Supernatural Guidance | Pastor John Greiner

This message teaches that God leads believers through the Holy Spirit in practical, everyday ways rather than dramatic signs. Drawing from John 16 and Romans 8, it explains that the Holy Ghost guides through an inward witness, a “knowing” in the spirit, the inner voice of conscience, and sometimes direct prompting, especially as believers pray in tongues and stay rooted in Scripture. Using personal stories and ministry decisions, it shows how guidance often comes gradually, like waves that require patience and positioning, and how closed doors can be just as much direction as open ones. The central theme is learning to recognize subtle spiritual leading, trust it over emotions or circumstances, and stay connected to truth so decisions are made with confidence and long-term clarity.

Transcript

Opening Confession And Prayer

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Pick our Bibles up and wave them around. I'm gonna let the Holy Ghost come back around after I share this message in case he wants to do anything else. But right now, let's just wave our Bibles around and make Jesus glad the devil mad say this together. Say Heavenly Father, thank God for Father's Day. We honor most of all our Heavenly Father and all the earthly Fathers. We thank you for this word and we thank you for the Holy Ghost. I am a doer of the word, not just a hearer. I'm gonna put the word into practice, and I'll receive the benefit, and Father, you'll get all the glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

Why The Spirit Guides Us

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Let's turn in our Bibles, please, to John, the 16th chapter. And while you're turning, you can find Romans chapter 8. John 16, Jesus is speaking on the night before he's crucified. He's sharing some intimate things with his disciples. Last things before he goes to the cross. Things that he had to save for that particular moment. And he's talking to them about the Holy Ghost. And here in verse 13, well, verse 12, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. See, they're spiritually dead. This is Old Testament. They're spiritually dead. They haven't been born again, but he wanted to be on record so that he could come back after the resurrection and point them back to what he said before. He said, You can't bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine, therefore said I that he shall take of mine and show it unto you. And then in Romans chapter 8, verse 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And if that's true, how many of you believe that's true? Then the converse is true. As many as are sons of God, they are led by the Spirit of God. I mean, that's just a fact. It's not a fact of whether we're being led. The fact, the the question is, are we following the leading? And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled Following the Holy Ghost, or really supernatural guidance is the title of the message. Supernatural guidance. You know, I've preached it a lot of different ways, different scriptures, following the Holy Ghost, being led by the Spirit. All these things are kind of interchangeable, but tonight it's a little different slant, I should say. Come up the mountain a little different way. You know, you can climb a mountain different ways. Everybody says supernatural guidance. You know, a number of years ago, we just moved into this building and and God spoke to me. He said, Teach what you take for granted. You know, teach what you take for granted. I mean, you know, it's not it's not me trying to labor to uh have a Bible school here and get you all educated in all the little uh nuances of the Bible. There's a lot of them. But the biggest thing that I, the job I have is to build your faith so that you can have success in your life. And without guidance from the Holy Ghost, you flat can't have success. I mean, you're gonna have a lot of frustration. Uh thank God for the Holy Ghost. And every believer has the right to supernatural guidance.

The Holy Ghost As Tour Guide

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And Jesus said here in John 16 that the Holy Ghost speaks and he shows. In other words, the Holy Ghost is a show and tell God. He just He's a show and tell. Remember when you went to school? Maybe they don't have show and tell anymore. When I was growing up, they had show and tell. And uh that's how the Holy Ghost is. He'll show you and He'll tell you. And uh, of course, the the type and shadow in the Old Testament, the children of Israel in the wilderness, they had the pillar of fire by night, the cloud by day, which is a type and shadow of our guidance. I mean, he's he's leading us, he's in front of us, leading. All we got to do is follow. And uh so that's why I'm preaching this. Get your faith uh your faith built so that you can. It takes faith to follow the Holy Ghost. Because the Holy Ghost will lead you in ways that are not apparent, they're not logical many times. Sometimes they're not even reasonable. But if you'll follow the Holy Ghost, you'll be blessed. You know, the idea of a guide, he said he will guide you. The idea of a guide, it's like a guide will guide you into a foreign country. I remember I went to the Gladys and I went to Israel in 2003 during the Iraq War. Nobody was going to Israel. Everybody chicken little and worried about going to the Middle East. We went. And oh, I mean, the shopkeepers and everybody, they were, they would cry because I mean we they had hardly, they had no business, and here we are. And I remember we went out on the Sea of Galilee on this pier, and this lady uh had a had a boat that we we were gonna get on, and we but before we got on the boat to take the you know the two to get out on the lake, she had this restaurant, and she just cried and she says, I want to treat the whole group to lunch. And boy, I mean, we had a spread, and that lady, I mean, she spread it out there, and here we are eating on a pier right over the Sea of Galilee. But if we had a guide, I mean, I don't think that we'd have ever run across this situation if we hadn't had a guide. His name was Moshe Bronstein. And Moshe was a uh former general in the IDF and a tank commander in the 1967 war. You know, they were attacked. Egypt, you know, all the Arab nations attacked Israel. I mean, Israel never started anything, they finished a few things, but they never started anything. And uh in 67 they regained Jerusalem. Jerusalem was under Jordanian control at the time. And so when they attacked them, buddy, they took some land that belonged to them. They went into Jerusalem, and really the only reason that they gave any of it back, East Jerusalem is still under Muslim control, but they didn't, I mean, really and truly, they they conquered the city. They didn't need to give any of it back. They went all the way to the Suez Canal. They didn't even need to give all that land back to Egypt. They could have had all of it because they occupied it. I mean, the Egyptians ran. Bunch of chicken littles. And so, I'm saying about a guide. I mean, this guy was was was a tank commander, and he went into one of the gates of Jerusalem. You know, they have the fish gate and this gate and that gate. Well, all the gates that go into ancient Jerusalem are designed for camels, not tanks. And so his tank got stuck. He drives the tank up in there and he's stuck. He can't move backwards, he can't move forwards, and they got in there with a tank killer, the Jordanians did, and and blew his tank up, and he was wounded, and he was in a coma for six months. I mean, he he told us his testimony. And he had a tender heart toward Christians. Here he is a Jew, but he's got a tender heart toward Christians because he's he's most of the most of the time, and people that go over there are you know they're mostly Christians touring. And he led us to places we never would have seen. He had backstories on everything. See, the Holy Ghost is leading us into a dimension that we're not familiar with. I mean, we could miss it. We don't know all about the spirit realm, we don't know how to navigate, but the Holy Ghost will guide you, He will show you, He will hear what Jesus is talking about and the Father are talking about, the conversation, and we He can let you in on the conversation. Glory to God. He's let me in on a lot of conversations all these years. Amazing. And so the Holy Ghost.

