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
Holy Ghost Prayers | Jay Greiner
This message teaches on the importance of building your life on a solid foundation of faith and truth. It emphasizes how storms will come to everyone, but those who are grounded in God’s Word can stand firm and unshaken. Listeners are encouraged to examine what they’re building on and to align their lives with God’s promises so that His strength carries them through every trial.
Let's just take our Bibles. I've been doing this the last couple times I've preached. I'm not trying to change what we normally do, but just like, take your Bible and put it over your heart, just kind of hug it. Hallelujah, and I'm just going to pray. Holy Spirit, you're welcome in this place, and everything that we say and everything that we do starts with you. So, lord, we're grateful and thankful for you moving in our midst this morning already. But, lord, we're here to honor your word, your word. We have hidden in our heart that we might not sin against you. So, father, we just thank you for the power of your word, that your word, when we put it in our mouths, is just as powerful as it is coming out of your mouth. And so, father, we honor your word this morning. And, lord, we open up our spiritual ears and we open up our spiritual eyes to both hear and see what you need us to do, the changes that we need to make in order to go to the next level in you, because we're not satisfied with where we are today. But we know you have more in store for us. So we're hungry and thirsty for more. We're hungry and thirsty for the new. And so, lord, we walk in you with confidence, with boldness, with a clear vision. Lord, fresh vision and fresh fire and fresh grit and fresh determination. And, father, we just look forward to our pastor coming back with the same fresh fire and fresh vigor and fresh grit and determination. Lord, I just thank you that they're filled with your spirit. It's a refreshing spirit where they are right now. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Well, you know I went through all of that. You know I went through all of that and I just wanted to add like it's been a little bit over a year since my mom fell and and we didn't know it at the time, but she ended up breaking her the inside of her socket of her hip again, and so y'all have been here to to believe God with us and and go through all that, those challenges, and so she spent about roughly nine months of the past 12 months in a facility, kind of separated from my dad. That was a new thing for their life. But, praise God, she's back home again. I know y'all know that, and so she's just doing so good, she's just doing so much better with her physical therapy and her mobility is better, and so we're just here to praise and worship the Lord and thank y'all for believing with us as well.
Speaker 1:But you know, about a year ago my dad was cleaning up some things. He took that, you know, when this first happened and she was out of the house, he began to clean up her prayer closet, her prayer area, and you know, selene and I went over and we noticed he had boxed some of her things up and so we just wanted to make sure that they didn't get thrown away. He would never do that. But you know, just in safety, we stole a box of her old notes and just we started to go through these old notes and it really blessed us and so I brought them to her at like again it's almost been a year ago and had her reading some of her own notes and what really blessed me was in I think it's 1986, some of her own notes. And what really blessed me was in I think it's 1986, or was it 87? You can see, you know my dad talks about our whole testimony, how we moved from Corpus and moved, you know, back to Houston, and you can see that in her notes On one Sunday she's in Corpus and the next Sunday she's at Lakewood and it just you can see, like right there in the notes notes and you can see who's preaching, and just she went to a women's conference, like right before that at Lakewood and traveled back to Houston before.
Speaker 1:So like things you can remember because they're in her notes and so I just encourage you there's digital ways to take notes but be good note takers, don't just sit in a service. You're not going to remember what was preached if you don't write it down, write the vision and make it clean, make it clear, rather, and so, um, um and so, in the front of her Bible, one of these old Bibles that she had, she had like, uh, this note that was uh, with packing tape, tape to the inside, and it was Holy ghost prayers, and I know that that my dad's preached this message a few times, but I just took her little notes on all those scriptures and I broke it out and and I preached on this before, but this time I'm going to use the Amplified Classic and so Holy Ghost prayers I'm preaching to everybody in the room. Some of these you've heard, your you know, over and over and over again, and some of them maybe you're new, maybe you just walked through the door. Maybe you're not familiar with the word, but I just encourage you that this is a great starting point. In order to pray, use these Holy Ghost prayers and you can pray them over yourself. You can pray them over your spouse, over your family, over your kids, obviously.
Speaker 1:And the first one is found in Romans 15, starting in verse one. But it's to be Christ-minded. How many of you wanna be Christ-minded? Amen. And it's also bearing others' burdens, and so I know the prayer doesn't start till verse five. But so that you can get the context of what I'm preaching this morning, let's go back and start in verse one.
