Episode 20
A People of His Presence
Are we building churches God attends—or just services people consume?
In this fiery and convicting episode of Awake Nations, Glenn Bleakney exposes the five types of modern churches and calls us back to the only one that truly matters: the Presence-centered church. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 2:4–5, Ephesians 2:22, and Leviticus 6:13, he unpacks why many ministries today run on charisma, production, and programs—but lack the fire of the Holy Spirit.
🔥 Discover:
- Why churches without the Spirit’s power drift into idolatry of personality and performance
- How to fan the flames of personal and corporate revival
- The difference between quenching and grieving the Spirit
- What it means to live as a holy habitation for God's glory
- How Jesus and Paul modeled ministry driven by obedience, not popularity
🕊️ Whether you're a leader, intercessor, or believer hungry for more, this episode will challenge you to rekindle your first love, embrace consecration, and walk in the demonstration of the Spirit and power.
➡️ Subscribe for weekly apostolic teaching and prophetic insight.
🌍 Learn more at
#Revival #HolySpiritFire #SpiritLedChurch #GlennBleakney #PresenceOverPerformance #KingdomOfGod #ApostolicMinistry #ChurchReformation #1Corinthians2 #Ephesians2 #StokeTheFire #AwakeNations
Transcript
Welcome to Awake Nations Ministries, based in the beautiful sunshine coast of Australia.
Speaker A:Here the fire of revival ignites hearts and fuels a supernatural move of God throughout the nations of the earth.
Speaker A:Join us each week for prophetic insights, apostolic teaching and powerful conversations that will equip you to live fully awakened in your kingdom purpose.
Speaker A:This is more than a podcast, it's a movement.
Speaker A:Learn more about us by visiting awakenations.org now let's dive into today's episode.
Speaker A:We're going to start in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 4 and 5.
Speaker A:This powerful.
Speaker A:Let me read it.
Speaker A:Paul is saying this to the to the believers in Corinth.
Speaker A:He said my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power.
Speaker A:That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Speaker A:So that your faith should not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Speaker A:Now, what I'd love for us to understand straight away, and I've just got a little chart here on the second slide, there's five types of churches.
Speaker A:I'm not saying this is an exhaustive list, like there's only five, but here are five primary types of churches.
Speaker A:We have the church of programs.
Speaker A:The church of programs is filled with activity, but often lacking intimacy.
Speaker A:And again, nothing wrong with programs.
Speaker A:Secondly, the church of personality, led by charisma, but not always led by Christ.
Speaker A:And if the leader or leaders, multi gifted leaders are taken out, the church really struggles.
Speaker A:And often you'll see that like people leave, they move on.
Speaker A:And it was because in many times it was built around a leader or a team of leaders.
Speaker A:Thirdly, the church of preaching, rich in truth, but missing the power of encounter.
Speaker A:In other words, the biblically based help.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker A:We need biblically based preaching in our churches, don't we?
Speaker A:But it's not to be in word only, it's not just to be doctrine.
Speaker A:There has to be encounter.
Speaker A:Because the scriptures Jesus said in John 5 bear witness of me.
Speaker A:He said, they bear with so the scriptures testify to who Jesus is so that we will know him.
Speaker A:You can know theology, you can understand doctrine, and that's very important, but you can have that.
Speaker A:And it's just cerebral, it's just academic.
Speaker A:So it has to become something that transforms our hearts.
Speaker A:And then fourthly, the church of production, the polished professional church, spiritually shallow.
Speaker A:And it's all about an event, consumer Christianity.
Speaker A:People show up on a Sunday and consume content.
Speaker A:Consume content.
Speaker A:A great sermon oh, kids, ministry is awesome.
Speaker A:You know, worship was amazing, all of that stuff.
Speaker A:Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker A:We obviously are.
Speaker A:As a new ministry, we're building in those spaces, we're developing in those spaces.
Speaker A:We want to have amazing.
Speaker A:Everything we do, we do it unto the Lord, right?
Speaker A:So it's good.
Speaker A:And the Lord says that excellence is equality.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Remember the Psalms?
Speaker A:He said, sing unto the Lord a new song, right?
Speaker A:And then he says, play skillfully with the loud noise.
Speaker A:But then it also says this, that.
Speaker A:To do with the loud noise.
Speaker A:But he says to do it skillfully.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:How many know that noise?
Speaker A:That's really.
Speaker A:The Hebrew word, doesn't mean noise like static.
Speaker A:It just means something that's loud.
Speaker A:The Bible says it's okay to be loud and then.
Speaker A:But skill, everything we do has to be skillful.
Speaker A:Have you ever been somewhere where it was loud but not very skillful?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Lastly, churches that are presence centered, they're focused on the presence of the Lord.
Speaker A:These churches prioritize encounter over entertainment, hosting his presence above all else.
Speaker A:Now, what I would just want to articulate again or reiterate is this.
