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 Holy Helper | Pastor John Greiner
This message highlights the role of the Holy Spirit as our helper and ally, especially in life’s “middle seasons” when the outcome isn’t clear. Using Paul’s testimony before King Agrippa, it shows how God provides strength and boldness even in trials. Listeners are encouraged to lean on the Holy Spirit’s help, speak God’s Word with confidence, and continue walking in their calling despite adversity.
Let's go ahead and get into the Word of God tonight. Let's just lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad. That's our custom around here and I kind of like this custom. Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad for Wednesday night. It's my opportunity to top off the tank, to finish getting filled with the Holy Ghost, filled with the Word of God. It's the Word and the Spirit that work in concert with each other that are giving me the victory in every circumstance, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter 26 and Hebrews 13. And we'll start with Acts 26.
Speaker 1:Paul has been brought before King Agrippa, he has been arrested and he is giving his testimony to the king. And in verse 22, he said having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great, saying none of the things in those which the prophet and Moses did say should come. I have obtained help of God. And then in Hebrews, chapter 13, in verse five, in the second part of the verse, for he has said I shall never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what man will do unto me. And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled the Holy Helper. The Holy Helper, paul, said in the Amplified Bible this day I have had the help which comes from God as my ally. You know, god, the Holy Spirit, lives on the inside of every believer and is our ally, he's our helper. And uh, and this then the Bible says. You know, paul said and then I continue. So he didn't just, he didn't just stop in the middle of the trouble. I like what Dr Guy uh pay said Sunday night when he was preaching. He talked about Jesus is the alpha and the Omega.
Speaker 1:But you know, god is not just there at the beginning and at the end, he's there in the middle, he's in, he's there before anything has happened that you believe. In far it's too late to turn back. You can't go back where you started. You haven't arrived where you, where what you're speaking has not yet occurred. You're in the seed time, and so it's kind of dark time in that tunnel sometimes, where you know God's the God of the, of the middle. And so that's where Paul was.
Speaker 1:Paul was in the middle and he's still obtaining help from God as his ally. When he's in the middle of a mess, he's, he's being arrested, he's being brought before all you know these, these Kings and leaders, and all of that. And so, uh, he was busy continuing teaching and preaching and healing and writing and laboring. And even though he's a, even though he's a prisoner, he hasn't given up his ministry. He didn't just push pause, I mean he continued. And God, the Holy Spirit, was busy helping Paul as his ally. Just think about an ally for his God. I mean to have God, the third person of the Godhead, the executive power of the Godhead that lives on earth. You know, jesus is in heaven, father's in heaven, but oh, thank God, the Holy ghost, he's on earth and he's on the inside of us and he's our ally. And so the Holy spirit was Paul's holy helper and he helped Paul so much when he was given his testimony, that Agrippa said he said, paul, almost, thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Paul said, well, I wish it was more than just almost. I wish you were altogether such as I am. And yet, without these chains. And even Agrippa realized that he shouldn't have been arrested. Even Agrippa realized that he should not, you know, suffer what he had suffered, but he had appealed to Caesar, and so to Caesar, he had to go.
Speaker 1:So notice that when we need help and who doesn't, you know, from time to time help is available from God. Help is available from God no matter what you're going through. You might be in the middle, but the help is available. You know, hebrews 4, 16 says come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy, to find the grace to help when in time of need. Grace to help in time of need. You know, boldly say the Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what man will do to me. Not barely say, boldly, say you know the Holy Ghost, the Holy Helper, responds to holy boldness. You know, holy boldness is not pride. Holy boldness is not being, you know, silly, holy boldness, just you're. You know, uh, silly, I'm a holy boldness, just you're confident that the Bible is true and all your circumstances are subject to change and your helper is alive to be your ally. He's there helping you. So, um, and John, chapter 14, we'll go flip over there. And uh, you know I'm uh.
