Above the Crowd

Question and Answer: Karen Batchelor

KB—Question and Answer #1: Last night you gave us some scriptures on jewelry, does the Bible say anything about makeup?

DB: It says Jezebel painted her face and they threw her out the window; (Audience laughs) that’s what is says. (Uhm) You know I think the principle, the Christian principle is you don’t wanna do anything that is gonna distract people from seeing Jesus in you. And my understanding is that if you’ve got so much makeup on people notice that you’ve got it on you’ve got too much on.

I can’t say too much about makeup right now cause you know they buffed my head before I come out. (Audience laughs) I don’t wanna make anyone stumble. When I first started doing TV about 20 years ago and they said: Doug, we need to put some powder on your head. I said: not me, I’m a man! (Audience laughs) So you’re not doing that. And it took a while—I started looking at the tapes and people couldn’t see me because of the reflection (Audience laughs) of my head. (Laughs) So finally they got the victory and I started putting a little powder on my head.

But (uh) the idea is y--you wanna be--you wanna look as natural as possible. And if you can do something that will make you look more wholesome and clean—I mean you know, do whatever you need to do to improve your appearance for Christ as long as it doesn’t look unnatural. But when people start doing this blue goo and all the sequences and the--you know the stuff, and y--you wanna look natural, amen? (KB: Amen) You wanna look healthy for Christ.

KB—Question and Answer #2: Alright. Have another question: is it wrong to own jewelry—and what about expensive homes, and cars, and things like that?

DB: Well, first of all, I never told you that the Bible said there’s anything wrong with gold, or pearls—we’re gonna live on gold, right? We’re gonna walk on golden streets; it’s the asphalt in heaven—question is: would you wear asphalt? (Audience laughs) There’s nothing wrong with gold or pearls or precious stones, the point that the Bible is making is when we are adorning ourselves externally for the purpose of attracting attention.

(Uhm) The Bible says that Christians should be known by their humility. Jesus said take my yoke upon you; learn of me, I am meek and lowly. What would Jesus do? I don’t picture Jesus drilling holes in His body and hanging all these bobbles and beads off His body. (Uh) Owning gold?—nothing wrong with it, gold is really money. The paper in your wallet’s worthless really except the faith you have in it. (Uh) Real money, biblically, is gold, and silver, and precious stones. Those are rare, precious things that have value. (Uhm) And so there’s nothing wrong with having that.

(Uh) What about (uh) someone says a fancy car? Well, you know some people may be ostentatious in their home or in their car, don’t ever point to those people and say that’s my excuse. You follow what the Holy Spirit tells you to do. I think Christians ought to be practical, modest, clean, and don’t be doing things for outward show or pride. (Audience says “Amen”) Amen?

KB—Question and Answer #3: You mentioned the gift of prophecy the other night as one of the identifying characteristics of the remnant church; are there, or have there been prophets in the Seventh-day Adventist Church?

DB: Well, first of all, before the Lord has ever done anything significant in history He’s always raised up prophets, men and women. We told you before the Flood He had Enoch, Methuselah, Noah; (uh) before the Exodus He had Moses, and then Aaron and Miriam, both--all three prophets; (uh) before the destruction of Jerusalem He warned the people with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others; and before Christ came, John the Baptist, Simeon in the temple was a prophet in his own right. So God has never done anything significant without sending messengers to prepare people.

Does it make sense to you that before the great climax of the gospel Jesus’ coming that He will have prophets? “I will pour out My spirit in those days,” speaking of the last days, “on all flesh sayeth the Lord, your sons and daughters will prophesy.” Jesus warns us about false prophets in the last days cause there will be true prophets and we need to know how to discern between them.

I believe very firmly in the gift of prophecy and I believe one reason that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has exploded with exponential success, and they are baptizing thousands every week around the world in this movement, is because God inspired a woman with a third-grade education who wrote more than any other woman in American history on just about every subject, her name is Ellen White.

And when I was in the cave, I didn’t tell you the rest of the story. When I was up in the cave and I was visiting all these different churches I couldn’t agree, I said: Lord, I want you to show me the truth. Three thousand five hundred feet up in this desert mountain somebody brought me one of her books on prophecy called, “The Great Controversy.” I started reading that, the Bible all began to make sense. (Audience says “Amen”)

And everything I’ve been preaching to you is from the Bible, is that right? I’ve been quoting the Bible every night, but do you know everything I’ve been preaching to you is what she harmonizes with. I believe Ellen White was inspired. And so does God still inspire prophets? Yes! And I believe in there’re modern examples and there may be more (Sound effects starts) before Jesus comes back.

(Sound stops before DB speaks)

Sermon Questions: Douglas Batchelor

The Study Guide that goes along with our message this morning is called, “No Turning Back,” and I’ve got a copy of that here too. And (uh) we’re talking about being filled with the Spirit and making a commitment—the importance of making a decision to follow Jesus. And this is one of the areas where (uh) many people get to that point of thinking about committing their lives, hoping to do it someday and they never step across the line. They never experience the fullness of God’s Spirit.

In the book of Revelation chapter 1 verse 4, when Jesus’ first introduced, you read this verse. “John to the seven churches which are in Asia. Grace be unto you and peace which is from Him who was and which is and which is, is to come. And from the seven spirits that are before His throne”—seven spirits? You mean the Holy Spirit there’s seven of ‘em? Seven Holy Spirits?—what does that mean?

You go again to Revelation 5 verse 6 and we read something similar. “I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne stood a lamb as though it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes,” let me ask you if you’ve learned from your prophecy code symbols. Who’s the Lamb? Jesus is the Lamb who was slain. What does a horn represent?—power. Eyes represent knowledge. Jesus talks about if your eye’s single, if the blind leads the blind they’d fall in a ditch, it’s talking about understanding.

This lamb with seven eyes and seven horns represents the characteristics of divinity—that God is all-powerful, seven horns; He’s all-knowing, He’s all love and that is a Lamb that was slain. And you know Christ gave up, I believe, a dimension of His divinity in that Christ took on a human form to save man. One of the characteristics of God the Father is all-powerful, He’s all-knowing, and He’s omnipresent—means He can be everywhere all at one time.