Speaker A:We're not opposed to programs.
Speaker A:We need leadership.
Speaker A:So that's important.
Speaker A:Powerful preaching is very important.
Speaker A:Production, in other words, excellence in all that we do, that's important.
Speaker A:But if we don't have his presence, we have nothing.
Speaker A:If we don't have his presence, we have nothing.
Speaker A:And I want to encourage you to read, go back and read some of the books on the outpourings of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:Read what happened in the Welsh Revival, the Zuza street, some of these places, the Hebrides in Scotland.
Speaker A:And you find that there was nothing polished.
Speaker A:They didn't have a production team.
Speaker A:They didn't have lights.
Speaker A:They didn't have any of this stuff.
Speaker A:And the amazing thing, like, think about John Wesley, George Whitefield, these guys.
Speaker A:If you go to the United States and New England, the places where he literally.
Speaker A:I've stood there and literally this field, this paddock right here was where, you know, George Whitfield preached his famous sermons.
Speaker A:And you look at this and you go, how many people were there?
Speaker A:There were 10,000 people there, and he didn't even have a microphone.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker A:And they did use natural acoustics to their advantage.
Speaker A:And it was just amazing.
Speaker A:The power and the presence of God was there.
Speaker A:And so I'm not trying to say that any of these things are inherently wrong, but what I am saying is that we need to get back to what really matters.
Speaker A:We need to get back to the Presence of God.
Speaker A:And so today I'm going to be teaching a little bit more perhaps than I would normally.
Speaker A:But we're going to start off also looking at Ephesians 2:22.
Speaker A:And Ephesians 2:22 says this, that the church is being built together for dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Speaker A:The King James says, a habitation, a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Speaker A:The church, meaning the people of God.
Speaker A:We are called to be a habitation of His Spirit.
Speaker A:Say, a dwelling place of God.
Speaker A:Now, Ephesians 3:19, this is the amplified Bible.
Speaker A:Listen to this, and then I'll make some comments.
Speaker A:He's Paul says this that you may really come to know practically through experience for yourselves the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience.
Speaker A:And that you may be filled through all your being unto all the fullness of God, that you may have the richest measure of the divine presence and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God himself.
Speaker A:That's his prayer, that we would become a body singular.
Speaker A:So we as individual members would become a body that is completely filled and flooded with God himself.
Speaker A:And that's what the early church did so well.
Speaker A:When people recognized that God was in their midst, it wasn't how gifted or charismatic they were.
Speaker A:It was the fact that God was there.
Speaker A:That was what was preeminent in all of their gatherings, in their interactions with people.
Speaker A:That people pick that up right away.
Speaker A:What's different about that person?
Speaker A:Oh, these people, they're so different.
Speaker A:They're so unique.
Speaker A:And there's a lot of things we could comment on about that, how they loved one another in Antioch and Syria.
Speaker A:There's actually in that city was a very multicultural city, and there were different neighborhoods, so to speak, where different people lived.
Speaker A:The Greeks lived over here, the Jews were here.
Speaker A:The North Africans were over here.
Speaker A:And they kind of stayed to themselves.
Speaker A:And it was partitioned.
Speaker A:There were literally walls that separated.
Speaker A:Almost like think about the walls that separate countries today, literal walls.
Speaker A:And some people try to scale those walls and so they can get into a country for better opportunity, that type of thing.
Speaker A:There were literally walls that kept them segregated from one another.
Speaker A:But what was happening in that time, there were the poor, the slaves.
Speaker A:And what was happening is that Christians were literally coming together, and they would go into these places where they would come together and those walls were broken down.
Speaker A:They became one people.
Speaker A:And what we were told, and you've probably heard this before, is that we know in Antioch, they were first called Christians, right?
Speaker A:Now some people say, oh, that was A derogatory term.
Speaker A:They were mocking them.
Speaker A:Others say, no, it's because they were like Christ historically.
Speaker A:There's another reason.
Speaker A:The reason they were called Christians is because people like to put labels on people, don't they?
Speaker A:And they said they're not Jews because Jews are different.
Speaker A:They have their own religion and beliefs.
Speaker A:They're not Romans or Greeks that have their own, you know, convictions and ways of worshiping and so on.
Speaker A:They're very different.
Speaker A:So what do we call these people?
Speaker A:Because they transcend all social and ethnic lines.
Speaker A:Those lines are blurred.
Speaker A:And so what do we call them?
Speaker A:Let's call them Christians because they're a different and unique people altogether.
Speaker A:The poor sit with the rich.
Speaker A:Slaves literally are there.
Speaker A:And slave owners in that time are washing the feet of slaves.
Speaker A:It was phenomenal what was going on.
Speaker A:We understand that God has a separate nation.
Speaker A:Didn't Peter say that?
Speaker A:But you are a what, holy nation?
Speaker A:You're a royal priesthood.
Speaker A:You're a peculiar people.