Speaker 1:Some of you have heard this before, but you know we need a refresher course. I liked another thing that Dr Pace said when he was here. He said you know, a lot of of our faith is built on just remembering, being put in remembrance. You know, paul said I put you in remembrance, timothy, a lot of times. You know it's not having to relearn something, it's not brand new information you've never heard. It's the place where we put ourselves in remembrance of what he has done for us in the past. You know, put ourselves in remembrance of what the Bible says. You know that when, the, when the circumstances are speaking so loud that all we can do is look at the circumstance, you know we're, we're in trouble. So let's, let's remember, let's keep ourselves in remembrance of what the word says and what we, what we know to be true.
Speaker 1:But here in John, chapter 14, um, you know, the, the disciples are sad because Jesus said he's going away. You know, and, and, and. They don't get it, they don't understand it. And he said you know, it's better for you that I go away. If I don't go away, the comforter won't come. But if I go away, he said in verse 16, I'll pray the Father and he will give you another comforter that he may abide with you 29 minutes. No, he's going to abide with you forever.
Speaker 1:Another comforter the word another there means identical, identical. He's identical in every way. The Holy Spirit is identical to Jesus in every way, except he's a third person of the Godhead, not the second. Jesus is the son of God and the Holy Spirit. See, the Holy Spirit is a separate but equal manifestation of God himself, father, son and Holy Spirit, and he's called the comforter here in the King James, which the word comforter in the English translation is a poor translation of the word, the Greek word. There is parakletos, and so sometimes it's good to study your Bible and to study other sources. Look at other versions of the Bible.
Speaker 1:You know, I heard a preacher one time. I was about to have him come preach for us and cause I was so impressed he was a missionary and I was so impressed with his testimony. He was fearless in the face of devils. I mean I've never heard of anybody that that cast out more devils he had. He had such manifestations of deliverance of any preacher I've ever seen. He would go, he would pack his Jeep or his whatever his off-road vehicle and pack it full of of of a sound equipment and Bibles and he would go off into the African bush in the middle of nowhere and set up lights and set up a generator, and set up and have meetings out in the middle of nowhere where, no, no man had no white man, no, no, no evangelist had ever been and he would preach to those natives and he would preach out there in their territory get them saved.
Speaker 1:And he talked about one time he was preaching and there was this gigantic snake. It was like 12 inches in diameter, big thing. It was 20, 30 foot long. It comes slithering through the crowd and everybody just screamed and started running and he just said, in the name of Jesus, I rebuke you. And that thing just disappeared. It was a demon power and the meeting was on. I mean, you know that's the kind of stories he would tell.
Speaker 1:So you know, I kind of wanted to. I wanted him to come and preach and, you know, share some stories. But then I heard him one day, I heard tape and he got off on the King James Bible and that's the authorized Bible and you're just the backslid If you read any other Bible but the King James. And he just so foolish about. You know, I knew that he's just golly. I mean, why don't you grow a brain, man? Golly, the Bible is just too big to be contained in one. One simple thing we already know the politics behind the King James Bible. Okay, one simple thing. We already know the politics behind the King James Bible. Okay, I'd read it myself. But I do know that there are other versions, you know, and that's why I read and look at my concordance.
Speaker 1:And so getting back to comforter comforter is a bad translation. It doesn't give you the proper feeling or indication of what the comforter really does. Really, the clearest is helper. And so when you read it in the Amplified, it says you know, counselor, helper, intercessor, advocate, strengthener, standby, and so that's that. The Amplified Bible kind of gives you a more of a coverage of what the ministry of the Holy Spirit is. But Paracletos, comforter, we think, oh little darling, and pat you on the head, comforts you and all that. Well, no, that, yeah, he can do that, but that's not his main strength for you. His main strength is that he is your helper. He will help you Praise God, and he lives in us forever. And so and you keep on going, he said in verse 18, he said 16, I'll pray the father. He will send to you another helper.
Speaker 1:Say Jesus was a helper, he helped them to see, he helped them to understand the word. He helped them to not dwell in unbelief. He would, he would correct them, he wouldn't give up on them, he wouldn't condemn them. He would hold them accountable, but he would never condemn his disciples. He would hold a high standard and so forth and so on, but he would never give up on them. I will pray the Father. He will give you another helper, he will abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, who the world cannot perceive because it sees him not, neither knows him. But you know him and he dwells with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will not leave you desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless.