When Jesus took on a human form He may have lost that aspect of His divinity because He said I am leaving that I might be with you all through God the Spirit. Jesus never appeared in more than one place at a time, did He? What a sacrifice that would be if that’s true—that Jesus sacrificed that aspect of His “godness” to become a human so He could be with us.

Now it talks about the seven spirits of God. You know there’s one clue in the Old Testament that helps us understand this. Isaiah chapter 11 verse 2. Does it mean there are seven Holy Spirits? Were--are those the seven attributes of the God--of the Spirit of God? Notice how it’s worded here. “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him; the spirit of wisdom,” now let’s count these for a second here—“the spirit of the Lord,” let’s call that one, “shall rest upon Him. The spirit of wisdom,” two, “and understanding,” three, “the spirit of counsel,” four, “and might,” five, “the spirit of knowledge,” six, “and the fear of the Lord,” how many is that?—seven.

When it talks about the seven spirits of God, the Holy Spirit has many facets through which He communicates. Sometimes we pray for wisdom; you’re praying for the Holy Spirit when you pray for wisdom, aren’t you? And you might be praying for power, you might be praying for understanding—these are different facets of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had all of that poured in Him.

Course, Christ (uh) was God and full of the Spirit but He received the baptism of the Spirit at His baptism, isn’t that right?—to equip Him in a special sense for His ministry. You can read in John chapter 3 verse 34; “For He whom God have sent speaks the words of God and God gives not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” In other words it’s not measured out—He was full, without measure, of the Holy Spirit.

Colossians 2 verse 9 says something similar. “For in Him dwells all of the fullness of the godhead bodily.” How full of the Spirit would you like to be? How important God the Spirit is one of the persons of the godhead? Christ in you, the Holy Spirit is how Christ is in you. When He said I am with you always wherever you go, how does that happen?—through the Spirit in you.

Would, (uh) wait I gotta back up and clarify a point. Can a person have the Holy Spirit in different degrees? Yeah. That’s why Holy Spirit came on the disciples when they were baptized by John the Baptist. Christ, after He rose from the dead said He breathed on them and said receive ye the Holy Spirit. But then again at Pentecost they were filled with the Holy Spirit, Acts chapter 2; then you get to Acts chapter 4, they’re filled with the Holy Spirit again, the whole place is shaken.

Can the Holy Spirit come in different degrees? It’s the Holy Spirit that convicts you of your sin that brings you to the place of baptism where you can be filled with the Holy Spirit to then work for the Lord. So, how much of the Holy Spirit do you want? You know I believe before the Lord returns He wants to pour out His Spirit on His church. We need to be praying for what they call the “latter rain” of the Holy Spirit. A spirit-filled life; God will give you as much of the Spirit as you are willing to use.

Heard about a farmer who had some city slicker, moved to the country; one of his neighbors, and he said you know I’d like to (uh) have a milk cow so I can get the milk fresh from the cow. So the farmer had a couple of extra milk cows so he sold one of them to the neighbor from the city.

After a few weeks the neighbor came over he said: you know that milk cow that you gave me she’s not putting out any milk anymore. And he said: well, are you milking her everyday? Said: well, a little bit. He said: what are you saying? He said: well, you know sometimes for breakfast I just need a cup of milk so I milk a cup, yes and only for dinner we might need a little more and so I take a little more and then sometimes we just need a little bit for our coffees, we just milk a little bit for the coffee. He said: look if you want that cow to keep producing milk you need to get all you can possibly get every time.

And sometimes we treat the Lord that way. If we want the fullness of the Spirit then we need to reach higher. We need to learn to live above the crowd.

How about an amazing fact? Some of you maybe who are into mountain climbing you would know the name Reinhold Messner. He is a legend among mountain climbers for a number of reasons: one is that (uh) he’s one of the few people alive who climbed all 14 of mountains in the world that are over 8,000 meters. For English measurements that would be mountains over 26,000 feet. And it’s a very dangerous business. A matter of fact, on one trip his brother died. It can be treacherous.

He started—and many of these he climbed without oxygen. And he believed that it was possible to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen which nobody had ever done. They said man cannot live up there without oxygen let alone exercise and exert himself at those elevations. He said: I think he can. Said: I think that if he becomes accustomed to it that his lungs will adopt and they will be able to extract enough oxygen, I think he can. The doctors tried to do the math on paper they said impossible, you’ll die up there or you’ll have brain damage.

But he attempted it. And the morning of his final assault for Everest he and partner said they were so deprived of oxygen it took them two hours to dress. They do a little bit, (inhales and exhales making a sound) they’d get their strength, they’d put on a little more clothing, (huh huh) and they said as they made their final ascent toward the summit of Everest, they call it Hillary step, they’d walk a few feet they’d collapse, they’d breath; they’d get up, take another step or two, collapse, they’d breathe. Storms were coming in; everything said: you should turn back. They said: no, we’re either gonna make the summit without oxygen or we’re gonna die trying.

Did they make it? Nineteen seventy eight, he and a partner made it to the top of Mt. Everest without oxygen and back. Some of his family argues that they think he has brain damage just for trying. (Audience laughs)

He did it again alone—one of the only ones who made the summit of Mt. Everest solo and he did it without oxygen the second time.

Learn to live above the crowd. Some people say how can you live the Christian life? There’s not just enough spirit available to do it. The devil wants us to think it’s impossible. You can do it, friends. God will never ask you to do anything without giving you the power to obey. If you believe the devil can tempt you to sin but you do not believe that God can keep you from sin, in essence what you’re saying is that your devil is more powerful than your God.

Jesus came to save us from our sins. He wants us to live a spirit-filled life. And it is possible for us to walk with Him like Enoch did, like Noah did, like Abraham and Moses did, like Elijah did. And God willing, someday, like Elijah, we can be translated when Jesus comes, amen? (Audience says “Amen”) We want to learn to live that kind of life. Do not be satisfied for living in the lowlands with the average concept of Christianity. You can be a real Christian.

Now we’re gonna talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit. We’re gonna talk about the danger of procrastination when God calls you and grieving away the Holy Spirit—because many, many people make that mistake.

DB—Sermon Question #1: Number one. What is the sin that God cannot forgive?

