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
because i'm convinced fully persuaded
that god's word is able to build you up
to do
everything that he has called you to do
and most importantly to become the
person that he wants you to be
and that is the christian the believer
who moves into the full mature image of
christ jesus and that my friends is
unfolding in your life today praise god
now let's take our bibles and
we're going to go over to proverbs
chapter 3.
and just for a moment i want to talk
about a scripture
and then we're going to receive the
tithes and the offerings now we're not
going to receive ties but the tithes the
tithe means ten percent praise god
we see something fascinating here in
proverbs chapter three
but first let me say this
you know it was about about this time
last year
when my wife and i were talking with the
christian businesswoman
and
she
she while we were in her store she
basically made a statement
that
her
store her business will never fail
and we said why
and she didn't say because god is lord
and
jesus is jehovah gyra she said watch
this she said because my husband has a
very successful business
and
he will contribute to my business should
there ever be a challenge this business
is not going anywhere
well just a few days ago
we received a bulk
general email in our email box and it
said the the header on the email said
going out of business
60 off everything in the store
i thought well her husband must have had
a hiccup and she must have had a hiccup
and now she's closing the doors on
her
business that will never go out of
business my friends
your faith needs to be in the lord not
in a person and god can work through
people and god can pour through vessels
but don't ever forget who the source is
the source is god
he is the lord and when you work his
biblical principles and you have faith
in him
even should every other source run dry
he will never run dry he is the river of
provision that will never
run dry till this day
since the lord in eternity passed
going back back back before uh we even
would have an awareness or knowledge of
before
the lord ever created an angel
till this day since then till this day
god has never laid off one angel he has
never said gabriel come over here and
get a sheet of paper and a pen i'm going
to dictate to you we need to lay off a
hundred thousand angels because we're
having a heavenly recession
such a thing has never happened nor will
it ever happen
and my friends when your faith and trust
is in the lord not somebody else
although god may work through somebody
else but when your faith and trust is in
the lord
you'll never know financial failure woo
praise the lord you'll never know it
you'll never know it
hallelujah pastor stephen that's a
pretty bold statement
well the word of god is pretty bold
hallelujah and when you lift the
principles when you work the principles
excuse me they create lift praise god
hallelujah just like the sun's going to
come up tomorrow morning watch it'll do
it just like the sun's going to come up
tomorrow morning god's faithfulness in
your area of finances will always be
there
if you're in covenant with him
now if you're leaning on the arm of
human flesh
and things get rough because there are
natural sickle uh
cycles that are even annually or
sometimes once a decade or they can be
but they're cyclical and they go through
the
uh the world economic current and people
can feel that but in the lord
you can go up
that's the miracle of it not only we're
not only talking about being sustained
but you can go upstream when others are
being perhaps even washed away with the
downstream current praise the lord
look at a tremendous key in going upward
when others could even go backwards look
at this proverbs chapter 3
verse 9
honor
the lord with your possessions
and with the first fruits of all your
increase now think about that just for a
moment
honor the lord with your possessions
let's reverse engineer that
if you can honor the lord financially
did you know that you can also do things
that dishonor god with what you have in
your hand or what or what you don't
release that could be in your hand
what is the tithe
well pastor stephen the tithe is ten
percent
of
uh that which god brings into your life
of increase or you know ten percent from
the check that you get but ten percent
belongs to the lord yes the tithe is the
lord's but as we dig deeper what is the
tithe
the tithe
is proof
of honor
i want to say that again
your tithe is proof
of honor
pastor stephen i fear god that's good do
you honor god well that's a different
story well we need to fear the lord
reverence and respect god
but we also my friends
need to more fully encompass that by
honoring the lord and honor is a very
big thing in the kingdom of god
not only should we honor the lord with
the tithe with first fruits
but the
the revelation of the first fruits
basically is this you do it first okay
so you should not only give the lord the
tithe which is his it's 10 that's that's
what he asked for
okay 10
but not only should you give it but you
give it first
so the first thing you do is you don't
pay your phone bill the first thing you
do is you don't pay your electric bill
the first thing you do is you take the
10 percent and you set it to the side
and you bring that into the storehouse
that belongs to god
this is what some people do this is what
some christians do
pastor stephen i'd like to do that but i
don't i don't do that how come i i don't
have enough money left over that's why
that's exactly why you don't have enough
money left over
because you're not putting god first
you're not putting the lord first so you
honor the lord
okay and not not just in words but in
action in obedience to the scriptures
you honor the lord by tithing and the
tithe goes first
pastor stephen i just received an
inheritance from a long lost uncle i
have been given 50 million dollars 50
million dollars praise the lord 10 tithe
belongs to the lord and needs to be
brought into the storehouse well i'll do
it after an extravagant shopping spree
no no no the tithe belongs to the lord
and the tithe is done first the first
fruits are first not last fruits first
fruits it doesn't matter it's 50 million
dollars or a 50 blessing five of it five
dollars belongs to the lord 5 million
belongs to the lord praise god
hallelujah well i don't think i'm going
to do that pastor stephen then you
dishonor the lord and you'll stand
before him one day for having dishonored
him in the area of finances i didn't say
you're not going to make it to heaven if
your faith is in christ you can go to
heaven without being a tither you can go
to heaven doing all kinds of goofy
things because of the great mercy and
love of god i'm not giving you license
to sin
but i am giving you scriptures that will
get you into the area of blessing
look at this
look at this this is powerful first
samuel
chapter 2
and we drop down to verse
29. why do you kick at my sacrifice
and my offering
which i have commanded in my dwelling
place and honor your sons more than me
to make yourselves fat with the best of
all the offerings of israel my people so
this is a prophet
the lord is speaking through the prophet
to the high priest eli
and eli has been very slack in his
responsibilities
his sons and really
the other workers the priests there at
the tabernacle system are being very
sinful in many of the things that they
are doing and allowing there at the
tabernacle and the lord's fed up
have you ever had a enough to eat and
somebody says are you full and your only
response is yep i'm fed up well god got
fed up with all of this all of the
dishonor and disrespect taking place at
the sacred offering and he said you
honor your sons more than me
so it's not like people don't know how
to give honor
it's just that they're not giving it to
god
therefore in other words therefore is a
sum total of what has been spoken before
therefore the lord god of israel says
i said indeed that your house
and the house of your father would walk
before me forever
also we could have had a dynasty going
on here special lineage yep well it's
over with as of right now
but now the lord says
far be it from me
for those who honor me
i
will
honor in other words the lord sees it
the lord notices it he takes note of it
and if you will honor the lord he will
not he might he will honor you
watch the part be that's part a here's
part b
and those who despise me
this is in context of giving offerings
and those who despise me
shall be lightly
esteemed
wow
you know what's a crazy reality in the
earth right now
there are full-grown adults in their 40s
and 50s dare i say 70s
who have been on the planet for all of
those decades
and they have not given god
in their whole time on the planet earth
not even one
penny
not a penny
you don't think that's dishonorable
they give it everywhere else give money
everywhere else purchase this buy that
exchange uh goods and services do all
this stuff and their whole life they've
never given god one offering
wow
praise the lord well my friends we're
not walking in darkness we're lock we're
walking in light
and we are walking in the blessing let's
honor the lord with the tithe that
belongs to him but let's let's honor him
by giving it first not last
when there's hardly you know maybe two
percent left over let's fix that mess
where there's not two percent well
there's a surplus you get into the
surplus by working the word and doing
what it says
and putting
the tithe first
the quality
of your life
is defined by following the instructions
from god's word here's your life
instruction manual in the instruction
manual is proverbs 3
chapter proverbs chapter 3 verse 9
and 10.
