good morning church family and ministry friends i'm pastor stephen brooks welcome today to our online internet around the world church service and i'm so happy that you're here today i want you to grab your bibles and join me as we jump into god's word today because i believe that god's word is able to build you up to do all that god has called you to do and also to become fully the person that he wants you to become praise god let's go today to the book of genesis chapter 26 we're going to look at just a couple of verses here in this chapter we're going to receive the tithes and offerings and honor the lord with our finances again genesis chapter 26 look at verse 1. there was a famine in the land besides the first famine that was in the days of abraham and isaac went to abimelech king of the philistines in gerar my friends there are various types of natural troubles financial challenges and various things that flow throughout a fallen world system when i'm talking about a world system i'm talking about a world where sin is in the earth and the consequences of the sin affecting the earth in which we live even economics and so forth even weather and so there are cycles that the earth can go through there are cycles that the economy can go through you could have a booming economy and then you could have a recession or a depression and all these various things and even in the natural we have here an example of famine and of course that would cause great financial challenges as well for everybody living in that region of the world where that famine is in effect verse 2 then the lord appeared to him that would be isaac and said do not go down to egypt live in the land of which i shall tell you in other words live in the land right in the middle of the famine and don't try to run away sometimes people make a mistake they think well my country doesn't have certain privileges or benefits maybe doesn't have certain areas of development so i need to leave and go somewhere else and in their efforts to do something in their own strength and ability without having been directed by the lord often they run into all sorts of problems whereas if they would have just stayed put like isaac did as instructed by the lord there would be the wisdom that of the lord that would manifest to show you what to do so that not only can you survive you can thrive right in the middle of famine verse 3 dwell in the land and i will be with you and bless you for to you and your descendants i will give all these lands and i will perform the oath which i swore to abraham your father so he's like okay if that's what it is lord that's what your word is i'm staying here not quite sure how you're going to give me the ability to survive much less you know have the resources i need to take care of the things i need to do and do the things i need to do but lord i'm going to obey and so he obeys the lord and he stays and then the revelation understanding comes to him well if you're here you need to get about your business and that would include sowing even in the middle of famine verse 12 then isaac sowed in that land what land the land of dry parched ground the land that has been withheld from the wonderful rain and so there is famine there and that is the type of land that is sowed in and reaped in the same year a hundredfold and the lord blessed him well the philistines must have thought that what isaac was doing did not make any sense because during great challenges or recessions or covid 19 or covet 21 or this variant or that variant and all of the other things that that are now impacted by these challenges that we face you have many in the world you have me with the philistine mentality that would say well we're going to just uh really constrain ourselves and conserve ourselves not do anything and isaac is out there sowing and so god honored his seed god multiplied it and he reaped 100 fold that year glory to god this is very very powerful because even if you're in the last month of the year or two months left of the year it doesn't matter god can do a lot within a little period of time and god has proven this over and over again he doesn't need full 12 months in order to manifest a supernatural harvest like this verse 13 the man began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous fred possessions flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants so the philistines envied him but see while the philistines envied him the philistines would not do what he was doing in other words during these times of covet or these times of a new variant breaking forth or whatever it might be my friends stay on the rock stay on the teachings of christ stay on the teachings of god's word and in context of what we're talking about today don't ever stop giving don't ever say i can't afford the tithe my friends with what we are dealing with in the earth you cannot afford not to tithe because the tithe ties you into a covenant relationship with god that affects your finances and that covenant is a sure thing it is god's responsibility to watch over you and take care of you when you are in covenant with him hallelujah so the worst thing that you would want to do is just to pull back and stop your giving my friends keep on giving you may in a difficult time you may not have as much seed to sow as you normally would but the focus is that you should never stop sowing you should always do the best you can in the season that you're in and sometimes you have to even sow in extraordinarily difficult circumstances which is what isaac did and of course god honored that blessed and god is the same he is the god of abraham isaac and jacob and we are told clearly in the new covenant in the book of galatians the third chapter verses 13 and 14 that if we are in christ which we are then we are abraham's seed whoa glory to god so this same blessing and and the blessing the word blessed means empowered to prosper is now our legacy and heritage by now being tied into christ jesus glory to god now as we honor the lord today with the tithe 10 which belongs to him and as we also just sow seed and also in many ways you can look at the tithe as a seed and just say lord i'm always going to keep on giving i'm always going to give the tithe because that belongs to you but i know dr oral roberts also viewed the tithe in a sense as well as being a seed and he was asking the lord to multiply that too amen well i think we do have enough scripture even in malachi chapter 3 to validate the phenomenal blessings covenant blessings of the tithe and that it does also produce harvest as we also sow anointed seeds into anointed specific soil led by the holy spirit praise god now my friends let's be like isaac who was emulating his father let's be like isaac and let's keep on sowing we're not looking at the world's economy to base what we do although we're aware of that but we also want to always stay on biblical principles regardless of what cycle would be floating through the world at any various time praise god and especially during challenging times we really want to stand on the rock the teachings of god's word now if you prefer to mail your tithes and offerings in please send them to stephen brooks international p.o box 717 moravian falls north carolina the zip code is 28654 and the post office is literally right outside of the front doors of the church when you mail it in it's a literal uh either a ten either a seven second drive or or a 35 second walk and your mail is received hot off the presses here praise god now if you also to prefer to bring your your giving in your tithes and offerings online it's very safe very secure and you can do so from anywhere in the world anytime day or night please visit the ministry website stevenbrooks.org right on the home page there's a link that says give it has a red heart click that link and you'll see the segment for the tithe