Everybody loves a story. You've probably heard these stories before but they're still fun to hear story Okay, so if you get bored just close your ears and don't listen Okay, but I hope you'll find it interesting I grew up With a life without power I grew up insecure Being afraid of people fear of man always being Wondering what people think about me It's terrible to be insecure. You know that You meet a person and your first impression is what do they think about me? Am I dressed okay? Is my hair neat? Did I do something wrong? Now you're walking down the road and some people Are talking and they start to giggle you think I wonder if they're talking about me Have I been there? It's called insecurity.

Well, that was me. I I actually took it to an extreme My whole life was Was one of insecurity, but yet I was faithful to the lord. I grew up in the knowledge of him And I wanted to serve him And I wouldn't mix with the world and do what they're doing.

So It made me even more alone and rejected My life was one without power Totally without power I was a weak frail useless little creature I thought I could overcome it with studying intellect and intelligence But that actually just made things worse But then god brought me to an experience Which i've shared Some of how it happened to me Which we call the baptism of the holy spirit And after he baptized me in his holy spirit I began to experience the power Where jesus said his disciples You will receive power After the holy ghost has come upon you and so after that baptism of his power I had such a zeal for the lord to know more of his power and to experience more of his power I just wanted to pray with people and see the power of god working Well, I was a little nobody in church I wasn't even a deacon at that time I had the call of god in my life, but uh You've ever been in the status quo church system You don't walk up to the pastor and say pastor. The lord's caught me. Can I preach next sunday? It doesn't happen And so the pastor would call forward the people There was a healing line a ministry line And he'd be praying and i'll be sitting there thinking.

Oh, I wish I could go forward And lay hands on people and pray because I feel I've got the power of god on me. I'm sure I could do something But if I had the day to try something like that I would have had this stern Sit down brother So I couldn't do it got even worse When I saw demons manifesting Because god had showed me that he'd given me a gift of discerning spirits and he taught me how to deal with demons And i'd see the pastor come and pray and lay hands on somebody and the demon would manifest And the person would fall to the floor and squirm and hiss like a snake Everybody would jump on the person and hold them down Some person thought it was brilliant to take a bible and shove it on the person because satan hates the bible Yeah, devil. Yeah.

Yeah, there's the bible Struggle for hours while the person spat and vomited and did all such things I said lord, I know I could do better than that And I probably could have but uh Wasn't time yet. I don't had that zeal And such a desire to and you know Because the lord had shown me that I had a gift of discerning spirits. I figured that god had called me to deliverance ministry And so god gave me opportunity eventually to minister to somebody outside of the meeting Somebody had gone forward and they prayed and he wasn't set free, but I got a chance to pray And I think I got a bit more results Except sometimes it backfired And this dear old lady she was quite demonized And oh lord, I tried I tried to explain to her that there was some generational thing or something And man, she went into a total turmoil and she ran to the pastor and she said I need to ask brother les what it was that he saw because I Saw the pastor called me say what are you doing trying to bring deliverance to the congregation? Who authorized you Just butt out leave the job to people who know what they're doing But I was zealous.

I wanted the power and I knew I had the power. I don't want to use the power And then the lord just changed it all He said forget about casting out demons He said you will bring deliverance through the word You will counsel the demons out not cast them out And suddenly my whole ministry diverged and took a teaching run Then I learned how to sit people down Counsel them explain the word to them get them to submit and resist and bam. They were set free.

Oh, that was so awesome It was a much better way of doing things. But of course it started me off on a whole new direction Of teaching The power part was gone now my zeal for laying hands on people and praying for them was gone now I didn't have time to sit and teach a person for half an hour in the front in the healing line You know, I'm just down it took a long time to minister to people you know I'd see people come forward and somebody lie lay hands on them and they fall on the ground And they'd get up And next week they'll come forward and fall on the ground again and get up I thought well, you know, what's the good of falling under the power if it doesn't change you You know, I knew I could do that with the word you see so I lost my zeal For moving in the power of god until that day that I shared last time where jesus suddenly appeared to me And called me back Into a new relationship with him and then I began to walk with him In love And I came into that beautiful love relationship, you know, it was so wonderful You know, I wanted to spend time with the lord all the time. Do you know what? My ex-wife liked watching tv So after dinner, she's down in front of the tv And I said lord.

