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"Being Led By The Spirit Made Easy" Part 20 - Pastor Craig Field - Jul 17. 2024
00:46:50
"Being Led By The Spirit Made Easy" Part 20 - Pas…
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We were talking about. I think I was sharing a few different things with you, but one of the last things I shared was how Kenneth Hagin had not been in a hurry. Do you remember? He. I don't want to go through that whole story again, but he was. He had put the fleece out. He had gone to the wrong church. And then there was that sense to pray for the original church. Do you remember? And he didn't know. And that would maybe. Maybe confuse some of us. Sometimes if there's a sense to pray, we wouldn't think that's an inner witness. But. But if God keeps bringing something to you to pray about, and you know it's not, you pay attention because it may be him leading you on. That. That's an interesting way, because it's not a typical inner witness, but it was an unction to pray. And an unction. You have an unction First John, of the Holy One, and you know all things. So an unction is a knowing, and an inner witness is a knowing. So if there's an unction to do something, it often is the inner witness or the knowing to do something. So we were talking about that. I just want to emphasize the end part where he, remember, he said to his wife, have you been sensing this about that town? And she said, well, something, but I don't think it's God. I think it's just me. And then, you know, they talked a bit more. And then he said, well, we can ascertain if this is us or the Lord. Do you want to go back to that town? And she said, absolutely and unequivocally, no. And he says, well, there we go. There's our answer. We're moving. Because if we don't want it in our soul, but it keeps coming up in our spirit, then that's an indication that. And actually, it's easier when you don't want to do something because you don't have to worry about your soul, your flesh, because you don't want to do it anyway. So if it keeps coming up, it's actually easier. It's when you want to do something. It's when you want to go somewhere, buy something, marry someone you want to in your soul realm. That's where you got to be so careful. Because your spirit, your soul can influence, your mind can get in the way. Instead of listening to that, your spirit, and just keeping the slate clean. What is my spirit saying? Because you have a natural desire for it. It's. It can taint the waters, so to speak. So it's actually easier when you don't want to do something. It's easier to be led in that way. But not everything. We don't want to do many things we do want to do. And we still have to know if it's God. But I want you to know when they made that decision and listen to what he said. He said, Lord. He said, lord, now that we know it's you, because remember, they had waited and they got that inner witness. Now that we know it's you, you'll have to open the door. That's a very important statement. So they waited a couple months. The door opened, they went back, they were voted 100% in, which never happens. And they didn't even tell the church the whole story. They just went back. But they said, now this is very important. Now that we know it's you, open the door. See, now that's a different statement to Lord, if it's you, open the door. Do you understand? To say, if you open the door, that's a fleece. But to say, now that I know by the inner witness, it is you. Now the question is not, is it you? I know the will of God, because I know I'm led by the inner witness. I'm not led by the door. So I know the will of God. I know it's you. But now you still have to open that door. Or in certain situations, it could be close that door. Because God can open doors. Remember Revelations 3, that no man can shut and open door Shut doors that no man can open. So God does. He is into doors. He just isn't into leading you through doors. But he has to open or close doors. He just leads you by the inner witness. So be very, very careful, because it's so easy for Christians. You know, I was just. I don't want to say the name to bring any kind of a negative, but I was just reading last night about one of my heroes. I mean, this was a mighty evangelist that had won literally millions and millions and millions of people in Africa to the Lord and has been one of my heroes. And he's still my hero. I don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. But I was just reading a story of his, and he said because he didn't hang around this teaching, he wasn't part of our company, if you want to call it that way. And so he didn't benefit from the wisdom and from the skillfulness of dad Hagin and other people like dad Hagin and this great man that had so many miracles and Healings and salvations and changed so many countries. And yet he's saying, I, Lord, I can't hear you. So if you do this, then I'll understand that your will. You want me to go to this country and do that? But if you do this, then I'll know that you're not. And I'm thinking to myself, my God, here a man is at the pinnacle of success and he's still putting a fleece. And it's not because he's not a great man. And I don't take anything away from him because I still, you know, bears good fruit. You know, you judge them by their fruit. I still appreciate, but it's amazing sometimes you can see really mature, very high up ministers that you would think would know better. And they're still putting like junior kindergarten baby Christian doctrines called fleeces out to the Lord. So I'm saying that to say this, it's not just the new Christian or the carnal young believer that puts out fleeces. Some of the greatest ministers on the planet put out fleeces. And it's not right and it's not scriptural and it's not biblical and it's not safe. Because the devil can influence the outcome of that fleece because he's in that realm, the only realm that is purely sealed, your spirit, because he can't live in there. Devils can't live in your spirit. They can be in your soul, they can be in your body, but never in your spirit, man. So if it comes out of your spirit, then you know it's from God. Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. So this fleece stuff is something that is so important that we deal with in our hearts and our minds. You don't ever ask God to lead you by doing this or doing that. What we call putting out a fleece, that's Gideon, basically put out a fleece, but that's why we call it a fleece. But we don't do that in the New Testament. And don't fall into the traps of even mature believers that sometimes do that, because that action is an act of immaturity. So like he said, it's important you remember God doesn't use doors to lead us. He leads us by our spirits. But once he's led us, he will most definitely open or close doors as needed. But he has to lead us by our spirit, not by the open door. Lord, if I go and they give me a good deal on that car, then I'll know it's your will. That's a fleece. Look to your spirit. Look to your spirit. Hallelujah. I was buying something a little while ago, a larger purchase, and the guy said to me, he said, I'm so sorry, you know, he said, you know, because what I quoted you on the phone, it's because of this reason. That reason. What other reason? It's. It's all these extra things that I didn't really know until I put it into the computer system. I didn't lie to you, but it is, you know, going to be more than what I said. And I guess he's used to people yelling at him or coming down on him. And, you know, have you ever noticed things can come out of your spirit and they leave your mouth before you can grab them? That's your spirit man actually speaking, but it's coming out so quickly because if you. If you process it mentally, you may not say it. Pay attention when that happens because the Holy Ghost is. Your spirit is trying to get something over to you, to your mind. And I looked at him and I didn't mean to say it. It came out so fast before I could stop it because I wouldn't have said it. I'm not that kind of a person. I don't say things like that. But as he said, he's apologizing, and it just. These words just came right out of me. Before I could stop it, I said, oh, that's okay, I'm rich. And I don't say that to people because compared to, like, rich people, I'm not rich. I mean, rich is a relative term, right? You could say to somebody in Africa that I'm rich, but other people wouldn't consider that rich. Right? But see, that just come right out of my spirit. I didn't even mean to say it. I just said, oh, that's okay, I'm rich. And he looked at me and he goes, oh, well, good. And I said, yeah, you go ahead. You know why? Because I knew in my spirit God told me to buy that thing. I knew in my spirit he told me to buy it. So because I knew that he told me to buy it, it didn't bother me that the price had slightly changed. It hadn't doubled or tripled anything ridiculous, but it had slightly changed. But because I knew it was God's will to do it, and I know that there's a supply for God's will. I wasn't going to quibble on that, on that amount, like the Grand Olympia luxury hotel. You see, Happy tried to convince me to go there. And it was me that Was convincing him. You see, we learned a valuable lesson because that attitude of quibbling and trying to be cheap and stingy actually hinders the supply. The more the liberal soul. The liberal soul will be made fat or made increased. The liberal soul. The liberal soul. But if I give to this offering for the SAP this year, how am I going to do it? The liberal soul will be increased. You've got to have a liberality. You've got to have not wastefulness and not just stupidity where you're just doing stuff that you can't afford. But when you're led by the spirit, there should be a liberality that just comes out of you toward different things that will keep that flow going in your life. Hallelujah. But so what I'm saying is your spirit can lead you sometimes by just something coming up out of you that you didn't even know was there. You know, if you're not sure and that happens, well, that's one way that you can be led. I was in the pool the other day and I heard my wife and Joey talking in the kitchen. And I didn't tell them this, but I won't say what they were talking about but they were talking about something. And I wasn't trying to listen. I just kind of was overhearing because, you know, there was nobody out there with me. And they said something to each other. And as they said it, my spirit jumped. And I mean, you can. You gotta pay attention to your spirit. Your spirit is the real you. And sometimes your spirit can move. I call it jump. I don't know what other word to call it, but it feels like it's like it lifts. It's like an action and then it goes back. But when that happens, pay attention because that's usually an answer for you. And that can happen at the most unexpected times with the most unexpected people. So pay attention. Sometimes God has an answer in somebody else's mouth and you don't even have to go and tell them. I didn't tell them what happened, but when they said that and I heard the Holy Spirit say, write that down. That's an answer for you there. And so. Because I'd been asking God about something and then they said, just a statement in passing. Didn't even know I was hearing. Never even told them. They still don't even know what I'm. Because I haven't told them. But that was an answer for me. And I wrote that down. Praise God. Of course, my wife didn't give it. Joey gave the answer. You know, Sometimes Your spirit can get things over to you by something just coming out. Other times by you hearing somebody and your spirit man jump on the inside of you. This is all ways that we are led. Do you understand? You say, but that's a leading. When your spirit man moves, that's a leading. When your spirit man bypasses your brain and something comes out of your mouth, but you know it's something of the spirit because you wouldn't normally say it. And you tried to stop it, but it's out too quick. Then you. That's another way the spirit leads you. Pay attention to those things. Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. When you are especially spiritual songs, are songs where you are where you are by inspired divine utterance. You're worshiping the Lord by inspired utterance of the Holy Ghost. It's not a song that's already been written. It's just something that's coming out. Pay attention. If you ever spend time singing spiritual songs privately to the Lord, pay attention. Because what's coming up out of your spirit, God wants you to think about and meditate on that day. And sometimes a song will come up out of my spirit and it will be a scripture, or maybe not a scripture, but it comes up out of my spirit. It's a spiritual song. I pay attention to that because my spirit by the Holy Ghost is trying to get something over to my mind about. You need to sing about this, which also means you need to speak it, which means you need to meditate on it, which means the whole day you need to be thinking and meditating upon that thing that you sang that morning. It would be a good habit for all of you to wake up and sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Do you know what a psalm is? There's 150 of them. It's a prayer or a song. It can be sang or spoken. But it is more of a poetic. There's more of a poetic stream. It doesn't have to rhyme. But when there's more of a poetic stream and you're talking to God, that's a psalm. And that can just. You can say that out of your own heart or it can come right up out of your spirit. But there's more of a prophetic vein to that. And then a hymn is a song that is already pre registered. Like what we all this. All we're doing is we're singing hymns now. It's not a hymn the way you think of a hymnal. Like when I went to the Baptist church growing up, they would have a hymnal right in Our chapel. And they would say hallelujah. And then, you know, it's really like a holy person when they shake their vibrato like that. You know, they're very important people that shake their vibrato. You got to pay attention to those people, give them respect. Hallelujah. And let's turn to psalm to hymnal 137 and bless the Lord. And then they would sing this boring song that was just awful. And we hated it. We hated, we hated the staff, the chapel, the kids. You know, they were all very rebellious. I would try to sing along because I love Jesus, but they don't even love Jesus. And it's so ridiculous because all religious teachers are trying to change people's lives. But you can't change people's lives with religion. It's got to be a real live relationship with Jesus. Religion is not going to cut it for anybody, especially teenagers in high school. They can see right through all that nonsense. And unless you get their heart, you're done for. But a hymn, whether it's a hymnal, you know, like the old hymns of the church, Great is Thy Faithfulness, that's a hymn, but also what we sang today. You know, I don't know all the songs Jenny sang, but those songs, they're all hymns from the biblical version because they're pre recorded. But a spiritual song is when. That's my favorite out of all of them is when you just start to sing to the Lord. But words come up by inspired utterance. Just like if you prophesy, God is giving you words to say and it's inspired speaking. Well, spiritual songs are inspired singing. It's basically singing by the gift of prophecy and you begin to sing by inspired utterance to the Lord. But now that's my favorite because watch what comes out of your spirit when you do that. Your spirit will give you hints as to what you need to meditate on that day. And yes, it's to the Lord, but it can also benefit us because there will be sometimes scriptural references or phrases in those songs that I pay attention to. Because my spirit that knows a lot more than my brain, who is associated and connected to and housing the Holy Spirit because he lives in my spirit. My spirit is picking things up from the Holy Spirit that my mind doesn't know. And if my spirit is communicating by spiritual songs to my mind what to sing, that means the Holy Spirit is influencing what songs to sing. And pay attention to the words. It's not pre recorded, it's not pre written. You're singing Spontaneously. But sometimes I press record on my phone when I'm doing that, because. And then I go back and I listen because you don't want to break that flow and write something down. So if you've got it recording, you can just sing to the Lord. And then I go back and I say, now what really, what was my spirit communicating through my, through my brain and my mouth? And then I say, oh, there's that verse. Oh, there's that thing. Oh, there's that phrase. There's that statement. And I pay attention. That came out of my spirit for that day. If you'll practice this, that's one way that you can figure out what the Holy Ghost wants you to meditate on. Areas that you need to be strengthened in, areas maybe that you need to be corrected in or encouraged in. It will come right up out of your spirit by a spiritual song. Praise the Lord. So hallelujah. So basically, psalms and spiritual songs can be by utterance. The psalms can be poetic in nature, but coming by inspired utterance, or just you doing it on your own, out of your own heart. But a hymn is always pre recorded, so it's never by the gift of prophecy. But spiritual songs are always by the gift of prophecy. They're always by spontaneous utterance. And Pastor Nancy, God told her, if you don't teach this generation about psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, it will be lost. And so congregation, listen to me. I would encourage you. If you don't. You know, sometimes we feel a little bit overwhelmed about psalms, hymns, because it's like three categories. What does it mean? I don't really even know what that means. And then forget about it. I'll just focus on that after I've learned faith, or I'll just focus on that next year when I'm not so tired. But really, if you're not poetic or don't worry about the Psalms, I mean, you can say a psalm to the Lord, but it's not necessarily. It could be by your spirit, or it could just be by your heart where you just talk to him. Like David, he just talked to him. Now that was inspired because the Holy Ghost inspired it. But it doesn't have to come out of your spirit. It can just be your heart talking to God. And that's fine. Doesn't have to be sung. And of course, hymns, you just put on your music, whatever CD you like, just worship the Lord to the songs like what we sing here. And there's nothing wrong with that. But that is not necessarily inspired utterance. That's somebody Else that has written something and we are regurgitating it. And there's nothing wrong with that because the presence of God comes. We do it every service. But to step over into spiritual songs will help you in the leading of the spirit. Because spiritual songs come out of your spirits personally to the Lord. What is your spirit knowing and