Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
The Living Bread 2
Discover how nurturing your spirit with the "living bread" of Jesus' teachings can transform your life in profound ways. Embark on a journey with us as we explore Jesus' identity as the "living bread" from John's Gospel and how embracing His message can lead to everlasting life. Get inspired by the poignant story of the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears, illustrating the power of forgiveness and love. This episode promises to deepen your understanding of faith and encourage a wholehearted commitment to spiritual growth.
Let's wave those Bibles around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad. Say this together Say Heavenly Father, I am so glad to be here today. I celebrate your faithfulness, I celebrate your constance. I thank you, lord, that you have lifted me up when circumstances tried to put me down. I cried unto you and you've healed me. I cried unto you and you've healed me. You've heard me over and over again and I thank you that you'll do it again in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Let's turn in our Bibles to John, the Gospel of John, chapter 6. And I want to continue along this series called the living bread. That's what Jesus said he was the living bread. We'll look at John, chapter 6, starting with verse 47. Second message on this subject and be sure, and get the media on from last week if you were not here, it's on the podcast, it's on the website, it's on Facebook, it's a lot of places for you to grab it and listen to it John 6, 47, and really I assigned it as last week's homework, but you need to read the entire chapter to get the context of the verses and the fact that he was preaching to people who doubted him, and you'll see this again and again with Jesus. He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Speaker 1:I get tickled at people. They're always talking about what Jesus said. Well, really, jesus said a lot of things to the Jews and he says something a little bit different to us. Because why? Because we're the church, we're in him, we are him. But to the Jews, I mean, he was pretty salty at times and he knew when they were doubting and he would always double down, he wouldn't back off and try to be nice. Well, jesus gets us. You know, he never did say I can't read in here where he said give me a hug, give me a hug, peter. I mean he demanded faith. I mean his tenderest moments were for the sinners. His tenderest moments were people like the woman who met him at the feast and came in. She was a sinner woman, she lived in sin and she knelt at his feet and cried and wept over his feet and washed his feet with her tears and dried his feet with her hair I was reading that the other day and then anointed his feet and washed his feet with her tears and dried his feet with her hair I was reading that the other day and then anointed his feet with expensive perfume and the governor of the feast wanted to run her off. What is he doing? Doesn't he know that that woman's a sinner woman? She shouldn't be doing that.
Speaker 1:He said I got a bone to pick with you. That's not in the Bible, that's the South Texas translation. I came in and you didn't even offer me a glass of water. You didn't kiss me. This woman has not stopped weeping over my feet and cleaning them and drying my dirty feet. Can you imagine what was on his feet? I mean, they walk through Calvary. Can you imagine what was on his feet? I mean, they walked through Calvary. Can I be more descriptive to understand the humility of this woman? So he said I got a bone to pick with you. I've been in here, you know, and you didn't greet me with a glass of water and this woman hadn't ceased to wash my feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. You didn't greet me with a kiss. She keeps kissing my feet and anointing them.
Speaker 1:And he said he knew what he was saying. He knew what he was thinking about. He said you know, when you haven't been forgiven much, you don't love much. She's been forgiven much. She loves much. I tell you, I've been forgiven a lot of things. I try to train myself to laugh and not cry. When we're singing these powerful songs, I want to weep, but I it's really. Weeping is not going to do it. I just need to have the joy. I need to train myself to just giggle and laugh because I'm the winner. I'm the one that gained Glory to God. I deserve all this terrible stuff. And he redeemed me, bought me when I was a loser, paid a big price for me when I was nothing. He did the same for you, didn't he? All right, the living bread. So let's look at it. Verse 47. My point was that he doubled down on what he was. He doubled down on revealing himself to people he knew would doubt him. They're still here, folks. They're still here and we have to keep telling the story.
Speaker 1:Verse 47, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. That's zoe, the God kind of life, the life as God lives it. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever and the bread. Then Jesus said unto them and doubled down and he said unless, verily, verily, say again, double noncession of God, put it in the bank. This is true, verily, verily, I say unto you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Boy, he's not just doubling down, he's tripling down. He's got them by the back of the neck and he's burying their face down in it, in what His flesh and his blood, as the living father, hath sent me. And I live by the father. So he that eateth me, even he, shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not, as your fathers did, eat man in the wilderness and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
Speaker 1:So you know, in John, chapter 1, we made this point last week. But Jesus is the Word. You know the Bible says in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And in verse 14, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. So Jesus is the Word, the Logos. Jesus is the Logo. Logos means the written Word of God. We have the written Word of God in our Bible. Now, jesus is not this Bible, this physical Bible, but Jesus is the Word that's in this Bible. And this Word is what? Living bread? It's living bread.
