Four years ago, almost to the day, we had this thing called Shekinah, a week full of
these meetings called Shekinah. I know that that was a time when we were going as a church
shifted, and so I'm expecting that the Lord will do it again because I was planning to
be out of town this week if possible.
Can you turn to Ephesians 5.18? Ephesians 5.18.
Ephesians 5.18. What should I do, Brandon? Ephesians 5.18.
It says there, be filled with the Holy Spirit. It says, do not be drunk with wine, but be
filled with the Holy Spirit. Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.
I know it's a scripture you know, Ephesians 5.18. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the
Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the
Spirit. Or in other words, let your fullness, let you be filled with the fullness that comes through
the Spirit. Be filled, church, with the fullness that comes through the Spirit. Be filled with the
Spirit. Be full of the Spirit. However you look at it, that's a sense. Be full of the Spirit.
And I'm trusting that that's what God wants to do during this week, and why. So before we go there, we need to
understand that this church believes that every believer is filled with the Spirit.
At conversion. The church believes that every believer is filled with the Spirit at conversion. So it's not as if
there's a second separate filling that happens to believers. I know that the Pentecostal tradition believes
that. I came out of that tradition, and I used to believe that too. But scripture indicates that the moment
you're born, you're given the Holy Spirit as a deposit, and he's a person, and so he lives in you. And he can't come
half. He's not a quantity. Even though analogies compare him to liquid, baptism of the Spirit. So it's immersing someone
in the Spirit. It's water. Or you read here, be filled with the Spirit. It's again liquid. Do not be drunk with wine,
but be filled with the Spirit. But at the end of the day, when you look at 2 Corinthians 3.18, there we find who the
Holy Spirit is. 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, the Lord is the Spirit. So he's not a quantity. So you received him in
fullness when you were born again. So all believers in Christ are Spirit filled. The imperative or the command is
keep being full of the Spirit. Keep being full of the Spirit. Keep being full of the Spirit. That's the command. So when you look at
the book of Acts, you'll see this phrase come up again and again. Filled. They were filled with the Spirit. So let's go look at it.
So we realize that even though we are filled with the Holy Spirit, God keeps saying, keep on being full of the Spirit. It's not a
contradiction. So if you go to John 21, John 21, verse 22, John 21, sorry, John 20, verse 22, John 20, verse 22. In John 20,
verse 22, Jesus has risen from the dead and he is with his disciples and he says to his disciples, listen, he breathes on them and
once he breathes on them, he says, receive the Holy Spirit. This is the risen Christ saying to the disciples, receive the Holy Spirit. And yet
in Acts chapter 2, verse 4, go to Acts chapter 2, verse 4, Acts 2, verse 4. The same guys who were there when Jesus said, receive the
Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter 2, verse 4, they have the Holy Spirit arrive on earth like he has never before, even though he was always present on earth
and he created the earth. In Acts chapter 2, verse 4, it says, all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
tongues as the Spirit enabled them. So they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Go to Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 4, verse 30 and then 31.
Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your Holy servant Jesus. After they prayed, the place where they were
meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. So what the Pentecostal tradition may call
baptism of the Spirit or being filled with the Spirit or overflow or being immersed in the Spirit is real, but
is not a separate experience, but is repeated often in a believer's life or should be repeated often in a believer's life.
Sometimes when people, let's look at some more scriptures. Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 4, verse 31 we did. Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter 13, verse 9.
Acts chapter 13, verse 9. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, and Saul had been touched by the Holy Spirit, he was speaking about Christ here,
had amazing revelations. In Acts chapter 13, verse 9, you see that Paul was confronting a Jewish sorcerer on the island of Paphos and suddenly it says there
that Saul, who was called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elimass and said, you're a child of the devil. So this idea of filled with the Spirit
is not uncommon in the New Testament. So when you get born again, it might be an experience that happens when you get born again or it might happen after.
How much after? One day, one month, one year, it doesn't matter. It may happen after. And should be happening often.
Subsequent fillings, baptisms, outpourings periodically through life. That is what I'm hoping will happen for us.
And when this happens, often guys, it's accompanied by speaking in tongues, by preaching boldly, by prophecy, which you'll find in Acts chapter 10,
and by unusual biblical manifestations. Any questions?
