Joint Forces | James Buntrock

In this message titled “Joint Forces,” the focus is on how spiritual unity releases God’s anointing and supernatural ability in the lives of believers. Rooted in Ephesians 4, Psalm 133, and Acts, it highlights how the body of Christ is meant to function as one connected unit, with every person bringing their unique supply, purpose, and role. Through relatable illustrations from teamwork, church life, marriage, and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit, the message shows that when believers align with God’s Word, His will, and one another, they gain divine strength to accomplish what would otherwise be impossible. It is a clear call to unity, agreement, and joining forces with God to walk out His purpose.

Transcript

Bible First And Fivefold Ministry

SPEAKER_00 0:00

For those who are watching and and ready and have your Bibles out, you know, we preach out of God's Word, we preach out of the Bible, we don't preach out of other books and other things. Uh God's word is number one, and uh and so we use God's word. If that offends you, I'm sorry. But Ephesians chapter four, verse eleven. It says, and he himself gave some to be apostles and some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. And so, you know, if you're part of this church, you know that you have a pastor. And that is one of the fivefold uh ministry uh titles given here. Um and this is the purpose for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of faith. And so, in other words, we're gonna keep doing this until everybody is united around this word and this faith, until we come to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. So we can we we can be united, but we're still gonna keep going until we come to the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And so we're just gonna keep going, preaching out of this word until we get there, uh, until we graduate. Um, and then it says in verse 14 that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. And so uh I've got a message tonight that I've titled Joint Forces. Um, it's got several meanings wrapped up in there. You know, we've got a uh a joint military operation going on in the Middle East, and we've joined together, we've joined our forces with Israel uh against our mutual enemy uh that wants to kill and destroy uh both nations, Israel and the United States. And so we've got joint forces. We have come together, we have united around a common purpose and a common cause, and we are um operating together to accomplish the same goal. And so there's joint forces that way. But here in in Ephesians chapter 4, um, this is talking about a body, and a body has joints. You know, the the joints are the the points of connection for parts of the body, and uh and there's forces at work in those joints, and so uh I didn't know which way to go with it, so we just call it joint forces tonight, and we'll cover all of it. Um so that's the message title, joint forces. Um if you look over in Psalm 133, and we're just gonna haul off and read the entirety of Psalm 133. And let me just warn you, this is a really, really short Psalm. So y'all can relax. Psalm 133, 1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion, where the for there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. And so um, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And then immediately it says, it's like the precious oil. It's like the precious oil. And that oil speaks to the anointing. Um, Aaron was the oldest brother of Moses, who was the first high priest of Israel, and Moses was the one. So you for you recall the story. Uh Moses didn't feel like he could speak so good. And so uh he complained to God, and God said that Aaron was going to be his spokesperson. Aaron was the first high priest. Moses was the one who anointed uh Aaron for the priestly service at the instruction of God. And so it began when Moses poured out that oil. So he had oil and he didn't just put a little drop, he poured out the oil on the head of Aaron. And of course, it ran down his beard and down his clothes and got everywhere, all over everything. Um, and so that was the the type and shadow of the anointing in the in the Old Testament. There was a physical thing that was done, but God provided the anointing, God provided the um the backup for that oil that was running down on Aaron. Now there's two types of anointing, and we're not going to spend a long lot of lot of time on this, but there's uh the anointing upon, which is what what what we just described here, the anointing upon Aaron. It was uh the anointing was upon the priest, the prophet, and the king of the Old Testament. And then there's the anointing within. And uh and and we have the anointing within by the Holy Spirit who dwells on the inside of us. Um and but there still exists the anointing upon. You can still have the anointing within and the anointing uh upon. Uh, these were spiritually dead men in the Old Testament, and they had no capability of carrying the Spirit of God on the inside of them. Um, they had a different covenant and a different standard. Um, they were not capable of carrying the Holy Spirit. They had to continually offer sacrifices for their sin, but Jesus came and did the one sacrifice for us all, and he accomplished all of it in one move and brought us into right standing and into a righteous condition before God. So the blood of Jesus speaks to our righteousness all the time in front of God. And because of that, we are in a condition where we can forever be in the presence of God. We are carriers of the presence of God. We carry the anointing of the Holy Spirit with us wherever we go. And so the anointing within comes from the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Now, Jesus started his ministry out in Luke chapter 4, verse 18. He said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So that was how Jesus began his ministry by announcing to all present that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to do those very specific things. He had a list of things that he was anointed. The anointing was upon him to do. Um and we know that Jesus