good morning church family and ministry
friends i'm pastor stephen brooks
welcome today to our online around the
world
internet church service i'm so happy
that you're here
and i believe that god's word will build
you up to do what he's called you to do
and very importantly to also be the
person
that he has called you to be and we're
actually going to talk about some of
that today
but first let's honor the lord by
bringing the holy tithes
and offerings into the storehouse of god
and look at this amazing scripture luke
chapter 22
verse 35 this would be jesus talking
and he said to them to his apostles
when i sent you without moneybag
knapsack and sandals did you like
anything
in other words he sent them out bare
bone basics
nothing extra not even any money wow
incredible he sent them out he
commissioned
them it was an apostolic venture he
he sent them out he said when i
sent you without moneybag knapsack
and sandals did you lack anything
so they went out they were not sponsored
by ibm
they were not sponsored by exxon they
went out they were not
sponsored by an uncle or family members
they were commissioned and sponsored by
the lord praise god now
he asked them did you lack anything
so they said nothing who glory to god
i hear you making the same positive
confession
of god's reliability of god's
faithfulness to watch over his word and
perform it
god's faithfulness to his covenant
god's faithfulness to your obedience
so that you will have the same response
regardless of what is going on in the
world
of any economic duress or financial
stress that would be that be out there
on the planet and we know it's out there
i see you exempt it because of the
covenant
and i see you also being able to say
we have no lack
praise the lord glory to god doesn't
mean that your faith
will not be tested your faith will be
tested but as you stand on the word
and apply covenant principles and only
engage in assignments that the lord has
endorsed or ordained for you to be
involved in
you also will say no lack no lack praise
the lord go ahead and say it
say we lack nothing praise
god thank you jesus i declare and decree
that because you are a covenant child of
god
that your days of lack are over whoa
praise the lord
thank you jesus now here's another
verification of that same will of god
for you to walk in a place where you
don't have lack
second corinthians chapter 9 verse 8
and god is able now when you read that
word abel in the greek it also implies
willing and god is able and willing to
make all grace abound towards you
now this is not just grace for
forgiveness of sins
this is grace in a context of god's
grace touching you in your area of your
finances
and god is able to make all grace abound
towards you
that you that's you watching right now
that you
always having all
sufficiency in all things
may have an abundance for every good
work oh praise the lord amen
every time there is a good work that god
places before you
and says i want you involved in that
you'll always have something
it may not be a million dollars but it
always will be something
and i just decree over you that you'll
have such a place of overflow
that you would listen to me you would
never have less than one hundred dollars
to give
into something special praise god and
when the lord would highlight something
you say i'm going to have a part of that
the holy spirit's moving me
and you would always have extra
abundance
and he says always having all
sufficiency
always having always having regardless
of layoffs regardless of
the the recession regardless of famine
regardless of flood hurricanes or
whatever always
having i see you always having
everything you need
praise the lord always having all
sufficiency
in all things may have an abundance
who god wants you always to be in
overflow
your needs met lacking nothing and being
in a place of
abundance or overflow why for every
good work praise the lord now
in context that that would be the good
work that god places before you because
there's a million good works out there
but the ones that he links you to by the
holy spirit
i see you always being able to respond
praise the lord and i see of course
many of you you know going way beyond
the ability to just
exercise your strength and giving with a
hundred dollars although that
is certainly a blessing praise the lord
but i see
the lord lifting many of you up into
into realms of financial strength
where you're able to make a mighty
impact for the
furtherance of god's kingdom in
the earth say this say no lack
ever again
say it again say no lack ever
again in my life and some of you are
businessmen business women
and you need to make that confession
over your business no lack
ever again in your business praise the
lord
always in the clear always in a place of
overflow more coming in than what is
going out thank you jesus praise the
lord
and i see that i see that in your life
now with that spirit of faith honor the
lord
and bring the tithe into the storehouse
the tithe belongs to the lord
and we honor him by blessing him with
the tithe which is 10
of all of our increase 10
but we also see in scripture the value
of sowing
seed or giving offerings so that the
lord has the ability to multiply the
seed that we sow
and produce a harvest of blessing in
our lives and i encourage you to do that
as well
now for those of you that want to bring
it in over the internet
your tizen offerings you can do so
please visit the ministry website
stevenbrooks.org there's a link on the
home page
a tab that says give it has a red heart
on it click that and it will take you
right to the
necessary link the appropriate link
where you can bring your tithes
and you can also give an offering so
seed right there
on that link praise god it's safe and
secure you can do it from
anywhere in the world praise god
now those of you that prefer to mail
your tithes and offerings in
please send them to stephen brooks
international
p.o box 717 moravian falls
north carolina 28 654
praise the lord and our ministry center
here is right next to the post office
praise god so
your your mail is checked and picked up
every day praise god that the post
office is open
glory to god now father bless your
people
let them also know that
unshakable covenant that when the lord
commissions
and we're on assignment and then and
we're about your business
there's no lack there's no lack now
father let them
know that same that same strength of the
covenant
touching their finances so that they can
say the same thing we we've liked
nothing
now father i thank you also for blessing
them
to be in abundance and overflow so they
always have the ability to sow
seed for those special needs that you
bring before
their attention father we give you all
of the praise
and we thank you for such a covenant
like this that you allow us to
engage you with wow we thank you for it
we thank you for your strength in our
finances
praise you in jesus name
amen hallelujah my friends before we
jump into the message can't you see
that the covenant is not for the lord's
benefit
as if you're sitting up in heaven saying
i need some more money throw me some
more money up
no the covenant is for our benefit
the lord makes the
possibility for us to engage him with
this covenant
he makes it for our benefit thank you
jesus
you enter into a covenant with someone
why they have something that you don't
have
that you need they have a strength that
you
need now we also have something that the
lord needs in the sense that
we have his heart and we have a heart to
do his will so that gives him
the ability to work through us as
channels of blessing
as ambassadors of christ within the
earth
but trust me the the primary beneficiary
of this covenant
is us the lord is doing really well
financially
this covenant of blessing this covenant
of increase
is for our benefit and what a privilege
to be able to walk in it
so father bless your people i thank you
that they are covenant people enjoying
prosperity just like abraham did just
like isaac did
reaping the 100-fold return even during
a time
of financial destitution in the land we
thank you father
that we are covenant people in jesus
name one more time we shout and say
amen praise god
let's go to the book of numbers today
and look at a message
that or subject i think has probably
been preached by
many good ministers many times i've i've
shared on this before but i felt
led of the holy spirit that we need to
touch this subject again
we know that the israelites they had
this
situation of the grasshopper mentality
we need to look at it
because the last thing that we want to
be doing is talking and
acting like grasshoppers seeing
ourselves as grasshoppers and thus
missing out on the promised land that
the lord has made available for us to go
into
and possess praise god so we need to
talk about this today
and the determining factor really that
makes all the difference and that would
be the holy spirit
let's pray father as we go into your
word we do ask for the quickening power
of your holy spirit father we thank you
that while we use our intellects
there are some things that unless your
holy spirit reveals it to us
we just can't grasp it even if we're
smarter than einstein
so oh god let your holy spirit come in
this message
upon this word and illuminate the
scriptures to our understanding
so that we can walk in these truths
and enjoy the tremendous
benefits of feasting upon your word
we thank you in jesus name we say
amen praise the lord yes today we are in
numbers
chapter 13. obviously the lord likes
math he likes numbers he wrote a book
called numbers
numbers chapter 13 and
let's go all the way down to verse 17
and check out
the spies going into the promised land
and we understand of course that
heaven is not the promised land
sometimes i've heard saints believers
say
one day when i die i'll cross the jordan
and go into my promised land i'll be in
the canaan land
well that's not a scriptural statement
now i understand what they mean by that
but you understand that the canaan land
or the promised land was
full of the enemies of god and so that
meant warfare in
in battles and stuff like that so that
can't be a
symbolic typology of heaven because when
you get to heaven
uh you're in a place of total perfection
praise the lord there's no more war
there's no more battle praise god
so we have to possess our promised land
not when we get to heaven we possess it
here
in this lifetime so it's time that we
stay busy on it verse 17 then moses
sent them to spy out the land of canaan
and said to them go up this way into the
south
and go up to the mountains and see what
the land is like whether the people who
dwell in it are
strong or weak few or many and i would
encourage you to do the same thing get
in your car
drive around if you don't have a car
just
walk praise god walk look see what's out
there and
find out what your possession is not
just uh
not just spiritually of course but even
physically those things that god would
have for you
in this life to take hold of praise the
lord
now let's go to verse 23. then they came
to the valley of ishkol
and there cut down a branch with one
cluster of grapes
they carried it between two of them on a
pole they also brought some of the
pomegranates
and figs well i've seen some pretty big
grapes before and some pretty big
clusters of grapes
but i've never seen one so big that
you've gotta have two men
carry it on a pole i tell you what this
is some seriously blessed
fertile land it's exactly what they're
looking for
and it's exactly what they're desiring
the place was called the valley of
eshkol because of the cluster which the
men of israel cut down there
and they returned from spying out the
land after 40 days
well of course later we know they're not
going to enter in
whenever we know they're going to wander
in the wilderness for 40 years
one year for every day that the spies
were
out there taking their journey so
they're they're going to probably in
hindsight which
wish that the spies had not taken so
long maybe 10 days instead of 40.
