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  HOLY SPIRIT DIRECTED MINISTRY
  by Jim Cymbala
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Summary: The Holy Spirit is essential for effective ministry, and we
must prioritize prayer, the word, and waiting on the Lord to find true
balance and effectiveness in our ministry.

Duration: 1:08:52 Topics: "Holy Spirit", "Guided Ministry"
Scripture References: Psalm 32:8, Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 8:26, Ephesians 6:10-18, James 4:7

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking God's direction through
prayer, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. It highlights the need to be open
to the Holy Spirit's leading, face opposition from the enemy, and
receive Holy Spirit solutions for challenges. The story shared
illustrates how God can work miraculously when we are obedient to His
guidance and open to His power.

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CONTENT
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There's a lot of causes and organizations and all of that, and I really
believe so much in what God has raised up Daniel Henderson to do with
the 6-4 Fellowship, because if we can't agree on those things, I don't
know what we could ever agree on. You're not going to get Calvinists
together with Arminians. You're not going to get some evangelicals
together with people of charismatic leanings.

But if you can't agree that we should give ourselves to the word and
prayer, I don't know what Bible we would be reading. Am I right? Can I
get an amen here? Are you all allowed to say amen in Texas here? Okay,
not sure. So I want to talk about that.

I want to talk about the combination of prayer and the word, but mingled
together with the missing element that we have to keep in front of us,
which is the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit is the one who
inspired that word. He wrote the word.

This Bible was written by the Holy Spirit. And He's the only one who can
teach you the word. The only one who gave us the spirit of revelation so
that we read and understand what is the meaning of it is the Holy
Spirit.

He's the author and the interpreter. When it comes to prayer, you can
say prayers, but only the Holy Spirit can really teach you how to pray.
Paul tells us, first person plural, including himself.

How about that? For we know not how we ought to pray, but who helps us?
The Spirit helps us. Us. Come on, Paul, you know how to pray.

You saw the Lord on the road to Damascus. You're writing a third of the
New Testament. You don't know how to pray? Nope.

I know how to say prayers. I learned that when I was a Pharisee. But to
really pray from my heart, with faith, with fervency, that takes the
Holy Spirit.

So, leading a church, pastoring, doing what God's called us all to do,
takes that balance. Again, that only the Holy Spirit can give of the
word and prayer and the gospel of Jesus Christ and evangelism. You know,
it's like one of those chords, pastors.

It's like one of those chords. Let's hope this thing is on. If it's not,
it's okay.

But it's like one of those chords. It's like one of those beautiful
chords that my wife will hit. And sometimes she's writing a song, and
I'll hear her hit this beautiful chord.

And I go to the behind her, and she's writing a song, and she's playing
maybe four notes with her right hand, and then a bass note with her
left. And that chord, you know, I can't play the piano, but it's a
beautiful chord. So what is that chord? You can't just take this note
and say that's the chord.

No, that's one note in the chord. That's only one note. No, then it's
this.

No, that's just one note in the chord. No, then it's this. No, that's
just one note.

The beauty of a chord is you have to hit them all together at the same
time. And that's why Paul tells Timothy to do a lot of things at once.
First of all, I want men everywhere to pray.

Preach the word. Be instant, in season, and out season. Do the work of
an evangelist.

Find people who are apt to teach and train them so they can become
leadership. Watch out for the widows and the people who are vulnerable.
Take care of them.

Well, which are we supposed to do? All of them. And most churches, I'm
afraid, we fall into the practice of being a one- or two-note church.
I'm into praise and worship.

Well, that's great. We need to praise and worship, shouldn't we? How
many love to praise and worship? Just lift your hand up. But that's only
one note.

If you just have praise and worship, the people will never learn the
word of God. No, we're not into praise and worship. That's too
emotional.

We're into the word. We're going to teach the word. Well, that's good.

But without prayer, that becomes very intellectual and heavy and dry. Am
I right? So all of us, we've got to root for each other and pray for
each other that we hit all the notes. Do I get a witness here? All the
notes.

I'm struggling with that today. All the notes. But certainly prayer, the
word, and dependence on the Holy Spirit is the substance of the New
Testament church as we find it in the Bible.

Now, what American version we come up with or what we might need in
England or anyplace else, that's another matter. But if we want to go by
the outline given to us in scripture, we know that the word, the
preaching of the word, the good news of Jesus, teaching of the word,
surrounded by an atmosphere of prayer, energized all of it by the Holy
Spirit. That is what those fishermen and tax collectors started with.

I owe everything to people who pray. I just turned to my friend, Elmer
Towns, who I'm honored to know as a friend, and told him that I'm so
encouraged, my wife and I, that last night she called me today and told
me that in the choir practice last night, there was such a sweet time of
prayer that God really ministered to the choir. She has about 300
voices.

But on Tuesday night, I was there, and there were about 2,500 people
there for the prayer meeting. And oh my goodness, the Lord was there.
And we prayed.

And there was no choir, and there was no big sermon. There was nothing.
There was just calling on the name of the Lord.

Men ought always to pray and not give up. Amen? And if we pray like
that, you mean God's not going to do something? Come on, now be real.
Let's do real talk.

We're going to call on God and pray and say, God, you call us in the
ministry. We have to present the gospel in an alien culture, and God
will not help us. No, then you got to throw away the Bible.

Then throw away your Bible. That's impossible. No one has ever prayed
and sought the Lord, and God has never responded.

That has never happened. Blessed is the man who puts his trust in the
Lord. He'll never be ashamed.

Right? Ask, and you shall receive. Knock, and it shall be opened. Seek,
and you'll find.

Right? But we have to be convinced of that, just like we know the Lord
is going to come again. How many believe the Lord Jesus is going to come
again? Just like that, amen, we got to know these things, what I'm going
to share with you here. You got to believe this like the back of your
hand.

You got to know this like it's an instinct. You just know. Know.

God will do that. That's why he put the story in the Bible. When my mom
and dad got married, she got pregnant later in the first year of their
marriage, and she gave birth to a son, my older brother.

And then she got pregnant about two years later, 18 months later. And
she gave birth to a baby, stillborn, and he died. While they wanted to
have another child, she couldn't get pregnant.

My mother's Polish, my father's Ukrainian, my late father. So now time,
months and months, years went by, couldn't get pregnant. And they didn't
want just one child.

So they were Christians, fairly new Christians, and they prayed. And my
mom said they prayed and said, God, I guess they thought because of the
complication of the loss of that second child that maybe she couldn't
have any more babies. They said, God, give us a baby.

And before that baby is born, we give the baby to you. We dedicate the
baby to you. And then I came along.