now
everywhere
in scripture that abundance is mentioned
obedience
is demanded it's not optional if you
want to get into the blessing it's
demanded
everywhere abundance is mentioned
obedience is demanded so let's take one
more look at that beautiful scripture
from proverbs
proverbs 3 verse 9 honor the lord with
your possessions and with the first
fruits of all your increase so your
barns will be filled with plenty
filled
with plenty
and your vats will overflow with new
wine goodbye shortage
goodbye lack and insufficiency
regardless of what's going on out there
in the world with uh crazy economic
turmoil you'll be in a place of fullness
plenty and even
overflow but we have to follow
biblical instructions in order to taste
the good blessings that god desires to
bring into our lives praise the lord and
many of you are already tasting the
grapes of the canaan land and it's not
by luck or chance or accident it's based
on obeying scripture praise the lord
once again the quality of your life is
defined by following the instructions
from god's word well let's follow those
instructions right now let's bring the
tithe
and let's sow some seed give an offering
and bring it into the storehouse now
those of you that prefer to mail in your
tithes and offerings please send them to
stephen brooks international p.o box
717 moravian falls north carolina the
zip code 28654
what a joy to sow seed and reap a
harvest what a joy to bring god the tide
that belongs to him and have a divine
covenant of protection and blessing and
spiritual reign illumination of the
spirit falling upon your mind
those of you that like to
bring your tithes and offerings in
online you could do so from anywhere in
the world
day or night please visit the ministry
website
stephenbrooks.org there's a link on the
home page it has a red heart it says
give
you can click on that you'll see the
segment for the tithes you'll see the
segment for some uh options to give into
various projects where you could give an
offering praise the lord thank you for
your giving
thank you for your generosity and most
of all
thank you for your obedience to the word
of god you know i think about what the
the elder john said in the old excuse me
in the new testament there's no greater
joy than to see
that the children of god are walking in
truth
there's no greater joy for a minister
than to see god's people obeying the
scriptures
god's going to honor you because you
honor him father bless your people bless
bless
your people as they honor you
particularly in this area of finances
which is very important
we thank you oh god that you are
bestowing honor upon them we give you
praise in jesus great name
we all say amen
and amen praise god
let's go to the book of daniel today
we're going to journey into the book of
daniel
and i want to talk about
wisdom
and might
for end time
conquest glory to god
we are in the end times
we are now living in the days foretold
by the prophets of old such as jeremiah
excuse me uh particularly i'm thinking
right now about isaiah isaiah chapter 60
verse 1 we are told in the last days
that gross darkness will come upon the
earth my friends were there
where there is such darkness and
confusion that people don't even know
what gender they are the the the
confusion and the darkness
are actually uh increasing like a thick
black cloud but
hallelujah it's during that time that
god says that the glory will be seen
upon you his glory will be seen upon his
people and it's the time it's the best
time for the church it is the lifting up
of the church this is what you have been
waiting for now is your moment
to step into the light to step into the
glory and we want to talk about some
things that we can do to experience end
time conquest praise god let's pray
heavenly father as we go into your word
let your holy spirit come right now
bringing the spirit of wisdom and
revelation
like a torch a light so that the eyes of
our heart
are illuminated with understanding so we
can see your word take it apply it and
run with it
and experience the powerful
results that it brings thank you
thank you father for the ministry of
your holy spirit in jesus name we pray
and we say amen
daniel 1 verse 1
in the third year of the reign of
jehoiakim king of judah nebuchadnezzar
king of babylon came to jerusalem and
besieged it
well this has been a build up many
prophets have said uh judah repent
repent isaiah the prophet said repent
repent they had enough of him manasseh
had isaiah the prophet saw it in half
and so it's uh there was enough warnings
there was enough warnings they did not
humble themselves and repent and so off
the captivity they go and what you read
here my friends is a result of pride
arrogance and a stubborn refusal to
repent and to turn back to the living
god verse 2 and the lord gave jehoiakim
king of judah into his hand with some of
the articles of the house of god which
he carried into the land of shinar to
the house of his god and he brought the
articles into the treasure house of his
god now we move down to verse three
then the king instructed
ash panas the master of his eunuchs to
bring some of the children of israel and
some of the king's descendants
some of the nobles
young men in whom there was no blemish
but good looking
gifted in all wisdom possessing
knowledge and quick to understand who
had the ability to serve in the king's
palace
well what we're seeing here is what
conquering kings
have implemented throughout the
the history of the earth pretty much
even up until recent times we see many
of examples of this
you don't have to look far it was just
back in the 1800s
when the turkish empire was ruling a
huge segment of the area that we would
know as the middle east
and
during that that rule it was it was a
muslim rule and what they would do when
they would conquer
an area a smaller nation or a new
territory they would take captives
particularly young men
and they would bring them back to their
muslim capital and what they especially
liked to do was if they conquered an
area and there were christians they
would take the christian young men and
they would change their names and give
them a muslim name and then they would
educate them in their in their ways
and uh impart to them their knowledge
and then they would send that young
person back
to
rule over a territory underneath their
authority and their their control back
from the home base
and so
that was a standard method of operating
even
much more recent times with the british
empire
with the famous slogan
the british empire was an empire upon
which the sun never sat that's because
the empire extended so far into
different time zones in the different
geographic areas that it was so big that
literally the sun never set on it all in
one place it was too large but the
british empire implemented the same
tactics if they conquered a territory
and of course they conquered many
territories they would they would hand
select the best young people they would
take them captive because they've
already conquered the land they would
bring them back to england and they
would educate
those people those captives basically
that are now subjugated they would
educate them at oxford and cambridge and
then after they have poured their
knowledge and their influence into them
they would then send them back to their
home country
and establish that person now in a high
position like governor or something like
that so they can now rule and uh impart
that influence of england upon now that
conquered territory that's what it means
when you say something was anglicized
they're taking the english culture
customs and so forth and they're trying
to implement or stamp that up on the
culture that they have now conquered
and
you know when i was in india you know
you still see quite a few remnants of
that and uh
the indians love their tea time
where did that come from well that came
from the english during the uh period of
uh colonizing all of these different
parts around the world and uh and uh uh
exporting their culture and so forth
which of course included christianity
but also their culture which is drinking
tea so you have a lot of cultures now
all over the world that love to drink
tea even down in australia they like to
have their tea time and in india they
like to have their tea time and some of
the best chai tea i've ever had has been
in south india well my friends this is