but it is what it is can't be changed
now
now they departed and came back to moses
and aaron and all the congregation of
the children of israel
in the wilderness of paran at qadesh
they brought back word to them and
to all the congregation and showed them
the fruit of the land
boy i'd been excited i know you would
have been too then they told him and
said we went to the land where you sent
us
it truly flows with milk and honey and
this is its fruit
and i believe that the promises that god
has for you
uh although you maybe you're not like so
much in agriculture
or land ownership but i will say to you
that it's enough
to put a smile on your face
yes it's good nevertheless the people
who dwell in the land are strong the
cities are fortified and very large
moreover we saw the descendants of anac
there my friends we're not
like uh escapist in the sense where uh
we
we believe god for things but you know
we just like oh
you know it's too hard so we'll just
pull back no we
are people that are aware of the
challenges
and the difficult realities that we face
to get where we're supposed to go but
with christ we can do all things
praise the lord all things that he's
assigned us to
all things that he has promised us all
things that pertain to our inheritance
yes absolutely absolutely and so we
don't need to over
analyze we do need to be aware but we
don't need to
uh get into this paralysis of analysis
and get in the fear we need to go
so really the word of the lord is the
determining factor
and the lord said hey i've given you
this land go up
and possess it okay well we checked it
out yep got a lot of obstacles
but let's not overanalyze all this let's
just get busy doing what we're supposed
to be doing
and as you do that you will start to
take the land
verse 29 the amalekites dwell in the
land of the south the hittites
jebusites and you know the story all the
ites
that gave all of the difficulties so the
people are getting upset the israelites
are hearing all of this
and they're starting to get nervous then
caleb quieted the people before moses
and said
let us go up at once and take possession
for
we are well able to overcome it and they
were they were so
we know that joshua and caleb had a
spirit
of faith wow
[Music]
and either you have it or you don't and
you can get around some christians that
are they're like little
like a little mouse or something like
that and uh they have a different
version of life it's whatever will be
will be
and so they're open to whatever life
hits them with
and you know what you have to be in
faith
and you have to be on target and be on
assignment and get busy get going don't
just wander through life
no you have a destiny and a purpose
praise the lord
and you mean business about it so the
spirit of faith
and the apostle paul also talked about
the spirit of faith and he said we
preach
the word of faith not a word of unbelief
not a word of well i just hope it all
works out no
a word of faith praise god
and that that enables you of course to
overcome all the ites
the problem is not the ights the
problems the unbelief the doubt
so you got to get moving thank you jesus
but the man who had gone up with him
said that would be the other spies the
other ten
we're not able to go up against the
people for they are stronger than we
they gave the children of israel a bad
report of the land
king james version says they gave an
evil report
saying the land through which we have
gone as spies is a land that devours its
inhabitants
well obviously not because they went
through it they didn't get they didn't
get devoured
and all the people whom we saw in it are
men of great stature
we're not all of them certainly some of
them were but not all of them
so here we have this already exaggerated
fear
and going over into exaggeration uh you
know that that starts to go through
people that are already
really not well grounded and it's not
good so
we see verse 33 the classic verse there
we saw the giants the descendants of
anac
came from the giants and we were like
grasshoppers in our own
sight and so we were in their sight
so how you view yourself in many ways
it's going to
resonate with others they're going to
pick up on that
and they're going to view you the way
that you view
yourself praise the lord now when you're
walking in the spirit of faith
they pick up on that but if you are a
person that has a victim mentality
and you're you're a wounded type person
or maybe you're a weak type person
and you're way back at the back of the
pack type person
uh those are the ones that the wolves
tried to pick off
and you actually see that as the
children of israel later
going to wander in the wilderness desert
for 40 years
it was those in the back oftentimes that
would get hit by these
ambushes you know because they're not
going to mess with the guys up front in
the
you know the warriors up front but as uh
as the train went by so to speak the
ones in the back
they're having a hard time keeping up
the elderly or the weak or
you know maybe the doubters and the
powders and the murmurs that really are
not into this journey
they're getting they're getting hit with
arrows and picked off or getting
detected and things like that so
you have to be very very careful the way
that you view yourself
and when the anointing of christ
the power of the holy spirit touches
your mind
and when you consume and digest the word
of god
that's the anointed word of god i'm not
just talking about old dry
dead religious study you know that uh
you know kind of buries you six feet
under while you're still
alive but i'm talking about when that
anointing of the spirit touches your
mind
um the first thing that starts getting
blasted out of your soul
is that goofy old grasshopper mentality
now we're not talking about uh you know
an
over self-confidence uh in your own self
but you're you're acknowledging that you
are in christ
and because you're in christ and that's
who you're identifying
your strength or your foundation as
being
it produces a remarkable boldness
some people that don't understand it
could possibly mistake it for
maybe arrogance or pride or something
like that
but it doesn't carry itself with a um
with a bad attitude like pride and
arrogance does in other words it's not
haughty
it's not like that but it is very bold
and that's why some
aren't quite sure how to identify it
that aren't familiar with the things of
the spirit
but my friends we see
that they had drifted into
a grasshopper mentality we were like
grasshoppers
in our own sight that's awful that's an
awful statement thank god it's recorded
in the bible
so that we never make the same mistake
you need to know your value
you need to know how much worth you have
in christ
you need to understand that jesus would
have come to the earth
to redeem you if you were the only one
that was lost
if you were a sinner and you're the only
sinner
he would have laid his life down to
redeem you
praise the lord but of course we know
that we've all sinned and have fallen
short of the glory of god
so he came to offer his life for a
sacrifice
who uh for all who would ever live upon
the earth
and we have received his sacrifice we
were like grasshoppers in our own sight
and so we were in their sight
a bully uh and an an intimidator
uh actually takes pleasure in pit and
picking
on the weak why they know that they can
push them around
but even if a person is weak
if they stand up and they're strong
in other words they let the bully know
hey maybe you are bigger maybe you're
stronger
but i'm not a pushover and uh you know
you don't have eyes in the back of your
head
so you just you know hey you know i'm
not i'm not going to just lay down and
let you do that to me
so they they can read that they can
sense that
i've told the story before about kenneth
hagin
the great minister of god's word and he
talked about the time when he was young
and he had the incurable heart condition
and it left him very frail very weak
eventually he had to drop
out of school but when he was in school
he was always underweight
he was always pale and he looked very
sick because he was sick
and there there was a bully seems like
there always is
and there was a bully that was uh you
know he'd just kind of push kids around
well
he would push kenneth hagin around and
one day just pushed him down and kenneth
hagin can't do anything he was so weak
as a little child
but um kenneth hagin one day uh got
tired fed up with that
and even as a child said you know i'm
not going to be a pushover
so although he was very weak he brought
a hammer to class
and snuck up behind the bully while the
bully was sitting down and hit that
other kid
the big bully hit him over the head with
a hammer totally knocked him out
because that kid may have a strong head
but it's not as strong as steel
now of course brother hagin wasn't
saying that was the right thing to do
but he was saying that he had this thing
in him even
since he was young because he was always
cast as an underdog
because of that heart disease that
something just said i'm not going to be
pushed around i'm not dead yet basically
so
i think i think that when you have that
in you
the adversary knows that and it's good
to have that
and so we were in their sight just like
grasshoppers well that's not going to be
your testimony praise the lord
by the way look at chapter 14 verse 1.