you'll see some other areas where you could give an offering that you would desire and that is available there for your convenience praise the lord now lift your hands father bless your people let that anointing oh god of increase be all over them just like it was on abraham and isaac and jacob and these men became very very prosperous and wealthy and we thank you father god that you are still working the 100-fold return and you are even able to do it in one year even if there's only uh or within that year even if there's only a few days left within the year lord you keep your words we thank you for your anointing on every seed sown we thank you for your blessing on every tithe brought into the storehouse and we thank you for security in a world where everybody craves security and we thank you that we acknowledge that you are the author and source of all stability and we build our lives and upon our actions to stand on the rock of your word your teachings father bless your people in jesus great name amen and amen praise the lord now let's take our bibles today and go over to second corinthians chapter three and today we're going to talk about the spirit of liberty i would really like for you to pay extra careful attention today because nobody ever wants to end up in a crisis nobody ever wants to end up in a situation where something is now going out of control and we're we're trying to uh uh divert a bad accident or disaster we want to see these things ahead of time we want to stop it we want to divert it or if it's not possible to stop it we don't want to participate in something that would be detrimental to our lives and my friends as we walk in the light of god's word we also know that while we lean on the word of god we also put tremendous stress and reliance upon the holy spirit to guide us because unlike the old testament god in the new covenant with the with the believer god through the agency of the holy spirit the person of the holy spirit now lives on the inside of us quickening the word illuminating the word of god but also leading and guiding us through the inner witness and here in second corinthians chapter 3 i want you to meet me in verse 17 and we're going to talk about how the liberty of the spirit is a tremendous indicator concerning god's will or his uh check against something in our lives but first let's pray heavenly father as we jump into your word we ask that your holy spirit who is here in the earth and residing within your people that your holy spirit would come with wisdom and revelation to illuminate the scriptures to reveal to us the knowledge of christ his ways his his method of living and so forth we thank you father god for the light being turned on and that we always know what to do we thank you for your holy spirit in jesus name we pray and we say hallelujah whoa praise the lord [Music] now verse 17 [Music] now the lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty now think about that just for a moment where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty if you get over into a place of a religious spirit you get into a place where you start losing the liberty and the next thing you know you look sour the next thing you know you don't feel happy about serving god what's happening it's not the spirit of the lord because he brings liberty it's a form of perhaps legalism perhaps a form of religious bondage and then everything is looked at as from a negative sense where god's trying to spoil your fun or something like that so we always want to be sensitive to the holy spirit who is what the spirit of liberty where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty now let me make this statement any form of inner constraint i'm not talking about out outer constraint we're not talking about being tied up with a rope or you know putting on a weight training vest to give us more uh weight to try to overcome or something like that to build muscles that's not what what we're talking about but i i want us i want us to look internally any form of inner constraint concerning the step you are about to take the decision you are about to make if there's inner constraint that can be an indicator that the holy spirit is trying to hold you back from making a mistake in the direction you are wanting to go or in the choice that you are wanting to make remember he is the spirit of liberty so if the liberty is not there and you think what happened to the liberty remember liberty is uh it brings joy it brings happiness and you know everything's right between you and the lord and your your walk is right with god but if that liberty begins to evaporate and then it's replaced not only with an absence but it's replaced with a resistance my friends we need to be very uh alert in these types of situations a loss of inner liberty and there is the loss of outer liberty you know you're you're right to do this you're right to do that we've seen a lot of that within our nation and i know a lot of our friends around the world say yes we've seen a lot of it in our respected country as well as certain rights or being suppressed but today we're focusing on the inner a loss of inner liberty within your spirit is an indicator often that the holy spirit is not involved in what you're about to do um the loss of liberty remember he is the spirit of the lord wherever wherever he's at is what bondage no liberty there's liberty there's joy there's happiness glory to god hallelujah praise the lord and let's take a look at a great example of this in scripture acts the book of acts chapter 16. let's move to verse 6. now when they had gone through phrygia and the region of galatia they were forbidden by the holy spirit to preach the word in asia can you believe that they were forbidden by the holy spirit to preach the word well pastor stephen what's wrong with that any time there is a loss of liberty in here and it's replaced with a constraint where god himself through the person of the holy spirit is forbidding something that means god's not in that for you um wow okay so they're forbidden by the holy spirit to preach the word in asia after they had come to messiah they tried to go into bithya or bithynia but the spirit did not permit them hmm well pastor stephen we're called to go preach the gospel in all the world and that means we're going to do it whether god wants us to do it or not no no god's not confused god god never contradicts himself we have to walk in god's wisdom we have to have assignments given by the holy spirit or you get all kinds of stuff messed up in your life now it doesn't mean that we don't try to do certain things and move in the right direction as the word instructs but as you move in the right direction it has to be filtered out exactly which way you're supposed to go because even if you know that direction there could be eight or nine variants of which path you're supposed to take going in that direction but the spirit did not permit them well pastor stephen uh uh we need to get in there and preach the gospel and there's god's man there's paul right there well that's not paul's assignment at least it's not now it's not the time for it or he's not the man for that job these are things that we have got to learn in order to carry out what god has assigned to us verse 8 so passing by messiah they came down to troas and a vision appeared to paul in the night a man of macedonia stood and pleaded with him saying come over the macedonia and help us now you can't have a vision without the holy spirit manifesting the gift of discerning of spirits and it takes the holy spirit to do that so this is the holy spirit revealing the direct assignment that they're supposed to be on yes we're supposed to preach the gospel but yes where it's a really big planet okay so they're trying to at least move forward in this and they're trying to feel it out that is our responsibility okay and