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 Suddenlies Of God
The concept of divine intervention appearing suddenly, unexpectedly, and at precisely the right moment forms the cornerstone of spiritual breakthrough. Drawing from the powerful account of Paul and Silas praying and singing praises at midnight while imprisoned, we uncover the profound transformative potential of worship during our darkest hours.
I'm gonna lift your Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Say this together, say Heavenly Father, I am glad for Sunday night. I make time for Sunday night. I'm hungry for more and more of your word, more of your spirit, more of your glory, more of your presence. Lord, I thank you that I shall be filled because of my thirst, my hunger and thirst, and you said I'd be gorged. I'm going to be filled to overflowing tonight. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, praise God.
Speaker 1:All right, let's look at Acts, chapter 16. I happen to be in the book of Acts, my normal reading, acts 16,. Of course, this is about Paul and Silas. We'll start with verse 16. It came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination, and my margin says python, spirit of divination, a python, what's a python do? It strangles you, it chokes you, it's a constrictor. It's a constrictor. Divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us, crying, said these men are the servants of the Most High God which show unto us the way of salvation. And this she did many days. Everybody say many days, but Paulul on the very first day. No, not first day. I mean, she did this many days and she's trying to hang on to the move of god. She's trying to hide. She got a spirit of python and she's, you know, telling fortunes, witchcraft. And she's, you know, telling fortunes, witchcraft, and she's trying to attach herself to the move of God. And Paul didn't do anything for many days. But then, but Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And he came out the same hour One version says that instant.
Speaker 1:And when her master saw that the hope of her gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers and brought them to the magistrate, saying these men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive neither to observe. Being Democrat, I mean being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates ran off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks and at midnight everybody shout. Midnight, at midnight, paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly everybody shout. Suddenly, and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed. Praise God.
Speaker 1:And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled the Suddenlies of God. The Suddenlies of God. God spoke to me in the second of January and talked to me about a year of exceeding abundantly above a year of grace upon grace. I had that much, but I and I had a rhema word out of Psalm 92, 10. You know about my horn shall be exalted like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh oil. That was a rhema word. So I had that and I had the other two things, but I didn't really have the whole thing. And I did, you know, I got back in town, I didn't have it until I came to church that next Sunday morning on the fifth, and, uh, I began to prophesy and God said it's a year of milestones.
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes, you know, that's the way it is I go for revelation and I get pieces of it and the corporate anointing brought it. Brought it, you know, I talked, talked about the corporate anointing this morning If you weren't here, make sure you get the media on that but it helped me complete the word for this year, this, this is a year of milestones. It's a year where uh, in that, in that word, in that prophetic word that came forth on the 5th of January, right here on a Sunday morning, he said that I'm going to startle. Many will be startled. The world is going to be startled at what God is going to do. Startle means a catching of breath. In other words, it's another word for suddenly. I mean suddenly things are going to happen that don't look like, it doesn't appear that things are moving in the right direction, and then God will do a suddenly Hallelujah. Hallelujah and of course the Greek word that's translated suddenly there in the book of Acts, means unaware, unexpectedly, and it's from a root word meaning non-apparent or not manifest. In other words, it comes out of nowhere.
Speaker 1:As far as your brain is concerned, now, your spirit might know, your spirit might not be as shocked, because a lot of times your spirit knows what's coming down before your mind really gets a hold of it, and so it implies the stark difference between our spirit and our soul or our mind. You know there's a difference between your soul and your spirit. When I got a hold of that truth years ago, 40-something years ago, at Lakewood Church, you know spirit, soul and body. It changed my whole life. I mentioned it last week.
Speaker 1:But you know, the nuns taught me we're soul and body. That was all they taught. They didn't know anything about the spirit really. They counted the soul and the spirit the same. Well, didn't know anything about the spirit. Really. They counted the soul and the spirit the same. Well, you know they're just ignorant. They don't know the Bible. They've studied for 12 years to be a nun and they go to all the convent and they study and study and they don't have anybody to teach them the real truth. Most of them don't. There's a few that are saved, a few of them are, but most of them are just religious and thank God for revelation.