Speaker 1:And I had a word devastated. That's my pet peeve when I hear people say devastated. Well, I was just devastated, well, I'm just devastated. If you're a born again, spirit filled Christian, you have, no, ever any excuse for using that word associated with yourself. You're not devastated. I mean, that just goes against everything the Holy Ghost has sent to you to do. He's, he is holding you up, he's helping you, he's strengthening you. You're never devastated, no matter what happens, no matter what tragedy comes your way, I mean you're not devastated, because devastation means destruction and you're not destroyed. You're never destroyed. I mean the Holy Ghost is holding you up, he's holding you together, and so learn to lean on him as your ally.
Speaker 1:You know, william Barclay defines the comforter, the paracletos, this way, he said you know it's one call to encourage the troops before they go to battle. And you know, when I read that definition, I think about Patton and his famous oratory to the troops that were about to go and land in Normandy on D-Day. I mean, he went to encourage them. And that movie Patton, you know it's a little profane, it's got some language in it, but every time I watched I've watched that movie. I don't know, probably a hundred times, because one of my favorite movies. I just like Patton and I like, I like watching world war two and I like movies about war. And I, because we're in a war and we've already won it but we have to enforce the terms of surrender. And uh, but he, he puts steel in their spines. He says look, you're not, you're not, we're not asking you to go out there and die for your country. You make that other poor sucker die for his country. I mean, he just put it as plain as day. He said so.
Speaker 1:Some of you are thinking, gosh, I don't know, I might be too afraid, I might not do my duties and all you, you'll do your duty. I mean, the first time you see one of your buddies killed and the first time you hold him and he breathes his last, you'll know what to do. And so he gave them courage to face the enemy. They went out knowing that they were going to face an enemy and that they were going to overcome him. See, that's the helper, that's the Holy Ghost. That's boldness, that's holy boldness.
Speaker 1:When you lean on the Holy Ghost as your ally, then you don't have any confidence in your natural flesh, you don't have any confidence in your natural ability. No, it's the Holy Helper that's helping you in every contest that you have, every confrontation of the enemy. And he also says William Barclay says, you know that the comfort is there that without it one would collapse. Without that one would collapse. And see, that's what happens to people that don't have the Holy Ghost as their helper. Sometimes they do face terrible things and under the pressure of the devil and the pressure of contrary circumstances, they collapse. Sometimes they permanently backslide and never get back to the Lord, and sometimes they take a break. But either way, it's not God's will that you collapse. He's why you've got the holy helper on the inside to strengthen you. He's called alongside to help you. He's called alongside to help you.
Speaker 1:So tonight I wanted to give you a couple of things, just a couple to talking about obtaining holy help, supernatural help reserved for the righteous. It's not for the world. The world doesn't have access to the Holy Spirit. The unsaved don't have access to the Holy Spirit. The world doesn't. The unsaved don't have access to the Holy Spirit. We have access to the Holy Spirit and more and more specifically, those of us that are baptized in the Holy Ghost. You know we ought to be baptized in the Holy Ghost. Jesus said you don't, you don't. Don't go into all the world and preach the gospel and try to be my witnesses, but tarry in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. You know, tarry in Jerusalem, you shall receive power Again.
Speaker 1:I like what Dr Gee said about that word dunamis power. They used the word dunamis it was a common thing to use back in those Bible days to dunamis describe the power of an earthquake or a tornado or a hurricane. It's majestic natural power, that's earth shaking, that's the word dunamis, and when you don't have the Holy Ghost baptism, you don't have any dunamis, you don't have that supernatural power as a weapon against demonic powers. If you're facing demons, you're going to need dunamis, and so obtaining holy help, supernatural help reserved for the righteous, and so I've got a couple of things to give you tonight Obtaining holy help.
Speaker 1:The first one is found in Mark 11, 24, very familiar verse, and uh, but we'll turn there. I think it's good to get it in front of you. Just a simple teaching. But again, I like to call you into remembers. I know all of us have different battles at different times. Sometimes we're, uh, in between battles and we different times. Sometimes we're in between battles and well, praise God for a little in between, but otherwise you're either just going into a battle or just coming out of one. It's just. You know, the devil knows his time is short and he's putting all the pressure on the people that are the greatest threat to his kingdom. Mark 11, 24,.
