Well
praise Jesus today everyone. It's another day to praise the Lord, to worship
Him, and to cast out all the accusations from the devil, all the things that
are sinful in this world, and to truly put our faith in the Lord, having the
fire of the Holy Spirit in us. You know there's a lot of ways to lose our fire,
especially when we're new Christians and we're putting our faith in the Lord
and we're trying to get grounded, there's a lot of things that can try to
distract us, especially other brothers and sisters in the Lord that try to
quiet us down.
I
remember when I was first hearing from the Holy Spirit and receiving the words
of the Holy Spirit into my heart, I was so excited to tell everyone about Jesus.
I was writing letters to people, I was telling people in my church.and man, I
got on Facebook I was telling people about Jesus. I desperately wanted people
to repent and to hear from Jesus the way I was. I was very zealous in the eyes
of people in my church. I remember one of the worship arts directors in the
church coming to me, and he just belittled me for my newfound faith in Jesus.
He said, “when I was young, I was like you. I was really zealous, I wanted to
win people to the Lord. But as I grew, I grew into maturity to know that we
shouldn't act like that, Andy. We don't need to be so vigorous about our faith
like that. You shouldn't offend people, you're just excited right now.” And he
really tried to cool down my fire for the Holy Spirit. Well, guess what guys, I
have been preaching Jesus and living for Jesus now about, I don't know, it's
been about 13 years or so.
Since I
left the church, since I came out of dead religion, and the Holy Spirit has
continued to put His fire in me. That same fire, I have to continue to go to
the Lord and say, “put your fire in me, let me continue to live for you, to die
to myself, to pick up my cross, and to live for you.” And unless we continue to
go to the Lord to renew ourselves, so that He can renew our hearts every day,
renew our minds and give us this continued strength, we're bound just to become
like all the Christians who are in church, who have lost their joy for the
Lord, they've lost their fire, they're not evangelizing, they're not telling
anyone about Jesus, they're not helping anyone, they're just lukewarm and
putrid. They have fallen back to sin, back to all sorts of... ...connection,
I'm driving right now, so hopefully it'll be enough... ...but what I was saying
was, we need to keep that fire in us that we received from the beginning, we
don't want to become dead... ...
Don't let
anyone belittle you because you are new, or because you are young, saying that
you shouldn't be so eager to talk about Jesus, or saying that, well, why are
you speaking about God, you don't know the Bible enough, you haven't been to
Bible college. The devil will always try to belittle you if you're starting to
catch fire for Jesus. This is a huge tactic of the devil, so that the gospel
will not spread like wildfire. But if we can be concerned about the Kingdom of
God, the righteousness of God, and doing His work, then we will continue to
spread the gospel, and concern ourselves with hearing from our Lord and Master,
and not worrying about all these accusations from Satan, well, you don't know
enough, you're not a good enough person, what makes you good enough to speak
about holiness and righteousness, do you think that you're perfect? The
accusations of Satan go on and on and on. But we need to keep the fire of the
Holy Spirit in us, and keep rejoicing in the Lord, casting out demons in Jesus'
name, casting out doubt, casting out fear, of course casting out lust, and just
standing on the rock of our salvation, on the rock of Jesus Christ.
Following
Jesus is not about being in church, it's not about having a club, it's not
having an association to be with, following Jesus is about living on the words
of life. We have to truly eat Jesus' flesh, and drink His blood. And that's
what a lot of Christians don't know, they think that they will get fired up by
being in church, that's not true. The people in church are going to try to take
your joy, they're going to try to belittle you because they're jealous if you
are hearing from God, they only want the pastor hearing from God, because that's
how they make their money, that the pastor thinks that he is feeding the flock.
But Jesus is the one who feeds His flock, not the pastor in church.
If you
want to be daily fed, daily nourished, you have to be going to the one good
shepherd, and that is Jesus Christ, He feeds His flock daily. They don't listen
to the malicious voice, they don't listen to strangers, or strange teachers, or
money preachers, or false prophets on the internet. They listen to Jesus alone,
and they are moved by God, not by the accusations of Satan, or false brothers,
or false sisters. Satan uses Christians in particular to try to move
Christians. Satan doesn't use atheists to try to move Christians, but he uses
supposed brothers in Christ, or sisters in Christ, to try to influence other
Christians for evil. And that's why you have so many false prophets, so many
false teachers, so many money preachers, fellowship. Their rock of salvation,
their supposed salvation, is in their religious practice, it's in their Bible,
it's in their parents, it's in their pastor, it's in the people in their
church, but they don't have any genuine faith in Jesus.
If we
want genuine faith on the rock of Jesus Christ, we need to find our salvation
in Him alone, in Jesus Christ. We need to love Him, obey Him, every day when we
wake up, we need to say, “Lord Jesus, please speak to me, please guide me, let
your fire be in me, let me receive the words of the Holy Spirit in my life,
that I may overcome, and walk in the newness of life with you all the time.” We
have to purposefully deny ourselves, denying the things that we do, and we need
to lay down our life for the gospel, and truly living for Jesus with every
breath, every move, and everything that we're doing.
So are
we living with the fire of the Holy Spirit in us? Are you living with the fire
of the Holy Ghost in you? Or are you like the Christians who are backslidden,
who don't have any power to stand for what's right? Are you like the Christian
who is attending church and surrounded by a false brotherhood, people who
encourage them to keep sin, but in reality, they're encouraging you to sin
because they're not really preaching that you need to give up sin, that you
have to quit on addiction, that you need to quit on things that cause your mind
to sin, such as pornography and lust, things that cause broken marriages,
addictions, all those things in the world that cause you to stumble.
Is the
joy of the Lord really in your heart? I want to pray for those of you that do
want the fire of the Holy Ghost in you, that want to stand in complete
righteousness, not with the hypocrite, not with the sinful Christians that are
acting like they know God but have no power, but for those of us that want to
just, in humility but also in boldness, stand with Jesus Christ and live for
Him. So “Lord Jesus, I pray for your church, I pray for those that really want
to be empowered by your Holy Spirit, I pray for them that you would liberate
them from the evil doctrines of church that hold people to sin. I pray that
your Holy Spirit fire would be in us and that we would be burning and living
for you with all of our heart, Lord, and that we would be able to overcome sin,
overcome temptation, overcome all the addictions and evil that are in this
world, and that we truly would be salt and light for you and your sheep that
are ready to follow the Good Shepherd wherever you lead. I pray that we are not
distracted by all the things of the world. We know about the four soils and how
the seed that was in the soil that got choked out were those that fell into all
the troubles of the world, that listened to all the lies of the devil and were
choked out by riches, by church, for those that have an ear to hear and eyes to
see. And I pray that each of us would endure until the very end and that you
would empower us every day, Lord, to be able to overcome, that we may truly
worship you and honor you and worship you in spirit and in truth. In your name
I pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.”
