Expecting to Receive
by David K. Bernard
2018 · UPCI General Conference 2018 (city not stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Acts 14:8-10, 1 Corinthians 2:2, Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:17, Acts 14:23, Acts 16:4-5, Mark 16:20, Acts 2:42-43, 1 Corinthians 2:4, Acts 3:4-5, Acts 14:9-10

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--expecting-to-receive
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
Bernard. Oh, let's praise the Lord together. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, what a wonderful presence of God here tonight. Amen. I'm asking my family to come. I want them to pray for me. I appreciate my family and my wife. They're a huge part of my ministry. My wife over 50% of my ministry. And so, I want them to pray. Would you join them? And I ask my family to pray for me for this message tonight. Hallelujah. Let's pray together. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Oh Lord, we ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We ask for your presence that's already here to continue to guide us to the message and its conclusion that you would give a special impartation of the Holy Spirit in this place tonight in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. If you'll remain standing for just another moment. Thank you. I'm going to read from Acts chapter 14 verse 8 through verse 10.

I'm thankful that all my family is serving the Lord. All my sons and son-in-law are credential ministers. All my kids are involved in ministry and saved. And my grandkids are receiving the Holy Ghost. I've got the two younger ones yet to go, but it's happening. What a blessing to have your family in the church and involved in ministry. That's really more important than any office you could ever hold. Amen. And I I'm going to Acts 14:8-10. I give thanks to the Lord and I appreciate Bishop Brooks and the other bishops from the Pentecostal Assemblies of the world and the Bible Way Church of our Lord Jesus Christ worldwide. We sincerely appreciate uh you're taking your time and your effort, your finances to come and join with us as fellow believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Acts chapter 14 verse 8 through verse 10.

And there sat a certain man of Lististra, impotent in his feet, being a from his mother's womb, who never had walked. The same heard Paul speak, who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on thy feet." And he leaped and walked. I'm preaching tonight expecting to receive. Expecting to receive. And you may be seated. I want to say I appreciate our general officials who are present on the platform tonight. Our entire general board has been very supportive. Many friends have text or emailed or caught me to say they're praying. And I don't take that lightly or for granted. There are times I don't mind telling you that I feel like I have a very heavy load because at the end of the day I have to make the final decision that affects so many people involves so many millions of dollars and no one else can everybody can advise but sooner or later somebody has to decide and uh sometimes the weight falls very heavily and sometimes I feel I'm all alone but that's where family comes in and that's where friends and

that's where prayers come in. That's where you come in. And I would love just to preach a a message that makes everybody shout, but I pray each year for a word from God. I don't think I'm any better than you are, but you've chosen me for this role, and I think God honors that choice. And there's a special anointing and a special impartation that I must receive so we can do what God wants us to do collectively. And so I come with a word from the Lord and our message from our our theme of this conference is forward. I truly believe that we're moving forward. Last year I preached a Pentecostal future. And I said we're seeing the greatest revival in the history of the church. The 21st century revival is greater than the first century revival. It's happening. It's not simply going to happen.

It is happening. And all this year, the general board caught a vision. And last year, the prophetic word came in the general board meeting that there is a divine shift, Bishop Brooks. And the time is now. And we should believe in the US and Canada for more than a million. And so we've been in strategic planning. Every nation of the world and every district of the UPCI in North America has been involved and is in the process of strategic planning for growth. You saw a video earlier this week of the Florida district. You saw just now the South Texas district. But I'm here to say that I believe strategic planning for growth is necessary, but it is not sufficient to fulfill God's plan to move forward to step into the next dimension. There must be a work of the Holy Spirit that no strategic plan can accomplish.

the leaders of the church. Whether you are a pastor or a district superintendent or a lay leader in the local church, somehow collectively we must join in unity of faith and expect a miraculous revival. Not just a numerical revival, not just new buildings, not just great choirs, but we must move in the realm of the Holy Spirit. We must have miracles, signs, and wonders just as in the book of Acts, except more than we see in the book of Acts. Now, to see that happen, let me just briefly start with the basics. And if you want to synopsis, what Brother Cunningham preached Wednesday night, wasn't that amazing? What Brother Jones preached last night, wasn't that amazing? If you put those two messages together, you'll have my message tonight. Here's the basics. We believe our mission as the UPCI is the whole gospel to the whole world by the whole church.

