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 Apostolic Lifestyle
This message portrays the Christian life as an “apostolic lifestyle,” likening it to a military campaign in which believers use God-given, non-carnal weapons—preaching the crucified Christ with demonstration of the Spirit and engaging in bold, apostolic prayer—to demolish strongholds of false reasoning, confront demonic influences, and enforce obedience. The church is depicted as an apostolic vine with a prophetic flow, charged with exposing and correcting error both within and outside its walls, exercising divine authority with love and discipline to foster spiritual growth, protection, and fruitfulness.
The Bible's up. I'm drying mine off. Drying mine off where it won't smear the print Jesus' name. Let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I'm more sensitive now to the symphonic movements of the Holy Ghost. I'm instantly aware of what he wants me to do and I'll always instantly obey the witness of my spirit. I'll not put off anything till tomorrow, when I can do it today. In Jesus' name, I thank you for the word tonight. I thank you that as I receive it, my faith is built, my understanding gets greater and I'm bringing forth more fruit. In Jesus' name, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 1. Now I, paul myself, beseech you by the mercies and gentleness of Christ who, in presence, am base among you but being absent and bold toward you. But I beseech you that I may not be bold when I'm present with you, with that confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they're mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. That sounds ominous Revenge. He talks about revenge. I'll get into that in a little while. Alright, and then 1 Timothy 1. Excuse me, my voice is clear and perfect and it is not rough and distracting. 1 Timothy 1, 18. Paul writing to his son in the faith. We talked a little bit about that last week. 1 Timothy 1.18. Come on pages, cooperate. This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that by them thou mightest war a good warfare, the prophecies that went before on thee, that by those prophecies you might war a good warfare.
Speaker 1:And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled the Apostolic Lifestyle. The Apostolic Lifestyle it's really a companion message to the one that I preached last week about being a good soldier. If you weren't here, be sure and get the media on that message, but this is a companion to it. I teach frequently on the apostolic, because one great prophetic word over this church that came from several different directions within a short time after Brother Osteen went to heaven was that Glorious Way. Church is an apostolic vine with a prophetic river or an apostolic house with a prophetic flow and, of course you know, a regional center. God had already given me back that way back in 1996, the year after we started the church, and I was out looking for property and I won't go through that whole thing, but God spoke to me that this is a regional center.
Speaker 1:So here in second Corinthians 10, paul speaks of a war and warfare. And so it was last week when we talked about no man that warreth entangleth himself with the things of this life. So again, the same words that speak of the army of God, being a good soldier, paul speaks here of war and warfare. So verse 4, warfare is a noun, it's the Greek word stratia. It means military service, it means an expedition, a campaign, it means an apostolic lifestyle or career, an apostolic lifestyle or career, An apostolic lifestyle or career. It implies hardship and danger. And then in verse 3, here in chapter 10, when we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. War is a verb there, it's the Greek word stratuomi. It's the same word that we heard last week about being a good soldier. You don't war after the flesh. You know that stratuomi means to serve in a military campaign. It means to execute the apostolate with its arduous duties and functions. It means to contend with carnal inclinations, all right.
Speaker 1:And then verse 4, it talks about weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God are the pulling down of strongholds. I heard a whole you know some of these people that are charismatic and not based on the word at all. They're charismaniacs. They, you know, they think that pulling down strongholds is going and praying. I heard one woman praying and she went to Kabul, afghanistan, after you know the Iraq War. She booked a room in Kabul and spent two weeks pulling down the strongholds over the city of Kabul. How much good did she do? Well, she didn't do any good at all. That's not what this means. She doesn't have the vaguest idea what she means.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of people teach all kind of silly, stupid things and usually they just speak about praying in tongues and a warlike tongue and screaming at the devil and all that. This is just not what this is talking about at all. That's why I'm teaching this, because you might have read a book or heard of tape and throw it out. Get rid of it. This is what I'm teaching, what it means tonight Pull down strongholds, okuroma.
Speaker 1:It means a fortress or a castle, casting down imaginations, logismos, which are reasoning, thoughts, logic, arguments, mindsets, and they're primarily. All of that is in ourselves first, and then in others. After you've successfully taken authority over your own brain tissue and over your own squirrely thinking and over your own carnal inclinations, then you're qualified then to enter into a place where God can use you to do that over others. And that's what this church basically exists to do. It exists to confront these things that are in the church or in the world that need to be corrected. We'll get into how that happens a little while later, but it's a part and parcel of an apostolic vine with a prophetic flow. You've got to get a prophetic flow, you've got to hear from God and really the office of the prophet is involved in that and the office of the apostle is involved in this, and that's what this church has.