Go ahead, Nick. Yeah, you may experience this filling of the Spirit sometimes as soon as you're born again. So some people then think that that's when it should happen.
And if it happens any other time, if it doesn't happen then that you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. The fact is the moment you're born again, you receive the Spirit.
You're filled with the Holy Spirit. He's a person, therefore you're filled with him. That we must establish as biblical truth.
But later on, people can be filled again because the Bible says be filled with the Spirit.
And we showed from scripture how the same people were being filled with the Spirit at different times.
And that's what happens when you're born again.
They've been surrounded by leaders who are saying we're going to beat you, we're going to put you in prison.
And they beat them up and put them in prison.
And when they come out, what's their prayer?
Oh God, even though we've been beaten, now could you cause the hand of your servant to be upon us?
And what happens when they pray?
It says they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak the word with boldness.
Boldness or lack of courage.
Lack of courage or lack of boldness is because you and I once again need a fresh touch of Christ the Lord who is the Spirit and who is present here.
And that is what I'm hoping will happen.
That courage will come.
Conviction will come.
The ability to witness will come.
And that it will be accompanied by the signs of the Holy Spirit.
How we can't do this, I can't do this.
It'll have to be a sheer work of the Spirit of God.
But if he's brooding over us and he's saying, can you hear the thunder in the distance?
Then let it be so.
Because this is really what you and I live for.
It's just that we don't have it inside, so put it inside, oh God.
Let something happen.
And let it happen to everybody.
It doesn't matter how disinterested you are, how you're looking at your phone and doing your own thing.
Doesn't matter.
The Spirit of God loves you, even if I don't.
He loves you.
This is the beauty of it.
This is not a man-making.
He loves you.
He will do it for you, regardless of whether you're interested or not.
Regardless of whether I'm interested or not.
Any questions on this?
Why do you think the Holy Spirit is distinguished between the tapir and the tapir?
Yeah, because it's a tradition that we come out of.
So Pentecostal tradition says that it is something that happens later on, not at conversion.
That you receive the Holy Spirit and that at this later stage, the Holy Spirit fills you to overflowing.
And so sometimes in extreme cases, if you don't speak in tongues, it means you're not filled with the Holy Spirit.
So that becomes the measure that if you don't speak in tongues, you're not filled with the Holy Spirit.
It's impossible to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit.
And He's a person, so He comes and dwells in you.
Impossible to be a Christian.
The Bible says again and again, those that have the Spirit are the sons of God.
Ephesians 1.13, when you receive Christ, the Spirit was given to you as a deposit.
That is the Spirit who convicts of sin, of righteousness, of judgment.
That the Father and the Son come and abide in you by the Spirit.
And so it became out of an experience came a tradition.
And the thing is, now you have the other side, the non-Pentecostal side that say there's no such thing.
And so then they become losers too.
Because now you don't want outpourings, infillings, baptisms that are subsequent and must happen again and again and again because it happened in the Bible.
Any other questions?
Okay, so let's look at Luke 24, 49.
Luke 24, 49.
Starting at 47, Jesus is speaking and He says,
The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.
This is after He's risen.
And then He says, And repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
I'm going to send you what my Father has promised.
But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.
Guys, before I go on that, when I say subsequent fillings of the Spirit, it's not that the Holy Spirit has gone.
It's like the Spirit of God who is in us pours Himself or comes upon us so that we are revived to follow Him.
So it's not that He's left.
So we need to be filled again.
No, no, no.
Once He is, He is.
So He lives in us.
But as we will see perhaps in the days ahead, the comfort of life, the consumerism that I'm consumed with,
the lack of courage and the cost that Christianity requires, sometimes when we keep avoiding it, we get dull.
And then what do you need?
You need the Spirit of God to come in.
Recharge.
It's like connecting it to a supercharger.
It's not that the battery is dead, but it needs something to happen in it so that it starts running again.
It is that.
And throughout church history, throughout church history, whenever a church or whenever a people want to really step up,
they begin to call out to God saying, Oh God, pour out your Spirit on us.
And throughout church history, the Spirit of God who gives you that hunger satisfies that hunger.
Who gives you that hunger satisfies that hunger.
And sometimes we don't even know what that hunger looks like.
That's okay.
He's the appetite creator.
What happens when a baby is born?
Who creates the appetite?
God gives the appetite.