The whole gospel. That's the message. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 2:2, I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's got to be our message from start to finish. It's Jesus Christ. The focus is the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't preach anything else. We don't preach UPCI. We don't preach Bernard. We don't preach Jones. We preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's it. That's it in a nutshell. When you preach Jesus, you'll preach there's one true and living God. He created this world of humans to have fellowship. We broke the fellowship by sin. He could have destroyed us and started all over again. But he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Or in other words, God was manifested in the flesh as the Lord Jesus Christ. He died to pay the price for our sins.

He shed his blood that we might be redeemed. But you don't stop with him hanging on the cross because he's not on a crucifix today. He was buried in the tomb. He rose again. He's alive forever more. He has victory over death, hell, and the grave. But you don't stop with what happened 2,000 years ago. You must preach, repent, and die to sin in repentance. Be buried with Jesus Christ in water baptism. rise to newness of life through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. But you won't stop with the new birth. You'll say, "I'm crucified with Christ." As Galatians says, "I'm crucified to the world and I'm crucified to the flesh." We must live as if the temptations of the world and the flesh cannot influence our lives any longer. In other words, that's the pursuit of holiness. In other words, when you preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, you'll preach the one God.

You'll preach the incarnation. You'll preach the atonement. You'll preach the gospel. You'll preach the new birth. And you'll preach a life of holiness. I do believe in holiness. If you want to know for sure, my family's not perfect, but my family represents what I believe. The church we started in also is not perfect, but it represents what we believe. You know, I wrote the book on holiness, if you'll allow me to say it. That's the message. But then the whole gospel to the whole world, the whole world. That's the mission. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations." Teach there, as the New King James brings out, means literally to make disciples. nations is from the Greek ethnos meaning every nation or every ethnicity. If we are going to be the true apostolic church, we must reach every nation, every region, every ethnicity, every tongue, every t tribe, every color, every race.

There must be intentional diversity. There must be no prejudice. There must be no racism. There must be no discrimination. But we must have a worldwide vision. Not only reaching to the other side of the world, but to the other side of the streets, to the other side of the tracks, to the other side of the city. We cannot be polarized by the secular media or political system. But we must be one body in Christ. the whole world by the whole church. Mark 16:17 Jesus said, "These sign shall follow them that believe." The whole church is the messenger. Every believer is a witness. Every believer is a minister. No, not everybody is a pullpit preacher, but every child of God should have a place of active service in the body of Christ. Every child of God should have a testimony. Every child of God should have a prayer of faith.

Every child of God should be able to witness in some form or fashion. Every believer must be a witness. Every believer must be connected to a local church and a pastor. And every church should be connected to the larger body. That's the messenger. Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas the missionaries when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. So they set up churches and they set up pastors. That's the plan of God. You can't just be an internet church or a media church or you can't be just saved in isolation. You must get into a church and you must have a pastor. Acts 16:4-5. After there was an international debate over whether Gentiles could enter the body of Christ without being circumcised and becoming Jews, all the apostles and elders from all over the church gathered in Jerusalem.

It was the first general conference of the United Pentecostal Apostolic Spiritfilled Church International. And they voted. They debated sharply, contended, and voted in some form or had some means of consensus. And they said, "It seems good to us and the Holy Ghost." That's God's plan. He works through his spirit and he works through his church and he works through his leaders. And you should not try to separate as if it's one or the other. The church cannot function without the spirit. But God will not operate in this world. He can operate sovereignly as he wishes. But his plan is to use his church. And so in Acts 16:4-5, Paul and Silas went back on the missionary trip. And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in numbers daily.

It doesn't look like when they got the decision of the Jerusalem Council, they said, "Well, we're going to turn in our card. We just don't want to do that." They didn't say, "Well, we're going to leave the United Pentecostal Apostolic Church International because we don't like what they did in Jerusalem last week." They didn't do that. What you see is the principle and hear me well of selfgovernment of local churches under the oversight of pastors. We can't and should not take that away. But we also see the connection of local churches to the general body to provide unity, submission, leadership, and accountability. The goal of the UPCI is not merely to make converts or to have great crusades with thousands and millions to attend, but we want to plant new works, preaching points, daughter works, home mission churches, and we want to bring the mature to maturity as selfgoverning local churches, not a hierarchical circle.