so all the congregation now that would
be several million people
lifted up their voices and cried and the
people wept
that night there's a biblical weeping
there's a biblical sorrow
and then there's one that is just
totally in the flesh
it's a total waste of time it's a wrong
reaction
it's something that you don't need to be
into and you need somebody to
pull you out of it should you ever drift
over into that spot
and the whole nation has gone into that
except just for a few people
and they're weeping and crying and all
that murmuring and complaining
be very very careful if you get out of
that spirit of faith
and you start getting into this
grasshopper mentality
and you think that you have no worth you
think that you have no value
and you start thinking that and then
others pick up on that and they're happy
to oblige you
and say yeah you're yeah you're just
you're just taking up space and
you're sucking air and you're wasting
everybody's time we just you just get
out of here
and so there are plenty of people that
are happy not to pat you on the back
but to uh pile on condemnation
and a uh you know a voice of shame and
so forth so verse two
and all the children of israel
complained against moses and aaron
basically saying if only we had died in
the land of egypt so
now they're in this big sob story my
friends don't ever get into that
that uh that's not the holy spirit uh
reverse
just as fast as you can if you ever find
yourself getting
into this like real bad negative mode
and now you're
criticizing everything around you
criticizing the circumstances
criticizing leaders
back out of that quickly quickly what's
happened
the grasshopper has hijacked your
mindset now you're thinking just like a
an old silly grasshopper praise the lord
now
grasshoppers have interesting
characteristics they actually have five
eyes
they have two primary eyes up front and
they've got these three other eyes
actually two on the kind of sides and
then three that are looking forward
but even with five eyes they can't see
very good straight ahead
for some reason and i'm sure many of you
have noticed this
you cannot really sneak up behind the
grasshopper
they can really see good going backwards
and you know
what's on the side and stuff like that
but actually you can get them
if you go straight towards them because
they don't see very good
out front but
even though they've got five eyes their
eyesight's very poor
and they cannot see very far ahead
straight ahead so you know what
you need to have a five-year plan i'm
not saying you have to
list out you know 30 or 40 or 50 things
that you're expecting to do in the next
five years
but you should have in your mind an
idea of where you would like to be where
you anticipate yourself being
five years and you're determined to get
there with the help of the lord
and you should be able to look beyond
five years and you should be have
able to have a concept in your mind and
you should also discuss it with your
spouse
of where you're expecting to be in 10
years
well now pastor stephen i've never
thought 10 years out
well uh watch out you could hear some
chirping
in the background that would be the
grasshopper trying to get you to
never think about your future never
think about the impact or destiny
that god has for you or the fullness of
it and where that's going
see a grasshopper has a little old tiny
mindset it is true that a grasshopper
they can grow but you know what the
biggest grasshopper
pastor stephen i saw one as long as your
finger that's nice but guess what
still just a little bitty grasshopper
that
they can't get big and they're never
going to really get that big
so they're still just these little bitty
creepy jumping things
and so you need to have a vision and you
need to let that vision become
large start thinking larger praise the
lord
i want to share something in in light of
these grasshoppers
with let me see if i can
properly phrase this with
a glimpse of your destiny that maybe you
have not allowed yourself to see
but would actually be a reality of
something that god has planned for you
go with me to genesis chapter 12 and
let's see if we can bring this
out praise the lord verse 1
now the lord had said to abram get out
of your country
from your family from your father's
house
to a land that i will show you verse 2
i will make you a great nation i will
bless you
now let's get into the second part of
this verse
where god says i will bless you and make
your
name great and you shall be a blessing
i want to tread slowly
on purpose through that statement where
the lord told abram
that he would make his name great
praise the lord i say it with humility
but i also say it with confidence i know
i'm speaking to those
and you know it too in your heart that
god has some things planned for you
that in a sense will make your name
great that will make your name great
people will know who you are and you
you have to be willing to embrace that
that is
something biblical that god does
for people i now i'm talking about
destiny praise the lord i'm talking
about
you stepping into that but in order to
step into that
when you know there's there's some
things that yes this is walked out
it would it would certainly uh uh
be it would be what we would call having
a great name
i know one preacher who said look he
said i understand that my ministry is
all over the world but
all if the lord had different plans i'd
be happy just to
you know sit by the side of the river
and teach a few people
and just live my life down there and
live a very simple life and
you know he said i i wasn't seeking
anything where there would be what we
would call fame or notoriety much less
what we would call a great name
but nevertheless he has it why that was
something that god had planned for him
and i do sense that i'm talking to some
that within your heart you know that
that plan
that god has uniquely for you will
include you going into this realm so if
it does
and i'm talking to you and i know i'm
talking to some
you're going to have to squish some
grass some grasshoppers
because these grasshoppers with this
little old mindset that all
you know like a grasshopper is just
happy to sit on a little leaf and chew
it and eat it and that's his life he
doesn't care
he has no interest in anything else he's
a little nobody
so you're going to have to really deal
with that grasshopper
mentality that may want to hide and and
maybe
you all pastor steve and i have no
desire to be out in public
well god may have may have different
ideas and you may have to
face up with that reality that that plan
of god
for you does require you know
being out in the public be known you
can't hide anymore god's bringing you
out
praise the lord and so uh if there's a
grasshopper saying you know guys just
want you to stay a nobody
and be behind the scenes for the rest of
your life
but that's not god's path for you then
you're going to have to deal with that
you have to come out
and just say well lord it is what it is
so i step out and step into
what you have for me praise the lord and
for abraham
it was basically becoming somebody that
pretty much everybody in the world knows
who he is
uh well not everybody you know we're
talking about anybody that's kind of had
exposure to
you know world history and knowledge of
uh
you know the you know the formation of
humanity and so forth
most people have heard about abraham so
the lord certainly kept his word
he said i will make your name great
thank you jesus i am
i think i shared this maybe only once
but i felt led to share it again
my wife and i were in southern
california a couple of years back
when a very famous
minister died and we knew him
and we knew where the funeral was going
to be at we thought we should go
let's go there because we knew him and i
hadn't seen him for
for quite some time over a decade but i
felt it would be good to go
to the funeral he had passed away i
won't say his name
but i will say that because i knew him
personally
and i saw him not so much when he
ministered
i saw him more as his kind of like
non-anoint itself i saw
him when he was in his office kicking
back with this i saw him you know in his
office on his plate on his couch with
his feet propped up just you know
relaxed and you know shirt you know
wrinkled and stuff like that and uh
you know i saw him when he couldn't find
his glasses and things like that and
i saw him when he kind of lost his
temper sometimes with his employees
[Laughter]
and i saw some of the humanity of him
so although
the ministry that he oversaw
was it was global i mean it was it was
all over the world
i i for some reason was kind of always
up with the memories of
knowing him from his human side not when
he's out before all the people
ministering and moving in the power of
the spirit and
and all of that i saw him more from that
that's the way it was because he had his
ministry and i
my ministry was growing and developing
at that time so i'm busy doing what i'm
doing
he's busy doing what he's doing so when
i did seem it would never really be in a
ministry setting it would always be
kind of when he's just you know having
time to breathe and relax
so he passed away so i went to his
funeral
and while the funeral was kind of taking
place
i didn't really feel grieved or anything
like that i mean i'm not not weeping or
anything like that i'm just like he was
you know he did he did a good job and he
you know many lives were touched and
that's kind of an uh an understatement
there's no telling how many lives were
touched
could be literally millions but anyhow i
didn't really feel like
any great sorrow or anything like that
but
when it was time for everybody to say
their final goodbyes and pass by the
casket and then
that's that's it they're going to put
him in the ground you know um
when i was walking towards the casket
the holy spirit came on me and i began
to weep
and weep and weep and then i began to
realize how god had used the man
and that you know there's a long line
towards the casket and you know i'm
seeing many people that hadn't seen that
were involved was with this ministry
because uh
a lot of people hadn't seen in maybe 15
years so um
but as i'm getting closer and closer to
the casket the holy spirit's coming all
over me and i'm weeping
because i'm realizing he really was a
servant of the lord
he he accomplished what the lord wanted
him to do
and when i got up to the casket now
there's a closed casket you know the
flowers are on top
when i got up to it i just said goodbye
and i named i said his name i said
goodbye and i said his name and i
touched the casket
as you know like goodbye and when i did
that
i touched i touched something in the
spirit realm i had
never ever touched before in a sense
where it became suddenly tangible
and i said and i said my lord i said
what is that and you know what the lord
told me because the holy spirit
immediately answered and the lord spoke
and the holy spirit picked it up and the
holy spirit spoke it to me
and the lord said it's greatness the
lord said i gave
him my touch of greatness
see you can see people in the world
that do things from uh an aspect of
they're very smart
they're very brilliant maybe they're a
good speaker maybe they're a great