Speaker 1:And I didn't sign up for that. I mean, I signed up to be a pastor. That's all I was, that's all I desired, that's all I knew, that's all I desired, that's all I knew about. But then God added to my uh, anointing of the offices in which I that that I stand. So, um, second Corinthians, hold your place there.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to second Corinthians, chapter four, verse four, verse three. And uh, paul is talking again and he says 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, verse 3. And Paul is talking again and he says to the same people you know, the Corinthian church was a church that came out of the occult. They knew a lot about the spirit realm. They were carnal. They had a lot of sin in the camp and he had to write them two letters to correct them. They had a lot of sin in the camp and he had to write them two letters to correct them. They had a lot of mess in their church but they did have gifts of the Spirit.
Speaker 1:In verse 3, he says but if our gospel be hid, as hid of them that are lost, in whom the God of this world or the God of this age has blinded the minds of them, which believe, not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. So people are lost because of the God of this age blinding their minds. So we're to confront the God of this age blinding their minds. So we're to confront the God of this age. We're to confront him, which is exactly what an apostolic lifestyle, a military campaign, is all about. This church exists to confront the God of this age. Now you can say, well, that's the spirit of Antichrist. Well, that's partly true, but it's not exactly what the Greek says. So let's look what the Greek says about the God of this age. What is the God of this age?
Speaker 1:And so when you look up in 2 Corinthians 4, 4, into the linguistic key to the Greek New Testament I'm not a Greek scholar, but I can consult reference materials that are written by Greek scholars about two dozen of them I mean they give you everything you need to know. You can buy that little book on Amazon if you want to. You don't even have to go all the way to. I don't even know if what's the name of the Christian bookstore, I don't even know if they've got it or not, but anyway, I just I know, I know, you know Amazon is kind of owned by a weirdo, but I mean, you know, at least they've got stuff that's available. So I bought the book, I've got it.
Speaker 1:And so when you look it up, the God of this age is all that floating mass of thoughts, opinions. See, it's not even demons, it's thoughts and opinions and maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims and aspirations that are at any time current in the world. Pride week, downtown Houston, perfect example. Yeah, demons are. All of those come from demons. They come from the devil, we know that, but yet it lodges in the minds of people and blinds them. But the apostolic lifestyle, the military campaign that we've all signed up in case you didn't know, you've signed up when you joined this church. That's why I'm preaching this and I try to preach it from time to time so that you can understand what kind of church this is. You know what kind of church is it? Well, it doesn't look like a lot of other churches, doesn't look a lot like Lakewood, really, it looks different.
Speaker 1:And so I mean I didn't try to be that way, I didn't say I'm going to be different than brother. Oh no, I tried to be like him, I tried to do what he did. In fact, I got involved with the mission program. I went, I traveled, I wore myself out, almost going all over the world to places, and I get.
Speaker 1:I've never had one visitation about the missions missions going to mission, preaching to preachers. I never had one visitation about missions, missions, going to mission, preaching to preachers. I never had one visitation. God never did, but he had. I've had time after time, visitation after visitation, about this country and about what's wrong with it. That's what he's talked to me about. Thank God for missions.
Speaker 1:We're involved in it, but we don't have to be directly involved. We don't have to go ourselves. We can send Brother Mark. We're involved in it, but we don't have to be directly involved. We don't have to go ourselves. We can send Brother Mark. We can send the Pays. We can invest in people that are doing it in great. I mean, they have had visitations. There are no one to do it. Let's get into what we're supposed to do.
Speaker 1:God told me after I traveled all over the world, spent millions of dollars going and millions of dollars bringing preachers in to wash their feet and give them what I had that would increase them. He said you know you need to change the way you're spending money. You need to spend more time in America. Their hair is on fire. That's what he told me. Well, america's hair is on fire, still on fire. We've got a big old extinguisher now in the White House.
Speaker 1:Let's look at it again. All that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims and aspirations. Opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims and aspirations At any time, current in the world. Man-made climate change, I mean, you just name it. I mean just all this crazy, you know, from the river to the sea.
Speaker 1:I mean you see these stupid people, stupid. I mean they've actually got people in New York City that have put a Muslim communist. I mean, what do they call him? What was the combination between communist and Islamist? Islamist, islamist yeah, he's an Islamist. I mean, at some point in time, those do not coincide. And let me tell you, what's going to trump communism is Islamism.
Speaker 1:I mean, at some point, all the communists are going to get their head cut off with a pocket knife, a little at a time. You know that's how they behead people. They don't do it mercifully with a sword, they do it with a little pocket knife and they just make lots and lots of circles around somebody's head while they hold their hair. And you know they got a vice grip on their tongue and they torture people. They make up more ways to hurt people. They dream about it At least. Communists. Just go ahead and just shoot you, but no, not these people. And they've actually voted for this squirrel head.
Speaker 1:He needs to be deported. He lied on his application to become a citizen. He lied. Let's get him. Let's arrest him and throw him out of the country. I predict that's going to happen, probably. I tell you that.