The baby hasn't been taught to have an appetite.
God gives us the appetite.
I pray God that as we spend the next four days just sometimes sitting and not knowing what to expect,
knowing that he's here, he's hovering, he's active, and he's present,
that will cause enough hunger to rise and that their hunger will be satisfied.
There's just nothing we can do about this guys.
We are so helpless in this one.
Rara won't make it happen.
Luke 24, 49.
Acts chapter one, verse eight.
So Luke 24, 49 says, from Jerusalem to the nations.
And it says, clothed with power from on high.
Let's see what Acts 1, 8 says.
Acts 1, 8 says, you will receive power.
So again, power from, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit, Acts 1, 8.
Let me read it exactly.
Acts 1, 8.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
And you will be my witnesses.
And you will go from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
What's common guys?
One is before Christ ascended, one is after Christ ascended.
This is common.
From Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
If you or this church has to go beyond our four walls,
then one of the things that has to happen is the ridiculous oncoming of the power of God upon us.
Not just over these four days, but in the future too.
What else?
Witnesses. If you go to Luke 24, 47, it talks about, can you go tell them about repentance and forgiveness?
So there's witnessing here, and there's witnesses here.
So if I want to be a witness to the resurrected Christ,
then we need to be immersed, baptized, just drenched with the Holy Spirit.
And then the third one that is common is power and power.
My contention is that I don't have that kind of power and this church doesn't have that kind of power.
And so we need it, and there's only one place to get it from. Him.
But if He's brooding over us, if this is His desire,
if Jesus said that if you ask for the Holy Spirit, why would He give you anything else but the Spirit?
Because you're His children. What do you think should happen based just on the nature of God?
Any questions guys?
Let's look at another scripture, Acts 433.
Acts 433.
Acts 433. Impossible to do this without Him.
Acts 433.
With great power, again that word which we don't have much of,
with great power the apostles,
with great power the apostles gave witness or continue to testify, depending on the word that you read,
gave witness, again that word,
to the resurrection or to the risen Christ.
Let's look at another word. First Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 1.5.
1 Thessalonians 1.5.
We came to you not with words, we came to you not with words,
so the gospel was not just words,
but infused with mighty power.
But infused with mighty power of the Spirit.
And the gospel was a witness to Christ, so again we have the same words.
I would say to you that the one thing lacking in my life and lacking in your life and the church is this power.
But it's available because the source is present here.
Any questions, any disagreements with that?
Any questions guys?
Go ahead Dilna.
Like you have the honeymoon, at certain times you're calling out to God and asking where are you?
You know, just like David and Saul.
So, isn't like, you know when the spirit is just there's an awareness?
Awareness versus film?
Yes, so awareness yes, but I would say shouldn't my life evidence,
shouldn't our Christian lives experience the presence and power of the Spirit
and shouldn't my Christian life give evidence of the presence and power of the Spirit?
And does it at present match New Testament standards?
But is this honeymoon period constant or is it just constant?
He says, repent for you have fallen from your first love.
And he says repent or else, he even threatens them to get back into love.
So, while it is true the honeymoon period, I get very agitated when I either think of myself saying it or someone else saying it
when they say, oh when I first became a believer I was so passionate about God.
But first love has gone away and I'm thinking to myself, don't say that Jacob, it's supposed to increase not decrease.
Because this is one bridegroom who keeps increasing.
He doesn't go bald, he doesn't get like old or things, he just gets getting better and better and better.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, we will. Yeah, we'll do that right away.
So, life in Christ should be characterized,
life in Christ should be characterized by power.
This power should be experienced.
This power should be evidenced in a dynamic, transparent life.
It is power that is veiled in weakness as in in your weakness, as in in your flesh, but it shows.
This is why Paul talks about treasures in jars of clay, even though it's broken on the outside, it's still tremendous treasure inside.
And even as I keep dying, I keep living.
So, we start here in terms of defining what power looks like.
So, the first thing is life in Christ is characterized by power.
Because if you really look at Luke 24 47, if you look at Acts chapter 1 verse 8, if you look at Acts 4 33, if you look at 1 Thessalonians 1 5,
it seems to be, if you look at Ephesians 1 11 to 18, it just keeps repeating the same thing, the power of the Holy Spirit,
the power of the Holy Spirit, life that are characterized, dynamic lives.
