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 Importance Of Signs And Wonders
Emphasizing the transformative power of “signs and wonders,” the message draws on Acts 8 to show how ordinary believers—like Philip, a deacon—were empowered by the Holy Spirit to heal the sick, cast out demons, and spark revival wherever they went. Through vivid biblical examples and personal anecdotes of miraculous healings, it underscores that this same demonstration of God’s power validates the gospel and equips every follower—not just ordained ministers—to minister boldly. Listeners are challenged to step out in faith, lay hands on the sick, and proclaim what Jesus has done, trusting that signs and wonders will confirm their witness today.
Get your Bible and wave it around. Make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here tonight, on Wednesday night. I look forward to midweek to top off the tank, to refill and have the Word of God going in overflow mode. Holy Spirit, shine your light on this word tonight and give me understanding and revelation so that my faith can grow, my spirit can develop and I can bring forth more fruit In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Let's look in our Bibles at Acts, chapter 8. Acts, chapter 8. And we'll start reading with the first verse and Saul was consenting unto his death, and that's talking about Stephen's death. Stephen was martyred. In the previous chapter, saul was consenting unto Stephen's death and at that time there was a great mega persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles, and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them and the people, with one accord, gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did, for unclean spirits crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many, taken with palsies and that were lame, were healed, and there was great joy in that city.
Speaker 1:And so tonight I wanted to share a message, a simple message, entitled the importance of signs and wonders. The importance of signs and wonders. You know the early church. We see the gospel begins to spread. Three years they've been in Jerusalem, since Jesus had told them to go into all the world. You know, in Acts 1.8, he said you know, you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Judea and in Samaria, and under the uttermost parts, both in Jerusalem and in Judea. He didn't say first in Jerusalem and then he didn't give them an order. He said do it all. He said go everywhere all at once. He didn't tell them to stay in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1:And so really, in that sense, the persecution that mentions here in verse one is a result of their disobedience. I know they didn't know that, but it did open the door to Satan for him to bring a lot of trouble. And it says then that everybody was scattered abroad except the apostles. So believers, believers, went everywhere. They were scattered. The word scattered is diaspora, it means they were sown. They were sown. They were sown and they brought forth crops all across, distributed like seed everywhere.
Speaker 1:Believers preaching the word. They were not ordained, they were not pastors, apostles, evangelists, teachers, prophets. No, they were not pastors, apostles, evangelists, teachers, prophets. No, they were believers. In fact, we read about philip. Oh, pastor philip. Bible says philip was an evangelist. Well, that was way later. He's just a deacon, he is in fact, what he is is an usher, he's a waiter on tables, as was stephen. They were not ordained to preach, they weren't expected really to do that necessarily. But what I wanted you to see is they did, they went everywhere, and you know so.
Speaker 1:Philip was one of the seven deacons, ministry of helps, and it says he went to Samaria, the city of Samaria. Actually, the city was Sychar, which is the same city that Jesus preached to the woman at the well. Now, he didn't work any miracles there. He didn't pray for the sick there. He did read her mail there. You know, remember the story. I mean, she comes up to him and he starts talking to her about living water. And he says well, you know, she said I'm not married. He said you're right, you've had five husbands and the man you're with now is not your husband. And so she went into the city and says come see a man that told me all things ever I did. And she read my mail and didn't condemn her, didn't condemn her, just told her. But he did not work miracles there. And, of course, the Samaria.
Speaker 1:You know there was a great deal of distance and aggravation between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritans were kind of half-breed Jews, they had Jewish mix and that's what made them unacceptable to the straight Jews. And there was discrimination. Remember, jesus was talking about, you know, helping the Samaritan man, you know, and and that was controversial he was always wanting to bridge gaps. He's always trying to take away pride and religion, religiosity.
Speaker 1:So, um, he went to sychar, where there were no miracles. Just think about that. He chose to go to the hardest place. I mean, you know, that's pretty amazing. I think about Philip. He went to the hardest place. He didn't go someplace easy, he went someplace hard.
