If there's one thing that's very uncertain in our lives, it's our feelings. Now last week we looked at the force of hope and the power that hope has to influence our emotions, our desires, and our feelings. And a lot of folk really gave a good response to that message.

They got excited about it. They were motivated. They were ready to go out and conquer the world.

Perhaps you were one of them. But perhaps you were one of those who, as you tried to reach out for those core desires, suddenly got a lot of opposition. Bam.

You started out full run and bam, something got in the way. Something interfered. Ever had that happen? You get a plan, you get a goal, you get something that you're going to do and you're excited about it, you're motivated, you get out there, you give it your all, expecting everything to fall into place, but it doesn't.

Somehow things just don't move the way that they should. And what's the first thing that happens? Your feelings go. All that excitement and motivation that you have kind of vanishes overnight.

You know, you may have gone to bed that night still excited, thinking of all the wonderful things that you're going to accomplish, that God's going to do, and during the night it just leaks out. And you get up the next morning and you think, I wonder if that was all my imagination. I wonder if that was really the Lord.

Because it just hasn't worked out yet. Nothing's happening. I just got so busy with so many things, I just can't see the fulfillment of this dream, this goal, this exciting thing that I wanted to do.

See, that always happens when we get a new vision. You get excited about the new vision, you take action, you tell everybody about it, and that's the wonderful thing. Words and actions are the way to release these forces of our spirit.

Somewhere along the line you get bogged down, you just get too busy, so many things, and you start to lose your passion. You start losing it. You begin to wonder, did I miss it? Was that really of God? Was it my imagination? Did I go off half-cocked? See, why does this happen? Because we have an enemy.

We have an enemy that will try to steal your vision, or try to take away your passion and destroy your hope. And we saw that hope is the one force that keeps us going, that keeps us in the field. But when your feelings go, your hope goes.

And when your hope goes, somehow your faith seems to disappear, doesn't it? And you had such strong faith while you had those feelings. Or you could conquer the world. Or, I tell you what, you were just stepping out boldly on the water, expecting great things to happen.

But when those feelings die, you kind of feel pretty faithless. Anybody been there? If you're human, you've been there, trust me. Why does this happen? Because we have an enemy who doesn't want us to be blessed, who doesn't want us to walk in what God has for us.

You had this great vision for ministry, and it didn't pan out. You had this great vision for business. Man, God gave you a plan, a business plan that was going to work, it was going to be wealth, it was going to be a flow.

You stepped out boldly and bam, everything went wrong. Oh, well, I guess it was my imagination. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this.

You had a great vision in talents, in the arts, in doing something creative. And you stepped out boldly and found out that you're not very artsy. What seemed was just going to fall into place just didn't work.

See, you made this beautiful dress and it didn't fit. See, you try to draw this painting, and somebody looked and said, what exactly is that? You've been there? We have an enemy. In fact, we have three enemies.

And I'd just like to look today at how these enemies can divert us, can steal from us what God has for us. You recognize it, you'll begin to understand why things haven't worked out. Perhaps you'll start getting a plan about how you can correct it, get back on beam again, get back on that road where you were, instead of in the place where Satan pushed you.

Well, what are the three enemies? If you've got any doctrinal knowledge, you should know what the three main enemies of the spiritual life are. For those of you who forgot, they are the world, the flesh, and the devil. They're a kind of a trinity.

They work hand in hand. They're big friends. They kind of look after each other.

And they gang up on us. We're not looking. Or what desire do you have? What is the core desire that burns in you? And this is very important, because if it's not a core desire, if it's not a driving force within you, where you say, I'm going to do this.

If there's nothing else I accomplish in this life, in this world, this is what I want to do. If I could just do this, I would be perfectly content and happy. See, that is your driving force.

If you say, well, it'd be nice to do that. It's not going to drive you, because the first opposition you get is going to fall away. Or, you know, it would be great to be in ministry.

It would be great to stand behind the Pope and preach. It would be great to be a pastor of a church. It would be great to have my own training school.

Is it burning in you? Is it driving you? What are you prepared to give up for it? Do you mean I need to give up something for it? Have you ever had anything good in life that didn't cost you? What price are you prepared to pay? See, if you are not prepared to sacrifice all that you have to fulfill that core desire, then it's not a core desire. It's just another desire. Well, you know, everybody else is doing it, so I think I should as well, because I'm kind of feeling left out.