Speaker A:That word peculiar doesn't mean you're strange, you're weird, you know, but it means that you're different.
Speaker A:You're unique, you're set apart.
Speaker A:You're a different.
Speaker A:Like, it doesn't matter of your.
Speaker A:Your nationality or your ethnicity or your skin color or your education or your socioeconomic standing.
Speaker A:None of those things actually matter in the Kingdom of God.
Speaker A:There's no male nor female.
Speaker A:There's no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor bond.
Speaker A:It's all of us are one in this kingdom.
Speaker A:We're one.
Speaker A:And it's an amazing thing.
Speaker A:So what he's saying, though preeminently, is that we're called to exemplify the presence of Christ everywhere we go through how we love, how we interact with one another, how we worship.
Speaker A:All of this is us.
Speaker A:The devil can't stop.
Speaker A:He can hinder.
Speaker A:He can try to.
Speaker A:To do things to.
Speaker A:To thwart or the.
Speaker A:The move of God.
Speaker A:But ultimately God has a people.
Speaker A:And if his people don't follow him and do what he's called them to do, then we hinder what God wants to do.
Speaker A:So let me give you an example.
Speaker A:1 Thessalonians 5:19, right?
Speaker A:And do not quench the Spirit.
Speaker A:It literally says, don't put out the Spirit's fire.
Speaker A:Put out the fire of the Spirit is what it literally means.
Speaker A:Now stop for a moment.
Speaker A:We can put out the Spirit's fire.
Speaker A:Apparently, yes.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:This isn't hyperbole.
Speaker A:It's not using exaggeration here to make a point.
Speaker A:He's saying we literally can quench the spirit.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Do not quench the spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Speaker A:Now, look at it this way.
Speaker A:A fire can be put out in at least two ways.
Speaker A:You can smother a fire, or you can starve a fire.
Speaker A:You can smother a fire, or you can starve it.
Speaker A:How do you smother a fire?
Speaker A:You put a wet blanket on it.
Speaker A:You suffocate it in a way by literally smothering it so it doesn't get oxygen.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Secondly, starve a fire.
Speaker A:How do we starve a fire?
Speaker A:We don't stoke it.
Speaker A:We stop fueling the fire.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So Ephesians 4:30 is more about smothering, where he says, and do not grieve the spirit of God.
Speaker A:Don't grieve the spirit.
Speaker A:Don't insult, don't harm, don't injure.
Speaker A:Don't make the spirit of God sad.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Can you imagine?
Speaker A:Holy Spirit is obviously a person.
Speaker A:It's the third person of the Trinity.
Speaker A:And Holy Spirit can be saddened.
Speaker A:He can be grieved.
Speaker A:And we see this in many instances, right?
Speaker A:Remember when the presence of God, the glory of God, departed from the temple in Ezekiel, and it happened gradually.
Speaker A:If you study it, it didn't.
Speaker A:Just like, one day they showed up, boom, he wasn't there.
Speaker A:It was a process of gradual movement and shifting where the presence started moving, the glory started moving, the glory started moving on glory, and eventually it was gone.
Speaker A:We know that happened in the Old Testament time during the priest Eli's time on Ichabod, which literally means inglorious or no glory.
Speaker A:Ichabod, no glory, no presence.
Speaker A:Samson, the spirit of the Lord departed from him, and he didn't even know it.
Speaker A:He wasn't even aware that the spirit of the Lord had departed from him.
Speaker A:It's kind of like the.
Speaker A:The proverbial frog in the kettle, right?
Speaker A:In the pot, where that frog is put in there, right?
Speaker A:And you just slowly turn up the heat and it begins to simmer.
Speaker A:And eventually the frog's just like, yeah, this is feeling nice.
Speaker A:You get acclimated or acclimatized to the condition.
Speaker A:And so you can actually get used to living without the presence of God in your life, his nearness.
Speaker A:And you get busy and you're distracted, and you don't even realize, hang on a minute.
Speaker A:I'm not close to the Lord like I used to be.
Speaker A:And if it's just a small thing, right?
Speaker A:Like they say, if you.
Speaker A:If you literally move a degree.
Speaker A:So if you're flying from Perth to Brisbane and then for whatever reason, they shift that by 1 degree, 2 degrees.
Speaker A:Guess where you're going to end up?
Speaker A:Hundreds of miles north.
Speaker A:Just a small adjustment can put us off track and get us off course from what we're really called to do.
Speaker A:So it's very important.
Speaker A:Ephesians 4:30 says, don't grieve the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:Then he talks about things that we can do that actually grieve the Spirit.
Speaker A:So he talks about gossiping, being bitter, having anger, living in immorality, etc.
Speaker A:There's a heap of things that he specifically mentions there.
Speaker A:And that whole chapter is about putting off and putting on.
Speaker A:And he says, put off all of this stuff.
Speaker A:Put it off, but put on this.
Speaker A:He who stole, let him steal.