Speaker 1:And then he compares himself to the manna that their fathers, they, you know, they, uh, earlier in the chapter you'll find out why he started using manna because they brought it up. They brought up that they had the manna and all that. But manna means what is it? And the Jews when they left Egypt? You know, they're an agricultural society, they have to grow their food, and that's what they did in Egypt. But now they're on the road and they're traveling.
Speaker 1:If they had obeyed God and done right and kept their heart, it wouldn't have been but just a matter of weeks, a few weeks, to get to the promised land. It wouldn't have been but just a matter of weeks, a few weeks to get to the promised land. It wouldn't have been a big deal. But they kept messing up, they kept murmuring and complaining and finally God just had to say get out of my sight, none of you are going to go in. You're going to die in this wilderness. I'm going to bring your children. You're so worried about your babies and your kids, I'm going to bring them in. So 40 years they were in the wilderness. Well, they couldn't grow their food. They're out in the wilderness. There's no plant planting there. It's a terrible place, desert.
Speaker 1:So he fed them with manna, supernatural food that would just appear each morning. They would get up and gather it and bring it back and they'd have enough for that day. And he had a law. He said don't gather more than you need. Eat just what you need for the day. And of course, the Jews had to test him on it. They got out there and got a bunch of it and of course, you know, worms got in it. It stunk. The only exception to the rule was on the night before the Shabbat Sabbath. You know you can't work, you can't gather food on the Sabbath. So he said it's permissible. Then, on the day before that, you gather twice as much. So God, god, put twice as much out there for them and they gathered twice as much. And he, over 40 years, he trained them about the manna. And so Jesus is comparing himself to the manna Now in the wilderness.
Speaker 1:What happened? Well, they were there under, uh, the cloud would move, and they would move with the cloud Cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night. What was that? The Shekinah presence, that's the glory of God, was in their camp. Sometimes he would just wait there at a certain spot and they would eat the manna every day, go in the same spot and there the man would be, under this bush or under that, behind that rock or wherever they gathered it. And then the next morning they'd get up in the cloud, move. Well, now they've got to move, they got to break camp. They better have some, some substance, they better have some food to give them the energy to pack all their belongings, break the tent down, fold it up, put it in, and then they had to move. They had to follow as far as the cloud would move and then, where the cloud rested, the manna would appear there. What if somebody decided not to follow the cloud? They'd starve to death because there ain't no food. The food is where the living bread, the manna, was, where the cloud was. So he's comparing himself to the manna and making it better. Because they died. You know, they died eating that manna. That manna was just physical manna, it was supernaturally given. But it, you know it, it, and then they, you know they didn't like it at first.
Speaker 1:You know, when you, when I first got saved and I realized I had to read the Bible. I mean it's kind of intimidating to take a book this thick. Now, you know, I went to college and I have books this thick that I had to be in. I still got some of them in my garage. I've got a book about like this, on mechanical vibrations. It's so exciting to read a book on mechanical vibrations.
Speaker 1:Me 464, mechanical Engineering 464 is a senior class and I took it and that was a tough class. You know, you talk about math, you talk about complicated. Well, just think about your car. I mean somebody had to design that. You've got an engine under the hood. I mean it's got pistons going like this and you've got a crankshaft going like this. I mean you're talking about vibration. Somebody had to design that thing where it wouldn't shake your teeth out. You wouldn't be able to drive the car if somebody hadn't taken a course on mechanical vibration. I'm kind of glad it came around. I'm kind of glad that the technology.
Speaker 1:But you know, I had to develop an affinity. I had to develop an appetite for the subject, and so when I first got saved, I looked at this Bible and I thought how am I ever going to read this? How am I ever going to understand it? My pastor would get up and just quote whole chapters of the Bible right out of his spirit and I'd go wow, he must spend hours just memorizing. He didn't memorize anything. It's down on the inside of him. He ate it and he became it. Are y'all with me now? So we've got a little Bible reading plan out there. Don't get intimidated about the word. You just read it a chapter at a time. How do you eat an elephant with you know? A spoonful at a time. Ain't eat the whole thing at once, but you can start. Some of you just never have started. You need to start right now. Quit putting it off.
