In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church. He shares an encounter with someone who felt the energy in the building, which the preacher attributes to the spirit of God. The preacher then discusses the manifestation of the spirit through verbal gifts, such as speaking in different languages, to build up and encourage the people. He encourages individuals to praise God in their own unique way and not to copy others. The preacher also highlights the diversity of gifts and services within the church, emphasizing that God works in different ways through different people.

Some weeks ago, we read from the book of 1 Corinthians about how God plans to build his church when he began his church. He gave this wisdom to a man by the name of the Apostle Paul and Paul said that God made me a wise master builder of the Christian church. Now, to us, the Christian church, to many of us, is a building and a certain attendance on Sunday. But in the Bible, that has nothing to do with a building. The church, nor a group of people only who meet on a Sunday for an hour or so. But the church is a spiritual organism made up of men and women whose lives have been changed through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, they are called the body of Christ, as we were saying before, and the only way that God planned to build up that church, predominantly, I should say, was through spiritual gifts since the church is a spiritual organism and not an organization. The Democrats, the Republicans are an organization. The church is a spiritual organism. We're alive spiritually. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but now we've been made alive. How many say amen? But now, for us to grow and for the church to expand, especially for the church to grow so that we can expand, a sickly church will not expand. A strong church will keep spreading the gospel and will expand. The way that should happen, according to the Bible, is through the ministry and the gifting of the Holy Spirit. So let's get this straight. God the Father, in the Old Testament, had promised that one day he would send the answer, the Messiah, the one that we all needed. So we know that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So the Father sent the Son. But when the Son went back to heaven, here's what he said to his disciples. It's good for you that I go, because unless I go, I won't be able to send the Spirit when he comes, not it. I grew up around a lot of teaching that the Spirit was an it, and the King James Bad Translation of Holy Ghost added to it, you know, a ghost is an it. But Jesus said when he comes, he will do such and such and such and such. So Paul says that the genius of Christianity is that believers, although they don't always appreciate it, and they're not always open to it, which is why I'm talking about this tonight, they have access to the Spirit of the living God who wants to work through them so that other parts of the body are lifted up, just like if my knee gets bad, the rest of my body adjusts to that bad knee. Well, through spiritual gifting among brothers and sisters in Christ, the church is to be built up. Notice there's no hierarchy that's mentioned here. It's not the pastor or the bishop, so-called, or presbyters, those names, or elders, they all mean the same thing in the New Testament. It's not them that have the gifts only. They should have some gifts from God. But it's the whole church, you up in the balcony. This is the shame of it all, that so few people are sensitive to the manifestation of the Holy Spirit that God wants to happen in and through you. It's just go to church and watch what goes on up here. Probably the deepest tragedy, as Gordon Fee has pointed out in his writings, the deepest tragedy of the Western church, Western civilization church, is that we basically have done away with the Holy Spirit and have just lived for that which is human and expected and organized. And meetings are just run, and they have a cue sheet, and they tell you exactly what's gonna go on, and so on and so forth. This was unknown to the early Christians, because they were told when the Spirit comes, it's gonna get good. How many say amen? So let's just read this through, and let's see, I wanna review it, because unfortunately, I've been cut off from continuing this, so I wanna start from the beginning here. Now, about the gifts of the Spirit, that word means charismata. It's the plural of charisma. Or it can be translated about the things of the Spirit, brothers and sisters. I do not want you to be uninformed, which means we can be uninformed. You can be a Christian and be totally uninformed about what he's about to give us. You know that when you were pagans, before you were Christians, somehow or other, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Let's stop there for a second. We learned a few weeks ago, there's the thought here that the Spirit works by influence and by leading, not by overpowering impulses, but by leading and by influences to our inner being. Paul