mathematician
maybe they are a great ceo and a
phenomenal business leader but there's
something about the anointing
that is so different it's so
uniquely different because
those outside of the church don't
understand that but that beautiful
mystery of the anointing
and when i had touched the casket i
touched the greatness
that god had placed on him now i'm not
saying a mantle was imparted or anything
like that
that this was not a mental moment this
was an understanding moment that god can
put his greatness upon
a person and it's real it is just as
real as pouring water on somebody
he can pour greatness on somebody
and let me tell you when he does you're
not the same
anymore oh yes you still have to put
your clothes on
you still have to eat your food you
still need to brush your teeth you're
still going to have to use the restroom
but when you stand up to do what he has
called you to do
you're different and you can be touched
with that anointing
of greatness wow and i was just weeping
and weeping
and it was a remarkable moment and
actually
right when i walked past the casket a
man said
stephen stephen he hadn't seen me in 15
years
he was the right hand assistant of the
great man of god that had just died
and he said he basically asked me would
you minister tomorrow
i said yeah let's go minister and um
but fascinating fascinating so he really
was a great man
the man that had passed away he truly he
had greatness on him
now i kind of maybe lost a little bit of
that
respect for that because i saw i saw so
much of the natural
but it's also encouraging to know
that many of god's greatest servants
they're just
like you in many many ways but that that
that greatness is on them so you have to
respect that and you have to honor that
the apostle paul said
give honor to whom honor is due and that
would be
officials governmental leaders and
certainly leaders generals within the
body of christ
i talked to a man one time
he was one of those christians that
maybe you you would put in a category of
like stubborn unteachable and yes he's
he's saved he loves god he's going to
heaven
there's area in his life he didn't get
it didn't want to get it and i wasn't
going to try to help him
so i but i asked him a few questions
because i saw that he was being
disrespectful the way he talked about
men of god i said let me ask you a
question
he said go ahead i said if the president
if you were informed that the president
of the united states
was landing the the air force one at
your local airport and he's coming to
see you
with his entourage of officials but he's
coming to see you
and he knocked on your door and you
greeted him i said how would you greet
him he said i'd greet him on a first
name basis i said that's what i thought
you would do i said you wouldn't even
address him as president would you he
goes oh no he goes i don't believe in
doing that
hm i and i said if
if some of these ministers and i named
some of the great men of god
i said if you were to meet them and
shake their hand how would you address
them would you say
uh you you know hello dr so-and-so or
hello uh reverend so-and-so or pastor so
he goes oh no i wouldn't do that i just
call him by their first name
i said oh so there are those that have
no
understanding of greatness why
it's not it's not somewhere where
they're going
and because they're not willing to honor
it receive it or respect it
they'll never go into any kind of a
place like that
but when you know that this is something
that god can bestow
that god can give these unique gifts and
these things like that that cause a
lifting
praise the lord i believe it's because
you're gonna find yourself in these
places too
thank you lord jesus hallelujah
let's also keep in mind that
wisdom is the ability to discern
difference
the difference for example in people not
everybody's the same
not everybody's the same praise the lord
hallelujah i was um i was around a man
one time
and uh he was not in ministry or
anything like that
he loved the lord but you know he was uh
he was a man that loved god but didn't
really read his bible that much or pray
that much
and um so uh we somehow found ourselves
around the sick person and the sick
person said i need
prayer and this man said okay he said
i'll pray for you and he said
he said he said stephen what in the
world am i doing
he said you've got far more horsepower
in this area than i do he said
this is not my thing he said by all
means he said you pray what in the world
was i about to do why why would i pray
when you're standing here
but trust me there are those in the body
of christ
that if there was a sick person and
they're there and they have no healing
anointing it doesn't matter
they're going to go for it and it
doesn't matter if i'm there it doesn't
matter if any hinge there it does
it wouldn't matter if every great
healing evangelist was lined up standing
there
that they would have no respect for that
they think that somehow
see that they don't understand there's
greatness and the lord said
that i he told abram i will make your
name great praise the lord
some of you um
you need to drop the fake humility and
you need to drop
the grasshopper mindset and you need to
embrace
your destiny and realize that with the
lord
you're going places and you're not going
to stand before
normal people always you're going to
have times where you're going to stand
in very
high places and you need to already get
that settled within your heart
and remove any kind of grasshopper
mentality that would say
you don't belong there let me tell you
you absolutely belong there
you are being prepped by the holy spirit
to stand in those places
and it is part of your destiny and
calling
praise the lord glory
to god thank you jesus
praise the lord this is something also
that
the lord still working with some would
be in the area of the grasshopper
mentality
of a wrong self-image and seeing
themselves
continually as being poor
and there are some in the body of christ
that they're very content to stay in
that place
they love grasshoppers maybe they even
eat them
snack on them after all you can roast
them put a little butter
salt on them maybe a little bit of
garlic who knows maybe they taste good
i don't think so i i know that many
people do eat grasshoppers
but you know they're able to excrete
this
this black stuff but well you know it's
called tobacco juice it's not really
tobacco but
it's like they're able to expel their
insides out
the what they ate or whatever it might
be some of their intestinal juices
and they squirt out this brown yucky
looking stuff
so i really wouldn't want to eat that
but nevertheless
my friends removed the
grasshopper way of thinking concerning
finances
some of you could never see yourself
being a millionaire or a
multi-millionaire
why why you need to get
get away from a grasshopper type
thinking and you need to start reading
the word
this is eagle's food praise the lord you
don't need to be feeding on
grasshopper food you need to be feeding
on eagle food because you're an eagle
saint
hallelujah thank you jesus
thank you lord jesus
hallelujah glory to god
genesis chapter 13 we're right next to
it verse 1 then abram went up from egypt
he and his wife and all that he had and
lot with him to the south
abram was very rich livestock and silver
and in gold and that came because of
god's blessing upon his life
and you need to allow the holy spirit to
take you into that
blessing as well thank you lord jesus we
do see
in the book of galatians chapter 3 that
that blessing
that was on abraham now comes upon the
believer
who is in christ praise god so you need
to
allow the lord to bless you and he's
going to stay consistent
working his word loving him living for
him
i'm telling you that blessing will come
upon you and you'll see it
so let god let the fullness of the
blessing
manifest in your life oh i don't want
that much
who said you had to keep it if it's too
much start giving it away
praise the lord honor the lord with the
tithe you could give more you can give
20
you can give 40 glory to god
allow the fullness of god's blessing
to come to you paul told the church in
rome when i come
i'm coming with the fullness of the
blessing
thank you jesus what we see in galatians
chapter 3 verse 13
that christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law
now the curse included all of these
awful things that you can read about in
genesis chapter excuse me
deuteronomy chapter 28 from verse 15
onward and they were bad real bad
and included in that curse
was all forms of poverty and lack
and insufficiency pastor stephen i'm
going to take a vow of poverty
well you're connecting with something
that would be
under the biblical description of a
curse
now christ has redeemed us
from the curse of the law that would
include sickness disease and so forth as
well
and certainly sin and spiritual death
having become a curse for us for it is
written cursed is everyone who hangs on
a tree
that the blessing of abraham might come
upon the gentiles
in christ jesus that we might receive
the promise of the spirit through faith
now please drop down to verse 29
and if you are christ and you can easily
answer that if you're in christ and you
if you've given your heart to the lord
then you certainly are
and if you are christ then you are
abraham's seed and heirs according
to the promise praise the lord
i've seen some evangelical christians
get a little bit jealous
of the jewish people and they see the
blessing the prosperity
of the jewish people and they're like
that's not fair
i'm like well they have a covenant with
god that god made with abraham
that comes upon them and there's no need
to be jealous
because when you are in christ you are
now tied
in to that same natural blessing
of the blessing flowing and working in
your life
remember abraham was very rich and also
you have all of the aspects of the new
covenant
that now belong to you as well which is
a far
better covenant thank you jesus
praise the lord so
my friends allow your thanking
not to be grasshopper mentality but
right now allow it to be large
to a greater measure of blessing
pastor stephen i want to be able to buy
somebody's lunch
hmm well why not just buy
you know why not just buy a food truck
why not have a larger picture just more
the ability to bless more hallelujah not
just feed one person one time
but feed more praise god a larger
ability to bless a larger
financial strength glory to god don't
always
limit the blessings of god as being
spiritual
and they are the peace of god the love
of god
the mercy of god yes it's gorgeous it's
beautiful we love all of that
but it's not only spiritual but it's
natural
as well thank you jesus now
let us go to one of the most misquoted
verses in the bible
i would put it most likely in the top
five
of the all-time most misquoted verses
misquote it not only wrongly in the
church
but somehow even sinners
who don't know god seems like somehow
they've picked up on this verse
and they quote it too and they always
quote it wrong i've never heard
one ever quote it right praise god let's
go to it right now
we're dealing with grasshoppers today by
the power of the holy spirit
we are moving over to first
thessalonians
we're going to go to chapter 5.