Speaker 1:Pam Bondi I like her. I had no idea she was so sharp man. That woman is amazing. I am so impressed with all of the cabinet. This time better than last, the phase one, phase one he didn't know what he was doing and he had all these leakers and all these fakes. And boy, this time he's got people that know what they're doing and they all say our president, donald J Trump. They always lead with his name. He knows how to brand. He knows how to brand his what he believes. He knows how to brand his what he believes. I just believe he's not a king, he's just brilliant. Not a king. He's not trying to be a king, he's trying to give power back to the people. All right.
Speaker 1:So Paul's apostolic anointing was sent to destroy false apostles and teachers. Destroy them. That's what this church is all about. It's sent to destroy false teaching, wrong mindsets in the church. God told me to wake up the church. They've got a wrong mindset. They're paying attention to the wrong thing. They've got the emphasis in the wrong place.
Speaker 1:Who am I to do that? I don't know, but God made me somebody. We're about to hit 30,000 followers on Facebook. I mean, we're just. You know, we're just feeding these people a little bit of the truth every day. You know just, ryan is just.
Speaker 1:You know, I made some posts on X. I just recently got on X and you know I'm tempted every time. Somebody says do you agree? I said absolutely. Do you want to do this? I say absolutely. So.
Speaker 1:Ryan emailed me. Who is posting on X in pastor's name? I said it's me. I plead guilty. He said oh, thank God. I said I repent, I won't do it anymore. No, I like it. Let me just give you some tips.
Speaker 1:I'm just wading through with my big muddy feet, novice as I am, novice that I am, I don't know anything about how to get followers, but he does, and so we're influencing people. I don't know. I mean, you know, it's just. I used to go every time. I used to be on TV, and I can't tell you how many days off I sacrificed to go down to TBN and Daystar just to have a voice in this city, and now you know God's just doing it a little different way. I want to make sure that this is what we're to do. We're to change people's mindsets, get them thinking right, amen.
Speaker 1:Now let's look at, go back to verse 6 of 2 Corinthians, chapter 10. Remember, he was sent to destroy false apostles and false teachers and wrong mindsets in his churches. And so he read he said this in verse 6, chapter 10. He said and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled, what in the world Told you? I'd come back to that. What does that mean? Well, let's look at it in the NLT. And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient. Now, that's something you don't hear much about in churches, about punishing disobedience in churches.
Speaker 1:No, we've got to grow. We're trying to grow, pete. We're trying to grow. Well, I don't grow is not the main reason that we're here. I mean anything that God does does grow. But we're trying to grow. Well, I don't grow. Grow is not the main reason that we're here. I mean anything that God does does grow. But how do you grow? Is it numbers only, or do we grow in faith? Or do we grow in agreement or do we grow in symphonic sensitivity to the Holy Ghost? Is that the growth we're really looking for, to the Holy Ghost? Is that the growth we're really looking for?
Speaker 1:I've been in a big church. I was in a big church for years and I saw a lot of dysfunction, a lot of crazy, stupid people in there. I couldn't understand why they even came. They didn't have any resemblance to people that I knew they weren't faithful. They just come and go, show up when they felt like it and then disappear, come up in an altar call and then you couldn't get them on the phone. Brother Osteen and I used to have a lot of discussions about that. So I mean, is the mega church? Is that what we're after? I thought for years that's what God wanted to do, but then I had to. I had to change my mind. I had to realize this is this church is doing exactly what it ought to do. I like it when we grow, but I'm telling you that's not the whole measure of whether we're successful as numbers. I know people that believe that. I'm willing to listen to them how they grew their church. I'm not opposed to numbers growing and all that, but I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:Some things are more important than other things. He said after you become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient. In other words, I'm pleading now so I don't have to punish later. I don't really want to punish, I don't want to do it. I don't want to. I want to Please just do what I'm telling you. I don't like to tell people to leave. I don't like to do that, but I've had to. Over the years I've had to tell people they're not welcome to be here anymore. Wow, pastor, what are you? Well, I mean, it's a form of punishment. You see, you know I'm the pastor, you're the sheep, but then there's wolves. And when someone becomes a wolf, you know, sometimes people are goats. They're not sheep, they're just goats. Goats go anywhere they want to. What do goats do? They will butt you. What do goats do? They will butt you.
Speaker 1:If you turn your back on a goat, that goat is probably going to hit you right in the rear end. I used to get up at no joke, I mean before I got saved and I just had to have a duck and goose lease and it was over in the west part of Houston and it's all populated now, but back then it was great duck and goose. It was a thousand acres out there of rice paddies. They had duck blinds and goose blinds. I'd get up at two o'clock in the morning and leave West Door, which is 1960 and 45, drive all the way out there and get there at like 3.30 in the morning and meet with other hunters. You know, and it's cold, I mean, your hands are frozen and they had a pet deer in there. They shouldn't have had that, but they had a pet deer and they had a goat and that goat would come and hit me right in the rear end every time I turned my back on it.