Matthew chapter 12, these are frightening words, “But whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him, not in this life or in the life to come.” There is a sin that cannot be forgiven. And usually as soon as I say that people begin to wonder have I committed that sin? And I’ve been approached many times; Pastor Doug, I think I’ve grieved away the Holy Spirit. Usually the people who call me up and say that, the very fact that their heart is yearning for God is an indicator they haven’t grieved away the Holy Spirit cause it’s often true that those that have grieved away the Holy Spirit have despaired to the point where they’re not even seeking help anymore.

DB—Sermon Question #2: Number two. Just to give you a little encouragement. What does the Bible say about sin and blasphemy, what can God forgive?

Answer? “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” So in this same verse where it talks about the unforgivable sin, the Lord is telling us, what kind of sins does God forgive?—all manner. Does God forgive lying? Does God forgive adultery? He did it for David. Does He forgive murder? He did for Moses. Does God forgive infacide, (infanticide) killing your children?

Gets a little quieter when I ask that question, doesn’t it? I mean understandably so. Did Manasseh kill his children? Made them pass through the fire but when he prayed and repented God heard his prayer?—hard to believe. God is so long-suffering.

And I know this maybe really hard for you, you might choke on this one. But before he was murdered in prison, Jeffrey Dahmer supposedly went through a conversion and those that say they knew him say he really acted like a Christian. How could someone for--just like that be forgiven? Sometimes I think we underestimate the power of God. Dr. Dobson went to see Ted Bundy in prison before he was executed. He claimed to have experienced a total conversion to Jesus. We’ll just have to leave that in the Lord’s hands.

But you know what that tells me? God is a better forgiver than we are sinners. (Audience says “Amen”) If Jesus’ sacrifice was adequate to die for the sins of the whole world then is there any one person—man or woman, who can sin more than Jesus can forgive? It’s not the nature of the sin; it’s not the quantity of the sin that is the unpardonable sin. This is where many people get mixed up.

So for any of you who are going through your litany of sins that you know about, there’re some you may not even know about. You might need to pray that prayer; search me, try me, see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. But in case you’re wondering: oh, but Pastor Doug, you don’t know what I did. You are not a better sinner than God is a forgiver. The Holy Spirit, if He brings you conviction for that sin, God will not convict you of your sins without providing the remedy.

DB—Sermon Question #3: What is the work of the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Holy Ghost, same thing?

John 16 verse 13. “When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth.” What is the work of the Holy Spirit? He wants to guide us into truth. It’s not just to make you feel fuzzy, emotional, ecstatic feelings. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to lead your mind into truth. God teaches us through the spu--spirit. It says, “And He will show you things to come.” Have we been learning through the prophecies in the guidance of the Spirit to understand the prophecies things to come? The Holy Spirit will guide you into truth. John chapter 14 verse 26. Jesus said, “He will teach you all things and bring t--and bring things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said to you.” So there’s a promise that the Holy Spirit will bring to remembrance what Jesus has said.

Now this is a very important point, I don’t wanna rush past. Every now and then I ran into people who say well, Pastor Doug, I know I read in the Bible where it says that Ten Commandments are there and Jesus says we should keep the commandments and you’re talking about the Sabbath commandment, but you know the Holy Spirit is telling me something different; Holy Spirit is telling me that I’m not under the letter of the law anymore, I’m to be led by the Spirit. And I’m gonna keep the Sabbath spiritually.

Well, h--they maybe having a spirit talk to them but I will tell you one thing it is not the Spirit of God. I’m--I’m not guessing, I’m not even to be polite about that, because if any spirit is telling you something that contradicts the word of God it is not the Spirit of God. (Audience says “Amen”) Because it was the Holy Spirit that inspired the holy men to write the word of God and the Holy Spirit is not a hypocrite. He’s not going to inspire one thing to be written in the word of God and then contradict it with His Spirit. He said His work is to bring to remembrance what I have said—where do we have the record of what Jesus said?—in His Word.

So if somebody is telling you: well, the spirit is leading me somewhere other than what the word says; it’s not God’s Spirit—it might be their emotions, it might be their desires, it might be the spirit of the devil. I mean it could be a whole variety of things but don’t blame that on the Holy Spirit cause the Holy Spirit will reinforce the Holy Word. (Audience says “Amen”) They’re always in perfect concert together. So this is one of the works of the Holy Spirit.

Notice, does Jesus give the Holy Spirit to everybody? Are there criteria? John 14 verse 15, we’ve read this many times but I’m gonna keep reading this time. “If you love Me,” what does it say? (Audience answers “Keep my commandments”) Now when you begin a sentence with if, (uhm) it means that there’re some qualifier here. Notice, “If you love Me, keep My commandments and I will,” if you, I will—do you see something conditional here? “If you love Me, keep My commandments and I will pray the Father and He will give you another comforter, a helper, that He may abide with you forever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.” If you love me keep my commandments and I will give you the Holy Spirit.

The fullness of the Spirit is a gift that is not given to everybody. God’s Spirit will be given to everybody to convict us of our sins, to create within us a yearning for mercy, for holiness; but the Holy Spirit is not given the power of the Spirit, the baptism of the Spirit is not given to those who are knowingly disobeying the Lord because it’s a power that--you don’t put a ten-year old behind the wheel of a Ferrari, they can’t handle it. And those who are not committed to serve God if they don’t understand how to be directed by God, He is not gonna give this power to them.

You can see in the Bible what happened when God gave too much power to Samson, used it selfishly. Let me reinforce this. Acts chapter 5 verse 32. Peter said, “And we are His witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Ghost whom God has given to them that,” do what?—that “obey Him.”

So some people are saying: I’ve got the baptism of the Holy Spirit let me prove this now because I speak in tongues. But in their lives they’re knowingly living in disobedience. I don’t care how much you can babble in tongues if you’re living in conflict with the commandments of God that’s not the Holy Spirit. We’ve got a lot of people that say you know if you love Jesus honk your horn. It’s very cheap, thin, shallow, sloppy agape version of what it means to be a Christian. I--I never could forget that I saw that bumper sticker one day, if you love Jesus honk your horn. And (uh) anyone can honk their horn, right? Not long after that I saw another bumper sticker and it said: if you love Jesus, tithe; anyone can honk. In other words if you love Him prove it.