Later on, there was a sister born, my sister. I was the least of the
three of them in terms of behavior. Wasn't a strong Christian,
troublemaker.

My dad started drinking. I used that as justification for a lot of
stuff. Then couldn't come in the house because it was hellish, a lot of
violence.

Stayed out in the parks and the playground shooting hoops. That was my
life. That was my world.

Wasn't a strong Christian in high school. Wasn't a strong Christian in
college. But I'm the one in the ministry.

And I can only, yeah, I know God is sovereign and he chooses these
things. But I got to link it to my mom and dad saying, please, God, give
us a baby. And before he's even born, we give him to you for your
purposes.

How many good God answers prayers like that? Can you lift your hand? Oh,
yeah. So I'm the least of all of you, but God has put me in the
ministry. And I want to talk to you about something so important.

But you got to, we got to believe this. Starting out the ministry. I did
not believe this like I believe it today, but I want to believe it more.

You got to believe this. This got to be instinct. Like when the doctor
says sit and he taps your knee and your foot goes up like that.

It's got to be an instinct in us. It's got to be absolutely rock solid.
You can't be pulled away to the left or to the right.

You have to believe that God put this story in the Bible for a reason.
And I'm talking about the story that's found in Acts 13. My friend
Daniel Henderson and I were talking about this chapter over some
barbecue last night.

Now there were in Antioch in the church there as prophets and teachers.
Barnabas, Simeon named Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manson who was Herod
the Tetrarch's foster brother, and Saul. That's Saul of Tarsus.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting. While they were
worshiping the Lord, communing with the Lord and fasting. The Holy
Spirit said, separate me, set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to
which I've called them.

So after fasting and prayer and the laying on of hands they let them go.
They therefore being thus sent out by the Holy Spirit. Notice what's in
there? The church sent them out but now it says the Holy Spirit sent
them out.

Well who sent them out? Both, the church and the Spirit. They went down
to Seleucia and then sailed to Cyprus. Having reached Salamis they began
to announce the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.

And they had John, that's John Mark as their assistant. When they had
gone through the whole length of the island as far as Paphos, they there
met with a Jewish magician and false prophet, Bar-Jesus by name, who was
a friend of the pro-council Sergius Paulus. That's a Roman official.

The pro-council was a man of keen intelligence. He sent for Barnabas and
Saul and he asked to be told the word of God, the gospel. But Elimes, or
the magician for such is the meaning of the name, opposed them and tried
to prevent the pro-council from accepting the faith.

Then Saul, who is also called Paul, this is by the way the place in the
Bible where his name changes. Luke tells us that. Was filled with the
Holy Spirit and fixing his eyes on Elimes said, You are full of every
kind of emptiness and unscrupulous cunning.

You son of the devil and foe to all that is right. Will you never cease
to misrepresent the straight paths of the Lord? The Lord's hand is now
upon you and you will be blind for a time and unable to see the light of
day. Instantly there fell upon him a mist and a darkness.

And as he walked about, he begged people to lead him by the hand. Then
the pro-council, Sergius Paulus, seeing what had happened, he believed,
no kidding, being struck with amazement at the teaching of the Lord. Now
this story is put in the Bible for a reason.

You know, we have so little of Jesus' life, all the things he said and
did. John said it would fill up the whole world with books, all that he
said and did. We have very few fragmentary things that Matthew, Mark and
Luke are repeated.

So many of them, then John has some other unique ones. But Jesus
ministered for three and a half years, day in, day out, morning, noon
and night. Think of all the things that he did that we don't know about.

And in the time of the book of Acts, just think of all the things that
happened to Paul and Peter that we don't know about, and the other
apostles. God chose not to reveal it to us. We don't need to know it.

He doesn't tell us what we want to know. He gives us what we need to
know. So when you do find a story like this in the Bible, it captures
your attention that the Holy Spirit would anoint Luke and have him tell
that story.

Out of all the stuff Luke researched, he's led by the Spirit and
inspired by the Spirit to put this in Scripture. Now this happens in
Antioch, and it's right around this time where the whole focus of the
book of Acts changes from Jerusalem to Antioch. In chapter 11 of Acts,
we find out that from the persecution of the Christians, people were
flying about everywhere, sharing the gospel.

And certain men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Syria, Antioch in Syria,
which is undergoing all this stuff in the news now, all this killing.
And a church was begun there. Why? Because the hand of the Lord was with
them.

Oh my goodness, would I love the hand of the Lord with me like that. Why
was there a church? Because certain men didn't even give us the names.
They weren't into hero pastors or hero evangelists back then.

They just said certain men from Cyprus and Cyrene went there. But the
hand of the Lord was with them, and multitudes turned to the Lord. I've
often thought I'd rather live just a few years with the hand of the Lord
with me, powerfully, than live a long life just struggling in my own
strength.

Anybody here with me, say amen. So, that church begins, and then Saul of
Tarsus ends up going there, and Barnabas ends up there from Jerusalem.
Now that's a heavyweight staff in a church.

You got Paul, you got Saul of Tarsus, you got Barnabas and others,
prophets and teachers. And now they practice what 6-4 is all about. They
begin to seek the Lord and worship the Lord.

Remember, praying always has to be mingled with praise and thanksgiving,
or it can get very, very depressing. I always have to caution the people
in our church. Okay, remember now, no matter how your heart is broken or
what you're asking God for, always be mingling some thanksgiving.

Remember Philippians 4-6? Be anxious for nothing but in everything by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Make your needs known to
God. Sometimes I hear people's prayer, and it's just such a laundry list
of negativity and problems that it overwhelms you.

You get depressed hearing a guy pray. But you throw in some praise and
thanksgiving, it builds your faith, because God who is, oh, God is
faithful. Isn't God faithful? Isn't God faithful? God is so faithful.

So, as they're ministering to the Lord, and waiting on God and praying
and not rushed, oh, brothers and sisters, pastor, listen to me. You can
have instant potatoes, you can have instant coffee, you can have instant
a lot of things, you can't have instant God. They that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength.

And the idea of a rushed service with a line of what's going to happen
every minute, I was just somewhere recently at some large conference,
and they said, okay, Pastor Jim, they mic'd me up, and they said, okay,
here's the thing for the service, not the menu, the script for the
service. So, okay, the praise and worship is going to go exactly 12 and
a half minutes. And then we're going to have a guy come up, and he's
going to share something for three and a half minutes.

Then we're going to have a special song by the choir, the song is four
and a half minutes. Then if someone's going to come up and prepare for
the offering, that's going to take one minute. He's going to pray for
another minute before the offering.