Speaker 1:He went to Sychar and it says he preached Christ, the anointed one, with all of his anointing to them. And I think about Christ, the anointed one. I think about how Jesus, in Luke 4, 18, says the spirit of the Lord is upon me, which has anointed me to preach the gospel to the broke, the brokenhearted, the blind, the bound, the bruised. That's exactly what Philip did. Philip preached the same way Jesus did. He was his example. He said you know, it was good enough for Jesus, good enough for Peter, good enough for me. I'm going to go in there and I'm going to talk to them about getting healed. I'm going to talk to them about getting, you know, so forth delivered. And and so you know, when you, when you read this, this chapter, you know it says that you know.
Speaker 1:It begs the question why was he so well received? I mean, you know, he's a nobody. He's a nobody Really, in the scheme of things. Nobody's heard of him. And yet the Holy Ghost backed him up. He got up there and started preaching the best way he could. And we see that they gave heed. Why did they give heed to the things that he said, to his words? Why did they do that? It says, you know, verse six, the people, with one accord, gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke. And then it tells you why. Because of what they heard and what they saw, you know it made him kind of overlook, maybe his lack of credentials, his lack of any kind of personal magnetism or whatever. I mean, you know he's just a regular guy.
Speaker 1:But the Holy Ghost showed up and they heard the cry of demons on their way out of people. People got delivered in the meeting screaming and crying coming out of people and then they saw what they saw. They saw the paralyzed and the lame walk. Now they didn't see the blind eyes open. There weren't any blind people saved. There's no record of any deaf people healed. There wasn't any blind people saved. There's no record of any deaf people healed. So you can see there was a limitation to the anointing that he had. He had a believer's anointing I mean a believer's anointing got people delivered, healed of certain major things.
Speaker 1:I mean, come on the importance of signs and wonders. You know the book of Acts is the planting season. That is the season the Bible talks about. It's the book of Joel. This is that spoken by the prophet Joel. It was planting, they got planting rain. Rain of the Holy Ghost is signs, wonders and miracles. And so there was enough signs, wonders and miracles to plant a seed, to get a harvest. But we live in the last days. We live in the time where the former and the latter rain come together.
Speaker 1:So if signs and wonders were necessary in the beginning, how much more are they necessary right now? And how much more are they necessary among the believers? You know, it's time for the believers to stir themselves up and quit waiting on the preacher to come to town, or the apostle to come to town, or the prophet to come to town, or anybody else with a name. Come to town. Hey, you know, you've got the name of Jesus, you've got an anointing upon your life, you've got the Holy Ghost. I mean, you've got everything. You've got the word of God, you've got all the ingredients that there needs to be to see miracles in your life. Miracles, uh, for people that you're praying for. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:I got a hold of this 40 some odd years ago and I just took. I took it and brother Osteen preached this way and he encouraged the believers ministry. He encouraged us to do something. He encouraged us to make a difference where we were and I started doing it. I just heard what he said and I started doing it. It started working and I was a baby Christian, I didn't even know that much about it, but I knew that I had power. I mean right away. I mean I hadn't even been saved a few months and a man got a heart transplant. I mean right away. I mean I hadn't even been saved a few months and a man got a heart transplant. I laid hands on him and God gave him a brand new heart, didn't have to have a heart transplant. Amazing, you know, I went wow. Of course I had a lot of others that seemingly I couldn't tell any difference. Well, you know, I just kept going. I mean, I don't know what happened later.
Speaker 1:I'm not responsible for the results. I'm responsible for putting my hands on sick people. I'm responsible for casting devils out of people when I can, you know, and ministering to people. So Philip preached Christ, the anointed one, and all of his anointing, and they gave heed to the things that he said because of what they saw and what they heard. And they heard the cries of demons coming out and they saw paralyzed people and people with palsy. Palsy is paralysis, palsy is a death sentence. And they got up out of their bed and walked. I mean, it's amazing the importance of signs and wonders.