Speaker 1:Therefore, I say unto you Jesus is speaking what things soever you desire when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them. So when you pray and ask God for help, see, you're facing something and you're not quite sure what to do and you need his help. It's not wrong to say Lord, I need your help on this. I know the helper is living on the inside. I'm asking you Then what do you do you believe you receive when you ask?
Speaker 1:You don't believe you receive after it's over. You believe you receive the help before the help even is evident. How many of you understand that? I mean you know he didn't say you know, believe you've received. After it it comes and the help is evident. No, you believe you've received when you ask and you boldly say that you know when you come.
Speaker 1:In fact, I don't even pray for help, I just say it. I say help, I said well, I boldly say the Lord is my helper. I'll not fear what man will do unto me, I'll not fear the outcome of this thing. I know the helpers live. See, I don't even have to pray for help because I know it's inside and I don't even have to ask. It just comes with the territory, it comes with the fact that I know I'm baptized in the Holy Ghost. I boldly say he's my helper.
Speaker 1:But you know, when you first start out, you know you might pray and, but it's same thing. If you pray or whether you say it, you've got to know you have it before you see the results of the help. Boldly say the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man will do unto me. And then remind yourself of the scripture, psalm 46, one the Lord is my refuge and my strength. He's an ever present help in time of trouble. He's ever present, he's a very present. King James says a very present help. Other versions say he's an ever present help. Either way, I like both of those and I quote them Psalm 40, 17, because you've been my help.
Speaker 1:Therefore, under the shadow of thy wings, I'll rejoice. You know, we ought to be able to rejoice when it's the darkest that it's ever been. We might be in the middle of the darkest stretch. It's been so long since we prayed and we keep confessing the word that we have it and we see no evidence of it, and it seems like man. When is this going to manifest? Listen, I mean, just go back as well. Praise God because he's been my help.
Speaker 1:Therefore, under the shadow of his wings do I rejoice? I'm just going to sit down and start laughing. I'm going to. I'm going to rejoice and praise God, no matter what I feel. I don't not in. I don't let my feelings rule me. Emotions come and go. Fact of the matter is, your emotions will follow your faith and it's not the other way around. Most Christians bless their hearts. They just let their emotions rule them. And when you do that, then you're always up and down, up and down, up and down. You just go down the road like a grasshopper. No, no, let's get steady, I tell you.
Speaker 1:When things look really bad and discouraging, I remember one day I went to see gladys, back when she was living in the assisted living. She was there eight months. She's home now since june. The second. We got her home and she's home tonight, says hi to everybody. Why didn't she? She's got her strength, has got to come back where she can come to church every time the doors open. We're believing for that. But she was here both services, sunday and that was a long day and she did really well. But she rested Monday. So did pastor Anyway. But you know, it's good, it's good to know that you have to remind yourself. You have to remind yourself of these of these truths, psalm 70, verse five he is my help and my deliverer. So you get your faith built up, stir yourself up with the word of God.
Speaker 1:When, instead of giving in to any kind of a pity party, and as I've started to say, I went to see her, and you know it'd been a long, it'd been a pretty good struggle up into that point. I mean we just, you know she needed a surgery and I just fought, fighting to get her brain surgery. That they know, and it just took forever, seemed like it took forever, to get anything done. You know, just week after week, you know, and she had a little temporary setback. And so the day I went to see her, she was in pain and she was a little more confused than she had been. And after I spent a couple hours with her, I went out to the parking lot, got in the car and and, uh, I mean, I was, I was, I was feeling the emotion of it.
Speaker 1:It's hard to be apart from your wife. You've been married 57 years and it's, you know, we'd never been apart and we're just, we're together all the time and we work together in the church and we've been together all you know, I was a home builder and built houses into my subdivision where she lives and and I'm see her during the day, and so we're not used to being apart, and so it was a little heavy on me and I got behind the wheel and I just said, well, I'm not moved by what I see, I'm not moved by what I hear, I'm only moved by what I believe. And I believe that Gladys is healed and I, you know, pressed the start button and pulled on out of there. I mean, sometimes you've just got to, you've got to speak something contrary to your emotions. Are you with me now?