Speaker 1:What do you do with goats? Well, you know, you milk them While they're here. You milk them and then you let them go, and then they'll come back and you milk them again and then they'll go. I had a rich lady one time and she was a goat. God told me she's a goat, just milk her when she's here. She'd give thousands of dollars when she was here and then she disappeared. Finally she just permanently disappeared. But then you have wolves, and then what do you do with them? Then I become a sheepdog. You better have a sheep dog when you've got wolves around, because if you don't and of course the shepherd, the shepherd does that too, but you need a good sheep dog. I mean, you know you've got sheep, but you've got sheep dog. We've got some sheep dogs scattered around in here. If you're doing wrong things, they're going to come and bite you.
Speaker 1:So examples in the book of Acts no, y'all are looking at me, it's all in the Bible, acts, chapter 5, ananias and Sapphira. What did they do? They lied about an offering. They had a move of God, and I mean one service, I mean everybody was just motivated by the Holy Ghost. You know, we want to sell our land, we want to sell our houses and we're going to give the price of every bit of it and we're going to lay it at the apostles feet, where distribution will be made However they determine it needs to be done. We're going to take our hands off of it. We are not going to sell our land and give the money and say, now, I'm giving this for my uncle Harry, because he's in need. I need you to give him the money that I'm giving.
Speaker 1:No, we're not a money laundering operation. We don't launder money for anybody. You're going to give it and then it's up to us to do with it. What we decide to do, that's in small print on every offering envelope. We don't let you determine every little dime that we put out there. We can't do that. We have to decide where the money goes. Now, yeah, we have categories and we tend to honor the categories that are on there missions and so forth.
Speaker 1:When you give to a speaker, you can rest assured that money's going to the speaker and usually we add to it. Most of the time we double it, and we've done that since year one. I remember one time, years and years ago I mean it was the first speaker that we had Gladys was the reason we had them the Mark and Janice Brzee. Janice was a Ramus singer, mark was a Word of Faith preacher and she met them at a Billy Brim meeting and asked them if they would come. They said yes. And so, man, you know, we're just brand new, we're in that first building. And they came. And man, I mean Gladys and I said, well, we're going to give them $10,. Yes, and so, man, you know, we're just brand new, we're in that first building. And they came and man, I mean Gladys and I said, well, we're going to give them $10,000. I have no idea how much money is going to come in, but we're giving them $10,000. And I think about $4,000 came in. So we gave them $10,000. See, we've been the seed where it needs to go.
Speaker 1:So then, when we circle back around and we take an offering for missions and somebody wants to give to missions and it's not enough, well, we have to do what we have to kick it up. Are y'all with me now? So, anyway, they lied. They said they gave it all, but they didn't. They held back part of the price and didn't say anything. They wanted to be recognized as having given all of it. They wanted to blend in with all the other people that did actually give it all. Did they have to give it all? No, they didn't have to. All they had to do is say, well, we don't have the faith to give it all, but we're going to give 50%, we're going to give 25%. Nobody would have said anything to them. The apostles wouldn't have said anything negative to them, nobody would have thought any less of them. There's nothing that says they have to give it all. It was just a move of God, that particular moment when they wanted to look like they did.
Speaker 1:And Peter called Ananias and said did you sell your property for so much? Yeah, what made you think you could lie like that? You didn't lie to me, you lied to the Holy Ghost. Man, are you crazy? He dropped dead. Peter didn't cause it, he opened the door to Satan to kill him. I mean, the glory was so heavy and we're coming into the place where the glory is going to be so heavy that we need to be more sensitive to the Holy Ghost and not do anything that would disturb or grieve or quench the Holy Ghost. That'd be dangerous. Why, you mean God would kill? No, not God the devil. You open the door to Satan? No, god doesn't kill people. And so he gave his wife a chance and she lied to him. He said well, you know, the guys that just carried your husband out are here to carry you out. She just dropped dead. What's he doing? He's confronting lies and falsehood.
Speaker 1:In Acts 13,. He had Elamus, the sorcerer bar Jesus, who was interfering with Paul. The deputy of the region was like a governor and he was interested in the gospel. But this Elamus had bewitched him and was trying to keep him from getting saved. And Paul confronted him. And let me just read what Paul said to him. I mean, I'm talking about the apostolic lifestyle. That's the subject. This is my scriptures that God has given me over the years Elamus the sorcerer, verse 8, verse 13,.
Speaker 1:So is his name, by interpretation, which stood them seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said O fool of all subtlety and all mischief, all filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said O, full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil and Thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. Now, he wasn't permanently blind, but he was punished Not seeing the sun for a season Well, we don't know how long the season was and there fell on him a mist and a darkness and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord. What was done, believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Speaker 1:First Corinthians, chapter five, when the young man showed up with his mother-in-law living in sin, open sin, in front of the whole church, someone wrote to Paul telling him what was going on. And he wrote in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, rebuke the church. How dare you let this go on, don't you know? A little leaven leavens a whole lump. Why didn't you hand him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit might be saved in the day of judgment? What does that mean? It means that he was sinning so badly and having such an effect in the church, where the glory is being manifest.