Speaker 1:You can hold your place there and turn back a few pages to Mark, chapter 16. And I want to remind you Brother Osteen, again, would always emphasize this he was always building up the church's ministry, building up the believer's ministry, giving us a vision for our world, and we need that in the church. Now we need to quit looking for the you know, the big, high named folks. I mean, yeah, thank God for what they have, but we've got something too. They're not going to be, listen, they're not going to get into your world very much. I mean, they affect you, but look, you affect your world. Mark 16,.
Speaker 1:Jesus is talking to the disciples and he told them go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow all the high muckety mucks and the ones that have been ordained and the ones that have a very famous name, like Oral Roberts and John Osteen. No, he said these signs shall follow them that believe Believers have signs and wonders following their ministry Believers, see, this is what I got into me 40-something years ago and I proved it out Well. But pastor, you were called. Well, I know I was called and I found out I was called when I got saved. I do remember that it was news at first, but then God brought me back to my childhood and he began to replay my life before me in the few months after I got saved and then over several years after that.
Speaker 1:I mean I remember one time talking to a prophetess. You know, she was a sister of a good friend of mine. He was a banker friend of mine. His sister ran a Bible school up in Washington state. She was a prophetess, a genuine prophetess. She got me on the phone one day and started reading my mail and she started seeing me when I was an altar boy and at our lady of refuge Catholic church. She saw me going to that church and being faithful as a as a little nine, 10, 11 year old boy and she started telling me and she described the convent, she described how it looked. I mean I'm telling you, I mean God had his hand on my life, all my life, before I got saved, and so yeah, but I was not a pastor at that time, I was not in the ministry at that time.
Speaker 1:I mean the results that I got were as the believer's ministry. That's what I want to stress. It's the believer's ministry. His signs shall follow them that believe in my name. See, they shall cast out demons. See, that's what Philip did In my name. They shall speak with new tongues. They'll take up serpents. I mean, you know, the devil was opposed to little old guy like Philip. I mean they blocked him every way they could. They couldn't block him because he knew that he had a right to be there. If they drink any deadly thing, it'll not harm them. They lay hands on the sick and they'll recover.
Speaker 1:So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven, sat on the right hand of God, and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them with signs or confirming the word, with signs following. So you know, I know that Philip knew that God would back him up. God would bring legitimacy to what he said. That's why they gave heed to what he said. That's why people give heed to what you say If you'll speak the good news. And so the Lord, through the Holy Ghost, worked with Philip, confirming and legitimizing the word that he was speaking, and the signs and the wonders produced. It wasn't a message, it was the signs and wonders that brought great joy to the city. I mean for them to sit there and see that kind of miracle outpouring. It just brought great joy to the city.
Speaker 1:You know a great pastor here in Houston. He was pastor of Evangelistic Temple many years ago, raymond T Ritchie. He had a healing ministry, great healing ministry, here in the city. It was a church in the Heights, very historic church, but Lonnie knew him, played the organ for him one time, lonnie Rex, and a lot of people say that John Osteen had his ministry. He died, you know, john, before Brother Osteen became baptized in the Holy Ghost and a lot of people say, man, he got a very similar ministry.
Speaker 1:God works that way sometimes in cities. He'll raise up people to, you know, just because somebody's done a great work. You know that mantle doesn't go a great work, you know that that mantle doesn't go with them. It goes and stays here and I don't know that he ever knew him or ever met him. But but anyway, as far as brother Osteen, but uh, raymond T Ritchie made a, a comment and he said this he said healing is God's dinner bell. It's God's dinner bell. What does that mean? Well, you know, back in the old days when you had your cowboys out there and they were doing anything with the cows if they were, you know, driving them, or if they were branding them, or they're rounding them up or whatever they're doing out there in the field whenever the dinner bell rang, that's when they come running for lunch and buddy the truck wagon better have some good food. Whenever the dinner bell rang, that's when they come running for lunch and buddy the chuck wagon better have some good food. But the dinner bell attracted hungry people, you see. So healing attracts hungry people. It brings people to a place where they will sit and listen, where otherwise they wouldn't. I mean, it's just an amazing thing.
