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Walking in the Spirit.
Very simple word from the Lord.
Walking in the Spirit.
If you will turn to Galatians, please, the
fifth chapter.
Fifth chapter of Galatians.
I'm going to read three verses that have
to do with my message.
Galatians 5, verse 16, beginning to read, This
I say then, walk in the Spirit and
you shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh.
Go to verse 18, please.
But if you be led of the Spirit,
I want to emphasize this word, led of
the Spirit, you're not under the law.
Verse 25.
If we live in the Spirit, let us
what?
Also walk in the Spirit.
Now, Holy Spirit, we honor you this morning.
We thank you for bringing Christ to us
in such knowledge and wisdom and truth.
Holy Spirit, that is what you have been
called to do.
And we acknowledge and we honor you.
We pray now that you give us ears
to hear.
And I ask you, Lord, to give me
a voice to speak.
We know, Lord, that you're in this house
and we know that you want to speak
to our hearts.
We have hungry hearts.
We hunger and thirst after truth.
And, Lord, we give you we give you
all that we are and all that we
have.
We ask you, Lord, to make this truth
a reality in our lives.
In Christ's name, I pray.
Amen.
If we live in the Spirit, let us
also walk in the Spirit.
In plain words, simply this.
If the Holy Spirit is in you, let
him have control.
Obey him.
It's that simple.
If he lives in you, then take orders
from him.
Walk in his ways.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be a
constant, ever-present guide and teacher in our
lives.
Now, you've heard that and you know that
in theory.
But many have believed this concept of walking
in the Spirit is such a theological quagmire.
They can't understand it.
And you have to be in theology to
define it.
And I can take you to my library
and I can show you books written by
theologians, three and four hundred pages thick.
And I've waded through some of them and
I still couldn't understand what it means to
walk in the Spirit.
You don't have to be a theologian.
You don't have to have a theological background
to understand what it means to walk in
the Spirit.
If I ask you personally, if I could
come to you and say, what do you
believe it is?
What does it mean to walk in the
Spirit?
Could you explain it to me?
Could you explain it to anyone who came
to you and ask you to explain Galatians,
the fifth chapter?
Do you have a theory even?
Do you have something that you practice, something
that you know works in your life?
What I'm preaching you this morning is not
theology.
I didn't get it from a book.
I got it through experience and walking in
tests and trials.
And that's how it comes.
Most of us have no trouble believing the
Holy Spirit has been brought to us by
Christ or given to us by Christ.
We have no problem talking about his gifts.
We have no problem talking about praying in
the Spirit.
We have no problem talking about the gifts
and the fruits of the Spirit.
We have no problem praying to the Holy
Spirit.
We have no problem with experiencing manifestations and
believing manifestations of the Spirit.
But so few of us know the walk
of the Spirit.
You see, you can be filled with the
Spirit.
It's another thing to walk in the Spirit.
And that's what I want to deal with
this morning.
The Lord helping us.
We are missing, I think, in the church
of Jesus Christ, the one truth, the one
great truth that can bring rest to our
soul.
It's a truth that I believe can take
away the distress and bring peace to the
heart.
And yet we have missed this.
We we have talked so much, especially in
charismatic circles about the power, the anointing of
the Holy Spirit, the manifestations of the Holy
Spirit.
But there's almost little or no understanding of
what it means to be under the government
of the Holy Spirit.
That he has come to guide us in
all truth.
He's come to direct our lives.
He's come to take full control of everything
we say and everything we do.
Your walk, for example, my walk has everything
to do with me, who I am and
what I do and what I say and
how I act.
It's my lifestyle.
And it's not enough for me to be
able to speak with tongues and say that
is the Holy Ghost.
It's not enough for me to even pray
in the spirit.
It's not enough for me to talk to
you about the gifts or or show forth
the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I have to have an understanding.
I have to know how every day in
my life there's such confusion.
There are so many decisions to be made.
And I can't do it myself.
I can't figure things out.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to take his
place.
He is in glory, a glorified man.
He said, I can't walk with you now.
I walk my season in this earth and
I fellowship with my servants and my apostles
and the multitudes.