that's his name. Um Christ is not his name, Christ is his title. Um, so he is known as Jesus Christ. Christ means Messiah, but it also means the anointed one. And so it's Jesus the anointed one. But we are Christians. We bear his name. We are Christians. So Christians means Christ-like, and it also means little anointed ones. So if you are a born-again believer, if you've received salvation, if you're part of the body of Christ, if you're in the kingdom of God, you are an anointed one. You have the anointing on the inside of you, and from time to time there will be an anointing upon you when you step in to do very specific things that God has assigned for you to do. Um according to John 16, verse 13, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth. Um and He's promised to guide believers into all truth. And he says that he'll only speak those things that he hears from God, and he'll show us things to come. If you go uh back into John 14, 26, the Holy Spirit is called uh the helper. He's he's there to help you, Jesus said, and that he would teach you things, and he would bring things to remembrance. Things that you've already ingested, taken in, and put in your spirit, put in your heart, or put in your brain, he will bring things to remembrance. And so that's why it's so important to fill up on God's word, stay full of his word, study his word, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Fill yourself up on this word. And you're and you know, I understand that memorizing might be a challenge to memorize this scripture. And I don't really set out to memorize scripture, but if you read it enough times, it's in there. And it comes out at just the right times. Whenever you need it, it just comes out. And that's really the Holy Spirit who will who will help you bring things to remembrance. He will teach you, he will lead you, he'll guide you, he'll uh he's the spirit of truth. He only speaks those things that are true. He speaks those things that he hears his father or our father, uh God, um, speak, and he shows us things to come. I mean, he can show you futuristic things out in front of you. I mean, really, it's an extremely unfair advantage that we have in this world by walking around as little anointed ones, carrying the Spirit of God with us wherever we go. Um, in Acts 1.8, so this is the early church, um, Jesus is making this uh instruction here. He said, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And so he's saying these things to his disciples that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Um He had already prepped his disciples a while back and said, I'm gonna leave you, but don't get sad, I will send another, and he's gonna be called he's gonna be the comforter. You know, that's another name for the Holy Spirit, another uh function of the Holy Spirit. Um and and he would he would do all those things that Jesus had done and provided for them plus. So the Holy Spirit for the disciples was really Jesus plus, walking around on the inside of them. Um, because there were things that Jesus wanted to tell them, and I believe specifically about the Holy Spirit, and he couldn't reveal those things to his disciples right away because they weren't ready to receive it, they weren't ready to hear it, they couldn't take it, they wouldn't have been able to wrap their little brains around it because they were not yet born-again creatures or new creatures in Christ. But when they became born again, then they became eligible to receive the Holy Spirit, and then they could have the plus that Jesus wanted them to have. And so here that here he's uh letting them know that they're gonna receive power when the Holy Spirit has come. So that's Acts 1.8. If you go a couple of uh pages over to the right in Acts chapter 2, uh verse 1, this is the coming of the Holy Spirit. So when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in the King James it says, uh in accord in one place. Um they were all with one accord in one place. They were obeying what the instruction was. He told them to go be in a certain place and wait until. And so they were responding to that instruction, they were waiting until, but they were all in agreement. They were in one place, doing the same thing at the same time. They were in one accord, not the car. Uh they were just simply in agreement. And then in verse two, it says, And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues of uh as of fire, and one sat on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And so we know that the uh the the evidence of the uh spirit-filled believer uh is to be able to speak in tongues. He that is the that is the evidence, the physical evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and that's what they had, and that's what they exhibited right here. So uh we'll go ahead a few more verses. So in Acts chapter 2, verse 16, uh this is what Peter said about it. Um He said, But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel, and so this was prophesied all the way back, all those hundreds of years prior. This was that spoken by the prophet Joel, and then he goes ahead and quotes it. And so in verse 17 here it says, And it shall come to pass, so this is quoting Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And then it goes on to talk about your sons and daughters prophesy and see visions, and old men dream dreams, and and and and all the benefits, all the things that are coming forward. But I want to clue into verse 17 there, and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And so go back to that um that imagery that we read out of out of Psalm 133 of the anointing oil being poured on to Aaron for the first time. The anointing oil was poured on the head of Aaron. And that's exactly the imagery in the picture here that's being laid out, and it shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out, just like he's got a uh a big jar and he's just reached over over the top, and he didn't just give you a little dab, not a little drop. He didn't reach in and sprinkle a little bit with his fingertips, but he poured it all out. And he says, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And