on top of his you know column and elijah
says to him
step in i have been sent from god
to take you to heaven and
simeon thought this is it this
is what i want and he lifted up his foot
to step into the chariot and the moment
he lifted his foot up
suddenly the chariot vanished the horses
that were on fire that were
that were pulling the chariot vanished
elijah
turned into satan and it was satan
playing a trick on him who had attacked
him
at a moment of his weakness when he had
been so busy with ministry
and satan laughed at him and
mocked him and then satan left and
simeon
who had lifted his foot up to step into
the chariot
said basically if i could paraphrase
the devil got a big one over on me and
and simeon was so upset that the devil
had
done that to him that he'd never put his
foot down because he had put he lifted
his foot up to put it over in the
chariot
he never put his foot down ever for the
rest of his life
glory to god so can you imagine standing
on top of a pedestal
you know six stories high uh with one on
one foot
well that's what he did for the rest of
his life because
he understood that when you're
in these certain levels you have to be
very very careful because the devil
is very very sneaky praise the lord and
so you have to become
prayer praise the lord there is a time
you have to just send the crowds away
and say
i need to go pray
prayer as david discovered it brings
peace against what can even be
supernatural persecution
there's persecution but sometimes
there's even
supernatural persecution that you know
this is not normal
this is persecution inspired by the evil
one
prayer also brings answers to very
difficult problems and we see this
in second samuel chapter 17.
i like this so let's take a look at it
second
chapter 17 well let me look at verse 15
just for a moment
verse 31 then someone told david saying
a hithaphel is among the conspirators
with absalom
and david said o lord i pray
turn the council of a hitherfail into
foolishness and
while the council of a hithophil in a
sense was never
foolishness god still turned
it to something better because because
absalom was he was a flesh guy so if you
could pamper him
and flatter him he's going to go in that
direction even if it's wrong decision
and that's exactly what happened
so i hit the phil again had offered good
counsel
to absalom basically saying go take out
your father right now you could
you could end this whole thing right now
and it's over with and you can rule and
your father you know you just you know
have your have your men put him to death
and so uh it now if he would have done
that uh
it would have been the end but of course
we know also that god has a covenant
with david so it's this is not gonna go
well
for absalom either way so um
david had a man on his side
who shy and david basically basically
said the hushite look
it's going to be better if you stay here
stay in jerusalem
and pretend that you're going to become
loyal to him
but see what you can do to basically
cause a train wreck
and trust me that's exactly what hush i
did
and we see that over in chapter
17. and whosoever gave his counsel
and it was it was a fake council but it
buttered up
absalom and he loved it and absalom
bought that council and uh really i
believe a hitherfield could see through
it because
what took place is when hush i gave his
counsel
he's buying time for david to escape
and it worked and it worked and when a
hitherfield saw it he's like uh oh
this is not going to work out now the
thing's over with before it has hardly
even got
started and he knew that and so we see
in second samuel
17 verse 23 now when they hit the fell
saw that it is that his advice was not
followed
he saddled the donkey and arose and went
home to his house to his city
then he put his household in order and
hanged himself
and died he committed suicide and he was
buried in
his father's tomb my friends
david was a man of prayer and david just
went in the prayer
and god turned the whole thing praise
god
and i believe that as you give yourself
to prayer
as you in a sense become prayer god is
going to do the most amazing things
this year holds tremendous
potential for you but you need to get in
there and really pray
and don't let life distract you
we all have responsibilities we have
things that we have to do
but we also have other other time where
we can make choice
of how we're going to use it how we're
going to spend it and you need to find
that extra time and really pour it
into prayer you know i was talking with
a friend a theologian
the other day we had coffee and he
used a term i had never heard before and
he said this is what some of the other
theologians call
these guys they actually called them
super saints
i said i like that that's actually
there's truth in that statement and
we begin to talk about one of these men
for example
smith wigglesworth and i'll give you an
example
but i want you to understand that when
you
begin to move into the deeper walk of
prayer
the supernatural does start becoming
natural and you can move into it a lot