Speaker A:No longer put off stealing and put on what, but let him work with his hands that he might have something to share with others is what he says.
Speaker A:So the opposite is what we're called to do.
Speaker A:Remember in Titus he says that In Titus chapter 2, verse 11 and 12, it speaks about the grace of God that brings salvation to all men.
Speaker A:And he said, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
Speaker A:And it teaches us the NIV says to say no to ungodliness and worldly lusts.
Speaker A:Grace is a teacher.
Speaker A:And grace teaches us how to say no to ungodliness and worldly lusts.
Speaker A:But then he says this but to live upright lives, self controlled godly lives.
Speaker A:So there's things we have to say yes to.
Speaker A:Well, that word that's translated no in the NIV is translated elsewhere to deny.
Speaker A:But it's an interesting term in the New Testament language.
Speaker A:It literally means to contradict.
Speaker A:So the grace of God teaches us to contradict, to do the opposite.
Speaker A:So when the devil wants you to be angry and he's pushing your buttons, or when your flesh feels like I'm angry, I'm offended, what do we do the opposite.
Speaker A:Love that person, hug that person who's offended you, pray for that person.
Speaker A:Do whatever it takes to contradict.
Speaker A:When you feel tempted to do something, do the opposite.
Speaker A:When you say, I feel discouraged, how do you contradict that worship?
Speaker A:Praise God.
Speaker A:Even the very words that we speak, right?
Speaker A:Oh man, I'm having a rough week.
Speaker A:Boom.
Speaker A:Shift that.
Speaker A:Change that.
Speaker A:First up here, here, and then the words of your mouth.
Speaker A:Praise God.
Speaker A:I'm blessed.
Speaker A:Praise God.
Speaker A:He's with me.
Speaker A:Praise God that I've had this opportunity to go through some difficult times this week so I can grow right 1 Thessalonians he says what?
Speaker A:To be thankful in all things, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Speaker A:He don't say, be thankful for all things.
Speaker A:He says, in all things.
Speaker A:There's some things like, I'm not thankful for that because that was my own stupidness, right?
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:I'm going through this because I made a wrong decision.
Speaker A:I made a poor decision, right?
Speaker A:Sometimes it's.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I'm not thankful for someone coming against me and saying, oh, Lord, I thank you.
Speaker A:That person was so mean.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:No, no, no.
Speaker A:But I'm thankful that even though this has happened, I'm thankful that you're going to bring me through it.
Speaker A:I'm thankful that you're going to use it to teach me, to refine me, to keep me more humble, to test me, whatever I need that you're going to challenge me.
Speaker A:So, Lord, I thank you.
Speaker A:Paul says, so.
Speaker A:I rejoice in my sufferings.
Speaker A:I rejoice in my tribulations.
Speaker A:Not again.
Speaker A:Like, thank you, God, for, you know, abuse or anything like that.
Speaker A:That's not what he's saying.
Speaker A:When it happens, of course you want it to stop happening.
Speaker A:And you don't want people to be like that.
Speaker A:If it is people that are the instrument that.
Speaker A:That's incurring, you know, some type of infliction upon your life, ultimately it's about this.
Speaker A:I'm thankful no matter what.
Speaker A:So there's a shift that has to take place.
Speaker A:So we don't grieve or quench the spirit of God.
Speaker A:Now we can quench the spirit by not stoking the fires.
Speaker A:And that has to do.
Speaker A:The first is more about sins of omission, sins of commission, things we do right that grieve the spirit.
Speaker A:This is more about sins of omission, prayerlessness, not rejoicing, not being open to the spirit, just making decisions.
Speaker A:So when you read in 1 Thessalonians 5, when he talks about that, he literally says, don't despise prophecy.
Speaker A:By the way, when he says, don't despise prophecy, what does he say?
Speaker A:He's saying, some of you guys have had a bad experience with prophecy.
Speaker A:People have said things and you're like, hey, that's not God.
Speaker A:Or it confused you or got you off track.
Speaker A:That's why we test prophecy, right?
Speaker A:Just because someone prophesies over your life, don't accept it.
Speaker A:They can be wrong, firstly, right.
Speaker A:Secondly, you might be interpreting it incorrectly.
Speaker A:So the whole idea here is that prophecy is about just listening.
Speaker A:But what does God say?
Speaker A:Oh, I got this word.
Speaker A:What does that mean?
Speaker A:Sometimes, honestly, I just go, that's not God.
Speaker A:I've had to say that.
Speaker A:I've tested it, I've looked at it, and I said, that's not God.
Speaker A:So don't make any major life decisions or adjustment on the course that you're on because you got a prophetic word from someone.
Speaker A:Don't do that.
Speaker A:That is not wisdom, and that is not the way of God.
Speaker A:Make sure.
Speaker A:I know.
Speaker A:And I've heard pastors that have went and done things because someone gave them a prophetic word at a conference, and it was terrible.