Speaker 1:So suddenly applies the stark difference between what your brain knows or your soul knows and what your spirit knows. You know your spirit. If you're walking by faith, it's expecting a manifestation all the time. Your faith is a spirit, spiritual force. It's down on the inside of you and when you believe and you speak, you have a positive expectation of the future. But you know when that thing shows up. A lot of times, if you know, if you'd admit it, I mean your soul is just oh wow. You're shocked, you're startled. The suddenlies of God, thank God for the suddenlies. So when manifestation of what we're believing shows up, it's a suddenly to our mind. And so this is going to be a year of milestones. We're going to have some milestones that are going to come suddenly. They're going to come even though we're believing that, even though we believe that word and we're speaking that word, all of us together.
Speaker 1:There's power. When we all say in the same thing and believe in the same thing, walking in lockstep with one another, there's a great amount of power. I talked about Genesis 11 and how they built the tower of Babel and God had to come down and knock that tower down and scatter them all and confuse their languages and scatter them, because he said nothing shall be, shall be impossible to them if they keep going down this road. See, that's the power of humanity and God's creation. There's a spiritual law that goes even on the evil side. When you get enough people saying the same thing and speaking the same thing. There's great evil can happen, it's a spiritual law. Can happen, it's a spiritual law.
Speaker 1:That's why the church must rise up and confront what's going and said at our at our Capitol. Praise God, you've got six States now on board with Capitol worship. Just think about the flag of heaven being planted in a place like Maine, like Michigan, like Indiana, man, that's not the Bible Belt. Oklahoma, texas and Louisiana, that's more like the Bible Belt. When you get up to Michigan and Indiana and Maine, are you kidding? Glory to God, hallelujah, six down and 44 to go, hallelujah, all right, everybody say the year of milestones. Well, you know, we might, our minds might get startled, but I'm telling you, I'm expecting to be startled, I'm expecting, I'm expecting some suddenlies. I said I'm expecting some suddenlies.
Speaker 1:So if we go back to the beginning of this chapter, paul and Silas, you know they, they this was their first missionary journey. The end of chapter 15, you know, paul and Barnabas had a disassociation and Jesus didn't fall off the throne just because they split up with a little bit of a difficulty. They didn't part sweetly and peacefully. Barnabas was mad and so they parted and you don't ever see Barnabas. Again Barnabas falls off the pages of the Bible. So that kind of tells you who was right. Know they can't two people be right, one's right and one's wrong. And we know it was Barnabas because he was hooked up with his flesh. He's hooked up with his nephew and got all invested in his, in his nephew going on the missionary journey and Paul didn't Listen.
Speaker 1:Later on John Mark was profitable to Paul for the ministry. He didn't break fellowship with John Paul, he just waited for the boy to mature. He's immature, he doesn't belong on the mission field yet. But, uncle Barney, he picked the wrong hill to die on.
Speaker 1:So you know, paul chose Silas and they prayed about where to go and of course it's in the first part of chapter 16, they assayed to go into Bithynia and the spirit suffered them not and they were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia Minor. Paul later in other places, said this a couple of different times I've always gone where Christ was not named. God didn't let him go and tread on other ministries. God didn't let him go and tread on other ministries. You know that they all had their authority, they all had their churches, that they had fathered. John had his, peter had his and you know God's not going to assign the same general to the same army. And so you know they had to wait for the instructions here they were ready to go and the Holy Ghost was putting the brakes on them and thank God, they didn't go anyway.
Speaker 1:They waited and waited until Paul got spectacular guidance through a dream and the Macedonian man, man, I don't know how they knew he was Macedonian. I mean, you know I don't. Was he wearing a hat? Was he wearing a sign? I don't know, I'm Macedonian man, I don't know. But the Macedonian man said come over here and help us. And the jailer happened to be the Macedonian man. The jailer who would have thunk it. You would have thought it would have been some high, you know, very important person or whatever. And here he's, the warden of the prison. I can't remember the last time I met a warden that was spiritual. I've met a few.