says you remember when you were serving idols, you were under the influence of satanic powers one way or the other, and you were influenced and led by those spirits and those feelings. Now, you live in a different world since you've come to know Jesus Christ. Therefore, I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is cursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. I want you to know that no one who's speaking under the influence of the Spirit of God says Jesus is cursed. The commentators find this a very difficult verse to understand. Could it be that someone could come in a church meeting and say Jesus is cursed in a service, and the people wouldn't know that's wrong? What it could be a reference to is that demonic spirits that they were involved in before they became Christians would curse Jesus and would put down Jesus. But when the Spirit of God is working, nobody can say Jesus is cursed, and no one can really say Jesus is the Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Unless the Holy Spirit shows you who Jesus is, you can't say he is Lord. Until the Spirit is working in you, you can't really lift your hands and worship God in spirit and in truth. This also, we found out, points out how you know when the Holy Spirit is working. Anytime there's a Holy Spirit church, it's gone off the rails. When the Holy Spirit is working, he always points to Jesus. When he comes, Jesus said he will, notice he, when he comes, don't try to understand the Godhead, we just accept it because it's in the Bible. We don't try to contradict it and do away with that language, that's silly, but we can't comprehend it either. So just, let's say it's a mystery. But when he comes, he will glorify me. So whenever the Spirit of God is working, Jesus will be lifted up. Not a church, not the minister. If the minister's being lifted up, a denomination's being lifted up, a doctrinal position is being lifted up, Spirit cannot be working. When the Spirit is working, praise God, Jesus is glorified. Can we put our hands together and say amen? There are different kinds of gifts, charismata, things from the Spirit, but the same Spirit distributes them. Notice, the Spirit is like this first row of deacons and deaconesses. The Spirit decides what gifts go into these people's lives. He decides. There's different kinds of gifts. Notice this, not everyone has the same gift. And one of the signs of maturity as a Christian is not ever to appreciate only one gift. You have to appreciate all kinds of gifts. Not everybody can sing like Caleb and play like Caleb, but then Caleb can't do something else that someone else can do. And maybe someone else preaches a great message and you go, oh, Pastor Delena or Tony Evans or somebody was so good and not everyone has that gift. But other people are needed. We all need each other. How many say amen? Just because you use your right hand to eat doesn't mean you don't need your knee. Just try to walk on your hand or walk on with your fork and you'll see you have a problem. So we all need each other. There's different kinds of gifts. The emphasis here is notice on variety. God, there's no two snowflakes ever been examined that are the same. God is a God of variety. And you gotta accept your variety and accept the way he uses you and not say, I wanna be that one. No, be what God wants you to be. So now there are different, again, different kinds of service. But the same Lord. People serve God in a different way. Some people in the prayer band. Some people sing in the choir. Some are evangelists. Some are pastors. Some are missionaries in Haiti. Others are deacon and deaconesses. Some clean the building. Some are working with children. Some go to the shelters and the prisons. There's different ways of serving, but it's the same Jesus that we're serving. This is getting good, amen? There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone, it is the same God at work. God works in different ways in different people. So you never try to imitate someone else. Let God work in you the way he works in you. Don't copy somebody else. I remember going to Bible school when I was in college, and the president of the Bible school was a great pastor and preacher. When he would praise God, he would carry a handkerchief in his left hand, and when he would praise God, he would go up on his toes like that and just go, ooh, praise God, like that. About three months into the school, I went there on a Sunday night because I was a backslidden basketball player playing ball in the University of Rhode Island, but knowing I needed God, and I went there, and I was sitting behind about five guys who were all students. They had their little blazers on and whatnot, and I noticed as we were praising God, all of them went, oh, hallelujah, praise God. They had to copy him. You never copy anyone. They don't pray like anyone. Don't lift your hands like anyone. I get very nervous around that when people mimic somebody. I was noticing now among the youth, there are certain youth leaders, they move