now comes specific instructions from headquarters verse 10 now after he had seen the vision immediately we sought to go to macedonia concluding that the lord had called us to preach the gospel to them well that's an easy conclusion to draw why because the holy spirit gave that vision god's not a trickster god's not devious god's not like deceitful god is straight up 100 percent truth 100 light and the lord has now illuminated exactly what they're supposed to do and now my friends they move forward with great boldness and confidence and very importantly now great effectiveness praise the lord well let's see if we can balance this with another scripture found in the word of god from the words of jesus himself in mark chapter 16 as we now go into verse 15 and he said to them go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature well pastor stephen what about those people in asia would you know modern-day turkey what about those people in bethania what about those people well again it's a big planet and so yes if that's if that is the the assignment you need to go but you have to go in the way the format the manner that god wants you to go okay so that also doesn't mean that if you're called into the medical field or if you're called into the banking world or if you're called to uh the medical realm or whatever it might be it doesn't mean that you say oh i've got to leave all of that and i've got to go off to mongolia and preach the gospel no you can do your part through the specific instructions of the holy spirit about the role that you're supposed to play because some are supposed to go and some are supposed to go in the sense through sending someone that they support through prayers and through giving so you have to get the details worked out with the holy spirit again and he said to them go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he who believes and is baptized will be saved but he who does not believe will be condemned so we're on a planet right now with almost eight billion people so you have to you have to know your lane you have to know your assignment and you have to get plugged into the plan that god has for your life so that you do your part and when we all sync up and do our part we get the job done praise god and your job is not to do everything because you can't the world is just flat out too big now i didn't say the world's flat because it's not it's round pastor stephen well technically it's spherical we won't get into that different subject but it's just too big there's no way even if you're the largest ministry on the face of the earth that you can uh cover the whole thing there's just no way it takes the the body of christ corporately collectively globally all of us pulling together to do what we're supposed to do to move the kingdom of god forward can you say amen praise the lord you know um go into all the world well i could go to some places i could even go to some christians to endeavor to strengthen them in the faith and i could take i could take one of my books and i could say this book has teaching and uh has revelation on certain areas of scripture this would bless you you know what they don't want my book they don't want my style they don't want the anointing that god has given me they don't connect perhaps with my personality and if i gave them my book you know what they do with it they take it through the trash can they wouldn't even give it maybe to some other believer just for the sake that it would bless somebody but they they don't have an interest in it so why in the world would i go there and waste my time when i can go somewhere else and just it's just you know they eat it up very very interesting very very interesting i go where i'm celebrated not where i'm tolerated praise god i uh received somebody saw this on instagram and sent it to me and uh this is amazing on the other side of the world okay so here i am in north carolina and you know i teach preach uh do tv internet write books and stuff like that and so on the other side of the world there is a group in nigeria of young people and i saw a picture of them and they're all sitting in chairs beneath a beautiful tree and they're sitting there in the shade of the beautiful tree and they're all sitting there studying guess what my book and they're reading it and they are they're not just reading it they're studying they're having conversations about it uh what do we glean from this chapter what is the highlight from that chapter they even had notes they even had like like a cheat codes of how to uh compress condensed this chapter down into the main points and they were dissecting my book they were consuming it why would i go somewhere where they don't even want to hear me the pre hear me preach or don't even like the the grace that god has given me why would i go there and pour it out on the ground and waste it when there's other people that are this is the greatest thing i've ever read outside of the bible do you see what i'm saying why would god forbid the great saint the apostle paul from going here going there why would god do that why would the holy spirit do it with an inner resistance and paul's just like man this is not working we we can't get in here nobody will give us a ride there we can't even get a donkey to ride on we can't get a camel to ride we can't even walk there nothing's working out seems like the winds not of adversity are blowing against us it seems like god is not in this inner perception say that inner perception and i'm telling you right now god knows what he's doing the holy spirit is he knows what he's doing whoo hallelujah we must be sensitive to this inner guidance of the holy spirit praise the lord all right now whenever your spirit and your spirit is the is the is the the fullness of who you are because you are a spirit you have a soul your soul is your mind your will and your emotions that that comprises a lot but that is a big emotional compartment okay so you are a spirit you have a soul and you live in your body uh your body is just the house if you were to fall dead the body falls to the floor and you leave your house and your spirit and soul go to be with the lord praise god and and at the final trumpet call the bodies of all the saints will be raised up and you'll get your new glorified body hallelujah praise god it's going to be amazing now whenever your spirit i'm not talking about your body whenever your spirit is suppressed constrained held back resist it then be be cautious because it very well can be the spirit of god who is actually doing that constraining on the inside of you that's why you may think it's good you may even be excited but something is reverberating on the inside that be very careful that you don't override that because of an external exuberance or even because of others that are putting pressure on you to do it because they think it's good or they think you need to carry it out or whatever the case might be praise the lord i want to give you an example of something i had never experienced anything like it before until it happened to me on one particular day when we first moved to moravian falls which is where our ministry is located at the lord did several supernatural things to confirm that we were in the right place the first thing that happened is that even when we were in california the lord spoke to my wife and said you're through a dream you're supposed to move the north carolina to moravian falls and so we have to look it up and find out information about this little place that we had only heard of uh maybe you know like from the uh just in a short means of passing or something like that so we didn't know anything about it uh and all of our ministry had been on the west coast pretty much a few mid state areas but so it was a total uh start for us of like a new phase for ministry and so we got out here and the lord began