Speaker 1:I was in the prison ministry when I first first few years of my walk with the Lord. I got my feet wet going to prisons and went up to the walls. You know I went to death row and walls unit to talk about demons hanging off the walls. I did not want to ever go back there. They were. All those demons were talking to me as I walked through there. They knew I was there and they didn't like it and they started snarling and manifesting Horrible place to think about, where you got to spend time on waiting for 25 years to be put to death. In the meantime you're sitting there in that horrible place.
Speaker 1:But God had a plan for that man and his family to get saved. Some people believe that he became the pastor of the church. I don't know whether that's true or not. I mean, it's not in the Bible, so I don't know if it's really true. But it wouldn't put I wouldn't put it past the Lord to to go to that trouble to bring Paul and Silas to this man and get him saved and his whole house saved, and and then and then have him be a pastor of a church. He was the jailer of a prison. Now he's a pastor of a church.
Speaker 1:There's a whole lot of similarity. No, well, no, it's anyway, praise God, all right. So, um, they waited for the perfect will of God and, uh, that became very important because when they got to this place that we just read where they were beaten with many stripes. You know they. You know they had to think golly, but they knew they were there by the will of God. They knew that they were in the right place. What if they hadn't known that? Would they have prayed and sang praises, or would they have blamed, or would they have been crying and saying God, what happened? Why did you abandon us?
Speaker 1:Beaten not with a few, many stripes, paul was beaten with 194 total stripes in his ministry, six times 39 stripes. How do you live? How do you have any skin left? These are cat-of-nine-tails. They're leather thongs with metal tips and they're designed to tear the flesh, not just to leave a welt. They're designed to rip open the flesh and expose the back muscles and even the bone. How see you know, besides, the horrible pain of the lashes is just the recovery of it, and then you've got scar tissue and then you've got to get that broken back open.
Speaker 1:Time Number two. Time number three. Time number six. Uh, it's amazing what he suffered. Beaten with rods three times.
Speaker 1:I actually saw. I never understood beaten with rods until I saw, uh, uh, saddam Hussein documentary and I made myself watch it. I didn't want to watch it, but back in the nineties I watched what he did to his people, cutting their tongues out made myself watch it. It was most disgusting, horrible thing I'd ever watched. But I made myself watch it. I wanted to see what kind of an animal he was.
Speaker 1:And in one scene they beat this man with a metal rod just a little. It wasn't a big, heavy rod, it was like a like a quarter inch. And they pull this man's shirt up on his back and began to whip him over his kidneys and it was so horrible until his kidneys ruptured and blood was running up and down his back, his kidneys. They ruptured the man's kidneys with a rod. See, these tortures have been around a long time. The devil knows how to torture people. What am I saying? I'm just saying you know he had, I don't. I don't think any of us have had to suffer lashes or rods or shipwrecks or a night and a day in the deep or all the other things that Paul suffered, but night and the day in the deep or all the other things that Paul suffered.
Speaker 1:But you know, sometimes, when we don't know that we're in the right place at the right time, we could be tempted to doubt, we could be tempted to blame God for our circumstances and you know, thank God, they waited for specific instructions. They wanted to do something. They said, okay, let's do this. And God said, no, don't do this. See, they didn't just stand around and twiddle their thumbs, they started making plans. It's not wrong to make a plan, but, god, if you'll make a plan, go ahead, quit sitting still, make a plan and then let God invade the plan and order your steps. Put it on God to say, no, that's not the right plan. Okay, let's go to the next plan. Uh-uh, that's not the right plan. And it's just wait until you got the right plan. This church is the right plan. I waited for the right plan. I waited for the blessing. That's why we're here 30 years. Glory to God.
Speaker 1:So they knew they were in the perfect will of God, even though they were beaten and jailed. You mean God. God wanted them to be. No, he didn't. He didn't want them to be beaten and jailed. He didn't send the trouble. But the trouble came with the assignment. You're going to have trouble with some of your assignments and you can't blame God when you're having them. You got to. Just you've got to move through it and you know they. They did a great. They did a great job right there.