Speaker 1:So believe you receive when you ask and hang on to it, boldly say the Lord is my helper, and uh, and then, secondly, I'm going to quote a dear minister and I call him a friend, brother Bill Dearman, who was director of missions at Lakewood Church for many years. And Brother Dearman used to say this you know we can't do everything, but we can do something, and we must do something lest we do nothing. That's a simple little statement. Nothing, that's a simple little statement. But you know, james 2, 20 in the Weymouth says faith without corresponding action is dead being alone. You know, your faith has to have corresponding action. Yes, the initial action is the word. The initial action is confessing the word with your mouth. That's the initial action.
Speaker 1:But a lot of times people miss. You know, they can have a good confession, all right, but what are you doing? What is your action? What? How are you acting? Your faith, what are you doing? And if you're doing doesn't line up with your saying, then your faith is dead. You can confess the word all day long and it's not going to come to pass. If you're acting differently, for instance, you can call yourself healed, and if you act sick, then you're just going to stay sick. That's all there is to it. You're going to have to make a decision.
Speaker 1:So when Gladys is feeling a little down, or she's feeling a little weak, or she's got a little bit of pain, I said well, honey, come on. Well, people, get out of the bed. Let's get out of bed now. Let's go do some more. Well, yeah, and I have to encourage her. See, she knows that. But I mean, two are better than one. See, I can encourage her, I can get her, I can get her stirred up and I can get her moving. You know, she'll get to walking through the house and everything, and the pain will just kind of go away or melt away and just you know, you just get your mind off of your trouble and you start acting like the Bible is true.
Speaker 1:That's the simple definition of faith is you take an action that says that it's true. Faith has everybody say, faith has corresponding action. You know, even a corner animal fights man. You don't want to. You don't want to corner an animal. I mean an animal's cornered, I mean they're going to come out with their teeth bared and they're going to come out of that corner. I don't care, they might be half dead, but they're going to come after you. They're not going to put up with you messing with them. They're, they're, they're going to fight. Well, we are, we're better than an animal. We're going to come out fighting devil. You're not going to get us to lay down and we're not going to have a pity party.
Speaker 1:You know, um, second Kings, uh, in chapter seven, there was a famine in uh, israel and it was because of their sin. God had, just, you know, that's what happened. They were in a covenant and God told them the terms of the covenant and for them to be blessed, they had to keep the law and they had to live right. And they weren't living right. They were worshiping idols and they were doing the wrong things and the Syrians had come against them and and and came against, came against the city and blockaded it and they couldn't get any food in and they used up all the food and food prices went through the roof. Eggs were selling for $10 a dozen and, uh, the prophet leaned on his staff at the gate and said you know, this time tomorrow eggs are going to be $2 a dozen.
Speaker 1:He didn't say it that way, he said it different. You know, he was talking about other kinds of food and I mean it sounded crazy. How in the world could that possibly happen? I mean it sounded crazy. How in the world could that possibly happen, that you could have a shortage of food and a famine and all of a sudden, in 24 hours time, everything's leveled off? And so one guy said ah, that can't be, you're not speaking for God. He said well, you know it's going to happen, but you're not going to be allowed to get it. That guy got trampled underfoot with animals. Animals stampeded and killed him. So he didn't get to see the breakthrough.
Speaker 1:So anyway, outside the city gates sat four lepers and they said why sit we here till we die? If we go back into the city, we're surely going to die. If we, if we sit here, we know we're going to die. If we go over there to where the Syrian army is 180,000 of them in their tents we might die, or they might have mercy on us. They might not kill us. What have we got to lose? If we go over there, we might make it. Why should we here? So they went over there and they come across one of the tents and the tent is empty. There's nobody in it. There's food all over. Everywhere there's a trail of clothes and everywhere they looked the whole army had left.