The offering song is going to take four minutes. Then they're going to
introduce you, you have 21 minutes to speak, okay? Then we want you not
to lead people to pray, as we know you want to, but we've got to keep
our eye on the clock here. So then we want to turn it, the choir's going
to do an anthem, God bless America or something.

And there the whole thing was lined up. And then, after they gave it to
me, and I said, whatever, because when you go somewhere, you just want
to serve, amen? You serve, you go with the program. Then they begin to
pray.

Lord, Holy Spirit, come and move among us today. Wind of God, breathe
upon us. Where would he fit in? He's not even in the agenda.

He's not even in the script. How would he get in? You think the meetings
back in the book of Acts were the way we had them? No, I'll be honest
with you, be real. You think they were? Oh, but brother, that will lead
to fanaticism.

No, you can say anything you want. I'm asking you a question. Do you
think Paul was constrained by that? And what troubles me and bothers me,
let's just take this city, this great city, this great area.

It's strange to me that pastors tell me they can't hold the people, but
for an hour, an hour and 10 minutes, they get itchy and want to leave.
But if the Cowboys are playing and the game goes into overtime, nobody
complains. Nobody complains.

Or they watch a movie or go to a movie. Or watch a football game. Nobody
complains.

Everybody's like, wow, this game is going long. Nobody says that. But
church is going long.

Pastors, if that's the kind of congregations we have, maybe we better
check ourselves. What are we producing? And would heaven be heaven to
these people? No games, no movies, no cell phones, no texting. I mean,
what in the world are we going to do up there? How many are looking
forward to being in the presence of God? Without end.

But if we're not training people and seeing the Holy Spirit acclimate
their hearts to loving the presence of the Lord, something must be
wrong. Something's got to be wrong. I'm not legalistic.

I don't want to judge anyone, but that just doesn't sit right with me.
Church, let's get out of here. But in His presence, there's fullness of
joy.

Well, then how come you want to get out so quick? Am I wrong or right,
brothers and sisters? So that's probably not a good symptom. That's not
a good sign. So here they were, taking time to wait upon the Lord, to
seek the Lord.

And the Spirit moved, and we're going to see the Word preached. But
here's what I want you to know. Whenever your church, or my church, or
you and your staff, however, whenever we seek the Lord and wait on Him,
whenever we pour out our hearts to God and go back to primitive
religion... A couple pastors on my staff went recently, or a couple of
years ago, to one of these church growth gurus and went to the
conference, and, you know, people going.

They were there two and a half days, and they came back, and they had
learned some interesting things, but mostly technique and style, not
much substance. And they mentioned, one thing that did bother us,
Pastor, was in the two and a half days we were there, and we went to
every session, there was not one minute given to prayer. Not one minute
of prayer.

Not 60 seconds. And there was not one verbal reference to the Holy
Spirit. Now, what did they want to talk about? How to light, how to do
PowerPoint, how to utilize your space better, what colors on the walls
are more comfortable to people.

Is that what this is all about? That's why Christ died on the cross.
That girl that I mentioned to the pastors earlier today in my church
that we're fighting for, a 14-year-old who's cutting herself and trying
to take her life now, said two or three times, but she wrote with a
knife on her inner thigh, help, H-E-L-P. Lights are going to change
that.

No, I'm dead serious. What world are those people living in? We wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. You think
principalities and powers care about the lighting? I'm all for lighting.

Use the best lighting you know. Change whatever colors you want. Have
PowerPoint, use whatever you want to use.

But don't tell me that's what Christianity is about. Can we all say amen
to that? It's interesting to me, it's interesting to me, Robbie and
Zacharias, my friend and I, were talking about this. It's interesting
that Christianity is now going through the most massive decline probably
in history right now in America.

Probably real born again evangelical by believing Jesus is the only way
of salvation. Christians, part of the population, is either 9% or as low
as 6%. That's from five different Christian polling agencies.

It's interesting that we're having the most books written and most
conferences about church growth and church is in decline. We have the
most books and conferences about leadership and pastors are quitting at
a record rate. And more than 50% say they would quit the ministry next
week if they could only get a job to pay the bills.

That's from Focus on the Family. So behind a lot of the posturing and
the pulpit and God is on the throne and praise God all the time and all
that, there's a lot of defeated people. I don't know what to do.

And every time they try to redefine the church or go to a new church
growth scheme or strategy, they get further discouraged because it
doesn't work. Brothers and sisters, I want to declare to you, nothing
works. God works.

No song works. No mood works. No church formula works.

Don't copy anyone. We got to get in touch with God. For your own sake,
don't copy any church.

Don't go and copy anyone. Learn, be influenced, but don't copy anyone.
If God wanted you to be that way, he would have made you that way.

And isn't it interesting that the church, the country that now has the
most Christians in the world is mainland China. Robbie and I were over
in Hong Kong ministering to underground church leaders, home church
leaders, half of whom had been in jail. I felt so unworthy to even speak
to them.

And all that we're teaching is a necessity to have church. They wouldn't
even know what you're talking about. They're meeting in secret.

They don't even know the names of other Christians in the city because
if somebody got arrested, they might give up names. And they're
multiplying, multiplying, multiplying, just depending on the word of
God, the gospel, prayer. They have no lights, no PowerPoint.

They have nothing, but they have everything. They have Jesus. They have
Jesus.

So the early church is ministering, and here's what will always happen
when you and I give ourselves to this prayer that Daniel Anderson, 6-4,
is encouraging us to. You give yourselves to the word and prayer, and
you're open to the Holy Spirit. This is what will always happen.

It will always happen. Listen to me now. I've made more mistakes than
all of you put together, I feel.

But I will tell you this. You can take this to the bank. This is what
will always happen when you seek the Lord.

Number one, you will get Holy Spirit guidance and direction. If anyone's
here today, and you're facing, you don't know what to do, you're not
sure what the next step is, we seek the Lord, give ourselves, open
ourselves to the Holy Spirit, give ourselves to the word of God, because
you can't pray effectively unless you're filled with the word of God
like George Miller said. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of
God, and you need faith when you pray.

As they're waiting on God, how about being in that service? As they're
waiting on God and worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit says,
probably through one of the gifts of the Spirit, out loud, separate me
Paul and Barnabas, Saul and Barnabas, for the work that I've called them
to do. Talk about drama. Talk about Holy Ghost hysteria, wonderful,
edifying.

The Holy Spirit speaks, not in an audible voice, but through some,
probably had to be someone in the congregation. And the names are
mentioned. We would say that's ludicrous, that's impossible, but that's
our lack of faith.