Speaker 1:You've got carnal people in that church. They're easily subverted, they're easily deceived, and they see that and nobody confronts it. They think it's just fine. Okay, well, I'm going to have an affair and I'm kind of tired of my old lady. The wife has kind of gotten old, the wife is a little bit slow. I'm going to get me a younger model. Well, we're going to have an open marriage. We're going to just, you know, all for one and one for all. I mean, we have the world in the church now. Nobody confronts it, we give grace for a while and then there's a time when my spirit says okay, confront.
Speaker 1:I had two guys one time coming to church. I knew they were homosexuals, I knew they were living together. They'd come up in the altar call we had mercy. We didn't say a word. I talked about it one Sunday without looking at them. They knew it was wrong. So then the daughter one of their daughters came and said oh, don't do anything, my dad's real close, he's just almost saved. I said he's not saved as long as he's living with that man. He's not saved, he's going to hell and you better get out of the way and let him alone. And let me alone, because you don't come in here and tell me what to preach and what to do. You don't know anything, lady. I mean, it's always somebody trying to interfere.
Speaker 1:So finally they talked to me and said you know, we've got a solution, pastor. I'm going to have a sex change operation and become a woman. I said that won't work. Yeah, really, that's what they thought. I said that's not going to work and you're going to have to leave us. We just. I love you enough, but you're going to have to move out of his house. You're going to have to live separately. You might not ever lose your desire for a man. But you can live celibate and God will bless you. You can live a celibate life. You can throw that imagination down and live. You know, if you never get married, that's fine. But you don't have permission to do this. It won't work. God hates it and they both left. Well, see, we're better off. I mean, I have to confront that I can't leave it going on. Not going to leave it going on, there's things that we have to confront. We don't do it immediately, we don't do it right, as soon as you know, we wait until the Holy, the Holy Ghost, are you all with me now? Woo Boy, this service is wild.
Speaker 1:We've seen it all. What does the apostolic do? Well, it confronts and pulls down demonically inspired reasoning and arguments supernaturally, yeah, you know. Third, john uh, the apostle john said you know, I'm coming back and and, uh, I'm going to remember diatrophies. He's, he's prating against me with his malicious words. I'm gonna, I'm gonna remember what he's done and he's creating trouble and he's, you know, I'm gonna remember what he's done in. He's creating trouble and he's, you know, I'm going to remember what he's done. In other words, I'm going to come back to town and there's a sheriff coming and I'm going to punish him. What does that mean exactly? Well, we don't know. He doesn't say but you know the power of the Holy Ghost. It's supernatural.
Speaker 1:You either get right or get left. You either quit doing that or you're going to be out of here. And then, when you're out of here, you're subject to the devil. You no longer have any protection. Boy, there's such a covering, there's such a protection in the church to operate under, and God is ever merciful. He's very patient. That's why I have to be patient. I can't just act the first time I hear about somebody getting a little out of order. I just pray, and that's your job. When you see somebody out of order, you use your influence and get your arm around them and say now, you know, let's agree. Now, let's you know, god will give you strength to resist this. Get anything out of this.
Speaker 1:1 Timothy 1.20,. I mean, he told Timothy. He said Ahimeleus and Alexander, they're going to learn not to blaspheme. I'm going to teach them not to blaspheme. What does he mean? Well, I think you know what he means. This authority is supernatural authority. It is.
Speaker 1:Did God kill people? No, god doesn't kill. God doesn't make sick. God just lifts his hands off of people and now they're naked. They don't have any protection until they repent.
Speaker 1:Once they repent, see, that's what happened to the young man he did. In the second letter he said, okay, forgive him. Now he's repented. Y'all haven't brought him back in yet. Y'all have mercy on the boy. I mean, he's repented, he's moved out. You know, he quit doing that stuff and so let's bring him back in and love on him.
Speaker 1:That's what we're to do. We're not here to hurt people permanently. We're help save people from destruction Permanently. We help save people from destruction. So you have two main weapons that we have. Number one is preaching the word of truth. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 2. See the weapons of our warfare, and they're not carnal but they're mighty through God. How do we do this? It's supernatural. It's not natural, it's not debating, it's not, you know, railing on people. All of that. No, main way is preaching with demonstration. 1 Corinthians 2.
Speaker 1:Verse 1, and I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, but I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, what's he saying? He's saying look, I'm very educated, but I didn't lean on my education, I didn't lean on my big words. I mean, he sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He knew more than anybody in that church about the word, but he didn't come that way. He came. He came plain spoken. He came to not to wow them, he said. I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with ticing or persuasive words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, in other words the word you know, accompanied with signs and wonders and miracles. So why? So that your faith would not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. You're not going to get so in love with me, and all my fancy preaching, all my knowledge and all my ability and all that, it's going to be rooted in God himself.