sooner than you think
when you really give yourself to this
lifestyle
walking with god in prayer oh yes wisdom
has its place
wisdom is going to help you live life
skillfully but you're going to need more
than just
that wisdom you're going to need a deep
prayer life
or else that wisdom will start to become
intellectual only
and then it can degrade to even soulish
wisdom
and then it began to go even further
down to becoming the worldly wisdom
and we know from what james said in
james chapter 3
that the type of worldly wisdom is
actually demonically inspired so that's
why
you can't deviate from your prayer life
because you will start to drift
from the lord who is your anchor so stay
close
praise the lord especially in this time
where god is lifting you up
because i see you scaling to new heights
praise the lord and the enemy
he also sees that so you must keep your
prayer life
very very strong don't be concerned
about the other christians who are out
there running around
they're not really concerned about you
know one day they'll have to stand
before the lord and give account for
their life
someone some people live their life uh
i'm speaking of christians they leave it
very very loosely
they live it very loosely they give no
thought to eternity they're only
focused on the carnal realm
of this world and getting ahead and
success and things like that
and there is an awareness of where you
you do want to do well in life
but the the true blessing and the great
joy
is walking close with the lord so don't
let anything
even busyness disrupt that or pull you
away
from that well we were talking about
smith wigglesworth the other day my
friend and i
and uh you have to understand these were
different types of ministers
you have saints but then you have
others that are just they had something
different talk about
smith wigglesworth just for a moment did
you know that in
one of his meetings he prayed for a man
that had no feet so at the end of his
legs there's stuff there's no feet at
all
and wigglesworth laid hands on the man
prayed for the man
and uh said it's done well the man looks
down you know at his feet there's
there's
there's no feet and wigglesworth says
it's done
and the man had a little bit of a
puzzled look on his face but the man had
faith but he's trying to he's trying to
understand the operation of faith
and wigglesworth just looked at him and
said it's done
so go buy a pair of shoes
you understand you can't do that if
you're not in that prayer closet you
can't
you can't give statements like that
you're gonna have a lot of people mad at
you
if you're not really walking with the
lord where the lord's gonna back that up
and so wigglesworth tells the man with
no feet
i've prayed for you we believe it's done
god's done the miracle so you need to go
get a pair of shoes
well he gets in his wheelchair the man
does with no feet
and he goes down to the shoe store where
they sell men's dress shoes
and he rolls in there in his wheelchair
and comes in there in front of the
men's shoes and the salesman says um he
said to him
sir can i help you and the man said yes
and kind of looked down at his feet and
the salesman said
oh okay
and the man in the wheelchair said he
said
i want the color black size nine and a
half
and the man said okay and he goes to the
back
gets a pair of dress shoes that are
black size nine and a half
brings them out kneels down takes him
out of the box
and when he did feet popped out two feet
popped out now try try telling somebody
to go do that with no prayer life
see do you do you understand there's a
place where
david knew give yourself the prayer
it'll override all
this stuff that uh this is god's own
stuff
this is going to take the lord to make
this right
praise god and yes we need to walk in
wisdom but i've met some
brilliant men in my life i've met some
brilliant ministers
that were brilliant apostolic
administrative
just they they had a flow but because
i'm not really staying really close to
the lord
in prayer they had some things happen
that that even their great wisdom
did not prepare them for so that's why
you have to walk close to the lord
this is helping somebody today praise
the lord
and i believe that as
this company of eagle saints begins to
rise
we're going to see more of these
miracles such as what happened
wigglesworth's
life where he's touching that area
where it takes a lot i would say
i would be more definitive it takes
everything
to maintain an anointing like that you
cannot have an anointing like that
and go out and just run around and live
your own life you can't do it
you'll lose the anointing and the
miracles will stop here's another one
my friend were taught he and i were
talking so we talked about smith
wigglesworth
and then we talked about padre pio
another man
that just his whole life was given over
to prayer
and so one time while padre pio was at
the um
of course he was there all the time you
know there at the monastery
well one day a lady uh
had her son die in a different city
and he was a young boy he was he was