Speaker 1:Because God had sent such a sound from heaven that the whole Syrian army thought it was another army, that they, that Israel had hired Egypt and and and the Hittites to come against them. And they got afraid and they all left and they went out there and they even gathered up gold and silver. What's what? What kind of a army would bring gold and silver to a battle? I mean, that makes you scratch your head. I mean, why would you bring grandma's silver uh P, you know silver set to the to the battlefield, I don't know, but they, they heaped up. I mean, they picked up gold, silver they ate. They stuffed their face till they couldn't stuff their face anymore. And then they got. They felt bad. They said, you know, we better go in before we do anything else. We better go and tell them that we're free. And so they did. They went back and the people gathered up and the famine ended. I mean, why sit here until we die? In other words, do something, lest you do nothing. They did something. They didn't sit there on their haunches. Don't be sitting and waiting for God. He's waiting for you. He's waiting for you to act. Second Kings four.
Speaker 1:Another example the widow whose husband was one of the prophets died without any insurance. He owed everybody in town and the predators were coming to take her two sons because they were security for his debts. That's how backslid Israel was. Instead of honoring the man of God and his widow, they're about to take advantage of her. That's how sinful and ugly Israel had become. Kind of reminds you of America and the way we've been in the last while. Things are beginning to change. What you're seeing is a shaking and you're seeing a tremendous opportunity. What's going on right now. I'm telling you, people that are on the wrong side of God are afraid. Now they're beginning to see God move and they don't know what to do about it. We're going to keep them running too, amen.
Speaker 1:But so she cried out to the prophet Elisha what am I doing? What am I going to do? I don't. They're going to come take my sons. If they take my sons, in other words, she's going to starve to death. She'd had nobody to help her. They're her only hope to have somebody working in the house to take care of her. Now, if they take them, she'll starve.
Speaker 1:And he said well, what have you got in the house? Well, you, her. Now, if they take them, she'll starve. And he said well, what have you got in the house? Well, you're, I don't have anything. Oh yeah, I forgot, I got a little jar of all what. So what? He said go borrow as many jars as you can, bind and fill your house. And when you fill your house, shut the door. And so she did that and got her sons to borrow all these big jars, vessels, earthen vessels, and they filled the house up with them. She said, son, keep bringing them in. He said, not room for another one, I can't put another one in here, there's no more room. And so she told the prophet. He said, okay, now pour of the oil that you have into the empty jars and take the full vessels and pay your debt and sell the rest of it and live off of that. And what kind of sense does that make? See, she had to act on the word. She had to act like she had enough oil to fill all those vessels. He told her how to how to do it. I mean, it makes no natural sense. So what my point is? She had to act.
Speaker 1:The Holy ghost is a helper. He's not the doer, he's the help. Get, do something for God to get involved with. I said do something for for God to get involved with. I mean, listen, you've got the greatest big old cruiser, big old boat, big old carnival cruise line is tied up there at Galveston, tied up to the dock, fixing the sail. I mean, it's tied up to the dock, what is what does it take? Is it? Can it go anywhere until they throw the lines off and start the engines up and start moving through the water? I mean, no boat can be steered unless it's moving. You've got to move out. You've got to start. You can't know where to go until you start moving.
Speaker 1:A lot of times people are trying to figure the whole thing out ahead of time. It seldom works that way. Sometimes you've got to go out and you've got to do something lest you do nothing. Well, what if it's the wrong thing? Well, what if it's the right thing? I had to learn a long time ago that if I'm going in the wrong direction, once I start moving in the wrong direction, I'm going to know it and I'm going to turn around and go the other direction. But if you don't do anything, you will never know. Is this helping you? Now Everybody say I'm doing something lest I do nothing. Do something for God to get involved with. That's the main thing. In order for God to help you, the holy helper to help you, you've got to be doing something in him to help you. Romans 8.26 says let's turn there. It's worth looking at that one.
Speaker 1:Romans 8.26, one of the cornerstone ways that we pray in this church. For all the most difficult things you can think of, complicated things, especially things about our nation, things about God, has shown me about this nation Romans 8, 26,. Likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities or our weaknesses, he helpeth. He helps our weaknesses For because we know not what we should pray for, as we ought, but the spirit itself or himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Well, that last part mainly just means praying in tongues, that's all it means. Yeah, it can mean groanings, it can mean that, but it can mean just praying in other tongues, other versions of that of that same verse.