If you have a desire for business, is it a core desire? Is it something that's been building up in you for a long time? And you live it. You dream it. You breathe it.

You're continually thinking of plans and ways of doing it. See, if you don't have that burning passion, it's not a core desire. Let me tell you what happens when you try to fulfill a desire that is not a core desire.

The first obstacle that you meet, you give up. Oh, well, maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. Well, maybe I imagined it.

Actually, I'm probably not really cut out for this. See, that shows me it wasn't a core desire. See, because a core desire will not give up.

A core desire will not give up. Years ago, I had this core desire to improve my vocals so I could sing a bit better. What do you all see? It's just born with singing voices.

Isn't that irritating? How unbelievers and people, they're just born with these singing voices. They become famous singing stars. You know, and you and I, we've got to struggle along with our little croaky voices.

And I said, Lord, I want to sing. I don't want to be a singing star. I just want to sing well enough.

And people don't write and say, keep singing, but just sing for the Lord because he's the only one who could appreciate it. You know, and I said to the Lord, Lord, I want you to give me a promising voice. I want to sing better.

And the Lord said, I didn't call you to be a singer. He said, I don't care. I don't care.

Lord, I want to sing. Man, it was a core desire. I tell you what, I bought every course I could find on singing lessons.

I tried all sorts of things, and it just didn't seem to help. It wasn't time. There came a time much later when I'd finally given it all up and let it go where the Lord said, okay, now I'm releasing you to do it.

And he gave me a few short lessons in the spirit. As I sat there trying to sing, and people were complaining and saying, you've got the volume too loud. Actually, what they were saying is, you sound terrible.

And Jesus stood in front of me, and he said, try this. Hold your mouth that way. God, it was so obvious, so basic.

Something happened to my voice. Again, I did not become a singing star. I'm still not a singing star.

But you know what? People don't cringe when I sing anymore. See, something happened. Now, what is your core desire? What's burning in you so strongly that you prepared to give up everything to get it? A driving force that you breathe it and live it and think it and dream it and talk about it all the time.

Okay, you're probably saying, well, I don't know. Because most people don't know. We've got so many desires mixed up there that we don't know what's our core desire.

Well, if you want to learn about core desires, I've got plenty of teaching. I've got a great book there called Fulfill Your Destiny. I'm going to be teaching it in our next business course.

Because we need to know what our destiny is in life, and we need to know how to fulfill that destiny. And we need to know how to develop a core desire. See, and when you've got the core desire, that's when hope is built up within you.

And that's when you use that force of hope. In other words, just my introduction. The reason I explain that all is because whatever your core desire is, it's going to be fulfilled in this world.

If you've got a core desire to go to heaven one day, that is not a core desire. Because if that is your core desire, you're going to die young. So please don't develop going to heaven one day as a core desire.

You could end your life pretty shortly. You'll be like Enoch that walked with God and suddenly he disappeared. So don't get too spiritual on me and say, well, my core desire is really to serve the Lord.

Your core desire is to accomplish something in this world. And yes, we want to accomplish it for God. But it's to be accomplished right here in this world.

So you cannot avoid the influence of the world. You're going to have to rub shoulders with the world in fulfilling that core desire. And you may actually need to even learn something from the world.

This is a lot of knowledge out there. A lot of people who've had experience. A lot of things that are happening.

And you may need to learn something from this world system. Scripture says we are in the world, but we're not of it. You're going to need contacts in this world, because no man is an island.

If you're going to accomplish anything in this world, let me tell you, you're going to do it working with people, not by yourself. So we can't avoid the world, and yet the world is our enemy. The world wants to squeeze us into its mold.

So we kind of have a dilemma, don't we? In fulfilling my core desire, I've got to somehow get involved in this enemy, which is opposed to everything that I do. So what my core desire is, ministry. So that's really not a worldly thing.

It's very spiritual. You see, God has called me to be an apostle or a prophet, see? And I don't need the world or the church. Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, I just spend all my time in the presence of the Lord.

And if God's people, I don't need the world. Ever heard of the Great Commission? It says, go ye into all the world. It's the good news to every creature.