Speaker 1:So they received the strength to follow the Holy Ghost wherever he led them, by the cloud by night and day, and the pillar of fire by night. And that's the same with us. We eat this living word so that we can receive strength to follow the Holy Ghost in our life. That's what we're going to talk about today. Last week we talked about eating the bread of life to develop and nourish our spirit. You are a spirit. Everybody's born again. They're born the same way. You're born as a baby. What do babies need? Lots of care. They need lots of milk and they need to be nurtured and they need to be protected and they need to be loved. And so when people get saved in this church, we want to be the place where they can be. It's a safe place. It's a place for them to learn about this new life they have, even though many times they're adults. Sometimes we have we've got our little children getting saved in children's church and some of them get saved and their parents aren't even saved yet. And then when they see their child, you know it's kind of amazing. And then when they see their child, you know it's kind of amazing. So this living bread nourishes our spirit, so that our spirit can grow and develop.
Speaker 1:And we talked last week about the fact that we're able to train and educate and develop our spirit by number one, meditating on the word. That's muttering it, speaking it and turning it about. Thinking about it, you think about it, you know, once a week. No, on day and night, all the time you live, you're feeding. That's what feeding on the word is. It's not just reading your Bible, but it's taking phrases, verses or even a half of a verse and thinking about it and turning it about, and then it's practicing the Word.
Speaker 1:You know, it's not enough just to hear the Word. We have to be doers of the Word, not just hearers only. Some people are dissatisfied with hearing the Word. They agree with the Word. Oh yeah, the Word. This is about you. Is this true? Yes, it's true, but they're not doing it. So the word if you hear it and don't do it, you deceive yourself. James said so your job is to eat this word and then be a doer of it, practice it, and then it is to put it first place, make it priority. It's not, it's not something you do in your spare time. You do it before anything else.
Speaker 1:Now, I know some of you are not morning people. You're, you know, brother Hagen was not a morning person. He, he, he did most of his praying and Bible reading at night. But that's you know, if you work a regular day shift, I mean pretty much you've got to get up pretty early. What I did, I mean my day started early because I was a home builder for 25 years and you know, part of that time, while I got saved, I started changing my life. I started changing my whole schedule and I'd get up extra early.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I'd have to get up early just to catch my subs. It was the days before cell phones, emails and texts and all that Didn't have that, and I had to catch my subs before they left for work. That meant I had to call If I wanted them on my job for something important. I had to catch them before they left the house. That meant I had to get up early enough to catch them before they left. Sometimes that's five or six o'clock in the morning. I'm calling subs. So I would do that all right, but then right after that I wouldn't go back to bed. I'd get my Bible out and I'd start reading my Bible and praying and I did it first. I put God first that way.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're a night person and you can do it at night, that's fine, but it takes a lot more discipline. I submit to you it takes more discipline to do it at night, because you'll have every excuse in the world not to. Well, pastor, I just get up so early, we'll get up earlier. See, you've got this. I'm telling you this because I see people not do it, and years turn into decades and they've never really cracked their Bible open and they've not eaten the bread of life. No wonder you're losing, no wonder you're sick, no wonder you're defeated, no wonder you're depressed. It just takes a little extra effort. You've got to put him first, and when you do, you'd be amazed at what happens. When you do it, so uh, so you meditate, you practice the word, you prioritize the word and finally, you obey your own spirit. See, your spirit will grow then.
Speaker 1:And when your spirit grows, your spirit starts to take over and your spirit is more influential because it's you. It's you. You live in this body along with the Holy Ghost. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, that's true, but then your spirit lives in the same body, and this body is what Flesh, so it's always wanting to interrupt, it's always wanting to have its way.
Speaker 1:What's the voice of the flesh? Emotion. It's been my experience in all these years, decades, of ministering to people that most Christians just are led by their emotions. They're just. If they're happy, one day, they're happy. If they're sad, they're sad, and they just go by. How they feel all the time. Well, that's not how we're supposed to live. The just shall live by faith, not by what seems like. The Bible said it. I believe it. That settles it.
Speaker 1:So when your spirit gets big and grows, now it's influential in its voice. The voice of your spirit is what is that? That's your conscience, that's the still small voice. A lot of time, spirit is what is that? That's your conscience, that's the still small voice. A lot of time and I'm guilty of this I'll say the Holy Ghost said, or the Lord spoke to my heart. But really, when I start really meditating on what was said and when it was said, it's really my own spirit and it's reliable as a guide. Because why? Because you have grown it and developed it and educated it in god's word the living bread, amen, all right. So today, eating the living bread will strengthen us to follow the holy ghost. So let's look at hebrews 4 and also second peter and I want to spend some time on this again. Last week I've preached a series of messages on developing your spirit. That's four weeks and I only spent part of last Sunday, so there's a lot to say about it. But this message is intended to kind of whet your appetite. I mean, it just comes from my normal reading of my Bible living bread.