actually a child i shouldn't say a boy
he was a child
but the child died and she realized he's
dead
and she realized the only thing
that can that can help my situation is
to get him to the man of god i've got to
get
my dead child the padre pio so
uh she lived quite a distance away so
that meant she was going to have to take
the train
so she put her dead son in a suitcase
and carried the dead child uh in the
suitcase
on the train i don't know how long it
took her to get there it was a long time
it was a long trip
eventually she gets to the monastery and
uh
you know he would have a five o'clock in
the morning mass
every morning uh there at the catholic
uh uh at the sanctuary
there at the monastery and people would
come and so forth and
anyhow she gets there and she's got the
suitcase
and she opens up the suitcase and the
dead child falls out and
there were there were witnesses one man
who witnessed it said
he said if the child had not died you
know the previous day when she left on
the journey he said i'll tell you one
thing he'd have died in that suitcase
because there's there'd been no way he
could breathe
he was just i mean it was a dead body
squished into a suitcase
and uh when the child fell out of the
suitcase she just broke down
i guess her faith had reached the limit
and she began the weep and the cry and
padre pio picked up the dead child
and just held him in his arms and the
woman's crying and bawling and stuff
like that
and he said woman would you please be
quiet
you're going to wake up your son who's
taking the nap
and everybody looked and the child is
breathing
and the child's sleeping in his arms
child went on to live a long life praise
the lord
crazy crazy miracles but
but these are people wigglesworth or
padre pio
just can't run around all day and goof
off you can't
you can't do your own thing though yes
they had responsibilities
these are men that are working all day
they had they had a demand on the
anointing all day
but in their free time it's what you
decide
to and choose to do with it that will
make the difference
of you moving over into the supernatural
well the natural becomes supernatural
and the uh the ordinary starts moving
into the extraordinary
and you start seeing god do the most
unusual things in your life but yes
there's absolutely a price tag for it
and again we saw it very clearly in
psalm 109
verse 4 but i give myself
to prayer so he basically said but i
prayer
that's what it is in the hebrew he just
became prayer
and yes that that prayer begins to
activate
all of that word that you have in you
all of those promises from god that you
have in you
and it all becomes alive praise the lord
and it starts moving and it starts
moving
and it gets going but once it gets going
if you want to keep it going like a
train going down the track
uh even if you turn that engine off it's
still going to roll for quite a ways
because of the momentum
but don't ever turn the uh
the engine off don't ever stop praying
if you get into that
what else is there really that's worth
coming out of it for
well pastor stephen hurry up and finish
the meeting i've got things to do well
like like what
to like go watch a tv show that's you
know full of baloney or something like
that
people get caught up in some of the most
unusual things sometimes
and they give god a little snack they
give god a little attention
and then they wonder why they read bible
stories and it seems so foreign
that how could that be but my friends
god's bringing back the miraculous
god's bringing back the super natural
and there were those even in the old
testament who touched
that that anointing touched that deeper
walk you had men like david
really the only one that came close to
david was king hezekiah
who was also way up there he he was a
follower of the word of god he would
i mean to to a t he was a very strict
follower
of what god said to do because he knew
that if if you did it you're going to
get blessed
and if you knew he also knew that if you
do it wrong or you disobey
it's going to allow the enemy to come in
and cause trouble
so he was determined to live for the
lord so those two men
they had that that special touch but you
can move into that
special touch it's not like it's
something that
is uh you know you're born with only and
you have it or you don't have it
in the realm of horses there are what
are called
super horses but it's determined at
birth
and you either have it or you don't and
the
those that study equine science or the
science of horses and their
their uh their anatomy and their hearts
and so forth realize
that the super horses all have what's
called uh the x gene
it's the super gene and
the the world's fastest horse
secretariat
had the x gene or the super gene man of
war
they said also had that x gene and so
the super elite
race horses they have it and what it
does it causes an enlargement of heart
and that horse may look just like any
other horse
but what the other horses don't realize
and what sometimes people don't realize
is the super horse