Speaker 1:It says we who are strong in our convictions and our robust faith ought to bear with the failings and the frailties and the tender scruples of the weak. And scruples there just means weaknesses and mistakes. I know it's about to define it as doubts and qualms, but it really means mistakes. When people make boo-boos, whenever somebody wrongs you, it goes way out of their way to try to offend you. You know you ought to help carry the doubts and qualms of others and not to please ourselves.
Speaker 1:Let each one of us verse 2, make it a practice to please and make happy his neighbor for his good and for his true welfare, to edify him, to strengthen him, to build him up spiritually. How many of you realize that you are a good encourager, that you have the ability to encourage one another spiritually and that you should put that first above all other things? Amen, and so we need to be people's other people's biggest cheerleaders and biggest encouragers, right? And then verse three, for Christ did not please himself and he gave no thought to his own interests, but, as it is written, the reproaches and abuses of those who reproached and abused. You fell on me talking about Jesus, for whatever was thus written in former days was written for our instruction, by endurance and the encouragement from the scriptures we might hold fast to and cherish hope. Amen. So we're supposed to hold on to the scriptures in order to cherish hope.
Speaker 1:And verse five starts the prayer. Now may the God who gives the power of patient endurance or steadfastness, and who supplies encouragement. So where's your encouragement come from? It comes from him, right. Grant you to live in such mutual harmony and such full sympathy with one another, in accord with Jesus Christ. But I don't like him, jay. You don't understand. Every time I see her, my blood boils. I just can't stand.
Speaker 1:No, I'm telling you, if you have problems walking in unity, especially with people in this room, because it happens all the time I'm just going to be bold enough to say that we have. I was going to make sure I'm not looking at anybody, but we have the heads, I'm just playing. We have the heads of two very big, very large political organizations and they serve different purposes and I'm sure there's unity. They're friends, they serve on the same team, they talk all the time and I know they're good people. But I'm telling you there could be a time when one of them is maybe supporting this candidate and the other one might be supporting that candidate. There might be some differences, right, that happen outside this room that they might not be able to see eye to eye on, but the moment that them and all their people walk through this, walk into this room, boom, there's unity. Why? Because this place matters the most. It matters way more than anything that happens outside these four walls. What we do in here, what we say in here, how we treat one another, it matters the most, right. And so I just encourage you just going back to everyday life.
Speaker 1:You know, if you have a problem walking in unity. It's just you're not allowing God to work on you, because he's the one that gives us the power and the patient endurance and the steadfastness to be able. He supplies us encouragement to be able to walk in unity one with another. It comes from him, that power. And where is that power? That power is on the inside of you, and so if you forget about it, if you're just walking in the flesh and you want to be annoyed and you want to be ticked off and you want to find reason to always be a pain in somebody else's side, you're walking in the flesh and there's never going to be. You're not going to obtain what God has for you. You're going to leave it on the table. You're not going to be able to that raise that you're looking for. It stops your disobedience in that area, stops God from being able to his blessings to flow into your life. And so get it right. Allow his power on the inside of you to change you, to be able to see one another through the blood. Amen.
Speaker 1:That includes your spouse. That includes your kids. You know, we've got adult kids and it's just, it's different. You know to have adult kids and and, and you know, but we strive to be, to always walk in unity, and so I'm just grateful for my kids. They're so, they're so grateful. Ethan always tells me thanks, thank you for, like I really, if I did something for me but he, he benefited from it. He's going to thank man, dad, thank you for ordering pizza. That was really, that was really good. He thanks me for everything, and so I know he's probably turned to red right now, but you know it's real. But to walk in unity.
Speaker 1:And so in verse six it says that together you may unanimously, with united heart and one voice, praise and glorify the God and the Father of our Lord, jesus Christ, the Messiah. So again, our worship that we do, our praise and our worship. It must have unity. But why? Because love plus unity equals miracles. Remember that equation. Everybody's heard it a hundred thousand times. But is it just a fancy slogan that we can put on a t-shirt, or is it something? Is it something that we choose to live by when we walk in this place and when we walk out of this place? Right, you know? Because that same slow, that same sorry, that same equation can work in our families, it can work at your place of employment. Amen.