And I know I have some of my friends that say first thing they wanna know they say: Doug, have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit? And I say: before I answer that question, how will you measure that? Well, it’s evidenced in speaking in tongues. And I say: my Bible tells me that you can tell if someone has the Spirit not by the gifts of the Spirit but by the fruits of the Spirit.

Did Jesus ever say you’ll know them by the gifts? Cause Je--the gifts can be counterfeited. He said you’ll know them by their fruits. And the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace—and you know what the primary fruit of the spirit is? Obey. God gives His spirit to those that obey Him. “If you love Me, keep My commandments and I will pray the Father and He will send a Helper, the Holy Spirit.” God gives that power to those who are willing to listen to His word, amen? (Audience answers “Amen”)

The Bible tells us the other purpose for the Holy Spirit is that we might be His witnesses. “They were filled with the Holy Spirit,” and this is Acts 4:31. Sometimes we think every time they’re filled with the Holy Spirit that they speak in tongues, that’s not what the Bible says—only happened three times in the whole Bible. Every other time they’re filled with the Holy Spirit something else happens, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

You know one of the evidences of the Holy Spirit is that you’re willing to share the truth boldly, Amen? Acts 1 verse 8. “And you shall be witnesses unto Me.” Jesus said before He ascended to heaven, He said (uh) wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high and you shall receive the Holy Spirit and you shall be my witnesses in Jude--in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth, an expanding circle.

Why does He baptize us with the Holy Spirit? So we can demonstrate to our friends with some gesture or vocal sounds that we’ve got the Holy Spirit? Why does He give us the power of the Spirit? So we can prophesy. I Corinthians 14 tells us that’s the most important gift. Prophesy means to preach, to proclaim, to be witnesses, to share. That’s what converts people. The devil’s got a lot of the Christian church on a detour of what the real purpose for the gift of the Spirit is.

DB—Sermon Question #4: Number four. When the Holy Spirit convinces me of sin what must I do to be forgiven?

John, I John 1 verse 9, “If,” there’s that word again, if “we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from,” some? (Audience says “all”) from the majority? (Audience answers “All”) “He is faithful to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Now if God is going to cleanse us from all unrighteousness then what kind of confession should there be? I think that we should have a thorough confession.

How many here can remember, all of you watching, can you remember all the sins you’ve ever committed? Anyone here wanna raise her hand say I remember every sin I’ve ever committed, four times, that’s all? I can just remember.

So how do we confess our sins? I believe that you confess ‘em the way God identifies them. In His law God summarizes sin several ways. First of all, you got the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. You can say: Lord, forgive me, and you could summarize it that way. You might wanna break it down in two. Some say: Lord, please forgive me for the sins of commission, that’s when you commit a sin, break one of the Ten Commandments; and the sins of omission.

You know sin is not just when you do something wrong. In the judgment, Matthew chapter 25, when the Lord separates the sheep from the goats He says He judges them there by the sins of omission. Sins of omission are—I was hungry you didn’t feed me, I was naked you didn’t clothe me, I was a stranger you didn’t bring me in, I was thirsty you didn’t give me drink, I was sick or in prison you didn’t visit me. They didn’t do anything wrong it’s what they didn’t do right that they’re judged for. So you might say: Lord, forgive me for not only my sins of commission, the things I’ve committed, but my sins of neglect, the good I’ve omitted.

Or you could just go through the Ten Commandments and that covers quite a bit, doesn’t it?

But you can get on your knees and say: Lord, I’ve taken your name in vain, I’ve been a thief, I’ve squandered the assets like a prodigal son that you’ve given me, I’ve been a murderer, I’ve been angry and gossiped and tried to assassinate people with my tongue—you know the Law is very broad and comprehensive—I’ve thought impure thoughts, adultery; and so you can itemize it that way.

Be thorough. Plow up the fallow ground. You might water it with your tears. Pray that prayer—Lord, if there’s anything I’m forgetting, search me, try me, lead me in the way everlasting. And then when you confess your sins like that to God, you don’t have to confess them to a priest, priest can’t provide that forgiveness. There is a time to confess your sins to each other. If you’ve offended a brother, tell God and then go to the brother, right?

Jesus says leave your gift at the altar and then go be reconciled with your brother—a lot of people are wanting forgiveness from God but they won’t be reconciled in their disputes and anger they’ve got for others and it could be a family member, it could be another church member. Leave your gift at the altar; you’re wasting your time. You go be reconciled with your brother. “All men will know you are my disciples by your love for one another.” Amen? Then come and bring your gift. And you pray that prayer and He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. We’re talking about being real Christians, are we not?—this morning?

I mean why would we fool with the stuff called religion unless we’re gonna have eternal life. I wanna get there, don’t you, friends? We’re gonna talk about heaven tonight. I plan on being there. And so I don’t want anybody, I don’t want a doctor telling me I’ve got poison ivy if I’ve got skin cancer, right? He’s not helping you. We wanna know what’s it gonna take to be well. I wanna be saved from my sin, not in my sin. I want the Lord to save me from my sin. You come to Him just like you are; but He loves you so much to leave you just like you are. (Audience says “Amen”) I want the real thing.

DB—Sermon Question #5: Number five. What happens if I do not confess my sins when convicted by the Holy Spirit?

Bible says, “He that covers his sin will not prosper.” First of all, can you cover anything from God? You can flee to the uttermost parts of the earth and be at the bottom of the mountains with Jonah and God sees you there. Nothing is hidden from God, everything is naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we have to do. But whoever confesses and forsakes, you notice it’s not just confession we need to pray that God will give us a willingness to forsake our sins. He will have mercy.