Speaker 1:What did they do? What did they do when they were beaten with many stripes, thrown into the inner prison? The inner prison means there's no way to escape because they charged the jailer you better keep these guys under lock and key, don't you let them escape. So the inner prison, and their feet and ankle bones and stocks, probably their hands too. And what did they do? They prayed and sometimes we pray, but we don't do the and they sang praises so loud that everybody in the whole prison heard them. I mean they got carried away. I mean, you know, with their backs bleeding, you know they hurt. I don't know if this is number one time or number three time or number six time, I don't know what, you know how, what the chronological order of his stripes were, but I mean, chances are this wasn't his first beating had to hurt. And yet they prayed. And they sang praises so loud that all the prisoners heard them and the power of God came down. They praised the power of God down.
Speaker 1:I like what James said last week when he was up in Indiana, wasn't it when, you know, the lady that was there to lead praise and worship? She didn't have much revelation of why she was there. Nobody gave her much heads up and she gets on the piano and plays Our Father and sings the Our Father. Well, you know I'm sorry, but the Our Father is an Old Testament prayer. Jesus taught spiritually dead men how to pray with the Our Father. It's a beautiful prayer, but it doesn't belong in the church. It doesn't belong in a worship service, because there's really no anointing. It's not New Testament covenant truth. What we sang tonight, see that got us in the throne room. What we sang this morning got us in the throne room, and so she's singing a special. See that got us in the throne room. What we sang this morning got us in the throne room, and so she's singing a special See. That's not corporate worship. Nobody joined in with her, she just sang a special.
Speaker 1:There's a time for a special, but that's not the purpose of the meeting. The purpose is not a special. The purpose is for everybody to worship God and have the anointing come down and take over and for people to feel his presence and then to have the word of God preached under that anointing and to lay hands on people that need prayer. That's the purpose. But it got off the rails. We're not a lick of anointing. The preacher didn't have an anointing to preach from, so it wasn't anointed, it was just not much there. And then they didn't pray and they closed the service and James is sitting there and he just let them go ahead and go all the way through it.
Speaker 1:Then he went over to the lady and says do you know any songs that everybody here can sing? And she was, she was at a loss. She didn't know any songs, any worship songs that everybody knew. I don't know what her purpose was at her church, but I guess she didn't lead praise and worship, I guess she's just a singer. And so she came up with amazing grace. He said, okay, amazing grace, get up there and let's all sing. So he gets up and says, well, now, that was really a nice, that was a great song that our sister played, that was, that was a wonderful and and thank God for the message. But but we didn't really, you know, we didn't really get the, the presence of God. So let's, let's, let's sing a song together now. And so she starts singing. You know, amazing grace, how sweet the sound goes through all of the. You know verses of amazing grace no anointing, no anointing.
Speaker 1:And then at the last, praise God, praise God, the Holy Ghost fell. Everybody's singing praise God, everybody's hands were lifted, tears running down their face. One of the legislators has been just under such pressure. Everybody's singing praise God, everybody's hands were lifted, tears running down their face. One of the legislators has been just under such pressure. She got hands laid on her. The anointing fell in that church capital because James was there to lead that thing and to get it corrected and get it set on the right pathway.
Speaker 1:Every state where we're, I mean it's vital that we pray these things On Thursday night prayer. They've been our prayer covering for this and of course I pray a lot myself, but I mean there's nothing like corporate prayer. Are y'all with me now? I'm talking about the suddenlies of God. Suddenly, in that capital, in Indianapolis, the Holy Ghost showed up. There's no telling how long it had been since he had been there. Woo, glory to God. Didn't happen by accident. Didn't happen by accident. They'll never forget it.
Speaker 1:So they waited for specific instructions. God gave uh, uh, paul a dream macedonian men, come over here and help us. And so they knew that, when they were being beaten in jail, that they were in the perfect will of god. They knew that they're used to having having all kinds of resistance to their ministry. That's just that's what Paul lived in. In fact, when he first started out, he was praying oh God, you know, let this, let this, this thorn in the flesh be taken from me. Lord, he tried, he prayed three times Let this thorn in the flesh be taken from me. He said my grace is sufficient for me. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. In other words, don't put up with that. Take authority, take your place of authority. It comes with the territory. You're going to have persecution. It comes with the territory. You'll get through it. You're going to get through your circumstances. You're going to get on the other side of them.
Speaker 1:And so now they had access. What did they have access to? Well, they had access to the prison and they had access to the cell that was in the inner prison. They had access to the cell that was in the inner prison. They had access to the stocks. Their feet had access to be locked in those stocks, you know.