We're not interested in controlling from St. Louis or from some other location. uh churches, we want them to grow to maturity in Christ, but we want them to be connected to one another. And I just want to say, and most of you have heard the testimony, so I'll be brief. I think they're going to show a slide, but I'm not just a a headquarters bureaucrat telling you what to do. I'm not an ivory tower theorist that's come up with a doctoral program that's better than your plans. I've been there and done that and I still want to be there and do that. My wife and I who my wife who sang a moment ago, we started a church in Austin, Texas. While I was pastor, we started 16 other churches out of that church. And under Pastor Shaw, they've started several more churches and daughter works.

And this was not just a Bible belt city. Austin, Texas. Only 10% of the population calls themselves evangelical Christian. 90% don't believe the Bible. Within a 5m radius of our church is a Muslim mosque, a Hindu temple, a Buddhist temple, a Dowist temple. I said five or 10% are evangelical Christians. Well, 5% identify as LGBTQ. That's our city. But you know what? You can establish an apostolic church in a secular liberal postmodern postchristian city. You do not have to compromise Jesus name baptism. You do not have to compromise the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues. And you do not have to compromise the life of holiness. You might want to change some methods or even some traditions even if they are Pentecostal, but you don't change the Bible message. You don't change instructions for godly living. Whether it's sexual morality or modesty of dress or gender distinction or everything in between, you can be apostolic and you can build a church.

that church in Austin and the existing works probably has 2,000 constituents. I know it can be done because I've been part of that. You might say, "Well, it's easy to put them on paper." Yes, we we've had some struggle. We've had some close down. We had some restart and on and on. But right now, out of that effort, there are 12 net 12 self-governing churches. Two daughter works that were transferred to other churches that were partnering with us. and two current daughter works, maybe some more that I'm not up to date on. 11 of those churches have their own buildings. Three of them got financing from the UPC loan fund. One more has land to build. So, I'm not talking about paper churches. I'm talking about real churches with real people. It can be done. It is being done. They call me the bishop, but I don't control those churches.

What that means is I'm the advisory pastor. If I was still controlling them, I would be in UPCI lingo. I would be senior pastor. So, we can call anybody a bishop. That's great. But if they have control, they are the senior pastor. If they don't have control, they are the honorary or advisory pastor. I just threw that in for explanatory purposes just to make sure we're all on the same page. Okay. That's the messenger. Now, let's talk about the method. Here's the method. We can only do the job through ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no other way. Mark 16:20, Jesus at the very end of the book after Jesus gave the great commission and ascended to heaven, the apostles went forth and preached everywhere. the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. Acts 2:42-43. Here's the model of what the church is supposed to be like even to this day.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. Paul, right after the earlier message that I read to you, 1 Corinthians 2:4, Paul continued, "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power." We are living in a secular age. We are living in a post-Christian age. It's intimidating. There is spiritual warfare on every hand. That is difficult and tough. But you know what that does? That forces us to be apostolic. We cannot slide by on culture. We cannot depend on the school system to teach moral values. We cannot depend on the government to protect us. We cannot depend on human tradition to keep people living right.

We must have the power of the Holy Ghost. There is no other alternative. There is no other method than ministry in the power of the spirit. Now let me say this. We believe the Bible is the infallible inherent word of God. But we are not the group called fundamentalist. The fundamentalists believe the Bible is the word but they don't believe in miracles for today. Now we share the belief in the Bible but we're not fundamentalists. What I mean by that, if you preach the word only, that easily leads to legalism. When you preach word only, that easily leads to a spirit of suspicion. Because with different cultures and different churches and different methods, if somebody does things differently, you can easily suspect they're trying to compromise the faith. And some people have done so. But we cannot succumb to a spirit of s suspicion as if all we have is the letter.