That's in the Bible that we're pounding and we want to argue with
agnostics, oh, this is the word of God. Well, this is what that word of
God says. That as they gave themselves to the Lord and the presence of
God and the word and to seeking the Lord, the Lord said, separate me
Paul and Barnabas for the work that I've called them to do.

And every time you and I will seek the Lord and really give ourselves to
it, be radical about it. You know, be like radical about it. The Lord
will always give us, it has to happen.

Sooner or later, we don't know how long they were doing this before the
Lord spoke, the Spirit spoke. Notice the personality of the Holy Spirit
there. Separate me Paul and Barnabas to the work that I've called them,
I, the Spirit.

The Spirit knows what you're supposed to preach on this Sunday, even
though you might have something else scheduled. The Holy Spirit knows
who in your church the hand of the Lord is upon, that you need to take
time and develop. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can direct us to a
building program.

You do it without him leading, you can get in a whole lot of trouble.
Because nowhere in the Bible does it say, I can do what I want and God's
gonna pay the bills. That is not found anywhere in the Scripture.

But when the Holy Spirit leads us to do something, we know God is gonna
do it. God is gonna do it. Would the Holy Spirit lead us and then let us
drop? Our problem is we make unilateral decisions without seeking the
guidance of the Holy Spirit and that's very strong now.

In places that should know better, people are mocking the idea that you
seek God for his will. I've heard that from young preachers, older
preachers. You don't pray about these things.

Just whatever you feel like doing, God could care less. Where would you
get that from Scripture? Later on in this book, Paul is now called Paul
and he's with his missionary team and he wants to go up into Asia.
Remember that story? To preach the gospel but the spirit forbids him.

So then he wants to go to Bithynia and the spirit of Jesus stops him.
Why doesn't he just do what he wants to do? Like God could care less.
Marry anyone you want.

Oh, how many believe that God, who knows the number of hairs on our
head, he has the one we're supposed to marry? How many believe that? Do
you believe that? Lift your hand up if you believe that. Well, of
course. You just marry anyone I want and then say, God bless it.

I don't humble myself and say, Lord, lead me to the one that you picked
out for me. He that does the will of God shall abide forever. But who,
the will of God in terms of moral teaching is found in the Scripture.

You don't pray and say, God, can I steal this money from my job? You
don't pray about that. The Bible says don't steal. That's tempting God
but there are a lot of other decisions in life.

You have no idea. I have no idea what to do. But the Spirit will guide
us.

They didn't know to separate. How would they know to separate Saul and
Barnabas for a missions trip? They didn't have a clue to do that. No
software is going to tell you that.

The Holy Spirit is going to tell you that. And they didn't do a
personality study. Is Saul fit? Do they go together? How will they do in
foreign environments? I mean, come on.

How many, I thank God for the Holy Spirit today. Come on, let's say amen
to that. I'm not being simplistic.

I'm not being simplistic and I'm not trying to be anti-deluvian. What
I'm saying is this is what Scripture tells us. If you honor the Holy
Spirit, He'll honor you.

He'll honor me. If you and I feel we're too smart and don't need His
help, He'll say go for it. But I'm not part of that.

By the way, can I just suggest this also when you're preaching? How many
want when you preach, you want the help of the Holy Spirit? Just lift
your hand if you want the help. Here's what I've learned. If you mix
anything except glorifying Christ, the Holy Spirit will withdraw His
influence.

If you want to show off yourself and have people think you're clever and
smart, you can do it. But the Holy Spirit says, no, no, no. I was not
sent to glorify you.

You're on your own. Go ahead and do it. I was only sent to glorify
Christ.

You want to glorify your denomination like it's special? You're on your
own. He was not sent to glorify any denomination because they don't
exist to God. There are no assemblies of God or Baptists or Calvary
chapels to God.

That doesn't exist. They only have one body. How could there be division
in the one body? So you and I bring up any pet doctrine or Brooklyn
tabernacle-ism, you want to just glorify anything but Jesus and you'll
see a withdrawal of the Holy Spirit.

But if we want to just lift up Jesus, well, what we could see the Holy
Spirit to. Because when he sees that we only want to glorify Christ and
have no agenda, he'll come in rivers that we have never even imagined.
So you've got to know today, know this, whatever you're facing, whatever
dilemma, whatever decision with the staff, if we seek the Lord, he will
direct our steps.

We will hear a voice saying behind us, this is the way, walk in.
Scripture tells us all doctrinal matters. You don't pray about that.

But there are so many other decisions, like a building program, like
hiring a new person, like who to lead worship, like what songs to lead
in worship, like what to do when you get up and you feel a dry spirit in
the church. How many pastors here have noticed there's a different
spirit in every meeting that we have in church? Am I right or wrong?
Different atmosphere. So what do you do if you feel like the whole
church is like, they're like comatose? What do you do? The Holy Spirit
knows.

Holy Spirit knows what to do at all times. And he was sent to help us
build the church of Christ. If we seek the Lord, the Holy Spirit will
lead us.

And this terrible anti-supernaturalism that's in so many churches that
mock the fact that God will lead us and guide us. That's horrible.
That's grievous.

That's why the spirit of God is so not felt in so many assemblies
because they mock his power. They act like they don't need him. Look at
me.

If I don't have the Holy Spirit help me, what am I gonna do? I'm in
downtown Brooklyn trying to do some good in the hood, as they say. And I
got all these kinds of problems walking in the building and I didn't
even go to seminary without the Holy Spirit. Well, I do.

You're listening to me. Am I a great orator? No. Am I a great preacher?
Have a great speaking voice? No.

So without the Holy Spirit, what are my wife and I gonna do? She can't
read or write music and she's directing a choir. Isn't that just
amazing? They sang at the, they were invited in July, long before the
election was decided, to sing by Senator Schumer, to sing a new version
that Carol made of the Battle Hymn of the Republic at the inauguration.
Anyone seen them sing there? And I just thought to myself, Senator
Schumer came by the church for the last practice.

He wanted to hear what they had put together. Massive orchestra
arrangement. Very beautiful.

She's such a genius and she doesn't know what she's doing. The joke in
our church is, she doesn't know what she's doing, she just keeps doing
it every Sunday and we're all happy and just keep doing it even though
you don't know what you're doing. Can't imagine, written 130, 40 songs
and can't read the sheet music of any of the songs she's written.

Won six Grammy Awards and now Senator Schumer came and said to them,
you're gonna be singing to six to 800,000 people live there, but it's
gonna be televised to one billion people around the world. A woman who
can't read music was leading people who had fasted and prayed because
they wanted to glorify God and it so transcended the smallness of
politicians and presidents and Republicans and Democrats. What's that
all about compared to God? God is awesome.