Speaker 1:And eventually they had access to the Macedonian man, because God sent his power down. They prayed and praised the power down. It broke them out of jail. I used to say that God invaded an earthquake, because it does say it's an earthquake, but it couldn't have been a regular earthquake, because an earthquake would have devastated the entire area. This was just concentrated on the prison alone. So it was God's power. It was God's power that they prayed. You know, listen, two people can pray the power of God down. How many people we got in here tonight? I'm telling you right now. The power of God is here tonight. We praised it down, didn't we? So suddenly there's a mega earthquake. The Bible calls it, but it's a manifestation of God's power that breaks the foundation of the prison. It breaks all the prison doors open. It breaks them out of their stocks. I mean, they got broken out of stocks and bonds. They were delivered from the stocks and bonds. I don't know. I guess their 401K went down the tubes.
Speaker 1:Talk about a surgical strike. It's supernatural. It's not natural, it's supernatural. Nobody hurt, nobody left. How is it? You know, they've got criminals, common criminals, in that prison and they didn't leave. And the jailer was going to. The jailer said oh, I'm going to commit harry carry, I'm going to kill myself. Oh no, oh no, everybody's. Oh, don't do thyself no harm, we're all here.
Speaker 1:Suddenly, he went from killing himself to getting saved and getting filled with the Holy Ghost, him and his entire house. Are y'all with me? Come on, lift your hands right now. Lord, we thank you for suddenlies in the year of 2025, things that are looking kind of strange as far as what we're seeing with our eyes. But, lord, our faith is engaged. We know we're in the perfect will of God and we expect some suddenlies in our favor. Hallelujah, milestones.
Speaker 1:So they had access to the Macedonian man in the dream, you know. Another, suddenly, is Acts, chapter 2. You know they were all in one place, in one accord. They had been bummed out because Jesus left them. I mean, you'd think they'd be happier, but they really weren't that happy because they just I don't know, they just were emotional. They needed the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They didn't have it. Yet they were saved. All the apostles were saved, the 120, they were all saved Christians. But they didn't have the baptism and they were subject to a lot of emotional baggage and, you know, kind of sad.
Speaker 1:And Jesus left us and they spent 10 days in the upper room praying. I can't imagine not having the Holy Ghost. How do you pray for 10 days without the Holy Ghost. I don't know how you do it. You got to give them an A, for I mean a gold star, for lasting 10 days up there without the Holy Ghost, to help them pray, I mean.
Speaker 1:But they prayed and then suddenly, on the day of Pentecost, suddenly a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind filled all the house where they were seated, cloven tongues like as a fire, came and sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. They all spoke with other tongues and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost with other tongues and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And all the people that were in the city. When they came downstairs and went outside, they said what meaneth this? Some of them were mocking. They said these men are full of new wine. Peter had to stand up. Where was he before that? He's laying on the ground, drunk. That's where he was. He had to stand up. These men are not drunk, as you suppose, but this is that. This is the beginning of that spoken by the prophet Joel. Another suddenly Praise God, the power of unified speech.
Speaker 1:I look back. I've been spending a lot of time because we have some things in front of us that I'm addressing and praying over and I go back with what God has done up to now. All I have to do is just look back over my shoulder for 30 years and really beyond that, all the way back to when I first got saved all the things that God has done in my life and I rarely face anything that's brand new. I mean, god has just been faithful, just like the song we sang. I mean, we've seen him, his faithfulness, him, his faithfulness. We've seen him save and deliver and heal and rescue and change and give favor, give wisdom, provide Glory to God.
Speaker 1:Talk about broke. I was worse than broke. I mean, when we started this church, I mean I. I mean on January 3rd they took my last house, sold it at auction on the courthouse steps and took a whole bunch of money out of my bank account and out of my partner's bank account and my investor's bank account. They went to zero and three weeks later we started this church with nothing. We had nothing. It was not because I had money in the bank. I had no money in the bank. I don't even know, I can't. When I look back, I can't even remember how in the world. We made it, but God provided. Amen, but God provided. Suddenly everybody say suddenly I was meditating on some of the miracles.