Spirit Soul Body And Three Realms

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So um, where does he issue his guidance? And of course, we know it's in our spirit. Why? Because God is a spirit. God's not a mind, God's not a body, God is a spirit, and he leads us and communicates with us through and by our spirit. You know, one of the greatest things I learned when I started going to Lakewood is 1 Thessalonians 5.23. We're a spirit being. We're spirit, soul, and body. We're a spirit being. We have a soul which is our mind, will, and intellect, and we live in a body. And the part of our being that's born again is our spirit. That's the part that's saved. That's the part that's made in the image and likeness of God. And so uh to know that. See, the nuns told me my soul and spirit were the same thing. You hear some preachers, they, well, we're gonna save some souls. Well, no, it's you know, you can't, you don't go out there and save souls, you go out there and get people born again. So they don't even have the right nomenclature. Why? Because they don't know about spirit, soul, and body. It's amazing how ignorant some preachers are. No wonder the church is so fouled up and backward. He said, Teach what you take for granted. Some of you, I mean, you may not have ever heard that you're a spirit being living in a body. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, but it's also your temple, it's where you live. When you look in the mirror, that's not you. You can't see you. Nobody's ever seen themselves. Why? Because you're a spirit. Glory. You can't see yourself. But uh anyway, with our spirit, we contact the spiritual realm. With our soul, we contact the mental realm, and with our bodies, we contact the physical realm. It's kind of simple. I mean, there are three realms, and and what I'm talking about tonight is the most important because our tour guide is going to lead us by the Spirit. He's gonna take us by the hand and show us the best places in the Spirit to be. I want him to show and tell. And so in Romans 8.16, we read 8.14. Let's turn over to Romans real quick. And it says uh Romans chapter 8. Verse 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, and the converse is true, as many as are sons of God, they are led by the Spirit of God. So there's leading provided. The question is, are we identifying it, or are we do are we following the leading? Then in verse 16, I was asking, where does he lead? Well, he leads us in our spirit, and how