has a heart that can literally be three
times bigger than the normal horse
so he has ability to uh
not have all that lactic acid build up
and all of that
stuff that causes you to tie up when you
run and you sprint real fast
he could just keep on going so when
everybody else is struggling
he keeps on going but that's something
that's genetic and it's extremely rare
but there is something in the spirit
realm
even with the super saints if we would
put them in that category
men women that you have to admit there
was a difference
there was a difference what does it come
back to
it comes it comes back to a decision to
just
spend time with the lord and to stay
in that consistency of that
month after month year after year
and it is it's not easy it's very very
demanding
one of the great saints i would put him
in that category too he was something
special
was john viene the french
catholic priest who had a phenomenal
walk with god
and miracles just like all the time all
the time
but he hardly ever slept and about the
only thing he ever ate was potatoes
and a matter of fact there were times
when the demons
and evil spirits would get so angry at
him because of his
uh his purity and the
moral lifting that he brought to the
entire community
that it could be heard others could even
hear
evil spirits yelling out at him potato
eater we hate you you potato eater
once a week he would get what we would
call a crock pot
and he would cook a bunch of potatoes
and then
once those potatoes were cooked he would
just eat a few
every day and those that uh
saw him said that he would eat so few
that the potatoes that were left over
usually were moldy or stuff like that
because he would hardly ever eat them
but then after every week he'd cook a
few more fresh ones but he just had
zero interest in this world or the
spirit of the world or that there was a
a train uh a railroad that they put
about a mile
from the church and back in those days
the railroad was like
i mean that's like having uh you know uh
you know nasa parked
next to you where you know with the
leading technology
and as much as he wanted to see it he
never allowed himself to go see it
he just stayed in that place
a deep prayer that kept that anointing
just flowing
continually i see those
i see those who are willing to pay the
price
to walk into the deeper life and to
touch this area that david discovered
where he became prayer and it's a place
that turns
apparent defeat into the sweetest
victory
it's a place that turns weakness
into strength it's a place that turns
not just your life but begins to ready
radiate out into the lives of others and
affects
others wanting to serve god
oh praise the lord i see it happening we
see it in the new testament
here's a closing verse let's go over to
acts
acts chapter 6 there is
with a growing ministry and a growing
church and they certainly had it growing
in the
first century there in jerusalem i mean
it was exploding in growth you're having
sometimes thousands being added to the
church
every single day and with that you have
all of the
uh all of the demands upon the
leadership particularly upon the
apostles
verse 2 then the 12 summoned the
multitude of the disciples and said
it is not desirable that we should leave
the word of god
and serve tables let me tell you
something that you need to understand
uh it's not right for your pastor to
come over and fix your broken door
well he he has some carpentry skills
pastor stephen he needs to come do that
it's not right for the pastor to come
over and mow your lawn well pastor
stephen he needs
to show himself that he has a servant's
heart and he needs to be over here
mowing my lawn
no he doesn't need to do that he doesn't
need to be down there washing the
ditches
the dishes at the church cookout he
doesn't need to be doing that
what does he need to be doing well verse
3 therefore brethren seek out from among
you seven men of good reputation
full of the holy spirit wisdom whom we
may appoint over this business that
would be the distribution of food
verse 4 peter says but we will give
ourselves we
the apostles we will give ourselves
continually and that's the challenge
that's the challenge continually
to prayer and to the ministry of the
word now can you imagine
if peter just said you know what i think
i'm going to take a year off from
ministry
i'm just tired of having to pray so much
i'm tired of having
always preach a message and come up with
something new to share
i just i'm going to take a year off me
and john are going to take a cruise
oh the enemy would have the enemy would
have hit him and uh it would have been
able to touch them
but when you stay on assignment
when you stay in pursuit
of the lord and what he
reveals to you as your inheritance you
stay in a very
safe place praise the lord my friends
you don't have time
to be running around goofing off wasting
hours and hours and days
doing silly things you must run
with the lord and you must press into
this now here's
here's the thing you will find that you
can get into it
and there is a pull and i've talked