Speaker 1:I like to major in what Jesus said about himself, and he doubled down on the fact he is the living bread that came down from heaven and talked about the living father, the Jews. Where are they found? Well, we're Father. Abraham is our father. He said. God's able to raise up sons to Abraham out of these rocks. Don't be bragging about sons of Abraham. That's nothing to brag about. Abraham was a great man and all that, but I mean he's not God. See, he was correcting them. Are you with me now? So all right, here we go. You find Hebrews, chapter four. Hebrews, chapter four, verse 12. Remember, the whole theme of the book of Hebrews is Jesus is better. Everybody say Jesus is better. Jesus is better, verse 12.
Speaker 1:For the word of God, who is that Jesus? I mean it'll set you free. Listen when you start. Rightly, regard the word. You know, a lot of times, people, they get Jesus way up here, but they don't get the word in the same place. Jesus is.
Speaker 1:Remember, a few years ago, the Christian bookstores got together and came up with this little slogan what would Jesus do so they could sell thousands and thousands of these little necklaces WWJD. Maybe you've got one. Maybe you've got a plaque at home, wwjd. I made fun of it. I just thought it was insufficient. It's not so much what would Jesus do as what does the word say and what does Jesus say? It's right here, what Jesus did is right here. And usually they would. They would, you know, uh, have some simpy, wimpy little thing. You know well, jesus, we can do that. They don't even. That's not even lined up with the word of God Most of the time. All right.
Speaker 1:So verse 12, for the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So you know, you see that. And it says soul and spirit can be divided. That means they're not the same. So you know, you see that. And it says soul and spirit can be divided. That means they're not the same. One of the greatest revelations I ever received when I got saved and started going to Lakewood Church is that soul and spirit are different. I was taught by the nuns in Catholic school for eight years that there was. Soul and spirit are the same.
Speaker 1:To hear some preachers talk about saving souls. They're talking about spirits. They're not talking about souls. They're talking about spirits, but it's not. They're talking about spirits. They're not talking about souls. They're talking about spirits, but it's not.
Speaker 1:Souls can be saved, but it's a process. It's not instant, like when you're born again, that's, and you become a new creature. Your spirit is changed, but your soul being saved is a lifetime. You've got to, you've got to have your mind renewed to the word of god. That's the process, like what we talked about last week, the same process by which you build your spirit, you also renew your mind and you also build your faith. They're all the same process.
Speaker 1:Are y'all with me now? There's three things that happen when you eat the bread of life. Three things not just your spirit developing, but your mind is changed and you're transformed by the renewing of your mind, reprogramming. You start thinking the thoughts of God, you quit thinking like the world thinks, start thinking like God thinks, and that changes you right there. And then so your soul is saved, then your mind becomes renewed, then and then, of course, your faith gets built, because you're feeding on the word, and faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Are you with me now? All right, so Hebrews 4, 12. So I like the Moffat's translation, the very first part of this. It says um for the word, the logos of God is a living thing, quick, alive, living exclamation points. The Word of God is alive. It divides between the spirit and the soul or the mind.
Speaker 1:A lot of times people are endeavoring to follow their thought. And they had a thought and they think it's God. They think you know, and their brain tissue is active and they're reasoning some things out. And they think it's God. They think you know, and their brain tissue is active and they're reasoning some things out and they reason here and they reason there. It's just carnal reasoning. I mean, you know, you get the living bread and you feed on that. It's like a sword. It'll cut that thing right in two and separate what spirit says from your carnal mind. It will expose you down on the inside, for you that you've got some little hidden hangups, that you've got Maybe it's some little, you know jealousies, little envies, offenses down on the inside of you that you don't want to admit, because if you admit it then you've got to get it right then, don't you? So let's just cover that up with a bunch of religious talk. Oh well, I just love you. I'm so good to see you when really you don't like them at all and you wish you hadn't run into them. I know I'm the only one that's ever that's ever happened.
Speaker 1:So following the Holy Ghost is contingent upon our feeding on the living bread. Why? Because we don't feed on it, we won't have the strength and we really won't be able to identify the leading. I'm talking about following the Holy Ghost and I want to make a statement Again. I've preached on just that subject four to six weeks at a time sometimes. So it's a lot bigger subject than what I'm giving time for today, but I want to whet your appetite.
Speaker 1:I want to get you to start thinking in terms of how valuable this word is for being filled with the Holy Ghost. I mean, a lot of times we just separate the word from the Holy Ghost, and they're two different things. They're just the word and the spirit agree. Just separate the word from the Holy Ghost, and they're two different things. They're just the word and the spirit agree. They agree, and when they don't agree, then something's wrong. So in Romans 8,.