There are days when your life and my life is dynamic.
By dynamic, I mean alive and vibrant in the Spirit.
When I was playing around with the word Ruwa, May sent me a text saying,
one of the ways to describe Ruwa or the Spirit or the life of the Spirit is found in Psalm 27 in the message.
It says zest, space, light, that's dynamic.
And God forbid we say that that is not the lifestyle that we need to live continuously.
God forbid that we say that it should only happen occasionally.
And so the question then is, is that power active in my life?
And the answer to almost every question I ask about myself and about this church is no.
I praise God we can face the no so that he can make it a yes because he's the only one capable of doing it.
Is life, space, light the dynamic way I live on a regular basis?
And the answer is no.
There are moments, moments ain't enough, right?
Moments are good.
We can do better.
Day by day, week by week.
So, someone ask a question?
So life is characterized by power.
It must be experienced.
It must be evidence.
Please don't think I don't say that.
Please don't think I don't see this in your life.
There's not a life here that it hasn't been visible in.
Doesn't matter whether it's HIP's life and his testimony or Chava's life and his testimony or Mark Butler's life and his testimony or Diana's life.
It shows there is power present.
Otherwise we wouldn't even be talking about this.
Am I speaking too fast?
No.
So it is evident.
But we're not talking about these little blips every so often where all the seven planets line up.
It happens once in 39 years when three of them line up and once in 100,000 years when all seven line up.
It's got to happen more often than that.
So, does insurance?
Sorry.
Should it affect with persecution?
Yes.
No.
The church that expects power should have the courage to face persecution.
The church that expects...
Will they?
But will they inevitably?
Yeah.
Sometimes they do.
Because when I think of what we may face here compared to what someone faces in a village in North India, it's like miles apart.
So sometimes it's surprising how God takes a church and a person without anything happening to them.
And other times you see people being killed before they can even preach their first sermon.
So should I expect persecution?
No.
But should I have the courage for it?
Yes.
And that's what the Spirit of God provides.
So what does this power look like?
One.
Dynamic.
And when I use the word dynamic, think light, zest, life, space.
Light, space, power.
Light, zest, life, space.
A simple way of thinking about it.
And so one of the things we'll hopefully talk about at some point is the idea of joy.
Essential to the nature of the Spirit and the people of God.
The idea of joy.
Sometimes we are so poor, eh?
And other times we are so rich.
So what's the purpose?
Dynamic empowering of life.
What's the purpose of this power?
Two.
Witnessing to Christ.
And you shall receive power and you shall be witnesses to me.
Three.
Openness to gifts and the miraculous.
Four.
Obedience to mission.
These are the four things the power is for.
One is can your life take on the brilliance of someone who is the most joyous, most spacious, most zestful, most light filled, most life giving, being in the entire universe?
Can my life begin to catch glimpses of it, reflect it a little more?
After these three, four days in the presence of the Spirit, will my life show that?
Will my ways show that?
I pray God that it does, eh?
Change has to be seen, otherwise it's nothing changed.
So that's the first one.
The second one is witnessing to Christ.
You shall receive power so that you may be witnesses to my resurrection.
Witnesses.
And witness not occasionally in our little circle.
Witness that expands.
One of the things about, this is a special power guys.
Why do you call it special?
Because you're not talking about sharing a testimony in your circle.
You're talking about expanding.
It's Jerusalem to the nation.
Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth.
It's continuously moving outwards.
And that's where you need the courage.
We'll talk about why we need courage for this.
Third one is openness to gifts and the miraculous.
To all the gifts and to all the miraculous in the Bible.
Openness to it.
We can't do it, but he can.
But am I open to it?
Where I leave control?
Where I'm not afraid of being made foolish?
And openness to gifts and the miraculous.
And then the last one.
Obedience to mission.
Immediate obedience to mission.
I want you to go here.
I want you to leave this place.
I want you to journey.
I want you to obedience to mission.
I'm praying that this thing that no pastor can make happen.
That no book can make happen.
That the Spirit of God will make happen.
And I'm praying that for myself first.
Not because I'm the pastor, but because I don't have this.
I don't have it the way he wants me to have it.
I want the desperation that begins to build in my heart.
Where this becomes so important because it is so important to him.
And then I would definitely like us to have it.
Because the expansion is global.
And what has been given to us is global.