and we're going to go to verse 23
you need to expand your way of thinking
hallelujah within the framework of your
faith expand your way of thinking
enlargement that is a theme scripture
for us
this year isaiah 54 verses
1 and 2 enlarge the place of your
dwelling
stretch out the curtains of your
dwelling
lengthen the cords and strengthen the
stakes
enlargement enlargement praise the lord
hallelujah thank you lord
we're now in 1st thessalonians chapter
5.
let's go to verse 23.
now may the god of peace himself
sanctify you now sanctify means to set
apart
for the use of god sanctify you
completely
and may your whole spirit soul
and body be preserved blameless
at the coming of our lord jesus christ i
have never heard one believer
ever quote that scripture properly
and most believers also quote it in
reverse
they say body may god bless you body
soul and spirit that's not what it says
it says spirit soul body why do they
reverse
it because they're reversed
they're more body conscious than they
are spirit
they're more body conscious of their
body their need their body
cravings and desires and then their
souls cravings and desires and then
finally
last but certainly least would be
uh whatever they leave left over for the
spirit so they always quote it
body soul spirit now every time you hear
it you're going to realize that
that most people 99.9 of the time
get it backwards
praise the lord but my friends you're
going to get it in the right order we're
going to come back to that in just a
moment
the number one verse that's probably
misquoted would be of course from first
timothy
chapter six where even the
even the sinners they like to quote it
wrong
which is money is the root of all evil
and many people in church they like to
quote that money is the root of all evil
that's not what the scripture says not
at all it's totally taking that out of
context
and warping that statement says in
scripture
that the love of money is the root
of all evil so we have to stay away from
the love of it
so if we put it in its right context
it's right back again to being something
that's
neutral depending on how
we treat it praise the lord and we treat
it for good use
it's like radioactive material
it could be dangerous yes if misused but
we're going to use it the right way
and if you use the wrong way it could
hurt you but we're going to use it the
right way
and uh you could take it to use it to
power up your power plants
nuclear power and now we have uh the
ability
to light up a whole city praise the lord
thank you jesus so that verse is often
misquoted
there's another one particularly in the
church
that's misquoted a lot which is when it
comes to alcohol
seems that those that are just
determined to drink alcohol
they may not have any other scripture in
the bible memorized
but for some reason they bring up that
verse and they'll quote the verse
about paul telling timothy to drink some
wine for his stomach's sake
and see there pastor stephen we need to
drink wine and then he
then if you ever ask them do you have a
stomach problem oh no there's nothing
wrong with my stomach
i just like to drink it so they love to
drink that but they can never
quote any of the other verses that extol
the great danger and destructive ability
of what alcohol does to the human body
how it is a destroyer of the lives
of many men and women they'll never
quote those verses to you
they'll just say you know paul told
timothy to drink a little wine for a
stomach
nor do they have any understanding of
the types of
wines that were used back in biblical
days
before there were glass bottles and
before there were preservatives
and before there was refrigeration so
that's a different subject altogether
but the wines were very very different
back then
why not let's go one more another
scripture that is often taken terribly
out of context
is the one about jesus they think jesus
was poor
and if you ask them well why was jesus
poor well it says in the bible he had
nowhere to lay his head
even jesus himself said foxes they've
got holes
and birds they've got nests but the son
of man
pastor stephen he don't have nowhere to
lay his head he just an old homeless
vagabond preacher walking around
barefoot
just looking for a handout struggling
and poor
and didn't even have anywhere to sleep
at well that's
that is a horrible misquotation of that
scripture
taking it terribly out of context
because the only reason jesus said that
is a a man came to him saying i'll
follow you anywhere you go
and jesus basically said well you really
need to think that over because there's
a price tag
associated with that such as we don't
have any place to sleep tonight because
in context you read
the city the village they were going to
go into and preach
they were met by resistance and the
leaders of the city said
we do not want you and your ministry
coming into this village we borrow you
from coming in
and you know what there were no holiday
inns back in that time there were no
ramadas there were no hiltons no hyatts
so that meant well we're locked out of
the city gate they've locked the gate
we're too far away from any other place
boys pull out your sleeping bags
but that didn't mean that jesus was some
kind of a homeless hobo
no it just meant that that night they
they couldn't stay in the city they
couldn't stay there because they were
not permitted to
so be very very careful when you
present the word of god because paul
said study to show yourself approved a
workman that does not
need to be ashamed rightly dividing
the word of truth and so when we
endeavor to share god's word with others
we want to know what it is we're talking
about or you could terribly misrepresent
the word of god
and lead people in a wrong direction
that causes them
needless difficulties in suffering
because
you enforced a wrong thinking
or wrong concept that they already had
through wrong teaching
i had a ministry partner contact me
two days ago and he said pastor stephen
what are your thoughts on women in
ministry because it says in scripture
that paul said he does not allow a woman
to speak in church they're supposed to
sit down and shut up
[Laughter]
uh pastor stephen what do you think
about that purse when paul said that the
women
need to be quiet in church and paul
doesn't allow a man to speak
because there's plenty of evangelical
preachers that love that one
and they say it's wrong for a woman to
be behind a pulpit
it's a great sin for a woman to preach
and yet at the same time while they're
saying that joyce meyers
george meyers can stand up and out
preach all of them the same time they
say that
kathryn kuhlman could stand up and
operate in signs wonders and miracles
that they could never
they could never reach if they tried at
the same time they say that you see a
long line of great women that the lord
has worked through throughout the
centuries of church history
you know just on and on it goes corey
ten boom
and um oh just all these women had a
tremendous anointing
and so what was paul talking about
so that's why when you read the word you
have to study the word
you just can't grab things and and run
off with it say well this is what it
said well
what does it mean though what does it
mean
and so theologians no you have to study
what is being mentioned here is this
doctrine is this doctrine that's being
taught or
is this culture that's being shared so
that you can culturally
know how to handle this when you're in
these certain situations
and it was absolutely cultural in that
context because in that day in the first
century church
and it was well known it's very easy to
verify this through church history
and also through culture that the women
sat on one side of the church
and the men sat on the other side and in
the middle
there would be an open aisle area and so
what would happen
is that there were often times that paul
would be
teaching he's teaching the word and
there would be a wife sitting among the
women
and she would yell all the way across
the aisle
all the way acro you know through that
crowded group to her husband
sitting on the other side and say i
don't understand what he's
talking about what is he talking about
and paul was saying
look i i'm forbidding this this is
causing confusion
and he's basically said you can ask your
husband later when you get home
but don't be yelling back and forth it
was the women that were doing it
hey what does he mean by that so he said
i forbid
a woman to speak in these type of
situations and i have ministered in
countries
india would be the one that's freshest
to my memory i ministered in india this
one particular church multiple times
it was a large church you know several
thousand members
and although it was thousands of members
all the women sat on one side and it
didn't matter if you're married
the women or the wives are on this side
and the husbands are on that side
and there was a big isle in between so
all the women over here
all the men over here and they still do
that today
and there are some culturals some
cultures
where there is that separation and the
last thing you want
and a big meeting like that is the men
and women to be talking back and forth
while you're trying to trying to preach
and particularly for whatever reason it
was the women
that were mainly doing the talking and
asking the questions and
look you've got to have spiritual
protocol and you have to have order
the lord said let all things be done
decently and in order but by no means
was he banning women
from ministry no there's many anointed
women in ministry today
and you have the five ministry offices
of apostle
prophet evangelist pastor and
teacher and while predominantly it is
men that fill those positions
yes women can be called by the lord into
ministry
also and let me say this concerning the
catholic church
although the catholic priests or those
that we would call
ministers within the uh the catholic
church
are single they have to be singled to go
into the priesthood
that is not something that's held by the
catholic church as a doctrine