Speaker 1:You know, I had the privilege I mentioned recently. I was on a three-track discipleship program and when I first got saved I had three different places. I got discipled. First I had a weekly Bible study for the first nine months that I went to every Thursday night and that helped disciple me. And then I had, of course, lakewood Church, and that helped disciple me. And then I had, of course, lakewood Church, and that helped disciple me and had good, spirit-filled men that gathered around me and I got to know sometimes it overlapped between Lakewood and full gospel businessmen and so another outfit was full gospel businessmen. I got to go and I was going twice a month to their meetings a dinner meeting on Saturday night once a month and a breakfast meeting once a month on Saturday morning. So that's twice a month. I mean that's half my Saturdays that I'm going, you know, and getting involved and around men that know God better than me and helping to grow me up and helping me to, helping to shape my life, give me opportunity to minister.
Speaker 1:I I mean when I started singing, I started singing in full gospel business, started bringing my boom box to to the prison at uh, you know the walls unit in in, uh, huntsville, at the chapel and singing and my buddy of mine do the preaching. And you know the prisoners that all just kind of look at you a lot of times. You know they didn't care much, they were kind of there. You couldn't tell whether they were wanted to be there or not, but we knew that some of them did it didn't. You see, I was able to get past an audience one time. I was, I was ministering at a halfway house at the University of Houston and they were required.
Speaker 1:It was run by the Baptist Church and they were required to go there as part of their being at the halfway house. They would be put back in jail if they didn't fulfill the terms of their parole. So they're paroled at the halfway house and they have to go to every service. So my buddy and I, jim Scalise, he'd do the preaching, I'd do the singing, and those guys would come and they'd just, you know, they'd, smart off, they'd have an attitude, some of them would sleep. I mean, you know so, when you're staring at people and they don't care whether you're there or not, I had to get over that. See, I'm ministering to the Lord, I don't care whether I'm not there. I mean I'm there for them. But I mean they don't want to be there, they get to miss out. But you know, some of them got saved, some of them got filled with the Holy Ghost, even though we're not supposed to pray for that Too bad. Anyway, give the Holy Ghost your rules, anyway.
Speaker 1:So everybody say healing is God's dinner bell. I mean, you attract people with the healing Well, pastor, I don't know that I have a healing Well, you may not have a specific healing ministry, but you have the right to lay hands on the sick. In fact, he says to do it. It's something that we should do. It's something we should do. So let's keep reading here and go back to acts the importance of signs and wonders, and I know the more I preach on this, the more signs and wonders we'll have. It's another reason I'm preaching it the more preach this, the more you'll be stirred up to bring signs and wonders and healings and deliverances into your world.
Speaker 1:It started in my world. It started in my family. I mean, you know, I was. We were out on the patio of my sister's house and she had a little hot tub and a little you know some furniture and and so we, the whole family was there, my brothers and my brother and his wife, my two sisters and their husband and some of the the kids and my two kids, I think, were there too and my oldest sisters. Uh, she had two boys that were coming from conroe to be there to meet us. We were going to have dinner together, but we were out on the patio mid-afternoon listening to a gospel, listening to a full gospel businessman's testimony. I had a testimony tape of somebody that gave their testimony, full gospel, and we were out there listening to that testimony and my nephew, dennis, which was my sister's youngest boy, came through the gate.
Speaker 1:He's about 13. And he got tears running down his face and he comes, runs over to his mama for his mama to comfort him, and he held out his hand and come to find out he and his brother had pulled up in the driveway and the muffler fell off of their old Camaro. He and his brother had pulled up in the driveway and the muffler fell off of their old Camaro and so he had crawled under the car and somehow he had pressed his hand against the hot exhaust pipe and it burned a blister, just a circle right there in his right palm, and he was trying not to cry but it hurt. So you know, you got every nerve. Ending is in your hand. I mean it doesn't worse than burning your hand.
Speaker 1:And and I didn't, I mean I heard that and I just leaped up out of my chair, turn, turn the tape off. And I ran across there and I grabbed him and I, and I grabbed his hand and I went just like that I said in the name of Jesus, be healed. And just like that, in the name of G, and I slapped his, burned, that I said, in the name of Jesus, be healed. And just like that, in the name of Jesus. And I slapped his burned hand with my hand. Well, so it would have been his right hand. So it was my left hand, bam, in the name of Jesus, be healed. And he blinked and his mouth fell open and all the pain instantly left. He was instantly.