I don't want to watch the tv. I'd rather be with you. He said come and watch my tv I'll give you better movies than they ever showed there I tell you what I had experiences in the spirit.

I tell you what I became part of the movie I found myself acting things out in the spirit I was abraham about to Sacrifice isaac and I felt all of his pain I was the I was the publican and the sinner And the pharisee and I saw the pharisee going. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah with a big prayer And there was poor me the publican. Oh, I feel so horrible It was fun I tell you what, I had movies of my own. He needed to watch that junk.

It was glorious I just spent hours with the lord You know when you're in love with somebody you just want to be with them all the time I loved it And as I began to spend more and more time with the lord in prayer Even my ex-wife got drawn into it that time And we'd sometimes pray together not that she did much But just her being there Kind of made it like a bit easier to pray And one day as I was praying walking up and down singing in tongues having a glorious time Suddenly there appeared Right there in front of me A being I'd never seen before Now there's a graphic A screen slide that that columbia pictures uses Of a lady standing holding a torch I'm gonna ask john to put it on the screen. So in case you're not familiar with it This is kind of what I saw I saw a being standing there. I was holding a torch or a sword in his hand and he was radiating Okay, he wasn't a beautiful lady I don't believe angels are females Okay Then he stood there and he was glowing shining radiating beams.

Thanks. John. It's okay Wow I thought who is this? What is this? and And I came to look close.

I thought hey I'm not getting close to that If I if I come and touch him i'm gonna just burn up I feel something in the air like it was charged like it was Something I hadn't felt before in my prayer times now the oh lord What is that? Just happens sometimes in my prayer times and you just appear One time I was in a smallish room and it was so strong I kind of tried to get away from him And I found myself up against the wall And you know the wall wouldn't let me go any further I just felt like this power was just pushing me. Oh, how is this against the wall? Hasta, oh, you know, what is this? I began looking at the words. What is this? Who am I seeing? And what came to me was this is the angel of the lord Now I want to explain to you what the angel of the lord is Who he was You might understand this a little bit better the angel of the lord in the old testament Whenever people saw the angel of the lord, they would say i've seen god The angel of god of the lord brought god's manifest presence and it always came very powerfully and with tremendous glory Moses was sitting there with his sheep And he saw one of the bushes caught fire.

Oh, I guess that happened sometime in the desert A little bit closer and this bush was Burning was flame, but the bush wasn't burning up Wow, what is going on here? As he stepped closer The angel of the lord spoke to him out of that burning bush and said moses You're standing on holy ground. Take your shoes off I knew what it was like when the angel of the lord appeared. I felt like I was standing on holy ground These days we don't take our shoes off as a sign of respect, but you know what? I just wanted to get out of there Another time was when old balaam went with his ass He was going to go and curse the children of israel for money And the donkey saw the angel of the lord first And kept moving and brushing balaam against the wall Balaam got so mad at his donkey began to hit it and I'd got the donkey to talk back to him You've been me for i've been faithful to you all these years.

Well, there must have been frightening Hey Imagine your dog talking back to you Now teddy don't do that anymore But you know i've always been good. I've always been loving. I'll wag my tail for you And then scripture says god opened balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the lord that was standing in front of the donkey And again, there's this radiance glory See whenever god appeared To people in the old testament.

He appeared by a physical manifestation, which which we call a theophany It's a many physical manifestation of god In fact, if you go back to exodus where moses went up to the mountain with joshua The scripture says that moses took 70 of the elders with him halfway up the mountain and it says they saw the god of israel Standing on this clear sapphire pavements It's not described very clear, but I think it was the angel of the lord manifesting his glory Moses said god. I want to see you face to face. Well, hang on We thought he was talking to god already Yeah, he was talking to the angel of the lord See that fire that came down on the mountain That was the angel of the lord.