Speaker A:And they said, man, why did I.
Speaker A:I just wasted three years, four years doing something that wasn't God.
Speaker A:And, yeah, because it.
Speaker A:It didn't show.
Speaker A:We try to spiritualize things, don't we?
Speaker A:Oh, you know, the Lord had a reason and a purpose for that.
Speaker A:Actually, the Lord wasn't in that.
Speaker A:Sometimes he wasn't in.
Speaker A:He's not in it at all.
Speaker A:But we make a decision, and we don't test things.
Speaker A:We don't wait, we don't confirm.
Speaker A:And we put ourselves into something that the Lord never called us to.
Speaker A:So be very cautious about that.
Speaker A:I just wanted you to know that that's free.
Speaker A:All right, so let's talk about this.
Speaker A:Go to Leviticus chapter six for a moment.
Speaker A:Leviticus, chapter six.
Speaker A:We're talking about starving the fire.
Speaker A:Verses 12 and 13.
Speaker A:This is the law of the burnt offering.
Speaker A:Moses is speaking to the priests.
Speaker A:Starts really in verse number eight, by the way.
Speaker A:The burnt offering.
Speaker A:You know, in the Levitical offerings, there were many different offerings, right?
Speaker A:There were.
Speaker A:There were five different offerings.
Speaker A:The fifth offering, which was the only offering of its kind, was the burnt offering.
Speaker A:Do you know why it was unique?
Speaker A:Because the burnt offering is the only offering that the entire animal was placed on the altar.
Speaker A:The other offerings, you take the parts you know, you get rid of the guts, the entrails, all of that.
Speaker A:This one?
Speaker A:No, whole animal.
Speaker A:Chuck it on the altar.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:It speaks of complete consecration.
Speaker A:Remember when Paul said in Romans 12:2, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice?
Speaker A:He's literally saying this.
Speaker A:Offer your bodies as a burnt offering.
Speaker A:The word soma for bodies there is different than the typical word for body, which means more about your flesh.
Speaker A:And it speaks of your entire being in that context.
Speaker A:Offer your entire being as a living sacrifice.
Speaker A:Spirit, soul, body, everything about you has to be yielded, has to be surrendered to Jesus.
Speaker A:Your thought, life, your actions, your affections, your spirit, your body consecrated to God, living a holy life.
Speaker A:Our Finances are the talents and the gifts that God has given to us to be consecrated and offered to him.
Speaker A:Put on the altar.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It says in Revelation that he's going to give us crowns.
Speaker A:But what do we do with those crowns?
Speaker A:We lay them down at his feet.
Speaker A:We put them at his feet.
Speaker A:It's all about him and what he's entrusted us with.
Speaker A:The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it.
Speaker A:It shall not go out.
Speaker A:The priest shall burn wood on it every morning and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings.
Speaker A:Verse 13.
Speaker A:Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually.
Speaker A:It shall not go out.
Speaker A:So the idea is that the fire is to burn continually.
Speaker A:It's to never go out.
Speaker A:So how do we do that?
Speaker A:We have to stoke the fire.
Speaker A:We're priests in the New Testament.
Speaker A:Each one of us, we have a personal responsibility to stoke the fire.
Speaker A:We do that through prayer.
Speaker A:We do that through consecration.
Speaker A:We do that through stirring up the gift of God within you.
Speaker A:He says, stir it up.
Speaker A:Stir it up.
Speaker A:Stoke the fire when you feel discouraged, when you feel dry.
Speaker A:I say, God, where are you?
Speaker A:He's saying, I'm here.
Speaker A:Go stoke the fire.
Speaker A:Stoke the fire.
Speaker A:It's your responsibility to put the wood on the fire.
Speaker A:And it's my will.
Speaker A:It's my mandate to you that the fire will never go out.
Speaker A:Live in a place I love.
Speaker A:The Apostle Paul, maybe Jesus, of course, other than Jesus.
Speaker A:And the thing about Paul that I like is Paul never backslid.
Speaker A:Like, he never.
Speaker A:He never got off track.
Speaker A:I'm not saying he was perfect.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Maybe the whole thing with Barnabas could have been handled a little better.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I'm sorry, with John, Mark between him and Barnabas, but the point I'm trying to make is this, that when he encountered Jesus on the road, everything changed in his life.
Speaker A:And he never looked back.
Speaker A:Peter, he got off track.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Peter compromised with the judaizers, sat down with them.
Speaker A:Right, Paul?
Speaker A:No, he would fast forward, full steam ahead.
Speaker A:I'm doing the will of God.
Speaker A:I'm never going to compromise.
Speaker A:And throughout history, no one was used more powerfully than Paul.
Speaker A:In his time, he reached more people, raised up so many individuals for ministry.
Speaker A:No one was used as much as him.
Speaker A:And it wasn't his education, his eloquence, his expertise.
Speaker A:In fact, he gives us profound insight into that.