See, we are meant to be an influence in the world. We're going to have to go out in the world and not let the world influence us. We're going to influence the world.

You're going to have to take the worldly input that you get and convert it into something good. Well, what worldly input are you facing out there? Just step out, go to the shops. Get in your car and drive, switch on your TV.

Turn on your computer and look at the Internet. You've got worldly input coming at you all the time. Are we going to be so spiritual, I'm not going to have a TV? I'm not going to go onto the Internet.

It was a time when I said, I'm not going to get involved in Facebook and all these social medias, they're worldly. And the Lord said, if you want your ministry to be known and to get out there, you better get out there and put your face out there, because other people are already doing it. And unbelievers are doing it and are drawing all the influence and reaching the people that you should be reaching.

Okay, so I just want to kill some of those super spiritual attitudes in you, firstly, see, but I'm not telling you to become worldly. We're in the world, and we must go there and be an influence. So if you have a ministry, your ministry is in this world.

So don't hide behind ministry, okay? If your core desire is work or business, where's it going to take place? In this world. It's totally secular. I've given up my job to go into the ministry.

So you don't have a job anymore. If you're in the ministry, that's your job. It'd be so exciting to be in the ministry full time, wouldn't it? And just to preach and minister to people.

Have you ever tried it? You can't have a day off. People are calling you and say, can I come around for ministry? I need help, please will you pray for me? You're about to go to sleep at night and somebody buzzes and you say, I can't sleep. You neither can I. I need you to pray for me.

After a while, it becomes a job, trust me. It's work. See, but no matter what work you do, you can still do it as unto the Lord.

The scripture says, whatever you do, you must do it as unto the Lord. You can expect God to bless the work of your hands. Even though your hands are working in this world, you can't avoid it.

And if your desire is for social activities in this world, well, you're gonna have to go beyond mixing with Christians in your church. Because that's not where all the social activity is taking place. Jesus attended all the parties and the events.

He even sat and drank with them. He did. They accused him of being a glutton and a drunkard, because he gorged on their food and drank with them.

What kind of example is this? Some Christians today would not mix with a person like that. He's our Lord and Savior. See, did Jesus go there to enjoy the food and the drink? No.

Yes. Both. God made us to enjoy the things that he's created.

But we don't rely on those things to fulfill our needs. Jesus went there to be an influence. Right there in the middle of the party, he began to preach.

When was the last time you preached in a pub? What? I don't go to pubs. Well, I hope you don't go to pubs just to drink. But you could go to a pub to be an influence.

You could go to any worldly place to be an influence. You see, Christians need to be out there in the world being an influence for the kingdom of God. And if you want to fulfill whatever your core desire is, whether it ranges from ministry to business to entertainment or social activities, you're going to have to do it in the world.

And you're going to have to take the Lord with you. But here's the problem. If you're going to look to the world for your good feelings, the world's going to control you.

Do you need to go to worldly entertainment to restore that joy that you lost, to restore that excitement and passion that you lost? Oh, I'm feeling a bit blah tonight. Let's take out a video. Oh, we're just escaping to the video.

Something wrong with that? No, provided you let that input be converted into something good that you can use, that you can take that to inspire you and motivate you back again to the passion that you had for your core desire. See, but if you're going to get yourself so wrapped up in the movie that you get sidetracked and drawn away, then the world system is controlling you and has sidetracked you. Don't depend on worldly events that you have to attend in order to restore your excitement and good feelings.

And when you're feeling down, we don't want to go to church. We don't want to have a prayer meeting. We don't want to think spiritual.

Let's do something exciting. Well, what's exciting? We're going to find it in the world, aren't we? See, that's where the world now becomes a subtle influence that sidetracks us. And before you know it, you've got new desires arising in you that are being controlled by the world, and you lost those original desires that God put into you.

The world has become your enemy, where the world could have actually been there to help you to attain those desires. You see that? Stop just looking at the world in a negative sense, but always be careful to recognize that it is an enemy. We've got to overcome that enemy.

We've got to subdue it and use it wisely. Look at the second enemy, the flesh. That one's a bit closer to home, isn't it? The flesh is me, my selfish, sinful desires.