It was the manifest presence of god. It was that same presence that was in the clouds The fire by day and the cloud by night where god hid his presence But whenever god manifested himself and you'll see throughout the whole testament. He manifested himself as the angel Of the lord well who was The angel of the lord I mean god is a spirit God is god This is the physical being an angel And yet people said i've looked at god And I didn't get consumed You know, the bible says no make a look on god and live people said I actually survived seeing god Who was it that appeared to all of these people in the old testament I'm going to tell you because you didn't know I want you to Look at a little verse that actually the new translation.

Some of them have taken this out I think somewhere along the line the translators couldn't understand this verse So they thought it can't be in the original we should take it out Okay, so if you've got the niv it's not in there Okay, the king james has still got it And even the amplified still kept it in and I believe it should be there 1 john 5 verse 7 It says well, there are three that bear record in heaven the father the word And the holy spirit you say and hang on. Hang on. Hang on john.

Didn't you know the doctrine of the trinity? John, it's the father the son and the holy spirit. Why did he say the father the word? And the holy spirit. Well, you know john john had a kind of better understanding of all of this In fact john was the one who taught us about the word What was the word In the old testament god looked down And god said And his word went into the earth and created colossians 1 15 says Concerning jesus The word Who is the image of the invisible god the firstborn of every creature For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth Visible and invisible whether they be thrown to dominions or principalities authorities All things were created by him and for him and he is be all before all things and by him all things consist Who the words? God There is john chapter one And john says in the beginning was the word The word was with god, but the word was god The word became flesh Dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory The glory is of the unbegotten of the father.

This was jesus before He was born in a manger Jesus was never the son of god Until he became a man, you know that The term son Implies subservience and less than And people get very confused on the doctrine of the godhead and jesus himself said the father is greater than I And people say well there we have it the father is the main god Then jesus is the lesser god And the holy spirit. Well, he's kind of the sort of leftover down there He often thought that and he come to the doctrine of the trinity See The doctrines trinity doesn't say that it says they are three co-equal See Have the same power There's no difference between them You see god is a spirit and we cannot see a spirit spirit has no form So god had to take upon himself a form In order to manifest himself in this world That was the word That word manifested as the angel of the lord and that word later became Took upon himself a man the the form of a man the scripture says Although he was in the form of god and thought it not robbery to be equal with god He took upon himself the form of his servant and humbled himself to the death of the cross When jesus became a man, he limited himself and he gave up his glory Before he went to the cross he prayed and said father glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world began I'm slowly but by teaching you what god really is And what the doctrine of the trinity really is supposed to teach when jesus died And rose again And ascended to heaven He returned to what he was The eternal word the magnificent creator See and the man christ jesus the humanity part of him Took his place in the throne of heaven at the right hand of the father Why? for our benefit So that he can intercede for us every time we sin And cover us with his blood Okay Now jesus said i'm going to send you another one of me Another one just like me We called him the comforter And so jesus sent the comforter to take his place And that's what we learned about last time when we looked at the comforter and a relationship with the lord jesus and his tender unconditional love Okay, the risen christ Is not tender unconditional love. He's the coming judge When he came he came to this earth he came not to condemn the world, but he's coming to judge this world and he's coming to Wreak the vengeance of god upon this world That's a very very different kind of relationship Now jesus appears Still to men That original physical manifestation Of the word of god the angel of the lord now has an identity Falls out killing christians All the christians are praying lord sort this guy out So there's old soul on the way to damascus Ready to go kill christians And jesus appears to him Jesus didn't say hey paul I saw you you know, you know, you shouldn't be doing this.

You know, this is You know, you need to understand my love soul Now he came with a hand I get and swatted him right off his horse onto the ground It is Why are you persecuting me? You know this great big tough man Who are you There's nothing gentle there. Let me tell you nothing gentle. No gentle.

Jesus meek and mild Because there's a whole new relationship a whole new kind of jesus this was the exalted risen christ Again returned as the word John's on the isle of patmos decides to have church on a sunday And while he's worshiping suddenly an angel appears to him Magnificent being These hairs white because of shining such lights sword coming out of his mouth john I know how john felt. He said i'm getting out of you. He just fell to the ground as dead Well, who did john see the voice came and said hey john I am the alpha and omega the beginning then the one who died and rose again.