But now I'm going to glory.
He said, I'm going to give you my
spirit because you see the Holy Spirit.
The Bible said the spirit is the Lord.
It's the spirit of Christ himself.
I preach the triune Godhead.
I believe in a trinity.
But the very spirit that is in us
now is the very mind of Christ.
It is the very essence that is in
Christ, the very essence of God himself.
We have abiding in us.
There are only two ways to walk.
You walk either in the flesh.
That means deciding your own way, making your
own decisions or walking in the spirit and
walking.
The spirit means that you make no move.
You go nowhere.
You don't do anything until you consult with
the Holy Spirit.
You get his mind that he is in
full control, that I have no will of
my own.
I've surrendered my will to the Holy Spirit
because he knows the mind of God.
He is the mind of Christ.
And I surrender my will.
I have no more will.
I give it to him.
Jesus walked in complete submission to his heavenly
father.
And here it is in his own words.
The son of man can do nothing of
himself, but what he sees the father do.
For what thing soever he doeth, so does
the son likewise.
Jesus said, I cannot myself do nothing.
As I hear, then I judge.
Because I seek not my own will, but
the will of the father which has sent
me.
Jesus said, for I came down from heaven
not to do my own will, but the
will of him that sent me.
And I live by the father.
And in John 4, 17, we hear these
words.
As he is in the world, so are
we.
Who do we think we are that we
can do what Jesus could not do?
Who are we to think that we can
make our own decisions, go our own way?
And we can do what we think is
right.
We can do even what we think is
good.
And we consult with people.
We can get on the phone and we
can ask, is this good?
We can check with our pastors.
We check with our family.
We check with everyone.
And last and probably least, sometimes not at
all, consulting with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, I do nothing.
I don't say anything.
I wait on the father.
I have no will of my own.
I'm here to do only the will of
my father.
And as he is in the world, so
are we.
As a believer and a lover of Jesus
Christ, I can't conceive that I have that
kind of power.
I can do what Christ himself chose not
to do.
Surely he was wisdom.
Surely he was knowledge.
He was all of these things.
But he waited on the father to see
what was the mind of God.
Then and then only did he act and
move.
In the ninth chapter of Numbers, we see
a very vivid picture of what it means
to be under the government of the Holy
Spirit.
There was a cloud that appeared when Israel
left Egypt, the cloud by day and a
warm glow at night, a fire by night.
And it hung and hovered over the people
and began to lead them into the wilderness.
And then when the tabernacle was built, that
cloud descended from heaven and stood and hovered
over the Holy of Holies, the tabernacle that
was built in the wilderness for the Israelites.
And that cloud hovered there and they did
not move until that cloud moved.
By day, it was a cloud, a visible
cloud representing, I believe, the Holy Spirit and
the very essence and presence of Christ revealed
through the Holy Spirit.
The scripture says, so it was always the
cloud covered it by day and the appearance
of fire by night.
When the cloud lifted up from the tabernacle,
the children of Israel moved on.
When the cloud stopped, they stopped.
They pitched tents.
Then at the commandment of the Lord, they
journeyed and at the commandment or the word
of the Lord, they pitched their tents.
As long as the cloud abode on the
tabernacle, they rested in their tents.
And when the cloud rested many days, the
children of Israel kept the charge of the
Lord and did not move.
If the cloud rested for just a few
days, the scripture said they stayed in their
tents according to the Lord's commandment.
Then moved as the cloud moved.
If the cloud moved even in the morning,
they moved.
If it moved at night, they moved.
Whether it was two days or a month
or a year, they moved not until the
cloud moved.
Not one move, not one step out of
the camp.
They waited for the cloud to move.
The cloud would lift when it was time
to go.
If the cloud stayed two days, it would
descend over the tabernacle.
When it was time to go, the cloud
would lift and begin to drift away.
And they were told, they were taught, go,
follow the cloud.
Now, Israel sinned in the wilderness.
They committed adultery, fornication, idolatry.
But one thing that they were obedient in,
they never, ever moved without the cloud, except
on one occasion.
And I'll tell you that in just a
moment.
And it led to disaster.
At the commandment, the word of the Lord,
they rested.