to do several supernatural things to confirm that we were in this very center of his perfect will one of those things is that after having been here for only uh only a short while not too long a a very gracious man spirit-filled christian man i'm friends with him today he donated land to the ministry and uh very very nice p piece of property but it was in it was way out in the woods and it was given to the ministry and so uh i was a little puzzled about what i should do with it because i mean there's trees all over it and thickets and briars and bushes and i thought well there's only one thing to do with it let's begin to get it cleared off because i i thought well we'll build a ministry center here and not only is there a room for the mentor ministry center there's room for uh like a parsonage you know a house for my wife and i and i could just start getting all of this ready so with great exuberance and you know i was i was of course younger in those days i went out there and began to manually clear the land and sometimes some friends would come over and uh we you know i had brush cutters and stuff like that but eventually eventually i said if i if i'm going to get serious i need to get out here with the chainsaw and just cut some of this stuff down and uh you know take this clearing this area out to a new level so i had maybe for about two months tinkered around with cleaning cleaning brush and cutting bushes and stuff like that i was having fun you know what it was really it was just like uh i think from god's perspective it was me getting good exercise i enjoyed it it was kind of therapeutic because i would do it after i came off the the ministry field if i went out to go preach i would come back i have a few days before i go back out again so it was just kind of fun to go out there and cut the brush and do stuff like that and i was making some pretty good progress uh some people that live locally back in that area of the mountain here in the raven falls they would drive by and say stephen you're doing a good job i tell you it looks it looks really good i mean this is like kind of like a you know like a rural area but still you're just making it look nice we really appreciate that they had some houses close by so um they were very happy that i was trying to make the place look better you know my place looks better it makes everybody's look better so i'm out there doing my part and this went on for about two months i i was happy i'd go out there and stuff like that but i got a chainsaw and this thing honestly was like uh well i got a the first chainsaw i got was a little bitty uh tiny thing you know that you could cut a tree down that maybe the tree the tree was like that big okay i said this thing's never gonna work i went out got a real like uh crazy like uh professional logger chainsaw with the you know the blade is like that long and when you start it up it sounds like you're you're you're holding a motorcycle in your hands and the you pull the you know the trigger of the dot the trigger whatever you call it and the thing starts spinning that blade that saw blade is spinning so fast you're like man this is terrifying and it was but i was having fun [Laughter] so i just for about two days i was out there with that chainsaw and i was cutting stuff and i was having i was really going to it and then one day i went out there and there was a restraining on the inside of me that it's over with there was some kind of knowing that you don't need to do anything else to this property don't touch it anymore i somehow even knew that everything i had done thus far was just like fun therapeutic fun for the soul good calorie burning work you enjoyed yourself now stop it now i did not hear a word from god but i just sensed stop don't do anything else well i thought well hold on hold hold on a minute i've got this chainsaw now i can i can do some professional damage out here now i can i can really go to it and it was a beautiful morning and i just thought i'm gonna do some more and i started that chainsaw up and i'm out there you know uh uh you know cutting and stuff like that and i started slipping and i would fall and i never would do stuff like that that would never fall i would never lose my balance and i would lose my balance and fall with the chainsaw you know you know you know stuff like that going on and i thought this is dangerous and i would get this uh almost like overwhelming uh thing in my spirit that's enough stop it not a voice but just a like a like a repressing like because it cost the liberty that i had previously had while working out there and fun and praising the lord oh lord a beautiful day and brushed cutting and stuff like that there was liberty and fun but that was now all gone and now i'm gonna get this done you know yeah i've got to develop this property for the ministry center we'll put that over there and we'll put the house over here and i'm just you know and i'm i'm going full bore and i slipped again with the blade spinning full speed ahead and slipped and and then one time i fell completely backwards and i thought this is getting real real dangerous and i didn't stop i kept on going and i i get going real good and somehow my whole and i couldn't have done it if i would have tried somehow my legs got tangled up in brush and i began to fall back again with the chainsaw going full power and i just got this overwhelming thing in my spirit that's enough stop right now before you get yourself really messed up out here and i turned the chainsaw off i sat it down i said but god i said my wife and i have never owned property before we own it we don't owe any money on it we own it why would you tell me to stop but i knew do not turn that chainsaw back on do not cut one more branch stop the whole thing and i did didn't know why but i did i also thought i'd better stop or i'm going to kill myself glory to god you know i was at that time i was i was pretty strong physically you know i could bench press a lot i could just i could i could you know i had no physical limitations no reasons why i should be losing my balance and falling and all the stupid stuff that didn't make any sense that was happening but i stopped because i knew something not good was going on and it was only a few days not a few days a few weeks after that when we had the opportunity to buy this historic church building that i'm standing in right now in the sanctuary built in 1877 this is all all the wood in in this sanctuary is now extinct it's an ancient pine that no longer uh is alive in the earth anymore i've been told that by several people including the building inspector this pine doesn't exist anymore you can't find it anywhere and what had happened is that when this became available i said we need to sell that land we sold the land and had a cash buyer they paid for it and with that money we had the ability to put the down payment and buy this property and it was a miracle how we brought this property because the previous church that owned it had a board of directors and everybody involved in the sale uh of the property and you know i'm talking about the real estate agents and uh you know the attorneys that were involved at the closing and so forth they all admitted it was a miracle that everybody on the board somehow came together and things were sold and things were transferred and everything was done the right way and it was all signed and done because it was a very interesting group the the group that used to own this before was a biker church and so there was a you know some rowdy ones in there and so that for to actually pull it off for them to sell it and us to buy it and it took a miracle god did it and god knew that day you ain't never building nothing up on that mountain he knew that and i here i am thinking god i've got to i've got to and god's like you better stop you better stop because you've