The Inward Witness And Knowing

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does that work? Well, verse 16 it says, the spirit itself, or the spirit himself, bears witness with our spirit that we're the children of God. So how do you know you're saved? You know you're saved by the witness of the spirit. It's not a voice, it's not a vision, it's not an angel tapping you on the shoulder, it's not Tinkerbell. I guess Tinkerbell died. I don't know. We don't, it's not around. Got replaced by a bunch of weirdos. But when I was growing up, there was Tinkerbell. And she'd fly around and ding, she'd ding you. And uh, but no, it's not how you know you know how. By the witness of the Spirit. Well, it makes it only makes sense then that if he communicates to a person that they're saved by the witness of the Spirit, then that is the major way that he's gonna lead you and guide you. Not by voices, not by dreams and visions and prophecies and all of the kind of what we call spectacular guidance, but yet supernatural. It's the witness of the spirit is supernatural. It's supernatural. And so it's not the only way, but it's the main way. It's the way that really, if you're gonna ever mature in supernatural guidance, you're gonna have to practice obeying the witness of the Spirit. I remember Brother Hagin one time, you know, he he was uh went and, you know, in those days, you know, he tried out for a church. They'd invite you to come, and then they'd have a pulpit committee, and sometimes that you have a committee, sometimes the whole church would vote on whether you're the pastor. And so this church, you know, uh he went to try out and he said, now Lord, he said, if I get a hundred percent vote, I'll just take it that you want me to go there. Well, he he didn't, he wasn't, you know, well versed in being led by the Spirit because that is what we call a fleece. A fleece is, you know, kind of like Gideon's fleece. What did Gideon do? Gideon's spiritually dead. He needed guidance. You know, you really want me to deliver of Israel? Now, okay, I'll take this fleece, I'm gonna set it out on the ground, and in the morning when I get up, it's gonna be wet, and the ground is gonna be dry. And then I'll know you're really, it's you. He said a fleece. And then it wasn't good enough because God did that. He honored that. He said, okay, don't get mad at me, but in the morning I want the fleece dry and the ground wet. And he did that. And so a lot of Christians take that out of the Old Testament and think that that's how they get led by the Spirit is to say, God, if you do this, I'll do that. Well, that's a the devil hears that, and then the devil can trick you. And so Brother Hagin and Oretha moved to this church, and I mean there wasn't one lick of anointing. It wasn't God's will. They got 100% of the vote, all right, but it wasn't God for him to be there. It wasn't God's choice. But he said, you know, I stayed a year because I let, you know, I'm a man of, I'm my word is my bond. I can't just uh leave after a week and say, oh, I missed it. He just stayed a whole year without the anointing to preach. It's like lifting an anchor off the bottom of the ocean. I mean, you you know, when the Holy Ghost isn't helping you preach, I mean, it's just empty, it's dead, it's terrible. And so uh he has that testimony, and so uh he learned the hard way that how to lead how to be led by the Spirit with the inward witness. Jesus had to teach him by precept and example. He he had lots of spectacular guidance, but really what he had to learn was being obedient to the witness of the Spirit. And so one time, you know, he was planning on uh he God was wanting him to move his ministry from uh uh where it was, where was his ministry in in uh McKinney, I think. He had a house and he was gonna build onto his house, and and God had different plans, and he moved him to Tulsa. And he moved into Brother T. Osborne's old building. And so, but he he said, now God, I need, I need, I need a visitation. I I I need, you know, I need you to show me something more spectacular. He said, You're not gonna get it, get it. You're gonna get, you know what to do. Now you do it. See, the witness is knowing. You you know down in your knower, and he's not gonna give you anything else. And he wouldn't give him anything else. And he went on the witness, and of course, look at the history. I mean, his his whole ministry exploded. He built Rhema, he built, yeah, worldwide ministry. When he was driving, you know, all over East Texas and sometimes West Texas and sometimes Oklahoma and different parts of the country. I mean, suddenly when he made that move, it was shifted him worldwide. Are y'all with me now? Talking about the witness. So uh so that's one of the ways that God uh gives us supernatural guidance. It's not the only way, but it's the main way. It's a knowing, it's a it's it's uh a perception. Uh sometimes it's just like a green light and a red light. You just have a hesitancy. One time brother Brother Hagen was invited to go preach uh to a church, at a church, and said, you know, if you ever feel led, I'd sure like you to come and and and uh and preach at our church. And and that was the invitation. It wasn't a specific, he just said, if, if you ever feel led, I want you to come. And so one time, you know, that came across his mind, and he sat at his desk and he started writing a letter to ask the guy if this was a good time, and then he'd wad that letter up, throw it in the trash. And he kept going, and he'd wad the letter up and throw it, and he said, That was the witness of the spirit. You were trying to do, I want, it's I'm telling you right now, it'll be the last time I ever tell you like this. You're gonna obey the witness. But that's my witness working. It's a witness for you to write that letter and tell him you're coming. I want you to go. They'll receive what you've got. Hey, are y'all getting this now? Talking about the witness of the spirit. You just, you have an ease, you have a green light, you have a uh, it's just, it's difficult to describe in English, but it just, you have a knowing down in your knower. An inclination, a perception. See, that's the witness. Well, Pastor, that sounds so well, that's the thing is, you know, you've got to grow up in prayer and in the word of God, and if you train your spirit to get bigger and bigger and more developed, your spirit can pick up the witness a lot faster than it than it is when you're like when you're kind of growing and maybe not as advanced. I mean, you know, baby Christians really can't identify the witness. So sometimes when I was first saved, God would talk to me. He would, I'd hear his voice. I mean, it would just, I didn't have any doubt about what he wanted me to do. He told me what to do. And then one day it all evaporated. And I thought, man, what's wrong now? You know, what happened? I haven't heard him. And then I got some teaching on this, and I realized, hey, I've grown up enough. Now I need to grow up and rely on the witness of the Spirit. The