hearing by the Holy Ghost? By inspired utterance, it comes out in song. You say, but how do I do that? Pray in tongues a little while and get over into the spirit. You've heard me say it a thousand times. Pray until you step over the log. Pray until you step into the water, off the sand. Pray until that anointing increases, your mind crystallizes more. And you can. You can pray with a stronger flow. Step into that when you're there. Songs, spiritual songs are easy. People tell me all the time, I don't know why I'm on this. It's not even in my notes. But people tell me, I find it hard to do this spiritual song. That's because you're not in the spirit to just stand there. And just now you can. You can dip down in your spirit into your well and draw it up and just start just out of inspired utterance, just like I can just begin to pray and that inspired utterance can start to flow. Well, it's the same. I'm just singing. It's just singing instead of saying. And the inspired utterance begins to flow. But it's not what you planned. It's just words that come up by the Holy Ghost. But that is harder when you're in the flesh, so to speak, or you're just in your soul realm. If you can pray in tongues till you step in and you're in the spirit, quote unquote, so to speak, in that place, you can speak out inspired utterance by prophecy, much easier. And you can sing out spiritual songs, which is a spiritual song, is basically inspired by inspired utterance that is sung. And you can sing that out so much easily when you're in the spirit, because your spirit is more active and it's more dominant when you're praying and you're in the spirit than if you're just in your normal life. So if you're having trouble with spiritual songs, get in the spirit more through prayer. And when you're there, instead of saying it, just sing it. And you'll see, you'll be amazed at what comes out of your spirit unto the Lord. And it's your own. It's not a canned. Do you know what I'm saying? Sometimes these songs, as wonderful as they are, they're canned. Somebody wrote them, the music is set and it's canned. And it's wonderful. The presence comes. But if you can step over into spiritual songs, it's not canned. It's a living force in your spirit that's coming out, but in song instead of words spoken. And you're singing it to the Lord, making melody in your hearts to the Lord, the Bible says, and watch and listen to what your spirit is singing. Because your brain doesn't always know what's going on in reality of the spiritual realm. Your brain doesn't know, but your spirit man is now going to. Things are going to just kind of bubble up and you're going to sing them out. Pay attention to what you're singing, even record it and go back and listen to it. You'd be amazed if you do this at what comes out of your spirit as you're singing. And sometimes you realize, oh, you know, I've been this or I've been that. And then these words and song. That's what my answer is. That's where I'm supposed to meditate. God was using that to encourage me. Look at the verse that came up out of my spirit. See, this is all being led by spirit. This is part of being led by the spirit. Getting into in the spirit causes you to be led by the spirit. Getting into psalms, hymns and spiritual songs causes you to be led by the spirit. More paying attention when your spirit jumps or when words come out supernaturally is all being part of being led by the spirit. Basically, if you can hear what I'm saying from my heart, if you want to learn to be led by the spirit, you got to learn to get into the spirit. Because if you, if you're trying to understand led by the spirit, but in your mental soulish arena, it's kind of awkward, it's kind of foreign. It doesn't really click, it doesn't really jive. It's like here and there. But if you just get in the spirit, in that flow of God, in that flow is all the leadings you're ever going to need. And being led is easy. When you're in that flow, you say, but how can I be in the Spirit all day long? Well, you can't really be in the spirit all day long because you have a regular life to lead. But you can maintain a proximity to God, keeping your heart turned toward him, your face turned toward him. Remember the Lord said to that pastor who told Pastor Nancy about that lady way out in the, in the remote area and she had all this work and they were in a farm and her husband was not a very spiritual man. All these kids and no washing machine and all she did was work, work, work, work all day. Cooking, cleaning, hard life, menial labor life. But the Lord said she has learned the secret of walking in the spirit because this pastor had a vision and saw her in the Spirit. But while she's putting the sheets over the line outside, she's singing and making melody in her heart to the Lord. Then while she's cooking, she's praying in other tongues. Then while she's doing. But the whole day as she goes about her work, she's aware. She is constantly intentionally aware by singing and by speaking, by meditating on the Word, by praying in tongues. But a big part of it was singing. She saw her in the vision singing as she went about her day. Well, Rosita, you may not be hanging laundry over a line in the middle of Wisconsin. You might be typing in figures in our accounting office, but that doesn't mean that we can't keep our attention and our heart turned to the Lord even while we're doing our work. Now if you're going to sing and make melody in your hearts, it might disturb Errol. So we have to learn the balance because there's other people around us in real life. I'm sure in your job you don't have a bunch of angels around you all the time. You've probably got devils around you, but that doesn't mean you still can't keep your heart turned. You want to be led by the Spirit. Your whole life has to be about thinking about God, loving God, falling in love with God, meditating on His Word, wanting to worship him, thinking about him all the time. It's really a lifestyle of in love with Jesus. When you are like that. Led by the Spirit is easy. When you are really just a church only person and you don't think about him any other time in the week, you maybe do your little religious Bible study or devotional time for 15 minutes in the morning so that you can say that you are a good Christian. Then you don't think about him at all until Wednesday