so I you know, I believe that day is still yet to come, but he has poured out his spirit on us, those who will receive it. And it's not just a little bit. And so there is always more available, and you know, there's there's multiple uh fillings because we're busy pouring out. We're busy pouring out of the anointing, and so we got to stay full on that continually filling up on the Holy Spirit. But that imagery uh of the anointing, and again, the the anointing is is is simply this it's the power of God on our flesh to do what our flesh can't do by itself. And so it's needed, it's necessary. The anointing is necessary for us because he's gonna ask us to do things that we are not capable of doing in our flesh. We are not inclined to do the very things that he's asking us to do. Um, he will ask you to do things that are completely unnatural and foreign to you. And I can relate to this wholeheartedly because I did not set out in life um to become a preacher and to stand in the pulpit and and minister God's word. My dad was a preacher, and I I really developed a uh a resentment towards that because my dad spent a lot of time pouring out and helping other people and and less so uh with with our family and me. And maybe maybe that balance was wrong, or maybe my attitude was just rotten and I just got jaded that way. But I didn't want to be that. I wanted nothing to do with that. I spent my time running away from that, uh, and I've said this before, but my natural side, uh I don't like people. I especially don't like being around large groups of people, and I absolutely hated public speaking. I don't want to do any of that. And I've said so much. I don't want to do that, I don't want to do that, I don't want to do that. So what am I doing? I'm doing the very thing that I swore that I didn't want to do. And so it is not natural for me to do these kinds of things. It is supernatural to do that. There's an anointing to do that. There's a I'm not bragging on on me. I'm I'm saying the opposite of that. That I'm not inclined to do this. It's not, it's not a normal feeling for me to do this. It's not something that I would have set out in life and sought after and chased after. This is not my life's dream. I had a different dream in a different place, doing a different thing and a different time. And I had to give all of that away and roll all of my desires onto him and adopt his desires for my life. And when you do that, there's a there's an ability, an anointing that will come on you to do his desires for your life. And it doesn't have to be what you thought of, it's just simply you're adopting his desires, and then you can have that anointing. And I know we're talking about joint forces here, and so we'll get back to the the joint side of things, but I just want you to understand um the connection, and and we're gonna continue drawing this connection tonight, but there's a connection between uh being unified um with each other, with God's word, being unified with God and the anointing. When there's a unity, there's an anointing available. And uh and and so we'll we'll make some of those connections tonight. So in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9, um, Paul has complained um about this uh uh thorn in the flesh, this thing that was causing him a problem and it wasn't a literal thorn. Um that thorn uh in in the Bible is is really people. Uh and so people were causing Paul a problem. And really, you know, if it weren't for people, church would be perfect. That's a fact. But people are flawed, and we're we're around people, and this world is full of people, and uh and so people are gonna give you a hard time. And people were giving Paul a hard time here, and so he started feeling kind of bad about it and crying out to God and ask ask for help. But God's response to Paul was that my grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you. Um, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And then Paul writes, Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, uh, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Well, let me break some of that down a little bit because when he said, My grace is sufficient for you, I want you to understand what grace is. Yes, it's unmerited favor, but it's it's a it it's more than just a favor to do something, it's a benefit. There's there's benefits, and really it comes down to um God's ability and and might and power that come alongside and and propel you into doing the thing that you would not have otherwise been able to do. So it's God's ability. Mike, so Paul's complaining here, and and God said, My ability is sufficient for you. For my strength, my ability, my might, my power is made perfect in weakness. In other words, you're incapable of doing the thing that I've set in front of you to do, and so I'm gonna put my ability on you to do this, my anointing on you to do this, that the power of Christ may rest on. So Paul is now boasting. He said, I would rather boast in my inabilities to do something that the power of Christ or the anointing may rest upon me. And so when you start to look at it in those terms, I don't have a pro I don't have a problem reporting to you that I do things all the time that are abnormal and not natural for me. And in doing so, I'm boasting. There's an anointing that comes and helps me do the things that are not natural, and this is available to you for every one of you. Um in Romans 8 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. It's the same word there that Paul used when he said that, or when God said that my strength is made perfect in your weakness. It's the same word. So likewise the spirit helps in our weaknesses, and that is feebleness of mind and body. For we do not know how the how we should pray as we ought, but the spirit himself makes intercessions for us, groanings which can't be uttered. Uh now he who searches the hearts knows the minds, uh knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercessions for the saints according to the will of God. And so the Holy Spirit is closing the gap between our ability to do something and God's plan for our life, and he's