Speaker 1:It says as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And so I like to say the opposite is true. If that's true, how many of you believe that's true? As many as are led by the spirit of God, they're the sons of God. And so I like to say the opposite is true. If that's true, how many of you believe that's true? As many as are led by the spirit of God, they're the sons of God. As many as are sons of God, they are led by the spirit of God. It doesn't say they might be led by the spirit of God. They're occasionally led by the spirit of God. No, but if you're a son of God, if you're born again, you are led, and you are being led all the time.
Speaker 1:The question is not whether God is leading. You Get that out of your mind. Well, I wish God hadn't led me. Yes, he has. He led you. You haven't identified the leading, and that's a function of feeding on the living bread. When you feed on the living bread, your spirit will become active and alive and mature enough to pick up on the ways that God wants to lead you. You'll pick up his signal. In other words, he's given you the homing beacon, he's given you the vector that you can fly your plane and land the plane right in the right landing spot.
Speaker 1:But if you don't know how to operate the radio, you might miss David Wayne Hooks Airport. Land in a cow paddy somewhere, cow pasture, somewhere where the cow paddies are. Get it all over your plane. Wouldn't it be terrible if your propeller picked it up and threw it all over the windshield? Having landed at hooks airport many, many times I mean, in my past I've been out there a lot of times one time almost crashed there. I'm so glad I didn't, aren't you glad I didn't crash?
Speaker 1:I was, I mean, my, the guy that was flying his plane. We were coming in final approach and he's banking for the turn like this, and and, uh, we overloaded and underpowered. We found out later that he had only four out of the six cylinders of his airplane working and we were overloaded on top of that. So when he took that final approach, I mean, I'm looking out the window, I'm looking straight down at the ground, like this Cessna 206. I'm looking right, straight at the gun and it's going beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. What is that? The stall warning buzzer and we're only 400, 300 feet above the ground. I mean what's going to happen when it stalls? Dead, thank God. I mean somehow God just kept it up right and we landed on the.
Speaker 1:And he called me the next day and said you're never going to believe this. Of course I wasn't saved in those days, but you know, I knew God had saved me. I knew enough about God, I knew that God intervened. I mean I should have died at Hooks Airport, but anyway, getting back to this home embiggeny, you's dark when it's when it's cloudy I mean you've got. You've got radio signals that if you'll hone in on them, it will bring you right down into the airport. God's got these signals for you. If you'll learn how to identify them and that's a function of your spirit getting greater than your brain tissue and certainly greater than your feelings your carnal feeling, your carnal body is going to interrupt God's signal. Come on, lift your hands right now. Say God is leading me all the time. I'm going to learn how to follow him. 2 Peter, you getting anything out of this? Verse 16.
Speaker 1:Now he's talking about right here how he and James and John. Peter, james and John were on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus was transfigured before them and the glory of God came on him and he was brighter than the sun. They were there and they saw. You know, they saw him talking with Moses and Elijah. Talk about spectacular, you talk about a spectacular vision, and so here he's writing about it.
Speaker 1:For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty, for he received from God, the Father, honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. They heard God say that to him on the Mount of Transfiguration. They heard God's voice to him on the Mount of Transfiguration. They heard God's voice, they saw the glory, and this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount, verse 19.
Speaker 1:We have also a more sure word of prophecy where, until you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy ghost. What in the world is he saying? He is saying this word is more reliable than visions, dreams, prophetic words. Never, never be envious of people who have testimonies and I've got plenty of testimonies of spectacular guidance, god speaking to me, having visions, having dreams, having visitations. I have plenty of those in my resume, if you will, but this word is more important than all the rest of it.
Speaker 1:Relating to this word right here, don't ever pray for God to give you a dream so you'll know what to do. Don't ever pray for God to appear to you. I'll tell you. The devil hears you and he can accommodate you, and I've met many people. They attribute to demons what demons gave them and say it's God. I've seen it over and over. Well, it gives all of it a bad name. Listen, it's all God. God can do all these things, but don't tell him how to do it. He's wiser and smarter than you are. He knows exactly what you need. When you need it, he is guiding you. That's the thing you've got to settle this morning that he is guiding you. Are you following his guidance? That's the only question. That's the only question. And I'm proposing to you that when you feed on the living bread you're, you know this is the most important thing you can do to gain the strength. It takes. It takes some faith to go by his methods. Always treat God's word as if the Lord Jesus is speaking directly unto you. Then you won't be so hungry for everybody else to prophesy.