no different from what nebuchadnezzar is
doing right here he has conquered the
land that we know
as israel or judea and he has taken
these judeans and he has brought them
now remember
he is hand selecting the best of them
that tells us that daniel shadrach
meshach and abednego and and those three
that that's their babylonian names that
tells us that they are actually of royal
lineage
so this is very amazing about daniel all
these guys are very handsome they're
very smart
and
normally the
ones that would be picked
by nebuchadnezzar or uh it was kind of
the same regardless of where it might be
but you want the young people that are
old enough to
understand what's going on but they also
still have to be moldable so normally
the typical age that they they're going
to pull from would be between the ages
of 14 to 17. so daniel most likely at
this time is probably only 16 or 17
years old and they are being pulled into
this special training to be molded
and basically uh nebuchadnezzar is
trying to make them babylonians he's
trying to remove their jewish culture
remove their jewish identity and he's
trying to stamp upon them his culture
and his identity which is why we see the
next thing there in verse 4
it says that they might teach the
language and literature of the chaldeans
to
these noble jews such as daniel and his
three friends so they want them number
one to learn the language and then also
uh the literature read the books and so
forth so uh many of you that can speak
multiple languages you know this if you
learn
the language of a different culture you
catch their spirit
what do you mean by that if if you learn
that language and you become fluent in
it that gives you a huge insight into
the way that people group is the way
they think why they do what they do and
you begin to see
really who they are in their unique
identity when you learn their language
and so this is very important
particularly for missionaries that go
out on the mission field you're going to
have to learn that language and the
better you are at it uh the more
native that you become at it the more
that you're going to be received and the
better of course you're going to
understand who you're working with
praise god oh the beauty of all the
cultures that god has created so
we move on now verse 5 and the king
appointed for them a daily provision of
the king's delicacies
and of the wine which you drank and
three years of training for them the
number three is very significant in
areas of training it represents
symbolically a completion and so it took
three years of packing intensive
training into these already young
talented brilliant young men and they
pop out of the other other end of that
and they have had uh the best
uh poured into them so that they might
serve the king effectively
so that at the end of that time they
might serve before the king now from
among those of the sons of judah or
daniel hananiah michelle and azariah to
them the chief of the eunuchs gave names
so there's the name change also we see
that with uh just nebuchadnezzar
basically saying hey i want you to morph
into our culture and become just like us
and you know we're going to work
together but you've got to you got to
take this new identity
he gave the name
daniel uh he gave daniel the name belt
beltachazar to hananiah shadrach to
michelle meshach and to azariah
abed nego verse 8 now watch this
very carefully
but daniel purposed in his heart that he
would not defile himself
with the portions of the king's
delicacies nor
with the wine
which he drank
now the wine
this is something that you have to study
but the wines they were drinking even in
the biblical times of christ
are very very different from the wines
that you see today if you go into a
normal grocery store or we could even
say a liquor store and you see bottles
of wine you have to understand that the
the wines back in the bible days
were not like that why
first of all we didn't have glass back
then now there was glass but if if you
had
a vase of glass
that was about twice the size of this
cup and it was made out of glass
you would probably have the wealth of a
of a of a billionaire and uh it was
possible
uh to have a glass cup that would be
this big but if this was in your house
the cup is worth more than the entire
house and the only time they ever found
glass
back in those days was in the homes of
those were that were extravagantly
wealthy so without these things without
refrigeration
how do you how do you preserve wine well
it would it would be boiled down into a
paste that was called dibs and then you
would reconstitute it later by adding
water to it and you would carry the dibs
and uh your leather pouch and so forth
and on and on it goes but basically in
this essence is what i'm trying to say
is that daniel they uh and his fellows
they knew that this wine is what the
barbarians drank okay they knew this
wine is what the pagans drink why it's
potent
yeah just like wine today two glasses
you're legally drunk you go out and
drive after doing that you could kill
yourself or kill somebody else that's
that type of wine they're like hey we
can't we can't have our heads messed up
we can't be walking around in a cloud
it is astounding to me
how
[Music]
many people in america are really
actually alcoholics
they may not admit it but the truth is
is they can't stop drinking they have to
have their uh their night cap their
little scotch on the rocks or go to the
bar and get their martini and and stare
at it and the color for glass with all
the a little hoopla that they put on it
to make you look cool and i'm not saying
it doesn't taste good but i'm just
saying there's a lot of people that are
enslaved alcohol so as for me and my
wife we never touch it i never ever
drink alcohol or any type of alcoholic
beverage neither does my wife we stay
completely away from it i believe it's
extremely dangerous and daniel said no
no we're not drinking this wine and also
very very importantly he did not defile
himself with a portion of the king's
delicacies we have a real problem here
with the king's delicacies because
the meat that's being served here
is
saturated with blood now remember
daniel's making these decisions he knows
he knows tor law he's a sharp sharp
young man and he's a royal lineage the
other fellows do too that are along with
him they know hey this is this is going
against the torah
uh for those of you that like filet
mignon or steak
rare
medium rare with blood dripping out of
it
we're gonna have an interesting talk for
probably the next five minutes
daniel and his young fellows both
don't have their mom and dad saying hey
now you know what moses said in the law
uh we can't eat that they already knew
that but they're making this choice out
of their conscience and they're not
going to defile themselves by eating
meat
that is saturated with blood they love
the pagans love blood in their meat
it has been common throughout ancient
history for pagan cultures to drink
animal blood
and to
think that by drinking the blood of that
animal that they are receiving the
strength or the power of that animal
and unfortunately quite a few customs
uh of this exist still in the world
today through sadly throughout asia and
that's why they think if they
if they drink the blood of the tiger uh
they're going to have that virility of a
tiger i've seen uh sadly i've seen that
taking place even today that's why we
have a lot of these beautiful exotic
animals endangered why because some
some goofball maybe even a christian
goofball wants to eat it or drink its
blood or take its horn and grind it into
powder and drink it
how stupid
how utterly stupid lord have mercy on
christians who
follow
cultural customs
that violate the word of god
and are just gross you should have
enough sense as a christian to know this
is stupid this is gross this is not
biblical we should not be gulping this
down this is dumb this is superstition
i'm stepping on somebody's toes right
now
and to be honest i'm having a good time
doing it
because you shouldn't be doing that
stupid stuff
praise the lord
praise god
glory to god now pastor stephen i i have
to admit
i i love a filet mignon
rare because it's juicier and more
tender that way and when i bite into it
and there's blood running everywhere i
just i just like that
well
what does the bible say
leviticus chapter 17.