And at his word, they moved on.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, we have a cloud.
That cloud was lifted from Israel because of
idolatry and sin in its final days.
And that cloud was lifted to glory.
But on the day of Pentecost in the
city of Jerusalem, that cloud descended over 120
people.
And that cloud came down and stood over
that upper room, hovered over the upper room.
And then it slowly descended more and came
into the building.
And when that cloud came into the building,
it shook.
And that cloud, that spirit of the living
God, descended further.
And that cloud of fire began to break
up.
It began to split, cloven, tongues of fire.
You see, it was a fire by night,
and this is the darkest time in Israel.
In that dark hour, just before the light
is coming, the spirit of God descends, not
only above the building, but in the building,
and finally on their heads and shoulders.
They were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
The Bible said, cloven tongues of the fire
sat upon each of them.
And that word, cloven in Greek, means thoroughly
distributed.
Thoroughly distributed.
That fire began to spread.
And not only did that cloud sit upon
them, it entered their very bodies, and those
bodies became the temple of the Holy Ghost.
The Bible said they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost and began to speak languages
as the spirit gave them utterance.
And now they are filled with the Holy
Ghost.
I ask you, are you filled with the
Holy Ghost?
Would you answer me?
Do you believe the Holy Ghost abides in
you?
He came.
We keep praying, oh, Holy Ghost, come down.
Well, He's here.
He has come down.
But He wants to take full control of
these vessels.
This is His tabernacle.
This is His temple.
You see, you can be filled with the
Holy Spirit, but the Bible said if we
live in the Spirit, in other words, if
the Spirit lives in you and you live
in the Spirit, then walk in Him.
And I've asked the Lord to open up
this scripture to me, this matter of walking
in the Spirit.
And I've been praying and seeking God.
Lord, I want to understand this simply.
I want you to make it simple so
the child can understand, because that's the only
way I can come at this, because I
want to live it.
I want to walk in the Spirit.
I've been preaching about the Holy Ghost for
years and years.
Pentecostal background, my father and grandfather.
Lord, make it simple.
And the Holy Spirit, in prayer, said the
truth is, David, that this is that still
small voice of the Spirit.
I don't hear audible voices, but that still
small inner voice.
And this is what I heard, that it's
so simple, most of us miss it.
And most great truths in the Bible are
missed because of their simplicity.
We're so complicated.
We look for so many hidden meanings and
come at it so many different theological ways
that we miss the simple truth.
And I just waited on the Holy Spirit.
And finally, three little words came to me.
And the Lord said, I'm giving you the
golden key to understand this.
And if you'll take this to heart, you
can live and walk in the Spirit and
you can share it with others.
And when I heard three little words, I
said, Lord, that is too simple, so simple
I don't understand it.
Three little words to understand walking in the
Spirit.
Just say yes.
And I said, Lord, I don't understand that.
Just say yes.
Show me Scripture.
I was led to second Corinthians one twenty
for all the promises of God are him.
Yes.
And a man to the glory of God
by us.
It's not yes or no.
It's not maybe all the promises of God
are yes and a man.
And it came down to this.
And when I began to see it, I
clenched my fist and yes, I began
to go over the promises, the great promises
that he gave me.
And let me go over some of these
promises, the Holy Spirit, that Jesus gave us
and see if you can say yes.
See if you can read it, clench your
fist in joy and against the devil and
say yes, because it's yes and amen.
Amen is so be it.
In other words, I believe it.
In fact, amen means trustworthy.
And so be it.
I can trust what Jesus said.
First thing he said, and I want you
to listen closely.
He said, I have established you.
I've anointed you.
I've sealed you with the Holy Spirit.
I have filled you with the Holy Spirit.
Do you say yes?
You can't walk in the spirit until you
believe that you're filled with the Holy Spirit.
He doesn't flirt or flick in and out
of our lives.
Every time we're in trouble, every time we
do something wrong, he's still there.
I need him more when I do wrong
than when I'm going right.
Secondly, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit, the comforter,
that he will abide with you forever and
he will lead you into all truth.
He will take that which can be known
of Christ and he will show it to
you.
