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So tonight I came with some pain in my knee, pain in my neck too, that I couldn't even move. It felt like I have like, I don't know what's going on with it, but it was just hurting me so bad. And I know I was going to get healed tonight, but when Pastor Jonathan came and just laid hands on me, I just felt the Holy Spirit come in me and I just felt everything just like everything just went away. I wasn't like, no pain, no nothing. Like I could move my knees now. I could move my neck without even hurting, like no pain no more.

Pastor Jonathan (4:21)

We are raising up a family in this church. We're raising up a family in Pittsburgh. We're raising up a family in Texas that don't just know about God, they know God. They've handled his power. They've seen his power flow through them. You're coming out of here today carrying fresh fire, fresh anointing never to take another backward step. I'm going to get right to it. If you would put Joshua chapter one, verses two through nine up on the screen and you didn't, you had a dull here. I don't, I don't drink water when I preach. So you don't, don't ever put this up when I'm preaching. Plus, I don't Want to give Ascent your free time? Especially since it got ranked the dirtiest water on planet Earth. Did you know that they ranked the water essential as the worst? All these preachers have it in their thing. My must have essential water. Hey, why don't you have. Why don't you have tap water from Flint, Michigan while you're at it? Four Bible facts every successful believer must know, Believe and confess. Four Bible facts every successful believer must know, Believe and confess. I preached this in the second service last week from Texas. You had a Dallas Adoles knocked it out of the park. When I left town in December, there were 720 people on that Sunday and it was 51 degrees out. Adoles had 970 people and it was 6 degrees out. So if I wasn't married to her, I wouldn't have come back. The church grew 200 people in a blizzard. So I want to commend everybody waiting in line and losing fingertips and the tip of your nose to come to church. But those days are coming to an end. April 4th is Easter and that's our target date to launch the new building. I know we said February. They can't do water main tests when it's below a certain temperature. And it was below that temperature for three and a half weeks, which backed everything up. But Easter is a good day to launch. So April 4th is what we're gunning for. For everything to be finished. Might be done sooner than that, but that'll be the day. We'll have a brand new 1200 seat auditorium with 900 parking spots. And other than shuttles worth the days of shuttles are over. Joshua, chapter one verses two through nine. Moses, now do give me eight verses eight and nine when we get there. Give me that. In the King James Version, Moses, my servant is dead. Therefore the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites across the Jordan river to the land that I'm giving them. I promise you what I promised Moses. Wherever you set your foot, you will be on land that I've given to you. Tells them the boundaries of the land. Verse 5. No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. Say that with me. No one will be able to stand against me as long as I live. So the Bible doesn't people when people attack, they call a church like this a faith church. Like that's an insult. Like face a negative thing in the Bible. And then when people attack faith, they attack things that no one actually believes. That's called if you went to school, you know it's called a straw man argument. They'll say, these people say, once you get saved, there won't be any problems. No one says that. What we say is, though challenges come, God has made it so those challenges can't have rule over you. No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will never fail you and I will never abandon you. Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land. I swear to their ancestors I would give them. Yes, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Don't deviate from them turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be. And keep that up. Then you will be successful in everything you do. So again, when people make it like you're going outside of Scripture to teach people that there's a way that in following God's word, it'll grant you success in everything you do. It's what the Bible plainly states, that following the commands of God don't lead to defeat. Getting outside, I mean, Jesus said it plainly. He who ignores my teaching is like a fool who builds his life on the sand. When the wind and waves of life come, it destroys the house. But the man who hears my word and does it is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. Those same wind and waves come, but the house is still standing firm. God's word is for our profiting on this earth. Godliness. 