their bodies in a certain way. I saw it on TV. I said, wow, I've seen a lot of people doing that. Just praise God yourself. Move your body the way God wants you to move your body. Don't be copying anybody. Give it a rest. Come on, how many are happier you and nobody else is like you? Now, to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit. Now, notice what he's changing now. The word is not gifting anymore. He's saying that the gift is a manifestation of the Spirit. The Spirit is now gonna show himself through a man or a woman. You can call it a gift or you can just show the Spirit working and doing something through a man or a woman. Now, to each one, he's not saying to every single person who's a Christian, like everyone has their own gift, let's discover it, but he's saying everyone should be open to the gift that God has for them. There's some manifestation and this is not, as I was taught as a child, a comprehensive list. These nine gifts that are listed are not the end of all the gifts of the Spirit. Others are mentioned at the end of Romans and there's probably others that are not even mentioned in the Bible, but you know the Spirit is working. Nowhere here does it say that I can find in the Bible the gift, the way God can use a soloist in a choir. But how many have ever heard someone sing and you go, oh my goodness, that's God? Come on, if you've ever had that experience. Just the way they're singing, that manifestation of the Spirit. Now, you can't do that, I can't do that. That's the way God uses them for the common good and we learn that when the Spirit comes upon us, unlike what I felt growing up, was let's have good meetings and get the Holy Ghost and we're all gonna feel good and shout glory. That's what I grew up around and Jonathan grew up around that, Caleb grew up around a lot of that. Just let's shout glory and have a good meeting. No, the manifestation of the Spirit is not for you, it's for other people. Will you be blessed? Yeah, you will be, but that's not why the Spirit comes upon you. Notice, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. We're gonna see one type of manifestation, speaking in tongues, which unless it's accompanied by interpretation, it's only good for the person. We're gonna learn in 1 Corinthians 14 next Tuesday or whenever we get back to this, it only edifies that person. That's why it's called a lesser gift. Paul says, I want you to excel in gifts that bless other people because God loves us so much. He wants to keep sending blessings out because when you love people, you want to bless them. So he wants to bless us, so he comes upon Pastor J.C., not that Pastor J.C. will get happy, but that Pastor J.C. will get something that will help the youth and bless the young people. And then he works in the young people so they can bless other young people. Do you get it? This is why many churches don't experience the Holy Spirit because it's a bless me club. I want to be blessed, I want to be blessed, but the blessing is not for you. See what it says? The manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. God wants to use me not for me, he wants me to use me for you so that you can be built up to one that is given through the Spirit, capital S, a message of wisdom, an utterance of wisdom. Now, in that church in Corinth, they worshiped wisdom in that part of the Roman Empire. That's what everybody sought for is the wisdom, but the wisdom of the Greek mind, the wisdom of the Roman culture. And it's odd that Paul starts out now using what they liked so much. In fact, the Bible says that, Paul says earlier in that letter, when I came to you preaching, I didn't come with clever words and human wisdom, but with a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. This is, by the way, for some of us, what stifles the Holy Spirit in most of our churches. Our Western intellectual mind says you prepare and you study and you get something and then you have deserve a right to get up there. And this is totally contrary to what we're reading. This is a third grade dropout. The Spirit comes on them and God can use them to bless a professor. Come on, can we say amen to that? This is what we struggle with in the church. Churches will call it emotionalism. They'll call it fanaticism and there is emotionalism and there's fanaticism galore and it's nuts and it's against the Bible. But don't you get it? The devil's trying to play us, to get us to move away from a holy roller religion so that we get all into our heads. But the Holy Spirit doesn't reside in su cabeza, in your head. He's in here. And now these gifts are offered to all members of the church. To one is given a word of wisdom. God gives them wisdom from the wisdom of God so that they can speak a word in a given situation where everyone goes, whoa, that is incredible. I never thought of that. That's what we should do. That could come to any woman, any man. It doesn't reside in you like any time you want. I can just go and give wisdom. There's Mr. Wise, let's go talk to him. No, no, it's a