You are invited to embrace the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit that lives within you. Stop waiting for perfect circumstances and start speaking life to those around you with the same boldness Jesus showed. Trust that your faith can make a difference in the lives of others today.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Cool. So we are in a series. We're in part 3 of a series titled Ghost. And no, I'm not talking about, you know, the the Whoopi Goldberg's ghost movie. No.
I'm I'm not talking about, you know, those spooky ghost when when you die and they have all these ghost movies or whatever. If you read through the Bible in the King James version, like the old 16, it it it translates Holy Spirit as the "Holy Ghost". So that's kind of the where we get it from the word ghost, and we wanted people to say, what are they talking about? You know, and kinda raise some some some thought. Man, I need to go check that out.
But anyway, we're in part 3 of the series ghost where we're talking about the Holy Spirit. In part 1, we asked the question, who is this Holy Spirit? Like, is he less than God? Is he God? And we learned that the Holy Spirit is God.
He's the third part of the trinity. You have the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, not less than either equal and a separate person, but 1 in essence that fills us with his presence and empowers us to live out the love of Jesus in our daily lives. It's pretty amazing. And then part 2 of ghosts, my father came and and preached from he's our sending church, River of Life in Winnsboro, Louisiana. They sent us here to plant this church, which we were super happy about, and it was an honor to have him preach in our pulpit.
And he preached on the heart of David, which the heart of David was that the the ark of the covenant, which represented the presence of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God would be in the temple. What does that mean? Well, we are the temple of God, and it's God's heart that his presence would fill us, would fill our temple. Amen? Isn't that awesome?
So now we're in part 3 of ghosts. In the first little part, we're gonna do a bit of a review. In first John and I've come to believe, guys, and I you've heard me quote this verse over and over and over. I've come to believe that if you understand this verse, if you really get this verse, then you'll get all of Christianity. You you just will.
You'll get you'll understand what it means to be a Christian, what it means to live out the life of Christ in your daily life, you will get it. Let's go to John, 1 John-4:17. I'm just gonna read it to you. It's become 1 of my, if not my favorite verses. But I think you'll I would recommend memorizing it.
But it says this, as a matter of fact, you know what? I'm a read the verse before it. In verse 16, it says, and so we know and rely on the love that God has for us. "God is love". Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them.
Now here's the verse. You ready? This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. Stop right there. There is going to be a day of judgment, and in that day, there are 2 types of people.
There are people who trusted in themselves, and there are people who trusted in Jesus. When God judges us, he will either judge us based on what we did or he will judge us based on what Jesus did. If you trusted in yourself, in your goodness, and you being good enough, 1 screw up, 1 mistake, 1 mess up makes you not perfect and makes you worthy of spending eternity separated from the perfect heavenly father. However, the good news, the wonderful news, is that if you didn't trust in yourself, but you believed in Jesus and what he did, he died for you, he rose again so that you could experience his life, you said, you know what? I could never be good enough.
I'm giving my life to you and receiving your life for me. When God looks at you on judgment day, he will judge you as Jesus. He will judge the goodness of Jesus credited to your account, your sickness, your sin, your filth, crucified on the cross with Christ, the punishment of that you deserve completely judged, completely punished at on Christ at the cross, and on that day, you will be judged as Jesus. Man, I don't wanna be judged as my wretchedness. I wanna be judged as Jesus.
So there's the gospel. That's amazing. But check this out. So we gotta understand that. 1 John-4:17, that's amazing.
That's good news. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence. We can have confidence before *God* on the day of judgment. And then it says this, if you've given your life to Jesus, this is applicable to you. It says, in this world so not just on the day of judgment but in this world today, in this world, we are like Jesus.
Like, it's right there. In this world, right now, you've given your life to Jesus. Jesus has given his life to you. In this world right now, we are like Jesus. I want you to say that with me in faith.
Say, in this world In I am like Jesus. I am Jesus. That makes it personal. Right? Yeah.
Let's say it 1 more time. In this world In this world. I am like Jesus. Wow. So then if we wanna see what our life looks like or what our life should look like as Christians, let's look at the life of Jesus.
Yeah? Amen? Okay. So let's let's what is the process of our life? What does it look like?