that's more of a um like an ordinance
that they established
and that was done in the early
1200s and a lot of the priests at the
catholic priest at that time didn't take
it very seriously so you had quite a few
that were still married
but eventually as uh you know by the
time you got into the 1500s
that was something that did become
pretty much
standardized in the catholic church but
i'll tell you right now
if the pope if pope francis wanted to
change that he could change it overnight
and he could allow priests to marry if
they wanted to
because the catholic church does not
hold that as a doctrine
and the scripture even says don't forbid
to marry don't forbid
to marry praise the lord so uh we know
that peter
was married because the lord healed his
mother-in-law
so that tells us right there he was
married and i believe
actually that most likely
all of the original 12 apostles
were married now the apostle paul that's
a different
different story different uh topic that
would take some time to
bring in some insight into whether he
was married or not married that's not
really important
but but my friends
we have drifted over into this subject
of spirit soul
and body and don't let
wrong teaching get
into your spirit hmm praise the lord
don't let it get into your soul it'll
bring restriction
it'll bring restriction don't let it get
into your body praise god
so the holy spirit will come and he will
cleanse
now may the god of peace himself
sanctify you completely may your whole
spirit soul and body be preserved
blameless at the coming
of our lord jesus christ the holy spirit
is such a guide praise the lord
let me let me loop back just for a
second we know in
in christian ministry in the sense of
the event evangelical protestant church
that
sure if you want to be in ministry and
be married it's totally cool
the catholic church they want their
priests to be single they believe
it allows them to be more focused upon
the calling of ministry and if it's a
a nun at a convent they want her to be
single so she could be more devoted to
the lord
and there is something about singleness
that can be a great springboard
for nearness because you don't have to
deal with all the other things that um
you know that paul said that the married
couple has to deal with
although you could still be close to the
lord and be married as well we know that
because enoch was married
but when you look at the three main
branches of christianity when you look
at protestantism
and you look at the catholic church
and as you look also at the eastern
orthodox church
within the eastern orthodox church they
do allow
their priest to be married and there are
quite a few who are
married so my friends on we go in the
lord just
understand that whatever you believe you
want to bring it back to scripture
bring it all back to scripture and it's
amazing when the holy spirit illuminates
the word wow the wake up call it is and
i'll just say this that while the
baptism in the holy spirit is
is absolutely wonderful that after after
your new birth
new birth experience after being born
again
i mean the second greatest thing after
that is being filled with the holy
spirit
but you must be aware that the infilling
of the holy spirit
can absolutely bring division in the
sense that suddenly when you get filled
with the spirit i mean this
this book starts coming alive in the
most phenomenal way
and the person maybe before that was
your best friend
and you had everything in common and you
loved you you loved the same things and
you were best friends suddenly you could
feel the spirit
you're like i'm not too i'm not too cool
on this anymore over here i'm not
into that anymore that i see that as
being something that's uh
uh not you know not that good or not
that truthful and
so it can cause overnight sometimes
separation and i belong to a
denomination
that did not believe in the baptism in
the holy spirit did not believe in
miracles
now they were very strong on salvation
and they were
they were heavy on water baptism that
they're going to make sure
have you been water baptized are you
sure it was all the way under
was it done in the name of the father
and the son of the holy ghost because it
doesn't count it was just done in the
name of jesus and
they were i mean they could teach for
hours and days
endlessly on the subject of water
baptism
which also was an element of out of
proportion you know they were so big on
that
they were missing all kinds of other
stuff
i mean if you were baptized in your even
if one ear was sticking out oh you
didn't do it right
it's not right and so um not yes i
believe you need to be submersed the
word baptized
it does mean full submersion which is
why in the king james version
they left the word baptized in there why
because many of those translators were
anglican
and they believed in sprinkling and when
they were translating from the greek in
the english they didn't want to put
full submersion why their church
doctrine didn't believe in that
they were just we're going to sprinkle
some water on you so they literally left
it in the greek word baptizo or baptized
and nobody knew what it meant except
them so they kind of like well we're
just going to dodge that bullet
let some other generation figure it out
well we figured it out it means to get
dunked all the way under
praise the lord that's why philip uh you
know in talking with the ethiopian
eunuch
uh the ethiopian eunuch said well
there's water what hinders me from being
baptized so they went down into the
water
i mean he didn't just sprinkle some
water on him no he immersed him
completely under
so yes we should do it by the book we
should do it right
but after salvation
and then water baptism and then the
baptism in the holy spirit or the
infilling of the spirit
yes just be aware of that because there
can be separation
the moment i got filled with the holy
spirit
i realized that as much as my
denomination
loved the lord they had partial truth
and they were camped there
and they weren't going to go on to
anything else it doesn't matter
if god was dropping gold bricks down
from heaven they didn't want anything to
do with it
all they wanted was to stay centered on
their truth they loved it so much and
nobody's going to disturb us
and they're still in that undisturbed
state today but i had to go on praise
the lord why
because of the holy spirit illuminating
illuminating the scriptures and when i
got filled with the holy spirit suddenly
strangely it had never happened before
persecution started coming to me and i
had
my family my parents they thought i'd
lost my mind
oh stephen you've lost your mind you
believe in that
crazy tongues business you've been
amongst the pentecostals
oh our son has been influenced by the
pentecostals
and they were so concerned and uh you
know uh
uh you know tried to take me to certain
preachers who could straighten me out
it just made it worse and uh try tried
to get me to a psychologist and all this
and all
psychiatric tests and all of this and uh
they just thought oh he's lost his mind
i said you know what i said i haven't
lost my mind
i got filled with the holy spirit and i
love the lord and now i really want to
serve him and live for him
but the whole time i was saved but was
just kind of like
mediocre and carnal and just goofing
around and not really into the things of
the lord
the whole time i was like that you guys
thought i was totally fine but now
suddenly
what i want to live for the lord and i
have a heart for god to serve god
suddenly i've lost my mind no i've just
gotten
the baptism in the holy spirit
praise the lord hallelujah glory to god
but you have to be willing to go on and
i know that there are those that are
watching you know exactly what i'm
talking about
that not only was your salvation and
experience that could have cost you
everything but the baptism in the holy
spirit
is also very very costly but you must be
willing
literally if that's what it takes to
lose everything
and i i in a sense did my parents
basically said
we we don't want any further
relationship with you
that was cut off now all of the friends
that i previously had
it i still loved them and they still
loved me but we didn't it didn't
didn't mix like anymore as far as like
intimate deep communion
it could it wouldn't mix because i wanna
i'm into the things of god
into the glory and the miracles and
they're just like no we don't want
anything to do with that
no glory but the holy spirit will set
you apart
spirit soul and body some of you need to
be set apart with your body
because your body is the temple of the
holy spirit
and you you need to respect god more and
respect your body more
and not just go in front of a doctor and
start taking all of your clothes off
yeah you want to check this too well let
me just take all my clothes off you
standing nude in front of a doctor
you don't even think about it well and
the doctor says you need to take this oh
good just shove it down me now
and you need this shot oh good strictly
again give me a double shot
and it's just like you let all kinds of
people do all kinds of things to your
body
your body is holy your body's holy you
think about what you're putting into it
what you're allowing yourself to listen
to
hear see who's touching you and all of
that
you need to be aware of all of that
stuff your body is the temple of the
holy spirit
praise the lord
[Music]
thank you jesus sanctified to the part
with your body
with your soul your thought life your
emotions your feelings all of that
submitted
to the holy spirit because your body is
going to have desires
they need to be sanctified your soul is
going to have desires
it needs to all that stuff needs to be
filtered and sanctified
so it's in alignment with god's word his
will
but then your spirit your spirit leads
spirit
soul body when adam was in the garden
before
sin ever happened have you ever wondered
how long he was there before he sinned
no you know it was we know that it was
his wife that sin
but there was also a responsibility that
adam certainly carried with that