Speaker 1:I see people that need miracles and I want you to have a miracle. The best way you can have a miracle is faith. That's why I teach on faith, because it's between you and God. You know, when you learn how to release your faith over your situation whether it's healing or finances or whatever the trouble is, you're on your way. As long as you've got to have help, then you're going to have to defend that because the devil will come back and try to steal it from you if somebody else's faith is involved. It's not wrong to ask people to agree with you. It's not wrong to come up here and get hands laid on you. But get to the place where you can overcome with your faith and you're going to be successful because you'll be able to defend what God gives you and he can't steal it from you. He can never steal it from you.
Speaker 1:But I look back on things that God's suddenly that God's used me in and I remember one time, gladys and I and my mother I don't know where the kids were. I haven't been able to remember why they weren't with us, but they weren't with us. It was a trip that I went to my brother. I think we might have left them at my brother's house, is what I'm thinking. They might have visited there Could be. They probably know and I don't know, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So we went to see my brother and sister-in-law in Vanderpool, texas, sabineau River. They had a place on the Sabineau. We just were there for the weekend and we got up on early on a Monday morning. I had to get back. I had to get back to my business and we had a great visit.
Speaker 1:So my mother and Gladys and I were in my van. I had a van and we were driving down the road. We need to stop in San Antonio to get gasoline and I started off praying in other tongues. You know it's a. It's a pretty good trip. It's a probably four hour trip back home, four and a half maybe and I started out praying in other tongues and then I just kind of trailed off and then I was just kind of lost in my thoughts and thinking about my business. I had pressure on me for my business and I was thinking about this, thinking of this problem I had to handle and that problem and I was really, if you really wanted to describe my attitude, it was depressed. I mean, that's what it. I mean I was not happy, I was not joyful, I did not have, I was not spiritual. I tried to be praying tongues but it just kind of didn't, didn't take off and I was just driving down the road just kind of dreading getting back to work, leaving the garden out there and going back to the gul.
Speaker 1:And so we get to San Antonio and mother and Gladys went in to go to the ladies room and I'm gassing the truck up and mother's the first one, comes out of the station. She says, son, there's a man in there that has got a migraine headache. You really ought to go pray for him. I said yeah, and I thought you ought to pray for him. You saw him first. I mean, I had no inclination whatsoever. I was not in the mood to pray for anybody. In fact I would have gone in there and asked that guy to pray for me. I should have asked my mother to pray for me. But I just kind of say yeah, yeah. And so then Gladys comes dancing out. She's a lot more energetic. She says John, john, john. It's always John, john, john, three times the triple enunciation of God. And he said, yeah. I said, yeah, I know, yeah, he's in there, he's got a migraine. You really, he's miserable, you need to go in there right now. You need to lay hands on him, he's really hurting. Yeah, yeah, mother told me again see, I didn't care.
Speaker 1:And so I finished and I went and they were taking my credit card and at through a window outside. So we're real, I'd never before or since ever had a gas station where you didn't, where they did that, and so I would just in those years. So so I just stood outside and I, the guy that waited on me, came to the window and he took my card and I'm looking at him trying to think, well, has he got a migraine? And he did have a knife, an old knife scar, somebody he'd been in a knife fight and scar went right across his eyelid, his eye, a big old scar like that, you know Hispanic guy, about 6'2 and about 250. And I just didn't want to mess with him and I started to ask him. And then there's somebody standing right behind me and finally I just paid and I left. What did you pray for him? No, I didn't see, he was all right, I couldn't see anything wrong. Well, he was right there. And so, you know, I didn't see he was all right, I couldn't see anything wrong. Well, he was right there.
Speaker 1:And so, you know, I started defending myself. I'm driving down the road and I'm feeling terrible, I feel guilty. And what it was is greed. The spirit was greed, my spirit was greed. That's what it was. I didn't know that's what it was at the time. I didn't understand that. I'm talking about suddenlies. Now I haven't lost my place. But see, my soul was not looking for a. Suddenly, my soul was wanting to be left alone in my depressed thoughts. I did not want to be challenged, I did not want to be, I did not want to be, I didn't want to stir up anything, I didn't want to get excited about miracles, I just wanted to go home.