Inward Voice And Praying In Tongues

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second way that he leads you is by the inward voice. And uh Romans chapter 9, 1, the inward voice or is the voice of your conscience. If you're living right and doing right, and you're Bible trained, your conscience is a reliable guide. An unsaved person, they said, My conscience bothered me, their conscience is not is not is unredeemed. It's not reliable. Their conscience will allow them to do anything like murder. I mean, you know, I don't think Hitler's conscience bothered him. You know, he had one, but he didn't, he didn't consult it. And so I remember having a conscience before I was saved, but I I override it all the time. I knew right from wrong, but I'd override it. Well, you know, now that I'm saved and I have my spirit has been born again, my conscience, my own, it's the voice of my own spirit, and many times I'll hear my own spirit say things to me. And where does my spirit pick that up? From the Holy Ghost that lives right in there, too. So, you know, the the the voice of the of your spirit is your conscience, and then finally the the one that's that's more spectacular is the voice of the Holy Ghost, is much more authoritative, and really I've heard the voice of the Holy Ghost, and many times it's corrective, many times it's chastening, many times it's uh more military, and I don't choose to really want to hear that voice very much. Have you ever been called out in class, you know, when you were in school, you know, and you're kind of messing around doing something you shouldn't do and doing as John Griner, you know, and you go, you know, you don't you hate to hear the teacher call you by both names, and he's just glaring at you, you know, Sister Mary Fabian or Sister Mary Ernestine's looking at me with those eyes. And I'm thinking, oh God, here comes the ruler on the knuckles. But uh I had favor, they never beat me. I never did get a lick. I had I was so terrible. I was a terrible, I got away with, you know, anyway, whatever. So I mean, you know, when the Holy Ghost wants to talk to you, I mean, you know, like the one of the that's the most the amazing thing was was but one time in March of 1999, he said, get up, get up, and I thought it Was the devil. I didn't know it was God. And God was telling me to wake up. He said, I want you to wake up the church. They're just like you. They're asleep in their bed. And when I talk to them, they think it's the devil. I didn't want to hear that, man. I still hear it. That military voice sounded like a D.I., you know, drill instructor. I mean, you know, it sounded like that sergeant in your face, you know, at boot camp. You don't really want to hear that voice. But it's not always like that. But it's guidance. Everybody says supernatural guidance. Sometimes your spirit knows what your mind does not get recognized, and that's why it's good to pray much in other tongues. When you pray in other tongues and keep praying and don't let your mind get distracted and turn off your phone and get away from your email and ding, you know, and you're going to go look at what who's emailing you. Just get rid of all that. Just shut yourself in. Pray in tongues. Develop yourself where you can pray in tongues at least an hour. And when you can do that, then your spirit is edified. You're edifying yourself. You're building yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, your spirit, your spirit is become, is going to become dominant, and you'll be more sensitive to the witness of the Spirit. And you show God that you're serious about spiritual things. And many times, as I prayed in other tongues, the guidance or information will rise up. And it's hard to, again, it's hard to describe how, but it just rises up, and I know, now I know mentally what my spirit has known for a while. But if I hadn't given myself over to praying in the Holy Ghost, if I'd have just been, God give me this, give me this, give me that, God bless this one, bless that one. Yeah, that kind of praying is just not very, you know, it's not, it's not very edifying for you. Praying in tongues is so powerful. And then when you pray in tongues, sometimes you can pray in your understanding. Now you're praying according to the Spirit in your own understanding. See, that's powerful there. So I give you some facts here about or concerning supernatural guidance that I've learned over the years.

God Cares About Small Details

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Number one, God is interested in what you're interested in. There's nothing too small or too big. I've heard people say, oh, don't bother the Lord about that. Yes. Yes. It don't matter how small. He wants to. I mean, you can consult with your Heavenly Father. You can pray about anything and everything. It's nothing too small or too big. And He's interested. I mean, if something is bothering you, something is taking your attention, something you've noticed, and you need to get more information on it, go to Him. I mean, He's interested in it if you are. You know, I'm believing God to restore these two fingers. They're stiff and they don't obey me very well anymore. And I'm having treatment on them, and I'm just not accepting it. And I haven't been, I've been speaking to them for a couple of years now, and I'm just I'm bearing down on these two fingers. I'm making sure they're gonna have to get restored. But anyway, in the meantime, you know, the other day I was, I had a shirt and I was, I have a button-down collar collar. You know, I'm the kind of, I'm not gonna, if the shirt is a button-down collar, I'm gonna button the buttons. Have you ever seen a guy that got a button-down collar and it's just flapping in the breeze and the buttons are there, but he didn't button them? That bugs me. I'm gonna button the button. It's a button-down collar, I'm gonna button it down. So I here it was, it's hanging in my on my on the hook of my closet, you know. I'm up there trying to button button. And it was a cheap shirt I bought at Costco for 20 bucks. And it was probably made in Lower Slobovia by Slobovian. And they don't make the buttonhole big enough for the button. It's it's not the right size. It's kind of tight. And man, the button is it's hard, it won't, it keeps rolling over, and I just messed with it until I got so frustrated, and then it curved him over, you didn't even ask the helper to help you. The Holy Ghost is your helper. And I know that was him, see, kind of nudging me. And I kind of laughed and I said, Lord, I guess I have to ask you to help me button my shirt. Holy Ghost, help me button my shirt. Button it right up. It's happened several times since then. I mean, when I get frustrated about something, I can't get my fingers to move fast or uh, you know, a lot. I'll just ask the Holy Ghost to help me, and He helps me. There's nothing too small or big. I remember in Acts 26, verse 22, he's talking to Agrippa the king, and he said, you know, I've been persecuted, but he said, I've received help, you know, up until this time, I've received help from God as my ally. The Amplified says, God is your ally. The Holy Ghost, the ally, the third person of the Godhead, the executive power of the Godhead lives in you and he's your ally. Years ago, I was sitting in my chair. I had my little omnicord back then, and I was, you know, praising God with my omnicord and singing some songs, some worship songs, and reading my Bible and praying in tongues. And I got quiet, and this time the Holy Ghost spoke to me. I don't know if it was really my spirit or him, but he said, He said it like it was him, so it, but it was not loud. It was it was not like an audible voice. I just heard it on the inside. He said, You're my intimate companion. And oh man, I mean, tears started shooting out of my eyes. And I thought, oh my goodness. I knew that was Holy Ghost telling me that, and I was just so blown away, really. And I've never forgot it in 40 some odd years. I never will forget it. He's my intimate companion. So I tell him, you know, my intimate companion. Hallelujah. He's he's in there. Praise God, and he's in there to give you supernatural guidance.