Speaker 1:But it works in our worship, and so that's why our worship team in order, you know, we spend a lot of time getting on the same page when we practice that, that we have unity one with another, that we're able to flow in the holy spirit, because if we hold any grudges against one another we can't flow, we can't pick up that, uh, uh, the nudging of the holy spirit where he wants to lead us and guide us. And so maybe Carol wants to take the song this way or that way, or I want to take it another way. We flow with one another and we're flowing. It's the Holy Spirit that's on the inside of us that's doing that. And so I remember, you know this, last February I was in a worship class and they told this story about Kenneth Hagen, back in the day when he was traveling doing these crusades and the worship team had some big scandal going on and they were all in disunity, and so the service ended and he goes back and he tells the crusade director just fire them all, I don't need them, you know, because there was no anointing there tonight.
Speaker 1:And so he goes back and he talks to him and he's like look, there's somebody who didn't get saved because what you were going through, your situation, was more important than the anointing to you, and so it was more important to you for you to be right. And so that person, that no healings happened tonight because you held that grudge. And so, man, they corrected that and they went on and they didn't get fired and they went on and they had unity. But I'm telling you, that's why it's so important, all of us, when you walk in on a team, if you're part of the welcome team, if you're part of the gatekeepers, if you're part of the children's shoot, you're going to work with one another. It's good. We have to have unity first and you have to have that love first, not second or third or 10th or hey, I'll just. You know they wronged me. I'm going to hold on to this one offense and it'll be okay. They'll never know. I won't even tell them. I won't even tell them. They did me wrong, right, derek? I'm just kidding. And so it's just so important when we're gathered together in one accord. And so what happened for the Holy Ghost to fall on the book of Acts? They were gathered together in one accord. What if they weren't? What if they let all their differences out instead of being in one accord. Do you think the Holy Spirit would have fell? No, it took them being in one accord.
Speaker 1:It is not a Honda Accord. Praise the Lord, they didn't have a big enough one. Do I have time for a rabbit trail? We had two 81 Honda Accords in 1981. In 1981, my dad bought a brand new one. It was silver with like a maroon interior, and then the bank took that as part of the you know testimony that, he tells.
Speaker 1:But then later on, many years later, claire that was her first car was a green one. I don't know that, not that yeah, like a mint green 81 Honda Accord. And so then she studied abroad one summer and overseas, and so I got to drive it every day to Lakewood to work and I wore the thing out. I think it had like a top speed of 82 or something. So I drove it 82 every day and thank God for Larry White, who's in heaven now but he found a new motor to put in it and saved my bacon. And so by the time that she got back from college she had a car that ran. Hallelujah, never heard that before. I might have run it out of oil, but I just that was kind of sort of my first car there at 16.
Speaker 1:Anyways, verse seven real quick, we'll move on. But verse seven welcome and receive to your hearts one another. Then, even as Christ has welcomed and received you for the glory of God, so when people walk in this church, you've been welcomed, you've been received into the family of God, so you welcome and receive others. Amen. And so you see this prayer, how you're able to pray it. Take this and pray it over new members. You're able to pray it. I've been kind of sticking to the church, but the same thing happens in your families, right? All right, number two is found in Ephesians 1 prayer. How many hundreds of times have we read this? But we're going to read it again. And the title of number two is flooded with light. Your inner man is flooded with light through revelation, right? So it's a prayer for spiritual wisdom. So it's a prayer for spiritual wisdom.
Speaker 1:We're going to start in verse 15. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and of your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers. So, man, just like we said earlier, there is no such thing as unexpressed thanks. Here, here, you know, the apostle paul is thanking for the, for the ephesians church, right? Uh, the church of ephesus. He's giving thanks for them. There's no such thing as unexpressed thanks, and it's good to give, uh, thanks and praise, uh, for your leaders, right, and for the ones that are above you.
Speaker 1:Verse 17,. For I always pray to the God of our Lord, jesus Christ, the father of glory, that he may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation of insight into mysteries and secrets. Did you know that you can know mysteries and secrets of the Lord? Not of your neighbor, not of all of the junk that they're doing? Not? Oh, I've got a spirit of discernment. No, so you can go gossip about people. No, you know, you have insight into serious things that matter that, if you'll just get a hold of being able to pray this over yourself, god wants to grant unto you a spirit of wisdom. Grant unto me a spirit of wisdom. Grant unto me a spirit of wisdom Verse 18,. By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which he has called you, and how rich is his glorious inheritance in the saints, his set apart ones. I'm telling you, we are set apart, we are his saints and he has an inheritance and you know, my dad just preached this two weeks ago, right? But he has such a large inheritance inside of me and inside of you. Amen, verse 19.