We have the word and the spirit. If somebody is keeping the scripture, they might be changing some traditions and methods, but if they're upholding the scripture and they're ministering in the power of the spirit, let's at least respect that. Don't put your hand on or don't use social media to deride some brother who's trying to operate in the spirit. Eventually, their fruit will show one way or the other. But we are not legalists. We are not fundamentalists. We are people of the word, but we're also people of the spirit. Don't adopt that fundamentalist attitude because we are apostolic Pentecostals. Yes, if you read Acts 2, we must have the apostolic identity or doctrine. Yes, we must have apostolic unity. But notice also, we must have apostolic power or we have no right to call ourselves a New Testament church. In Acts 2, you'll notice the word Acts 2:43, wonders and signs.

Wonders speaks of the essence of the event. These are notable events. These are miracles. This is divine intervention. Signs speaks of the effect of those events. Signs that says it confirms the faith of believers and it opens the eyes of unbelievers. Now, when we're establishing a church or trying to advertise our church, we want the best possible image. And I pause to say I'm very thankful, brother Mooney. You said last year that in Indianapolis there's such a wonderful report from the people of the city of how we were a good good guest and they're waiting for us to come back. And brother Gleon, you just text me and my wife also text me. The head valet at the hotel said, "This is the best group we've ever dealt with." And the head uh the uh the bellman said, "This is the best group." One in 17 years of service, one in 13 years of service said, "This is the kindest, most gracious even of the Christian groups."

Thank God for that testimony. It's not because you're wearing brand new clothes. It's not because you're flashing money, although you should be generous, but it's because of the spirit of holiness. We're not trying to get people to change churches. Our advertising message must not be. Our building is prettier. Our choir sings better. Our preacher preaches better. We're friendlier. So, please switch your church membership to our church. I don't care about that. What we need to be saying is this is the place of healing. This is the place of restoration. This is the place of deliverance. If your marriage is in trouble, you came to the right church. If you're on drugs, you came to the right church. If your child is bound by pornography, you came to the right church. This is the place of miracles. This is the place of signs and wonders. I could spend the rest of the night telling testimonies and many of you could too.

But again, I'm not speaking from theory. I'll just briefly hit the points. But I can personally say with my own eyes and my own ears. In our local church, we saw a man raised from the dead in a church service. In our local church, we saw miraculous answers to financial needs. I was able, the first time this ever happened to me, but not the last, a man in our church sold a business and gave me a check for $1 million. That sure helped our new building program. We had demons cast out. I can tell you of a young man that shot himself in the brain and God delivered him and he was restored to healing. Came out of the hospital. I can tell you of a man who had a stroke, went into a coma, then a heart attack. The doctor said, "Do not resuscitate."

The family signed the release. They said, "There's only a 10% chance he will even survive the night." But God raised him up and he's still alive many years later. I call it 90% chance. It must have been a miracle. Another man had a massive heart attack, stopped breathing. They resuscitate him. The doctor says in these cases only 4% survived. But you guessed it, he survived and he's alive. Many years later, a little girl had a brain tumor. They took out a portion of her brain. When they did the next scan, the tumor was gone, but the brain had gone grown to fill the empty cavity. I can tell you two of the ministers of our local church, both Hispanic, one a man, one a woman, were healed of severe diabetes. A girl heal healed of si cystic fibrosis. A woman healed of a blood clot on the brain.

A lady healed of spinoipida. A man healed of a faulty heart valve. A woman healed of pulmonary hypertension. I'm telling you, God is still healing today. Don't stop believing in the miraculous. With humans, it might be impossible, but with God, all things are possible. deliverance. I can tell you personal testimonies of people in the church delivered from cocaine, from methamphetamine, from prostitution, from homosexual lifestyle. Yes, from a transgender lifestyle. Yes, this is happening today. I personally experienced it when I was a pastor. We must believe in the miraculous. We must believe. I can give you testimony of people delivered out of a mental institution. I can give you testimonies of people converted from atheism, Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness. We had lifelong Pentecostals get saved in our church as well. It's a miracle. In some cases, young exchange student from Albania, a Muslim country, when I baptized him in Jesus name, he received the Holy Ghost.

He said, "How come nobody has ever come to my country to tell me I could receive something like this? Why did I have to come to America to know this was possible?" Islam. I'm telling you, I can just give you story after story. A radio talk show host began visiting all the churches in town. She started reporting on our church. Come to find out when I met her, she said, "Pastor, when I walked into the service, I felt something I never felt in any of other churches that I visited." Needless to say, she was soon baptized in Jesus' name and filled with the Holy Ghost. I had a man leave a message on the answering machine. He said, "I think my son is possessed by demons. Can you send someone to my house to pray for deliverance?" When I finally contacted him, yes, we I sent my son Jonathan.