right in the middle with God's ability poured out onto us. The anointing is poured out onto us as you need it. It's being poured out, his ability is being poured out, and he's in the middle making intercessions for us, uh, groanings and words that can't be uttered, but he's communicating. So there's like this whole operation happening on our behalf. Um, it says he makes intercessions for the saints according to the will of God, so that we can do the will of God, so that we can accomplish God's will in our life, so that we can walk out his plan for our life, which would otherwise be impossible. Um and so we are joining forces with God when we roll our desire our way off on him. We're joining forces with him when we uh make room for this anointing, when we recognize that there's an anointing to do something, when we recognize that I can't do this on my own, but I'm gonna receive from the Holy Spirit the anointing, the grace, the ability, the might, the power to do these things. And so you're joining forces with God when we do that. How many know when you join forces with God, there is really nothing that can't be done? And it's not that he needs your force added to the equation, it's just simply that you're grabbing hold of his might, his ability, his power, and you can do anything that he puts in front of you to do. And you you have absolutely uh nothing to stop you when you grab hold and join forces with God. Um, so let's talk a little bit more about the unity. About people that we deal with here. And so again, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious oil, it's like the precious anointing that comes upon. Again, going back to Ephesians 4.11, do we all come to the same unity of faith? It talks about the whole body being joined and knit together whereby every joint supplies. And so when we assemble ourselves in church and we're together, we're part of one body here, there is every joint supplies. We each have a purpose, we each have a position, we each have a role, we each have something to bring, we each have an anointing upon and within. And we make up the entirety of a body that we're supposed to be assembled together into this body, and we're supposed to function like a body. So then there's every joint supplies. You have a supply when you show up in church, you have a supply when you sit next to someone, they have a supply for you. You ought to be an encouragement to people when you come in here, and they ought to be an encouragement to you when you when they come in here with you. And so there's this mutual supply that goes both ways. And when we're dwelling together in unity, it's like that precious anointing coming upon. And so there's there's a greater ability to do things when we're joined together as the body of Christ. Um so many of you know we've got a ministry called My God Votes, and we're hosting church services in state capitals during legislative sessions, and and up and we're we're now doing this in eight states now. And mentally, for me, I kind of had to overcome some things because we're inviting pastors to come in to the Capitol and minister in that capitol. And I, you know, at first I'm thinking, okay, well, I don't want to just invite any pastor to come in here. I mean, there's a doctrine of truth that we minister from here, and not everybody has that same doctrine of truth. You know, there's there's there's variations of of doctrines and denominations, and people are divided on all kinds of stuff. So do I really want to invite a pastor from that denomination over there to come in and minister over here? But there is something about being joined together and being unified. So, what can we be unified around? And so we really just boiled it down to if we can agree on the power of the blood of Jesus and what that does for us and what that how he saved us, how he was uh a sacrifice for us, how that brought us into right standing, how we can boldly come before before the the throne of God and obtain mercy. If we can, if we can just find some simple things in the gospel to be united around and agree on, hey, we can go to work together. And that level of unity has really been a significant measure of success for that project. The anointing comes because there's a unity around God's word, around the truth. We're not they're not coming in to argue over points of doctrine and denominations, they're coming in to preach the gospel of truth, that that simple truth that we can be united around. And when we do that, there's an anointing that comes in that place. And the anointing comes upon them in that place, and it changes the atmosphere in that building. And so, you know, man can really make religion complicated, but the simple truth of the gospel is powerful. And when we can unite around those things, and quite frankly, you know, if Jesus can be in fellowship with somebody, why can't I? Can we fellowship together? You know, we don't have to agree on everything, we don't have to fellowship around the thing, the points of disagreement, but can we fellowship around the points of agreement? And if we can do that, we can do a whole lot more together than we can apart. And really it's a picture of the body of Christ coming together across this nation and accomplishing something that would not have otherwise been able to be accomplished. Um, because there's a unity that brings the anointing uh in that setting. Um I'll give you a perspective of mine. So I grew up sailing in in Corpus Christi. Um I loved to sail. I I used to um, and I've never owned my own sailboat, I never had to. I just got to crew on everybody else's sailboat. But racing was a thing that I really enjoyed, sailboat racing. And so, you know, on Wednesday nights in Corpus Christi, there was a uh a standing uh race that happened every Wednesday night. So people would get off of work and come down to the docks and get on their boats, and and if you were wanting to sail and wanting to crew, you got picked up and and you got to hop on one of these boats and be crew and go sail around the bay, and it was a race, and it was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed that. But the more I got