Speaker 1:So let me break it down for you. You're facing something you don't even know how to pray. It's complicated. There's there's an array of. Have you ever played pickup sticks? Anybody old enough to remember pickup sticks? Most of you never saw that, because they have modern games now, but they used to have pickup sticks. So you'd throw these sticks down and they and they all crisscrossed and everything, and then you pick them up, one at a time and if you, if you move one, it buzzes and then you, you know you lose the game. So it, so it's, it's. It's just real intricate to un unstack all of this, this, this uh, confused pile of little toothpick looking sticks. So that's the way a lot of problems are. They're layered, they're intertwined. It's hard to understand just how to pray. So what do you do?
Speaker 1:The Holy Ghost help if he takes hold together with you against. You have to pray. You have to begin to pray in other tongues about that thing, without your brain knowing and your reason knowing anything about how to solve it. And guess what he does? When you start to pray, he comes in and he takes hold together with you against that thing. Oh man, come on, lift your hands right now. He's the holy helper and he knows how to help you. As weak as you are, as uninformed as you are, as clueless have you ever been just clueless about something and you don't know how to, you don't know which end is up. Hey, that's the time for the Holy Ghost. You start praying in other tongues. It's not about your brain, it's not about your mind, it's not about what you know, it's about who you know, and he's going to come in there and he's going to help you against that thing. Oh glory to God, woo, hallelujah.
Speaker 1:The bottom line is you just can't steer a ship sitting at the dock. I mean, you've got to cast off, you've got to start the motor and you've got to start steaming one direction or another and you've got to steer it. And that's what it takes to do anything to get from where you are to where God wants you to be. And I've told this testimony. We have new people In the spring of 1985, so that's been kind of you know.
Speaker 1:It's 40 years ago now. It's hard to believe it's been that long. It's been like yesterday to me. But the spring of 85, we had a lot of trouble in Houston. Houston was having a depression. Everybody else was having a recession. Houston was having was having a depression because, oh, this is an oil town and oil prices had dropped through the floor and that meant that oil companies, which many oil companies, moved to Houston in the 70s. And you know you had Exxon moved here. You had Shell, royal Dutch Shell moved here. I mean their world headquarters in Houston. I mean Houston became the energy capital of the world. And all these big, massive you know Texaco, conoco, Phillips, I mean you just name all the big oil companies their home offices are in Houston. And so that's when Houston began to explode in growth because they brought their workers and they hired their workers. They came from all over the world and came to Houston to work at the home office and they bought houses and I'm a home builder and you know it, it, it, it helped me stay in business and you know. And.
Speaker 1:But in the mid eighties by the mid eighties, you know things were called out of whack and won't go into all the thing, but basically that was the transition from main street to wall street I didn't know that. I know it now I can look back, but I didn't know it then and so I was in trouble, not because of anything I had done, but because of of these unelected bureaucrats that had housed all these federal agencies that control the banking, the Fed and the oil too. I mean they started making it hard for the oil companies to make money. They started putting all kinds of you know, the energy, all of the clamps on the pollution and all of that kind of thing. It depressed oil prices down to below $6 a barrel and I mean so all companies started laying people off and all the people that were buying my houses middle level managers got laid off and they had to leave their houses and a lot of them just were foreclosed on. So I'm competing with foreclosed on houses, trying to build a new house with other houses at a couple of three years old in the neighborhood and they're foreclosed on and are being sold for nothing. And so it it.
Speaker 1:It got really bad and I had a $1.2 million worth of inventory for sale and nothing was moving. And uh, I had to move into one of my houses that I built and I had to take out a mortgage. It was a 14 and three quarter percent mortgage. How would you like to have your mortgage be 14 and three quarter percent, but that's what I had to do, because I couldn't pay the construction loan interest, which was even higher, and so I had I had to just move into one of my houses and uh, and you get that off the books. And uh, and of course that didn't put any money in my pocket.