1st Timothy 4:8. Godliness is profitable unto all things, holding value in the life that now is and in the life that is to come. So be strong. Everybody say, be strong and courageous. So the Bible doesn't just work. Regardless of what you do, there's a posture to victory. You have to be strong and courageous. You can't be weak and timid then. Verse 8, King James Joshua 1:8 KJV this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth. Say this with me. Victory has a posture, victory has a vocabulary. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and you shall have good success. Have I not commanded thee? This is the third time. Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest for Bible facts every successful believer must know, believe and confess. How many of you gone to church for at least 10 years? Any church? Obviously not this one. Unless you were sitting here for six years before we started it, which you were in the spirit church was constructed around you. I grew up in church. Basically, whatever I am right now, I became it by deciding I didn't want to be in the group of people that needed prayer. I wanted to be in the group of people that did the praying. I would notice at church, there were people, and it was the same people every week. Basically, who needs prayer? Same hands go up 5 years, 10 years, 15 years never change. So you start realizing prayer isn't the problem. Put Luke 7:22 up. This is an interesting scripture. Luke 7:22. Then Jesus told John's disciples, go back to John and tell him what you've seen and heard. The blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured. The deaf hear, the dead are being raised to life. And then it doesn't say, and the poor are made rich. It says the Gospel or the Word is being preached to the poor. There's nowhere in the Bible Elijah didn't pray for the widow of Zarephath that her last meal would become more than enough. She had to hear and obey the word of the Lord. So some things are cured by prayer, but other things can never be cured by prayer. Some things are cured by receiving the word of God and you being built up. You know, there's as much rivalry as there is between the Catholic Church and the Protestant church. They're not that different. Both churches, by and large, have turned into, you going to see the guy in charge, priest or pastor, him pray for you. Or in Protestant church, you know, keep me in prayer kind of thing. And they've substituted that for knowing the word. God told Joshua, he didn't say, now make sure the high priest prays for you every day. He said, you need to be strong and courageous. You need to meditate on the Word day and night. You need to never let this book of the law depart from your mouth. You need to speak the word of God, and only then will you be successful. Everything you do. Let me see, Ephesians 5:26. Ephesians 5:26. To make her holy and clean, washed by talking about the church cleansed by the water of God's word. So God's word makes you holy and clean. Let me see. 2nd Corinthians 10:3 through 5. 2nd Corinthians 10:3 5. You can do King James in that. For though we walk in the flesh, we don't war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty. Through God to the pulling down. Keep that up. Everybody say the pulling down of strongholds. We don't not believe in demon spirits here. We've cast them out in service. In fact, it was like three weeks into the church, some lady in a dress looked like a nice church lady, went down on the ground right about there and was slithering around like a snake. And some businessman zipped his Bible up and beelined it for the parking lot. But for all that talk about pulling down strongholds, and then the charismatic church, you know, get up on a hilltop and we're pulling down the strongholds over Pittsburgh. How are strongholds pulled down according to the Bible? For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty. Through God to the pulling down of strongholds, verse 5. How are they pulled down? Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Everything there. It's where Joyce Myers got her book from the battlefield of the mind. Casting down imaginations. Every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We had. This has happened 50 plus times in our ministry. Maybe 100 plus times. Somebody's brought to the altar, like, I'll give an extreme example. Face full of tattoos, smells like weed, you know, right off the street, involved in bad stuff. And then you call them forward and they come to the altar and you lead them in the sinner's prayer and they pray the sinner's prayer and repent. And their Christian friend that brings them, brings them up to you after you go, can you pray for them again? They need a lot of prayer. They need deliverance. No, they don't need a lot of prayer. The prayer that was prayed there, you know, there's people like when Billy Graham. Billy Graham wasn't a healing preacher when he went to South Korea and prayed the sinner's prayer when he gave the altar call in the big crusade. A lady starts yelling that 68 years old that was born blind, that her eyes came open when they preached, or what's Amazing Grace who said, I once was blind, but now I see. And they taunt that she actually believed it, literally, and her eyes came open. People think people need a lot of prayer, but they're substituting the wrong thing. If you got a brain tumor brushing your Teeth more isn't going to do anything for the tumor if you're applying to the wrong thing, you know. Well, he needs a lot of prayer. No, it's actually you that's the problem. Because you think prayer, that one prayer, it's going to be like the volume of it. Like you have to keep attacking where if you will understand the Bible. The second, if that guy can actually get rid of his Christian friend and instead get new friends that understand when he prayed that he's not becoming a new creature. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. The old life is dead. Or as my wife would say, if you were a hoe, you ain't a hoe no more. You're not getting less hoey. You're a hoe no more. Yeah, glad I still have a ministry left after Galentine's night. Say this out loud. It's the word that I know that I believe and that I confess. And the great thing about that is I'm not dependent on other people's prayers. I'm not dependent if I can get enough people praying for me. That's why you never heard me say, now I'm going over to preach in Nigeria. You know, Christians are being kidnapped and tortured there. If you can keep me in prayer, I don't need kept in prayer for that. I have victory. I have victory in Pittsburgh. I have victory in Fort Worth. I have victory in Phoenix. I have victory in la. I have victory in Lagos. I have victory in Kampala, Uganda. Everywhere the sole of your foot shall tread. You'll be on land that I've given you. No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. Whether it's ISIS or kidnappers or the Moon Township message board, doesn't make a difference. The enemy can manifest in different ways. But God said whatever direction they come from, they'll come from one direction. But I'll make them run from you. In seven today we're going to release at 10 o' clock a room full of victorious Christians. By the blood of Jesus Christ and the efficacy of the word of God, if you believe it, can you say amen? So now think of this. In Acts, chapter 19, the Bible talks about demon spirits coming out. The Bible talks about all the people in Ephesus taking their witchcraft books and burning them. But what does it say, Paul? Did. Did Paul get an acoustic guitar and climb to the top of the highest point in Ephesus and sing prophetic worship over Ephesus till it broke? No, the Bible says, actually let me see Acts 19, verse 8. Acts 19. 8. Then Paul went. How did it start? Then Paul went to the synagogue and preached boldly for the next three months. Let me see it. In the Amplified Classic, I think it says from 10am till 3pm what about regular Amplified? Just A and P. Knock the C off. What does it say? Every day from 10am till 3pm I know it's there, I'll find it. But trust me, I'm not lying. And he went to the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and arguing and persuading them about the kingdom of God. Go back. He went to the synagogue for how long? He wasn't preaching one Sunday a week. He was preaching every day for three months. Now look, when I went to California for a month, it wasn't because I was sick of the cold weather. I actually would prefer to fast in the cold because it just feels right, like everything's dead, everything's dying, the sky's gray. I actually don't like fasting when the sky's blue and it's 80 out and there's Javier's Mexican Restaurant on the beach. That's like too much for me to bear.