It was jesus It was the risen ascended christ back in his glory again the apostle of love Who lived long because of love spent all his time on jesus breast He saw a jesus that he hadn't seen before I began to realize that who I was seeing here Was the risen christ The ascended risen christ back in his glory and in his power Now he gives us the confidence to help us To counsel us to teach us and to minister to us He's called the holy spirit and he reveals the nature of jesus and he lives inside every believer When did they receive the comforter? Now, I know you're going to say well the holy spirit came the day of pentecost Now the comforter came long before then John 2 20 verse 22 says and when he had said this he breathed into them and said to them receive the holy spirits They received that gentle loving Comforter and when he comes The only effect that is seen is on the inside It changes the person on the inside Because he comes to live inside of you. Jesus said concerning the comforter he lives with you speaking of himself, but he will be in you Now the ascended christ He comes for a very different reason He comes to empower us The day of pentecost he came in fire and wind There was nothing gentle or quiet about it It produces tremendous power and boldness Weak little peter stood up boldly and preached He is forceful And aggressive I think peter stood in that new power And old ananias came in and peter said did you pay Did you sell your house for so much and ananias said yes Peter said how dare you lie to the holy ghost But down he fell dead There's no gentle jesus meek and mildly There's no unconditional love there This is a very different relationship The same thing happened with sapphira when she came afterwards paul had a man by the name elimus the sorcerer kept interfering while they were trying to minister to an important person And eventually paul stood in the power of the ascended christ. He said you will be blind from now on Some new lines Coping around somebody had lead him away.

Well, he got him out of the way That wasn't the gentle loving comforter that did that Something far more powerful Far more aggressive you see the effect Of the risen christ. It's clearly seen on the outside Scripture says He confirmed the word With signs following signs following are things that you see He produces signs and wonders Now the comforter in his love Will show you things as I shared last time and you can ask him and he'll tell you what to do He'll tell you about people You don't have to necessarily even give a prophetic word because he'll tell you what you need to know He'll give you all the revelation Are you going to move in the power? You're going to need more than that Well It took me a while to click Who this was My first impression was that I knew jesus And since there's jesus And the father and the holy spirit This must be the holy spirit Because we always think the holy spirit is where the power is, right All the great big evangelists out there are telling you to develop a relationship with the holy spirit Most of them never met the comforter Catherine coolman in the middle one of her meetings got down began to weep and said, please don't grieve the holy spirit He's the only friend I have She didn't mention jesus And yet she knew jesus very certainly But she knew him in his power See i'm not saying she didn't have love. She had tremendous love.

She would just lay hands gently on people say dear jesus And bam see but her main emphasis was the power And he operates in the same thing and most of the big evangelists they know the power Now when I met jesus that day I still had sin in my life And I knew that he knew All my sins As I stood there and he looked right through me There was not an ounce of fear in me I felt totally secure Totally uncondemned I could have stood there for ages I could feel his love coming deep inside me the more time I spend with him The first time I met the risen christ I was filled with fear I didn't want to get near I knew i'd get burned up if I get near them I could feel waves of power raiding from him and it affected me physically you see Some people like john When that power manifests cannot stand in his presence So many people when they are exposed to their power they fall under the power Because the body can't take it It doesn't happen with the loving comforter Very different Now I knew I had to get to know him better, but how I I was terrified to even come close to him One day The comforter the lord jesus that I knew As he appeared he said to me go and walk Towards him Uh lord, are you sure he said walk towards him He said walk right into him Walk right into him he said yes walk right into him. Well, I went in fear and trepidation I Figured the moment I hit him I was going to burn up Something drastic was going to happen. I didn't know if I could take it So I walked Right into where I saw he was standing and I walked into him And he disappeared and jesus disappeared and everybody disappeared I thought I was going to feel wow, I felt nothing.