Can we say amen to that? In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born
across the sea. As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men
free. As he died to make men holy.

So you and I can know this, we will be led by God. Not maybe, we will be
led by God. That's why this story is in there.

God will show you in the church, the talent in your church, he'll
elevate them, there'll be some sign, he'll just show us. If we get our
churches praying and waiting on the Lord, seeking God, things will
happen led by the Holy Spirit. In all those realms where it's not a
moral thing.

You know, if there's no command to build a building, there's no command
in the Bible not to build a building. We gotta be led by the Holy
Spirit. Number two, if you and I are seeking the Lord and giving
ourselves to the word and to prayer, and we're open to the Holy Spirit,
you will face demonic opposition.

Take that to the bank also. God will not only direct you, but the devil
will come against you. When they go to the island of Cyprus, they get to
Paphos, and there they get to this very intelligent Roman official named
Sergius Paulus.

And he actually, talk about an open door? That's another thing that
happens when you pray. You get open doors. But with every open door,
there's opposition usually.

Like Paul says, a wide effectual door is opened for me and there are
many adversaries. So, Sergius Paulus wants to hear the gospel. Now,
that's the bomb.

He actually wants to hear them tell him about the gospel. Talk about an
open door. But there's this guy, Simon Bar-Jesus, Elimus, who's twisting
and turning against Paul and Barnabas.

He's whispering into the ear, and don't believe that junk. This is a
bunch of junk. Don't you listen to them.

They're troublemakers. They're against the worship of Caesar. You'll get
in trouble if you believe that.

When you and I give ourselves to God in prayer, we want to be used by
God and we get radical and desperate about it. We will be directed by
the Lord, but there will be satanic attacks. That's something I noticed.

I've been doing a series recently about it. Stopped for a while. We'll
see where that goes.

But I've been thinking a lot about spiritual warfare. It's very hard for
Christians, especially pastors, to talk about spiritual warfare because
we live in such a weird day that if you even admit you're being attacked
or that you're involved in it, like, don't you have the victory,
brother? You're seated with Christ in heavenly places. But isn't it
something that Paul said? First person plural again, we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but our struggle against principality and
power.

He's talking about himself. I've been doing this long enough to not only
know spiritual warfare for myself. In fact, I've gone through a recent
season now.

Maybe it's connected to something I'm trying to write. But things come
in hot and heavy. And years ago, many years ago, my wife and I were
attacked through Satan attacking our oldest girl, Chrissy.

And all the pastors who have talked to me and shared privately with me
the attacks they go through of discouragement, distraction, temptation.
Oh, my goodness. We should never say one unkind word about each other.

We should always be praying and loving each other. You have no idea what
the people go, in the aisle you're sitting in right now, they all look
good. You have no idea what anybody's going through here.

Broken hearts, bewilderment, deep discouragement, semi-depressed,
fighting for the joy of the Lord. These battles are hard. It can be like
Satan using a man to try to turn Sergius Paulus against the gospel, or
it could be against your own spiritual person.

You know, I'm reminded about what Ruth Graham said before she died, Dr.
Billy Graham's wife. You remember that. They interviewed her in the 70s,
late 70s, early 80s, when Dr. Graham was at, you know, voted every year
the most admired man in America.

And he was at the height of his ministry, let's say, in the 60s, 70s.
And they interviewed her and they said, wow, you're married to Billy
Graham, the most admired person used, you know, with these crusades all
around the world. I would imagine, you know, you two, the way you live,
and so close to God, you never, Mrs. Graham, you've never contemplated
divorce, have you? And she went, never divorce.

Murder? A number of times I've contemplated murder. Because Billy Graham
is attacked too. Everybody's attacked.

And it's a mark of the unreality among us that it's hard to get people
to pray and even open up and say, pray for me. It's amazing that Paul
says over and over again, pray for me, to the Christians. You know, this
one guy who got, made a mess of his life decades ago and became a byword
in America, just messed up his life.

And they asked him, well, when you were going through all of that, why
didn't you have somebody pray for you? He said, why? Because I pray for
people, they don't pray for me. But how many, in your ministry for the
Lord, as a Christian, how many have felt your need of someone praying
for you now and again? Lift your hand up high. I'm telling you, you can
pray for me.

I'm trying to write this book, and it's like the hardest thing I've ever
tried to do, and it's so different than anything I've ever written. I
just feel like, Satan's sometimes trying to strangle me. So, when we
give ourselves to God, when we give ourselves to Acts 6-4, and prayer,
and ministering to the Lord, and being open to the Holy Spirit, Satan is
going to come against us.

Don't think that if Satan is attacking you, something's wrong. Usually
it's something's right. Because if you were sleeping and you were a dead
head, he would leave you alone, he would leave us alone.

But when he sees that somebody is ready to be used by God, and is
serious about God, he comes in with his biggest guns. Just think of Rick
Warren. What must Rick Warren be going through? Don't you know what the
devil's saying to him? Come on.

You chump, tell people how great Jesus is, and there's your boy,
committed suicide. You don't think he's saying that to him? Well, of
course, he's the accuser of the men and the women, the brothers and the
sisters. And it happens to all of us.

I know a well-known guy who had been used by God to see many, many drug
addicts set free, then his own son got hooked on painkillers, oxycodone,
and all that stuff, and the guy opened up to me, and he said, Jim, pray
for me, because the devil just comes and says, good, you helped all
those people, that's good, because I got your boy. How do you think, do
you think it's easy to get up and preach? No, it's not. We're all in a
battle.

And we've got to be real about that and pray for each other. So we're in
a battle. Paul was in a battle.

If Satan attacked Jesus and tempted him three times, you think he's
scared of us? And remember, not just those three times. He waited for a
more opportune moment. Who knows how Jesus was attacked? Who knows?
Scripture doesn't tell us about what we need to know.

So if you're here today, and the enemy is coming against your church,
your ministry, your preaching, discouragement, or whatever, that's okay.
God's going to help you. I'll tell you what else is going to happen.

I close. When we give ourselves to the word of prayer, when we open
ourselves to the Holy Spirit, when we try to have something more than
American churchianity, when we want to go outside the envelope and back
to what the Bible talks about, there'll not only be absolute direction
from God, there will be direction from God. He will direct us in the way
we should go.

Just like he led the Israelites. Just like he led Jesus. Just like he
led Paul.

He will lead us. There will be attacks from the enemy. There will be
attacks.

When Carol and I first went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle, there were 12 or
15 people in it. First offering was $85. Total tithing offerings.

She got a job. I got a job. Second job.

Made $3,800 the first year in the ministry. $5,500 the second year.
Jumped to $7,200.