had some fun i'll let you have fun but now uh you got to get focused on this new phase you're going into and god means business in these areas when you can't get in it's not the devil sometimes don't blame it that's the devil that's the devil that was the holy spirit keeping paul out and that was the holy spirit basically resisting me in a sense stop it here you're not going to do anything here at all very very interesting the reality of the person of the holy spirit he is a person he can resist he can also he can also witness it internally inside of you in a very very unmistakable way praise the lord oh let me give you a scripture to validate that i thought it was fascinating you're talking about looking at a verse in the bible and saying i know what that's like look at this one ii samuel chapter 18 verse 6. i had read this before when i was younger and i thought well that's interesting don't really understand that let me tell you i understand that fully now so the people went out into the field of battle against israel and the battle was in the woods in the woods of ephraim oh the people of israel were overthrown there before the servants of david and a great slaughter of 20 000 took place there that day for the battle there was scattered over the face of the whole countryside watch this and the woods devoured more people that day than the sword devoured i can exactly understand now how the woods can devour you i got so tangled up in vines and in shrubs and in bushes i had i got so tangled up i literally could have killed myself out there without a chainsaw [Laughter] crying crazy stuff was going on and that was happening you had people dying out there in the forest the forest was killing them god was working through his creation to destroy those who are opposing his kingdom purpose glory to god hallelujah i want to share a story with you uh from the life of bishop david oyedepo uh the great man of god in nigeria and i'm glad he shared this kind of sounds kind of crazy a little bit like my story that i went through now today his church has 400 000 members he's a very very honorable man of god and i want you to listen to something very similar that took place with his life and ministry and my friends we have got to understand that when the holy spirit is resisting don't try to override that we've got to become sensitive to this we have got to grow up be mature now i know there is grace and growth within the body of christ god gives allowance for that but we have to learn this quickly hallelujah hallelujah and i'm glad i can share some things to help you now this again is bishop david oyedepo he said when the great man of god oral roberts visited nigeria in the 1980s he said i was one of those to welcome him as i was about to leave for lagos i had a constraint in my spirit at the airport in kaduna and i told my companion on the trip i am not going on this trip i have no release but he said sir we have to go everybody is waiting there and we have to be a part of it otherwise it might be misinterpreted as pride even after i got on the plane i said can i have my bag please i am no longer going but again my companion said no sir please please no sir so he forced me to continue on the trip our plane took off from konduna from kaduna but we were unable to land in lagos due to bad weather rather than take us back to kaduna we were taken to elorin where we waited for about six hours the plane took off for lagos again and we arrived at about five o'clock p.m meanwhile the event we were going for had taken place at 11 o'clock am that morning a flight for bennen was scheduled to leave at five o'clock p.m since oral roberts had moved to bennen we decided to join them in bennen but at five o'clock the benin flight was canceled can you see everything's going wrong everything's going wrong hmm i think the devil then took over at this point as i said we must get to benin today by all means in other words oyedepo is now saying now the devil's trying to push him and work through him he initially resists it but now he's like okay i guess i might as well get on board with it and and so it's going to get worse he said i told my companion get a taxi that will take us to bennen at any cost as we put our bags in the car and we're about to shut the door the taxi driver said i am not going again i then asked him can you get us to any ben and motor park as we must get to been in now well we again took off for the benin motor park where we got a rickety old station wagon car that agreed to take us but as i was about to step into the car the voice of the lord came to me saying if you move one more inch you will be a dead man whoa so frustrated and dejected we returned to the airport we took off for kaduna at 11 o'clock p.m and arrived at midnight i knew i had been walking in disobedience and had paid for it glory to god let me say this in regards to the context of what was going on with him in ministry in the areas of meeting divine connections if you try to do it in the flesh you can tamper with your future destiny and and you can mess something up in the spirit you have to connect the right way the connection between elijah and elisha must be done in the spirit this is not something that you can make happen by i'll just go to the meeting meet the person and the next thing you know will be covenant buddies it doesn't ever ever work like that well i'll just get in the line when he comes down the line i'll shake his hand and then we'll talk we'll meet and then we'll be connected together for the next 50 years no it doesn't work like that it has to be in the holy spirit and these things are very very important that you must do it in the spirit or you can you can muddy the waters real bad and you can mess up divine destiny that god has for you whoo don't don't present yourself when it's not time or if it's not in the right setup that god prefers it to be in very very important i don't think i'm quite explaining that perhaps the best with the best clarity that it should be but i hope you get the gist of what i'm trying to convey to you it's very important that you meet certain people the right way um praise god i could say more but i think i'm gonna i'm gonna let that rest on that praise god thank you jesus now let's go over to acts chapter 27 acts chapter 27 wow [Laughter] glory some of you are probably still thinking well but what's wrong with meeting oral roberts how come he couldn't be there to meet him it's when you're in ministry you know exactly why you you can't do these things out of order you have to do it the right way and there was also a trajectory that god had for a yeti po that was not to be just a localized known ministry or even a regional or even a continental type ministry strictly limited to africa it was supposed to be global and so when god sees you in that light you have to walk in a certain level of of authority and it's it's not pride it's humility but you have to come in on the right way thank you lord jesus acts chapter 27 let's go to verse verse 9. now when much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous red alert watch out for the natural this is not all spiritual so often what the holy spirit will try to alert you and keep you from having disaster there's already natural signals there's already things in in the natural you should be saying this is probably not the best time to do this right now maybe we should hold back just a little bit to get a clearer identification so it was already dangerous to be hidden out of the harbor this is the you you've already missed your open window now you're you're dealing with uh an area where it's not favorable towards you well we're still going to get it done well watch out for the natural if you're overriding the natural you're probably already going in the wrong direction when you are you're just working against good common sense well now we