about it before
on messages called the slipstream of
heaven because when you get into it
uh it creates a vacuum that starts to
suck
and pull you along but it's your choice
to stay in it because while you can be
pulled in it you'll have
everything under the sun
offered for you to do usually in sports
if you have a team that wins
let's say like the super bowl the moment
that team
wins the super bowl you'll have players
usually the stars the ones
that help the team get to the super bowl
you'll have those those players offered
tv contracts commercial opportunities to
make millions and millions of dollars
and the more the more those members
start you know taking advantage of all
of that
the harder and more difficult it becomes
for them to repeat
the following year and that's why it's
so hard to win
back-to-back championships why because
the moment you become a champion
you have reached a place that very few
do but to continue in it
where you're consistently right there
vying for it every year
or winning every year that's a different
story but
those that maybe we could call them the
super saints
those that just lived it all the way up
until their last breath
they they understood what david knew and
they also
took heed to what the apostle peter said
we will give ourselves
continually continually to prayer
and to the ministry of the word and
there was a time later
in peter's life when he had
let that slip he had let the minister of
the word slip
he had let his close walk with the with
the lord slip in prayer
and the next thing you know here's peter
the rock
compromising the core truth of the
gospel
which is that the good news is not only
for the jews
but it's for the whole world and here he
is acting like a hypocrite
in front of the christians
who are not jews and paul has to stand
up
and paul said even barnabas
got swept away with hypocrisy but paul
had to stand up
and say peter you're acting like a
hypocrite
and i'm sure the moment
paul said it peter knew it was true i
think it probably brought peter relief
and peter's like you're right you're
right i've i've been swayed by all the
politics and ministry
and i you know i've i've had great
success i mean
you see him in acts chapter five where
he's walking and people are getting
healed
who just get within proximity of the
shadow
of his shadow because the anointing
coming off of him was so strong at times
that when he was under that anointing
you got within that shadow range
you could get healed of whatever it was
so that that's a phenomenal anointing
but my friends you see him later you see
him later in the book of galatians where
paul has to address the situation
that that peter was wrong praise the
lord so
we must continue because the enemy he
doesn't take a break
and you must stay strong in the lord now
our focus is not the enemy
our focus is the lord but we must
continue on this journey because we're
going to see
the glory of god praise the lord this is
also a breakout year
for so many of you so you're going to
have to really push
these breakthrough anointings and
miracles don't happen
with just half-hearted have baked type
effort
you must give it your all you must give
it
your very best praise the lord let me
pray for you
heavenly father i pray for those who are
watching
who are not satisfied because they sense
their elements of complacency that would
lure them
to not make the effort that is required
for the task at hand
but i pray father god that they be
stirred in their hearts
to be moving towards this category that
others
set such a high standard for us to
follow
and throughout church history and
throughout biblical history people like
enoch
we thank you father god that that door
is open for whosoever will for whosoever
will push
into it now we thank you father god that
even
though the enemy tries to distract and
hinder
often through persecution such as we saw
with david
and the betrayals and these painful
things that even the savior went through
father we thank you that there is a
remedy
and that's being close to you in prayer
so father we just give you praise we
thank you for turning around situations
i thank you for those that are in very
difficult spots you're going to help
them
walk right out of it but the wisdom
they're going to get is not
found in some book that's a secular book
written by a so-called wise person it's
going to come out of their prayer time
and their time with you and it's going
to come out of the word
illuminate it and they will walk right
out of it
because you're walking with them so
father we thank you
we thank you i see dreams and visions
accomplished
this year hallelujah and father god this
this year is a set up year
for the next 10 year plan and so we give
you praise for what's
unfolding hallelujah we thank you father
god
we thank you also for just being able to
enjoy
being in your presence because in your
presence
is fullness of joy thank you father
strengthen your people
the press in even though there
could be a great lack
of evidence of seeing it perhaps around
them