Speaker 1:You still had a burn, but there was no pain. Oh, come on, let's lift our hands. Thank God. I mean God just backs you up when you're young and dumb and you're not so sophisticated, you're not so worried about failing and you're not so worried about what people think. You know we need more boldness like that. We just need to quit being so concerned about the results.
Speaker 1:I loved him and I didn't want him to hurt. That was my motive. I wasn't trying to show off. Praise God. All right, you found 8, chapter 8. Now verse 9.
Speaker 1:But it says see the whole story. There's joy in that city, but there was a certain man called Simon which before time, in the same city, used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest saying this man is the great power of God. This man is the great power of God. Just think of that. And what is he? He's full of the devil. Satan comes as an angel of light. He comes. He's a usurper, he's a deceiver, he's a liar, a father of lies, a father of lies, and to him they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.
Speaker 1:See, I think America, we don't know enough about this subject. I think we don't know enough about this casting spells and using the occult. But it's very common and it's really the reason why this country is in such a mess, because the church has not addressed this kind of thing, they haven't rebuked it. You know, the Bible says whatsoever you bind on earth is bound in the heavens. Whatever you loose will be loosed. So we need to bind this kind of stuff when we see it.
Speaker 1:But when they believe Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. And then Simon himself believed also. I mean, it says he got saved and he continued with Philip and he wondered, beholding the miracles and the signs which were done. See, this was not just one meeting. This is a revival. This is going on for days. I mean, he's up there, got to remember now what is he? Well, he's a deacon, he's an usher. He's not a full-time minister. I mean, he's up there, got to remember now what is he? Well, he's a deacon, he's an usher, he's not a full-time minister. I mean he's not a preacher, necessarily. But I mean you know God's backing him up, god's working with him.
Speaker 1:And so, verse 14, now, when the high muckety, I mean the apostles, they had a, you know, they had a committee meeting, meeting. They heard about all that going on down there when the apostles, which are jerusalem, heard about samaria, had received the word of god. Yeah, you better. You know, peter and john, y'all better get down there before that becomes a mess. I mean, this is just a novice down there. You, you better get down there, you better take over. I mean, he's gone about as long as he can go. You better get there quick before everything falls apart. It doesn't say that. But you know what you can tell that this young man didn't have a full spectrum. I mean there were certain things that didn't get healed, but just the kinds of things that did get healed and the demons leaving. That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:So when they got there verse 15, when they were coming down, they prayed and they got the baptism of the Holy Ghost. See, none of them had gotten filled with the Holy Ghost yet, they just got baptized in water. So now you've got the apostles. Now they bring a much heavier anointing and a much bigger, broader toolkit, if you will. And so the first thing they did is get them filled with the Holy Ghost, for as yet verse 16, he had fallen upon none of them. Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. So there's another scripture where you can lay hands on people for them to get the Holy Ghost. That's what they did.
Speaker 1:And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money saying give me also the power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost. Man, I like that, I want to do that. Here's some money, let me buy that from you. Now he's gotten saved. We don't know if he got baptized in the Holy Ghost, but he sure was excited about it. He wanted the power to give it away, so he must have received it. How can you give it away if you hadn't received it?
Speaker 1:So my belief is that this once was a warlock. He's once a demonic occultic. You know, curandero. I mean, he's a witchcraft, you know that's what he's practicing. And he gets saved, he's water baptized. He gets baptized in the Holy Ghost, and the first thing that he's a baby Christian and he's he just. He doesn't know any better. And he says I want that, can I have? Well, I'll give you money for it.
Speaker 1:But Peter said unto them my money perish with thee, because you have thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God could be purchased with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, therefore, of this, thy wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven thee, for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. I don't know if you'd tell a baby Christian that, but I mean that's what Peter did. I mean, peter whoo then answered Simon, I like this answer. Oh, pray you, the Lord, for me that none of those things you have spoken come upon me. Oh, please, please, don't let it be so. Be it far from me, lord. Oh.