He will guide you.
He will lead you and he'll bring you
into the truth of Christ.
Can you say yes?
You know, I never try to work a
crowd.
I usually say, don't say anything, don't clap.
But I'm so excited on these simple words
of walking in the spirit.
There has to come a divine yes.
Intractable, positive, definite, no possibility of maybe or
no.
Yes!
I ran around my room, my fist clenched.
Yes!
Every promise in the book is mine.
When I was a boy in my dad's
church, they had a song they sang almost
every week.
Every promise in the book is mine.
Every chapter, every verse, every line.
And the promise of his love divine, every
promise in the book is mine.
And the early church in my boyhood time
believed that and lived it.
And we do it again today.
Jesus promised that there would be an inner
voice, a guide, a teacher.
He would glorify Christ in you.
He would show you things to come.
He would show you something about where you
to go and how you to go.
Can you say yes to being guided by
the Holy Spirit?
And here's a promise.
In all your ways, acknowledge him.
He, who?
The Holy Ghost.
He will direct your path.
He will direct your steps.
When I was praying, I said, but Lord,
what about the safeguards?
Because I'm about to order a book.
It's a theological discourse or lecture about all
the dangers of listening to inner voices.
You see, the flesh has a voice.
The devil has a voice.
And the world has a voice.
How do I know it's the Holy Ghost?
How do I know it's the Holy Spirit?
Now, there are many of you listening to
me now and many in the ministry who
can't accept this walk of having a constant,
uninterrupted voice of the Holy Spirit directing your
life.
Because you have tried to trust that voice
or try to hear the voice of the
Lord.
And somewhere, sometime you made a mistake or
you say it didn't happen.
I thought I heard the Holy Ghost, but
it was not the Holy Spirit.
There are safeguards.
God would never allow his people who seek
to be led by the Holy Spirit and
walk in the Holy Spirit as directed by
the word and then let them be deceived.
Impossible.
Not when you are on your face.
Not when you're seeking him.
Not when you're asking for the cleansing.
And not when you believe that the Holy
Ghost mortifies the deeds of the flesh.
Only the Holy Spirit.
You cannot mortify your sin.
There's no other way but faith in the
power and the anointing of the Holy Ghost.
If you mortify the deeds of the flesh
through the spirit, you shall live, the scripture
says.
Now, let me talk about the safeguards.
Ephesians 6.16. What about.
You see, you see, if you if you're
going to have the safeguards, it requires another
divine.
Yes.
It has to be an intractable divine.
Yes.
I will believe.
If I'm going to walk this kind of
walk, I'm going to believe that the Holy
Spirit will keep his word.
I'll take these other promises.
He has promised to protect us.
These are protective promises so that we know
the way Jesus said the world doesn't know
the Holy Spirit.
But you know him.
You know him.
You know him by familiarity, by spending time
with him, by trusting in him.
But let me give you the safeguards, please.
Take the shield of faith wherewith you shall
be able to quench all the fiery darts
of the wicked.
Take the shield of faith that you may
be able to quench the devil's voice.
Every word that comes from his mouth, everything
he tries to to to inject into the
to the mind.
These are fiery darts of Satan.
And there is only one protection, and that
is to believe what God said.
If you will believe me, if you will
take this step of faith and you will
consult me, if you will walk in the
spirit.
In other words, trust him that when you
seek him and when you believe that he
abides in you and that he has a
voice, that he will speak and he will
lead and guide and keep you from evil.
He will keep you from disaster.
He will keep you from these terrible mistakes
that we make in life.
He said, will you believe that I have
a shield?
I am your shield and I will protect
you.
I will keep it and trust that he
knows how to do it.
There's no preacher anywhere can explain how he
puts up the shield.
My part is to believe that he has
promised to be a shield to me.
And I go to prayer waiting on the
Holy Spirit and praying.
Holy Spirit, you shield me from any voice
of the enemy.
You shield me from the voice of the
flesh.
There's another scripture for the flesh lust or
fights against the spirit.
And we're talking about now discerning the Holy
Spirit from the spirit, the voice of the
flesh.
And here's the promise.