Guidance Comes In Waves

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And uh number two, supernatural guidance often comes in waves. You know, if you're a surfer, and I'm not, but I've watched them. And first of all, you can't surf if you're standing on the beach. You gotta get out in the water. You gotta get out in the water. You gotta get out where the waves are. There ain't no way to surf otherwise. And you know, what they do is they paddle out there and they kind of keep looking and they have a skill about judging about a certain wave, and they'll let waves that look like they be good, but they let them go by and then they find out why, because when they get past them, they just kind of, you know, disappear. But they're able to see a wave. I don't know, they're the really the skill ones, you know, it's first north north shore in Hawaii, north shore of Oahu. Got some of the huge, big, biggest waves I've ever seen. If you go there in like January, February, that's when they have the competitions, 50 foot. The wave's 50 foot tall. I mean, you have a lot of guts to get on a wave like that. And it curls over them, you know, and uh they're inside the pipeline. I mean, I don't know how they get it. And there's rocks right over there. I mean, if they're just if they miss it just a little bit, they could they could wind up on the rocks. Probably do. But anyway, they get out there and they they find a wave and then they they ride it to the shore, and then what do they do? They paddle back out there because this day is a good day to catch the wave, and so they stay, they stay engaged and they catch the wave over and over until they get tired and go home. And so it's really being led by the Spirit, that guidance often comes like that. It comes in waves. And sometimes you get pieces and glimpses, and that's all you get. You don't get the whole picture. Well, don't quit now. Just get back in position, maybe not maybe not today, but maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. But don't, I mean, get in the water. What do I mean by the water? Get in the Holy Ghost. Put yourself in position to catch the Spirit's wave that He's gonna bring information, guidance on. He's just helping you now. Glory to God. What does that mean? Well, you pray and read your Bible daily. I mean, I know I sound like a broken record, but there's no other way. If you don't pray and read your Bible every day, then you're not in the water to hear. And he's limited. He wants, I mean, look, he's providing guidance and you're not hearing it. He's doing his job, but you're not doing yours. No, he said, if you're saying if you're a b if you're a child of God, you're led by the Spirit. That's what, and so there's leading happening, but you're not picking up on it. Why? Because you're not out there catching the waves of it. Let's catch it, let's catch every every wave. I