Testimonial Speaker (19:22)

When Jonathan prayed for me, he specifically called out the blood. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder a couple of months ago and I've had a lot of issues with that. When I came tonight, I wasn't expecting this at all. But he called it out and I know it was the Lord and just I know that it's healed, it's gone, it's done, it's over with. In the name of Jesus. He is my healer, my God, my Father. I love him. Thank you so much for doing this.

Pastor Jonathan (19:50)

And so I went out there and if you heard me during prayer and fasting when I came on after Adonis, I said. I said my goal is for the attendance of this church to go up. A hundred people by the time I leave, we were at about 190 to 210. And sure enough, last Sunday before I left, 326 people on Sunday. Because the word brings increase and it starts to break things down. Well, you're preaching every night. People are coming, people are getting healed. People are telling their friends. That's what Paul did. And then I don't have time to read the whole thing. But when you read all those manifestations of demonic power being broken, it happened from the sowing of the word. Then once it's all broken and people all burn their books, what does it say in Acts 19, verse 20 KJV Acts 19:20. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. The word of God is the backbone and foundation of everything in Christianity. Speaking in tongues is an accoutrement. The gifts of the Spirit are an accoutrement and a necessary accoutrement. But the building of your life is on the Word of God. And I'm telling you, it's like it goes into one of two ditches. You got churches that are all Word. And because we have the Word, you know, these crazy churches that lay hands on people and they fall down. We don't do that. We're just about the Word. But the Word will tell you about the laying on of hands. It'll tell you, I thank God I speak in tongues more than you all. Then you have another group that substitutes everything but the word. We're a presence driven church. Our church is built on the presence of God. Let's just have everybody come around the altar and we're just going to sing and then you leave. The service was so good, they didn't even get a chance to preach, you know, because they feel that the manifestations of the Spirit are greater than the word. My grandfather that preached for 62 years said, all word and no spirit you dry up. All spirit and no word you blow up. But if you'll put them together in their proper order, the foundation of the word of God. How many of you have watched those crusades? Like California, we don't just start praying for people who wants prayer today? Yeah, they'll get healed and they'll go to hell. Less sore or in less pain. We preach for, you know, sometimes for one hour at those Crusades and you watch the Word start to make people listen. That one picture of that old Mexican guy in Santa Ana, California, took his hat off and put it over his heart and lifted his hand, waited for me after and said, I get it now I see clearly what the Bible says. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. When you build your life on the solid foundation of God's word, then you become an unstoppable force in the kingdom of God. For the Bible is the sword of the spirit. When you loose it out of your mouth, it decapitates the forces of hell that are aligned against your marriage and family. Can you say Amen? So what is there to know out of the Bible that disarms rulers, that takes thoughts, captivity? Everybody say take. Let me see. 2nd Corinthians 10, 5 Again, KJV, Casting down a mess. Everybody say casting down imaginations. I can't do that for you. I can't get in your head and throw imagination. You have to do that. What does that mean, casting out imaginations? I was on an overseas flight on United, I think, and they had movies to watch, so I was watching one. It was like an 11 hour flight and the movie was a husband, his wife and his child. And the wife got cancer and died and he had to raise the daughter. So I started thinking as I was reclined in my seat, what would I do if I was in that situation. And that was right the time that I shut the movie off. You think about, you know, people talk about bad movies and we shouldn't. Yeah, I get it. You don't watch stuff with sexual immorality or perverse things like that. But it would actually be worse for me to start thinking around giving entrance. Why would I spend time thinking about my wife dying when the Bible says with long life? Why won't I meditate on that? Because it's negative. No, not because it's negative. Because it's anti covenant. I have a covenant with God and that covenant includes long life. Can you say amen? That's why you don't hear any statements from this pulpit ever. How many know we could die? We could die today and look at the difference. You know, I understand we're only a four year old church, but your average church in four years with 2000 members, close, I think it was 1700, something like that, we'd have had 200 funerals in four years. You go to normal church, there's people dying like it's the Vietnam War every week. They got a wall of people sick they put up every week. We've had four funerals in four years and two were not members. Because there's a difference. When you tell the crowd, we could all die every day, or if you tell the crowd with long life, will I satisfy you and show you my salvation? You know, this stuff is so strong in my spirit that the barbershop you've heard me mention that I go to when I'm in Arizona, it's all Russians and there's an Islamic Russian, a guy that's just like a Russian Russian, I don't think he has any religion. That's the guy cuts my hair and then there's an old Jewish Russian. And so I hadn't seen the old Jewish guy the last two times I was there. So I said, where's the old Jewish guy that's normally here. They said, oh, he has pancreatic cancer. I said, he does? They said, yeah, he's very sick. They don't think he's going to make it. I said