Speaker 1:There's a church in the area that teaches people how to prophesy to each other. It's just a bunch of baloney. I had a woman one time, right when we'd gotten saved. I mean she grabbed ahold of Gladys and she grabbed her and I was looking for her after one of the services. Notice here that we went to both services, sunday morning and Sunday night. And actually we went to both morning services, two morning services and Sunday night. So we went three times a day. On sunday we're at church all day long and our kids were too. So you get to church. It's an 8 30 service.
Speaker 1:You got to get up, you know, at the crack of dawn on a sunday morning, get ready, get dressed, your women put their face on, put their hair fixed. Blah, blah takes forever. I'm come on, honey, we're gonna be late. Come on, honey, let's go. Let's go. Some things never change. It's the same today as it was back then. Come on, honey, hitler. She called me Hitler, like they do Trump. They're calling Trump Hitler. I'm used to it. I've been called Hitler for a long time, but anyway, we'd go, and this woman grabbed ahold of her after the morning service and I missed her and we're as glad as what happened.
Speaker 1:I went outside and they're sitting on a bench and she's just man, man, man, man. I said what was she doing? She had a prophecy for me. I said, well, stay away from her. And I didn't know enough about anything. My spirit was disturbed. God didn't say stay away, and I just knew something wasn't right.
Speaker 1:What is that called? It's called an unction. First John 2.20,. You have an unction from the Holy One. It's a little nudge, it's a little knowing. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I was a really, really a baby Christian, but yet I knew that she was bad news. And uh, and then, you know, finally I just I had to. Kind of the next Sunday, same thing happened. So I just finally started interfering and I just kind of, you know, took her and I wasn't rude, but I mean I just, and I just stopped it. Are y'all with me now?
Speaker 1:I mean, sometimes, you know, the devil can come to church, flakos can come to church and, by the way, nobody has authority to lay their hands on you and prophesy over you unless they, unless they have gone through a vetting process with this ministry. Now, people that have badges and names, they're, they're people that that are approved and have gone and proven themselves. But not everybody walks in the door. I've had people, flakos, come in through the door trying to panhandle, trying to give you their sob story and get money out of you. We don't allow that here Just for you. So you know we watch after you.
Speaker 1:Praise God, all right, so you know again what Smith Wigglesworth said. The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it. You've got to know what the Bible says. You've got to feed on the living word and having a reverence for the word of God, having settled in your own heart the integrity of God's Word, I mean you can put it in the back. Verily, verily, I say unto you. He used that language twice. It's called the double enunciation of God. Jesus used it to underscore. If we were putting this on a grease board, we would underline the sentence. And he's saying put this in the bank, verily, verily. So a reverence for God's word, an understanding of the integrity of God's word, how important it is.
Speaker 1:And when Jesus taught the disciples to pray the Our Father and this is an Old Testament prayer, it's not a New Testament prayer. Well, why don't you all pray the Our Father? Because it's an Old Testament prayer. We've got better prayers. People get so tangled up. Well, jesus taught. Well, he was teaching people that didn't know god, and it's a good prayer. But it's not the best prayer for us. We, we can go direct. We go to the father in jesus name. There's no jesus name in our father. You're not praying correctly. I don't know who's. This is blowing your. I can see somebody's head going pow. You're blasphemy. No, I'm not. I'm telling you New Testament truth. We need to get over.
Speaker 1:Here in the epistles, jesus was teaching his disciples who were lost at the moment. He taught them better later. Are you with me now? So? But he said you know our Father, which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. See, he's really talking about the manna. He's talking about the principle that you can't. Faith cometh by hearing, not by having heard A lot of people. They have the word that they remember back, you know, last month, last year, last decade, and they're trying to draw on that for today's trouble. You need a word for right now. You need the word for you need the living bread for right now.
Speaker 1:Do you regularly just eat day old, week, old, month, old, year old bread? I mean, sometimes bread stays in my pantry. Thank God for Allison, she comes in our pantry and cleans it out. You know she's the expiration date expert and she'll get a gigantic 50 gallon bag, plastic bag, and I hear stuff clattering and stuff is going in the bag. Oh, this is all out of date. It's out of date, this is out of date. And when she leaves I don't have anything left in the pantry. I can talk about her. She's not in here, but I mean I. I mean, you know, sometimes the bread's got green on it. You know, you know it's past its prime. When it's green, don't eat it. Well, I just scrape it up. No, no, I've said this many times.