The reason the Bible calls it the flesh, it's because it happens when our body takes control. See, the body is not sinful, and the desires of the body are not sinful, but when they control us, they become sinful. The flesh is a nature that we're born with in Adam that causes us to tend to listen more to our bodies and to our spirits where the Holy Spirit dwells.

What happens when all of those inner desires are frustrated, when your passion has died, and you're feeling negative, you're feeling confused, you've got turmoil inside of you? What's the first thing? What's the first temptation that faces you? What's the first thing you try to do to satisfy that inner conflict? Well, it varies, but it's usually related to the body. Some people want to pig out on food. Let's go out for a meal.

I'm feeling blah tonight, let's go out for a meal. Well, let's just go buy a whole lot of food, just cook something exotic. Nothing boring, nothing healthy.

Let's just cook something exotic and exciting to make me feel a little bit better. Is that gonna bring back those feelings and those passions? No, it's not, and actually, after you finish, you think, you know what, I actually ate too much. I feel sick.

We spent too much money on the food. We couldn't afford it, and I still feel blah. You've been there, I've been there.

I freely admit it. Oh, then the other one is the one we don't really want to admit, you see. The other bodily desires, the body does desire for reproduction, and you know what that is, lust, sex.

Oh, and I'm feeling frustrated within. I'm feeling, oh, some good sex is really satisfying right now. Anything wrong with sex? No, wonderful, beautiful thing God's given us, see, but if I'm using that to try and meet an inner spiritual need, it's not gonna satisfy, see, but the driving force then can be, now, you get bored with the same old partner.

You want somebody else, and the temptation comes. See, that's where the dangers are. See, we're looking at passion.

We're looking at excitement. Somebody new has stirred me up. That gives me some excitement.

It makes me feel good, yeah, for the moment. See, the lasting inner joy and peace and passion comes by the force of hope, and where does that come from? Comes from your spirit, but you've ignored your spirit and decided to turn to the body. See, and the third bodily function is the function of defense, but how do we use that one? I'll tell you what we do.

We get very competitive and aggressive. We wanna go out and play sport, do something exciting, something where I can achieve, something where I think I'm really doing great. Let's play a game where I can win.

You feel like playing a game when you're frustrated? Especially playing a game you're good at. I won, now I feel better. Do you really? Not for long.

See, the body, the flesh, will not satisfy. See, and then what happens when you let the flesh have full reign? The real root of the flesh takes over, and that's selfishness. You become self-centered.

You become totally self-oriented, and you get into something the Bible calls strife and vainglory. What does that mean? Strife means I start tearing down all my competition so I can lift myself up and exalt myself. Feeling good now? Feeling better now that you're exalted and lifted up? It's only gonna be temporary.

This is not coming from your spirit. It's coming from your body. It's coming from the flesh.

Watch out for these things. So, well, is it a sin for me to have a good meal because I'm feeling down? No, it's not a sin at all for you to have a good meal any time. Absolutely nothing wrong for you to get some really good exotic foods that you love, your favorite.

Nothing wrong with that. But if you're trying to use that as a substitute for what should be coming from this force of hope within your spirit, then you're being very foolish. You're allowing the flesh to dominate and control.

And what's gonna happen after a while, that spiritual voice gets quieter and quieter until you can't hear it anymore and suddenly you realize God's disappeared. Where did you go, Lord? Where did you go? I come to pray. He's not there.

My faith has flown out of the window. I'm so full of myself. I can't even love anymore.

So where are the spiritual forces of faith, hope, and love? They're gone. All because I started feeling down. Watch out for those feelings.

Those feelings are deceptive. Satan wants to take from you what God has for you by offering you an alternative. And then the devil himself.

Well, he works through the world and the flesh. See, Satan has one of his guys in charge of this world system. I call him Pharaoh.

And he's there to squeeze you and to manipulate you. He has one who's in charge of motivating the flesh. We call him Apollyon.

He's the leader and the general of Satan's forces of demons that will attack you with temptations and thoughts all the time. And if you wanna get too spiritual and get into deception and religion, Lucifer's there to help you. He's good at that.

How do we know when we're being led astray? Simple guideline. The Holy Spirit never pushes. He always leads.

Satan never leads. He always pushes. So the moment you get pushed, the moment you get pushed in any way, watch out.