I was in Fat City there in that third year. $7,200. But that was
nothing.

It was like all hell broke loose. We didn't know. We didn't know
anything.

I never thought that there'd be a church of 10-11,000 people coming in
and out every Sunday. I never thought of that. Never thought of the
influence he would give my wife or that I would ever be able to write a
book.

You're just trying to get through the day. All kinds of crazy things
happen. A guy threatened to kill me.

Some guy was, wiring was bad up in his head. Came in the church, knocked
the door open right in the middle of the meeting. Had to call the
police.

I stalled until the cops got there. Then he called me that night after
the cops had taken him out because I wouldn't press charge. He said he
would kill me the next week.

Just everything. My wife had nine voices in the choir. The beginning two
were tone deaf on top of that.

And they never left the choir. They stayed in like for 20 years. That's
the truth.

Now you get a test and you get a voice test and you get an interview.
But back then, if you could walk, you're in the choir. Get up here.

Well, one of the tenors got one of the altos pregnant. And when you go
from nine to seven and you're in a little church, everyone's just...
Every kind of attack. Some fake minister was sent from South Dakota.

Tried to steal the church leadership of the church. Attacked me with his
wife for like four or five hours in an apartment in the church. Like I
was attacked by demons.

I was very young and strong then, but it put me on a couch, a sofa in my
living room for like two days. Because just withstanding this demonic
attack. So if you're here today and you're being attacked in some way,
praise God.

God's going to do something. Why would the devil be so upset? I heard
Dave Wilkerson preach a great sermon in my church. The adulteress seeks
the precious life.

And he spiritualized it and said when Satan knows that God is going to
use someone, that's the life he goes after. That's why God...Satan went
after Nicky Cruz the way he did. Mother was a witch.

Father was crazy. Couldn't speak Spanish. Got moved out of Puerto Rico
to New York when he was just a kid.

Then went into grade school before he could learn English. A teacher
corrected him and he went and grabbed the teacher and held him outside
the window of the fourth story building. They kicked him out of school.

Now he couldn't speak English or Spanish. He still can't speak English
or Spanish. He's my dear friend but I tell Nicky, I have no idea what
you're saying sometimes.

They dedicated him to Satan when he was little. How would they know
that? How would they know that the one they dedicated to Satan would be
the great evangelist that God would use? So if you're under attack
today, praise God. Because here's what.

When we're attacked, if we're given ourselves to the Holy Spirit in word
and prayer, God will give us Holy Spirit solutions. Holy Spirit
solutions. It's happening in an instant and now for no small reason does
the Bible say, and Saul, who's also called Paul, filled with the Holy
Spirit.

That means i.e. controlled by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells
every believer but please don't try to convince me that every Christian
is filled with the Holy Spirit. Controlled by the Holy Spirit.

That is impossible. That is impossible. Otherwise Laodicea is a Spirit
filled church.

Yet Jesus is going to vomit it out of his mouth. One of the
qualifications for a deacon was had to be known to be filled with the
Spirit and with wisdom. Ephesians 5 tells us, keep on being filled with
the Holy Spirit.

Well if all Christians are always filled with the Holy Spirit, why would
Paul waste his time and say keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit?
We need the Holy Spirit every day to come and take control of us. I
preach a lot of sermons not filled with the Holy Spirit. Trust me.

The Holy Spirit comes on Saul who's called Paul. We'll call him Paul
now. And he says how would he know to do this? And if anyone did this in
church, we would probably call 911 and have the dude arrested.

Filled with the Holy Spirit. You son of the devil. Full of mischief.

Yo, you're going to be, well he wasn't from Brooklyn, he didn't say yo,
but a cloud is going to come over you and you're going to be blind for a
season because you try to pervert the good ways of the Lord. How would
he know to do that? What seminary taught him that? Well no seminary
teaches you to do that. The Holy Spirit shows you to do that.

He got an insight by the Spirit of what God wanted to do because God
never gives us the right to blind people. Because if we pastors had the
right to blind people, oh there'd be a lot of churches just with people
walking around. Oh my goodness, the deacon board would just be like, wow
I don't know where I'm going.

Am I right or wrong? But you study the book of Acts? They always knew
what to do. They always knew what to do. You put them in prison, they
knew what to do.

They know what to do. Because when you give yourselves to the word and
the prayer and you're led by the Holy Spirit, you get direction from
God, you get opposition from Satan but God gives you the word of
direction, the word of solution I should say, of what to do. And the
dude now is blind and Sergius Paulus says, check this teaching out.

This is no God Apollo or Neptune or any of that stuff. This is the real
deal. Oh, we need a demonstration of that kind of power of the Holy
Spirit.

Don't we? Okay, so and he said it with boldness. Christians who are
filled with the Spirit are never passive and scared for God has not
given us a spirit of fear. You're trying to please everyone or they
might leave and take their tithes and all of that.

That's a bad way to spend your life. Trying to keep some families in the
church who are going to cause havoc anyway. Might as well just do it in
love the right way but you gotta be bold sometimes.

You gotta preach what God wants you to preach. So this is true. I close
with it.

You can write it off as fanaticism. Whatever your theology tells you,
I'm just telling you and God will bear witness that this happened this
way. So, back in the day before we moved into this present facility, we
were in a situation where we were looking for a new building.

We had a theater, nice theater that could fit twelve, fourteen hundred
people and we went from I met you in that building it was and we could
go we would pack almost two thousand people in there. We're using all
other spaces and we went from two meetings to three meetings and then we
realized that even though we were starting other churches, we needed a
new facility so I told the pastors, look our time might be up here.
Let's all take a week to fast and pray.

Come back. No voting though unless we all feel it. I'm not going in
front of the church if we're going to have to vote about this.

I'm not going with a 4-3 vote or 5-2 vote. No, no, no, no. If this is
it, God will show us all because we want to do His will.

Right, pastors? They all said yes. They all came back and said, our time
is up. We've got to look for something else.

I said, okay but I feel we should go to a fourth meeting so we went to a
fourth meeting 9, 12, 3 and 6 every Sunday, each service two hours long.
When it was over they just got a body bag from me and sent me, put a
little stamp mail that boy home. That's why I look so old.

I did that for six years. I'm really 33 years old. I just turned.

So, so one of those days and I would go to an apartment, change my
shirt, try to rest up. I went through some dark tunnels in there boy.
Wow, nerves, emotions.

Ministering to people, praying for people. It's not easy. I don't know
how it is where you are but nothing is normal where I am.

Everything is like crazy. So, one afternoon service. I see my wife when
I walk in.

I said, what are you doing today? She said, I'm going to sing two songs.
I have just two songs. The one I practiced on Friday.