can you tell me what hospital he's at? And they told me I haven't had a chance to go yet, but I'm going to head over to shortly because I like that guy. And I said, well, I'm going to go pray for him. And the Russian guy said, well, sometimes it's your time to go. I said how old is he? I think he's 62. I said, then it's not his time. And as it's coming out of my mouth my mind's going like, what does this guy carry? I said Psalm 91 says, with long life will I satisfy you and show you my salvation. Well, what's long life? Because long's relative. The Bible says threescore and 10, four score by reason of strength. Which means In Old English 70 years or 80 years is the minimum that you're to go out. And then for all the anti faith churches that. What about Paul? What about Paul? Some scholars say he made it to 70 or 71. Some scholars say he made it to 66 or 68. Do you know what the average lifespan was in the first century Roman Empire? 38. When you read these apostles living to 65, 68, 70, 72, 92, John 94. They were tripling up the average lifespan. Boiled in oil. Paul was stoned until dead, popped up out of the rubble. You're going to death and life is in the power of the tongue. Your life is not going to be a product of what God's will is for you. You. Nor is it going to be a product of the devil's attacks. Your life is going to be a product of choosing to believe and speak God's word over your life. You have a pastor this morning that came to speak God's word over your life. You're going to make it. The battle is not yours, it's the Lord's. You're not going down, you're going up. He that began a good work in you is bringing it to completion. Can you guys upstate. Can you get the picture from last week's New Believers class? I know somebody posted it and then just flash me if you don't have it. But I mean when they posted. Who did New Believers last week? Discipleship. The discipleship class is what I mean. How many were there? 103. That's how many I expected to have in the church by this time. I told Adonis, I said, you know, so, you know, it's her faith. It's probably why it grows more when she's around. I said, now listen, I know you think we're gonna start the church. There's gonna be like hundreds of people. I said, that's not how it works. I said, people like coming to our revival meetings when we're around. It's different to commit to a church. I said, we're probably gonna have 30 or 40 people. And my goal, I told you when we started the church, my goal was to get to 500 in five years. We hit 774, what, in April, which then caused all the problems with the town and all that because it blew up so fast. Now, Fort Worth, you know, anybody would have to see that it produces a different track when you believe and speak God's word. We don't say things here like, you know, summer is a dry season and church finances are down and there's a recession. We don't talk like that. We talk increase. We talk increase of people. We talk increase in altar calls. You remember during 21 days of prayer and fasting, one of the days of our praying was for God to increase the strength on the altar calls. Well, when we did night of healing in Pittsburgh, I think there was 1064 in attendance and we had 170 some people come to receive Jesus Christ. About 17% that were there came forward to receive Christ In California after fasting and prayer. God answered our prayer. We had 600 and some in attendance, counting workers on the first night. And we had 300 and some make decisions for Christ. Basically when we. Not basically when I finished the altar call, I went to close the service out. There was no one left in the stands. The 19 people or so that didn't get saved left and everybody else came to get saved. See, you're seeing the average church makes one new convert every three years. They have it up. Look at discipleship. When I saw that, it was all I could do not to cry. 103 in attendance today. That's a discipleship class. After church ran till what, 12:30 last week, your time, 11:30 down in Texas, cold out. People stayed after to hear more word. When you build a church like that, you are. That's why I can't wait till this new building opens up. Because they have A tier Christians and B tier Christians. Dag Heywood Mill tells you, you know, a tier is like the people that will show up at 4 in the morning to Shovel the parking lot. That's all we have. The only type of Christians we have around city church are A tier because of the shuttles. No B tier Christians will come. They're all wait until the new building comes. So when that, when that opens up, it's going to be Easter Sunday every Sunday. Because we have a core and I believe God used what's happened the last three and a half. What the devil meant for evil. God took and built a strong church of Navy Seal, Delta Force, Green Beret, 82nd Airborne. And together we're going to take the world by storm. By the power of God. If you believe it, can you say amen? Let me see. Second Corinthians, 10, 3, 10 4. Sorry. 10 5. Casting down imaginations. That's what I did that day in the plane. I'm not thinking about that. I'm not not. Am I not going to speak it? I refuse to devote two seconds of thought to anything that the Bible says doesn't belong to me. Let me find somebody. Brother Dan, how much time do you spend worrying that you're going to become a transgender? None. Brother Sam, how much time do you spend worrying that you might become pregnant? Yes. It's not. You're trying not to worry. It's like if that thought came in your head, it would be so ridiculous you'd chuckle and throw it out of your head. Well, that's how sickness needs to become. That's how death needs to become. I'm not getting kidnapped in Nigeria. The kidnappers, if they tried, something bad would happen to them. Because angels are ordered to protect me wherever I go.

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Testimonial Speaker (32:52)

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Pastor Jonathan (34:22)

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