thing that the Spirit gives. It's a word, it's a manifestation. It's something God drops in at that moment because that's the way that person is used. Do you get it? That's why we have to stay sensitive and walk humbly before the Lord. To another, a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit. We talked about that. Knowing things supernaturally. Like Paul knew when we read on Sunday, he got on a boat and he says, I can see this boat's in for a lot of trouble. How do you know that? You're no nautical engineer. How do you know about weather? Now I can see. How did he see? He knew it by the Spirit. Oh, Pastor, that doesn't happen anymore. Well, I have no argument with you. You wanna say that? According to your faith, so be it unto you. But I read in my Bible, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. How many believe God can do the same thing today? Listen, for those of you, there's some doubting Thomas here, okay? So I address these words to you. There's a doubting Thomas here, okay? So I wanna tell you something. One of the greatest preachers of the English language is a Baptist pastor in England named Charles Spurgeon. And Spurgeon was one time preaching. And he was in the middle of his sermon. His books are everywhere. His sermons are still in the library of every pastor, probably in America. They have something by Spurgeon. I have upstairs a full set of all his sermons. Spurgeon was preaching, and in the middle of his sermon, he went, wait, you, wherever you are, you stole a glove. You stole a pair of gloves, and unless you give them back, God is never gonna be able to work in your life. Give back those gloves, and then went right back to his sermon. At the end of the meeting, some young guy came up and said, I'm the guy, here are the gloves. What should I do with them? Come on, can we put our hands together? Well, of course God could do that. That's how Peter knew that Ananias and Sapphira were lying. He didn't do research and vet them out. He knew by the Spirit. But listen, anyone who says, no, I don't believe that because we have our New Testament scriptures. I was taught that when that which is perfect has come, these other things are done away with. That which is perfect is Jesus coming, not the coming of the New Testament scriptures. And please, if in the early church, if they needed the power of the Holy Spirit working, you and I don't, you and I don't, to another faith by the same Spirit. That's special faith. That's not faith that you get saved by. That's a special kind of faith. That's a person that gets this gift, so everybody goes, you know what? You gotta go to Brother Everton and his wife. They have faith. They're known to get faith, and they start to pray, and they get like faith for the impossible, like moving mountain faith, supernatural faith, not everyday faith, but special faith. Comes by the Spirit. Notice, not worked up, ah, I gotta believe. No, it comes by the Spirit. Comes by the Spirit, oh, early in the ministry, I try to work up faith. Faith comes by the Spirit. Then you start to believe God for things, and it's effortless. You're not straining, you just believe like Jesus did. He just spoke to things. He didn't say, ah, Lazarus, get out of there. Come up out of here. How many want more faith from God, the Holy Spirit? To another, gifts of healing. Notice the plural on the word gifts there. Gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and that, again, is speaking of the fact that no one is a healer in the Bible. Jesus is the healer, so when you hear an evangelist advertise as a healer, be very careful, and usually hold on to your wallet, too, with that. Jesus is the only healer, but we can receive gifts, deposits of the ability to lay hands on people and see them healed. To another, miraculous powers. To another, prophecy. To another, distinguishing between spirits. To another, speaking in different kinds of tongues. And there's still another, interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He distributes them to each one just as He determines. So let's keep that one up there and look at that one, because that's the one I wanna focus on here as we go to pray for ourselves, okay? To another, miraculous powers. To another, prophecy. Let's get distinguishing between spirits out of the way. That's discerning of spirits, and as we said a few weeks ago, it's being able to discern what is a true prophecy. Notice it comes right after prophecy, so someone can get up, let's just discuss prophecy. Prophecy was found in all ancient religions. There were prophets. But to the Jewish mind, like Paul and Peter, they would only understand prophecy or, yeah, prophecy in the context of the Old Testament. What was a prophet in the Old Testament? Basically, the prophet was someone who spoke to God's people under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Listen again. A prophet was someone who spoke to God's people under a special inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It's not preaching. The anti-supernatural