And you’re saying oh, Pastor Doug, why would I bother? I can’t follow Jesus. You mean I have to turn away from my sins before I’m forgiven? No, listen please, don’t miss this point. You come to Jesus just like you are. You confess your sins and as soon as you confess your sins you are forgiven. You get off your knees and then you claim His power to be different. (Audience says “Amen”)

Let me--let me illustrate this in some practical ways. In the Bible there’s a story of ten lepers that came to Jesus. They said, Son of David have mercy on me. He said go show yourselves to the priest and make the offering for cleansing from leprosy. Well, they still have leprosy—why go and thank God from cleansing from leprosy when you still getting leprosy? But they didn’t argue with Jesus, they decided well, He told us to go we’ll go. So these men who are rife with leprosy they turned and they began to go, and the Bible says in going they were cleansed, Luke chapter 10, in going they were cleansed. As they began to take steps to do what God had told them to do a miracle took place. (Audience says “Amen”)

Let me tell you about the five-minute plan to quit smoking. And by the way, this also works for alcohol and just about any other addiction. I believe in the 5-day plan, I used to conduct them but I’ll give you a five-minute plan if you’re in a hurry. (Audience laughs) This is what I do. I tell people I say, first of all, do you believe God wants you to quit smoking, determine what the will of God is, what’s the truth? Yes. I mean it says on every pack this is killing you and you know He doesn’t want you to kill yourself it’s defiling, it’s a waste of money, no good reason, no nutritional value in cigarettes it’s just a waste. Kiss somebody who’s been smoking it smells like you’re licking an ashtray, that’s awful—(Audience laughs) so dirty, okay? So I know God wants me to quit, bad for my witness.

Will God help you do, here’s a question two; will God help you do what He asks you to do? Inherent, inherent in every command of God is the power to obey. If God says be thou clean the same way He said let there be light there’s creative power in His word. He will help you do what He’s asking you to do—if you believe. (Audience says “Amen”)

Now here’s where it gets tough. You believe He wants you to. Will you help you do what He wants you to do? Yes. Then pray. Ask for deliverance and then take that step, throw away your cigarettes, take your Wild Turkey or Jack Daniels, pour it down the toilet, make your toilet an altar, flush it.

Oh, but Doug, it’s good whiskey, can I sell it? No, no such thing as good whiskey. Can’t I give my cigarettes to my buddies? No. You gonna support them, be an accomplice in their sin? Set an example tell ‘em that, and don’t throw ‘em in the garbage can cause you’ll go looking for ‘em. (Audience laughs) Throw ‘em away.

Pray and then watch what happens. You will then give God permission because you are taking that first step. Isn’t the Bible promise there, resist the devil He’ll flee from you, but before that draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. “Submit yourself therefore to God,” this is James chapter 4, “Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil He’ll flee from you.” “Draw nigh to God and,” what will God do? “He will draw nigh to you.” As soon as you take the steps to draw near to Him He will run to meet you. When the prodigal son started home as soon as the father saw him coming he ran to meet him.

A lot of people don’t take the first step and they go through their whole Christian experience still bound to their addictions, they don’t have that spirit-filled life because they are not taking the steps to obey. Doug, if I keep the Sabbath I’m gonna lose my job. You take the steps. Give God the chance to work a miracle, so many people have missed out a miracle cause they won’t give God a chance.

What if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego had said you know we’d like to--we’d like to stand up right now for the Lord but the furnace is too hot; when it cools down then maybe we’ll stand up? (Audience laughs) They stood up even though the furnace was hot and did God provide a miracle for them? (Audience answers “Yes”)

Daniel could have said you know I’ll--I’ll pray with my windows open but those lions are hungry right now; after they feed ‘em then I’ll open my windows. He went when the lions were hungry and if you don’t think so you read what happened. They pulled Daniel out and the Bible says that those who accused him were thrown in and the lions had the mastery of them and broke all of their bones in pieces before they hit the bottom of the den, those lions were hungry.

That fire was hot; it burned the soldiers that threw in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. The Red Sea was deep; it drowned the Egyptians, but God’s people made it through. Give Him a chance to work a miracle for you. (Audience says “Amen”) Take the first steps and see what He does and do for you. He’ll break the chains and set you free.

DB—Sermon Question #6: Number six. When the Holy Spirit convicts me of sin or leads me to new truth when should I act?

What’s the best time to listen to God’s will? “As soon as they hear of Me they shall obey Me.” The best time to listen to God’s will is when you’re hearing it. “He that hath ears”—that fellow fits the criteria, doesn’t he? (Audience laughs) “He that have ears,” Jesus said, “let him hear what the Spirit says.” He got ears like John Lomacang. (Audience laughs) (Laughs) He was making fun of my hair the other day; where are you, John? (Laughs)

One day I was telling folks, said: John looks a little bit like a car with the doors left open. (Audience laughs) He said: well, Doug, you look like a convertible. (Audience) (Laughs) So we have fun with each other. (Audience laughs) So s--the best time to listen to God’s voice is when you’re hearing God’s voice, right?

Answer B. “I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments.” Now let me tell you how the devil operates. Procrastination is one of his most successful ploys. Hell is gonna be brimming with people who had good intentions of following the Lord one of these days. They had every intention but they said you know now it’s not convenient. I need to think about it some more. I need to cogitate. It’s interesting, I need deeper study.

And they used all this as self-deluding tactics to procrastinate. The best time to do God’s will is when you know God’s will. And friends, I’ve told you many times whenever you’re in doubt do the safe thing. As I’ve told you one reason I’m keeping the Sabbath day is I know when I stand before the Lord in the judgment the Lord is not gonna say: Doug, why did you worship on the seventh day of the week when everybody else was doing something different? I’ll say: Lord, cause you did and I’m following you. And He’ll have nothing to say because I’m following Him. It’s the safe thing to do.

And I still have invited people to produce one scripture—I don’t mean to be unkind, just one, one command, anywhere in the Bible, to keep the first day of the week as the Sabbath. Have we heard any? There isn’t any! So do you wanna be a Bible Christian? That’s the question and how important are the Ten Commandments.

We’re not saved by keeping the Sabbath anymore than we’re saved by keeping the commandment that says don’t commit adultery; but do you think we ought to keep that one? Is it legalism to observe the seventh commandment? Why does it suddenly become legalistic to observe the fourth? One deals with our love for our spouse the other deals with our love for our God. Which is more important? (Audience answers “Love for God”) And yet pastors are saying that one doesn’t matter. You don’t need to keep thinking about it or if you’re gonna think about it start keeping it while you think about it. You’re doing the safe thing, amen?—following Jesus.

Answer C. “Behold, now is the accepted time.” “Behold, today is the day of salvation.” God never tells people to come to Him when it’s convenient. He said to Zaccheus: come now. Make haste, come down. The Lord calls us—there’s an urgency connected with salvation, amen?