I sent our pastor, youth pastor Seth, and then I myself went and and he said, I called churches all over the city. I left messages, but nobody would return the call. And he said, I asked, talked to my neighbor. My neighbor said, try the Pentecostals. They know how to handle stuff like that. He said, you are the only one who returned the call. I'm happy to tell you the whole family came into church. Yes, that young man was troubled mentally and spiritually, but he was delivered, baptized in Jesus' name, filled with the Holy Ghost. The family is still in the church today. We need to be known. If you don't know where else to go, why don't you try the Pentecostals? If you need a miracle, why don't you go to the Pentecostals? If you need deliverance, there's a church I heard that believes in deliverance.

Now, this next story, I'm going to tell you, you you take it for what it's worth. I've got several theories, but I'm just going to tell you what happened. A young couple delivered, set free from alcohol, drugs, and they're new converts. The woman calls me in a panic. She says, "Pastor, I need help immediately. My my husband has gone back to drinking and he's messed up and he's so angry and he's so despondent. He went into our room bedroom and pulled out the gun and pushed me out of the room and slammed the door shut. She said, "He says he wants to kill himself. Pastor, what do I do?" I said, "Let's start praying in Jesus' name." Right on the phone. We started rebuking the devil. We started praying in the name of Jesus. Pretty soon there was a gunshot. I said, "What's going on?"

She said, "I'll find out." The next thing, her husband is on the phone with a shaky voice. He said, "Pastor, I don't know what happened to me. I took out the gun. I put it in my mouth. I pulled the trigger. The gun went off, but I missed." That's what he said. He's still alive today. I'm telling you, I don't care what the situation is. You start calling on the name of Jesus and anything good can happen. You start calling on the name of Jesus and a miracle can take place. A young African-American woman. I was preaching Sunday morning. I got to the end. I asked everybody to stand in but I felt like as preachers sometimes do to preach a little bit more. And while I was preaching, she fell out in the middle aisle, received the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues. My spiritual side was very excited because this is the same thing that happened with Cornelius.

My carnal side was worried because her husband had a doctorate of engineering and was an associate professor at the University of Texas. And I was a little worried what he would think with his wife lying on the floor in front of hundreds of people speaking in tongues. But somehow he managed it and he too was baptized in Jesus' name and filled with the Holy Ghost. A family came in our church. The wife got a wonderful experience. The man probably 6'2 over 300 lb. He came into my office belligerent. He said, "My family is not going to join a cult. You're trying to make them change their life. You're trying to tell them how to dress. You say everybody except you is going to hell. that if you don't speak in tongues, you're going to hell. I won't put up with that. And he began ranting.

He's standing there glow just just standing over my desk and looking down at me and and it was pretty intense. I felt the Holy Ghost speak. And I said, "You know what your problem is? Don't worry about all this other. We're not trying to condemn the rest of the world. We leave up that up to God. We're never going to tell your family what to do. We're just going to ask him to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. But I said, "You know what your really problem is? You need peace in your life." When I said that, he crumpled. He said, "Pastor, you're right." He said, "I'm taking medication to try to control my rage, but it's not working." And then he pulled up the sleeves of his shirt. He said, "Look, I'm cutting myself. I'm trying to find the answer. I'm cutting myself because I don't know what else to do."

I said, "You know what to do? forget about all the things you're worried about. We'll never pressure you or your family. You just need to start coming to church and God will give you peace. He started coming and you could see on Sunday morning the spirit would move. He would come to the front. He would start to repent and then suddenly like a different personality. He would stiffen, straighten up, get angry, scowl, look belligerently, and everybody wanted to stalk off. It was demonic possession or oppression or something. But one night, Sunday night, we had one of those traditional blowout services, people running the aisles, people dancing in the spirit, you know, and I have guest preachers come sometimes and be shocked by the worship. Well, I I thought you're a professor. I said, look, I'm Pentecostal. What do you expect? Just because you have education doesn't mean you forget how to worship doesn't mean you don't want the move of the spirit.