night. You are going to find it hard to be led by the Spirit because your life is more in the carnal realm than in the spirit realm. But you can have a busy life with secular job and still learn to keep your heart open to the Lord and be aware of the spiritual climate. Are you listening to me? You can, you can praise The Lord. Hallelujah. I was sitting on that plane and they were delayed and I was hot and frustrated and this guy sitting beside me and I just, I just get me home and just this delay and that delay and you're just sitting there and it's like all it is is lines and delays and lines and crowds and thank God there's a grace. But I was sitting there and I closed my eyes and I was kind of complaining. I said, Lord, I'm so fed up with this. Don't send me to any more countries for a long time. I'm done with this. I just want to go home. I'm going to wait here another hour. What the heck is going on? And I heard him say, you can use this time to complain or you can use this time to wait on me. I said, I don't want to hear that. But I did want to hear it because you know when you're carnal, you don't want to. But I immediately said, thank you Lord. And I just turned my head to the window and I put my head back and I just closed my eyes and I said, Lord, I can't sing because there's people here. They'll get the butterfly net. I can't, I can't do stuff that's spiritual. But what I can do is I can just close my eyes and be silent. Because part of waiting is silence. And I just wait on you. And I say, Lord, I'm honoring you by my waiting right now. And I just, I just, I'm here, I'm focused on youn. I can't really do a lot because of the people around me, but I just, I focus my attention on youn and I just think about yout and I wait on youn. If you want to say something, say it. If not, I. I just honor you by waiting. And I just sat there and waited. But you know what? That was a better thing to do in that time than getting frustrated or focused on all the mess around you. So even in the middle of negative things, you know, even while you're driving, don't close your eyes. But even when you're driving, if you're in traffic. No, I'm serious. If you're in traffic, you can just say, Lord, instead of getting frustrated about this, I'm just going to take this moment like yesterday, pulling in at 5 o', clock, 5:09, I got the vehicle. You know, it took me an hour and a half to get home on the 401. I mean, it's just crazy traffic and I started to get frustrated. You see, that's my nature. I'm impatient. I always want to go quickly, always. But like he said on the plane, he said you can be frustrated in this bumper to bumper or you can take time to worship me. So I took time to worship him and then I kind of thought, you know, I like this traffic. Keep it going, keep it going because now I have no choice. I can't be blamed for being late because I have no choice. But I'm maximizing my time and I'm being spiritual. In the midst of natural difficulty, I'm being spiritual. I would encourage you to do the same. It will bless you. It will bless you. Now just a couple quotes. The witness of the spirit is sometimes an inward intuition. Sometimes it's just a check that you sense in your spirit. Notice not your brain, your spirit. A stop sign, so to speak. Or sometimes it's just a green light, so to speak, something on the inside of you. Sometimes it's just an inward prompting or an urge. Those are good definitions that Kenneth Hagin gave us. Now when he, when Jesus appeared to him in 1959 in El Paso, Texas, sat beside him for two and a half hours and Jesus said these words, it was two and a half hours, he said a lot. But this is one quote from the next one please. This is a quote from what Jesus said. He got into this area with me. Hagin is talking about, about being led by the Spirit and he said, not going to lead you by the prophet's ministry, even though you do have that ministry, you're going to have to do like all the rest of my children, learn to follow the inward witness. When you're praying about things and you've got that good velvety like feeling in your spirit, that's a go ahead sign. That's a green light. Go ahead. But you're praying. But you're praying about should I have, should I make this move or should I do that? And there seems to be a hesitancy, a check in your spirit. That's a stop sign. Don't do it, don't go forward. That's the inner witness. That's what Jesus said to him in part of that two and a half hour vision in El Paso, Texas, 1959. So what is God really saying here? Just because a prophet operates in a different anointing than a regular believer does and a prophet by the prophet's office or an apostle in a different regard by the apostles office or you know, different offices have different anointings, they'll Know things. Prophets will know things about the future. But that is not in his personal life. Do you understand? He may know things about what's happening in a church, in a nation. He may know things about what's happening in the presidency or in this or that. But that's ministry to the people. But in his personal life, the prophet's office would not aid him. Just like the healing anointing that I and others operate in does not ever heal me. It heals people. It never heals me. I mean, I had my own service once. I watched myself when I said to the people, stand up, I stood up. When I said, put your hands out, I put my hands out. Then when I was laying hands, I laid my hands on my head and nothing happened. And then I took an offering for myself and took it out of one pocket and put it in the other. I mean, I did the whole. I did the whole 10 yards and nothing happened. I didn't get. I got worse. I felt more sick after my personal service. So I'm just saying that anointing for the people doesn't work for me. The anointing for the people is for the people. My personal faith works for me and your personal faith. So I don't get a. Because I'm in the ministry, I don't get an upper hand. I don't get a leg up over you. Everybody is equal. It doesn't matter if it's about healing, we all have to get it by our own faith. And if I can be in a line where another minister can pray for me, I can receive just like you could. But that anointing on me won't work for me. Well, the same with being led. The Lord saying, just because you're a prophet and you see things into the future doesn't