Speaker 1:So the main ray that we pull down these demonically controlled reasonings and arguments and strongholds the word stronghold means like a castle man. You got to do some breaking to break a castle apart. I've been in a castle. I was in Switzerland years ago and I visited a castle man. I mean man, they knew how to build a fortress. I had a moat around it. I mean it was amazing, built in 1200 on the banks of Lake Luzon. I mean it was quite a place. I mean, whoever lived there? Was a rich dude or dudette, I'm not sure lived there was a rich dude or dudette, I'm not sure. But a castle in your head, just think about that. I mean there's a stronghold, there's this thing. It takes supernatural weapons to break that apart. You're not going to talk people out of it Ever say preaching with demonstration.
Speaker 1:And then the second one is prayer. But the kind of prayer that you have is not just prayer, it's apostolic prayer. It's the kind of prayer we have on thursday night. It's the kind of prayer we didn't even pray tonight. We just decreed. That's still prayer, because I already prayed and I know what God wants. So I just decree a lot. I just decree we're going to have it, the big, beautiful bill, and we're going to have it Jesus' name. Whatever's weak about it, whatever's not perfect about it, we'll get that cleaned up later. We need that bill. We need it July the 4th.
Speaker 1:Now the president said well, I'd like to have it. Well, he's giving them a little room, but you know what? I don't want to give them any room. They've had all the room they need. I've seen all the grandstanders and all their big mouths. I need to shut up and vote and get it in, get it in place. We don't have any time to waste. We've got to get this done. The whole lot has been done already, but let's get on the stick.
Speaker 1:So in Acts 4, 31,. What? They were under pressure, right, they were told, warned not to preach and teach in that name any longer. And they got in a prayer meeting. Lord, thou art God. They started magnifying God. Behold their threatenings and grant with all boldness. We may preach thy word and signs and wonders may be done in the name of your holy child, jesus. And the place where they prayed was shaken. I mean, the Holy Ghost shook that whole place and it broke open.
Speaker 1:Apostolic prayer. It includes prayers, petition, crying out, praying in the Spirit. It includes groanings and travailings and intercessions. Acts 16, 25,. Same thing Paul and Silas, at midnight, prayed and sang praises and the power of God came and broke the whole prison doors open and all their chains were broke off without hurting them. How does the power of God break you out of stock without breaking your arm? I don't know, but God did it. God broke all those prison doors open without destroying the prison, just the prison bars broke. It wasn't really an earthquake. I used to say for years it was an earthquake. It wasn't an earthquake, an earthquake would have destroyed the whole prison. No, it was God's power coming down at their prayer and praise, apostolic praying.
Speaker 1:Acts 12.5,. When they arrested Peter and they arrested James, they killed one of them. Was it James or Philip? I forgot which. I'll find it. I want to be right. Acts 12. Herod, you know, he's on a tear. He's deciding. He's throwing his weight around. It's James, the brother of John, with the sword. He killed him with a sword. He's on a tear, he's deciding. He's throwing his weight around James, the brother of John, with the sword. He killed him with the sword and we're going to kill Peter after Easter.
Speaker 1:And so prayer was made by the church unto God. Continuous prayer said so. They had prayer, therefore, verse 5,. Peter, therefore, was kept in prison, but prayer, instant and earnest prayer, was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And so you know, he's chained among four quaternions of soldiers and the angel of the Lord went into the prison and broke him out of prison, opened doors and went back to John Mark's mother's house, where they're having the prayer meeting, and Peter knocks on the gate trying to get in and somebody said oh, it's just his angel, let's keep praying. But it was Peter.
Speaker 1:And then, a few days later, herod made an oration in Caesarea, philippi and the angel was right there that they had loosed in that prayer meeting to follow him around and watch him. And they all said that's the voice of a God and not of man. It's Obama, he's God. He sounds like God over the loudspeaker. Remember that. Remember what they did. They had him speaking and with all this scenery around him and they changed the voice and made him sound like he was from another planet. What an idiot, golly. What a bunch of nothing. I'm so glad that's over Eight years of just having to pray against that. All the time we prayed against it, we cried against it. You know God heard us All right. And so you know the angel smote him and he was eaten with worms and died Because he gave not God the glory.
Speaker 1:Let's look at Jeremiah 28. I'm going to close with this. It's almost over. I debated about whether to say this one, but I'm going to say it. I'm going to tell it. It's one of my stories, one of my testimonies, one of my testimonies. One of my testimonies, jeremiah 28.