What kind of church do you expect you would find? So they were running the aisles. They were dancing the spirit. They were falling out on the floor. People receiving the Holy Ghost. The whole place was just torn up. But when those things happen, I always try to close with about 5 minutes of preaching because I never wanted to say church was so good we couldn't preach. I wanted the word to be the final word because there's always somebody. So I just said, "Okay, everybody take a seat wherever you are. I'm going to preach five minutes. And if you can't wait, go to the prayer room. Well, one of our ministers was sensitive to the Holy Ghost. He saw that man in the back, that struggle going on. And that minister discerned, "This is the time." He went over to him and said, "You need to go to the prayer room."

I didn't see it because I was closing out the service, but two of our licensed ministers, one I just talked to a few weeks ago, he said, "Brother Bernard, I'll never forget this as long as I live." He said when that man entered the room, as soon as he entered, he said it like a tree falling. He didn't just kneel. He just fell. The 300 plusb 6'2 fell prone flat on the floor. Instantly delivered and began speaking in tongues as the Holy Ghost filled him. That's how you win converts in this sinful world. You're not going to win them by better education or by better debate techniques or by eloquent preaching or even by the act of singing. But you must minister in the power of the Holy Ghost. There's no substitute. Now I'm getting towards the close and my main point, here's my main point.

If we really want to move to the next level, we must have in one word, expectancy. Expecting to receive. Notice back in Acts 2:43, fear came upon every soul. That's the fear of God. That's awe, reverence, respect for God, his church, and his leaders. That's why I say I said earlier, whether you're a local saint talking about your church and pastor, whether you're a minister on social media, be very careful when you handle the things of God, be very careful when you handle the men and women of God. Be very careful when you h hand handle the churches of God. Even if they're making poor choices or questionable decisions, be very careful because when you destroy that holy awe, you will not have the miracle, signs, and wonders in your local church. You might be 100% correct doctrinally and even correct in your own opinion, but if you don't have the power of the Holy Spirit, you're not going to have an apostolic revival church.

Why would you trade that to score points? We can as ministers legitimately talk about concerns and questions, but I'm just saying be careful not to destroy the fear of God, the awe, the reverence, respect. And I'm preaching to leaders. Whether you're a pastor or another minister or whether you're a a lay leader in a local church, a faithful saint of God, the leaders need expectancy. The leaders need spiritual perception. We emphasize the importance of the individual having faith to receive. But when I title my message expecting to receive, I'm not really a talking about the end recipient that needs a miracle. I'm talking about the spiritual leadership and mature saints of the church. They are the ones that must bring an expectancy. I want you to notice in Acts 3 4-5, I'm reading for the New Living Translation. This is the lame man that was healed at the temple in Jerusalem.

Peter and John looked at him intently and Peter said, "Look at us." The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. The lame man exercised faith. The King James says he was expecting to receive. My very title, but he didn't really know what he was going to receive. It was a pretty weak faith in that sense. But before he believed, Peter and John exercised discernment. Did you notice that? They looked at him intently. They expected to impart. Before the lame man expected to receive anything, the apostles expected to impart. They are the ones who inspired faith. And as a result, not only was that man healed, but 5,000 souls were added to the church. You want apostolic revival, it needs to start with a miracle. If you want a miracle, it needs to start with the leaders having an expectancy to receive. In my text, the story of the lame man in Lististra, I'll read Acts 14:9-10, New Living Translation.

Looking straight at him, Paul realized he had faith to be healed. So Paul called to him in a loud voice, "Stand up." Now, the lame man likewise exercised faith because he obeyed the command. But before he ever exercised faith, the Apostle Paul looked at him closely, observed him. The Apostle Paul was reading the crowd and he saw one man who who was believing. He discerned that this man had faith. Yes. Now, I believe we should pray for all of the sick, but I believe we can enter a new dimension if we read the crowd and we find one person who has faith or who is starting to believe. I'm not talking about gimmicks or techniques to make people do stuff that they don't know what they're doing. I'm saying we've got to move in the Holy Ghost, the leaders. And it shouldn't be just a rare person like a Billy Cole or a TWW Barnes.