The flesh lust or fights against the spirit
and the spirit fights against the flesh.
And these are contrary one to another.
And now you have the voice of the
flesh and you have the Holy Spirit in
my heart.
In this body of mine, there are two
voices that are clam.
The voice of flesh always clamoring for attention
and always trying to tell me what to
do.
Always tell me it's right.
Always tell me go to get some counselors
agree with my way and then go to
God and pray.
God has to bless it.
Do it my way and then go to
prayer and ask God to bless what I
have.
I hear people say, well, God's given us
a sound mind.
We have an intelligent mind.
And God helps those who help themselves.
And I'm just going to use my intelligent
spiritual mind.
Well, then you're acting on your own will.
I believe.
Yes, he does.
I'm not I'm not saying you go to
your closet, say, Holy Spirit, what dress do
I wear or what color suit do I
put on today?
I'm not asking you to go to the
Holy Ghost and ask him what cereal you
pick for breakfast.
I'm asking for all of these, all of
these things that have to do with walking.
Walking, those decisions in life that are so
important that we never act.
You don't have to go into a closet.
You can you can do it sometimes in
just a few moments.
You stop.
You see, the Holy Ghost is never in
a hurry.
He's never in a rush.
He said, be still and know that I'm
God.
And you just wait for a moment.
If you stop, I don't care where it's
at and what the issue may be.
Holy Spirit, you abide in me.
What is your mind?
What is your word?
He'll never fail.
Now, here's the voice of the flesh and
here's the Holy Spirit in this vessel of
mine.
Who do you think is going to win
this war?
The flesh or the Holy Ghost?
Greater is he that is in us than
he that is in the world.
This is not your war.
It's not mine.
I go to the Holy Spirit and I
claim this promise.
I claim this, that you're at war.
It's not my war.
You're you're the one who's contrary to my
flesh.
I don't know how to distinguish the flesh
at all times, but you know what is
flesh.
Holy Spirit, I believe you to quench the
flesh.
I believe you to break through every barrier,
the flesh and give me your mind.
Never once will God fail.
Ephesians 14, 430, verse 30.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
you're sealed under the day of redemption.
In that word, grieve, sadden.
Don't sadden the heart of God by neglecting
the ministry of the Holy Spirit for which
he's been sent.
But with whom was he grieved 40 years?
Was it not with them that had sinned?
His carcasses fell in the wilderness because of
their unbelief.
Israel's most grievous act of unbelief is found
in the first chapter of Deuteronomy.
It was a time that the cloud was
about to move across into Canaan and then
the cloud would be lifted.
And they were told they stand there on
the side of the river.
And the Lord says, now it's time to
act.
It's time to go on.
Go in.
I've made you the promises.
You go now.
Go into the into Canaan.
This is where the cloud was moving.
They said no, and they rebelled against him.
Bible makes it very, very clear.
Moses said you did not believe God's word.
Not one of you shall see the good
land.
You will die in your despair.
God was grieved.
Now, God never left them, even though they
were not going to obey God at this
time.
God was faithful.
He saw them through the wilderness.
God doesn't drop his people for even an
unbelief.
God still we don't believe.
Bible said he remains faithful.
He still loved his people, though they're unbelief.
But you see, they missed the blessing.
They missed the life that God had planned
for them with rest, divine rest.
The Bible in Hebrew said they missed the
rest that was promised.
Because they did not move with God.
They didn't go with God.
They didn't obey his word.
They didn't go with his direction.
And then they gird themselves, the Bible said.
They said, well, because now they were told
God's not going to go with you.
You choose in your own way.
And so they said the Bible says they
girded themselves.
They put on their weapons.
They had no direction.
The cloud didn't go with them.
And yet they went up the hill to
battle against the enemy.
They said, we're going to go in.
They go up the hill.
The Bible.
Moses told me, he said, you're going to
be chased as bees are chased as bees
chase you.
In other words, you're going to hit a
bees nest.
Because you're going your own way, making your
own decisions.
God's not with that.
And the Bible says they were chased as
with bees.
Now, folks, I look back over my life
and the times that I acted without consulting
the Holy Spirit.
Not just to get permission, but say, Lord,
is this your will?