into that, we uh we pulled together a team and we raced on one boat. You know, I got to where I stopped racing on everybody else's boats, and we started racing on. I had a friend who had a sailboat, and so we raced on that boat only, and we were a team, and we went out and trained and we practiced and we went over and over and over these sailing maneuvers out there, and there were very specific positions on on the boat, very specific areas on the boat. And so I was four deck crew, so everything forward of the mast was something that I handled up there, so sail handling and sail changes and putting the spinnaker up, and there's complex things with running lines and and doing things under pressure while the while the waves are bringing the boat up and down, and you're you're turning the boat around to uh a particular mark out there uh on the course. Um the helmsman, he is solely in charge of the helms uh of steering the boat in a in the right direction. Uh there's a tactician that is watching the big picture things of what's going on, and he's whispering things to the helmsman and giving him guidance about what other boats are doing. Because if I'm if I'm the helmsman and I'm sitting here looking over here at what other boats are doing, soon I'm off course. And so it was it was very focused. Every job on that boat was very focused. The sail handling, the as the boat would begin to turn and and and come closer to the direction where the wind was coming from, those sails had to be brought in and things had to be tightened up on the boat so that um everything was ultra efficient. And so the subtle movements on the boat, we got to where we didn't even talk. And we could somehow, there was a nonverbal communication that was that was going on in that boat. All it would take was a quick look at somebody, a nod of the head, a uh you know, a tilt of the head or something, and we didn't want to project what we were about to do for with other boats who were sailing right next to us. We we wanted to catch them by surprise and maybe tack and pull away from them in a different direction. And so we were able to just do things on that boat, and and yet it was a crew of five people sailing. And these five people, the five of us, could operate with an efficiency, and just, you know, one movement of the helm meant someone brought in the mainsail just a little bit, and the other person brought in the jib just a little bit, and other people leaning on the outside of the boat leaned over just a little bit more to help keep the boat flat. It was just, it was a well-orchestrated movement. We were fitly joined together, everybody had their part. There was no arguing, there was no complaining, there was no whining about it. We were there to win, and we just did things as a unit. Even though we were individuals, we operated as a unit. And that is a picture of what the body of Christ ought to be like, where we operate as a unit, we have the same ultimate goal, ultimate purpose, and we can do things uh independently, but collectively we are working together as part of a machine, as part of a body. And you know, if if if I bend my arm, there's a joint in my elbow, there's a joint in my shoulder, and everything's working together so that I can reach down on my plate and stab that bite of food and bring it up to my mouth. My arm doesn't get to taste the food, my hand doesn't get to enjoy the food, it doesn't get to smell it, it doesn't get to chew it up. Ultimately, it gets the benefit of the nutrients that I'm in taking. And my arm and my hand and my fingers, they don't complain about having to take bite after bite after bite. But it's part of the same unit, and it just does what it's supposed to when it's supposed to, and every joint works together and supplies. And so, you know, we're a we're a body here at Glorious Way Church. We're a team, we're part of a unit. And we can't be complaining about somebody over here and and deciding, well, I've got a different mission over here, and the Lord's leading me over there to do this. No, though, if the Lord's leading this church someplace, he's leading all of us someplace. And if you're part of this church, God's leading us the same direction to do the same thing. And if you're part of this church, whatever your role is in this church is every bit as important as someone else's role. We are one body fitly joined together where every joint supplies. And you know, when when when there's uh uh a problem in a joint, when you have joint pain, the body stops working so well. When there's joint pain, it really stops the movement of the body. Joint pain in one place in the body, friction where there ought not to be friction, can shut down the entire body and stop the movement of the body. And so if we have forces, competing forces in a joint, you know, Miss Miss Renee Orr, she just had a joint replacement. She went and got herself a new hip. I guess part of her body was pulling one way while the other one was saying no, and something didn't like it, and something didn't work, and ultimately she ended up with probably bone on bone or or something that wasn't working in there, and that had to be repaired. And so, you know, thank God she's got a new a new joint. She's got a new hip, some new landing gear, and uh she's able to move again and and and do things again. Um, but we can't let friction in the joints or the or the connections um pull us apart such that the movement of the body stops. You know, how can two walk together unless they agree? We've got to do things in agreement. And you know, that that speaks to marriages too, because in in uh 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14, um, Paul has this very stern warning. He says, Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. So he's talking, I mean, this includes marriage, but it goes beyond that too. We we ought not have these friendly relationships and go hang out with unbelievers. That's not our team, that's not our unit, that's not part of our body. And if you do that, you're gonna start picking up some of the same things that they're doing, and you'll ultimately uh be more like them than they will