can fly into that storm we we we can handle that yeah but why don't we go around it or just uh let's just take lunch let it pass by and then we'll go well these are interesting things now when much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over paul advised them saying men i perceive he didn't say god told me he didn't say an angel with a blue robe and a and a golden scepter hit me over the head and said do not get on that boat you're all going to die he didn't say that he just simply said i perceive where in his big toe no in his elbow no where did he perceive it at in in his mind no in here in here warning bells going off something restraining going off the this is not good explain it to me i can't i can't it's just something i perceive because god lives in me oh we don't we don't really understand that well i'm not asking you to understand that but i and i'm not going to try to get into that i'm just going to tell you i perceive something's not right here now watch what he says i perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much lost god never verbally spoke to him in a sense the saith god get on the boat you're all going to die god didn't say that he didn't work like that this is inner perception man i perceive that this voyage will end with disaster much lost not only of the cargo and ship but also our lives but he got overridden by those who thought they knew better also they have an agenda they have a motive and they got to get something done they gotta make some money well what happened they they got in a mess they got in the mess and paul's a prisoner he can't say hey well you guys could just go ahead and kill yourselves you know because i'm not getting on this boat he's in chains he has to he's like oh boy all right here we go y'all get ready for one one wild ride oh paul weather's perfect you watch and see everything's all right although yeah everything was all right for just a couple of hours they got out of the harbor got out there and boom the the your rock ladon or the nor'easter i have been in areas where nor'easters have blown in i was going through the area of amarillo texas one time where a nor easter from up north blew in it blew and so strong it almost blew our motor home off the road we're driving from california the north carolina another trends uh american across the nation ministry trip and it blew in so strong it we actually we pulled over its top we thought it was going to literally blow the motor home off the road and i have seen trucks 18 wheelers blown sideways off the road before it was that strong that's what hit them in a boat [Laughter] day and night two weeks no tv to watch just day and night up and down and the boat riding down those waves and just plunging to the bottom have you ever been in the boat where the waves are so big that when you go down into the trough you go down into it you can't even see you can't even see the land you can't even see the horizon anymore you're down and you're and then when it hits the bottom of that it slams the bow of the ship slams into the water and water goes flying everywhere and then you go back up and you do it all over again and all over again lord have mercy i've only been in one situation like that when deep sea fishing and i thought this is crazy but i was a lot younger and i guess my body calibrated a lot quicker i didn't even get seasick and i was the first one on the ship to catch the kingfish praise the lord glory to god but my friends we have got to be alert to this perception where you have these times the spirit of liberty pulls back and there's now no liberty but some kind of constraint that's holding you back that's god trying to preserve you and protect you glory to god thank you jesus i had a situation in my life when i was being mentored in the plumbing field by kelly's father my father-in-law and he was a master plumber had done it for like about 40 years or something like that there was there was nothing really about plumbing that he didn't know from the very basic repairs all the way up to installing the most complex uh plumbing systems that money could afford and commercial plumbing and residential plumbing and everything in between he done it all and so i'm working with him and he's teaching me about plumbing and so he and i would drive around the van all day long and have a fun time you know working these plumbing jobs and i'm learning from him as we go and uh although bill was catholic and you know really you know loved the catholic church and in a sense loved god he was not born again and so sometimes you know he get he'd get frustrated or mad at something and you know and he'd cuss and he he cursed god's name he'd say the gd word he'd say it often i'd say bill please don't curse god's name that's not a good thing to do but you know sometimes he'd just do it driving you just come out of his mouth i'd say bill please don't profane god's name that's not a good thing then you know he wouldn't be happy about the the country or the economy so he then he'd curse the president and you know uh you know and you know always profanity and stuff like that said bill don't don't do that that's not good but you know he was he was a person with an incredible work ethic and uh had in some areas of his life extremely rare fantastic manhood qualities but he just didn't know the lord and he had immigrated over from ireland and so he was a full-blooded ironman excuse me irishman and he came to america and you know just began his life here and so i i worked with him and i know i knew the lord of course because i'm i'm saved filled with the spirit and i'm already you know doing a lot of ministry usually on the weekends i'm i'm i've got a meeting lined up for every sunday but at that time i was still doing the plumbing work and um he wasn't saved and i knew the lord wanted me to minister to him not through preaching to him but just being around him and mainly as odd as it was to eat lunch with him every day now i did not eat breakfast with him i didn't eat dinner with him but uh we we would always start work after we've had our own individual breakfast at home then we go to work but we always ate lunch together every day and i would always pray over our food because i i'm not just going to open up the burger and start shoving it in my mouth you know i would always say bill let's pray for the food oh oh okay steven uh you know real thick irish accent even after having been in america for decades real thick accent oh oh oh okay stephen you go ahead and do a do the prayer and so i would say the prayer and in the name of jesus you know we're blessed food thank you father and all that stuff every day i do that and here's the situation though he always wanted to eat at carl's jr and while i have nothing against carl's jr um if you had 100 restaurants i i might put it at like number 98 or 99 because i just i don't really prefer it i don't know why some people do bills certainly did now i'm talking freely because bill's in heaven now okay he's his journey has ended but yeah i just didn't connect with uh carl's jr we've actually got one in town the the uh east coast version which is called hardy's okay so anyhow i i didn't like carl's jr but every day lunchtime steven let's go to carl's jr and uh so off we go to carl's jr and i didn't like the burgers and uh and i know why bill wants to eat there because it's cheap that's all he ever thought about where can we get the cheapest gas to fill up the van and where's the cheapest place to eat lunch because he's you know he had that old uh irish mentality of having gone through you know famine and when he was a child they walked five miles on sunday to go to church and uh he would walk five miles back home after church so he knew religion but he just wasn't saved he he knew what it meant to have moral uprightness but he just wasn't born again and of course he