Speaker A:He said, my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, even though he was trained in the Greek Schools of rhetoric.
Speaker A:And he could out preach anyone.
Speaker A:He was an orator, a skilled orator.
Speaker A:He could preach, he could communicate like no one.
Speaker A:He was persuasive.
Speaker A:That was apologia.
Speaker A:They learned how to debate, essentially.
Speaker A:So Paul could tear anyone apart.
Speaker A:He wanted to.
Speaker A:He knew how to debate.
Speaker A:He knew.
Speaker A:He knew how to make you look foolish.
Speaker A:And Paul said, that's rubbish.
Speaker A:It's dung is the word, actually.
Speaker A:And he said nothing.
Speaker A:He said, but what I do use is the demonstration of the spirit and the power.
Speaker A:And he says this, your faith should not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Speaker A:Our faith is not to rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Speaker A:Now, ministry that is void of the Spirit's anointing inevitably shifts the focus away from Christ and his power, redirecting attention to human charisma, talent and performance.
Speaker A:And in that context, success is measured by the metrics of influence, excellence and entertainment.
Speaker A:Do you remember William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army?
Speaker A:He send people out to go into a city, preach the gospel, see revival break out.
Speaker A:And literally he would say, until you see that happen, don't leave until that revival breaks out and lives are changed.
Speaker A:And what he would say to his disciples essentially is this prayer with tears.
Speaker A:Prayer and intercession with tears.
Speaker A:If you haven't done that, you're not allowed to come back.
Speaker A:You're not allowed to say, hey, we tried that city, man.
Speaker A:They're just too hard.
Speaker A:Sunshine coast is different.
Speaker A:It's very different.
Speaker A:I don't know if I've ever found a place more difficult to minister than the Sunshine Coast.
Speaker A:Like everybody is freelancers or they've had bad church experiences.
Speaker A:Church.
Speaker A:Now, I love Jesus, but I don't like the church.
Speaker A:I understand that.
Speaker A:We certainly don't want to have toxic cultures.
Speaker A:That's not right.
Speaker A:We need to be healthy and reliving and family, all that.
Speaker A:We agree with it.
Speaker A:It's very different here.
Speaker A:And frankly, there's been times when I just said, oh man, I need to go here, do this, do that, right?
Speaker A:It's just a thought, just for a nanosecond.
Speaker A:And something inside me says, so why are you going to do that?
Speaker A:Are you going to acquiesce to defeat?
Speaker A:Yeah, well, we gave it a go.
Speaker A:And oh well, God wasn't in it.
Speaker A:People are too hard.
Speaker A:Shake the dust off my feet, move on.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:By the way, that's biblical, right?
Speaker A:And yet what does God say?
Speaker A:I have people here.
Speaker A:I have people here that are hungry.
Speaker A:I have people that want More Jesus and I have a heap of people that don't know him yet.
Speaker A:And so our call is to shift into a place of authority and power.
Speaker A:If what we're trying isn't working, we need to go deeper in the things of God.
Speaker A:We need to go deeper in the power.
Speaker A:On the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:Say when influence, as I said, it's, you know, the metrics are influence, excellence, entertainment.
Speaker A:But when the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit are absent or they're merely an afterthought, is not something Holy Spirit, oh no, we should have tried that.
Speaker A:He's given us all opportunity and a platform to speak into certain people's lives.
Speaker A:But what, how are we doing God?
Speaker A:How are we stewarding God?
Speaker A:We need his power, we need his presence.
Speaker A:We need the anointing.
Speaker A:See, even well intentioned leaders can unwittingly promote a subtle form of idolatry where the vessel is exalted above the treasure it carries.
Speaker A:That's idolatry.
Speaker A:The more I walk with Jesus and the deeper I go with Jesus, the more I absolutely eschew flesh, human ability and say it doesn't matter.
Speaker A:William J.
Speaker A:Seymour, the former African American slave that was used in the Azusa Strait outpouring, ironically was not a gifted preacher.
Speaker A:He actually would hide himself.
Speaker A:He had a box, you know, he put it over himself when he was preaching and you'd see this guy with this box on him like some.
Speaker A:And he's leaning and he's got a box over him, but he's crying out to God, he's crying out to God, crying out to see a move of the spirit and God was a rewarder and God moved powerfully.
Speaker A:Now I want you to think with me, please, of Jesus.
Speaker A:Jesus, when he was on the earth, there was one thing that he was always focused on.
Speaker A:What was that?
Speaker A:Doing the will of his right.
Speaker A:That was it.
Speaker A:So what does that mean?
Speaker A:Success can be simply defined by this.
Speaker A:Are you doing the will of the Father?
Speaker A:That's it, you're trying to know, are you doing the will of the Father?
Speaker A:Well, you need to know what the will of the Father is.
Speaker A:You need to know what the Bible says.
Speaker A:You need to know and lean in, in your prayer time and hear the voice of God and what he's speaking to you.