Speaker 1:But the logos, this is the logo, word of God, logos, he said I'm the word. That's logos. The word was made flesh, the logos was made flesh. That's the general will of God. Is the Logos the general will of God? The Logos would show husbands how to treat their wives, wives how to treat their husbands, parents how to treat their children, children, how to relate to their parents. I mean, the Logos will tell you who to be friends with, who to look at if you're getting married, who to draw near to and who to stay away from. I mean, you don't need a lot of supernatural guidance if you'll just take the logos. The logos will guide you in the general will of God.
Speaker 1:But then there are certain times when you need a specific will of God. You need a specific will of God. You need to know specifically what is God's will concerning this thing. That's when you need what the rhema. And in John 6, 63, jesus said the words that I speak to you, that word words is rhema. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. So then, the rhema is spirit and life. The rhema is a component of leading or guidance. If you will Everybody say the rhema word, you know it's just like the word just jumps off the page and it's the logos, and then it becomes a rhema and you just suddenly have an understanding that he's communicating something to you. And so you get illumination, you get light, and a fully developed spirit is more sensitive to the gentle nudgings, the rhema words.
Speaker 1:I mean you know, brother, my pastor, pastor Osteen. I was going to call him Brother Osteen because he Brother Osteen. Everybody called him Brother Osteen, but I didn't like calling him Brother Osteen. He's my pastor, so I always called him. When I got to know him, I called him Pastor, just Pastor. That's what I called him I like.
Speaker 1:If you want to talk to me, call me Pastor. I respond to Pastor. I like Pastor. I can be your brother, but I'm more than your brother, I'm your pastor, and pastor is higher than a brother.
Speaker 1:Pastor's got a high. It's a ministry office. I always magnify the office I stand in. It's not about me, it's about the office that God put me in. He put me in it. I didn't put myself in it, but anyway, getting back to a rhema word, at church, he got up there was taking the offering one Sunday and he said and he's receiving the offering.
Speaker 1:And he says how would you like the bank to call you and borrow money from you. And I just laughed. I thought that was so funny because you know, I'm a home builder and I made my living on borrowed money OPM other people's money, not mine. I would borrow it. I would use the borrowed money to build houses and make a profit and hopefully make enough profit where I could pay the loan back and have enough left over to feed my family. And that's what I did for 25 years. I had some winners and I had some losers, and I do preach a lot about the losers, but I want you to know that I did have some winners. So you know he. He said how would you like the bank to call you and and and and loan and ask you to loan them money? And I said, yeah, I can go with that. And I just I mean I was laughing, but I just something inside and I looked back on it later and I realized it was a rhema word for me. I said, yeah, yeah, I received that. I believe that. Yeah, cause I'm always calling them to borrow money from them. Yeah, wouldn't it, wouldn't it be great for the thing to turn around and then call me?
Speaker 1:And of course I'm sure he was thinking about CD certificates of deposit. You get rich enough to where you can, you know, give the bank a certificate of deposit. What are they going to do with your money? They're going to loan it to somebody. They're going to pay you 5%. You know, back then it was probably more than that. It's probably 6, 8% CD at the time they're going to loan it at 10. They're going to make a profit off of your money. Well, you know, you can't really loan money to people and dependably get it back. You're not in the business, but they are. So they take your money and they loan it out. And so I thought he might be talking about that.
Speaker 1:But you know, in a couple of days I got a call from a banker and I'd never done business with him, but I knew who he was. Days I got a call from a banker and I'd never done business with him, but I knew who he was. It was old Jotaro Bank. Anybody remember Houston Intercontinental Airport when it was Jotaro Airport? Jotaro, you're a real Houstonian if you remember Jotaro, because they changed it to George Bush Intercontinental. Well, this was Jotaro Bank. It was formed back in the 60s and I knew the banker there. I'd just never done business with him.
Speaker 1:And he said, hey, I was talking to Kearney Revet. Kearney was a friend of mine. I had borrowed lots of money from him and now he's out of the banking business and so forth. But he'd talked to Kearney and Kearney told him about me and he said I got a problem. I just wanted to see if you could help me. He said I've got a house where so-and-so was the builder. I said yeah, I know him. He used to buy hardware from him. I knew he went in the home building business. Well, he got a house and he went off and left it. He's in Austin now and I can't get him on the phone. And so it's a house. It's a contract house and the people are pretty upset and they bought this house and now we're going to have to foreclose on the loan and I think we can still salvage the deal.
Speaker 1:Would you be interested in some arrangement where we can pay you to get involved and finish the house? I said what stage is it in? He said it's painted. I said yeah, I'll go. I said it's way outside of my area. It was in West Houston off of Clay Road, and here I am, up here in northwest Harris County, so it's 30, 45 minutes to get to the house from where I'm at. But I said, yeah, I'll take a look at it. They look at it and I'll walk through it. How do I get in it? So he left a, walked through it. How do I get in it? And so he left the key, for I don't remember how I got in it, but anyway I went in and walked through the house, made a kind of a list of things that needed and it was pretty nice house.