could certainly cuss pretty good too now he was a heavy drinker earlier but the doctor had told him if you take one more drink you have so destroyed your liver if you take one more drink it's probably going to kill you well there was one day he took one more drink and he almost literally died they rushed him to the hospital and did some final things and then he realized it is true if i'd take one more drink i'll die so you know he had that type of a background anyhow back to carl's jr every day carl's jr cheeseburger which i don't didn't like the taste of it and then fries i didn't like the way they did their fries and right next door in and out burger right over here is a another burger place and it's just every day every day every day and you know month after month after month after month every day carl's jr month after month another carl's jr burger and one day i i didn't want to do it anymore and it's time for lunch stephen you ready to go carl's jr and he pulls into the parking lot of carl's jr and we start to get out i said bill i don't want to go to carl's jr today what do you mean stephen you don't want to go i i don't want to eat there bill i'm tired girls junior can we go over here to mcdonald's oh no steven we need to go to carl jr and i said i said i can't do it today bill i can't i can't now the whole time i'm telling him no there for some strange reason the holy spirit of liberty thump the liberty is gone and suddenly there is this thing on the inside of me like do not resist this go with him to carl's jr do not resist as i'm thinking but what is it matters just a it's just a 30-minute meal and i've got to endure it i don't even like the food it doesn't even taste good isn't food more than just nutrition shouldn't it also be for enjoyment perhaps not just like god i'm not doing it and enter inwardly i'm saying i'm not doing it while the holy spirit is resisting with this like you're making a major mistake you're making a major mistake and why what's going on the liberty the liberty of the spirit is completely gone and now it's being replaced with this all this other turmoil and stuff going on on the side of me but i said bill i said you go ahead i can't i just i don't want to eat there today and when i said that he he literally he dropped his head like that it didn't say anything and began walking towards the carl's jr and i saw him walk to carl's jr he looked like he got totally deflated and he goes inside see the door open he goes inside and i thought okay i'm going to mcdonald's and i start walking to mcdonald's puffed up in my pride that i'm going to do it the way i want to this time after all lord what could be wrong with it i'm trying to justify it right all this is playing out within a matter of minutes so i'm walking to mcdonald's all happy and god is my witness i'm in a concrete jungle i'm in southern california anywhere you look there's there's asphalt parking lots there's buildings there's no country nothing there's no trees there's no there's no outdoor animals maybe occasional bird but this is city 100 city and as i'm walking to that mcdonald's which is only now about 30 yards away from me as i'm walking across the parking lot to it suddenly out of nowhere the angriest hornet on the planet earth came dive bombing into me i never even saw him coming but he hit me with such force that knocked me forward and he stung me on the back of the neck oh lord did that hurt and instantly my whole neck began to throb with pain and i reached back there and pulled the barb out that was still dripping with venom that he had planted into me and uh oh it hurt and i knew god spoke to me i sent a stinging rebuke to you because of your rebellious pride that's an old god i said god i don't want to eat there he said it's more than food he said i'm interested in his soul and you being around him is influencing him i said god i said how does eating a burger have an influence and the lord said that's my business you better get back over there or the next thing will be worse than a hornet sting it'll be worse to the rebuke i said oh god i'll do it never in my life was i so happy to walk into a carl's jr [Laughter] was i excited about the food no i oh i just didn't want calamity i'd already had a stinging rebuke and i walked in that carl's jr and bill saw me and the moment he saw me his face lit up with the light stephen what are you doing i i thought you went to the mcdonald's bill i i changed my mind let me get my cheeseburger and fries and i'll join you at the table hey man now i didn't know at that time that later once i left california of course you know even while i was in california eventually phased out of plumbing and into ministry and stuff like that but later when bill and his wife mary kelly's mom came to visit us here in moravian falls and we we took the motorhome and we took a trip to washington dc and when we drove back when we drove back it was only bill and i driving back in the motor home and kelly and her mom and others came back in another vehicle so i had five hours with him not to corral him and force something on him but no just to talk with him and that was the only time he was ever open to really listen from his heart i said bill don't you want to go to heaven get your life right with god why don't you pray the sinner's prayer stephen you're right i'll do it and i led him into a genuine repentance of sins he asked christ into his heart and that day he got saved that day he gave his life to jesus amen now of course his life ended and he is now he lived his life out he's now in heaven saved hallelujah amen but all those times of praying with him over the meal softened him up softened him up because everybody else in the family besides kelly or maybe some of the grandkids all they fed him was religion just be religious go to church and you'll be right with god but he wasn't right with god he wasn't even born again he had never even asked christ into his heart he never even asked the lord to forgive him of his sins you know going to church doesn't make you right with god me standing in my garage does not turn me into a ram pickup truck no it's just a dude standing inside of a garage right so going to church you being in church doesn't mean that you are right with god receiving christ into your heart by faith receiving his salvation by faith that's what causes you to be born again jesus said you must be born again glory to god hallelujah amen what are we talking about the absence of the spirit of liberty when that happens be alert if your spirit is not celebrating within you what you're about to do it could very well be a signal to stop on the flip side today something happened earlier today for my wife and i that was so of god that was so favorable that was so enjoyable that was such a blessing that while she and i were doing this and carried out this this blessing that the lord had made available for us while we were doing it within our spirits the spirit of god was so uh pleased with the whole thing that i felt like jumping up and shouting hallelujah i just felt like saying praise god this is the lord [Laughter] why what the spirit of the lord is there is what liberty joy happiness praise god everything associated with liberty glory to god thank you lord jesus so watch out for the liberty be looking be sensitive for the liberty in your spirit in every step you take particularly every important step every important decision that you make and let me let me say this god expects us to take this inner witness the presence of liberty or the absence of it he he expects us to take it just as seriously as we would if we heard the audible voice of god speak that authoritative voice of god oh yes pastor steven i'll do that for sure god expects you to obey that but also that witness of the lit spirit of liberty just as seriously as you would should you hear the authentic authoritative