Speaker 1:And so the work, the. You know, I kept driving down the road, driving down the road, 10 miles, 15 miles, 20 miles. Finally, I started asking questions and I find out the guy that waited on me was not the guy. The guy that was having the difficulty was sitting at a card table inside the gas station where they keep the beer and the coolers and the, you know, the refrigeration, and I said, all right, okay, I'll go back and pray for him. So I repented, I got off the freeway. Literally, that's what repentance is. You exit the freeway that you're going down and you do a Yui and you come back and, boy, then I got excited. Then I got ready for a. Suddenly. Now I've got a suddenly ahead of me. I don't know how I knew it, but I knew that guy was going to get healed. I knew it. I didn't. I knew he was going to get healed. And so, man, I came out of that car, I bounced in through that door, I busted through that door.
Speaker 1:He's sitting at a card table. You know, a card table is kind of flimsy and he's in a metal chair and he's got a pack of cigarettes sitting on the card table. And I come in there and I said, sir, we were just in here about 20 minutes ago. My wife and my mother told me that you're suffering from a migraine headache, you know. And he starts reaching for his cigarettes, you know, and said yeah, nothing, nothing new, I've had them for 32 years. Starts, you know, beating his cigarette down, packing his cigarette down, gets his lighter out, puts his, puts his cigarette in his mouth and I said well, I've got something that'll help you. And he looks at me like I'm a drug, a drug pusher. I'm going to sell him some drugs. I've got something that's going to help you. He says oh yeah, what's that, jesus? And he dropped the cigarette.
Speaker 1:By that time it was lit, landed in his lap, and I said Jesus, I was already down the highway 20 miles and Jesus turned me back around and brought me back here to pray for you. I'm going to lay my hands on you. He said can I pray for you? And about that time a guy was standing there kind of waiting on us, and he reached between him and me, into the cooler and brought out a quart of beer right in front of my nose. Just right, like that. And he's still got this look on his face and he's looking around. I said you know I'm not in here. We'll go out to my van. He says, uh, all right, he wasn't excited. I said what's your name, ed Rogers? I said Ed. I slapped him on the back. I said today's your day, ed. And I was surprised. I said that, but I said it out of my mouth Today's your day, ed slapped him on the back.
Speaker 1:We went around out of the thing, went out to the edge of the parking lot, not right by the gas pumps. I pulled up away from where people could still get gassed up and I put him in the passenger side and of course there's the engine between him and me. We're not real close. And so I said I'm going to pray over you now. God wants to heal you, and the laying on of hands, I'm going to lay my hands on you in Jesus' name. God's healing power is going to come in you. You ready? He said. Well, I guess. And so you know he wasn't participating. I want you to see that he wasn't participating. And so I began to lay my hands on him and I closed my eyes and I prayed in tongues first. And when I did, when I prayed in tongues, just softly, not out loud where he could hear me, I just prayed under my breath I saw a worm drive clamp around his head with a picture of his face with a terrible look on it, like he was in such pain.
Speaker 1:A worm drive clamp is a clamp that has a screw and you turn the screw and it gets tighter and tighter. A lot of times. Radiator clamps are like that, radiator hoses. This one was big enough to go around his head. It was about a half inch thick around his head, like that it was. I could tell it was tightened, real tight, and he was grimacing in pain. And I said out loud I said, lord, what do I do with that? He said break it in my name. I said I break this clamp, this evil clamp of pain, off of my brother in Jesus name.
Speaker 1:And instantly he was healed of migraine headaches. For 32 years he had migraines for 32 years. There was a suddenly in his life 32 years, 32 years, suddenly, suddenly. It was a suddenly for me and it taught me that it's not about me, it's not about my attitude, it's about recognizing what is upon me, that even when I don't feel worthy, even when I don't feel spiritual, even emotionally I don't feel up to the task, if I'll let the Holy Ghost have his way, are you with me now? Everybody, everybody, say suddenly. So for suddenlies to occur from God number one, there's got to be faith in your heart. And of course I did have a good inward anointing. I know I didn't manifest it that day, but my lifestyle was one to stay filled with faith and the word. I had a word life. You know. Mark 11, 23.