See, here's how he does it. On the one hand, he will discourage you from pushing forward with what God's given you. He'll discourage you and say, ah, it's a bad idea, give it up, let it go.

If that doesn't work, he'll go the opposite direction. He'll say, yeah, yeah, this is of God. You should do it.

You should wear yourself out. You don't need to sleep anymore. You don't need to save money, just blow it all.

He pushes you beyond that desire. You think, wow, I'm really motivated now. I really got the feelings.

I really got it. See, but what Satan is doing is he's pushing you beyond what you should have gone. Then he steps back and he lets you fall.

And then he steps in with what he's really good at. Bible calls him the accuser of the brethren. And he says, okay, hot shot.

So you were gonna do great, great things, but you didn't, did you? You were gonna accomplish for the Lord, but you know what you did? You went and did something you shouldn't, didn't you? Yeah, you spent too much money, now you're in debt. Yeah, you drank too much. What kind of Christian are you? You failed.

You missed it. See, whether he stops you from doing it or pushes you beyond and then accuses you, he's still gonna stop you. He's still gonna stop you because he doesn't want you to fulfill that sin.

See? And then you'll get very spiritual and you'll say, what kind of Christian are you? You were supposed to be fulfilling the call of God. You got so involved in business, you forgot about it. You got so involved in that social activity.

You got so involved in the arts that the Lord disappeared, did you? Or did God maybe lead you into that in the first place? Maybe God was leading you to put your all into business. Maybe God was leading you to put your all into some kind of creative activity for a purpose. And now you feel condemned.

Now you feel dry. Satan is locking you up in a place where he's locking you in. He blocks you up so the Lord disappears.

And then he says, you see, God's turned his back on you now because you did wrong. You start feeling condemned. You see his ploys.

Oh, what happens? Feelings get worse. You lose your hope. And if you lose your hope, your faith dies.

Remember I likened faith, hope, and love to the charge in a gun being faith. Love the trigger that pulls it, and hope is the gun sight that keeps it on the target. Well, if you get off the target, you can pull the trigger as much as you like.

You're getting nothing. If you get off the target, I don't care how big your bullet is, you're accomplishing nothing. So I really built my faith up.

I really believe in God. I'm really walking in love. Carrying your gun on your shoulder and going bang, bang, bang, and shooting the moon.

You're accomplishing nothing. Nothing. God, I don't understand why I'm not hitting the target.

You don't have hope. How do you know when you lose your hope? Your feelings go. How do we get it back? Ooh, that's the key question.

That's what you've been waiting for. Okay. That's what we've been waiting for.

Okay, let's see if I can give you some hint here. Okay. First thing that happens is you lose your passion.

You begin to wonder if you missed it. You'll feel frustrated. There's only one way you can do.

Let's get back to your original hope. Well, where did that hope come from? And from your spirit, remember? Because hope is a spiritual force.

You've been looking out there in the world. You've been looking in the flesh and in the bodily desires. You've been looking there to restore the passion.

But it came from your spirit. So you stop all of that. You resist the temptation to order that exotic meal tonight.

To take out the video and eat the food while we're watching the video. Uh-uh. You say, stop.

Let's get into his presence. Let's get into his presence. I'll fast if I have to.

Let's get into his presence. Get back to where it came from. You know, it doesn't take long.

It doesn't take long. You know, we spend hours trying to fulfill and get the feelings in the world and in the flesh. When all you need to do is to stop and come into his presence.

Come into his presence and listen. How hard is that? When I close my eyes, I can't hear his voice. It's because you've been listening to too many other voices.

Stop the voices. Just pray in the spirit a little bit. Shall I mind all of us? Thank you, Jesus.

Worship you, praise you. It doesn't take long. It doesn't take long to get your spirit back into gear again.

You say, well, I'm still battling. Get somebody to pray for you then. Perhaps you need somebody else to stand in agreement with you.

Well, I don't know anybody. We're here. You can call us anytime.

Even if we're busy watching TV and having a meal. It's somebody close at hand. Somebody who can hear from God.

Somebody who knows how to flow in prophetic ministry. It's somebody. As this ministry grows, there are gonna be more of those.

And as we fellowship with one another, we'll always have somebody we can go to. Maybe somebody can pray with you and get a word of revelation or a prophetic word for you to confirm. We had an awesome time yesterday at our prophetic training.