Because the expansion is global.
And what has been given to us is global.
We need him more than ever.
And what a wonderful thing when he begins to change.
You change.
Your ability to witness changes.
Your openness to help others through the gifts and the miraculous.
Bill Johnson sometimes puts it this way.
The Holy Spirit lives in you for yourself.
But he lives on you for others.
And then finally, obedience to mission.
Any questions before we go on?
When you talk about empowering of life, you're talking about
can I break out of cowardice?
Can I break out of consumption?
Which is basically feeding self.
Or self-centeredness.
Can I break out of comfort?
And can I break out of the hesitation to pay the cost?
Because the cost is high.
In Christianity, you can count the cost and immediately realize
that you cannot pay it.
And then throw yourself helplessly onto God.
When Jesus said count the cost, he didn't mean count the cost
and realize whether you can or you cannot.
You can never pay the cost.
Because your cost is your life.
So all you can do is count the cost and realize,
oh my God, I don't have what it takes.
So Lord, now I'm helplessly yours.
Help me, because I can't do this.
What when?
Cowardice, consumption, comfort and cost is replaced by
light, life, zest, space, obedience and joy.
Oh my God, don't you want it?
Nick, you want it, right?
I do, man.
The few hours that we sometimes taste this every week is so...
But what if you had this?
It's so much fun, man.
Go ahead, James.
Sorry?
Zest is like a zest for life.
A zest for life, as in...
Exuberance and a love for God and creation and just...
Like zesty nachos, like...
No, that doesn't help.
Eagerness, yeah.
Like a passionate, exuberant eagerness for life and everything,
even when it sucks, to meet it with zest.
Yeah.
Christians have sought this outpouring of the Spirit throughout church history, guys.
And it's our turn, because our mission is global.
It's our turn, because our mission is global.
Please believe me when I say it is our.
I actually mean our.
When I was worshipping there, at one point I said,
the song said, like a rushing wind pour upon my soul,
and I said, I cannot come alone.
I must come with my family.
And I imagine me standing in front with you guys behind,
just because I pass through the church and saying,
either all, not just individuals.
This is our global mission, given to a church as a gift, saying,
listen, you bun to nobody's ordinary people, extraordinary God.
This is exactly what I want.
People that aren't famous, aren't anything but a famous God.
Always Venus, am I right?
Our mission is global.
20s and 30s, Hebrides 2.0, we've talked about it.
I'm praying this week that something will shift.
You know, the whole idea of Hebrides started with Shekinah.
Four years ago, 2021, where God began to burst it.
Four years seems a long time.
Jacob, what evidence is there that something is happening?
I can give you evidence, but it's not enough, because we've got the whole blooming globe.
But surely, people get added, eh?
Someone asked, Jane, how's the church growing?
What did you say?
Yeah.
Okay.
So what will happen when this outpouring happens?
What will happen?
You'll have deep conviction.
First Thessalonians 1.5.
Listen, when we preach the gospel to you, do you realize that we spoke with great conviction?
Because the Holy Spirit infused our words with power, and we spoke with great conviction.
Deep conviction.
Deep conviction in Wall-E.
Deep conviction in Northland.
Deep conviction in France.
Deep conviction in New York.
In New York, deep conviction about anything that God has said,
this is your baby that I formed before you were born, so you can carry it.
Deep conviction.
You know the difference between conviction and belief, according to US law,
is that beliefs can shift, opinions can shift.
Convictions is when you decide that I am so deeply convicted about it,
that I will go to jail for it.
Deep conviction.
They could not understand in Acts chapter 4 why these disciples who were ordinary fishermen
had now turned into people that would not back down even when you beat them up.
That you carry it so deeply that there's nothing that can shake you,
that God will always be good.
It doesn't matter what comes at you, it is impossible for you to suspect Him
of any other motive but a brilliant Father.
Deep conviction.
So the questions we have to ask when we talk about deep conviction is,
remember what God said to you when you were first a believer in your honeymoon period.
How deeply convicted are you about that?
Remember what God has said to us as a church.
How deeply convicted are you about it?
Remember the ministry that He has given you.
How deeply convicted are you about it?
Remember the truths of who He is as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
How deeply convicted are you about it?
Remember the fact that He says,
I'm a God who will clothe you with power from on high.