be like you. And so we don't go have those relationships to go hang out, um, to go have that kind of fellowship um with the ungodly. It says, so Paul warns, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness, and what communion has light with darkness, and what accord has Christ with Belial, or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And so that's especially true in a marriage to not uh come together in the union of marriage and be united in marriage. Um it's a covenant, it's a three-way covenant between the man, the woman, and God, and to be united in marriage, and yet one of those people is not a believer. That is setting yourself up for disaster. Now, there's plenty of cases where people are not believers and they're married and they're happily married, and then one gets saved. Well, the saved one can work to bring salvation to the unsaved one. But the concept of I'm gonna go into this thing and we're gonna yoke up together and be joined together and get married and become one in God's eyes, and then I'll get that person saved down the line, that is a recipe for disaster. And and really, you know, you want to take that a little step further to not have the same unity of faith going into a marriage. A marriage is gonna require agreement on all points. You're gonna have to walk together, agree on things, make life decisions, hear from the Holy Spirit together. I mean, it is not good for someone who is spirit-filled to be married to somebody who is not spirit-filled. One who is walking around with the anointing upon and within and functioning at a high level, and the other one is pulling the opposite direction because they are not spirit-led beings. They're not spirit-filled. They're not, they don't have the anointing upon or within, they don't have the benefit of these things. They will pull you in the wrong direction, and then you have friction, and then you have a painful joint, and that body will begin to shut down and stop moving. And so, you know, just the unity, and then the the reverse of that is true that when you have that unity in marriage, there's an anointing to do those things that would otherwise be hard. There's an anointing, there's a help that comes alongside. So we we can have the help, the the helper, the comforter, the one who leads you, that guides you, that teaches you things, that shows you things to come, that brings things to remembrance. You have the full benefit of the help of the Holy Spirit when you're operating together in unity. It's like that precious oil, the precious anointing that that was poured out on the head of Aaron. And so we're talking about um joint forces and being joined together. And and it really it's a force multiplier, it's not a force adder when you're joined together. Um Jesus said in Matthew 18, he says, Again I say to you, this is verse 19, Matthew 18, 19, again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, in the midst of them, I am there. And so you have a quorum. You have one is good, two is better than one. When you have two together, it's not a force adder, it's a force multiplier, and you can that power of agreement means that you're gonna put a demand on things and things are gonna happen for you. Um you can have that as a believer, but just one is good, but two is better than one. Um but we can't just have a uh put a demand on anything that we want. It's not anything in the whole world, it's not our will. So if you look at 1 John chapter 5, verse 14, it says, Now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And we know that if he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. And so when our asking aligns with his word, when we're in agreement with his word, when we're yoked up and united with his word, we're asking for things that are out of his word, we can have whatever we ask. He's our helper. The Lord is our helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? He will never leave you nor forsake you. So here's a qualifier that the Holy Spirit will never, while he is the helper, he will help you as absolutely as far as possible, as far as he can, but the Holy Spirit will never help you do anything that violates God's word or that violates God's plan for your life. There's a plan for your life. And if you ask him for help to do something that's not in alignment with that plan, you're not joined up with that plan, you're pulling away from that plan, so you're putting a strain on that joint between you and God's plan, or between you and God's word, the Holy Spirit will never help you do that. If you need help doing something that violates his word, he cannot help you do that. His grace is available when we're doing things that align with his word. His ability, his supernatural ability is available. That unfair advantage is available to us when we are joined up with his plan, when we're joined up with his word, when we're joined up with the Holy Spirit, when we're joined up and linked up with like-minded believers, part of the same body, pulling in the same direction with the same purpose and the same goal. We maximize his ability at work in our life to do these things. Remember the power of God in our flesh. Um it becomes available when we're joined together with the Holy Spirit. We can do those things that would otherwise be impossible. Um, and finally, I'll close with this Hebrews 10, 24. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some, but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching. And that day that is his return, that day is approaching. And so the the closer we get to that day, the better we gotta be linked up, the better we gotta be joined together, the more united we need to be, uh stirring each other up um to good works and doing it with a heart of love and not forsaking the assembling together. And so we gotta be, if if we're gonna be sticking sticking together for eternity, if we're stuck together for eternity, we might as well start to get used to it now. Get used to it now, because eternity is a long time. But uh we have his grace, his ability when we are joining forces, when we have joint forces with him and like minded believers. Amen.