Waiting For A Settled Witness

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remember uh it was uh I got a call from our landlord, uh, and and of course he he was our ex-landlord. I think we had already moved to the Seventh-day Church by then, and now he's our lean holder on the property we bought. We bought 92.7 acres, just a subdivision on next on the other side of Bourgeois Forest down Bourjois. I point the wrong direction down this way. And uh we had that 92.7 acres before Champions Crossing subdivision bought it. And uh so he he called me and said, I've got a I've got to talk to you, I've got a proposal. And I said, Well, yeah, okay. So I went to meet with him, you know, and he said, now I've got a proposal for you. He said, I want you to deed that property back to me. Uh 92.7 acres. And I'm thinking, okay. And he said in a separate uh closing, I'm gonna gift you the 85-acre tract on the corner of uh Champion Forest and Richie, just right down the street. He said, John, you should have bought that to begin with. It's a lot better tracked. I said, I knew it at the time, but I didn't have the money. You had a lot to, it was a lot more expensive. And uh five, six thousand dollars an acre, more expensive than what we bought, which was a deal. I mean, it was a steal at the price he sold it for us, to us. And I said, We're saying, I said, uh, he said, now that property, I'm I'm I've got a preliminary, uh, that 85 acres down there, that I've got a preliminary appraisal, it's 9.7 million dollars. I said, oh. And he said, you're gonna, he I give it to you and give it debt free. But you in a separate instrument, they're not tied together, in a separate instrument, you're gonna deed me this 80, this 92.7 acres. I said, well, Shane, we've got a million dollars tied up in it. I mean, we've got a down payment of 600,000, and we've got all kind of bulldozer time to clear it and and and take care of it. I mean, we added all up. I've had uh engineering on it, I've I've done all kind of stuff. If I had a million dollars cash, he said, well, he said, I just that's my deal. I'm just, you know, you deed that back over to me and you can have the other debt free. I said, well, it sounds like a great deal because, you know, we had had a plan drawn for that property, but keep in mind we still owed $650,000 on it, and the lender would not approve enough money for us to build a church and also pay off the land. It just was short by that $650,000. That's how much we were short of being able to do anything. So here we were stuck. We found that out in May, and by June I got this phone call. I I never will forget the lender. We'd we applied for this loan, you know, and they say, well, this it we can only give you two million. Well, it wasn't enough because we had $650,000 off of that. And what are we gonna build for one and a half? I'm gonna build a 200-seat saying no way. I wanted a thousand seats. In fact, I had a set of plans that had a thousand seats, a metal building, preliminary plans. So everything looked like it was God, but I didn't have a witness yet. I'm talking about the witness. I mean, he had a he had a proposal that in the natural it seemed like a slam dunk to say yes, but I didn't say I said, well, Shane, it sounds good, but I gotta pray. You know me, I gotta pray. I don't know if God wants me to do it or not. And so this was in June, June, about six, and so it took about six weeks, and I just I'd get out in the water and I'd pray. I mean, I stood, I stood out there, I got in my Bible, I prayed in the Holy Ghost, and I just every day I'd I'd I'd process the plan of God, and I'd, you know, six weeks. We got into August. We're in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It's not real hospitable there. They're there on Saturday, we're there on Sunday. And it's hard. And so, uh, but in the natural see, I mean, I didn't go by that. I wanted to not move unless I knew that I knew down in my north. So six weeks later, we're in August, I'm preparing for Sunday morning. And I get up early on Sunday morning in those days. I used to get up 4, 4.30 every Sunday morning, get, you know, pray in tongues, get in the Bible. And a lot of times that's when I had my message is when I'd get it, you know, early in the morning. So I was doing that that morning, and while I was praying, I heard myself say to the congregation, if I were you, I would not miss next Sunday. And when I heard myself say that, that was God telling me, go for it. Are y'all with me? I knew that was the announcement that we're gonna have a double miracle. What's the double miracle? A $650,000 debt forgiveness and a $9.7 million land miracle. A double miracle. If I were you, I would not miss Sunday, next Sunday. And so, you know, I couldn't wait to say that, you know. So I got through my message and everything. I said, by the way, I've got an announcement to make. If I were you, I would not miss next Sunday. And everybody went, what? What? And they wanted to know what's it all? No, God wouldn't let me tell them. And so, boy, the next Sunday, I mean, that place came alive when I laid out what God had done. Oh, come on, lift your hand right now. See, I had to have that because it was not easy from that point on. It was tough. We didn't close for six months. And we had to spend $30,000, $40,000 on property that we didn't own, just did the due diligence to make sure that it wasn't a super fund EPA cleanup site. That it hadn't, you know, have a bunch of like a dry cleaners that polluted it or something like that. I mean, you've got to, and nowadays you just gotta be careful what you're, you don't know what you're buying, the blank bunch of land. It looks good on the outside, but it might have some surprise, bad surprises. Well, sure enough, it had an easement. It had a road easement. Thank God since then we got rid of that road easement. And we don't have, you know, and then since then we sold that property. Everything but this 10 acres right here. This is all that's left of 85 acres, is this 10 acres this church is on. But uh uh but anyway, so but if I hadn't had that witness, if I'd have just done it in the natural, I'm telling the devil would have been able to beat me up, and I could have doubted my decision. I could have, I'm telling you right now, when you've got the witness of the Holy Ghost and you proceed on that, you've got something that's settled. Is this helping anybody? Everybody say six weeks. Sometimes it's not right away. You gotta stay out there in the water. All right. So uh number three, important situations, you know, specific things, and something different than a button-down collar, you know, something serious like what I was just talking about. Uh, you know, get your flesh under. See, you might do a little fasting. Maybe you've got a situation in your family, maybe you've got a situation in your marriage, maybe you've got a situation with your children, maybe you've got a financial situation, maybe you've got a decision to make about whether to take a uh a job in another city or another place. Any any any major decision, sometimes you just there's some things that you need to do on your side. God is providing the guidance on it. He will lead you. But then on your side, you've got to do what's necessary to receive that guidance. So I just kind of told you already, I mean, you you get over in your Bible reading and you get your flesh under. Maybe you need to flat fast a little bit. Keep your emotions in check. Don't let your emotions run away with you. Pray much in the Holy Ghost. And so, years after we built this first phase, which was the sprung building, uh, we built it with a maximize the size of the sanctuary. And I wanted, I wanted a thousand seats in the sanctuary. We can put a thousand seats. It'd be crowded, but we can do it. And I wanted to build that. I mean, why? Because when you build a little building, like 200, 300 seats, it's not gonna be enough for much of anything, and then you're gonna be faced with adding on. And I've seen how messed up it is to add on to a sanctuary. I mean, I knew a uh a preacher in uh uh Louisiana who designed his sanctuary and he built half of it, and he he was gonna plan to come on and add the other half. That's kind of dumb. You could tell he wasn't a builder. I mean, you cannot have church there while they're doing that, goof us. What are you gonna do? And the church went down. I mean, he he wound up, I mean, he he, you know, he I don't even think he's pastoring now. I mean, he made a stupid decision. As a builder, I know it's better to build something bigger so and grow into it. And we still got lots of room to grow. Look at all those red chairs. But at least we built it. But the rest of the building was small compared to the sanctuary. We didn't have enough office space, we didn't have enough children's church space, we didn't have enough youth space, we needed more space. So uh we moved into this building in May of 2004, so then by 2007, we're identifying the fact that we need to add on. And of course, we all know what happened that Obama was elected president in 2008, and everything went haywire. The whole uh everything went haywire. Interest rate went way up, uh, a lot of unemployment, and uh the U.S. dollar fell. And so here we are. We're we're in the process of uh so we hired our our same architect that designed this part of the building to uh design our add-on. And we checked with uh with Sprung, which is this manufacturer there in Calgary, Canada. And so they shot us a price for a 9,000 square foot uh group of buildings to add on to this building because I wanted to keep it the same. I wanted to have a consistent look. And uh they shot us a price, it was gosh awful. It was horrendous. Why? Because the Canadian dollar had gotten the US dollar had fallen compared to the Canadian dollar, so now our dollars don't buy as much. So that meant our price went way up. And it was almost as much for 9,000 square feet building that we paid for 30,000 square feet of this building. That's how bad it was. And I said, there's no way. And then our lender, our lender, you know, everything changed. The economy changed, and now, you know, they said, oh yeah, Pastor, we'd be glad. We'd be then now they're they're kind of nervous, nilies now. Because what they are is a bunch of preachers. They're not really bankers, they're not lenders, they don't know much about this. They're just making money for their retirement fund. And so, you know, they so they they got us caught in this thing, and now we're gonna have a we have a $3.7 million first mortgage for this building, and we're gonna have another $1.8 million for the new building for 9,000 square feet. That was pathetic. And that's $5.5 million, but they're gonna raise the interest rate three points from what we're paying on $3.7, and they're gonna charge us all that interest on $1.5. So I'm sitting there and I tell James and Jay and the family, I said, man, I don't know. This is Just by the time we have this very expensive sprung building, and now the interest rate's up, and the the I don't know if this is the time