Speaker 1:You know it wasn't a disaster. I knew the guy and he just couldn't finish it. He was underwater financially. He had to go find a job in Austin. And he found a job and left his business. And so I called him back. I said you know it's going to take cost. You pay the cost plus 8,000 fee, 8,000. I said well, you know it's one house, totally separate. There's no economy of scale. I've got to be there almost every day and guess what? I get to be with your homeowners that are already mad and suspicious. I've got to sell myself to them that I know what I'm doing and I said, yeah, it's pretty awkward situation, it's worth money. So my price is 8,000. He said all right.
Speaker 1:So in about six weeks I finished the house up. I got them, you know they were happy. They moved in and I got $8,000 for about six weeks work, which was a pretty good little paycheck, and so the bank borrowed money from me. And then, on the heels of that, the phone rang again and another banker that I knew and had done business with before he said hey, I heard about your house over there in such and such subdivision in West Houston. He said I've got two side by side. I said are they sold? No, they're not sold. They're specs. They're side by side, they're in the same, they're the same. They're painted out. They need everything. They need wallpaper and they need carpet and they need you know, they need everything to finish up.
Speaker 1:I said well, you know a monkey can get a house to this stage. It's the professional that's going to get it the last 10%, and I'm the professional. He said oh, okay, I've heard that before. I said well, I said it does. It does matter that this, that they're not sold, I we don't have to do. Do you want them all decorated? No, I don't want them decorated, just leave the wallpaper off. But I want it carpeted and I want it. I said, all right, well, that makes it easier, let me go look at them. Cost plus 6,000 a piece done. I made $6,000 apiece Done. I made $12,000 in the next six weeks. So you go back about three months. I've made $20,000 in three months from a rhema word that I got at church.
Speaker 1:Come on, lift your hands right now Matters where you go to church. It matters to listen with both ears. Are you with me now? So move in the unction of the Holy ghost. See, that's when I moved in the unction and I was willing that morning. I liked it. It's all God needed to open a door for me.
Speaker 1:First, john five, 10. Uh, you know, let's look at that one. That's right off, right past 2 Peter. We were just there. 1 John 5, 10. He that believeth on the Son of God, everybody shout. That's me, hath. The witness in himself. You have the witness of the Spirit in yourself, the witness. I've taught extensively on the witness. What is the witness? It's the peace that you have when you're going down a pathway, or else it's a hesitancy, a lack of peace. That's guidance.
Speaker 1:Paul and Silas they assayed to go into Bithynia. In other words, they had plans to go into Bithynia and the Spirit suffered them. Not when they planned to go there. The Holy Ghost said no, they got a hesitancy. And then they thought well, what else is going on? I'll tell you what. We'll go to Asia Minor and preach. But they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word of God to Asia Minor.
Speaker 1:Again, it didn't say that God appeared to him. It didn't say God spoke to him in a fire. He didn't send fiery chariots down. Listen, he just used the unction. He used the witness of the spirit to guide them as to where he didn't want them to go. Sometimes we think negative guidance is not it's guidance. Listen to the negative side. When you've got a hesitancy, don't run through it. Wait for the ease. And then, when they were willing to obey the witness of the Spirit, then God sent spectacular guidance, the form of a dream to Paul and the Macedonian man said come over here and help us. And they went to Macedonia where they were beaten with many stripes, thrown in the inner prison, feet went into stocks. An earthquake happened at midnight, broke them out of jail. The jailer got saved. His old house got are y'all with me now? So there was spectacular guidance came after they obeyed the unction and the witness of the Spirit. Glory to God. So let's develop our spirits so that we can follow the witness of the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:Feed on the living bread. Everybody say the living bread, it's food for me. I'm eating his flesh, I'm drinking his blood. That makes you feel uncomfortable a little bit, doesn't it? Well, his blood is his covenant. We sang about his covenant keeping power this morning. I mean, the blood is all about the covenant. He shed blood. You've been redeemed by the blood. I mean, the more you meditate on the fact that you were redeemed, the more you know that you've been bought and that he was cursed with a curse so you could be blessed with his blessing. Amen. The more you feed on the living bread, you'll be able to actually follow the Holy Ghost. Amen. Let's lift our hands and receive today. Did you get anything out of this morning? Glory to God. Thank God for the Holy Ghost.