Because in this world we are like Jesus. Well, we know this that Jesus the Bible says that Jesus, like the whole world, was created by him and through him without him nothing was made. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. It's Jesus. Right?
So Jesus is God in the flesh but see in Philippians-2 it says that Jesus set his godhood aside and became a humble servant. He lived life as a man. K? How did that happen? *Matthew-1:18* says, this is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about.
His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. *Matthew-1:20 says, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Jesus* was conceived by the Holy Spirit. K? Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Now because why Jesus set aside his godhood and became a man for us to save us from our our sinful humanity. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. In this world, we are like Jesus. What happens when we're born again? When we're born again like Jesus, we're conceived by the Holy Spirit.
*John-3:3*. Very truly I tell you, no 1 can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. It's not based on how good you are once again. No. You must be born again.
Nicodemus, the 1 who came to Jesus and asked him that question. He's like, you know, how do I get to to the kingdom of God? Or how do I do, you know, how do I fulfill all of this? Jesus said, no. No.
No 1 can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again. What does it mean? How can I be born again? Can I enter back into my mother's womb? Jesus said in verses 5 and 6, you must be born of water and born of spirit.
Flesh gives birth to flesh but the spirit gives birth to spirit. Born of water. A stork didn't drop you on your mama's doorstep like we tell our kids sometimes. No. Born of water, your mama's water broke and flesh gave birth to flesh.
Right? Sorry for the sound effects. But you were born there, born with the nature of Adam, a nature to sin, a nature to be bent away from God. You don't teach a 2 year old to steal. You don't teach a 2 year old to lie.
They naturally do. You're born. Flesh gives birth to flesh. Right? But then there comes a time when *Jesus* quickens your heart.
He challenges you. The Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, of you being separated from God. And you have the choice whether or not you're going to believe and receive. And if you believe and you receive then you are born again, born of spirit. Let me show you.
*John-1:9 through 13. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. That's Jesus*. He was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
A lot of us were there for many years of our lives. Right? Did not even recognize Jesus even though everything was made through him. People would tell us about him, and we rejected him because we wanted our own way. But yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, Jesus, he gave the right to become children of God.
Children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. Born of *spirit*. *Conceived* by the Holy Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh but spirit gives birth to spirit. *1 John-4:17*, in this world we are like *Jesus*.
So what does it take to be born again? You can call yourself a Christian all that you want. You can go to church on Sundays all that all that you want. But unless you're born again, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. What does it take to be born again?
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever would believe in him would not perish, would not be separated from God for eternity, but would have eternal life. What is eternal life? Knowing God. *Romans-10:9*, if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is *Lord* This is this is very clear. It's probably as clear as as anything in the Bible, what it takes to be born again.
If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and confessing or yeah. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Question. When were the disciples born again? And this is what we we talked about this in ghost 1, but I'm gonna ghost part 1 of the series.
But I'm gonna go back through it because it's very important to understand before we get into what I want you to get out of today's message. So when were the disciples born again? We see real clearly Romans-10:9. Confess with your mouth, believe he died and rose again. When did the when were the disciples born again?
In John-20, we see it. Verse 19. On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them. Peace be with you, he said. Now picture this, the disciples had just seen Jesus crucified.
The man that they had been following, some of them for 2 years, some of them 2 and a half years, some of them for 3 years, performing all these miraculous signs, all these amazing things, raising people from the dead, turning water into wine, documented miracles by by well, the Bible has 4 eyewitnesses which holds up in the court of law documented miracles. And they're scared because the religious people of the day hated him because they felt like they were gonna lose power. Religious people hate Jesus, by the way. They might say that they love him, but they hate him because they feel like they're gonna lose power. So they crucified him.
They killed him off so it didn't mess up their system, their way of doing what they wanted to do. And so the disciples, they're they're afraid. They're terrified. It says that they they had the door locked. Why did they have the door locked?
Because there were there was fear of the religious people. They thought that they were gonna crucify them too. They definitely fulfilled 1 of the requirements. They believed that he died. They knew he had died on the cross.
And then it says, Jesus came and stood among them, said peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side, and the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. So they believed he died. They saw him resurrected. They believe he rose again, the risen Lord, but but right there, and they were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
There they're confessing him as their Lord. When were they born again? What happened then? Jesus said, as the father has sent me, I am sending you. How did the father send him?