mean I'm going to show you your life personally by the prophet's office. You're going to have to learn it, just like I have to get healed by my own faith. Pastor dad Hagin had to be led by the spirit, by his own sensitivity to the inner witness. So nobody has a leg up. That's a good thing. It means we're all equal. And whatever leg up ministers have is only for your benefit. So don't stop it. Rejoice, because you're the one that benefits, not the minister, you understand? But in terms of a personal experience, everybody is equalized. And that's a good thing. I think that's a fair thing that God has instituted there. Amen. And so that's the inner witness anyway. Remember when God had said to him, go back. You know, by the inner witness, his wife and him, go back. They said, lord, we know it's you. Now open the door. And two months pass, he talked about not being in a hurry. And then, of course, the church contacted him. They voted 100%, which never happens. And then he's going back. But even after all of that, you'd think, okay, this is a done deal. Dad Hagin still went to the Lord and said, I don't really think this inward witness thing is really sufficient because we're going back. We didn't like it when we were there before. Now we're going back. So he said. So he fasted for two or three days, and then he said, God, give me a more dramatic leading. A prophecy, a tongue or interpretation, a dream or write it in the sky. That's what Dadigan prayed. I don't care what you have to do, but there's got to be something better, more dramatic and more convincing than just this inner knowing that I have. You see, because back then, like today, people are soulish. They want ear tickling, you know, goosebump producing, you know, all this kind of stuff. They want that. But that doesn't mean you're going to get that. Naaman also wanted it. He said, why don't you wave your hand over me? And you know, he wanted some big thing for the prophet to do, and all the prophet said is go dip. So sometimes God is much simpler than we are. We want something dramatic and God wants something simple. But we don't believe it fully unless it's dramatic. Well, God answered him, you've got all I'm going to give you. You don't need a dramatic manifestation. You've got the inward witness, and that's all you're going to get. That doesn't mean he can't do a dramatic manifestation. Like that guy with the chicken walked in the rooster and said, they're coming up the driveway. Get out. Run out the back door. I mean, it could have just been an inward witness. Get out. But God did a dramatic manifestation with the rooster, and the same with Balaam and the donkey. God will do dramatic things, but you can't claim dramatic things. If he does it, great, and it's fun when he does it. But you can't live off the dramatic. So what dad Hagin said is he said the reason I wanted the more dramatic is because my soul longed for the dramatic. My spirit didn't need it. My spirit is satisfied with the knowing, but my emotions, my Emotions want something ooh. And if you're not careful, the Bible talks about in these end days, there'll be, there'll be ear tickling doctrines and there'll be stuff that makes everybody go ooh. And you got to be careful. You fight against that because the tendency is, well, let's go to a church where everything is ooh and ooh. Dramatic and prophecies and you're this and you're that and you got to be very careful because that's how error comes in very quickly. I'm not saying God can't do dramatic or he won't do dramatic, or even he wants to do dramatic when it's his time, but for the daily grind of life, it's not dramatic. And if you're always looking for something dramatic, devils are going to accommodate you. You go with the inward witness. It's the only thing you promise. It's the only thing that you can claim. You can't claim a dream. So a lot of you, you keep coming to me and say, pastor, I had another dream. I'm not saying that God can't use dreams. But what I'm looking for as a pastor is for your focus to be on the inner witness, not on the dream. Now the dream can confirm what is already an inner witness or a check. But you would be a fool to be led by dreams on a regular basis because that means the dream can be influenced by the devil that is not of the spirit. It's a spiritual thing maybe, but it can be on the other side of the coin. Do you understand? So when people constantly say, I had a prophecy, I had a dream, I had a vision, you know, I feel, I feel this, I feel all of that is soul realm, external realm, all of it can be negatively toxified. That doesn't mean that God can't do it. But what I'm looking for, what you should be looking for is the inner witness. If he wants to then dramatically confirm that or den or confirm that or whatever. What am I trying to say? If he wants to say this is right or this is wrong, but you already have the inner witness or the check, he can do that. Confirmation or denial through a dramatic means, your focus should be what? Where am I? In here? Okay? Because you're not always going to have dramatic. If you get used to dramatic and you always want the tongue and interpretation of tongue, what happens when it's not there? Then now you're going to be stuck because you don't know what to do because you haven't developed skillfulness in your inner witness. If you develop skillfulness, you're always safe. And then if dramatic happens, it's fine. If the dramatic doesn't happen, you don't care. Because you know. And that's a true mature believer is somebody that is not looking for the soulish dramatic. They're looking for the spiritual reality. And that's what I'm trying to teach you. Because there's nothing wrong with dramatic, but that not always the way that God does it. Hallelujah. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. Thank God for this. Have a look here. I know we've got to go, but Acts chapter 27. Just quickly, very quickly, one verse. Acts chapter 27. We just such a vast subject that is so wide, the breadth is so wide. And I'm kind of winding down because we, you know, could just go on it forever, but we need to maybe focus on other things. But I want you to just see this in verse 9, Acts 27:9. And now, when much time was spent and when sailing was now dangerous because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them and said unto them, sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading of the ship, but also of our lives. Notice what he said. I perceive that really means, and Pastor Nancy has said, a very, very light perception where it's like I kind of sense this. That doesn't mean it's an inner witness. You've got to develop a skillfulness of what type of what level of perception strength are you talking about? Sometimes I'll just have a very light sense. But it's light. It's not strong. That's not an inward witness. That is just my spirit is aware of certain things that my mind isn't. And I just have a sense that could be a perception, but it's on the lighter side. And that's more of just your spirit picking things up. But then when there is a stronger perception and it's more like strong, that really is an inner witness. Because your spirit I, Paul is saying, I, my spirit man, not my mind. My spirit man is perceiving something. Now, you don't want to want to know what the word perceive means. In the Greek, it means to be a spectator, to stare at for a long time and study something. So what he's saying is, and if you read this, it says that he never spoke for many days. So he was not quick to speak. They were all talking, freaking out, throwing this over the boat, trying to keep the crew from Dying. And he was quiet. Why he was watching that situation. He was observing like a spectator, but staring intently and studying what was happening and checking his spirit while he's looking. He's seeing the natural, but he's checking what his spirit saying about the natural. And then he says, I perceive, in other words, now, this is not just a light. Little. Well, I sense this is. There is a knowing on the inside. It says, that is an inward witness. I perceive that there's going to be damage. Okay. But notice Paul didn't get it 100% right, because you see in part, you see through a glass dimly. You know, in part. Even the great apostle Paul didn't know everything. So he said, I perceive the ship's going to be ruined, and our lives are going to ruin it. But if you keep reading in the chapter, when the angel stood beside him and said, you have to appear before Caesar, fear not. Tell the people to be of good cheer, for there will be full destruction of the ship, but no one's life will be lost. But he perceived that lives would be lost, but the angel said that no lives would be lost. So you can sometimes have an inward witness and then misjudge that a little bit. You know what I'm saying? I've seen doctors stand beside someone and say, God said he's gonna. That you're a doctor, and God's gonna do this. And the person just like. And he's like, does that make sense? And that's really embarrassing. I'm feeling bad for doctor because Doctor missed it. I mean, he was very specific. And that person's not a doctor at all, but the person beside him. What? You know what? What am I talking to you? I'm a doctor, and I'm believing for a house. Oh, you see, he's picking it up in the spirit, but he thinks it's for this person, but it's actually for this person. You see, you can miss it a little bit, but you're still generally right. So Paul was having an inward witness. Something is wrong. I perceive something that is an inner witness. But the inner witness is not always 100% crystal clear. You're still seeing dimly, but you do know certain things. I know there's going to be damage, but he specifies damage of the ship and damage of souls. But really he just sensed. Knew that there'd be damage later on. The specificity came with the angel. And the angel said, there will be damage of the ship, but not of the lives. But did you notice? He perceived that damage would come and that perception can save your life. You can be sitting on a plane. That's why you got to separate. Are you naturally afraid? Because if you're naturally afraid, you're going to miss the perception more times than you're going to hit it, then you're going to grab your bags and tell everybody, I'm telling you, the Lord told me this plane is going to crash and we all better get off this plane. And you run out and praise the Lord, and the plane makes it safely to the next destination, and you look like an idiot. Because if you're naturally afraid, that perception, you better make sure. You better really make sure you're right. Because your natural soul can affect that. Right? But. And I'll end with the story. We'll pick it up next Wednesday. I am here no more Africa. But Dad Hagin tells of a man I'm finishing now that was in a restaurant. And if you're like me in a restaurant, and when you've ordered food and the food has partially come and the rest of the food is yet to come, that is not the time you want to hear from God. You want to get all that food and you want to enjoy that food. You want to be listening to God right now. You just want to be eating. But that's why you got to be sensitive all the time. And so he was eating, Jennifer. Some of the stuff had arrived and some hadn't, and they were, I guess, having hors d' oeuvres or whatever. And all of a sudden he jumped up. He knew Kenneth Hagin. He told him the story. He said, dad, I jumped up and I said to my family, I perceive we have to go home. I perceive we have to go home quickly. Run, get in the car. And they're like, dad, the food hasn't even come yet. And they all ran to the car, screeched out of that parking lot, rushed home. And when they arrived at home, he burst in the door. He did not know what was wrong, but in his spirit. And he used the word perceive. It was an inward witness. Get home, get home. Get home right now. But he didn't know why. And he rushed in and a fire had started in one of the rooms of the house and was just in the early stages. And he said, if we had been there more than two minutes later, it would have caught the drapes. And if it caught the drapes, the whole thing would have gone. And we were able to catch it within seconds of it enveloping the whole living room. And the whole house would have burned down. But what if he had decided, well, you know what? I just, you know, my family's hungry. What if he had decided to just stay? He would have lost his house. That house on Highway 10 going north, I don't know if you remember that house. If you go north, it's on the left, you know, as a brand new house, three million dollar house. I read it in the newspaper and they went out one night. They