All of God's leaders should seek that ability to step into the realm of the spirit expecting to receive. Here's my main point. Yes, the recipients need faith. But in both stories, the emphasis is on the expectancy of the church and its leaders. As spiritual leaders, we should expect the miraculous. We should lead into miraculous revival. We need spiritual perception. That means preparing our heart, seeking after God, looking intently at the need. We must have spiritual discernment. That means we need to hear from God. We need to understand what God wants to do. We need to follow God's will. I'm saying we must have spiritual expectancy. We are the ones who create a climate with our worship, with our prayer, with our preaching, with our teaching. We are the ones who should expect the miracle, not the needy person. We are the ones who first need to act in faith.

We must move from our own fears into the dimension of faith. And let me tell you, it's already been stated, but the time is now. Amen. The United Pentecostal Church International. I think I just got a few slightly updated statistics. Brother How, we're in 193 nations, 35 territories, 228 nations and territories, something like that. We have worldwide, including the US and Canada, 42,000 works, 40,000 ministers, 4.9 million constituents. In Florida, 51 new works in 2 years. In Quebec, the least evangelized area of North America, in the last 10 years, we've grown from nine churches and works to 25 works, 178% increase. Wisconsin, 10 years from 72 to 123 works, 71% increase. South Texas, you saw it tonight, from 226 works to 372 works in 10 years. A 65% increase. A total of 13 districts in North America have increased increased over onethird in the last 10 years, including some of the most needy areas, Canadian plains, and a number of the districts of New England.

And we're intentionally pressing toward diversity. If you look at the Hispanic, black, or African-American, Asian-American constituents in the US and Canada, of the total 1,300 pastors fit that category, 27%. 2,000 ministers uh are 19%. Total constituents estimated 34%. And get this, we still got a long way to go. But notice what's happening. I did a survey of district board members, district department heads, district chairs and of that all total 261 are from those minority categories and that is a 58% increase from 2012. I'm saying something is happening in the realm of the spirit. You heard testimonies that God is giving us denominational churches in Southern California, multi-million dollar facilities for free. Last a few weeks ago, I talked to Pastor Mills in Augusta, Georgia. He purchased an Anglican church building for $1. The preacher wanted him to have it. I'm telling you, something is happening in North America.

Something is happening around the world. The time is now. In Bangladesh just a few weeks ago, a crowd of many Muslims and Hindus. How do you win Muslims? How do you win Hindus? It's got to be the work of the Holy Spirit. I got a video. Watch the video. When I shout hallelujah, I'm going to sing for a moment. Hallelujah. 1 2 3 Heat. Heat. 5,380 with the Holy Ghost, 6,000 miracles. Let's stand all across the building. Brother Klein, evangelist coordinator and your team. This is the time of impartation. Now, when I call for you to come forward, we're we're going to pray for miracles. But the first prayer is for spiritual leaders. Whether you're a local lay leader, a minister, or a pastor, we need to step into a next dimension of expecting to receive. It's got to start with the leaders. We must focus faith to receive.

How does that happen? We must pray with authority. We must lay on hands or anoint with oil as the symbol of the spirit. We must call on the name of Jesus. And here's what I'm praying for. What's going to happen? I've got some key leaders that are going to pray for the whole congregation. Then I've got some more leaders that are going to pray for each one of you that come. And then I want the first appeal to be leaders. However you define yourself, that you want an impartation of a supernatural anointing. What are we praying for? perception, discernment, expectancy, anointing that when you go back home, it will not be church as usual or business as usual. But God will begin to show you things. And not everybody's going to be healed. Not everything's going to happen like you think. But there will be a noticeable increase in miracles, signs, and wonders.

There will be spiritual breakthroughs that will transform your church and open the door for converts that will come no other way. Casting out of demons, raising the dead, miraculous supply of financial needs, miracles of healing that will bring an entire family to faith. And then once we've had time to pray for leaders, then anyone who has a need of healing, I'm going to ask those newly empowered leaders to pray for those who have needs. But here's what I want to do. I'm appealing to spiritual leaders. Why don't you come forward right now? Just come close to the front. And I want us to pray for perception, discernment, expectancy, anointing. I want you to pray for the whole congregation. I want you to raise your hand. I want you to lift your hands all over this auditorium and get ready to pray. Just wait.