Once again, Jesus, fully God, set aside his godhood, the father sent him by the Holy Spirit, conceived by the Holy Spirit. As the father has sent me, so I'm sending you. And Jesus breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. In that moment, just like when God breathed on Adam and Adam came to life, Jesus breathed in the disciples. And in that moment, spirit gave birth to spirit.
They were conceived by the spirit just as Jesus was in the belly of Mary. They became alive and and born again relationship with the heavenly father, dwelling up to eternal life, knowing God right then, right there. It's amazing. We are men and women, if you've given your life to Jesus, who have been born again, conceived by the spirit. Why?
Because in this world, 1 John-4:17, we are like Jesus. So what does this mean? *Romans-8:9-10*. There's gonna be a lot of scripture here because I want to prove this point with truth. I don't want opinions.
K? If you've had a lot of opinions taught about the Holy Spirit, a lot of he said, she said, I was always taught, and I respected this man, and he told me this. It doesn't matter about all of that. I wanna go with what what scripture says because there's been a lot of junk teaching, a lot of feeling. K?
There's been a lot of people that that make a religion around this 1 amazing experience they have and make everybody else have to have this same experience or they're not right. That's junk. Okay. *Romans-8:9-10. You, however, are not of the realm of the flesh, but in the realm of the spirit*.
If indeed the spirit of God lives in you. Everybody say in you. And if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. If you've given your life to Jesus and you have relationship with the father, you have the Holy Spirit in you. You might have been scared of him because of what you were taught growing up, but if you have given your life to Jesus, you have been conceived by the spirit, you have the Holy Spirit in you welling up to eternal life into relationship with the father.
But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the spirit gives life because of righteousness. Let me explain that real quick. Even though your body is subject to death because of sin, there is a power of sin in this world. We see the results of it. People blame God for it.
They said, how could a loving God let all of this stuff happen? No. It's sin. The power of sin is in the world because Adam and Eve chose sin. And because of their choice, god gave them a choice.
They chose not god and because of that, sin affected humanity and now there's murderers and rapists and stuff And people see that and they blame God and say, how could you let this happen? No. I gave you a choice. I love you. There's a power of sin that's in this world.
And even though our body is subject to death because of sin, the spirit gives life because of righteousness. You've given your life to Jesus. You've been conceived by the Spirit now because of righteousness. You're in right standing with the Father. You're in relationship with him.
The Spirit welling up to eternal life, which is amazing. And guess what? The spirit of life, the law of the spirit of life which is in you now is more powerful than the law of sin and death which is around you. And it's empowering you to live above that in your daily life. That's good.
That's just good, man. And if the spirit of life who raised him from the dead, verse 11, is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because his spirit who lives in you. That's basically what I just said. So we just talked about a lot of, like, you know, theological stuff, which is very important to understand what you believe. But what does that mean for us here and now?
What does that mean for our practical lives? Well, if the Bible says in this world we are like Jesus, 1 John-4:17, then let's look at what did it mean for Jesus to be conceived by the Holy Spirit. What did it practically mean for his life? Because whatever it meant for his life is what it means for our lives. Well, in the first 30 years of his life, there's not much recorded.
But what we do know is in Luke-2:40 it says, and the child, which is Jesus, who was conceived by the spirit, who had the nature of God on the inside just like you who are born again because you've been conceived by the spirit, born again. Luke-2:40, and the child grew and became strong. He was filled with wisdom and with and the grace of God was upon him. What I know is that if you're following in relationship with God, welling up to eternal life, which is knowing him, you're following the Holy Spirit, he is the Lord of your life and he's shifting your life, developing in you the character necessary to carry the call. He's developing in you the character of his of the spirit, the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, self control.
He's teaching you wisdom, the wisdom of God, communicating to you and you're growing not in this, like, you know, it says in just a couple verses later, it talks about Jesus as a 12 year old boy who went to the temple where the the rulers of the law were, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Right? And they had been studying scriptures all of their lives. And Jesus astounded them, not because he was God. No.