Is this what you want?
And when I've acted on my own volition.
And when I've taken my own will at
hand and did what I thought was just
right.
And thought I was smart enough and intelligent
enough to know what was right and wrong.
And I've acted that way.
Every time I look back over my life,
as many of these issues that I can
remember.
With all these times I've acted in my
past 50 years of ministry.
I've always run into that bees nest.
I've always been chased by distress.
I've always found it just like sand sieving
through my fingers.
But when I've obeyed the Holy Spirit.
He's always blessed.
And he's always been there.
Years ago, some over 40 years ago.
A little town in Pennsylvania.
The Holy Spirit spoke to me clearly.
Go to New York City and work with
gangs and drug addicts.
And it was a clear voice.
Now, you just don't pick up when you're
in a little town of 1500 people.
Up in the hills of Pennsylvania, you just
don't get up and go unless you know
God sent you.
Then you don't go tell your wife you're
going to move to New York.
When you have a nice little cottage with
a picket fence and nobody around to bother
you.
No neighbors.
You see, you have to hear from God.
And I heard from the Lord.
He said, go to New York and work
with drug addicts.
And I moved with the cloud.
The cloud was moving.
I moved with that cloud.
I said, yes, Lord.
And I look back over those years and
now over 500 teen challenge centers around the
world.
Five hundred thousands and thousands of drug addicts
being sick.
I'm not boasting, but in the faithfulness of
God.
But you see, I had been on my
face for weeks and weeks praying that God
would speak.
Because often when God's trying to lead us,
he'll stir the nest.
And we have that divine restlessness and we
know God's trying to get our attention.
And I look back over my past life.
And I came to New York City and
four or five years later, after coming, obeying
the Holy Spirit.
The Lord spoke clearly to my heart.
Write a book.
And we called it the Cross and Swiss
Blade.
And that book went all over the world.
And it's opened doors so that now in
my latter years, I could go anywhere in
the world.
And that book God used to open up
the doors.
Because, you see, the cloud moved and the
cloud said, do this.
And I did it.
Obeyed him.
Now, folks, there were a lot of times
I didn't.
And in between all of these blessings I'm
talking about, there were times of loving, chastening
from the Lord because I ran off and
did my own thing and it blew up
in my face.
I could write a whole book on just
that.
It'd be bigger than the Cross and Swiss
Blade.
Eleven years ago, I was driving down the
interstate in Pennsylvania.
One of the interstates.
And I had some tapes that had been
in the car for months.
And I picked up this tape and I
put it in the tape player on the
radio in the car.
It was Pastor Conlon.
And Holy Spirit said, put another one in
the second tape.
I heard a voice and Holy Spirit said,
pull off the robe.
I said, why?
He said, there's a telephone number there.
Call him.
Invite him to preach.
So I got on the phone.
I got Sister Teresa.
I don't remember all the details, but here
he is.
Still small voice of the Holy Spirit.
I believe this.
I believe with all my heart.
And I have made an irretractable, absolute, positive
yes to every promise in the book.
And to believe that what Jesus promised me
is true.
That this Holy Spirit in me will guide
me.
He will lead me into all truth and
show me things to come.
He'll show me the road.
This life is possible.
The last one I want to talk about
is five years ago.
The Lord said, in your last days, I
don't have any premonition of an early death.
I can't die an early death.
I'm already past.
I'm four years to the good.
Beyond the promise of 70.
I know I don't look it, but I
am 74.
That was flesh.
But the Lord said, I want you to
share your time with pastors.
And I want you to go to the
nations.
And we've been doing it for the last
four years.
And the Lord's been faithful.
I want you to stand.
And this is not flesh.
I want you to do something finally.
And I'm not, I promise the Lord not
try to whip you up.
Are you tired of making such terrible decisions?
They just mess up.
And are you ready now to say, I
hear something from the Holy Spirit.
If he abides, if he lives in me,
and I live in the Spirit, then I
want to walk in the Spirit.
I want to surrender my will, and I'm
saying, Holy Spirit, govern my life.
Govern my life.
You and I are under the government of
the Holy Spirit.