I don't feel we should sing that today. I'm going to do two other songs.
I said, fine.

So, I'm on the platform. We introduced the choir to sing and for some
reason I felt prompted to go sit in the front row and there's, you know,
250 voices let's say back then singing 200 something. I want to sit in
the front row and watch them sing rather than be trapped up there and be
a distraction to the people.

So, the first song is sung by a former crack addict who used to
disappear. We were just talking about him in the car today, weren't we
Pastor Craig? My friend, late friend. And Calvin Hunt who used to
disappear for four or five days.

Get his check and disappear for four days in the crack house. Where
construction made good money. But his family never saw him.

His God was cracked. So, he's going to sing this song about redemption's
power and I go and sit down there. And I'm sitting in the first verses
halfway through minding my own business, not looking for any trouble
from anyone.

And suddenly, the Holy Spirit comes upon me, just like Brother Elmer
Town said, he was somewhere and the Lord spoke to him and just he felt
the presence of the Lord. You know, there's the manifest presence of the
Lord. We know God is here today, right? We know the Lord is here.

We're two or three or gather. Sometimes God makes himself known, the
Holy Spirit makes himself known in palpable ways, discerned by the
Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit comes upon me, I feel.

And says, get up, go quickly, go tell them I love them. Go, call them to
me now, go quickly, go now. I go, no, this is the devil tempting me to
do something weird.

I'm being dead serious here. I know it sounds funny, but that's what my
thought process was. No, no, go, go now, go quickly, go up, tell them.

No, Lord, I can't preach the gospel now. We haven't taken the offering
yet. Don't you know how these things work? I mean, you have praise and
worship, you do announcements and the offering.

Try to, you know, understand how we do these things. Isn't that so
typical the way we think? We think so strange, but we think it's normal,
but it's so strange. No, you go now.

And I have this aversion in me to being weird, and you know, a lot of
people who want to act like they're led by the Spirit, they're just
weird. But they think by acting weird that that's very like mystical,
you know. But some folks are just strange.

I didn't want to go up and do something because I have a lot of faults.
Look at me. I have a lot of faults, but one of them is I take serious
what I'm doing right now, when I'm speaking what I do in Brooklyn, I
take that serious.

No, go now, go now. And now it's a battle inside me. Then I just, I got
like a knife, a sword, it's piercing me.

Go now. So he's singing the verses, the chorus, second chorus, key
change. My heart is pounding.

In fact, right now it's just speeded up a little bit because every time
I think of this, I remember how nervous I was then. Because I don't like
to just, you know, you're doing God's work. We're not selling computers
here.

We're presenting Christ. You can't fool around with this. This is
serious.

This is life and death. So, the song is just resolving the last chord. I
come jolting, flying out of my seat, I walk up on the steps of the
platform.

My wife is directing as she's resolving and she looks at me as if to
say, you know, I said two songs, what are you coming up here now? And I
go and I grab the microphone and I hold Calvin and I say, Calvin, you
got 90 seconds. Tell everybody quickly what Jesus did in your life. He
stands there, takes the microphone from me like he knew I was going to
do it and he says, oh yeah, here's how I was.

My God was cracked. It was not Jesus that I was singing about. My God
was cracked.

I was about to lose my wife, my children. I made this money. That was my
God.

I disappeared in there. I ended up living in a doghouse in the yard
watching the drug dealers' stuff which he hid in a big doghouse. I lived
there in squalor and filth and that was my God and he just did 90
seconds.

I take the microphone from him, the choir standing, they know
something's going down and I grab the mic and I present the gospel in
what, four minutes, four or five minutes. If it takes longer than that,
you're not preaching the gospel, you know. Except you become like a
little child, you can't enter the kingdom of heaven.

Some people's presentation of the gospel, you need two years of college
just to understand what they're saying. How could that be the gospel of
Jesus when people are illiterate all over the world? I've been in the
mountains of Peru. I've been all over South America.

I've been in, I just can't, last year was in Bangladesh and all of that
and we're talking about stuff that well, anyway. I preach the gospel. I
make an invitation.

Choir's still standing there. People now come flying out of their seats.
People coming down from the balcony, coming from downstairs.

Choir's just standing there. My wife's behind there. She goes to the
keyboard, begins to play.

I see this white kid about 18. He's crying like a baby over there. I see
a mother.

I see some children. I see guys coming down. Look like they've been on
drugs or whatever is happening.

It's just only something God could do. We minister and I pray with them.
I lead them in the sinner's prayer.

They pray out loud. I say, okay, look, we're in the middle of the
meeting now. I don't know what exactly we're going to do but why don't
you go back to your seats and then we have liturgy for you and we want
to get your names.

We can't do it now. What should we do? I'm thinking out loud. You know
what? We'll take the offering a little while.

Let's take the offering now and the choir will say, hey, folks don't
want to show. If they want to show, let them go to Broadway. We're going
to church.

They want to meet with God. What would you want to show for? Some smooth
thing, seamless transition like transition and all that. Is that what
people need? The guy's battling smoking weed in downtown Brooklyn.

You think he wants a show? What's a show? Go to Broadway. They've got
great ones. They want to meet with God.

So meeting goes on. I preach a little shorter. The choir, just beautiful
service.

I go up, change my shirt, rest, come back, do it again at 6 o'clock. Go
home in a body bag, just so tired. So Monday's the day off.

I just recuperate. Tuesday I'm in church. This is what I'm about to tell
you is the truth before Holy God.

So my daughter, Sue, my middle daughter, working in tapes and
orchestrations, music department, she walks in my office in the middle
of the day and I could tell she had been emotional and I said, what's
wrong? She said, Daddy, God is awesome. I said, what do you mean? She
said, Daddy, God is awesome. I said, I know, Sue, what happened? She
said, I just got a call from Dallas, Texas.

And a man got on the phone and he said, I want the sheet music for a
song you sing in your church. She said, what's the song? He told her.
She said, I'm sorry, we don't have sheet music for that song.

He said, no, I want you sing it in your church. I want the sheet music
for it. She said, well, no, look, when our choir makes a CD, they make a
choral book out of it and that music is sung in a lot of different
places, but the song you just mentioned, we don't, we have never
recorded it unless it's recorded.

No, I want that song, young lady. I want the song. I want the sheet
music.

I want that song. That song is just so precious to me. And then she
slipped and she said, well, you know what? I'll tell my mom and next
time she does a CD, maybe she'll include that song.

He said, what do you mean your mom? Who are you? She said, my name is
Susan Symbola Petrie. I'm the pastor and Carol's middle daughter. He
said, okay, I want you to tell your daddy something.