don't have the Holy Ghost, they don't understand perception. And in the garage, the jack, the power jack, something was plugged in. I guess it overheated or it shorted and it caused a spark and it lit basically a little fire. And then that caught to the wood and the whole house burned to nothing. Now it's demolished, it's gone. Three million dollar loss. I'm not. Listen, we can all miss it, but the Holy Ghost is trying to get things over to us to save us from loss. Why? It's important that I go. It's important that I go because if I don't, the Father won't send you the comforter. It's advantageous for me to go. Expedient means you get an advantage. Jesus is saying, you're going to have an advantage over the sinner. What? The sinner is wandering around in darkness. You're going to have light. The sinner doesn't have a perception to run home. But the saint does. If the saint will listen. I don't know if you remember, mom, but I was looking at it in my old notes. But there was a time we were going to go down to that restaurant on the beachfront in Durban, do you remember? And you just said for some reason I just feel we need to go to Auntie Jo's or something. And I love. They had my favorite food there and I really wanted to. Come on mom, let's go. No, no, I just sense. Do you remember that? And we went up to my aunt's house instead. That night, exactly when we would have been at that restaurant, there was a bomb that exploded on the Durban beachfront and people were killed. You see, the spiritual person has an advantage over the sinner. That's why you never have to fear. What if I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time? Don't ever even say that. You need to say I am led by the spirit. Clearly I can't be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if I'm in a place where there's danger, then God allowed that for me to take dominion and save the people around me. Because this man Paul in a dangerous situation that he thought would cost lives. The angel said that there is going to be loss to the ship, but no lives. And this is what he said, the angel said, for God has given thee the ones that you travel with. Look at that. God has given Paul the rest of the heathens on that ship simply because they were in proximity to him. What people don't know is they should put me in business class for free every time I travel. No, I'm serious, Joey. Because God gives me the people that I travel with. He gives them to me. Look at that. Jenny. Just by their proximity to a believer, and I don't mean because I'm a pastor, it applies to you, just a believer being in proximity to a holy ghost, dominion minded, faith, powerful man of God, woman of God, child of God, will put, will keep people safe. They don't realize how safe they are because I'm on that plane. They don't understand it can't go down because I'm on that plane. And I know that sounds, I know that sounds arrogant, but you. But I don't get. I've got to the point now where I don't pray anymore. I used to pray when I get on the plane. The Lord told me, don't do that, said don't you pray. He said you have a covenant. You just speak out your covenant. Don't get into oh Lord, please protect. No, no, no, no. So I just say, father, the blood of Jesus is on this plane. The angels uphold this plane. And because I'm on this plane, we're going to the other side and there will be no incident or accident and it will be fine. And it will always be fine because I believe that. And if something were to go wrong, I would use my dominion. Those people don't know how safe they are. I know that sounds arrogant, but if you're a believer, you've got to believe that because of who you are. You. He said, whose I am and whom I serve, the God whose I am and whom I serve. You belong to God and you serve God. And because of that he will give you everybody in proximity to you. Whether that's a train, a plane, a bus, a car, it doesn't matter. You have divine rights. But notice the perception I perceive. I know something bad is going to happen. Don't launch. But they didn't listen to him and they launched. I know something's wrong in the house. Run home, save it from a fire. I know something's wrong where we're going for dinner. I Don't know what it is. We're going the opposite direction. And there's a bomb. Thank God for the Holy Ghost. My God, what an adventure it is to live in the Spirit by the Holy Ghost. He is the greatest advantage, expedient advantage to us that exists. Hallelujah. Got a little bit more. We'll pick it up next Wednesday. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your precious saints here in this building, in this church. I know many are not here tonight for whatever reason, Lord, whether they're watching or not watching, I bless them in Jesus name. I thank you that you're adding and you're growing this work, Father, and not just in numbers, but in spiritual depth, in revelation, in faithfulness, in spirituality. Lord, you're growing this church up in our ability to be led by the Spirit, to perceive and know the inner witness, to hear the voice and instructions of the Lord. And Lord, as we're studying it, we've taken a long time and much patience and much diligence, Father, to not just quit this series too quickly. But Lord, I've taken much time to bring a true emphasis to this subject. And Lord, just because we've talked about it a lot doesn't mean they can't listen to previous ones. I even go back myself sometimes and listen to previous ones. Because sometimes I say things by the Spirit, by the gift of prophecy, inspired utterance that are not even in my notes. And so sometimes I go back to listen to what the Spirit of God said through me. And I'm the one saying it. So Lord, I thank you that they would meditate upon this subject. They would meditate not just what we said tonight, but what we've said in the 25 or more Wednesdays before tonight. Because this is not a subject that we can ever exhaust. And it's such an important subject that the more we listen, we will only ever be benefited. It will never be boring. It will never waste our time to re meditate and listen on these things. For Lord, being led by the Spirit is the most important thing a believer can learn. It's more important than anything else because being led by the Spirit will get us into everything else that we need to get into. So we thank you for it.