live it no i don't already know before i
read this there's going to be some
they're going to do it anyhow that's
okay it's between you and the lord
leviticus chapter 17 verse 13
whatever man of the children of israel
or of the strangers who dwell among you
who hunts
and catches any animal or bird that may
be eaten he shall pour out its blood and
cover it cover the blood with dust
for it is the life of all flesh
its blood sustains its life therefore i
said to the children of israel you shall
not eat the blood of any flesh for the
life of all flesh
is its blood whoever eats it shall be
cut off
what does that mean
i'll take my steak well done
no red
oh it tastes better with blood dripping
out of it
well done because i know the torah and i
know the word of god
acts chapter 15 please
we're going over to the new testament
just for a moment we're going to come
back to good old daniel
acts chapter 15 somebody's getting all
troubled about their steak now god bless
you with your meat
acts 15 verse 19
therefore i judge that we should not
trouble those from among the gentiles
who are turning to god
but that re but that we write to them to
abstain from things polluted by idols
from sexual immorality
from things
strangled
and
from blood okay things strangled
through
animals strangled how come i can't eat a
strangled animal because it wasn't
killed properly and if it's if it's been
strangled that means the blood has not
been drained out of it and now the blood
is congealed within the veins or the
various parts of the animal
and uh god said don't do that you're not
supposed to be eating all of that blood
verse 28
for it seemed good to the holy spirit
let that go into your heart
for it seemed good to the holy spirit
and to us
to lay upon you
no greater burden than these necessary
things that you abstain from things
offered to idols i don't have any
problem with that from blood pastor
stephen i like blood why
that's kind of weird
why do you want to drink blood
okay i'm just giving you what the
scriptures say
to lay upon you no greater burden than
these
necessary things that you abstain from
things offered the idols from blood from
things strangled that means they weren't
killed in the proper way and from sexual
immorality if you keep yourselves from
these you will
do well and daniel said boys
the king's wanting us to eat all this
royal meat and it's loaded
loaded with blood not only that
there's mr porky on the table
and we can't eat mr porky pig because we
we are told that he's an unclean animal
and daniel said we're not going to eat
porky the pig and the pig i'm sure was
greatly relieved but my friends um
not only was the pig
described in scripture as being unclean
but uh i grew up as a young boy on a
farm we had hogs and once a year there
was the annual hog slaughter oh my
grandmother grandfather and parents all
christians but christians
who never read the old testament
i mean we read the story about moses
crossing the red sea we read things like
that but as far as really examining the
old testament no we didn't really pay
attention to it that's all law we're
under grace now and so most of time
we're doing things to any jew would look
at and say
those gentiles are crazy so we would
have our annual hog slaughter down in
the backwoods of mississippi the hogs
are all nervous but that's just the way
it was their day had come uh and so we
take uh hogs and these are big hogs we
had one hog weighed 500 pounds take him
and
uh you know you cut the throat
and the blood starts coming out and you
hang him by his feet for a while
throw a rope over tree branch big strong
tree branch
pull the hog up take a couple men to
pull him up you always had helpers other
people come in come in and help and uh
you know big pop uh
cauldron boiling of hot water because
you're gonna need a lot of hot water for
what you're about to do and it was
butchering time but here's the thing did
you know that you could never drain a
pig
you could let him hang upside down with
his head cut off because that just you
know
you cut that area and then they they
bleed them out then you take the head
off but you can't you can't not bleed a
pig
you may have a pork chop you may not see
any squishy rich stuff coming out of it
but you cannot drain a pig
i've seen pigs they eat their own
excrement
pigs are loaded with viruses and germs
and all that and that all gets into the
bloodstream and if you drink that blood
you're drinking
everything that's being carried in that
blood
so just things i think that you should
think about all the little creepy
crawlies pastor stephen
uh i like spider
that's gross you know there are some
nationalities they like spider the
bigger the better catch it
fry it up throw a snake in there eat a
nice squirmy snake
pigs shrimp scallops
uh on and on it goes
wow
but my friends those things
are listed in scripture as
not on the food category did you know
that in the mind of the jewish rabbis
that a pig is not even considered food
if god did not authorize it to be eaten
they don't even view it as being food oh
but you can pastor steven you could put
sauce on it and cook it cut it up and
eat it tastes good they don't it doesn't
matter they don't consider pig they
don't consider spider they don't
consider these other things as food
so for them they don't it's not even an
option look all i'm saying is that if
you want longevity you want to go to 120
then those
those
rules those guidelines are not just put
there for no reason
and many of these
i would call them bottom dwellers
they're they're they're the filtering
devices for our lakes and our ponds and
our oceans and they're unclean because
they're they're the garbage trucks of
the world oh pastor stephen i love to
eat shark
well you're eating on the bottom i love
catfish you're eating on the bottom
those are all those are all scum trash
eaters
did you ever notice that when you eat
according to god's laws god's
clean laws you're eating from the top
it's considered clean
praise the lord well what did daniel
decide to do
they said
they said we can't we can't eat that
because it's
it's um
wrong according to mosaic law
and so what do they ask for
lentils
and they went through a test
and the
assistant the the one that was over the
maybe we could call it the dean of the
school i said wow you guys are you're
looking better than anybody else
and you know they'd laid off no no wine
and
none of these unclean foods and stuff
like that and they're they're moved into
perhaps we could call it the vegetarian
diet
and if you've ever been in certain
countries like i've been in india for
extended periods of time
uh
you realize hey i could i could i could
become a vegetarian i haven't had it for
weeks doing just fine and a lot of that
has to do with good spices you've got
good spices you have lentils and stuff
like that you can cover just about every
flavor palette without even having to
have meat now i am a meat eater but i'm
just saying
these guys are in a situation they're
only out was to go to the vegetarian
route they ate lentils and they were
just fine
praise the lord thank you jesus so god
will honor your consecration
we see that in verse 15 and at the end
of 10 days their features appeared
better and fatter in flesh than all the
young men who ate the portion of the
king's delicacies thus the steward took
away their portion of delicacies and the
wine that they were to drink and gave
them vegetables and in the hebrew that
is lentils praise god
thank you jesus some of you um i'm not
trying to put you under law but i am
saying that if you want to
live out your life in health and reach
that old age and not be all encrypted
and messed up when you get there you
should you should examine these things
so that you have health in your body not
sickness and disease praise the lord
thank you lord now
let's look at something very interesting
here in verse verse 18. now at the end
of the days when the king had said that
they should be brought in the chief of
the eunuchs brought them in before
nebuchadnezzar then the king interviewed
them and among them all none was found
like daniel hananiah michelle and
azariah therefore they served before the
king
and in all matters of wisdom and
understanding about which the king
examined them he found them ten times
better than all the magicians and
astrologers who were in all his realm
this shows something very
fascinating also about nebuchadnezzar he
was a brilliant man he was able to ask
questions and frame them in a way
that separated these four from the
others the questions that they were
asking
were so
um complex that it revealed the
brilliance of those four that tells you
that nebuchadnezzar was one sharp king
he was one well-informed man
and even the magicians
these
astrologers were very smart people the
word magician or maggie the root word
in the hebrew and ancient aramaic means
a scribe it means to write so these were
very scholarly well-studied people and
yes those that were doing astrology
they
they mixed in a lot of astronomy why
they were studying the stars because
they wanted to be able to predict the
future through endeavoring to read the
stars so they're a brilliant group but
these four had something super special
upon their life and i believe that the
lord is going to touch you in a special
way today
praise god
now let's drop down to chapter two
we're going to begin to move towards the
heart of what i want to talk about today
yes pastor steve i'm listening very
intently with my uh
my biscuit and pork sausage sandwich
you know all the good
christians down south
they're not going to give up their pork
for nothing so i'm not trying to get
people to give up pork
there's probably somebody going through
the drive-through at bojangles right now
pork is super big
in north carolina
but it is good to know the word the word
does bring illumination a lot of times
what people don't realize is
the the taste that they like of pork is
actually not the pork it's the
seasonings or the spices that they're
putting into the pork if you eat pork
all by itself
i actually don't like it i don't even
like the way it tastes all right on we
go praise god we'll leave porky pig
alone hallelujah
we're in daniel chapter 2 verse 12.