Speaker 1:And so Hananiah was a false prophet and he was prophesying good things for the king, and it wasn't God. And so verse 15,. Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hanani, and he was opposed to Jeremiah working against Jeremiah. Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hanani. The prophet, hear now, hanani, the Lord hath not sent thee, but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth this year. Thou shalt die because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year, in the seventh month. And I, the prophet, died the same year in the seventh month. I was reading that verse one day I'd read it many times, but I was reading it that day and the Holy Ghost said so and so is going to die in the seventh month.
Speaker 1:Now so, and so was a preacher that was close to me. I loved and helped him and his wife honored them for years, not just a few weeks, but years, and there were some things that developed that really gave me pause. I mean, I would. He would travel and come back with all kinds of scenarios with churches in different parts of the country. This is what this pastor's facing and I told him this and what do you think? And I'd give him advice. And he'd give advice to pastors and stuff like that. But he knew how to behave himself in this church. I mean, there's certain things you can do if we're supporting you. You can't fish in my bathtub, you can't ask my people for offerings.
Speaker 1:And I became aware that his wife was going up and down the aisle after Gladys had broken her hip and wasn't here for a while, hadn't been here. She had to recover from a broken hip and here she is, walking up and down the aisle. I noticed it and I noticed her pausing and talking to people and I thought that doesn't sound right. But I loved them and I trusted them, but something down in here didn't add up. You see what I'm saying. And then I had a goat the same goat I told you about and so she, you know, was here at the same time. I noticed they were getting kind of chummy and so, anyway, I won't go into detail, but I just I prayed, I said, lord, I feel like there's something wrong here. I don't know into detail, but I just I prayed, I said, lord, I feel like there's something wrong here. I don't know just what it is, but I mean, you know, I feel something in my spirit and I, just, I really I was almost sick, nauseous at what had happened and what I had observed, and I didn't want to believe it, I didn't want to know it, I didn't want to, you know, didn't want to know it, I didn't want to. You know, sometimes when you've got the prophetic in you, you just really there's some things you don't want to know. You wish you didn't know. I'm going to turn. Okay, pause my story.
Speaker 1:Brother Hagin, the very last time he ever came to Lakewood in 1990 was a Sunday night service and he was. I mean, everybody was there. We're having a world convention. I mean the place was packed on a Sunday night, which would never happen on a Sunday night. You'd have smaller crowds or something, but that night it was packed to the gills 7,000 people at least. Everybody's waiting on Brother Hagin.
Speaker 1:Brother Hagin gets up on the platform and he starts kind of crying. And he said God, there are just some things I'd rather not see. The place was just like a tomb. What Some of you are not going to be here this time next year. You're going to be gone, you'll be dead this time next year. And he turned and walked off the platform. That was the end. He never preached, he never said another word and he never came back to Lakewood. Man, I mean, that whole place was like a tomb I mean you talk about.
Speaker 1:And I thought, wow, what does this mean, you know? But anyway, let's go back to this. So I now this is before I got this word that somebody's going to die. See, this is this person's going to die. But that was much later. That was a year, year later after so I'm.
Speaker 1:And so I prayed, I went and I knelt at the foot of my bed before I went to bed I'm. And so I prayed, I went and I knelt to the foot of my bed before I went to bed. I said, lord, whatever I need you to show me about this situation, I need to know. And that night I had a dream, and I won't go into the dream, but in the dream I saw these women and I saw these women and I saw these women the wife and this goat and another woman that had been kind of floating around and I saw this nun and she was sitting in the corner of this of my church, where I walked into the platform and I came up on the platform to have a service and here she is. This nun is about eight foot tall and she had this ancient, horrible looking face is all deeply wrinkled and she had yellow eyes.
Speaker 1:And so I knew in the dream that's a jezebel spirit. And what is a Jezebel spirit? The Jezebel spirit because of Jezebel. Jezebel hated the prophet. The Jezebel is always aligned against the ministry. It always is aligned against the pastor or whoever's in charge of anything. And it's not my first encounter with the Jezebel spirit. I've had many encounters with the Jezebel spirit and in each case God would give me a dream and let me understand what I was facing, so that I would know how to get rid of it. Because I get rid of them, I don't entertain them. So I'm talking about the apostolic lifestyle, because you don't understand what I'm talking about. I'm talking about it's a military campaign and it's got some danger to it. It's got some things that are hard.
Speaker 1:And so I knew then in my dream, I knew when I woke up, I knew what had happened. I knew then in my dream, I knew when I woke up, I knew what had happened. I knew that this wife of this minister had approached the GOAT because she had approached me for help with the IRS. They had trouble with the IRS, I owed a bunch of money. I told her how to fix that. I said, oh, just hire this company. They'll go. They have free consultation, they, you know, and they'll charge you a percentage of what they save you. But that's the best way to get rid of it. I mean, you know you've got a Form 990 you have to fill out. If you don't fill it out right, they come after you. That's just Obama. You know this is leftover from Obama. You know he After the churches.