How deeply convicted am I about it?
Deep conviction that gets you up in the morning at five though you went to sleep at two.
Deep conviction that makes you work hard and then still go and do what you want to do.
Because God has said a deep conviction that stops you from mismanaging your time.
Deep conviction that says no to covetous, no to comfort, no to the cost that has,
yes to the cost that has been paid and no to, what's the fourth one?
Comfort, cost, covetous and consumption.
Consumption.
Deep conviction.
I watched a documentary on a flight. It's called Canary something.
It's about a guy who went up mountains covered with ice
because he wanted to get a cylinder of ice to bring back
because just like trees have rings, ice has rings and it gives you the history of the land.
From when he was 30 to when he was 80, he did this.
He was cancer-ridden but he said, I'll go again.
At 84, he's trekking up some mountain in the Andes in South America because he hasn't gone there.
They gave him the President's Medal.
Obama gave him the President's Medal. He wouldn't settle for it.
He says, no, just because I got a medal doesn't mean I must unearth
and show the world the history of lands that will soon be wiped out
because the ice cap is melting.
There were times when he couldn't go up a mountain so he would charter a helicopter
and then find that he's taking all this heavy equipment up
and he realizes that a helicopter can't handle the equipment in the winds
and it will come down and he will lose a lot of money.
But this man had one thing straight.
I must do this because nobody else is doing it.
How do you become so convicted about things that are so not eternal?
I can't do this for me. I can't do this for you.
But I pray God that the Spirit of God will bring a strange conviction in our hearts over the next three or four days.
And when we fail, we'll get up again because these baptisms are not a one-off event.
Deep conviction. This is what the power of God looks like.
Next one. Self-denying courage. Self-denying courage.
Self-denying courage, Acts 4. 31.
Guys, I got self-denying faith but I don't have self-denying courage.
I want self-denying courage.
Self-denying courage.
The courage and the boldness, the courage and the boldness to suffer for Christ.
Go back to Acts chapter 4. Let's just read that.
Acts chapter 4, verse 28 onwards. Acts 4, verse 28 onwards.
Verse 21. Chapter 4, verse 21.
After further threats, they let them go.
They could not decide how to punish them because all the people were praising God for what had happened
for the man who was miraculously healed was over 40 years old.
Or was over 40 years old.
And then verse 29, they start praying.
And they pray, Now Lord, consider their threats.
So they were being threatened.
Consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miracles, signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
And they spoke the word of God boldly.
When we are talking about self-denying courage, is the courage and the boldness to suffer for Christ?
And I don't have it.
That looks like if, yeah, for us, it would perhaps be here or in some other mission field somewhere.
Or at work.
Where the courage to take a stance and speak up may cause you to suffer in terms of your job.
In terms of your pay.
In terms of your physical harm.
In terms of you being chucked out of the house because you're having a house church in your house.
For us, it's pretty miniscule compared to others.
But I don't even have the courage for that.
I don't have the courage for that because we live in such a politically correct environment that cowardice is something that's cultivated.
The whole idea of PC is, can I make you coward enough?
Third.
Convincing wisdom.
This is what we are going to be praying for today.
Convincing wisdom.
Look at Acts chapter 6.
Acts chapter 6, verse 8-10.
It's about Stephen.
Acts chapter 6, 8-10.
Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.
Opposition arose, however, from the members of the synagogue of the freed men, as it was called.
Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia.
These men began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the spirit by whom he spoke.
What does that even look like, Dilna?
Question back to you since you're asking a lot.
What does that even look like?
To stand up, they could not stand up against his wisdom or the spirit by whom he spoke.
Convincing wisdom.
Irresistible wisdom.
Which doesn't mean that everyone will agree, but irresistible wisdom accompanied by signs and wonders.
Irresistible wisdom accompanied by signs and wonders.
This is what we are asking for.
Oh God, please give no.
Please give no.
I don't understand.
We can't control everything.
I mean, we can't even...
Yeah.
I'm hoping that...
How would I...
I think all we can give him is desperation, and then every time I try controlling what I receive, to say, stop it!
And release it again.
What else?
There's nothing else.
We can pray for this.
Yeah, we will be praying for that.
But I said after prayer, what else do you do?
Your prayer is a desperate cry.
Oh God, this or nothing.
How much more teaching can we teach?