because somebody should have grabbed a
hole or a rape and should have killed
the snake
but anyhow the snake's there doing his
thing and
eve's especially shouldn't have been
around that tree
but i used to wonder lord how long were
they in the garden of eden
before uh eve blew it and now you know
adams lost the authority and now they're
out
and the holy spirit revealed to me that
they were there
for seven years in the perfect
scenario god's blessing and this
beautiful garden
and they were enjoying everything that
god had for them
and then i was allowed to find some old
documents that were written by many of
the old
what you would call the mystic saints
and they said they had encounters
supernatural encounters and they they
also had the same question
and they were told in these various
encounters with like an angel or
something like that
that it was the same thing seven years
they were in the garden for seven years
now that doesn't matter we could call
that extra biblical if you choose to
believe it or not that's totally fine
it's not a doctrinal issue so we're just
having some fun right now
talking about those types of things but
when adam was in that garden he was
dominant number one
spirit and he and his wife actually
didn't even have any clothes on
they were covered with the glory of god
so they were dominant spirit
and then the second would be the soul
realm their intellect their emotions
were
rock solid and they were brilliant adam
naming all of the animals and getting
every name correct and fitting for that
particular animal so he was a genius and
then also the body
was in order there was no sickness no
disease or anything like that no lack
everything was perfect
but when sin came in and they were
forced out of that beautiful place
suddenly it's now reversed it's now
body is first the cravings of the body
and a lot of that can also be a
misdirection because
it's the base crude nature of man
desiring things that god says that's out
of bounds so now
that's trying to have dominance and so
you have the body
then you have the soul and your soul has
a lot of desires
it could want a million different things
under the sun and you could have it
and still never be satisfied it's always
grasping always wanting more
and so that should not be leading either
but
you do meet sometimes people from time
to time they are soul dominant
in that in the area where they're
they're intellectually dominant
and to the great neglect of their spirit
so they feed their their intellect and
they're perhaps brilliant
and they're thinking brilliant and
they're talking maybe they could read
and write and do all those things real
well
but their spirit is starving
it's like their spirit is emaciated and
you have to remember
that you are a spirit you have a soul
and you live in your body when you die
the body is um
which is the house that you live in it
will in a sense
just remain there fall to the ground so
to speak and you're going to leave your
your spirit and soul are going to leave
but one day
your body will be resurrected it doesn't
matter if your body
uh you know if you're on a boat and you
went to the bottom of the ocean
or you were buried traditionally or you
you were you know
burned up in a fire or something like
that it doesn't matter god's going to
take
all those mute atoms and uh
the your molecular structure and he's
gonna bring it all back
and you're gonna get a brand new
glorified body
and you'll step back into that glorified
body praise the lord
and in the interim when you die your
your spirit and soul do not go in the
soul sleep that is a wrong teaching
the moment you die your spirit and soul
go to be with the lord
praise god but one day yes you're going
to get your body back and it will be a
glorified body
so in heaven the only ones walking
around in heaven
that would have a physical body still
would be
enoch okay because he was translated he
never saw death
and also would be the prophet elijah he
also was caught up so physically
he never died so we know they they're up
there with bodies but even still that's
not yet their glorified bodies that's
just their
the bodies they had while they were on
the earth and we know that the lord
he has a resurrected body but his body
is
different in a sense where it is
that glorified body praise lord now
should you ever see the lord in a vision
or supernatural encounter
understand that he has the ability
because he's god
to dial down that glory so he can uh
talk to you or communicate with you in a
realm where
or in a way where you can actually uh
converse with him because yes he's all
man but yet he's all
god but he can dial it down so there can
be conversation
praise the lord thank you jesus
i feel like i'm bouncing around a little
bit in the spirit but while i'm bouncing
around i'm
stomping grasshoppers praise the lord
[Laughter]
glory to god thank you jesus so
the holy spirit he removes a grasshopper
mentality the way you see yourself and
thus also the way others
see you praise the lord thank you jesus
so it's very important to be filled with
the spirit and not only fill with the
spirit
but to stay freshly filled
with the holy spirit it will do many
many things for your life
one of those things is acts chapter 4
and this is a big grasshopper stomper
right here
acts chapter 4.
this anointing of the holy spirit
is very very much transforming
acts 4 verse 8 then peter
filled with the holy spirit so we've
already had acts chapter 2
the baptism into the holy spirit and
being filled with the spirit and the
evidence of speaking in tongues to
validate that
then peter filled with the holy spirit
said to them
rulers of the people and elders of
israel and he goes into this
talk that's loaded with boldness and
strength
verse 13. now when they saw the boldness
of peter and john
and perceived that they were uneducated
and untrained men
they marveled and they realized that
they had been with jesus
yes they have been with jesus but
they've also now been
filled with the holy spirit and today i
want to tell you
that the holy spirit makes all the
difference in the way that
you view yourself the way that you view
others
and the way that others view you the
holy spirit is able to take
the word and illuminate it
and allow you to see it and walk into it
and live it and he has many adventures
many experiences for you
i've had two supernatural encounters
where by the power of the lord
in a visionary experience i have
actually been taken
literally into the word praise god
one time i was in a meeting uh sitting
on the front row
and a very well-known prophet was
speaking and he and i knew each other
and he said um he said speaking to me
he said as he was talking he stopped he
saw me he said james it's good to see
you again
and everybody in the audience said he's
stephen
and he goes oh he said james yes it's
good to see you and people went no it's
he's stephen
he goes he said stephen i don't know why
i said that he goes yes we all know you
said stephen good to see you
and would you believe the very next day
the holy spirit came and in a vision
took me into the book of james
and walked me through the book of james
and i had it happen one time also when
he took me into the book of first
corinthians like i saw it
i saw the scripture i saw the word as a
living
structure whoa praise the lord i
remember i told
my friend dr wade taylor
the founder the founder of pinecrest
bible college
i told dr wade about it and he said he
said stephen
he said that used to happen from time to
time with old-time pentecostal preachers
he said it happened to
john fellet the mystic saint they would
be taken into the word
and they would not only see the word but
you see the you see the context
the mode of the spirit or the mood of
the spirit
because sometimes you can read something
but you're like it's
how was the tone of that when it was
said or written
and you could see all of that when
you're taken into the word but my
friends the holy spirit
he's the one that reveals all of that
and i had one other experience where i
was taken into one chapter of the book
of job
not into the whole book but i was taken
into a chapter of the book of job job
chapter 39
and the holy spirit walk me into it and
showed me the tone
of god speaking to job and the the
conversation that was taking place
it was one one of the most unusual
things i'd ever seen and it was
a different tone than what i had thought
because i
was taught growing up in church that god
was really putting job in his face
really squishing him underneath his
thumb really correcting him and
setting him straight it was totally
different uh the the
god's love and mercy conveyed in that
chapter
were just it was it was off the charts
praise the lord but these are things
that are revealed by the spirit of god
so my friends
allow the holy spirit to work with you
there are some truths in the word you
cannot get over to people
if you were to sit down and take them
line by line
measure upon measure scripture upon
scripture and try to expound it to them
they're not going to get it but the holy
spirit when the holy spirit comes
you can get more in 15 minutes
than you could i'll be honest in 15
years
i was in a conference once in jerusalem
jerusalem israel and an older minister
of mine
another minister a friend of mine was
ministry now he's passed on to heaven
now
he was the last speaker of the
conference me and the other speakers we
had already spoken
and so he's the last speaker and he's
speaking
on a friday afternoon and we're getting
real late into the afternoon and we're
getting real close to the sabbath
and as you know everything in jerusalem
shuts down
and this was also a hotel
where the conference that was being held
at that was under the authority of you
know
the rabbinic council and so they have
the ability not only to close down your
meeting they can shut the hotel
they can close down the entire hotel
there's one rabbi he can close he can
shut it all down
if you're not if you're not done before
a certain time
you're getting too close to that sabbath