for this reason what is the reason
we're going to see that the king gets
very volatile super angry why
well the reason why is because he had a
dream
the dream
uh and it just it was repeating and
his sleep would leave him but he would
wake up and the dream would just be
pulled back and he could not pull the
dream up and he
calls everybody together in the morning
all of his counselors wise men magi so
to speak and gets them all together and
he wants to know what the dream is
and you actually see
that god is
concealing that dream from him he would
dream it but he can't
he can't remember it but he knows it's
stupendous and he must have an
understanding of it but even he himself
is like
what what was it and so
god's doing this on purpose why
because if
if nebuchadnezzar just tells them the
dream
then hey
how do you know that the interpretation
is not just
something that they're making up because
after all he is
the
he's like a dictator and you want to
present to him a good interpretation so
the the dream
interpretation we could muddy the waters
in other words we could
we can twist the meeting of the dream
because we want it to be presented to
him good so you see how god is actually
working here because god's going to make
this a situation that is beyond all of
these quote wise men unquote and only
god's going to be able to unveil it
through his servant
and so
the king is going to do something very
wild here
but actually if you look at it
it's actually very logical
look at verse 12. for this reason the
king was angry and very furious why
nobody could interpret it
because they don't know what it is and
so all the wise men are saying well tell
us the dream we'll tell you what it
means he goes no you tell me what i
dreamt and also give the interpretation
and they just became absolutely
flustered
and said in verse 11 it is a difficult
thing that the king request and there is
no other there is no other who can tell
it to the king except the gods whose
dwelling is not with flesh
okay so you see god setting this up
because this is going to prove there is
no other god but god
now watch what the king does it seems
kind of crazy and it is
but there's there's actually reason in
it this reason the king was angry and
very furious and gave the command to
destroy all the wise men of babylon
so the creed went out and they began
killing the wise men
oh by the way they're looking for daniel
and his companions to kill them also
all right so it's actually a very
logical thing he's doing because
he's basically saying
if you can't do this then you really are
all frauds and i don't need you anyhow
so if there cannot be some type of
verification
where i know that you're not pulling my
leg or you know just giving me a spin
job here i'm just going to get rid of
all of you anyhow and start all over
again
now of course that's not something you
would want to do on a regular basis
you're going to
i mean
you still need smart people so you don't
want to throw them all out but that's
what he's decided to do
and this is
something that you do see at times in
crazy dictators remember he's an ungodly
king
we see that with joseph stalin for
example
who was a tyrant
he actually slew
all of his generals he didn't like them
he thought maybe there are some that
were plotting against him and he just
said
he signed an order killed every single
one of them so everybody from
uh
the rank of an officer that was a
colonel and up they all got executed so
he killed 103 of his highest ranking
military
personnel just killed them not to
mention
60 million
other people he was a butcher 20 million
for sure
that historians say were murdered by
stalin of his own people
not through war or anything like that
just through cold-hearted cruel
brutality
he was
you know where he's at now you know he's
in hell
but uh we see sometimes dictators do
this crazy
luna lunatune stuff here's the
nebuchadnezzar kill em all
crazy
crazy stuff uh in the cambodia
revolution you saw the marxist leader
pol pot uh he went total cuckoo and the
chinese communist backed him up and
really gave him the power to go totally
bananas in his home country and he began
killing anybody that had intelligence if
you had any type of higher education
kill them immediately even if you wore
glasses which were a sign of somebody
that was studious or had intelligence
they thought kill anybody wearing
glasses
if you could speak a second language
much less a third or fourth killed them
killed them and he wanted to reduce
everything back to a
agrarian culture
where we all share food together and we
all live in a communal system
and the whole thing left the nation in
absolute destitute poverty and he
murdered people groups by the hundreds
of thousands
um awful crazy things
so with dictators the closer one is to
the center of power the greater the risk
of your life is
well i'm the right hand of the king well
uh that's good
uh for now it is unless he has another
blowout mood watch out
okay well the king's having one of those
here verse 13. so the cree went out and
they began killing the wise men and they
sought daniel and his companions to kill
them
now we come to number excuse me verse 14
then with counsel
and wisdom
daniel answered arioch the captain of
the king's guard who had gone out to
kill the wise men of babylon he answered
and said the arioch the king's captain
why is the decree from the king so
urgent
then ariak made the decision known to
daniel now again notice what daniel said
the beginning of verse 14
then with counsel
and wisdom
daniel
answered that's very important
now let me say this if you want to be
used by the lord in these end times and
i know that you do
i know that you want to be a vessel that
god can work through to bring him glory
and to accomplish his purpose and to
further extend his kingdom
but in order to do this to be
used mightily by the lord
you're going to have to major in wisdom
wisdom is the end time
major subject
of the church
walking in the last days
then with counsel and wisdom daniel
answered ariak i want to show you
something
in the same flow that's found in the
book of first samuel chapter 18
and perhaps some of you that are
watching me can identify
with the scripture that i'm about to
read to you
first samuel
chapter 18
let's go down to verse 5
praise the lord
so david went out wherever saul sent him
and behaved
wisely and saul sent him over the men of
war and he was accepted in the sight of
all the people and also in the sight of
saul's servants now look at it again so
david went out wherever saul sent him
and behaved
wisely let me tell you this if you
behave like an idiot it's over before it
ever begins
you're going to have to major on wisdom
if you want to reach the top point b
here is that sometimes
in the
divine plan of god
wow
sometimes you may find yourself
where you absolutely
must be under
a saul
and you think oh god
maybe i'm out of your will no
no
you can be exactly perfectly in the will
of god and yet be serving under an
incompetent person
be serving beneath the person who flies
off in a rage like saul and uh would
curse and get all hot and stuff like
that
i'm not saying you need to stay in an
abusive dangerous environment but i am
saying sometimes you can find yourself
in god's perfect will yet being beneath
the authority or under the uh assignment
of assault somebody who's jealous
somebody who's incompetent
and like david
and also like daniel you could even be
under the authority of a wicked man
what is the key here the key is to walk
in wisdom you're going to have to walk
in wisdom to know how to deal with these
types of personalities to know how to
deal with these complex situations
you're going to have to major on wisdom
in order to move forward in god's plan
for your life
praise god
because sometimes you can't get out of
it
i remember working a a job years back
before the lord put me in ministry full
time and i was working late at night uh
in the home improvement store that so
many many of you are familiar with that
i've told before but i was working there
and it was late at night and so there's
no customers in the store
and
my department manager and i
were going to move shower doors that
were lined up in top stock and we're
going to move them down and stock them
in the area that has sold out and now
needs new stock okay so we go up real
high on uh forklift type machines where
we lift it up and we step over to these
racks and
we're high up off the ground and this
rack of brand new shower glass doors
each one in its own special box
is lined up one after another all down a
long line
and uh
uh we're gonna move them down to the
lower level and he's the manager and i'm
working under him and we're working
together to carry out this assignment
his name was sherman and sherman said
stephen
we're gonna take these down and we're
gonna move these do all this and this is
how we're going to do it i said sherman
um
i don't think that's a good idea because
if you move this and that
uh then you're removing the support from
that area
and if it started to lean or something
like that we can't hold that much weight
back now if it does fall
yeah it's going to end at a certain
point so nobody could get hurt but i i
don't think that's a good idea i know
what i'm doing here
i know what i'm doing here we need to
get this job done well
all right sherman if you go right ahead
i don't think that's good look look i've
done this before
okay all right i'll i'll
i'll help you out okay so we start
moving some shower doors out and he's
removing some safety uh
hold back bars that he shouldn't remove
because he's trying to speed the process
up
and he removed a few too many and then
he getting there and trying to get one
of these doors out and he pushed real
hard to
give it a pull and when he pushed he
pushed the pile over and it started
falling like dominoes one after another
all the way down and all you could hear
was every time it fell one fell you hear