Speaker 1:And then, by the time that that happened, and then later on, that's when the bottom just kind of fell out. So I mean, I didn't have any money, I couldn't sell my houses, my cash flow was nil, and so I went to the Lord one day and said Lord, I don't know what's going on, but I'm done all I know to do. I've sold everything, I've liquidated everything, I've cut everything down to the bare minimum. So the best I can say to this morning is that if I belong somewhere else doing something, if I don't mind changing careers, I don't mind changing cities, if I have to move someplace, I'm ready. I want to support my family and I'm not able to do that. I finally exhausted all my options. I don't have any more options. And so, lord, you tell me what to do. I'm not sure what's next.
Speaker 1:See, and I started praying in other tongues, started praying in other tongues. See, I'm looking at a situation. I don't even understand the immensity of it. I don't even know. I don't know. Now I can look back. It wasn't me, it was. The whole country was a mess and we're getting that solved right now. That's being solved. A lot of that is getting undone and unraveled and a lot of these people are getting fired and a lot of these people are getting their walking papers. He's just immoral, anyway. So 30 minutes, as God is, 30 minutes later, my phone rings and it's a good friend of mine.
Speaker 1:Bud Bud had moved to Corpus Christi six months before. He's a good friend of mine. Bud Bud had moved to Corpus Christi six months before. He's a good friend of mine. We were in full gospel businessmen's together and he was kind of a guy that God used to help disciple me in the early days and he put me under his wing and kind of, would you know, show me the ropes. And I'd listen to him a lot and follow his advice. And he got a job in Corpus and he moved.
Speaker 1:And so he calls me and said Griner, what's going on with you? I can't get you out of my mind. You come in front of my face all the time. I can't get anywhere, hardly get any praying done for praying for you. What's wrong, what's going on? I said, oh man. So I told him he said well, this might be the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:And so he was running a commercial real estate company that he was hired to run. He was the CEO and had a rich guy that owned it. But he was the CEO of it and they had commercial holdings in Corpus Christi and the suburban areas around there and they had one subdivision that they had bought and it was in trouble. He said you're a residential guy. None of us know anything about residential. Would you be interested to come and take a look at this thing and see what you say, what you think we could do to get this thing moving? It's just stuck, there's no sales and it's just. You know, we've got a bunch of unsold lots and then we've got a whole section that needs to be developed and we don't know how to. We just don't know what to do with this whole thing. Would you come and take a look at it? There might be a way that we could hire you. You might be interested in hiring you. I said, yeah, I'll come.
Speaker 1:So the next day I flew to Corpus Listen, I got a six figure offer, a contract, one year contract signed to be president of their real estate division. I went over there and solved their trouble in that subdivision. We developed 70, some odd lots, sold the lots, I mean, revitalized that neighborhood, got builders to build on the vacant lots in the old section. I mean we turned that thing around. It was turned around because of my experience and God used it to turn my finances around.
Speaker 1:Come on, lift your hand right now. You know the Holy Ghost knows how to help you if you will just do something lest you do nothing. And so it really was a blessing for us to be there for that year and a half. Actually, one year of that was God, and in the six months I stayed too long. So I won't get into that part of the testimony, but I will say that God knows how to meet your need. He knows how to lead, guide and direct you into ripe harvest. Are you with me now? So tap into the Holy Helper with your faith and with your action and lay hold on his help. He is your ally. Come on, lift your hand and receive tonight Hallelujah. Thank you, lord, for the Holy Ghost. Aren't you glad for the Holy Ghost? Oh, I tell you he loves being your ally.
Speaker 1:Speaking of allies, it's kind of fun watching Trump at Buckingham Palace and all the pomp and ceremony and the carriages and the horses and the big hats. And did you see that table that they ate at? It's about 150 foot long and I don't know how many people sat at that table. I mean that table. I'm telling you that table had to be longer, it had to be all the way to the other side of the lobby from here. And there's people on either side eating in this big, old, gigantic, ornate hall. I mean, they're our ally, great Britain. Oh boy, Anyway, praise God. Thank you, lord, hallelujah.