You may have heard me share this story before I can’t improve on it so I use it frequently. A father was sailing through the warm Caribbean waters just he and his boys. On this summer trip they were sailors. And at this one stretch of water he told his boys he said you know it’s shallow and warm here and there’s lot of sharks in this area, because evidently they had a chicken slaughterhouse in one of these (uh) Caribbean Islands and it there--the refuse from this slaughter house went out into the water and it was just full of sharks that were very aggressive.

He said whatever you do don’t swim around here and don’t fall in the water. Well, the boys weren’t paying attention and they started playing a game of teenage tag on the deck of the boat and one of them tripped and hit a little cable down by his shin and he started to totter, he grabbed his brother’s t-shirt for balance and he pulled his brother off into the water with him.

Well, the water was warm and they were good swimmers but the father was below deck and he heard the ka-plunge when the boys fell in and heard them shouting. He ran up on deck and (uh) boat was sailing slowly but it was leaving his boys behind. And they weren’t too worried they saw their dad saw them and they were blaming each other and dunking each other and good swimmers.

The father dropped the sails, stopped the boat, and not long after he did that from his vantage point up on the deck he could see dark shadows, it was clear water—looking down he could see dark shadows circling where his boys were and he knew what they were. They weren’t porpoises. And he said: boys I see sharks start swimming quickly and calmly back to the boat. The boys that got their attention but they looked around and they maybe had watched too much TV and they thought every time a shark swims you see a dorsal fin cutting the water.

And they said: you know dad teases us sometimes he’s trying to scare us and teach a lesson. They were both absolutely positive dad was trying to scare ‘em. And they said: we don’t see the sharks, haven’t seen any sharks all day long, just trying to scare us. So they began to mock their father and say: help! Shark! Help! I think he’s got me!

And the father saw the sharks were increasing in number enclosing the circle. And he said: quickly, get back to the boat. The engine wasn’t started, he couldn’t turn the sail boat around fast enough, he grabbed one of those life rings attached to a rope and he says: what’s the matter with you guys? There’re sharks—quickly! And he threw it as far as he could, they said: we don’t need your help, we’ll get back.

Now the father understood the nature of sharks and especially when they’re aggressive; they can smell one drop of water in 38,000 gallons, one drop of blood, I’m sorry, in 38,000 gallons of water. And (uh) they closed their circle. I--Karen and I have our scuba license. We’ve dived with sharks before and most of the time they’re pretty passive around the reefs but in some areas they’re aggressive. And (uh) they circle their prey before they come in; if they start circling you that’s not a good sign. And once one of ‘em takes a bite and they smell blood they go into a frenzy of ripping and tearing.

The father realized if something didn’t happen quickly he’s gonna lose His boys so he went below deck and he got a knife from the galley, came up on deck, he cut his wrist and he dove in the water and swam away from the boat in a different direction. And then the water began to churn and turn red over where the father was and the boys saw that.

Now here’s the question: if they decide to stay in the water after their father has laid down his life to provide a way of escape is there any thing more their father can do?

After God has sent His Son and Jesus has poured out His life and blood to save us from our sin if we choose to stay in the water is there anything more He can do? He will not force you to come to Him. He will knock at the door, He will plead, He’ll show you His nail-pierced hands but we need to choose to come.

People always come up to me later and they’ll say: well, Doug, what happened to the boys? I made the story up that’s up to you. (Audience laughs) But it’s a good story. People are so worried about the boys and yet it’s true, it is true—you’re the boys, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna stay in the water? God gave His Son to provide a way of escape. That boat is the church. And if we choose to stay out there with the devil what more can He do? We need to take the steps. And sometimes it means living above the crowd.

Answer D. “And why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins calling on the name of the Lord.”

Another amazing fact—bats, bumble bees, and buzzards—did you know that you could put a bat; they are very agile in the air. I used to catch ‘em, went to Summer Camp they called me, “Doug, Bat Catcher,” (Audience laughs) instead of Batchelor. But you can take a bat, you can put them in a glass aquarium, take the lid off, they can’t fly—because they can’t climb up the sides and a bat cannot launch itself from the ground. They need to climb and then drop and then they spread their wings and they start to fly. They’re totally helpless.

You can put a bumble bee in a glass tumbler, no lid on the top; try it someday, drop ‘em in there, he will wear himself out banging; he can only see the horizontal, he will not try to fly up to get out. Some of you have maybe even seen this before.

You can take a buzzard, looked very graceful when they’re flying; but you put ‘em in a cage 8 feet by 8 feet, open at the top, they won’t even attempt to fly, no matter how you chase ‘em around, because they need about 12 feet to launch—totally helpless.

But do you know a dove is very unique. A dove is one of the few birds that can take off straight up. If you wanna get above the crowd we need the Spirit of God—that dove, (Audience says “Amen”) to help us go straight up. We live on the horizontal, we compare ourselves among ourselves and by ourselves and we’re trapped—living like bats, and buzzards, and bumble bees, right? We need to think like doves and get out of the prison.

You can live about the crowd. Don’t look around you. Don’t let the church and people be your guide. We can’t be measuring ourselves by ourselves. Look at Jesus, He is your example. He lived a holy life; you can live a holy life. (Audience says “Amen”) But you need to come to Him just as you are.

DB—Sermon Question #7: Number seven. What solemn warning does God give about the--about pleading of the Holy Spirit?

Genesis 6 verse 3. “My Spirit will not always strive with man.” This takes us back to the time in the Old Testament when Noah was building the ark—wickedness of men was great in the earth. In the days of Noah it will be very much like our day, Jesus said: “As it was in the days of Noah so will it be in the coming of the Son of man,”—a lot of parallels.

Was there a time in the days of Noah when God’s spirit stopped striving? For a hundred and twenty years Noah preached with his mouth and with his hammer—by his example, by the way he invested his money. He said the end is coming, they said: ah there’ll never be a flood. And maybe some people were convicted by the teaching and preaching of Noah and they thought yeah the world is wicked and God probably is gonna punish ‘em but (uh) I must have time, but they waited too long.