crash and all of the glass on the inside
of every single one of those doors
shattered and broke you could hear like
all the way to the end
what did he do
oh he loads the mini hound brings them
all down to the bottom and shoves them
into the area where the new stock goes
okay next day store opens up
and i told them i said hey sherman
they're all they're all broken we got to
get rid of them ah we'll get rid of them
we'll get rid of them i'm running things
around here
everything's all right
okay
and so um
uh the next morning the store opens sure
enough about 10 o'clock in the morning
uh somebody comes in to buy a shower
door and they're looking around this
area and he happens to be standing there
and they asked for his help
and he says oh yeah this is the size you
need right here and he loads it on the
cart helps them get on the cart and the
guy says hmm
he says what sounds like broken glass in
there sherman says oh oh oh no that's
not broken glass that's just a bag of
hardware you know
in the hardware bag they put some screws
and uh
other little uh pieces to connect to the
door that's all that is maybe it came
out of the bag
and the customer says well
okay
and he takes the door buys it leaves
comes back later after sherman's off the
clock returns it why the whole thing's
broken why every single one of them is
broken
pastor stephen what happened the old
sherman
oh he got promoted to a different store
there's no no there's no telling what he
broke when he got over there as soon as
he left
me and another guy took every single one
of those broken doors and stuck him back
in what's called was that rta returned
authorization uh rtm return
authorization merchandise or something
like that in other words send it all
back to the manufacturer get some kind
of a refund for it because it's all
broken well
my friends you can be under a person
sometimes you think this is crazy why is
that going on i'll tell you exactly why
god is showing you
that when you're in leadership he's
showing you how right now he's showing
you how not to do it when you get there
and i've had it happen in ministry i've
seen things in ministry and i was
younger and i thought
whoa that's crazy and the lord says yeah
that was real crazy what you saw make
sure you never do that
because you're going to get the same
results if you do what he or she did i
thought oh lord you're talking about the
spirit of the fear of the lord oh thank
you jesus
what do you do what do you do you have
to walk in wisdom
you have to walk in wisdom because you
know you don't want to get you don't
want to get the boot for something
that's actually somebody else's fault so
all of these things are
delicate areas you have to play it as
you go walk it out as you go
thank you lord jesus
hallelujah
so
i think these things are very very
important in the age in which we're
living all right let's go back
very important
praise the lord we're now we're in
daniel chapter 2 let's drop down to
verse 21
and he changes the times and the seasons
he removes kings and raises up kings
and gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have
understanding notice my friends that god
gives wisdom to the wise not to the
idiots
not to the person that just pushes a
whole thing of doors and just breaks
them all in pieces no you don't you
don't have bad experiences and suddenly
say you know what that didn't work i
have now become wise i'll never do that
again no they just keep on doing it
wisdom goes to the wise wisdom goes to
those who crave it to those who want it
praise the lord
wisdom goes to the wise look at
revelation chapter 22.
the holy spirit is going to have you
major on wisdom revelation chapter 22
we're going down to verse 11.
he who is unjust
let him be unjust still
he who is filthy
let him be filthy still
he who is righteous
let him be righteous still
he who is holy
let him be holy
still
if you don't move into
wisdom
you can
lock yourself into a path
of self-deception
where you keep walking that path
thinking things will change but they're
not going to change if you're not
walking in obedience to god's word
and there is a place with the lord in
this area of wisdom that if you fully
commit
and say god
i don't want to be doing stupid stuff
i want to be living right i want to walk
in wisdom i want to walk in
righteousness i want to walk in holiness
i want to walk clean in a dirty world if
you
really express before the lord a great
desire to move into wisdom and to move
into that category
there will come a point
there will come a point god locks you
into it and it clicks and it becomes it
begins to come alive to you and the next
thing you know it's flowing
and you start thinking in wisdom you
start acting in righteousness you start
living in holiness and you have to
understand daniel
even in his day
he was like a living legend
even ezekiel talked about daniel ezekiel
was alive when daniel was ministering
when daniel was in his position of
authority and he said
he said out of the great saints
we have daniel
we have noah and we have job these are
three of the most righteous men to ever
walk on the face of the earth
praise the lord if you want in and
you're you're fully committed and you
want to get into that wisdom of the lord
if you'll set your feet to it there'll
come a place god lock you in but if you
want to stay filthy if you want to stay
stupid if you want to just keep playing
around in the dark or just riding the
fence
watch out you're playing with danger you
could get locked into that because we're
dealing with spiritual also here he who
is unjust let him be unjust still
he who is filthy let him be filthy still
watch out you stay on that path after
continued opportunities to get off of it
continued warnings to get off of it
continued extensions of god's love and
grace and mercy to get off of it watch
out you could lock yourself into that
path where now you're filthy and you
will be filthy still
make the choice today to put your feet
on the right path and say i will live
this way
i will not eat the king's food i will
not drink the king's wine i will not
defile myself i'm not going to put
something into my body that breaks or
violates my conscience or the word of
god i'm going to honor the lord i'm
going to honor the lord
let him who is holy
be holy still
praise the lord thank you lord jesus
now let's jump back to the good book of
daniel
verse 23
i thank you and praise you o god of my
fathers
you have given me wisdom
and might and have now made known to me
what we asked of you for you have made
known to us the king's demand so now
he's able now
the wisdom and might he's now able to go
before the king with
i mean he's he's he's walking on
confidence he's he's loaded with
revelation uh this is not like well i i
think i got the interpretation no no
he's like he walks in there he knows
he's got the answer and he's he's
carrying it like gold
and he's kind of hamming it up there's
the pork again right but he's living for
the moment oh king know that there was
no other but god i mean he's just he's
just he's having a good time and then
he reveals it he pulls back up the
forgotten dream then he gives the
interpretation by the time he's done
they're speechless they're just like
they've never seen anything like it
before
praise god but look at that this is what
daniel said to the lord you have given
me wisdom and might you have given me
wisdom and might
praise the lord what is wisdom
it's knowing from scriptural foundation
which way to go
knowing which way to go what is might
the empowerment to go or the empowerment
to do what has been revealed through
wisdom
wisdom and might here's a good example
wisdom
you have prayed
you feel the call of god that you're
going to go to a foreign nation
and then you get a powerful prophecy
from a prophet thus says the lord god is
god is calling you to go to this nation
and you will minister in that nation
boom that's wisdom you've got the word
and you're you're excited you're happy
this is what happens so often
you get right up to that moment where
the wisdom
which has revealed the direction that
you are to go you get right up very
close now to the reality or the
realization of that moment and suddenly
obstacles
come up everywhere and i'm talking real
obstacles that would try to stop you
block you or hinder you from going you
may even get a notification where the
country says
we're not we're not allowing you to come
in we've banned missionaries for now or
something like that and you think now
what am i supposed to do when god has
spoken to me to go and i've even
received a confirming prophecy
supernaturally received it
that i'm supposed to be there what are
you going to do well you've had the
wisdom now you need the might
wisdom and might
thank you jesus and that is what is
being released
upon the lord's people right now so that
we might move forward in the fullness of
god's plan for us as a church and also
as individuals walking in the power of
god so this wisdom and might
wisdom to determine the path and might
to bring it to pass praise the lord
thank you jesus
now
we're going to come back but very
quickly let us look in the gospel of
mark chapter 6
mark chapter 6
verse 2 and when the sabbath had come he
began to teach in the synagogue and many
hearing him were astonished saying where
did this man get these things what
things
this this is what it is
and what wisdom is this
which is given to him that such mighty
works are performed by his hands is this
not the carpenter okay so
you have jesus walking in wisdom they
say he's got some outrageous wisdom and
mighty works notice again just like
daniel they're linked on purpose
together wisdom mighty works but daniel
it was wisdom and might jesus wisdom
mighty works they always sync up
together why you need both of them
you need both of them
and perhaps
one of my favorite scriptures on this
subject is found in first corinthians
chapter one
and let's go to verse 23.