Cost Of Doing Nothing

SPEAKER_00 44:10

to build. Maybe we need to just put it on hold. And I began to pray. I I had to seek the Lord about this. What am I being led by? I'm being led by the circumstances. I'm being led by what I can see, touch, taste, and smell, and feel. That's not the leading of the Holy Ghost. You can never be led by that. And I knew that. So I just said, God, I, you know, I really don't, I don't really know. Just I won't I'll follow the Holy Ghost on this. And so uh the still small voice, my own spirit said, it's time to consider the cost of doing nothing. That was news to me. You mean there's a cost of doing nothing? See, it's cost in the natural to do something, but there's a cost of doing nothing, and that let me know we could not pay that cost. That we had to walk by faith. So in the meantime, I said, you know, let's get a bid on a metal building. Let's I we don't have to build a sprung structure. I don't even, 9,000 square feet is not even worth building. It's not enough space. And so we went to a metal builder, metal building. We got 18,000 square feet, double the square foot for the same price we're gonna pay 9,000 square feet. So that's what we have right now. Why? Because the Holy Ghost led us and guided and was guiding us by the inward voice now. Praise God. Hallelujah. So, uh number four, are you getting anything out of this? So, number one, you know, it says, well, we what did we go over? So God's interested in what you're interested in. Number two, supernatural guidance comes in waves many times. So get out there in the ocean of the Holy Ghost. Number three, important situations. Set yourself up for success. You know, do your part and wait on him. And then number four is many times the Holy Ghost will indicate what he doesn't want before he indicates what he does want. I

Closed Doors And Open Doors

SPEAKER_00 46:22

think about Paul and Silas. You know, Paul and Barnabas split up. They had a come apart. Preachers do have those. There's broken, broken relationships. I have to say, Barnabas was not wise separating from Paul. But he did over over his nephew. A family got involved. And there was nothing wrong with John Mark except that he wasn't mature enough to go on the second missionary journey. He had left him in a lurch on the first one, and he, as far as Paul was concerned, he wasn't ready to go again. And Paul said, no, we can't take him. And Barnabas got all offended and he separated. So Paul chose Silas, and they began the second missionary journey. And the Bible says there in Acts 16 that they, you know, essayed to go into biphynia, but the Spirit suffered them not, wouldn't allow them. And they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the gospel in Asia Minor. Two closed doors. See, a closed door is by as guidance. You don't want to walk through a door that God closed. He'll let you. And as one that has done that a few times, you just don't want to do that. You want to let the open door be the one you go through. So they waited, and then spectacular guidance came in a dream. Paul had the dream, and the Macedonian man says, Come over here and help us. And then they gathered that that was the Lord and they made their journey. And then see, they waited on supernatural guidance. Look what happened. They got beaten with many stripes. They were thrown in the inner prison. I mean, you know, if they hadn't heard from God, they could have gotten real discouraged. In fact, they could have probably died. A lot of people die going through the wrong door. A lot of people lose their life or shorten their lifespan by ignoring the guidance that's available. But not, I mean, you know, they were confident and they they at midnight they prayed and sang praises, and all the prisoners heard them, and God just broke them out of jail, and that that jailer was the Macedonian man, he got saved, and some some uh tradition says that he became the pastor there. I don't know if that's true or not, doesn't say that in the Bible, but it might be so. And uh praise God. So many times God will indicate what he doesn't want before he uh indicates what he does want. So backing up about the building, I mentioned 2001, we were in the Seventh day at church and we had closed it, you know, on this land. Uh no, no, this was before we closed on the land. Uh the year before, we still had that 92.7 acres, so we were trying to get on the property, and I was trying to figure out what kind of building, so I hired an architect, and he built, he he designed a 1,000-seat metal building. And I mean, I remember looking at the plan, a front elevation, and I mean, I it just left me cold. I mean, I just I didn't, I just wasn't, I didn't have a witness, I didn't like it. And so the family, we started traveling all over uh Houston looking at buildings that that architect had designed, and we looked at one in uh, you know, Sugarland, and we looked at one out in uh East Houston somewhere, and we went all over. We saw some really interesting looking buildings, but this thing that that we had, it just looked, it looked cheap. And it looked rinky dink. Even though it was a thousand seats, it just, I don't know, I just couldn't, I didn't like it. And so finally I kept praying and kept praying, and the Holy Ghost said, I don't want this little building. And so I didn't know what that meant, except that he didn't want that that building. So I so we started praying on Thursday night. We started having Thursday night prayer, and we made it a point to pray about our next building, and God began to, we got out in the water and started catching waves, and God began to speak, and he said, I want this church non-institutional and sinner-friendly. I'd like to get into detail about that, but I'm not. It's too long a story. But I mean, he did not want a churchy-looking church with a steeple and all of that. He wanted something that was more uh uh generic looking and not intimidating. So where a sinner is not afraid to go in the door. I mean, you know, if a there's a cathedral, you know, sinners don't want to go into cathedrals. They don't want to go in the typical Baptist church with a big steeple and all that ornate columns and all of that kind of thing. And he said, I want it high-tech. I want it first. He gave us words. Now, how many of you were there on those Thursday night prayer seeds? We've got some witnesses. I mean, they we got specific words about what he wanted in our church building. And uh so I started uh doing some research on online and I found uh these sprung structures, and uh and I mean I had a witness about it, and so I called them and contacted them, and uh they said, yeah, we've got one up in up near Fort Worth. The Baptist Church is a 500-seat building, and uh, and you can go see it. We'll line it up. And so I took ten guys, and we all went. Tom, were you there? No, Tom wasn't there, but we had ten guys that went with us. Stan, were you one of the ten? So anyway, I don't know. I know Frank Jedgik was was there with us. But the ten guys, we all went two cars, took two cars to go up there. And uh when they got out of the car, they looked at that thing. It looked like a UFO had landed, you know. It just I mean, just a big old bubble, you know, looked like a UFO. And uh, and when they walked in the door, they poked on the vinyl, and you just poke it like this, and I mean, oh, Pastor. I mean, they all had a they all had a an opportunity to doubt my judgment. And uh, and so they poked on it, so they walked in and really it was really nice inside. And it was white inside, white, and it was real spacious, real tall ceilings, you know, and and uh and I I had the witness, see. I had to witness that this was the direction. And so then we hired uh uh an architect that designed this building, and uh, but it came from the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost given us guidance, starting out with what he didn't want. I don't want that building. And then he showed us what he did want, and we waited for that guidance. Praise God. And this has been a good building for us. It's lasted way longer than it's supposed to. That vinyl is just amazing. It's beyond its guarantee. And uh they've come up since then on how to reskin the building. They can reskin the building without disturbing anything in here. I mean, they develop certain uh technology, so if we if we stay here uh so long that that vinyl starts, you know, you know, starts shedding and starts uh deteriorating, well we can we can uh put a new skin over the top of the one that's on there. It's amazing. So then uh no telling what that would cost, but we God's got plenty of money. I'm not worried about the cost. Uh who in the world, what who decided to make a black interior? And I'm so glad. Because if it was white, you know, you can see the white. This is like being outside at night. It just disappears. You can't see all the stuff we have hidden up there. We've got a bunch of stuff hanging from the ceiling stuff, uh a bunch of uh uh baffling and stuff to control the sound where it doesn't bounce and all that kind of thing. If it was white, we'd have all kinds of stuff. Thank God it's black. I mean, you know, people came, oh, it's black in here. Well, I kind of like it, don't you? Praise God. If you don't, don't say anything. Praise the Lord.