Speaker 1:And so that you can know and understand what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of his power in and for us who believe. Where's that power? It's inside of us and who's it, for? It's for us. All of us, right, who believe, say I'm a believer, as demonstrated in the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, above every title that can be conferred, not only in this age and in this world, but also the age and the world of which to come. And he has put all things under his feet. Therefore, it's under your feet, because we are the church, right, it says that, and right here, and has appointed him the universal and supreme head of the church, a headship exercise throughout the church, which is his body, the fullness of him.
Speaker 1:We're the fullness of him. Who? What does he do? He fills all in all, for in that body lives the full measure of him. We're the fullness of him. What does he do? He fills all in all, for in that body lives the full measure of him. We have a full measure, not a half measure, not a quarter measure, but all of him. You're walking in the fullness of God. You've already been filled to his fullness, to overflowing. Amen In every area. You don't lack for any good thing. There's not one thing in your life that he doesn't fill. If you would just let him fill you up, if you would just be faithful to pray this prayer, I'm telling you Selena said this a few weeks ago if you'll be faithful to take these prayers and pray them every day, I'm telling you, it'll change your life. It'll change your perspective. You'll get God's perspective. You'll have a fresh spirit of wisdom in order to attack the devil and slap him upside the face and um, and grab a corn stalk and stick, you know, swing out over hell and spit in the devil's eye. Amen. Mark Hankins says hallelujah. So I'm telling you, we are complete in him, he who fills everything, everywhere with himself. And so, bless God, we're filled with him, amen. And so grab a hold of that this morning.
Speaker 1:Number three is the Ephesians three prayer. I could go into Ephesians two, because there's no chapters in the Bible, so later on, if you want to continue the Ephesians one prayer, it goes on into Ephesians two. If you want to continue the Ephesians 1 prayer, it goes on into Ephesians 2. But here's the Ephesians 3 prayer. This is number three this morning and it's to know and understand the love of Christ. And I'll just say you know spoiler alert you don't know and you don't understand his love with your puny brain, no matter how big your IQ is. It's beyond understanding with your brain. But you know and you understand the love of Christ out of your spirit, and so it's impossible to love others if you're doing it inside your mind. You do it out of your heart, out of your spirit, with agape love, and you can't love people with God's love if you've never experienced God's love. But God has plenty of love, we're about to read about it. But he's got all the love that you could possibly ever absorb right here, right now, and he's not complicated, and it's not something you're trying to obtain one day. No, it's right here, right now. He's a right here, right now. God and his love is here and it's here to fill us, amen.
Speaker 1:It says in verse 14, ephesians 3,. For this reason I bow my knees to the father of the Lord, jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. Where does he want to strengthen you? In your spirit through his spirit, so that spirit to spirit in your inner man, that's your spirit, amen. Um. Verse 17 that christ may dwell where? In your hearts.
Speaker 1:So I, I read I mean I, I saw a reel the other day about the Bible says nothing about asking Jesus in your heart, but there's scripture after scripture, just like this one, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So that makes Romans 10, 9 and 10, you know, valid, right here that we can ask him in our hearts. He's here to stay right, he's here to live right here and dwell in our hearts. But it's through faith, right, that you, being rooted and grounded in human love no, in agape love may be able to comprehend with our brain, no, with our spirit, through his spirit in your inner man. Right? You see the connection Verse 18, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height?
Speaker 1:To know the love of Christ, with which passes knowledge, it passes your brain, it passes up your IQ and you're going to feel it in your heart, in your spirit, and you're going to be strengthened with his love and then you're able to love. Right? So let's keep reading that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. There it is again, because he doesn't want to leave you empty, he wants to leave you full, and then he's filled you up so you can stay full. You don't have to keep leaking out from the bottom, you can just pour off the top and whenever you pour out his love, there's more supply and you never run out. Amen. It's like constantly being at Bucky's, just filling up at the gas pumps Hallelujah, with ethanol free. I'm just kidding, all right. So, uh, to know the love of Christ was fascist knowledge, verse 20.
Speaker 1:Now to him, who is able? God is able. What's he able to do? Exceedingly, abundantly. Above all, that we ask or think according to the power, what? What power? Where's it working? It's working in us, and it's his power and it belongs to us and he's implanted it into us and it's working in us. And so I just ask you this morning, what are you asking him for? What are you thinking about? Because, whatever it is he can do, exceedingly, abundantly, above amen. Why, why does he do this? Verse 21?