amongst other christians but father i
thank you i'm speaking to the eagle
saints who are called the sore
who are not destined to be just
in the chicken realm father we thank you
we thank you they're
they're called the sore so we thank you
they're mounting up
with those wings right now to pray we
give you praise father god
we give you praise in jesus name amen
and amen you know kelly and i were
together the other day and
we were driving somewhere and we decided
well we've got a little ways to go let's
put a message on let's listen to a
message
and kelly said let's try this one and
she pulled up
a message that was kind of like a
classic old message that
uh was taught by a minister who's alive
today but of course he's a lot older
today
and he has a very large ministry and
we begin to listen to the message the
moment
we listen to the message which was a
very old message
the moment we listened to it we were
just like the anointing on this message
is through the roof this is incredible
so
we were like wow his teaching back then
if i could say it maybe humbly the
anointing was like a hundred
times stronger i mean the anointing
and there was a moving of the spirit of
course back then too that was
riding on that move that movement my
goodness but the preaching was just like
the anointing was through the roof
and today you know sermons were still
good but the anointing
uh back then was just like i mean it was
electrifying
even on the old message wow praise the
lord
well pastor stephen shouldn't shouldn't
it still be there
that's the challenge for all of us look
not just for ministers i'm talking about
the anointing for whatever your career
field is
it's not to just have an anointing
that's strong
but to maintain it and to stay in that
place
where it's being very very beneficial to
people
whoa praise the lord wow well
you know when i heard the difference
because i'm very familiar with this
man's ministry
and i heard what it was like all those
years back
i was just like uh kelly and i were both
like what happened to him
how do you go from that to what it is
today now today the
the ministry has all the bells and
whistles it has you know it has
uh plenty of money and stuff like that
but i i mean it put the fear of god in
me
when i heard when i heard the difference
because if you play the modern messages
today they're nice but they have
they're they're nothing compared to what
it was
when this power of the spirit was
writing on that ministry
so what's the what's the difference the
difference is that you can pull out
of that super category and you can get
into a category that's still anointed
but um
it takes takes everything that's why
there's very few
that actually get into it and hold it
and maintain it at very very
high levels and by the way when you do
trust me the enemy knows he will do some
of the most craziest things you've
ever seen they're actually supernatural
he can come in supernatural ways
i've had him do it to me some of the
correct most craziest bizarre stuff
uh and even the lord was tested
the lord was tested so you have to be
ready you don't want to just
let yourself go spiritually you always
want to be in that
very close place every day you can't
take a break
praise the lord when you get to heaven
you can take your spiritual vacation
because
you're finally in a spiritual place
but right here we're walking through
what is
actually the valley of the shadow of
death
that is this earthly realm with its
fallen nature of man and in which
also satan is the prince of the power of
the air so
you want to stay close to the lord every
single day
father bless your people thank you
thank you in jesus name amen
praise god if you're watching today's
program
and you don't know jesus whoo
the great eagle saint hallelujah the the
standard setter
for any believer for any person
who was always on it i mean
he pushed himself and there there's an
anointing
and even paul talked about the energy of
god that empowered him to do
a level of work that was really beyond
the other 12
but my friends you have to understand
god has a place for you
if you don't know christ today the door
is open for salvation
but you must receive him by faith if you
would like to do that right now
pray this prayer after me say lord jesus
you died to save sinners and i'm a
sinner
and jesus you died to save me on the
cross
you gave your life for me so jesus
i choose you now come into my heart
wash all of my sins away
write my name in your book of life
and i give my heart to you and i claim
you i take you as my lord and savior
jesus thank you for saving me right
now i give you praise thank you jesus
in your name i pray amen
glory to god welcome to the family
of god hallelujah you're born again
you're washed with the blood of jesus
hallelujah now live for the lord develop
a prayer life
and start serving the lord right where
you're at praise god
and let's take holy communion together
as a church family
praise the lord grab some unleavened
bread
and grab some grape juice
you know what you know what i see the