Speaker A:But are you doing the will of your father?
Speaker A:Are you walking before him in a way that he says, well done, this is my beloved son, daughter with whom I'm well pleased.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:In John 11, when Jesus walks up to Lazarus Tomb and Lazarus had been dead.
Speaker A:And they said, lord, if you had a been here, Lazarus wouldn't have died.
Speaker A:Guess what Jesus said.
Speaker A:No, no, no, no.
Speaker A:He's not dead.
Speaker A:He's sleeping.
Speaker A:In other words, what was Jesus saying?
Speaker A:He's saying, I'm doing the will of my father by postponing my visit.
Speaker A:Fourth day, he shows up.
Speaker A:And on the fourth day.
Speaker A:I've shared this previously in Jewish culture and customs.
Speaker A:They had a belief in their culture, and you can find it in the ancient writings that a person who died, their spirit would literally hover over their body for up to three days.
Speaker A:But once the fourth day came, after the third day, the spirit would depart.
Speaker A:And literally after that point, there's no way that person will ever come back to life.
Speaker A:They believed, at least the Pharisees, in resurrection, but there's no way.
Speaker A:So what does Jesus do?
Speaker A:He waits to the fourth day.
Speaker A:And what does he say?
Speaker A:I am the resurrection and the life.
Speaker A:I am the resurrection and the life.
Speaker A:It's possible.
Speaker A:You need to believe.
Speaker A:You need to trust.
Speaker A:And when he stands outside Lazarus Tomb and everyone's like, this is a waste of time.
Speaker A:What's going to happen?
Speaker A:Lord, he stinketh.
Speaker A:I mean, rigor mortis, right?
Speaker A:And he's like, it's all right.
Speaker A:Don't worry.
Speaker A:And he calls him forth out of the tomb.
Speaker A:Do you realize how crazy was?
Speaker A:I mean, everyone's there watching.
Speaker A:But before he commands him to come forth, he says a prayer.
Speaker A:And the prayer paraphrase is something like this.
Speaker A:Father, I thank you that you've heard me.
Speaker A:I thank you that you always hear me.
Speaker A:And the only reason I'm praying is for the sake of these people here, because they don't have faith.
Speaker A:That's what he was saying, in essence.
Speaker A:So what happens is when Lazarus comes forth, I thank you that you've heard me.
Speaker A:Even before the miracle had become tangible, I thank you that you've heard me.
Speaker A:And he says, I thank you that you always hear me.
Speaker A:Why did he have such confidence?
Speaker A:How come he could say that with such great and deep assurance?
Speaker A:Because Jesus knew who the Father was.
Speaker A:And he knew when he was doing the will of the Father that it would always come to pass.
Speaker A:If it's not God's will, it ain't going to happen.
Speaker A:Sometimes we're rebuking the devil, but it's God saying, that's not my will.
Speaker A:That's not what I want.
Speaker A:Tune in to the things of God.
Speaker A:Tune into the revelation of the spirit, and see we hinder what he wants to do.
Speaker A:So Jesus Understood that.
Speaker A:Now remember this.
Speaker A:Jesus understanding that he was about to go to the cross, right?
Speaker A:He says this in John 12, 27 and 28.
Speaker A:Now my soul is troubled.
Speaker A:What shall I say?
Speaker A:Father, save me from this hour.
Speaker A:No, but for this purpose I came to this hour.
Speaker A:Father, glorify your name.
Speaker A:Speaking of the cross for this purpose, right?
Speaker A: raying in the garden, Matthew: Speaker A:He prayed, father, if it is possible, maybe may this cup be taken from me yet not as I will, but as you will.
Speaker A:Remember that, right?
Speaker A:So he was not praying, Lord, I don't want to go to the cross.
Speaker A:If there's any way to get this done without me going to the cross.
Speaker A:No, he wasn't saying that.
Speaker A:We've already quoted John 12, which clearly he says, no, for this purpose I came.
Speaker A:See, what he was actually doing was he was recognizing and affirming that there was going to come a point in his life where he would be disconnected from the presence of God for a season.
Speaker A:And the thing that Jesus we know, right?
Speaker A:Eloi, Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthanai my God, when he said that.
Speaker A:But the fact is, why have you forsaken me?
Speaker A:Some people would say, God never forsakes anyone.
Speaker A:You have to understand.
Speaker A:Something happened for a moment when all the sins of the world were heaped on Jesus, when he.
Speaker A:The Bible says in 2 Corinthians that he became sin for us.
Speaker A:But it doesn't say that.
Speaker A:It says he became sin.
Speaker A:He who knew no sin, he never sinned, became sin for us.
Speaker A:So the Father cannot look upon sin.
Speaker A:The Father cannot do that.
Speaker A:Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.
Speaker A:So what was taking place?
Speaker A:Hebrews 5:7.
Speaker A:This is the Amplified Bible in the Classic edition.