Speaker 1:To to him be glory in the church. It's all about about his glory. You see that right, pastor Mark? If you were not here last Sunday night, pastor Mark preached about the glory and it was so, so good, eye-opening. He went through the Hebrew and the Greek and picked out every meaning of the word glory and it was life-changing. So I encourage you, you can go back on our live stream last Sunday night and watch that. It was so, so good. Anyways, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. And so this glory in the church, this love that he's poured out, that he's filled us with to the fullness, it goes out to your kids and your kids' kids and your kids' kids' kids, to all generations. It never stops Amen. And so this is a good prayer to pray. It's good, to pray it over your spouse and over your family and to live in it every day, amen.
Speaker 1:So we're moving on to number four, to the Philippians, one prayer that love abounds and overflows, starting in verse nine. Abounds and overflows, starting in verse 9, and this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight. That your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment. See, his love is deep and it's greater and it wants to be able to penetrate others. Greater right. This I pray that your love may abound. That word abound means to make abundant or excellent. Because why? Because perfect love casts out what Fear, all fear, any fear, any doubt, any unbelief. Perfect love casts out fear, verse 10, so that you may surely learn and stop calling me, surely to sense what is vital and approve and prize what is at man.
Speaker 1:This is a lot of words. I'm going to use all three. You know 30,000 of my words today, just in this verse. But let's get the meaning of this. I think it's worth it. That's why I chose the amplified.
Speaker 1:Seriously, sometimes you can get lost, because there's like a meaning within a meaning within a meaning. This is one of those. I think there's at least three offshoots, but let's get it so that you may surely learn to sense what is vital and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value, recognizing the highest and the best and distinguishing the moral differences, and that you may be untainted and pure and blameless, so that, with heart, sincere and certain, you may approach the day of Christ not stumbling, not causing others to stumble. Man, I'm telling you we can go all the way to heaven. We can go all the way to when Jesus comes back for us without stumbling and without causing others to stumble, because we can recognize the real value, the highest and the best and all the moral differences. You know, because it's his word, is a sword and it wants to cut what is flesh from what is spirit and it wants to divide what is flesh from what is spirit. And you grab onto the spirit and you know the real value of the spirit and you're able to recognize what is spirit and you're able to go after that without stumbling or causing anybody else to stumble. You have, you're abounding in this love.
Speaker 1:Amen, verse 11 may you abound in and be filled with the fruits of righteousness, of right standing with god and right doing. You know, in other words, you cannot be any more righteous than the day that you got saved. You know righteousness is not something that you grow in, but righteousness being made right with god is something that you got saved. You know righteousness is not something that you grow in, but righteousness being made right with God is something that you can grow in. Your knowledge, in your revelation, on your revelation of righteousness can grow, amen. And so you can see why it matters that you have right standing with God and right doing, and that revelation helps you not to sin. It helps you to wake up every day and please the Lord, and what you say and what you do, and then what you think changes and the way you act changes and the way you act around others changes.
Speaker 1:And then they begin to notice that, hey, there's a difference in Julie over here here. She's different. What happened? She got saved, amen. She's turned her life over to jesus, and so we're abounding in that. That's what we're abounding in the fruit of righteousness. We're to bear fruit, and that fruit is is a righteous fruit, amen. And so, which comes through jesus christ, the anointed one to the honor and praise of God that his glory may be both manifested and recognized.
Speaker 1:Again, hey, aren't you glad that it's all about his glory? I keep saying it with every scripture it's all about his glory. It's all about his glory being manifested and recognized. We got to recognize his glory. We got to recognize when he's moving. The Colossians one prayer is next and we're going to talk more about that.
Speaker 1:But recognizing God, but recognizing his glory, and then responding to that glory when the glory is moving in this place, the last thing you want to do is be sitting on the back row with your head down and just blah. No, you want to lift your hands, you want to receive what he has for you, you want to pour out your love on him and you want to recognize when the glory comes. Or you want to if, if God's walked in the room, would you recognize him? That happens all the time. Like you know Jesus, how many times did the disciples? They he's walking on the water toward him and they think he's a ghost. They didn't recognize him. Here they were, they were spending all day, every day and night with Jesus and they didn't recognize him. Jesus rose from the dead. My dad preached that two weeks ago and they didn't recognize him. They spent all this time with him and he was talking to him and they didn't recognize him. Would you recognize him?