He set aside his godhood and became a man filled with the spirit. It was because he was walking in relationship with God and he was learning wisdom as a 12 year old boy that the religious leaders had no idea of because they were just reading this as knowledge but Jesus was reading this as communicated by the father and it was becoming wisdom, experiential knowledge in his life, experiential knowledge in his life so that when he spoke it had meaning because he knew it because it came straight from God. There's a lot of people that study scriptures just to fill their head with knowledge and they fall over because it's just pride to them. I know this and you don't. It doesn't have any life connected to it.
So you're born again with the spirit welling up to eternal life. You can grow in wisdom, grow in the grace of God. Right? And grow in favor, Luke-2:52, favor with both God and man. *Ephesians-1:13* and 14, just to drive it home.
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message, gospel of your salvation. When you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. That's amazing. So exactly what happened to the disciples when Jesus breathed on them is what happened to you when you believed. You were born again.
When God breathed on Adam, he lived. And in that moment when you gave your life to Jesus, God breathed in you and you were sealed with his breath, the Holy Spirit welling up, bubbling up in you to eternal life, which is knowing God. So bubbling up into you a deeper relationship with the father in heaven. Wow. Now in Jesus' life, there was a shift.
It wasn't because of his age. He reached 30 years old, and all of sudden, there was a shift. That shift in Jesus' life, all of a sudden, you know, we we don't have much written about the first 30 years of his life, but what we do know is when Jesus began ministry. Jesus there was a shift in Jesus life. All of a sudden Jesus began ministry.
Excuse me pastor. I see how all this other stuff's applicable, but you just said the word ministry. That's your job. I'm I'm just content to come here on a Sunday morning, maybe read my bible some throughout the week. I wanna pray a little bit, but but you say the word ministry, that excludes me, so the rest is not applicable.
I can go to sleep. About that. Let's talk about that. Hold on 1 second. Let me point out something.
*Matthew-28*, when Jesus gave the great commission. Maybe many of you guys saw have have have heard the Great Commission. Jesus said in Matthew-28:19, last thing that he said. He said, therefore go and make *disciples* of all nations. Now the word disciple, you know it can be translated as a disciplined 1.
It's 1 who's it's a follower of Christ. Right. It's 1 who's following after Christ and repeating doing the same things that he did. He wasn't just saying disciples hey go be disciples in all nations. He was talking to the disciples that were there saying go make disciples of all nations.
So disciples make disciples which make disciples which make disciples. What what is what exactly does that mean? It goes on to say a little bit clearer. Says baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Okay.
If you've believed in Jesus and you haven't been baptized, guess what guys? It's time to be water baptized. That's a big deal. Alright? Take that step.
Don't walk in disobedience anymore, but take the step that I'm gonna be water baptized. I'm gonna make that commitment saying it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. It's awesome. And then it says, and teaching them to obey everything. Everybody say everything.
Oh. And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. That's interesting. Wait a second. Jesus just told the disciples to go into all the world creating more disciples, teaching them to obey everything that I that Jesus commanded them to do.
Well, Jesus said you would do the talking to disciples, you would do the same things that he did and even greater, talking about his ministry. But wait. I still don't I still see the connection that that we're all ministers of the gospel. That's okay. Let's go to *2 Corinthians-5* because this is gonna be good.
Once you get this, it's gonna change your life forever. *2 Corinthians-5:18* says, all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ. Okay. So we're reckon we have relationship with God through Jesus because of what he did, exactly what we just said in the first half of the message, and gave us everybody say, gave us the **ministry of reconciliation**. You have been given the ministry of reconciliation.
You are a minister ministering to those around you, showing those that you're in your family, in your job, in your normal daily life, you are commissioned by God to minister to those around you and help them to see that Jesus has already paid the price so that they can have a relationship with the same God that you have. But pastor, isn't that your job? Let's go to Ephesians-4. I wanna see 1 more thing, and then we'll get into the rest of the message. *Ephesians-4:11*, 12, and 13.
So Christ gave himself the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers. Basically, the mentors of the church. Okay? You can "call me" whichever 1 of those you like. I don't care.
I'm not into titles. But he gave the mentors of the church, verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of the let's say a little louder. To equip the saints for the work of the For building up of the body of Christ. It is not my job, guys, to do ministry. Hallelujah.