Speaker A:Listen to this.
Speaker A:Why was Jesus heard by the Father?
Speaker A:He was heard because of his reverence toward God.
Speaker A:He was heard because of his reverence toward God.
Speaker A:Another translation says his piety.
Speaker A:Another translation says his godly fear.
Speaker A:But the word that is used here, for fear is not the typical Greek word from which we get phobia.
Speaker A:It's not phobos in Greek.
Speaker A:It's a different word that's only found in twice in the New Testament.
Speaker A:And the word that is used here, that's translated fear or piety or reverence, literally means this.
Speaker A:To shrink from the horrors of separation, from the bright presence of the Father.
Speaker A:To shrink from the horrors of separation, from the bright presence of the Father.
Speaker A:What did Jesus Care about more than anything.
Speaker A:It wasn't pleasing people.
Speaker A:It wasn't preserving his own life, but it was this.
Speaker A:Am I in constant communion with Him?
Speaker A:Am I walking before him in such a place of consecration and intimacy that I'm never grieving him?
Speaker A:I'm never grieving the Spirit.
Speaker A:I'm never quenching the fire of what God wants to do in me and through me.
Speaker A:I'm not minimizing the anointing.
Speaker A:I'm not limiting what God wants to do in my life.
Speaker A:But I am completely yielded to him in such a way that the fullness of his power, his presence, his anointing, can flow into me.
Speaker A:I steward that, I carry that, and I'm able to release that.
Speaker A:You know, it says in Psalm 78 that Israel in the wilderness limited the Holy One of Israel, says they limited the Holy One, limited him.
Speaker A:Now, do we limit God?
Speaker A:The context of that statement, as they were murmuring, they were limiting.
Speaker A:Can God do this?
Speaker A:We do the same thing.
Speaker A:Unfortunately, at times we limit Him.
Speaker A:But what if we shifted away from that into a life of full surrender and consecration?
Speaker A:2 Timothy 1:14 says this.
Speaker A:But the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard deposit entrusted to you.
Speaker A:There's a deposit, there's a treasure that's been entrusted to me and to you.
Speaker A:And we're called to guard that.
Speaker A:Guard it right.
Speaker A:To each one has been given a measure of faith.
Speaker A:Guard it right.
Speaker A:He gives us the Spirit.
Speaker A:Guard what he's given to us.
Speaker A:Guard it.
Speaker A:Don't suffocate it or smother it.
Speaker A:Don't stifle it, but stir it up.
Speaker A:Stir it up.
Speaker A:Keep it going.
Speaker A:Keep fanning the flames of revival.
Speaker A:Keep fanning and flame the flames of what God wants.
Speaker A:And if you say, wow, I have no idea.
Speaker A:Like, I've never experienced the Lord in this way.
Speaker A:Look, it's.
Speaker A:It's all right.
Speaker A:We're only aware of what we've experienced, really.
Speaker A:And we're only cognizant of those things that actually happen.
Speaker A:I mean, it's not fantasy.
Speaker A:God's not saying, oh, I just want you to imagine what it would look like.
Speaker A:No, no, no.
Speaker A:He wants us to step into this so we can experience it.
Speaker A:And when we experience that, wow, something happens.
Speaker A:You can get away from the Lord.
Speaker A:You can dumb down your prayer life.
Speaker A:You can become spiritually dull and just.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm busy.
Speaker A:Listen, if all you.
Speaker A:Your time of encountering the Lord is only on Sunday when we gather collectively, as that's not what he wants.
Speaker A:We're not called to come in here as fill me, feel me.
Speaker A:No, we're called to come in here and let's release it.
Speaker A:Because during the week we've been in a place of consecration and we're just walking before God in obedience and we're walking very sensitively to the things of the Spirit.
Speaker A:Anything that Holy Spirit points out and puts his finger on goes, that grieves me.
Speaker A:That grieves me.
Speaker A:Don't do that.
Speaker A:That grieves me.
Speaker A:We have to go.
Speaker A:Yes, Lord.
Speaker A:Yes, Lord.
Speaker A:We have to do what's right and to make that right.
Speaker A:So if it's someone in a relationship, if it's in.
Speaker A:The Bible says, if you don't treat your wife properly, your prayers will be hindered.
Speaker A:So many scriptures that talk about grieving the Spirit.
Speaker A:Acts 7:51, you always resist the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:Stephen said it while they were stoning him.
Speaker A:You stiff necked, uncircumcised, and heart and ears.
Speaker A:You always resist the Holy spirit.
Speaker A: And Hebrews: Speaker A:So quench grave, resist, do despite.
Speaker A:Or fan into flame.
Speaker A:Host, stir up lair.
Speaker A:Stoke it.
Speaker A:Stoke the fire.
Speaker A:Stoke the fire.
Speaker A:God is entrusted to you by his Spirit.
Speaker A:Guard it that good deposit.