they'll shut they'll shut the whole
hotel down
no food nothing so um so our friend was
the last speaker
and the conference host told him he said
listen i know that
normally you've got like an hour and a
half to minister he said you've got
15 minutes and you know
the minister said 15 minutes how can i
do all of this in 15 minutes he said i
don't know
but that rabbi is standing right over
there and he has told me
that if you're not done completely done
in 15 minutes
he's shutting everything down he'll flip
the lights off
if you're not done in 15 minutes it's
we're in trouble he said you've got to
do it in 15 minutes
okay so he goes up there and you know
it's maybe
800 1 000 people in the meeting he goes
up there
and the moment he started talking the
holy spirit
came on him so strong he only spoke for
15 minutes
and it literally felt like while he's
teaching while he's talking we all had
the same sensation
that we're sitting under a waterfall
where
revelation was gushing so fast it was a
force of truth and revelation that after
15 minutes i i was like i can't take
this anymore
and everybody else was like that too if
it had gone one more minute we would
you're gonna
implode you can't take it
it's too much glory too much revelation
and when he finished he was just like he
was like drained it was just like
god was pouring such truth through
through him glory to god whoo
and that's one of those things also you
had to be in the meeting
i'm sure there's a tape of it or a video
of it out there but
in the meeting the the anointing and the
weight of the glory
was just flowing flowing
now catch it catch it pick it up
by the holy spirit what he is saying
right now
where he is moving right now the thrust
of what he is doing right now
woo glory to god get into the secret
place seek the lord
there are some women you question your
call because you think i'm a woman
but god has called you and there's an
anointing that he wants to place upon
you
and he's going to put it on your tongue
that is a calling and an anointing to
preach
and there could be a sensation my wife
when she was baptized in the holy spirit
uh she had her eyes closed because she
was evangelical protestant for many
years and so
carol you know pentecost was new to her
so she closed her eyes
and when she closed her eyes she had
this this
distinct sensation of somebody shoving
paper a scroll into her mouth and she's
swallowing it they keep putting paper
into her mouth
and but she didn't open her eyes she
thought well this is so new to me maybe
this is what they do here maybe they
shove paper in your mouth
and when she told her pastor that later
who ended up becoming my pastor also
when i
met her when she told her pastor that he
laughed he said oh that's
he said no nobody was shoving any paper
in your mouth that's the silliest thing
i've ever heard
but yet that's what was going on but of
course you read about that in ezekiel
he ate the scroll you read about that in
john the revelator in the book of
revelation he was given the scroll and
told to eat it
and so she was given a scroll to eat
because that was that was a message and
an anointing that god was giving to her
as a minister of the gospel
and there's many women right now that
you've discerned over the
over the years a calling but you've not
known how to respond and maybe you
have even been told god doesn't call
women to ministry
you were given wrong information maybe
it was given sincerely
but it's wrong and so there's an
anointing upon your tongue
maybe a fire upon your shoulders burning
within your heart
even as the two disciples on the road to
demaio said did not our hearts
burn within us while he talked why why
because as he's talking it's just
exploding revelation that's just like
as we would say in our vernacular like
hey you're blowing my mind
okay so it's such an explosion of truth
you're just you're trying to keep up
with it praise god
receive it receive the anointing and
receive a confirmation
by the holy spirit glory to the lord
before any sending out trust me
there's always a commissioning i mean
look we've got that figured out in the
natural
nobody launches a boat without
commissioning
that ship and the lord never launches
anybody without commissioning them
so if there was a true or call a true
calling a true
sending that god has for you trust me
you will
you will know that you will have your
moment your encounter with the lord so
father we thank you we seal that in
jesus
name praise god father bless your people
we thank you
for your word in jesus name praise the
lord there's a lot of
heavenly revelation flowing right now
just receive
it's like colors are coming down and
that's the spirit of wisdom flowing
the seven spirits of the lord mentioned
in isaiah chapter
one excuse me chapter 11 verses one
through three they're each represented
by a different color
so you have the spirit of the lord the
spirit of wisdom and the spirit of
knowledge
the spirit of counsel the spirit of
might the spirit
of the fear of the lord and i think i
missed one somewhere in there
but they're all there verses one through
three so but they're also represented by
different colors the spirit of knowledge
the color yellow
the spirit of wisdom the color red and
so forth
that's a different teaching on that why
those colors relate to that
but that's that's coming down right now
upon you lord we give you praise
we thank you for revelation knowledge
flowing and we thank you that it's
in a lot of that's in association with
the ministry of your holy spirit
so thank you father for the fresh oil
and the anointing of your spirit
in jesus name amen praise the lord
if you're watching today and you don't
know the lord as your savior
he's waiting right now for you to call
upon him
and if you do he'll save you from all of
your sins and give you his
new eternal life within your heart
if you would like to receive him as
savior
and lord will you commit your whole life
to him
pray right now don't wait another moment
pray this prayer after me say lord jesus
i'm a sinner but you died to save
sinners
like me jesus come into my heart
i choose you right now as my
lord and savior wash all of my sin away
give me your new life write my name
in your book of life jesus
thank you for hearing this prayer thank
you for saving me
in your name i pray amen
my friends he has heard your prayer and
he has saved
your soul praise god now live for him
live for him and enjoy him all the days
of
your life praise the lord by the way
those of you who have
made that prayer your next step is to
get water baptized so you need to find
somebody a mature believer
perhaps even a minister maybe somebody
that's influenced you to make this
decision
you need to find somebody that can lead
you into water baptism
praise god glory to god hallelujah now
let's take holy communion grab some
unleavened bread
a little wafer and grab some grape juice
the reason it's as we would say
unleavened is because leaven
was always a type of sin
and we're going to use unleavened bread
praise the lord
let's pray over it and sanctify it which
means to set apart us holy
father we thank you for the bread the
juice we consecrate it through this
prayer
as being holy we thank you this is now
the body
and the blood of jesus and father
whenever we take communion
we thank you we proclaim the lord's
death
until he comes we think that he is
coming back
and so father we thank you that he died
for us and through his death
at calvary he made
redemption available for us from sin
we thank you for that we thank you
father god for full redemption
we thank you for his body bruised and
beaten and and all kinds of
very difficult things they tore his back
up
all the sudden they ripped his beard out
punched him in the face
nailed him to a cross and father we
receive his body
we thank you that he took all of that
and all of our sin so that we could be
free from the curse
of the law father we thank you
we thank you for it and we believe that
we step into it
we receive his body now and all of his
benefits
in jesus name amen
let's receive
the holy spirit will always
100 of the time always exalt jesus
he will always reveal jesus
he will magnify jesus that is his
ministry
and he will bring you closer to the lord
and give you greater understanding of
him
yes he is a teacher teaching about jesus
he's a consoler the counselor
giving us insight into jesus praise god
father thank you for the blood of our
savior
as we receive it we thank you for the
ministry of the holy spirit
we thank you for the shed blood of
christ
for the redemption of our sins we have
committed and he sinned it we ask that
you would forgive us and he sins
knowingly or even
unknowingly we ask that you would
forgive us
and we forgive anybody who has sinned
against us
thank you father for your protection
from the evil one
we thank you for keeping us in jesus
then we pray
amen let's receive
praise the lord my friend say goodbye to
the old grasshoppers
it's got real quiet you're not hearing
the chirping
now let let the word affect your mind
and let the holy spirit minister to you
and rest upon you and reside
fully within you you'll see that the
holy spirit
and his anointing truly does make all
the difference
[Music: "The Anointing" by Jeff Fenholt from "Jeff Fenholt LIVE". Messiah Records 1989.]
the spirit
of my jesus
is upon me
for he has in me
to bring good times
[Music]
the oh
and proclaiming
to the captain
heavens of the prisons
to those who are bound
[Music]
it's this
and it makes all the difference
once you know
here
you will never ever
[Music]
once it's arrested upon you
[Music]
and he will teach you
how
in to name
so
[Music]
in jesus name
[Music]
you will cast out demons
in jesus name
[Music]
you will speak with neuters
[Music]
[Music]
they shall recover
all these things
you shall do
[Music]
name
and it makes a difference
you will never ever
once it's arrested
in jesus name
[Music]
[Music]
is
[Music]
[Music]
he will teach you
in jesus name
oh
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]