Speaker 1:Some of you have situations right now that you're going through God's movement on your behalf and you can't recognize it because you're not spending enough time with him to recognize him moving. You've been praying and you've been believing God for something and he's over here working on your behalf and you're not recognizing it and you're all that, and you just kind of take it for granted. Oh, that's just another compliment, recognizing it and you're all that, and you just kind of take it for granted. Oh, that's just another compliment. Oh, that's another. My boss just that. He thinks my work is good again. No, recognize that, recognize that as him moving in your life and respond to it. Thank you, lord. This crown goes to you, lord. I just I thank you for this recognition. They're recognizing you and me. It's not about you, it's not about your IQ, it's not about what you can do, it's not about your ability. It's about his grace and his ability. Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:So Colossians one number five is to know God's will. We can know God's will. We're going to start in verse nine. For this reason, we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make special requests for you, asking that you may be filled with the full, deep and clear knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of god and an understanding and discernment of spiritual things. There we go.
Speaker 1:That is on a different level, isn't it? You can pray, excuse me, to know God's will, and so to make special requests, asking that you may be filled with the full. We're filled with all the knowledge of God, and it's in every area of our life. So, in other words, when his light comes in us and illuminates in a direction, we're not confused. It's all one direction, right, and so it's like the headlights shining down a two-lane road or something. You can see both sides of the road in both ditches right, when your lights are working properly. And that's the light that he's illuminating on the inside of you and that's what allows you to see when you're praying, to know things. And it's all through the illumination of his word in spiritual wisdom, right, and an understanding and discernment of spiritual things, that you may walk, live verse 10, and conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord.
Speaker 1:Remember we were singing about how holy he is? But he's called us to be holy, and so we've got some holy living to do, amen, and we've got some heart. Things to change right In order to live a life worthy of the Lord, to conduct ourselves in a manner that brings him glory, fully pleasing to him and desiring to please him in all things. Oh no, I just have this one sin over here. I'm just gonna hang on to. No, we wanna please him in every area, with all things. If Jesus is not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all, right. And so we wanna please him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in what? By the knowledge of God, with fuller, deeper and clear insight and acquaintance and recognition. Amen.
Speaker 1:In verse 11, we pray that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, to exercise every kind of endurance and patience with joy. Don't leave joy out, right, we do it with joy, giving thanks verse 12, to the Father who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints, god's holy people in the light. I'm going to come back and I'm going to finish in just a second, but I was reading this the other day, last week, and I saw something that I've never seen before Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints, of God's people in the light. We have Ms Irma Clifton right here. I'm 49 years old and I can receive out of the portion of the inheritance that's in her at 80 years old, and when she shares with me it's like a light bulb going off. She shares the word, she shares such encouragement with me, and so we're hooked up, arm and arm, and that's what this church is all about. If you'll get in there and work with people arm and arm, with unity, you can take advantage of the inheritance that's in her and I can take advantage of the inheritance that's in Daniel, and Daniel takes advantage of the inheritance that's in me, and it's all the same inheritance, right, but it's sharing, the word sharing. We're sharing together in unity as the body of Christ, right? I had never seen that. I just thought it was between you and God and the inheritance that he has. But no, giving thanks to the Father has qualified all of us. You're qualified. Don't listen to the devil who's trying to tell you you're not qualified every day and beat you in the head and remind you of every single little mistake you've ever made and every sin that you've ever done. And until you're swimming in the details of the past, no, you've been delivered from that. The blood of Jesus has cleansed you from that Step, out of that, step out of the darkness. He's conveyed us into marvelous light. It's marvelous and it's so bright. Amen. There's no reason to hang on to the past and feel disqualified. That's exactly what the devil wants you to do. But you've already been made qualified, amen, by the blood of Jesus. Verse 13. The Father has delivered and drawn us to himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom, the son of his love, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins. I just said that, so I won't. We'll just go on. Amen.
Speaker 1:Number six is the Philemon one prayer. Don't forget that one. That one is about our effective communication. It says I give thanks to God for you, always when I'm verse four, when I mentioned you in my prayers, because I continue to hear of your love and your loyal faith which you have towards the Lord Jesus Christ, in which you show towards all the saints, god's consecrated people. I'm telling you, if somebody was writing a letter to you, could they use that phrase. I'm just asking you this morning, would they be able to say that that I continue to hear of your love and your loyal faith that you've shown to the others others in the body or would it be like man, you're ticked off all the time and all these people. All you do is complain about people. You have a laundry list of all the things that all these people have wronged you and that's all you talk about and that's like a record player going on 24-7. No, I'm telling you, we are to love one another. Amen, verse 6, and I pray that the participation in and sharing of my faith, no of your like. In other words, are you sharing about yourself? No, you're sharing about him. You're sharing of your faith in him. Right May produce and promote. Are you promoting yourself? No, we're promoting him.