Staying Connected To Truth

SPEAKER_00 54:55

Are you getting anything out of this? All right, the last one, uh, number five, for supernatural guidance to occur, stay connected to the truth. Stay connected to the truth. Glory is where church is where your spirit will mature in truth. See, no truth, no growth, little or no supernatural guidance. Uh in 2 Timothy 4, verse 2. This is what you get when you come here. And he told Timothy, challenged Timothy to do it, to do this. 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 2. Preach the word. See, we don't preach books, we don't preach philosophy. Preach the word. Be instant in season and out of season. I mean, don't take six months to make a change when God's wanting to make a change. Make a change. He told me, you know, one time I was out in Galveston and I saw a kite surfer. And the kite surfer, you know, he's he's riding, he's got this kite, and he's suspended over the, and he's got skis. And he's suspended over the water, man, and he's just, he's riding, and then every now and then he dips down and hits the water with those skis, and then he comes back up, and he's going, and then all of a sudden he just turns 180 degrees, comes back, you know, it's just like instant. And out there, way down out in the water is a you know, big old uh tanker, and it takes five miles for that thing to turn around. He said, Don't be like the tanker, be like the tight stir. When I speak to you, you turn. You be instant to get to get in position. I tell you, we've had to do that over and over. Amen. And so he said, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. With all long suffering and teaching. So sometimes, you know, the kind of teaching I do, I don't do that directly to a person, but sometimes the preaching will be corrective. Sometimes it'll kind of sting a little bit when you realize that you hadn't lined up with what I'm preaching, you know. Maybe, well, if I step on your toes, hang around for the healing service. I mean, you know, God can heal your toes if I step on them. I've seen people get offended. You know, I was preaching on angels one day. I was preaching on Jezebel spirits. And there was a woman in the church that just knew I was preaching about her. She got mad and left the church. And I laughed and I said, Well, she doesn't even qualify to be Jezebel. She doesn't know enough to be Jezebel. I mean, she was a goofball. You know, I didn't run after her. I mean, you know, if you're that if you're that tender after being in our church three or four years and all the things that have happened. I give you another example. You remember the notable miracle that I talked about this morning? See, that that grandmother ought to be in this church testifying. Where is she? Where she got offended. Where is that mother? Where is that girl? I don't know. I don't know if she's serving God or not. But you God, God did a miracle. I'm gonna talk about the notable miracle. I don't care whether the grandmother, the mother, the girl did it, paid out. I mean, God showed up. Are y'all with me now? Stay connected to the truth. And then that way you'll have supernatural guidance.

Closing Encouragement

SPEAKER_00 58:24

Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Amen. Well, I went a long time, but I just wanted to give you some testimonies of how we got to where we are. Thank God for the Holy Ghost. Well, but Pastor, that's because you're pastor. No, every believer's got access to the Spirit of God. Every believer. If you're saved, you've got access. And uh thank God for it. Amen. Praise God.