Clean hands, pure hearts.
We should be there by now.
Because we've been cleaning hands and puring hearts, sorry, for a while now.
We should be there by now.
One of the things with God is he operates a non-condemnation ministry.
So yes, you may have unclean hands or an impure heart, but then again, there is no condemnation if you go to him and say,
Clean hands, pure heart.
Ask that a million times.
There's nothing like purpose that makes a person want to live the life for the one who gave you the purpose.
Any time someone trusts you with purpose, what happens?
You really want to do the best you can.
And if you fail, get up.
And the last one.
The power to turn the hearts of people.
It kind of ties in with this.
If you go to Luke 1, 15-17,
Luke 1, 15-17,
For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, John the Baptist.
He is never to take wine or a other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from birth.
Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God, and he will go on before the Lord in the Spirit and the power of Elijah
to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Or go to Acts 26, verse 18.
We read it out last time.
I'm sending you so that you can open the eyes of people so that they can turn from Satan to God, turn from darkness to light.
Can my words...
Now you do understand why Paul said, I did not come to you with mere preaching.
I came to you in trembling, but my words carried the power of the Spirit of God, and I demonstrated the power of the Spirit of God.
My words were not oratorially skilled.
My words were trembling. I was scared.
But they carried in it the wisdom of God and the power of God.
This is what we are going to hunger after.
This is what power looks like.
This is what power looks like for this church.
This is what power looks like in the New Testament.
I asked these questions, and I wrote them down.
Are you satisfied with your level of power in witness for Christ?
Are you satisfied, Jacob, with the level of your power in witnessing to the resurrection of Christ?
Are you satisfied with it?
And my answer was, I'm not.
Do you have deep conviction that leads you, sometimes drives you?
Do you have self-denying courage?
Do you have irresistible wisdom?
Do you have signs and wonders flowing through you?
And the answer is, no.
Are you someone who has... do I have deep conviction?
I'm not saying it's absent, but it's not enough.
Do I have deep conviction?
Do I have self-denying courage?
Do I have the kind of wisdom that people can't stand before?
It's irresistible because it is from the Holy Spirit.
Do I have signs and wonders flowing through me?
And the answer is, no, I don't.
These next four days are super important for me, hazardous for you.
Guys, the other thing is, some of you are young.
If you can get it right now, you don't have to do this at 60.
Next, all questions I was asking myself.
Am I becoming content with the teaching at Acts 29, with house churches, with growth?
Am I becoming content?
Very easy, guys.
We are growing.
There are house churches.
There's good teaching.
Very easy to think we even have an Instagram account now.
I mean, how much bigger can you get than that?
And so, are you content with it?
Are you content with the teaching?
Because whatever strength you hide behind or whatever weakness you hide
will prevent you from walking with the voice of the Lord in the garden.
Hear me.
Whatever strength you hide behind.
Let's say our strength is the prophetic, our worship, our hearing God, our freedom.
Whatever strength you hide behind or whatever weakness you hide
will prevent you from walking with God and recognizing His voice,
even though you recognize His voice in the garden.
Because He wants a helpless, continuously increasing Adam and Eve.
He wants a helpless, continuously increasing Adam and Eve.
Whenever you hide behind your strength or you hide your weaknesses,
then you can, you're unable to walk with Him even though you can recognize His voice.
Can you see Jesus Christ now in John 13, John 14, John 15?
Can you see why He says, apart from Him, I can do nothing?
If there was a man who had strength, it was Him.
If there was a man who did not have weakness, it was Him.
And the final question.
Am I settling for less than the promise?
This has really bothered me.
Am I settling for less than the promise that you shall receive power?
What am I settling for?
That's His promise in Acts 1-8.
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
What am I settling for?
Am I settling for anything less than the promise that you shall receive power?
A power to do what?
None of these things that we've talked about is power for your own personal,
personal increase, but it is power for His personal increase through you.
Everything about this power will cost us, but we will have the courage for it.
Any questions?
For I can hear that thunder in the distance, like a train on the edge of the town.
I can feel the brooding of your spirit.
Lay your burdens down.
Any questions, guys?
Can you look at your notes and can you begin to, wherever you're seated,
just begin to call out to God saying, Oh God, I need this.
Can you, I'll just write down some of the things so we can look at the screen whenever we need to.