Speaker 1:Full recognition and appreciation and understanding that's a whole lot of words and precise knowledge of every good thing that is ours is inside Christ. This is the best in Christ scripture. I'm telling you our identification with Christ Jesus and under his glory, in other words, every good thing comes from being in Christ. And if you would acknowledge that first, if you would acknowledge that every good thing comes from being inside Christ, then I'm telling you, that's what makes your communication effective, that's what breaks open prison doors, that's what breaks open people's hardened hearts is the power of the gospel. That when you recognize and you communicate the power, that of everything, every good thing comes from him. It's just, it's a real simple thing In Christ, everything God is good, devil, bad. And so if you're fighting the devil, if you're going through trial after trial, that's the devil. God didn't send that trial, god didn't send that calamity. God is good, and so all you got to do is give him praise and acknowledge that.
Speaker 1:Goodness Amen. That it's in Christ, verse seven. For I have derived great joy and comfort and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints who are your fellow Christians have been cheered and refreshed through you. Again, could somebody write a letter about that, about you like that? Have you really been cheering people on and refreshing people with your presence? Are you leaving? Doom and gloom and nothing, but you know divisiveness. Are you leaving encouragement behind you? Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. What follows you when you walk out of a room? What follows you? What is behind you? What did you leave behind? Did you leave a mess or did you leave encouragement? Did you leave a refreshing atmosphere? Amen, and then we're going to go on to the last one, number seven, amen, and then we're going to go on to the last one. Number seven can be found in third John.
Speaker 1:I'm going to read this out of the new King James and I'm just going to preach for a second about prosperity and being in health. Right, this is this, is John talking. All of the ones before this were Paul, but this is John and we're in 3 John. 3 John is one chapter long and I wanted to point something out to you. It says Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in how many things, in all things, that you might not have any lack in any area, right, and be in health, just as your soul prospers. So how many of you want to know what that word health means? You think it just means physical health, right, that you don't have a cold, that you don't have cancer, that you don't have some debilitating disease that you don't you know, have athlete's foot disease that you don't, you know, have athlete's foot. But you know what it really means. It means to be to have sound doctrine. In other words, it matters what you believe and why you believe it, and so if you have so he's praying, john's praying here that you may prosper in all things and be in health. He's talking about your doctrine and so, out of your doctrine, if you believe right, then you're speaking right, and if you're speaking right, you're thinking right.
Speaker 1:And all of this push about mental health you know, about three or four years ago I went through some challenges, and I won't talk about all that this morning, I don't have time to go through all that but I went for over a month without sleeping and so that kind of turned me into a little bit of a crazy person for a second, and so I had some mental health challenges. So I had some anxiety attacks. Never had experienced that really thought I had a heart attack, that was. It felt exactly like that. And so, um, all of this push to have uh, you know, mental health. It matters what you believe and why you believe it, and I got through that because of what I believed and why I believed it, and what I believed had to start coming out of my mouth. And there was a little bit of a delay because I kept talking about how big the mountain was and Selena kept encouraging me and my dad kept encouraging me and others kept encouraging me, and I made it through that, but it took a while and there was a delay, but the second that I got my mouth to line up with what I believe and why I believe it, and that I really do believe it, that this ain't a game and this, but that my father, god, takes care of me in grand style, and so, and and if he does it for me, he'll do it for you, and so it matters what you believe.
Speaker 1:And there's so much junk out there, there's. So there's so many online preachers, there's this, there's that there's so many false doctrines and false teachers and false prophets. And don't get lost in any of that. I'm telling you, if you're new feed right here, there's an anointing on what's being said from this pulpit that that, um, it's, it's not without effort that your pastor he's, he pays, he pays a very big price in order to bring. It's not any mini-money-mo, it's just, oh, that I preached that 20 years ago. Let me grab that, that'll be good. No, it's never that.