We got all the students to pray for each other. They're a bit behind you guys, so they're finally caught up to that. And so we had a hot seat and we got each one to come and sit.

And I showed them how to start flowing, to start sharing the revelations. Come on, guys. Share your revelations.

Wow, it was amazing. It was amazing. I even ended up releasing somebody into ministry training in the middle of it.

Amazing. In the end, I thought, I'm gonna sit in the hot seat and see what they get for me. And they were right on.

It was exciting. It was exciting. You know what? The passion returned.

The hope returned. Sometimes the training just becomes a job. So exciting.

Find somebody. Find a couple of people. Two or three is all you need and he's there.

Come into his presence. Say, Lord, restore to me the hope. Give me back that vision.

Give me back that passion again. If you can't do that, you can hear for yourself using a process which we call journaling. If you haven't learned that yet, we can teach you.

Sit down and write. You talk to the Lord and then write what he says to you. I can hear from God anytime I like.

Anytime. I can just sit down. Actually, I open my iPad because I've got a keyboard.

Lord, I'm feeling really down. Lord, why am I feeling this way? Lord, what's going on? Lord, please help me. And he's always there with a word.

Never condemnation. Never condemn. Never, never condemnation.

The Lord never speaks a negative word. He's always there to motivate and encourage you. And then he brings you back and he reminds you, he says, remember what I told you last week? What have you forgot about that? I got so busy with everything else.

Remember I told you that? Go back and read your journal. I go back to last week and I read the journal and it feels like he's talking to me right now again, all over again. Oh, you know what? I forgot about that.

Such powerful stuff. You should be journaling every day and keeping a record of all that God says to you. You don't know how to do it? We can show you how to do that.

It's not difficult. Let the Lord speak to you and get back into that that was in your spirits. See, and then this attack that is on your feelings, recognize where it comes from.

Recognize that it's from the enemy and turn your back on it and reject it and say, I refuse. I don't care if I failed, Satan. I don't care if I missed it.

I don't care if I got so busy with these things that I left the Lord out. I don't care. Because the Lord hasn't forsaken me and I'm not gonna give up this thing that God gave me.

I'm gonna follow it through. I'm gonna get back on beam again. Get back into the race.

Just because you fell and stumbled a few times, that means you sit there and wallow and escape. Get back into the race. Get back on the road.

Come back on the path the Lord has for you. And what'll happen? That vision will return. The passion will return.

Your feelings will come back and they'll get stronger and stronger and they will keep driving you until you fulfill that core desire that the Lord placed in your heart. Now, you say, well, will I face this problem again? You surely will, frequently. It's time that you get up in the morning.

If you're a woman, you might blame it on your hormones. Men also have hormones. I just don't feel good today.

I just feel negative. I'm irritated. Okay, leave your hormones behind, get in the presence of the Lord.

Amen. Get back with that passion again. Follow it through.

Just keep going until you win. Keep going until you win. You don't have to be super spiritual to do this.

Every one of us is capable. See, get that force of hope back in place and keep following through until you reach your goal. And when you reach that goal, you'll find another one and another one.

Right now, what is driving you? What is your core desire? And is that core desire something that lines up with God's purpose for your life? Does it line up with your destiny in life? Well, that's another teaching altogether. And we have teaching on that if you want it. See, but if you don't know what your destiny is yet, you better find out.

If you don't know what your core desire is, you better find out. And once you found out, start pouring everything into that. Start developing the forces of faith and love and focusing your hope and amplifying it until it drives you and keeps you going.

And every time something knocks you off, you get back up onto the road again and you keep going and you'll reach the goal. And you'll have all the feelings in the world with excitement of accomplishing the thing that you desire. Amen.

Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Share it as you gave it to me.

I pray for each one bowed in your presence now that you will take this word and just let it find a resting place. Apply it to each one the way that you choose to apply it. May each be lifted up.

May each rise up into their destiny and fulfill it. May each of us find our place in this world and in your kingdom and in your body. And we know what it is we're here for.

May we continue to push forward until the time comes when it's over. And only then will you be there to say, well done, good and faithful servant. So then, Lord, we have a race to run.

We have a path to walk. And I pray each one will find that path, will remain on it, and will reach their destination. Thank you for that, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen.

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