I thought enough Huh, what's going on? Where's he gone? And he spoke to me and he said look around you Look around you And I saw that I was surrounded by flames And I was standing right in the middle of it He said it's like when you walk into the eye of a storm see Eye of a storm That that hurricane or whatever it is has got such power but if you walk beyond that into the center There's nothing It's a perfect calm and so you could be standing in the eye of the storm Without feeling a thing and all around you is devastation and destruction He said to me you've got to learn to take him in that way And manifest that power. You see now if that power would have affected me. I wouldn't be much use to anybody else would I? You know What's the good of people falling under the power and I pray for them and I fall under the power too We're both lying on the ground together You see you've got to become a carrier of the power And if you're a carrier of the power, that means that you are surrounded with it You know, it's it's it's like it's like when you're a carrier of a disease You're not actually suffering from the disease, but you're contaminating everybody else all around you And that's how it works It's a very different relationship with the comforter Now as the lord recently began to bring me back to take me through those experiences Brought me back into the loving relationship With jesus it was so nice to be having him there again It's so nice to chat with him I wake up in the morning and see him there then my bed and say hi lord But now before I go to bed Having had a rough day just to say hey lord, you're still there.

Thank goodness Then he said I want to take you back to that relationship with me as the ascended christ now And as I stepped into that Jesus disappeared I thought oh no. Oh no, he's gone And then he spoke deep inside me said i'm still here He said you're just seeing me in a different way now He said i'm not out there with you anymore i'm all around you i'm in you and you're in me everyone He said now you must learn To be a carrier of that power. You must learn to charge it up and release it So you can go out and touch other people so that power can be manifest And signs and wonders can take place and people can be touched and empowered and changed Now, which is important? walking in the love Or walking in the power Should we be emphasizing our relationship with the comforter? Or with the risen christ? It's a kind of debatable point, isn't it? Well lord, which one should I have? I Want you to look at this little scripture here in jude Jude chapter one.

There's only one chapter in jude verses 22 and 23 And jude says and with some have compassion understanding their doubts Others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating him in the garment stained by the flesh So There's a time to present the unconditional uncondemning love Of the lord jesus And mostly it's for those people that are coming to the lord for the first time that need to know his grace It's also for those who are struggling with weaknesses in their lives They're continually failing the lord and feeling condemned And feeling that they're not shaping up To what they should be That is when we should come With the love of the comforter and to show people his grace and his love See, but once you rise up a little bit higher and you want to move now into more Of a ministry calling and a leadership You're going to need the power You're going to need the power so you know what that means There's no longer a case of him looking right through you and ignoring your sins and not condemning you Your sins are going to get exposed They're going to be addressed. They're going to be brought to the lights You're going to be brought to death To all of your own abilities you people have been through our training, you know this one You see you You're going to have to qualify to walk in his power You're going to have to qualify for that I was reading recently of a of a guy who over time really developed the faith and ability To be used by the lord mightily and healing and somebody came to him one day and said can't you just lay hands on me? And impart that to me so that god can use me the same way. He's using you and he said no, I I don't think I can do that he said because It's taken me a while to get there Catherine coolman is reputative Stood up and said you can have what i've got if you're prepared to pay the price There's a price for this power folks You can't just carry on living the way you are and get away with it You cannot carry on living in sin and expect god's power to be manifest on you his love Is unconditional and will always be there Even when you failed him, he will never condemn you And you can still be a blessing to so many people even though you're an Imperfect vessel But if you want to rise higher and move in this power And I I get the feeling most of you want that I want that Well, you know, we've taught that the prophets and the apostles Before they can move into that higher authority and qualify they're going to go through deaths.