Speaker 1:He takes time to hear from the lord and I know, know, that he's out of town right now on vacation, but I know the Holy Spirit is working in him, pouring into him, showing him things that he hadn't seen, and he's going to come back with a fresh fire. But there's an anointing on that, and so you don't want to miss that. You don't want to take that for granted, you don't want. Oh, it was just a Sunday night, I wasn't here, but let me listen to this fancy new person on on YouTube or whatever. No, honor the pasture, that's right here and it's green grass. And I'm telling you um, there's an anointing here for you to hear that and respond to it and let it nourish you and let you grow into it. You know, and not have crop failure, and so crop failure happens when you're not, you know, allowing the watering of the word to take place in your heart, and when you start to take it for granted, when you start to, you're scared of repetition. Oh, I've heard this before. How many of you have heard at least most of these prayers that we went through this morning. You know you've heard them right, but did you hear something that helped you this morning? Did you help? Did you hear something on a different level?
Speaker 1:You're going to take these and you're going to apply these and you're going to pray these and obviously, praying the word works. You know, I read out of the Amplified Classic version. I won't say that it's impossible, but it's probably not the version. You're going to memorize these scriptures in right. You're going to use the New King James or the NLT or whatever, the whatever daily reader that you use, but I just encourage you to not to memorize the word.
Speaker 1:Memorizing the word is head knowledge, but meditating on the word is with your spirit and it gets it down in your spirit and then you know it and then you can quote it and it might be coming out of your brain, but it's coming out of your brain because you meditated in your spirit so long and so. But we don't. You're not saved by what you memorize. You're changed by what you meditate on, what you mull over, what you chew on and chew on and chew it over and over and over again and some some day. You know, we have this wonderful Bible reading plan and I'm telling you it works, but some days I don't make it through that, I just meditate. I'll take a chapter and just chew and chew and chew. Right now I'm chewing on, going back in the book of Acts and just trying to reread. Sometimes I'll just I'll read the same chapter three days in a row, or the same three chapters three days in a row, or the same six chapters, and I'm just turning it over and over and I'm getting a fresh revelation out of it. Because that was the first church. This church should look like that church, amen. And so this is a new Testament church, and so, uh, it's important that we know the word. And so allow yourself to meditate on these scriptures and put them into practice, amen. And so I'm just going to go in the style of Pastor John Osteen is to tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell them and then tell them what you told them In that format.
Speaker 1:Number one was the Romans 15 prayer being Christ-minded and bearing others' burdens. Number two was the Ephesians 1 prayer, being flooded with light and a prayer for spiritual wisdom. And number three was the Ephesians 3 prayer, to know and to understand the love of Christ. Then number four was the Philippians 1 prayer that love abounds and overflows. Number five was the Colossians 1 prayer to know God's will. Number six was the Philemon one prayer to have effective communication. And then the last one, number seven, this third John, verses two through four, was to prosper and be in health.
Speaker 1:Oh, that reminds me I didn't finish that one, so maybe I'll finish it real quick, cause look, we have time. Praise the Lord, I just have to find it. Where did it go? I wanted to tie in, but you know, just as your soul prosper. He goes on. For I rejoiced greatly, verse three when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. And then verse four I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. And so if you want to walk in having that you're prospering in everything and you're walking in health, even as your soul prospers, your mind, your will, your intellect, your emotions prosper. It's all tied again to truth. And so it's tied to that word health, meaning doctrine, right, and so we're walking in the truth. We're walking in truth together.
Speaker 1:So if you have questions, biblical questions, ask. We have a staff full of people that are ready to answer your questions. We have all kinds of classes coming up. We have our membership. Classes are next. They're going to be in October. So if you're no wait, september, oh okay, like like next, okay, next. Yeah, I knew that I do work here. That's next Sunday. I tell you what is coming up in October. Every Wednesday night of October we're going to be opening up our marriage and family series again and we're going to be teaching on biblical finance and we have a better title coming soon and because that word finance, it doesn't sound fun, but this will be fun and it will be life changing and that's coming up in October.
Speaker 1:But I'm just saying, if you have questions, we're here. You don't have to struggle, you don't have to wonder, just ask. And so one of my favorite things I've gotten to talk to several people that have come out of the Catholic church and so they're new believers and they're former Catholics and they just have a lot of questions about the Bible because they were taught that they can't understand the Bible. Not to read the Bible. Don't read the Bible on your own because you can't understand it. But no, you have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you and you can understand all things, so dive in, start with the book of John. If you've never you know like basic things, and so that's what we're here for, amen.