element in evangelical churches tries to say prophecy is preaching. No, it can't be preaching. Wouldn't be putting so many people to sleep if it was preaching, because some preaching can put you right out, right? Am I correct? No, prophecy is that special gifting from God where someone begins to speak under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Not new doctrine, not adding to the Bible. That old caveat and that way to get out of this is no, we have the scripture, there's no more prophecy. This is not adding to the scripture. This is interpreting scripture, but especially application of scripture. So the spirit of prophecy comes on Sister Teresa, and she begins to say something to someone, and it's God speaking through her to that person. It's no longer her. It's her word. She's thinking of it. It's coming from her heart, but it has a special weight. Come on, haven't you ever heard a sermon from somebody, and the sermon was good and it was biblical, but then at certain times, it seems like God just came upon the speaker, and now that speaker is just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Come on, how many understand what I'm talking about? You got it? But somebody can get up in a service and pretend to prophesy or prophesy, and it could be of the devil, but many other times, usually it's of the devil. It's easy to pick up, although not always, but the human can get involved. So a person can mean well, get up and say things. It's not wrong what they're saying, but it's not especially inspired by the Holy Spirit. I grew up in a church at one time. I went to the same woman at the same time in the same service every time, would get up and basically say the same thing, and nothing that she said was wrong, but it sure didn't add to the meeting, and remember, prophecy is given to encourage and edify believers. One sentence said under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit could change somebody's life because there's just a weight to it. It's not, oh, I never thought of that. It's what's said. You know, there's an old saying among people. Anybody got a coin? I don't have any. Oh, no, I got one, I got one. Someone says, they used to say this way. When someone is prophesying and they're speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit it's like if you're blind and someone drops, this is a quarter, a blind person will know that's not a silver dollar, that's something else, but when a silver dollar drops, even a blind person will say, no, that has the ring. That's no quarter, that's no nickel, that's no dime. I can tell by the ring, that's a silver dollar. And that's the way it is with prophecy. It has a ring to it. It has a substance to it, it has a weight to it. Like the Bible says about Samuel, God let none of his words fall to the ground. They had weight to them instead of just fluff and people being, talking and trying to be clever. It has weight. So discerning of spirits could really be focusing on let's make sure that in the church people don't prophesy wrong and go off into crazy things. I was told about a very strong pastor, a large ego, tyrannical control of his congregation. It was his birthday and a friend of mine was in the service when this happened and it was Sunday and he was gonna preach and afterward there was gonna be a party for him and this church was all about the pastor. He was like revered, like right there with Jesus, which is never good, amen? Pastors are little, little, little tiny people. Jesus is big, big, big savior of the world people, right? So in the meeting somebody prophesied supposedly and said, yay, I will say unto my servant, the spirit would say to my servant, happy birthday. Well, you don't need to have the gift of discernment to know that the Holy Spirit is not wishing people happy birthday. But everybody got blessed. Wow, the spirit of God is recognizing our pastor. So this discerning of spirits is not just between evil and good, God, but between human and people who go off and mean well but they're not right. Notice prophecy, two vocal gifts, prophecy and now speaking in tongues and now another one is listed to another speaking in different kinds of tongues and still another interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same spirit. Notice one spirit, there's only one Holy Spirit, working different ways in different people and we need to appreciate them all. And he distributes, notice he, the spirit distributes them to each one just as he determines. And even though later we're gonna read, pursue and covet the best gifts, notice there's a sovereignty to not only who God gives gifts to, God just decides, I want her to have this gift. And you say, why did you? Because God said, that's the gift I want for her. But there's also this hint that the manifestation of the spirit is sovereignly controlled by God. You cannot work up the spirit. The spirit comes when he wants to come. Can you prepare a way for him? Can you tell him, we long for you, Holy Spirit? Can we say to him, why gather unless you