but we preach christ crucified
to the jews a stumbling block
and to the greeks foolishness
but to those who are called that's you
and me both jews and greeks christ watch
this
the power of god
and the wisdom of god
power okay power and might the power of
god and the wisdom of god what is the
gospel it's christ the power of god and
the wisdom of god
if you'll
carefully look sometime
at isaiah chapter 11
where the seven spirits of the lord are
listed one holy spirit but seven unique
attributes
if you look closely
you'll see that you can actually take
the seven
and you can condense them down
to two
because the spirit of wisdom
encompasses a subset
of some of those titles and spirit of
might would encompass the other
remaining subset titles so you primarily
have wisdom and might and we see it here
christ the power
the might okay the power of god and the
wisdom of god there's the gospel right
there it's not this one without that one
it's always both
so you must have both and that my
friends is what
daniel discovered now
how did he get into
the wisdom and most importantly
the might because if you only get the
wisdom you're halfway you're gonna need
the wisdom and the might how
in his case
did he contact it
well
he actually shows us
right there
in scripture let's go back to it one
more time
daniel chapter 2
and i want you to look at it very
carefully verse 16.
so daniel went in
think about it just for a moment if you
heard that
if
you had been told
they're killing
all of us
and we've got a short reprieve to figure
out a solution
and if we figure out the solution we
live if we don't
we're going to be dead in the morning
what did they do
you can do the same thing
right where you're at
right now and here it is
so daniel went in and asked the king to
give him time that he might tell the
king the interpretation then daniel went
to his house
and made the decision known to hananiah
missiel and ezrai his companions now
he brings them in why it affects them
too
okay so now we're all on board if it's
just you you may have to be the only one
that walks this out in the way that
we're about to see but if there's others
involved well they we all better get
together because we're all those are on
the line on this one
praise god and we said that this is a
corporate event verse 18.
they are they're all together that they
might seek mercies from the god of
heaven
concerning this secret
so that daniel and his companions might
not perish with the rest of the right of
the wise men of babylon
then the secret was revealed to daniel
in a night vision so daniel bless the
god
of heaven
pastor stephen what did he do
you ready for it in basic layman's terms
he prayed at night and prayed at night
and stayed up and didn't go to sleep
until he got the answer
you mean that's what he did yep just
like jesus he got to the point he's got
to have his apostles and he's got all
these guys following him and he's going
to have to choose 12.
hmm he's going to have to choose 12.
oh pastor steven ain't no big deal just
wake up the next day and you'll pick the
best ones you know and just you know get
them on your team
just like choosing a basketball team you
know just pick the best ones no it's not
like that
this is going down for an all-time
recognition he stayed up all night and
prayed
by the way
in daniel's case with he and his friends
if you don't get the answer
there ain't no use pouring to make maple
syrup on the pancakes you're gonna be
dead by breakfast time anyhow
in other words how can you go to sleep
how can you go to sleep in a situation
like this
when if you don't respond
and pray all night if need be
the
the blessing
that is almost so close you can reach it
the blessing will pass you by by
noon tomorrow if you don't contact the
spirit of wisdom
particularly here the spirit of might
wow praise the lord so they prayed
and they prayed
and they prayed and they prayed at night
prayed at night prayed at night
well now pastor stephen god understands
we need our beauty sleep
well you're not gonna look too beautiful
getting executed might as well stay up
and pray and if you'll push push push
push push
you ever notice that friday night's a
good night for that
why because many people work monday
through friday you don't have to work on
saturday and so friday night just go for
it just you know stay up and pray go for
it but you're going for it for a certain
reason
to unravel the secret
of the wisdom what you should do and the
might the ability really to get the
solution to an unsolvable problem
now nations and political leaders around
the world are going to run into into
situations in the natural there is no
way out
but with god
and with god only there is always a way
out but you're going to have to be
willing to burn the midnight oil
to make the end time conquest
again you're going to have to be willing
to burn the midnight oil to
make the end time conquest praise god
it's there for you
but if you keep going you keep going
boom you'll hit the spirit
of wisdom and might particularly the
spirit of might that's the one that will
break it open that's that anointing and
power riding on it
glory to god but it's a one-two punch
christ the power
boom
and the wisdom boom of god there's your
gospel right there
the gospel was never meant to be an
intellectual discourse where we try to
talk people out of hell and talk people
into heaven there has to be power there
has to be power there has to be
power thank you lord jesus
[Laughter]
praise the lord
some of you bless your hearts you know
it's true don't raise your hand
you know that perhaps at some point in
your life before you ever gave your life
to jesus you know you stayed up all
night getting drunk
you know you stayed up all night at the
casino gambling
you know you stayed up all night out on
the town
some of you bless your heart you know
you've shopped all night got so excited
went to walmart 24 hours
and you stayed up all night
have you ever stayed up all night
to encounter the spirit of wisdom and
might
praise the lord
i think for some of you this is why i'm
preaching this message for some of you
you're bumping up to that point
where you're right there at it
and um
you've had the worship you even know the
direction but now you need the might now
you need the might
look you're going to have to have a
prayer life
and maybe you wrote on grandma's uh
prayer coattail for a while but maybe
grandma's graduated on the heaven
maybe mama has two you're gonna have to
pray
praise the lord you're gonna have to
really get in there and pray praise god
but there is an anointing of the spirit
you get there you ride that anointing
boom boom boom boom and just pray pray
pray
and god will give you what you need and
you'll get the breakthrough too before
sun up
hallelujah then after you get it might
just want to stay up for a while anyhow
because you're excited
watch the sun come up
praise god
hallelujah
well now pastor stephen i didn't know
there was going to be like sacrifice of
sleep or something that involved
well sure beats getting executed
and it's not like you've got to do it
every night
praise the lord
something very seriously to consider
here
whoa thank you jesus
um
then the secret was revealed to daniel
in the night vision some of you you're
at a crossroads and the road goes this
way or that way but you can't you can't
see it it's it's like
it's like there's a veil
and you don't know which way to go
but yet you're you're coming right up to
it
hmm
well what am i going to do pastor steven
am i going to just take a chance
no no no we don't do stuff like that we
do things out of certainty
we do it with faith when we do do it
so you have to pray
until you know hallelujah
and then when you know you'll be like
daniel going in there to the king's
throne room whoa i got the answer king
here it is get ready all of you magi who
are writers of scribes get your pen
ready you never heard nothing like this
before
god's about to reveal his power
thank you jesus
um praise the lord
glory to god
glory to god
[Music]
i in the past have endeavored to do a
few
corporate corporate
all-night prayer meetings
and um i'm not saying i won't do any in
the future
but here in in the western world in the
western church
and i know it's different in a lot of
other countries but here in the western
world anytime you try to hold a
all-night prayer meeting
why is it that
most the ones that come want to turn it
into a worship service
well pastor stephen maybe we could pray
a little better if i get over here on
the piano
no no no no no no
um
the reason why is most people don't want
to get down to the nitty-gritty they
want to go play the piano or they want
to
sing a little tune or something like
that and the whole time the whole time
the the dude with the machete is showing
up to chop the wise man's head off in
the morning i get off the keyboard and
pray
[Laughter]
put down the saxophone put away the
microphone we better pray we're going to
be in hot water
praise the lord
[Music]
sometimes they call them harp and bowl
meetings and in the book of revelation
we see you know about the harp and the
bowl uh the heart representing worship
and the bowl representing the bowl of