Weight lifted. Guess what? It's my job to equip you to do ministry. You are a minister of the gospel, of the good news of Jesus. You are a minister who is supposed to reconcile the world around you to Jesus to Christ Jesus.
You are to share what God has done in you and through you and help those around you to see the same life change that you have experienced. That's your job. My job is to lay down my life to equip you to do that better. Ain't that pretty cool? But wait a second.
Hold on. Let me do this 1 more time. But pastor, I mean, I see that, but I just feel like I'm a little baby Christian. Like, I just gave my life to Jesus yesterday, or last week, or a year ago, or 5 years ago, or 15 years ago. I'm just a baby.
Ain't I ain't I supposed to be like mature in order to do ministry? About that. Go to *Ephesians-4* verse 13, the very next verse. Oh, we're get there. Thank you, Phil.
Until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. This is the next verse. Right? After equipping you guys to do ministry. Until we attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, womanhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
So basically, verse 11 is you have the mentors of the church equipping you, the church, to do ministry, and then comes maturity. Basically, ministry comes before maturity. If you feel stagnant in your relationship with Jesus and you wanna grow, it doesn't mean that you need to go to church more. Yes. That will help.
But why? Because you'll have other Christians that will encourage you to do ministry. Start ministering. Start giving out what God has already given you, and you will begin to grow. You feel stagnant?
Minister. Share with others what you know and you will grow. Why? Because you're not focused on me anymore. You're not you have in order to minister you have to focus on others.
In order to really focus on others you have to love them the way that Jesus loved them because that's the only way you can minister. So you're focused on God and others, and then you're growing and you're maturing, which is pretty dang cool. But I but I can't. But yet yet yes. You can.
You absolutely can. Now question. Ministry leads to maturity. That's a that's a great quote. You guys can say that.
That came from Jesus. Okay. So how do you how do you become an effective minister of the gospel? How do you minister with effectiveness? Have you ever been around those people and like you've tried the whole you've tried your hand at ministering before.
Right? You you you try to pray with somebody or you try to tell them about Jesus or you try to be generous and it just doesn't seem to have any impact on their life. And then somebody else comes along, you're with them, and they say the exact same thing that you said, and the person is weeping and coming to know Jesus. And you're like, I don't get it. What's the difference here?
I don't understand. Has that ever been you? *Jesus* began ministry. See, he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, had the Holy Spirit in him, but then he began ministry after his the Holy Spirit. Matthew-3, the Holy Spirit lit on him like a dove when he had the Holy Spirit on him.
He was baptized in the Holy Spirit. What happened when Jesus was baptized in the Holy Spirit? He began doing the exact same things that the prophets of old, the the men of old in the Old Testament, the same type of miracles, the same type of amazing things, the same type of life changing things. We hear about Moses parting the Red Sea. Moses healing the sick.
Moses leading with an amazing capacity that's not even it's beyond human. He led millions of people. And then then we hear about we hear about Elijah, you know, calling down fire from heaven and Elisha and and them praying for rain to stop and it stopped and then praying for rain to to it to rain again and then it rained. We hear about Samuel healing the sick and Samuel raising the dead. We hear about the amazing giants that David defeated and the mighty his mighty men who were destitute, who were like the nobodies, and then they were raised up and the power of the Holy Spirit fell on them, and they were empowered to to do amazing miraculous ministry for the nation of Israel.
It was awesome. And then Jesus was baptized. The Holy Spirit came on him like a dove and he started ministry effectively. And now people began to follow him because his life was proving the power of the kingdom that the kingdom had come. And then the disciples were conceived by the Holy Spirit in John-20.
And then in Acts-1, actually, let me skip back because it told Jesus said, John-1, John gave the testimony John the Baptist gave the testimony of Jesus. I saw the spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the 1 who sent me to baptize with water told me, the man on whom you see the spirit come down and remain is the 1 who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. It was prophesied in old that the same thing that the prophets had, that God would pour out on all people. It was prophesied in old.