Speaker 1:If you believe in your heart, see, I believed in my heart. I had something that I believed in my heart on a consistent basis your faith. You have to believe in your heart. But believing in your heart's not enough.
Speaker 1:What's the second thing? Well, you gotta speak with your mouth. In fact, you've gotta speak three times as much as you do believing. You know, that's what Brother Hagin got from the Holy Ghost. You're going to have to teach people. People don't miss me by what they're believing. They believe right, they just don't talk right.
Speaker 1:I had a chance to talk right to that man several times. I kept telling him God was healing him. I kept telling him today's your day, ed, today's your day. God sent me back here. See, I spoke my faith, I believed in my heart, I spoke it. I spoke it. I'll tell you God's rhema word in your mouth. Your whole world is framed by words.
Speaker 1:Hebrews 11, 3. Mark 11, 23,. You have what you say. Jesus is the one who said it. Mark 4, 16, call the things that be, not as though they were. Don't go by how you feel, how it looks. Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. 2 Corinthians 4.13,.
Speaker 1:We believe, therefore we speak. It's real important what you say. If you're going to have a suddenly, you're going to have to start speaking it. If you're going to have some milestones this year, you've got to only believe it. You've got to start speaking it. You're going to have to speak. You ought to thank God. Milestones there's some milestones that are coming in my life. They're coming down the pike. I might even be startled, but I'm really not startled because my spirit is expecting, I'm expecting. And then the last one is praise on your lips.
Speaker 1:I took him by the hand and I praised God. I said you mean all the pain. He said every bit of the pain is gone. And I praised God for a little bit. He didn't know what to do. He was, you know, he was very reserved For a guy that just got healed of migraine headaches. I was amazed at how lackadaisical he was.
Speaker 1:So then I had to talk to him about his salvation. I said, ed, god just healed you without any condition. He didn't put any conditions on this healing. He didn't. There's no reservations on it. Wouldn't it be terrible if today you're driving home and you get run over by a train and get killed and die and go to hell. Wouldn't that be terrible? I said the same Jesus that just healed you wants to save you. Don't you want to give your heart to Jesus today? Don't you want to make sure that when you do die, you'll go to heaven? I mean, that'd be a tragedy. I can't leave you without you know making sure that you're going to go to heaven when you die. Are you, do you want to give Jesus your, your heart? He said yeah.
Speaker 1:So I led him in a sinner's prayer and it was kind of matter of fact until the end of the prayer and then I looked at him and there's tears running down his face. Now this guy's about 50, 60 years old, hispanic. He has had a life man. I mean, you just kind of look at him and know that his life has been rough. And here he is. And you know the Hispanic culture, especially men in the Hispanic culture do not cry in front of anybody.
Speaker 1:And yet he couldn't stop it. He was crying, he was trying not to sob, but he had tears running down his face. And I looked at him and I said, and I patted him on the shoulder, I said, isn't it great to be pain free? He said, yeah, but that's not why I'm crying. He admitted, yeah, isn't it great to be pain-free? I thought he'd finally started praising God for his healing. No, he said no. He said, yeah, it's great, but it's not why I'm crying.
Speaker 1:I said well, why are you crying? He said look at that. And he pointed out the windshield. And I said what? What he said look at the grass, it's green. And it was springtime, it was March. About this time of the year the grass had had rain San Antonio doesn't get near as much rain as we get, but it had rained and that grass was green on the side of the freeway. I mean, that's what he was looking at.
Speaker 1:He was so lost I was. That's what he was looking at. He was so lost I was reminded that the God of this age has blinded the minds of them lest they receive the glorious gospel of Christ. He had been so lost he couldn't even see God's creation. And the minute he got saved the creation that God had created, it just lit up and he began to see. Light had come. And oh, come on, lift your hands right now. Glory to God. Talk about suddenlies. So faith in your heart, god's rhema in your mouth, praise on your lips and then, of course, recognizing that you are anointed. You have the anointing within and the anointing upon, and we're bound to see some suddenlies in 2025. Come on, lift your hand and receive tonight Glory to God. Thank you, lord. We give you glory and honor. Thank you, jesus.