They're going to pass tests So it's not a simple case of impartation and receiving You're prepared to pay the price are you prepared for him to address Some of those things into you Are you prepared to go through the death process? and qualify You see now we don't qualify For anything from god except through faith But before he can trust you with his power You're gonna have to know how to use it You know I always had great faith in my children, you know But you know John only got his car driver license a couple of years ago because he was old enough And I wouldn't even give him my keys to him before they say hey john go try the car out He wasn't qualified See there's a qualification process We say how long is that going to take I don't know Depends what you're wanting to do We know that for the apostles it will take up to three years or more The prophets when they go on a fast track and qualify in nine months To move in some of this power. Perhaps all you need to be is an evangelist Oh, how long did it take philip and stephen to qualify We don't know But you know, they did qualify by being faithful first as deacons Improve themselves See what price is god asking you to pay For his power and I want to end on that today I want you to think about it. I want you to think about how important this is to you About how much you really desire to be used by him But you know You don't have to You can stay with the comforter And he'll teach you his ways slowly bit by bit and he will show you from the word of god And open your understanding and he'll never forsake you But I found at times I veer too much that way Because I myself grew up struggling with sin Struggling with preachers who always condemned and put me down When I finally got a revelation of the grace of god, I wanted people to know that grace And so i've taught it very fervently That no matter what you've done no matter how you failed The lord jesus will not condemn you And it helped some people But other people thought it gave them license They thought well, it's okay I can go and commit adultery and still be a prophet I can live in sin and still be used by god So many great men have fallen that way I thought that they continue but let me tell you If you made that mistake one day you're going to wake up like samson and find your head's been cut The power's gone So don't be complacent Don't be arrogant I've seen men who really used by god who get arrogant about the anointing Just come and we'll make you fall like stuffed rags I got the power You know, it doesn't take long It's all gone All gone And they wish they could get back to what they had Now I believe that the starting point firstly is to want this If you desire it As I taught in one of the earlier messages if you desire it strongly enough You combine it with love.

There's nothing to stop you follow after love and earnestly desire spiritual gift and they will manifest Okay, but you follow after love first because that's the easier one You say you're kidding. I find it so hard to love people People have been nasty to me people hurt me people say things against me. They treat me like dirt I find it hard to love Let me let me share a little secret with you It's impossible to love But don't try you cannot love only he can love But it's a very simple process to saying okay lord love through me Here I am I hand it over to you Now lord, you love that person through me see Very easy very quick practice the one get it right before you start earnestly desiring spiritual gifts But if you earnestly desire the spiritual gifts enough god will send you the training Whatever it requires to prepare you for that he'll put you through the paces He'll send the right people your way.

He'll send the right circumstances your way He'll manifest himself to you when the time is right But people moan and groan and complain and say it's not fair Everybody else gets it except me I used to stand there in my early 20s and see the little kids all speaking in tongues and I couldn't get it I know what that feels like I didn't desire it strong enough. I just wanted it because it made me inferior to not have it You want to be used by god so that you can be a hotshot? Wrong motive That's why that's why I must start with love must start with love, but you know what? He's not going to withhold anything from me Now his power is available to you Start by developing a relationship with the lord jesus The comforter spend time with him develop his love and then you're ready to meet the risen christ Ascended in his power and coming to a new relationship of his power But we're not finished it are we is the third member of the godhead the father himself Well, how do we relate to the father and what does he look like i'll share that with you next time? And you'll have a full understanding Of everything that is available to you In the lord father. I thank you for your word Shared it as you gave it to me I thank you for the people I thank you for their hearts That are open to receive and to learn And now lord jesus i'm asking you To once again manifest yourself He was here today in the worship standing right there Radiating in his glory You say I I wish I could experience that well next time we worship don't fall asleep Become aware Say lord show me.

I want to see you I want to see you I want to see your glory and your power show it to me lord When he does you probably get the pride of your life, that's fine the starting point Is He says the early disciples a great fear arose and nobody dared join themselves to them people were avoiding them like the plague You said but yeah You know, I thought if they were anointed everybody would be running towards them Know when you say you're gonna die There was power there That's why you got to temper it with the other one sometimes too reach out Say lord I want to know you In the fullness of your power And i'm ready to pay the price whatever it is Jesus name Hallelujah I know he's going to answer your prayer I thank you lord that for each one Hearing this right now Going to meet the desire of their heart. You're going to manifest yourself to them Reveal yourself to them in your glory and in your majesty The risen ascended word of god We can go forth like the early disciples and turn this world upside down for you Thank you for a thought in jesus name Amen Hallelujah Amen

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