lord doing i see the lord making a saint
out of you not an ain't a saint
pastor steve i just want to get to
heaven i'm not really concerned about
you know uh anything extra no
god wants you to have rewards god the
father wants you conformed into the
image of his son
and that's why you've had unusual
dealings in your life
that's why your life hasn't been normal
because god
he wants you to step into this
praise the lord i get many emails
of those of you who've had unusual
heavenly encounters
and supernatural experiences and you
used to wonder what was it about why
why was i blessed to have something like
that happen because god
is offering you opportunity to step into
this
and he knows the spirit is willing
but the flesh is weak but he's
determined to get you into that place
he just needs your cooperation but i
believe as the light
is uh opening it up this path
and you see the great value of it and
you also see how short
life is woo praise god that you're
taking it
and the journey has begun he's going to
get you there praise the lord
now let's pray over the communion father
we thank you for the bread
and the juice we bless it
we set it apart as holy and we thank you
that this is now the body
and the blood of jesus when we look at
it we still see a wafer
we still see grape juice but father we
thank you
it is the body of christ under the veil
of what would appear to be bread and it
is the blood of christ
under the veil of what would appear to
be grape juice but we thank you father
for the body and the blood of christ
father as we receive the lord's body
we thank you that we proclaim his
death until he comes that through his
death
he made available for us everlasting
life thank you father god that we have
been born again on the inside
and father as we receive the body of
christ
we thank you father god for that
understanding of david that he became
prayer
and we thank you that you are forming
that within us
oh god we give you praise
we give you praise hallelujah hallelujah
hallelujah thank you father in jesus
name
amen amen you know when i was young
growing up i was i would hear about the
missionaries who would go to other
countries
they leave everything behind they leave
their food that they liked behind to go
eat food that
you know they weren't accustomed to and
they would leave their culture behind
and have to go learn a new language and
a new culture
and we all felt so sorry for them oh
they're made
making such a sacrifice and they were
making a great sacrifice
but the reality was they're over there
living
a rich intimate life with the lord and
they actually felt compassion for us
because they knew they had tied into
something
and you don't have to be a missionary to
to encounter this
but they knew that through the crucified
life
that they had come into the deeper life
experience of what
joy really is whoo praise the lord it's
being close to the lord
and living for him and having your life
laid down
hallelujah
father we received the body of jesus
in his name amen let's partake
praise the lord
father thank you for the blood of jesus
his cleansing power the father we asked
if we've committed any sins that you
would forgive us
and wash all of our sins away
thank you father god we thank you that
our sins and our iniquities you remember
no more we thank you father we ask that
you protect us
that your force field of protection your
angels be around
us thank you o god
thank you father and father we ask that
as we walk with you that you would work
through us to bring deliverance to
others
that are bound in captivity we give you
praise
that you send us on assignment in jesus
name
i see you going on assignment hallelujah
father we thank you in jesus name let's
receive the blood of christ
praise the lord praise the lord
you know what back when the brownsville
revival
was really rolling uh down there in
pensacola florida
um you know the west coast wanted it too
so they sent some of their leaders out
to the west coast
and i remember i was in one of those
meetings in
orange county that took place and they
were talking you know the leaders from
pensacola were talking about the revival
and
the move of god and stuff like that and
you know the the need to pray to
uh you know to see it uh come forth and
all of that and um
one of the ladies there in the church i
knew who she was she was actually one of
the um
one of the elders she's she said she
asked a question to
the pensacola leader one of the leaders
she said you know
you guys are talking about all this
prayer and stuff like that and she said
i don't just i don't know how we're
supposed to have time to do this
do this kind of praying and you know the
leader just said
he said well i don't know how you're
going to live your life but he said i
would probably suggest it
you know if you don't have enough time
maybe you could first start looking at
at the television how much time you
spend watching television
and of course he's not talking about
christian tv he's talking about just the
hours and hours that most people spend
downloading you know worldly movies or