Moses, you know, Moses prayed that 70 people would have the the same, you know, spirit that was on him so they'd be able to do the amazing things and and Joshua was like, why would you say that? And Moses said, man, it's my heart that everybody gets this thing. Well, that's what Jesus did. That's Pentecost. In Acts-1:5, for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
They were already conceived by the Holy Spirit but now they're gonna be baptized with the Holy Spirit meaning immersed, meaning the power of the Holy Spirit on them. Acts-1:8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and the ends of the earth. What does the Holy Spirit on you do? It makes you an effective witness. So no longer are you trying to do witnessing but you are being a witness.
There's a difference. So what happened? And we'll get into this a lot more next week because there's a there's a lot of weird teachings about it. But from the moment that the the disciples and the apostles and those were baptized in the Holy Spirit, they became effective *witnesses* so that they began to do exactly what Jesus said. You'll do the same things I do and even greater.
And we read about it in Acts, amazing things. The dead are raised. The sick are healed. I mean, just "crazy stuff". And they said to go throughout all of the world and empower them to go throughout all the world in being a witness, teaching others to do the exact same things that they were doing.
But we grow up scared of it because we've seen a misrepresentation of it instead of it being real and authentic and empowering us in the way that it's supposed to so that other people see the love of Jesus flowing through us and impacting those around us. I wanna share a testimony. I've I'm not special because I'm a pastor, because I started a church or, you know, all the stuff that no. I'm able to do that because of the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through me, Power of the holy spirit on me. I'm no different than you.
I just say, like Paul said, follow me as I follow *Jesus* and you'll experience the same stuff and maybe even greater, and that's okay. What I'm about to share with you happened because I believe. What's the prerequisite to being forgiven? What do you have to do to be forgiven? Well, Jesus had the the Bible says, without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins.
So really, it was Jesus shedding his blood that was the prerequisite for us being forgiven. That's it. All we have to do is believe it and receive it. What's the prerequisite to be born again? Jesus rising from the dead.
Right? So born again, we have his new life. All we have to do is believe it and receive it. It's not our effort. It's his.
What's the prerequisite for being filled with the Holy Spirit? For the Holy Spirit on you, baptized in the Holy You know, there's a lot of people that teach, oh, you have to go and wait in the upper room for 40 days now, today, and you have to go and tarry. You know, these weird "tarrying meetings", and you have to go do this, and you have to seek real hard, and you have to do this, and do this, and do this, and make sure all the junk's out of your life in order you know? No. See, Jesus has already made you *righteous* by his blood.
You've already been forgiven. You're already in right standing with him. What's the prerequisite? In Luke *Luke-11*. You wanna be an effective witness.
You wanna experience the power of the Holy Spirit, not just relationship with him in in your in your daily life and him changing the your life inside of you, but you're seeing him as lord of everything around you and him chain him using you to change the atmosphere, to change the culture around you. You wanna see that in your daily life. *Jesus* already did everything. It says when he was exalted to the right hand of the father, he poured out the spirit. He's already done it.
In Luke-11, it says, which of your fathers, if you ask for a fish, would give him a snake instead? Or if he asked for an egg, would give him a scorpion? If you then, though you're evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to whoever asks him? Ask, believe, and receive whether you feel it or not. And know that it's a gift that God has given.
So you have to be born again, ask, believe, and receive. I don't have to keep begging him. Nope. Because by asking, you're believing. You're you're knowing, hey, this is for me.
I wanna share with you the fruit of the Holy Spirit on me. And you're seeing it. There's lives changed, but this is something that still happens today. I got permission to share this. The same thing can happen in your life.
My wife and I went rock climbing a couple months ago. And we're hanging out, rock climbing. I'm in my rock climbing shorts. I got I got chalk all over me. If you ever seen people that go rock climbing and stuff, you come home, you can even take a shower because you got chalk all over you.
Well, we've been there for about an hour and I get a call from a good friend of mine, Mike Gabbard. Sitting right there. And Mike says, hey, my uncle's on his deathbed. They're about to take the "breathing machine" off. Would you come and pray with our family?
I turned to my wife and said, baby, we're on a date. I said, baby, would you like to go? She said, yep. This is your excuse to stop rock climbing. We've been rock climbing for an hour.
So we go to see uncle Ronald. Ronald uncle Ronald's on a breathing machine. And from what I've heard, he's he's kind of a mean guy, I guess. You know? Mike didn't believe that he had ever received Jesus as his Lord and Savior, that that had ever happened.