That's how they say it in Texas, right? Not your father, tell your
daddy. I want you to tell your daddy something. I'm a businessman.

My wife and I have a 17, 18-year-old kid who's as far away from God,
even though we raised him in the things of God, he's as far away from
God as you can get. Wrong friends dabbling in bad things. So my wife and
I, we've been praying for him, but we can't get through.

So we made a strategy. I told him, listen, son, I'm going to New York on
a business trip. You come with us.

I'll do my business on Friday. You'll be with your mom. On Saturday
we'll go to a Broadway show.

We'll take you to a great restaurant, and then we'll go home on Sunday.
But our whole thing was we were going to bring him to your church. The
trap.

Like a Holy Ghost strategy. So, we have the weekend. We check out of the
hotel.

We get jumped in a cab. We're heading to the facility. I take out my
itinerary, and I go, oh, no.

My secretary blew it. She didn't put us on the late flight to Dallas.
She put us onto this other flight.

I never noticed it. Oh, no. We're not going to be able to stay for the
whole meeting.

And we spent all this money, brought our son here, been praying, killing
ourselves, leaving God for him. So we came on Sunday to the 3 o'clock
service, knowing that we had to leave. You know.

Well, maybe we could hear that choir. We do play that music, and my son
half likes it. So, we're in the balcony.

We got a seat way up at the balcony somewhere. And then the choir gets
up to sing, and then after the first song, I'm watching my clock. Your
dad jumps out of his seat like he was shot by some kind of gun.

And he runs up on the platform, and he grabs the mic and hands it back
to this guy who's a crack addict, and he tells him to testify. And he
shares about how he used to live in a dog house, and he's going into
crack houses. And then your dad grabs the microphone back.

Your daddy grabs the microphone back, and he starts preaching the
gospel, and the meeting isn't even a half hour old. And he makes an
invitation, and when he does, my son is the first one to get up. And he
comes down to the front.

Your daddy looked over at him, and he saw him crying and weeping. And my
wife and I are just looking at each other like, what? And then he prays
over everyone, and he sends everybody back to their seats, and we're
waiting up in the balcony, and the minute he gets there, we grab our
hats and coats, and we go out the door, and we grab a cab, and we get to
LaGuardia, and we get on the flight back to Dallas. And while my wife
and I are sitting, tell your daddy that while we're sitting in the
airplane, we look across the aisle at our boy, and it's not the same boy
we came with.

It's a boy, the boy that we raised. Come on, let's do put our hands
together. So, they pray.

We were by the grace of God open to the Holy Spirit in the church. You
say to me, would God change a meeting for a 16, 17-year-old boy? Yep.
How many believe He would change a service? Yep.

And what is the order of service? And what is the order of service? The
Holy Spirit is the order of service. Let's pray. Somebody come and pray.

If you're here tonight, we're going to sing, You Are Strong. Worship
team, come on up, all of you. You did so good.

We're going to sing that song triumphantly. You are strong, God. You
will lead us in the way we should go.

When Satan comes against us like a flood, you're going to raise up a
standard. No matter how he attacks, you're going to help me, you're
going to help my brothers and sisters. For we are more than conquerors
through Him who loved us.

And when the enemy does come, and we're not sure what to do, you're
going to give us Holy Spirit solutions. No matter how crazy it gets.
We're not going to be discouraged.

We're going to be encouraged. Thank you for calling us into the ministry
and giving us the Word of God and the throne of grace and the power of
the Holy Spirit. If you're here today and you're facing a decision of
some kind, lay person, pastor's wife, pastor, leader, whatever, but you
need a word from the Lord.

You need some direction from God in the hours, days, weeks, months to
come. You want God to show you what to do. You don't want to make a
mistake.

There's some decision you've got to make in your ministry, your church,
whatever, your finances, whatever. Just get up out of your seat and come
up and stand with me. We'll sing together, with you at least.

Just come, anybody. Got to make a decision. I believe what you preached.

I want God to know, lead me, Holy Spirit. Lead me, Holy Spirit. Come and
stand here.

Don't kneel if you wouldn't mind. Just come and stand. Make more room
for more people.

You come. Anybody here under attack by the enemy and you don't mind
admitting it, the enemy's trying to pull you away, distract you,
discourage you, trip you up, make you feel pity for yourself, a victim,
victimization. Get up out of your seat and say, Pastor Jim, like you,
you have had so many times, I am under an attack by the enemy, but I
know that I'm calling on God.

He's going to give me the victory. I'm going to resist the devil. He
will flee from me.

He will flee from me. You can come up out of your seat. I know that
takes a little more extra grace and humility, but you come.

Finally, is there anybody who needs some Holy Spirit solutions to
dilemmas that are facing you and they're time sensitive. They are time
sensitive. You need God to help you like right quick.

Get up out of your seat and come. Like something could just blow up,
just ruin everything. They're going to lead us in a second and that's
how we'll conclude the meeting tonight, but I did want a chance to pray
over you.

Not that I'm anybody. God knows, but we have power through the name of
Jesus, don't we? Would you lift up one hand a little bit with me? Just
lift up a hand as a sign of worship and as a sign of need and as a sign
of faith. Just lift up a hand.

That's biblical, Old Testament and New Testament. Lift up holy hands.
Father God, I thank you that you have called us in the ministry and I
thank you that when we give ourselves to you to prayer, to worship, to
be led by the Holy Spirit when we ask to be filled with both your word
and your spirit, you promised God that you would direct us in the way
that we should go.

So I'm asking for my brothers and sisters who are facing a fork in the
road, show them which way to go. Don't let any pastor here make a
decision based on human intelligence, but let him be led by the Spirit
of God. Don't let him copy what another church is doing.

Let him be led by God. Don't let him copy the denominational model, but
let him be led by the Holy Spirit of God. I pray for anyone and everyone
of us that is under special attack of the devil in the day of evil that
you'll be able to stand.

God, the Holy Spirit, strengthen us in the inner person and make me and
make my brothers and sisters strong in the inner person, Lord. Be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of
God.

And Lord, whoever is facing some emergency right now with their own
child, what do I do? What do I say? How do I react to this? God, give
Holy Ghost solutions to what we're facing, Lord. And we promise tonight,
God, we will give you the praise just like I gave you all the praise for
what you did in that meeting, Lord. We will give you honor and praise
and others will praise and adore you for your goodness as we share it,
Lord.

So just know that you'll get all the glory, Lord. You'll get all the
praise. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. We love
you, Lord, and we praise you, Lord.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/PIgllS6mchY.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/jim-cymbala/holy-spirit-directed-ministry/
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