Speaker 1:But she was all unnerved. So she went to the goat and the goat wrote her a check and quit writing us checks. The Holy Ghost told me what she had done. So I thought, okay, now what do I do? I know all this stuff. I know we're fixing to have a big fracture. And he said well, you just need to have a meeting with him and tell him what you know and let him be the one to determine how he handles it. I said, all right. So he asked for a meeting. He said, man, pastor, I feel like there's a Jezebel spirit around. I said, well, I'm glad you're saying that, because let me just tell you what I know. I had a dream and God told me the whole thing.
Speaker 1:Your wife, did you know you're in trouble with the IRS. He just turned white. Did you know? You owed him a bunch of money that you couldn't pay. And she went to so-and-so and got the check and I thought he was going to faint.
Speaker 1:I said you need to take your ministry back from your wife. She doesn't know what she's doing. She has no ability to run your ministry. You need to run your ministry. Do you understand that? And if you don't do that, you're going to be in trouble. You've let it go on and on, and on, and on and on and you can't do this. This is wrong, this is out of order. You cannot do what she cannot go. You can't fish in my bathtub, man, and we give you offerings, we support you monthly, and then you're out there asking people and I found out there was hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month that y'all were giving them In addition to what we were already giving them. That's out of order. You don't ever do that. When you're in the ministry, inside a church, your money needs to come from out, where you're traveling, not here. Are y'all with me?
Speaker 1:Well, they made their choice and they left the church and they lied about us to everyone that would listen, including people that I had ministry relationships with, and for many years God had a very close relationship and they lied to them. It came back around. You know, god just lets me know what happens. You know, I don't know how he does it, but I found out that they lied about how they left, that I had kicked them out of the church. I did no such thing. I said you know to make a choice. If you want to stay here, you need to get yourself back in line and take control of your wife. She's under the influence of people that she shouldn't be and she's just developed fear and she doesn't have faith to run your ministry. You know she sends, you sends her anyway.
Speaker 1:So they made their choice. They lied and then the person they lied to, which was somebody that I was close to for decades, believed the lie. And they're always talking about love, love, love, preaching love. And yet they didn't love us enough to ask us is this horror story we just heard true pastor? They believed it. And so then I had to sever that one Because you're not walking in love toward me, you believe the lie about me and I can't have any more confidence in you. I'm no longer going to support your ministry, I'm no longer going to. In fact, one more time I sent a $10,000 offering just to check. You know what happened. They asked another person, some volunteer, to call and pray with me and thank me for the money. They didn't call, like they always did before. So I knew Are y'all with me now? I'm talking about confronting these spirits, these wrong ways of thinking.
Speaker 1:So then, a year and a half later, I'm reading Now we go back to Jeremiah reading Jeremiah, they're still traveling, they're going here, they're going. I hear a little bit about him, but not much. And he said you know, so-and-so is going to die in the seventh month. Well, I wondered if the seventh month was the seventh month according to Israel's clock or whether it's July. I'm sorry, I don't know which it is, but I wrote the entire thing down on a piece of three-by-five note card. I put it in my desk in my house.
Speaker 1:I didn't tell Gladys, I didn't tell the soul, I didn't tell my family, I didn't tell anybody. I mean, I just trembled. It didn't make me feel good, it didn't make me feel like I was vindicated. I didn't want to know that, but I knew it. And then, just a few months later, that was July, and a few months later he died and the woman that he lied about me to did the funeral right here in Houston. But, pastor, was vindicated. Are y'all with me now? He went to heaven early. I said he went to heaven early. I'm not saying he went to hell, I'm just saying God took him off the face of the earth.
Speaker 1:You know when you, this anointing didn't come easy and it came in stages. And I just want you to know that you're all, my church, my mission. When you say that. I want you to know what you're part of and I want you to know how sacred it is. I want you to know that your commitment is so vital. Don't let anything interrupt your commitment, because if you're committed here, then you've got the strength of that covering that will protect you through anything. It'll keep the truth flowing into you, where you'll never be deceived, you'll never go down the pathway of disaster. No, I'm not saying you won't have trouble. I'm not saying you won't be persecuted. I'm not saying you won't be persecuted. I'm not saying you won't have to fight, you know. But I'm talking about we're collectively, we're in this thing and it's a mighty, mighty anointing.
Speaker 1:And so welcome to Glorious Way Church, welcome to the apostolic lifestyle. Don't y'all be sad? Okay, don't be sad, but be glad. Aren't you glad that you've got this anointing? That's like you know. Instead of this stronghold like a castle in your brain, you've got a stronghold around you to protect you. Come on, lift your hands tonight. Lord, we thank you. We're jealous over our people and we want them to always walk in truth and walk in love, walk in victory over every demonic power. We'll never be deceived. In Jesus' name, amen, all right, praise God. I hope I didn't go into too much detail, but I felt led of the Lord to give you that tonight. I feel like you're mature enough to hear it without getting discouraged.