intercession
but uh
most of the corporate prayer meetings
i've ever been to they all turn into a
heart meeting there's no bowling there's
nothing but it's just all harping
singing and syrupy worship going on for
a couple of hours and nobody's really
praying nobody's really praying
why
because that takes exertion
it takes focus
and it takes us a gut emptying sacrifice
praise the lord if you do that you'll
contact the spirit of wisdom and might
hallelujah and you'll leave that place
with victory
god has never planned failure for your
destiny
he has planned for you to win most
christians don't know how to win
they're content to live their lives with
excuses for why they
endure defeat
my friends i'm saying again with god
there is always a way out there is
always a way through
praise the lord
one more time
then the secret was revealed to daniel
in a night vision so daniel bless the
god of heaven well now now somebody get
on the keyboard now somebody strike up a
tune let's praise the lord why we have
now received the answer that we need
praise god
but there are times when we must do the
praying get on your knees or walk around
if it helps you to stay awake and just
pray worship the lord with your hands up
and pray pray pray pray
when i was in my twenties i would go to
some of these all-night prayer meetings
and there would be always people that
would try to hijack the praying and get
it over into some kind of a worship
thing
and i remember one time the pastor had
told the hit prayer intercessor don't
let anybody play the um
the uh the piano or stuff like that and
up on the stage was a real nice piano
i'm talking like a six-figure
you know maybe 200 000 piano
and uh so uh you know we're in a big
building i think the church had about 10
thousand people
and uh but for the all-night prayer
meeting oh usually only about nine nine
or eleven people showed up they were
almost all grandmothers uh older ladies
who love to pray and love to you know
support the pastor
not even the pastor ever came out all
the times i went he never came out to
the all-night friday prayer meeting but
it was amazing that if there was a
visitor particularly a guy
a guy they would always want to get over
on the piano oh y'all pray and i'll i'll
play some music
oh
oh praise the lord pray pray
pray seek the lord don't play around
pray
pray praise the lord look we've had
enough christians
that are
that are praising and clapping
and they think they're worshiping and i
think a lot of people in the world look
at it as a nuisance
you're just making noise stop making
noise and give us something that we can
see that will validate the god that you
say that you serve we need to see not
only the wisdom we need to see the might
we need to see the might
let's give it to him
come on
let's give it to him praise the lord
woo praise the lord
hallelujah lift your hands father
i just pray the spirit of daniel that
spirit of excellence two of the great
men in the bible that walked in high
levels of wisdom joseph and daniel but
i'm particularly praying for father for
that daniel anointing to pray
and to touch your people that anointing
of your spirit to touch your people with
wisdom and might wisdom and might thank
you father god to get impossible
breakthroughs to inspire many other
believers we thank you father god and to
astound those that are out in the world
oh thank you father
thank you father anoint your people in
jesus great name we pray
amen
praise the lord you know we're called
not to be salt to the church
we're not called to be light to the
church we're called to be salt to the
world
to the unbelievers and light to the
unbelievers so they can see the glory
praise god they can see the proofs of
our prayers that god truly
is alive
doing amazing things in our lives at the
at the most improbable times when others
when others
are struggling to even survive
praise the lord
hallelujah god's power has not waned
god's power is available the spirit of
might breaking forth in your life to
pull you through
in the direction that you're supposed to
go
father we give you all the praise in
jesus great name
amen
and amen
praise the lord
hallelujah
some of you need to cry out for wisdom
i'm seeing an angel a scribe angel right
now with a red garment a red robe and he
has a pen
and is an angel of wisdom and many of
you you uh you need to enlist into the
heavenly school of wisdom
the university of wisdom praise god and
i'm not talking about the wisdom of the
world
because the wisdom of the world denies
the wisdom of god and denies the
resurrection denies the virgin birth
hallelujah but i'm talking about the
wisdom of god the wisdom that is above
all
praise the lord
glory to god enlist right now just cry
out to the lord for wisdom lord give me
the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of
might father we give you praise thank
you father god
hallelujah we are students enlisted in
the university of divine wisdom
praise you father god
hallelujah hallelujah praise the lord
thank you jesus
if you're watching today's program and
you don't know christ
as your personal lord and savior he's
the only way to heaven he is the only
mediator between god and man there is no
other mediator there is no other way to
heaven except through christ
the man christ jesus jesus of nazareth
who now is seated at the right hand of
god if you would like to receive
forgiveness of your sins and receive
eternal life and be born again
pray this prayer right now say lord
jesus
i am a sinner
i turn from my sins
thank you for dying for me on the cross
jesus
you died
to set me free from my sins
right now
jesus wash my sins away
write my name in your book of life
i give my life to you completely
right now
save me
thank you jesus
in your name i pray
amen
and amen and that was the wisest
decision you've ever made in your life
praise god
if you have been a christian but you've
walked away from god you've got tangled
up in sin
you've gotten yourself in a mess
god's wisdom will always direct you in
the way to go the first thing that you
do is you humble yourself 2nd chronicles
chapter 7 verse 14.
you don't pray you don't do this or that
or the other the first thing you humble
yourself and you say god i have forsaken
you i am not living right i have turned
away from you and upon humbling yourself
and acknowledging your sin then you pray
and repent and turn from your sin if
that's you
backslidden christian
pray this prayer right now say jesus
i've gotten
far away from you
i that some of you want to you don't
want to say that you just want to say
well i've gotten away no you have gotten
far away from the lord if you've
forsaken him so acknowledge that humble
yourself say jesus i have gotten far
away from you
and my life is not right with you
jesus
i repent
of what i've been doing that's wrong
restore me back unto you forgive me
and strengthen me in your name i pray
amen
hallelujah welcome to the university of
wisdom
which is what obeying god's commandments
knowing them obeying them
teaching them discipling all nations
praise god
the lord is good
let's take some holy communion
grab some unleavened bread and some
grape juice
praise the lord
even if this is not your church home you
can still join us because we're one in
christ
those of you that are believers in jesus
praise the lord
father we bless the bread the jews
in the name of jesus we set it apart as
being holy
through this prayer
and we thank you that this is now the
body
and the blood
of jesus
so father as we
as we get ready to take the body of
jesus
we thank you that we receive
your word
of wisdom and might
to pray
if need be perhaps all night in a very
very tricky situation
where we must have a breakthrough an
answer and a breakthrough
so father we give you praise
that what you did for daniel
will be also
a very similar testimony that you're
going to give so many of your people and
we thank you in jesus name
amen
let's receive the body of jesus
hmm
praise the lord
secrets are being revealed
even right now during communion praise
the lord
it was on the road to emmaus
when the disciples had their eyes
spiritually opened the eyes of their
understanding
as they said as they completed that
journey and took communion with the lord
father we thank you for the blood of
jesus we thank you for forgiveness and
cleansing from all sin
we thank you that just like noah
and job and daniel
we
want to live right we don't want to mess
with sin
we want to walk in wisdom and walk in
purity and walk in righteousness
oh god establish our steps
on this pathway
in jesus name we pray
amen
let's receive
praise the lord
glory
glory to the lord jesus praise god
just say lord jesus
given to me your spirit of wisdom
your spirit of revelation
and your spirit of might
thank you oh god let your wisdom and
might be released into my life
lord take me further with my prayer life
lord take me further by your grace
in jesus name
amen
praise the lord
now just like daniel asked the king for
time
you have a window of time
to get
the answer to get the wisdom and the
might to go forward praise god make good
use of that time thanks for watching i
look forward to seeing you back again
till then stay blessed bye