Speaker 1:And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the lord, returned to jerusalem and preached the gospel to many villages of the samaritans. Oh, come on, let's lift our hands, praise god, I'm telling you, praise the lord. So, uh, there's a. You know, I know I have some messages that I entitled Though. Yet, you know, though, something happens yet. This is a perfect example of though. Yet. So how was it? Though he bewitched the region, yet the gospel, confirmed by signs and wonders, broke the sorcery. It wasn't intercession, it wasn't a praise and worship conference, it wasn't really. I mean, you know, a lot of times you wouldn't heaven's gates and hell's flames drama, you know, I mean, it wasn't a power team coming to town. It was the Word of God preached with demonstration of the Spirit that broke an entire region out of demonic deception.
Speaker 1:Baptisms occurred, which proved that people were saved. I mean, you know, you, people can answer an altar call, but until they really go and get water baptized, that's in most, in most places, including this one. That is when you know people are sincere, because that is when they are disowned by their families. That is when they you know, in some families that's when the honor killing happens. In a Muslim family, you get baptized as a Christian and you're going to get a hit put out on you. You'd be lucky if daddy don't kill you himself. A lot of that going on right here in America. Now We've imported this thing and now the leading candidate for mayor of New York City is a Muslim. He's a crackpot, he's a lunatic. But anyway, that's what happens when you import this stuff. I think we need to deport this stuff. Let's deport all of it.
Speaker 1:So even Simon himself believed and was baptized. Signs and wonders kept occurring. I mean, the devil can't compete against the word preached with demonstration of the spirit and power. And you can do that. You don't have to be a preacher. You can just talk about Jesus. You can talk about what God has done for you. When I first started in the ministry, that's what I did. I just gave my testimony. I'd get little pieces of it. I wouldn't give the whole thing, it'd take too long, but I'd just give little pieces and get people interested and tell people how you know God healed my mother, or God healed my wife, or God healed this one, or did this one?
Speaker 1:I remember, just a few months after getting baptized in the Holy Ghost, going to Lakewood, I was building houses. I had my houses going in a subdivision out here called Cypresswood. It's just off of Kirkendall and close to Stubner Airline. I guess Dead ends into no Cypresswood Drive, dead ends into Kirkendall, and so, right, there is a subdivision called cypresswood. So I was in there and, uh, my guys, I was had some houses framing up and they were, you know, putting two before walls up and all that. And it was lunchtime, so they had some scraps of wood. They built a fire to heat their tortillas up. They had tortillas for lunch and they laid them in the coals, you know, and got their tortillas hot. So I waited for them to get out there and sit down on a pile of lumber and they unwrapped their tinfoil and they got their tortillas out and they start getting it out there and getting ready. And I just stood up there and started preaching to them and they just looked at me and they'd take a bite and they'd look at me and they wondered what in the world was I doing? They knew I was the builder and everything. They didn't know really who I was. They were working for my contractor. I had a subcontractor that was in charge of them, that hired them and I don't know that they could speak English, but they could listen to me speak, preach the gospel in English and they'd sit there. And they'd sit there so respectful, they just sat there and listened the whole time.
Speaker 1:One time I was meeting my electrician at the same house. Later on, a few months later, it was time for the electrician to come over and I'm going to lay out the switches and plugs inside before the sheet rocker comes in and lays the sheet rock. You've got to wire the house and put the. You know, I've got to set a plan. So I'm going through the house with my electrician and I've got to make sure he puts the switch on the correct side of the room so that the door doesn't open and hide the switch. That's a common problem. That's going to cost you a sheet rock patch. It's going to be a mess to fix. So I just I'd go through the whole house with my electrician. I'd make him mark each place where he's going to put an outlet, at one on each wall. Don't make a strawberry shortcut and try to get by with three. I want four in each bedroom. I want, you know, I want plenty of outlets, I want.