voice of the lord speak to you by the holy spirit praise god this could affect so many areas of our lives you know a really really good minister he lived to be a very great age he just passed away but he told the story about his daughter who was getting married to a preacher but this preacher had some he had some real issues he had an anger problem that was out of control people began to realize that and see that and pick up on that and had some other character flaws that were issues that could not be overlooked but the daughter had already gotten engaged a wedding had been planned it stood out the day of the wedding this man of god is actually the one that's going to perform the wedding and on the wedding day before you know with people in the church and stuff like that and everybody taking their positions he's in the back room with her and she's she's getting this thing on the inside oh see complete absence of liberty she's getting this thing on the inside and her daddy said listen listen honey i love you and let me talk with you just for a moment what you're about to do you do not have to do it it has not been done yet we can stop this whole thing right now we just call it off and she said no no no no no daddy it's too late and people expect me to go through with it now and you i don't know what he's going to do if i don't go through with it and uh and she went through with it when the holy spirit the his liberty was gone and there was nothing now but roadblocks roadblocks roadblocks she's pushing them over right and overriding them even her own fault she wouldn't listen to her own father and things got really bad after that and once those two were married uh there was a lot of abuse he the father had to go over one time just to check on her and he answered the door and said if you ever come over here again i'll take my gun and shoot you and kill you right here on the property all right you're talking we're talking about a wicked person and she married that person as a spirit-filled believer she married that person with the holy spirit living on on the inside of her trying to give her every warning every hindrance possible for her to put the brakes on wow listen the bible says in a multitude of counselors there is safety if you have others that know god mature that are returned the lord and the lord the lord and there they there's they're in agreement saying you know shaking their heads i i don't think this could be you should really give heed to that praise the lord because you can always find those that'll say yeah yeah yeah we need to do this this is a respectable thing to do we've made a commitment here we need to blah blah blah and all that stuff not if god's not in it just humble yourself and back out back out praise the lord because there is a point if you don't and you cross a certain line now the only way to get out is a lot heavier consequences such as what the ship paul was on they lost the whole ship all the prophets now are laying at the bottom of the ocean including the ship itself lift your hands heavenly father i pray for those that are watching today that we begin to understand the spirit of liberty the holy spirit the spirit of the reverence of the lord the spirit of the fear of the lord so that we have great respect for you and great value to guard to protect our assignment our calling to not be deviated and to go in the right direction we thank you father you're putting everybody in their place in the body of christ for this positioning of the great end time harvest we must be in our place running our race and not something that you have not assigned us to we give you praise we thank you for the spirit of liberty father today we celebrate your holy spirit the spirit of liberty living on the inside of us leading us and guiding us into all truth thank you father for these beautiful witnesses and manifestations of your spirit help us to be very developed in this area of sensitivity to your spirit in jesus name we pray and we all say amen praise god if you're watching today and you don't know christ as your lord and savior my friends make today the first day of your life where you get your life in order with the lord you get on the right track and you're prepared to spend eternity with god in heaven hallelujah if you would like to do that turn from sin turn from darkness and turn to god right now pray this prayer after me say lord jesus come into my heart wash me of my sins i give my life to you save me now write my name in your book of life thank you jesus i give my whole life to you in your name i pray amen and amen welcome to the family of god the angels are rejoicing because of your salvation lift your hands and thank god for saving you right now lord we give you praise glory to god amen hallelujah praise god some things you don't always know the exact route like with paul he's he knows he's supposed to preach but he's trying to fill out that specific direction my friends we also have to walk by faith we don't always have this super high resolution ability to know the exact steps that we're supposed to take we just know just keep going and if that's not there then there must be something else so sometimes just move forward stop for a moment pray wait okay and then you'll get clearer guidance praise god now let's take holy communion together today grab some unleavened bread and some grape juice let's pray heavenly father we thank you for the bread the juice we bless it we sanctify it set it apart as holy we thank you this is now the flesh and blood of the lord jesus christ father as we receive his flesh we thank you for protection against all forms of flu all forms of bacteria all forms of sickness and disease we thank you that you are covenant keeping god and divine health is in the covenant thank you father we receive the flesh of jesus now in his name we pray amen let's protect together heavenly father we thank you for the precious blood of jesus father if there has been times where we have knocked over the stop signs and ran over the uh barriers and we're just determined to do our own thing lord help us help us to really learn quick in these areas thank you father god because the time is short we do not have time for wrong turns uh fake detours and all kinds of other things that we should not get off on lord help us to be very focused in this hour and to move forward with the right pace in the right direction father thank you for the blood of jesus protecting us from every false path in jesus name we pray amen let's drink together praise the lord glory to god i am familiar with another story of a wedding where the bride found out that the groom had been up to no good even the very night before of the wedding and uh he just wasn't going to change his ways uh and the daddy said to his daughter look don't go through with this he's not going to be faithful to you let's call this off i'll stand with you i don't care what anybody thinks i'll stand with you she said thank you daddy if you'll stand with me we'll call the whole thing off they went and uh he was very wealthy the the father and so this was a this was a wedding that massive amounts of money were spent on nothing was held back i mean all everything was already paid for and everything they walked out together and she made the announcement the wedding's off she said i apologize for the various inconvenience i don't want to embarrass anybody she said the wedding's off and her and her daddy turned around and walked off together and that young woman as difficult as it was and also it caused of course some inconveniences and i'm sure some red faces but they all knew she did the right thing praise god it's never too late to do the right thing heavenly father bless your people we thank you for the witness of your spirit the spirit of liberty we give you praise in jesus name amen thanks for watching see you back next time