And so we go and see Mike's mom and Mike's family and everything, and they take us back. And he's on the breathing machine, and we're gonna get to pray with the family and stuff. And then they're gonna take him off the breathing machine, and he's supposed to die. Right? And that'll be that.
They don't he's not responsive, hasn't been responsive in, you know, a long time. And I get back there, and I'm looking at Ronald, and he just looks like death. I mean, an older man in the seventies or eighties. Just looks like death. And all of a sudden, the bible talks about a gift of faith.
Right? All of a sudden, I'm filled with this boldness that's not natural. I mean, just not natural. Supernatural is what it is. And I look at Ronald and I look at Ronald at at Mike's mom, and I say, I'm gonna pray that he lives and doesn't die.
I'm gonna speak. I'm gonna pray that he that he lives. And I look at Ronald and I place my hand on his head. And I said, in the name of Jesus, I speak life and not death. You will live and not die.
In Jesus' name. I stuck my hand back and I looked and there's no change. Well, we'll see what happens. So we go to go out of the room. So they're gonna take him off of the the breathing machine, and he's supposed to die.
I'm walking by Mike's mom, and I look, and I say I say, hey. When when he wakes up, if I'm not here, call me. I wanna I wanna talk to him. We go where the family is and they take him off the breathing machine. And then they ask us if we wanna come back in.
They ask the family if they wanna come back in to to say their final buys, you know, that kind of thing. Goodbyes. So me and Mike and and Mike's mom and a couple of the family go back into where Ronald is, Uncle Ronald. And he's laying there and his eyes are closed. Was was he breathing at that moment, Courtney?
He was not breathing. So he was not breathing on his own. I didn't know what else to do. I'd heard stories of people grabbing people by the toes when they didn't know what to do and just praying. So Mike's mom is is talking to Ronald, and Mike's in there, and they're kinda crying.
And they're saying their final goodbyes, and and here I am at the foot of his bed. Nobody's kinda watching me. I just grabbed his toes, and I'm praying under my breath. In the name of Jesus, you raise up. Live and not die.
I'm crazy enough to believe what Jesus said, that we do the same things he did and even greater. I'm just crazy enough to believe it. If the Bible says it, what? I mean, what? We make excuses for what we feel, or do we believe his word is true?
So I grabbed his toes and nobody really looked. And then you just wake up, you live. But you know, about 30 seconds of me doing that, all of a sudden, uncle Ronald opens his eyes and starts breathing. Mike's precious mom, he's opening his eyes. He's he's opening his eyes.
And all of a sudden, I'm that same gift of faith, that boldness, I he just opened his eyes. The family's there. They probably need to talk to him. I said, hey, excuse me. Can I speak to him for a second?
Crazy, man. I go and I look at uncle Ronald in the eye in his eyes. He's looking at me. He can't he still can't talk. And I just share the gospel.
I say, look. I said, I know you've lived a tough life, you know, and whatever, but man, Jesus loves you. God sent me right here, right here today to tell you that he's not mad at you, he loves you, and all you have to do is receive the fact that Jesus died for you and rose again. And you can have his life, and you can be spending *eternity* with Jesus by his radical grace. You can do that right now.
30 seconds, shared the gospel. I said, and you know what? I know you can't speak because his his tongue I said, I know you can't speak. I said, but but just in your mind, say, *God*, I've lived for myself. And right now, I choose.
I give you my life. I believe in you. For Forgive me, God. Thank you for forgiving me. I'm yours.
I said amen, and I just kinda stepped back in faith that that actually happened. There's Mike's mom there, and a tear rolls down his eye. A tear rolled down his cheek. And then he stopped breathing, and he died. But really, I don't believe he died.
I believe he lived. I believe the prayer that I prayed, he's living in eternity out of radical grace, just like the man on the cross beside him, beside Jesus. Didn't deserve it. God snatched him out of hell, gave him a chance to receive, and he received. And I believe I'm gonna see uncle Ron in There's people in here right now who have never experienced being born again, have never given their life to Jesus.
Don't wait for somebody to raise you from the dead to preach the gospel to you because it just might not happen.
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