And that's how Jesus intended it.
To bring us into the relationship with Christ
that the Father so desires for us.
Are you willing to give one?
Irretractable, in other words, you can't take it
back.
You say, Lord, the best I know in
my heart, I mean it.
I want to say a great, powerful, yes.
Let me hear it.
Yes.
Yes, Lord.
Father, thank you for the Holy Ghost.
Jesus, thank you for the Holy Spirit.
Lord, we want to be a church that
walks in the Spirit.
That we hear from God.
That we hear that still small voice saying,
yes, follow me.
My promises are for you.
Let it be.
So let it be.
Yes and amen.
Not nay and yay.
Not yes and no.
Not maybe.
But yes.
Every promise is mine.
So be it.
Glory to God.
If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you,
you have to confess unbelief and fear.
If you don't know Christ, if you've never
given your heart to Jesus, I invite you
to step out of your seat and come
and receive him as Lord and Savior.
You can't be saved without the Holy Spirit
drawing you.
It's the Holy Spirit that comes to draw
you to Christ.
And we've been lifting up the Holy Spirit
as we've been directed by the Word.
We're to honor the Holy Spirit and we're
honoring the Holy Spirit.
And as we honor him, he does his
work.
That means he's come to you and pricked
your conscience or he has quickened your spirit.
And he wants you to yield to him.
If you've backslidden, if you've grown cold to
the Lord, join these that are coming.
And if you're here, we have never, ever,
none of the pastors ever tried to pack
these altars or just to have people standing,
you know, filling all the aisles and everything
just for show.
God forbid.
But if you are drawn by the Spirit
this morning, and you have been living in
doubt and fear and unbelief, and you've been
going your own way and you say, Lord,
I want to make a stand.
And if you feel that Holy Spirit come,
you follow these that are coming.
And in the annex, you just go stand
between the screens.
And I'll be praying for you in just
a moment.
And let's believe the Lord that when you
walk out of here, you walk out of
here with a confidence.
You walk out here with a confidence.
Bring your sins to Christ.
Bring your unbelief.
Bring your doubt.
Bring your fear.
We'll pray with you in just a moment.
We invite you to step out and take
your stand.
Holy Spirit, we have shared with this congregation
what we believe is your heart for this
hour.
And we pray now, Holy Spirit, you will
come down and make this real to us,
make it a reality.
And for these that have stepped out, Lord,
only you know what the battle is or
what the struggle is or what the need
is.
And I'm asking you, Holy Spirit, to meet
that need.
I'm asking you, Holy Spirit, now to open
their eyes and their hearts.
And Holy Spirit, draw them now into the
love of Christ.
Draw them by your power now, Jesus, to
bring rest to their weary heart and mind.
Only you can do that.
I can't.
But come now, Holy Spirit.
We honor your abiding presence.
Thank you for your drawing spirit, how you
draw us and you're drawing us to a
deeper walk, a closer walk.
Do that now, I pray.
And I want you to pray this prayer
with me now.
Lord Jesus, thank you for sending the Holy
Spirit.
And now, Holy Spirit, I believe that you
live in me and my body is your
temple and that you're in the temple and
that you do speak.
And I can trust you to make your
voice known and to clear the path so
that we know, that I know, that I've
taken time to be with you and to
listen to you and hear that still small
voice that says, this is the way, walk
in it.
Now let me pray for you again.
Heavenly Father, I'm asking for those that have
backslidden, that you bring them back to a
knowledge of your love, that you still love
them and that you want to make this
the first day of a new beginning.
And those, O Lord, who are struggling with
a sin that has controlled their life, and
they've cried and they've wept and they don't
know how to get free, let them understand
that that's the work of the Holy Spirit.
If they will trust, the Lord will come
and he will mortify.
That means he will put under foot, he
will conquer every evil deed of the flesh.
We trust in that covenant promise.
Now, Lord Jesus, for those now that want
to take a step of faith and go
out now and say, Holy Spirit, I hear
it.
I'm going to walk with you.
I'm just going to walk with you and
talk with you.
And let you be my personal guide and
my strength.
In Jesus' name, amen.
This is the conclusion of the message.