come and minister? Yes, we can do that, but he comes when he pleases to come. Churches get tired of that, especially so-called Pentecostal churches. So they're gonna work up the spirit. So, and the Lord said, Diana, and everybody gets all worked up, and that's the Holy Ghost, oh, I can feel the Holy Ghost. But that's just noise. When the spirit comes, sometimes he creates great noise, but sometimes he creates great quiet. But you can't manufacture the Holy Spirit, you can't manipulate him. He comes sovereignly when he wills. I think a church that has a lot of gossip, I was one in South America, a lot of gossip and fighting, it was barren, no sense of the Holy Spirit. I think he was grieved by all the gossip and fussing and fighting that was going on. But when we get right, then he can come. But when he comes, oh, when he comes, he comes. He's always there, but when he manifests himself, how many long for that in your own life? And in our church, this is what we need. We don't want people to come in here and notice me or a choir or this nice building. We don't want them, that won't change their life. We want people to leave saying, God is in that place. I don't know what's going on totally, but God is in that place. One time a reporter from 2020, whichever station that's on, maybe CBS, 20-something years ago, he came and they wanted to do a story which we backed away from. We didn't feel comfortable with it because I think it was we were discerning a spirit and an agenda. And we later found out that this producer hit on one of the choir members for the practice that he came to and got her phone number and started to do his little thing. But when he came in on this Sunday, they were scoping out the church. They wanted to do a special on 2020, which I said we declined. But when he came in and he was in the service and he walked around, he was among all you people, and he came in my office and he said, what's the energy I feel around this building? I said, what do you mean? He said, there's an energy force. I said, no, that's not energy force. That's the spirit of the living God. Because when, come on, can we say amen to that? When he comes, you can sense him. Even an unbeliever. So now let's close on this note. Prophecy is listed as a verbal gift, speaking in English, or if you're in Spain, in Spanish, or if you're in Poland, in Polish, in the language of the people inspired by God. That builds up the people. It's supposed to encourage the people. It's not supposed to bury them and batter them. I grew up around, if someone prophesied, they just hammer you to death. That's not found in the scriptures. There is a corrective word sometimes, but it always is to go to lift you up and show you Jesus in a new way. Notice then they're speaking in tongues. What is that? That is what happened to the disciples on the day of Pentecost, when they were able to speak in languages that they didn't know. They were speaking syllables that they had no idea what it was, but it was coming from the Holy Spirit. Let's just think about that. When the church was born, God chose these fishermen and these people to act like they were drunk. They were so happy, and they were speaking in other languages that they didn't know, and the people who were gathered for the Feast of Pentecost, they came from different parts of the Roman Empire, and they said, yo, what is up with this? We hear these people speaking the languages from our nation, and they're praising God. What is this? What meaneth this? Now just think about that. This is where humility is needed, and childlikeness, if you wanna see the Holy Spirit move among us and in your life. To the Western intellectual mind, to the average guy going to seminary, he is not so excited about the thought of the Spirit coming on him and causing him to speak in languages he doesn't even know, so that people say, these guys are drunk. Just think of the humility of that, the humbling nature of it, and God chose it that way. God chose, when the Spirit came, to make men and women speak in languages they didn't know, as they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And to a lot of pastors that I'm around, they do not want that, they're not interested in that, even though it's in the Bible. They pound the Bible, but only up to a certain point. And they go, no, no, no, not for today. And if you say, show me the verse where it says it's not for today. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, I would that you all spoke in tongues. He says in another place, I want you, I speak in tongues more than all of you put together. But in a church, I'd rather say five words that you would understand to bless you. So that tells us that meetings where there's a lot of public speaking in tongues in the microphone, where no one knows what's being said, is out of order. It's out of order. When we're worshiping, praising God, when we go to pray now, and no one's listening to me speak or anything, then God can do what he wants to do. But in a public meeting, you can't have somebody interrupt, speak for 35 seconds, 40 seconds in an unknown tongue. Then I go back to speak, and the stranger is gonna say, what was that about? Oh, I don't know, it was just Sister Jones. She felt the Holy Spirit. Well, how will that build up the meeting? And imagine if five people did that. There would be chaos. And Paul teaches that. And he said, listen, speaking in tongues in a meeting should be interpreted by someone else who has that gift. Why? The church has to be built up. Unless that message, unless the thing is made known in English, let's say, for us, how will people be encouraged? All they're gonna hear is somebody jammering away and speaking in monosyllables and syllables that they don't know. But Pastor Simba, that's how I grew up. But it's not what the Bible says. Why would I be interested in how you grew up or how I grew up? I thought that's why God gave us the Bible, so we could grow up spiritually, amen? Last word. Whether it's speaking in tongues, whether it's the interpretation of tongues. Now, there's a praying in the spirit which seems to be different than the public gift of speaking in tongues, which gift has to be interpreted to prophesy, to be used by God. Notice this. The Holy Spirit works not on your mind first, but on your human spirit. This is the secret to being led and used by God. You must open your spirit and become receptive to the Holy Spirit. Remember in the Bible where it says why do we know we're Christians? The Spirit, Holy Spirit, capital S, bears witness with our spirit, small s. Jim Simba is spirit. Not my body, not my heart that beats, not my mind, not my will, but my spirit. The Spirit bears witness with my spirit. Oh, I am a child of God. I'm not what I should be, I'm not what I need to be, but praise God, I know I'm saved. How many have had the Spirit bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God? Now, with that same human spirit, we're to be led and we're to be guided. That's how the early church prospered. The people were not top-heavy in their heads intellectually. There's a place for doctrine, but brothers and sisters, what good is doctrine if there's no life? What good is doctrine? I'm all for doctrine. I have as many books as you can imagine on Christian doctrine and I wanna study the word, but what good is it if there's no life? Life, life. The moving of the spirit. The wind blows, Jesus said, where it wants to. Nobody understands it. I knew a pastor who told me years ago, he said, brother, we had such a good meeting one Sunday. God just came. So the next Sunday, I found out the songs we sang the week before. I sang the exact songs. I had the choir sing the exact song. The same soloist sang. He said, you know what happened? Nothing. Because you can't put the Holy Spirit in a box. Every eye closed. If you're here tonight and would just like to stand with me for a while in the front, I want the Holy Spirit to come in my life in greater ways. I wanna become sensitive to him. I wanna be used by him. That's always been my desire since a young man when I experienced the Holy Spirit for the first time. Oh, I wanna, I want him to come. Something from heaven so that I can be a blessing to other people. If you feel that way and you wanna stay in your chair, don't, let's not leave. Now, let's not rush out. You can stay in your seat, but if you wanna come and just stand up in the front here with me and say, pastor, as you were talking, I want God to give me the, show me the gift he has for me. I wanna understand the things of the Spirit. I want to be sensitive to the Spirit. I wanna be guided by the Spirit. I wanna be gifted by the Spirit. So I'm a candidate for everything you talked about. I do believe. I don't understand it all. I'm like you. I don't understand it all, but I know one thing. The Spirit of God is real. The Spirit of God is real and I want him and I need him. You can come right up out of your seat now. Come right to the front and stand. You can sit where you are. Just don't run out. Let's give the Spirit time. The deacons are gonna walk and deaconesses are gonna walk around among you as they feel led, but I'm gonna ask this cooperation from you. Every man, whether you're at the front or in the pew, the seat, upstairs, downstairs, I want you to turn and find a man and decide who's gonna pray first. Pray for the very things that we talked about. God, let your Spirit be manifested so that Jesus will be glorified. Ladies will pray with ladies, men with men, ladies with ladies, but whatever the Spirit gives you to say as you pray, let your mind rest and just be open. Open your heart to God and begin to pray one for another. Come on, let's do it. Help us to be praising you all the way home. In between conversations, let some hallelujahs jump out of our souls, Lord. Help us to be sensitive to people and to your Spirit by walking gently by your grace before you and people. Make us recipients of the promise to Abraham. I will bless you and make you a blessing. We've received your blessing tonight. Now make us a blessing, Lord.