You know one day the animals got on the ark and Noah made his final heartfelt appeal and there were probably people in the crowd that said, may--maybe even helped Him build the ark: you know I’d like to get on, I’m gonna get on but it’s not raining yet. Ah--I’ll wait till it starts raining. And the Bible says God shut the door, and for seven days they didn’t know it but they’d committed the unpardonable sin; they were permanently lost. And life went on—they ate, they drank, they married, they builded, but the ark door was locked and they we’re on the outside. They never heard Noah plead again.

And grieving away the Holy Spirit, committing the unpardonable sin, is where you get to the place where you don’t hear the Holy Spirit calling you anymore because you procrastinate it so often; the volume is turned down. Ephesians 4 verse 30, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption,”—very dangerous thing to do.

DB—Sermon Question #8: Number eight. At what point does the Holy Spirit stop pleading with a person?

Sobering scripture, Isaiah 65 verse 12. “Therefore, I will number you for the sword and you will bow down to the slaughter because,” He says, “this terrible calamity is gonna come. When I called you did not answer, when I spoke you did not hear; but you did evil before My eyes and shows that in which I do not delight.”

The Lord says I called, I pled, and you put me off. You know there is a time when it just gets where you can’t hear the Holy Spirit anymore because you keep pushing it away. And the volume goes down, it’s dangerous to procrastinate.

Some of you know the story in the Bible of the rich young ruler; tells us in couple of Gospels, Matthew, Mark chapter 10. A young man, good man, church going young man, had a lot of the Bible memorized, wealthy man, successful, looked like God has blessed Him—but He knew something was missing.

He saw Jesus blessing the children, He saw how different Christ was, and he knew that he did not have that security, he didn’t know the Lord. And he ran to Jesus and he threw himself down at Jesus’ feet and he said: “Good master, what good thing shall I do that I might have eternal life”? Jesus said: “Why do you call me good? There is none good but one and that’s God, but if you will enter into life,” oh by the way, Jesus wasn’t saying He wasn’t good, He was saying He was God. You call him a good master, only God is good, do you know who I really am?

He said, “If you would enter into life keep the commandments.” What did Jesus say? Well, that’s legalistic, Jesus don’t say that. Keep the commandments. And he said: which ones? Jesus began to itemize the commandments that deal with our relationship with our fellowmen. He didn’t mention any of the first four. That doesn’t mean that’s okay to make graven images or worship other gods, this man’s problem was with his relationship with his fellowman.

And before Christ could even finish the list he says: I know that’s Ten Commandments, everybody knows that, I’ve known that all my life. What do I lack? Jesus said: okay you want to get serious; go, sell what you have give it to the poor, you’ll have treasure in heaven, take up your cross and follow me.

Now do you get this? Jesus said to him what He said to Peter, James, and John. He said: you follow me; He was inviting him to be an apostle. I mean Christ often healed people He said go your way. He said: you follow Me. He, Jesus, the gospel says Jesus looking at him loved him. He had such great potential, bright, gifted, so many good attributes, but you know the Bible tells us, very sad record, he went away grieved for he had great possessions. Isn’t that kind of strange? He went away rich and miserable.

Now (uh) I don’t think the Lord is necessarily asking us all to sell everything we have and give it to the poor. He might be asking some of you to do that but He is asking you to give up anything that gets between you and Him. (Audience says “Amen”)

Peter had to walk away from his net, left his nets, left his father in the boat. The Bible tells us that Matthew Levi left his counting booth; Elijah left his farm and his plow and his oxen. Everyone who takes up his cross to follow Jesus has to leave something behind. And anything that’s gonna come between you and Jesus, let it go, friends, amen? (Audience says “Amen”) Follow Him as soon as He calls you. Get right up and follow Him.

This young man walked away—he never said: no, I’m not gonna follow you—he went away maybe he was stroking his beard thinking you know now is not a good time, I’m waiting for the stock market to come back up again a little bit; and it’s just--you never hear from him again. There could be a book in the Bible that could have been a gospel named after him. He could have changed the world. But he said not today. Never hear from him again.

DB—Sermon Question #9: Number nine. God, through his Holy Spirit, brings light and conviction to every person on earth. What must I do to receive light from the Holy Spirit?

If you want that light to expand and intensify, the Bible says, “The path of the just is as a shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day.” It grows ba--brighter; how does that happen? Jesus said, “Walk in the light while you have the light lest darkness come upon you.” The more that you walk in the light that God is giving you the more light He’ll give you. Has He revealed truth to you? Has He revealed truth about health?

(Uh) Some might be thinking: well, you know Doug, there’s other things I wanna study about health and I’d like to understand these things better. Well, do you know about pork yet? (Audience laughs) Get rid of the pork chops, the Bible says it’s an abomination, maybe learn more about health.

But if you’re not walking in the light of pork then why do you worry about vegan yet? You know what I’m saying? And it’s not weighing everything. If God reveals light to you walk in the light and that light will get brighter. He will trust you with more light. But if you can’t learn arithmetic with pennies you’re not gonna learn it with dollars, right?

So if you walk in the light God has given you—and I’ve met many people before, they’re coming to the meetings and their l--their faces are shining, they’re on fire, they’re so excited, they’re making changes, but then they hear something they put on the breaks. Sometimes, it’s something little—oh, no, I’m not, (uh) I don’t know about that; and they keep coming to the meetings and their faces change, I see it.

And I remember one sister came to me she said: Brother Doug, you know I was coming to the meetings, it was so exciting and God was changing my life and I felt the Holy Spirit, she said: now it’s just something has changed, you know ever since you preached on that subject? And I said: sister, are you following what I shared? No, I got a problem with that. Said: do you feel like the light’s going out? Yeah. So you better take a stand for what you’ve learned or that light you’ve got will turn into darkness, Jesus says. Walk in the light while you’ve got the light.

DB—Sermon Question #10: Number ten. Can any sin be the sin against the Holy Spirit, the unforgivable sin?

Yeah. I--it can be any sin that you cling to. Indefinitely, it’s a sin for which you will not repent. That’s the sin for which you cannot be forgiven. Lucifer’s unpardonable sin was pride—it’s sort of encompassed everything, right? Has Lucifer committed the unpardonable sin? Do we all agree? (Audience answers “Yes”) With Saul—always rebellion, spiritualism, he went to the witch. Judas, his unpardonable sin was greed and covetousness. He sold the Savior for silver, how sad. And there were others. It could be anything. How sad, some people would go to (uh) lose eternal life for pork chops or for Camel cigarettes, or camel steak, (Laughs) it could be either one.