Speaker 1:So I went through the whole house and he I noticed he's limping around, kind of had a look on his face. I said what's wrong with you? He said, oh, my back is out. I'm just really having a hard time today. Oh, really, I tell you, god's really anointed me. I can see a lot of back trouble healed with the name of Jesus. I said let me come on, let's go down here, Let me pray for you, what? And he wasn't real excited. I mean, he was not. He was kind of like Simon the Sorcerer, but anyway, not really he's about as open.
Speaker 1:So I got him downstairs, he limped his way downstairs and I sat him down on the stairway and I said let me get your legs. Now, let me get your legs. And he's got his steel-toed boots on, you know, and I lift his ankles up and he's got a little misalignment because my thumbs are off, you know. I just put my thumbs on the points of his ankles and I can tell when somebody's pelvis is out of a line and it doesn't mean that one leg is shorter than the other, it just means the pelvis is turned and they've got a torque in their back and it's going to pinch a nerve and it's going to cause pain.
Speaker 1:So I just started praying in the name of Jesus, the name of Jesus, and you know, all of a sudden one leg just went whoop like that and it kind of jerked, you know, and he blinked and he took a breath and I said did you see that? And he said I felt that. And I got him to stand up. I said all right, just lean down, touch your toes. And he reached down and touched his toes and I said any pain? No, there's no pain. He didn't know what to do. He, he, he didn't thank me, he didn't. I sure didn't praise God didn't thank me, he sure didn't praise God. But see, I sowed a seed.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about God will back you up the importance of signs and wonders. And so, though, america has been seduced by the spirit of Antichrist and we have had such a demonic display of open iniquity being practiced and celebrated, all on a constant basis Lawlessness celebrated, riot celebrated, sexual perversion celebrated on and on. Though that is the case yet. Bless God signs, wonders and miracles. When the gospel is preached with demonstration and when I say preached, I don't necessarily mean from the pulpit, I mean in your world. I mean you go everywhere. That's the context of Mark 16. You go into your world. You tell people what Jesus has done for you. What Jesus did for me, he wants to do for you. Why don't you let me pray for you? Why don't you let me lay my hands on you? Why don't you let me pray for you? Why don't you let me lay my hands on you? Why don't you let me go to the Lord with you and for you? And I'm telling you, the more we do that, the more we're going to see this country turn around, and I really believe.
Speaker 1:You know it takes boldness. You know it's all right to pray for boldness. That's what the apostles did in Acts, chapter four. Lord, grant that with all boldness we may preach thy word, amen. I mean they prayed for boldness and they're the apostles. I mean how much more we have to pray for boldness. I mean everything, all this pressure. We don't want to look bad, we don't want to run people off, we don't want to offend people Listen.
Speaker 1:People want what you've got. People are hungry for what you have to bring to the table. They just don't know it. They don't know why they're in your presence. They don't know why you met up with them one particular day. I had to start realizing that nobody comes up to me by accident. They come up there because the Holy Ghost just, I mean led them by the nose. I've got angels out there just rounding people up, rounding people up bringing them my way. And so let's be bold, let's be full of the word, let's go everywhere proclaiming what God has done. Watch God shake this whole region, this state, this nation.
Speaker 1:I really believe that if we get the church back to signs and wonders and miracles I mean, this church has always been bent that way, but not every church is I believe what we do here makes people hungry for what we have. I believe what we do here and we talk about it everywhere, I believe people begin to have a have a taste, they get hungry for it without even knowing what it is, and I just really believe that God is going to move in a mighty way. This is a year of milestones. Come on, let's lift our hands right now.
Speaker 1:Father, we thank you tonight for signs and wonders and miracles. We thank you, lord, that you have given us everything we need the name of Jesus, the Word of God, the Holy Ghost. We have everything we need to distribute what you have given through your son, jesus. And, lord, you're expecting you're sitting there on the right hand of the father and you're expecting till your enemy be made your footstool. We're the feet under which the devil has got to get. He's got to get under our feet. We're going to make him, we're going to stand on his head, we're going to tread him under. We're never going to be intimidated by the devil. We'll never be intimidated by persecution. We'll never let persecution bother us. We'll never kowtow, we'll never bow our knee to this world. But, lord, we're bold in God to bring your word to everybody that comes our way, in Jesus name.