downloading
all the stuff that the world offers to
feed you
uh through the eye gate and ear gate
and uh there are some people like that
lady
they're just they're not gonna enter in
no matter what
even even if all you have to do is pray
two minutes they're not gonna do it they
just don't have that hunger
but i see a different heart in you i see
that you're not satisfied
with the world because the world can't
satisfy
and solomon found that out and
eventually
solomon although he got into idolatry
eventually got back to the lord oh my
friends
that's why prayer is so important
because it keeps that open line between
you
and the lord praise god
and i see you in that place whoo praise
the lord
with very unusual things happening
glory to god glory to god you know when
i go into meetings
as a minister and if if i'm being hosted
somewhere and they're they're asking me
to come
i'm going to go into the meeting
prepared i'm not just talking about
study notes and things like that
all i've prayed i'll have set time aside
to hear from the lord
and i'll go into that meeting with an
anointing but what a difference it makes
when those in the meeting are coming and
they're prayed up
and they have sought the lord and we're
all pulling
together wow there's nothing stronger
than a corporate anointing
there's nothing stronger than that see
one can put a thousand to flight
but two can put not two thousand to
flight
two can put ten thousand to flight so
you enter into this quantum realm
when you enter in a corporate unity
praise the lord
now even in a corporate unity or a
collective body
there's still leadership but when you're
all pulling together
the strength just goes off the chart and
what god can do
in situations like that is uh truly
you know it's it's in the miraculous
realm
i see god doing these greater
manifestations of his glory
as when we have these times of getting
together we all come together
ready to pull thank you jesus
ready to get spiritually fed yes but
also
just ready to see god move you come
hungry
it is very very hard to get a fire
started with wet
wood i mean you could pour gasoline all
over it but um
that's that's you know the bottom line
is if the wood is dry
it's going to burn but if it's wet i
mean you're
it's hard it's really hard to minister
the people that are
wet wood green wood but my goodness
we need to be ready for the fire we need
to be on fire
hungry and i see that when you are
hungry
you have that pursuit of the lord
glory to god i see you pressing into
that realm
father bless your people the eagle
saints
are rising up and not only is there
prophetic anointing that's flowing but
the apostolic is going to begin to break
forth because
there is now going to be a greater
emphasis and it's already started to
happen
upon the apostolic
glory glory father we give you praise
in jesus name amen
amen you know it was maybe i don't know
maybe like
uh 10 years ago i spent the day with
bob jones and bonnie jones's wife
and i had this thought i had a thought
in my mind and never said it
i had a thought that was an apostolic
thought
and it had an image associated with that
thought it had a word picture
okay a distinct image and
bob jones was standing next to me and he
said stephen
it's not the time of the and he named
that image
he said right now it's the time of this
well
that was 10 or 12 years ago and so the
what was in that season at that time
it's shifting now and it's going into
what i was thinking about you know a
decade ago
i i was hoping a decade ago we were
going into this and he said no
he said it's not that and he didn't even
know i was thinking about it
he just starts talking praise the lord
and also doing things like that comes
out
of maintaining that close walk i had
another pastor friend i could just sit
around him
and he would bring up conversations
of things that i had talked to the lord
about
and usually he would do it at very
specific times when it was needed
and would always bring tremendous
encouragement to me but my friends we're
going into
uh the greater manifestations that are
that are going along with the apostolic
get ready
it's going to be quite exciting and as
it begins to unfold
we have to we have to stay in that niche
we have to stay in that walk
praise the lord
praise the lord father we give you
praise thank you
thank you in jesus name in jesus name
praise the lord i've had ministers say
pastor stephen how come you don't play
golf
i just tell them well because i would
probably like it that's why i don't play
that's that's the last thing i need is
another thing pulling at me
so that is the challenge we all face
maybe
for you it is golf for me it's not it's
not even a temptation
but there's always all these other
things
life is good but please don't ever
forget you'll have
all eternity to do this stuff okay so
right now
make the sacrifices and spend the time
with the lord
and you'll get into the good stuff which
is really
the real living father bless your people
in
jesus name amen thanks for watching
see you back next time