DB—Sermon Question #11: Number 11. After King David committed a terrible sin, what did he pray?

“Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” Does God ever withdraw His Spirit? David saw what was happening after he sinned with Bathsheba and he had Uriah murdered and he tried to create this big cover up. He knew that God was withdrawing from him until Nathan, acting like the Holy Spirit, the prophet of God came and said: “Thou art the man.” And under tremendous conviction David realized what the problem was and he wept and he pled.

And a lot of us wanna sin like David but we don’t wanna repent like David. We often point to David’s sin but we don’t point to his repentance. How did David repent? Seven days on his face before God saying don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Did God answer his prayer? Did He forgive him? Did He fill him with the Spirit? But he, I mean David used to be full of the Spirit. He recognized God could take the Holy Spirit from me; please, don’t do it, Lord. Forgive me!

It’s dangerous, it is--it can be eternally lethal for you to presume upon God’s grace.

DB—Sermon Question #12: Number 12. What serious command did Paul give to the church in Thessalonica?

I Thessalonians 5:19. “Quench not the Spirit.” Is it possible for us to stifle the calling of the Holy Spirit in our lives? Yeah, it is! And again, in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.” It’s the Holy Spirit that seals the Holy law in our hearts and minds. And by refusing to submit, to take those first steps, we can grieve away the Spirit, ultimately.

That’s why Jesus says in Revelation, this is a prophecy seminar, “Remember therefore from whence you art fallen and repent and do the first works or else,” what is that mean, you ever heard your folks say that? Means there are consequences, right? “Or else I will come unto you quickly when it happens.” We always think we’re gonna get a warning; it’ll be sudden and we won’t be prepared. “I’ll come to you quickly and remove your candlestick out of its place”—that burning of God’s Spirit, taken out of its place.

Can we grieve away the Holy Spirit? You know it’s so dangerous; a lot of us are like that (uh) that foolish barn builder. God blessed him and he said: oh, I’ve got a good crop I’m gonna build bigger barns so I can stuff ‘em full of all that I have and I’ll say to my soul, soul you’ve got goods laid up for many years, eat, drink, and be merry. You got a long life and plenty of time to repent for your prodigal living. And a voice came from heaven that said: “Thou fool, this night your soul is required of thee.” He hadn’t planned on that.

DB—Sermon Question #13: Number 13. What other shocking statements are made regarding those who reject truth?

This is really something to think about, friends. II Thessalonians 2 verse 10 through 12. “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish,” why do they perish?—“because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God will send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.”

Now what is that mean? You mean God is gonna delude ‘em? No. When you reject light, what’s left? (Audience answers “Darkness”) Darkness! When you reject Jesus who comes in? And if we reject truth Christ is the truth, you take truth out of the equation and all you have is error; and God will allow you to embrace and believe a lie and you could be very sincere believing.

Ah, Doug, you know I don’t know about this Sabbath business and there’re so many good people how could all of these people be wrong? You know that’s what they said about the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. If he was really the Messiah, the leaders would know it, how could they all be wrong?

Are you waiting for the truth to be popular? If you keep putting off what is clearly in the word you can come to the place where you can become self-deluded and believe a lie. And why did they embrace a lie?—“that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness”—because the truth conflicted with their lives. The truth does not need changing, friends. God sends the truth because we need changing, amen? (Audience says “Amen”)

DB—Sermon Question #14: Number 14. What wrenching experience will some who have been sent the strong delusions face in the judgment day?

“Many are gonna come,” Matthew 7: 22 and 23, “in that day saying Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?”—we went to church, we held position, “in your name we cast out devils, in your name we did many wonderful works. And Christ will declare unto them, depart from me ye who work iniquity.” I never knew you. I don’t know you. What is iniquity mean there?—lawlessness. They’ve been living without law.

You know one of the core things we’ve been sharing in this seminar is that really being a spirit-filled Christian means you know what sin is, we got a problem. Sin is a transgression of the law. Jesus came to save us from our sins and He not only forgives us right where we’re at, He then gives us power to live new lives to not only be hearers but to be doers of the work.

You don’t have to be like everyone else, friends. There is enough air up there for you to survive. Don’t believe what others are telling you. It’s like those unfaithful spies, came back from the Promised Land they said: we can never make it. We can’t take on those giants that live in the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb said: you are able, we’re able right now.

Yes, you can. We’ve gotta decide, do you believe that we can make it? You can be a Christian. You can follow Jesus. He would not have gone through everything He went through and suffered as He did if it wasn’t possible for every one of you to be there. (Audience says “Amen”) If you believe, all things are possible. (Audience says “Amen”) Do you believe? (Audience says “Yes”) You can come to Him right now and you can have a spirit-filled life. Would you like that? (Audience says “Amen”)

I wanna have a special prayer for you. (Background music starts) There maybe some of you here or some who are watching, the Holy Spirit spoke to your heart today. You have not yet made a decision to surrender your life to Jesus. God is calling you. He wants you to live above the crowd. He wants you to be with Him in the kingdom. He wants you to be filled with the Spirit.

You can get the victory over everything. He is able to keep you from falling. You believe that, friends? (Audience says “Amen”) You can be a new creature, get a new beginning. Would you like that today? Maybe there’re some who have not yet been baptized, and you need to make that decision.

We’re gonna close our service today by going off the air with prayer. Praying for these and praying for you. And group leaders, please, have prayer with your groups. We’ll look forward to seeing you again tonight as we talk about the kingdom where we wanna meet again, amen?

(Audience says “Amen”)

Loving Father in heaven, we are so thankful for the good news that Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient to not only forgive our sins, to cover our sins, but to provide victory to clothe us with new garments that we might be new creatures and live new lives that we might be spirit-filled, not only Christians in word but in deed.

Lord, help us to fix our eyes on Jesus and lay aside the sin and the weight that does beset us. Help us to take those initial baby steps knowing that as we draw near to you, you will run to meet us. And then activate the power of your very presence, your Holy Spirit, in our lives.

Lord, we not only wanna sprinkling we wanna shower. We need the fullness of the Spirit. We’re living in the last days where the devil…