What's Keeping You Out Of Your Promised Land — Part 1 by Wayne Huntley 1995 · The Pentecostals of Alexandria, Alexandria, LA Kind: conference session Scripture: Numbers 13:28-33, Deuteronomy 6:23 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/wayne-huntley--whats-keeping-you-out-of-your-promised-land--part-1 Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ The Lord is in this house and whether he preaches or doesn't preaches or shouts or dance is his business. But Wayne Huntley is a man of God. But we're going to praise God and receive what God has. He's going to flow with you. Get your healing right now. Get your salvation right now. Come on, lay hands on somebody right now. Let it operate in the house. Let's worship God everybody. The Holy Ghost is doing its work. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Somebody shout praise the Lord. Because of the times is not a platform to parade a few spectacular individuals accomplishments because of the times is a platform where God wants to ignite, infect and spread through the whole ministerial body of Christ an apostolic ministry. A few have progressed but none have arrived. That's right. And what the Holy Ghost is saying is this is not set aside for one or two superstars. The entire basis of this meeting is to tell you that God wants to use you. And our challenge right now in the spirit is for somebody to lift a hand and break through and say, "I believe God will use me." Throw your hands up right now. Let's call on the name of the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I worship you Lord. I praise you Lord. And everybody shout in Jesus name. Hallelujah. From the very outset of this meeting up to this very present moment, there has been a flowing continuity of united message of the spirit. Right. Hallelujah. And in a teasing fashion, as I was moving among the congregation, so many people encouraged me in the Lord to preach today. In a teasing fashion, I said to them, "Does anybody have a dictionary? The Bible has been exhausted nearly and I need some material to work from." And I also feel like I could just say ditto. and maybe even negative ditto because what I have to say has already been said. You've heard it from Louisiana. You've heard it from Florida. You've heard it from Ohio. Now you're going to hear it from North Carolina. The Holy Ghost that moves here, moves there, moves here, moves there. We're all in the body of Christ and the spirit is speaking to the church. Clap your hands to the Lord one more time. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. Turn it quickly in your Bibles to Numbers chapter 13. You say, "We've already read out of Numbers 13." You're exactly right. And I was afraid when Brother Cunningham began to preach that I wouldn't have anything left. The The most prized position in a line of ministries is to be number one, right? Or at least the second one. The further you drop down the list, the less there is. And so maybe we'll pick up the fragments, but I I do want to speak what I feel from the word of the Lord. Now, I don't want to be facetious and I want to be right-spirited because my message today and what I am is going to be centered in reaching those who have not had revival, the young ministers who look to this platform and aspire to duplicate what they see manifested here. What an awesome challenge that is. I am very much concerned about our young ministry that's coming on. And what we're here to do is to say to you that everything God has given thus far belongs to you. That's right. And furthermore, we are not building fences around it or hedging it or walling it. We're here to open up and say you can have it, too. Amen. Numbers chapter 13 and we'll begin reading with verse number 28. I give honor to all of our officials and ministers who have spoken such dynamic preaching. My Lord have mercy. It's been marvelous. I praise God for the privilege of just being here. Numbers 13 28. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalachites dwell in the land of the south, the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it." But the men that went up with him said, "We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, "The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which came of the giants, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. And so we were in their sight. I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Holy Ghost is telling us we're going to cross Canaan this time. We're going to possess the land this time. But I'm also convinced that God is posturing the church, positioning the church, and it's not what you think that has been your source of hindrance and restraint. And it's not as far away as perhaps you feel it is. We are touching it and handling it in this meeting. Yeah. The scripture tells us when you receive the communion, I remember when being raised as a child that they would receive communion, there would be very spiritual people who would say, "Not this time. I I'm not going to participate this time." And they felt that was a spiritual thing to do because of their lack of consecration and commitment. Maybe they hadn't been living right. That's not the purpose of communion. Paul said, "Examine yourself and any examine yourself at any We're not going to expose to you your fallacies and problems and send you away disqualified. We're going to make the adequate appropriate adjustments. And then let's celebrate communion with the Lord. And that's what's happening right now. the adequate appropriate adjustments are being made by the Holy Ghost so we can fellowship with him and have everything that God wants for us to have. I'm going to preach more to the individual here for a few minutes and I want to ask you in the form of a question. What's keeping you out of your promised land? Okay. What's keeping you out of your promised land? Right. Now, my problem may not be your problem. And there's only one way you can define the difference in a sermon and a message. If I don't need it and you're preaching it to me, it's a sermon. But if you preach it and I need it, it's a message. So when this meeting is all over, You will be the judge and what you call a sermon, somebody else will call a message. And that's why there is a variety of ministries that come to the pulpit. Hear what the Lord has to say to you right now. Let's lift our hands and praise him. God, I magnify your name. I worship you. I thank you, Jesus, for the word of God and the power of your spirit. Hallelujah. Blessed be the name of Almighty God. Thank you Jesus. And you may be seated. I am convinced that much of what we are struggling with is nothing more than apparitions, mental adversaries, evil imaginations and fictitious factors. Someone has asked and it's been asked many times during this meeting. How many of these meetings are we going to have to attend? How many of these services are we going to have to come to? How many conferences do we need to go to? Well, the Bible said the lame man was carried daily to the gate of the temple. But one day he wasn't carried home. That's good. And my message to you right now is it doesn't matter how many we've got to go to. All right. The thing that matters is that somewhere down the line We walk home differently than we came in. And it doesn't matter how many it takes. And I got a feeling this is our conference. This is somebody's conference. Somebody's going to leave here on fire for God. How can we possibly adequately evaluate the far-reaching potential of such a coming together as this relative to individual ministry, citywide impact, statewide effect, and worldwide revival? I believe the inaugural shot has been fired. I believe the instigating spiritual catalyst has been brought together and the igniting match has been struck. If you're still here and you're not feeling the fire, then it's time for you to wake up and realize we're almost through and it's already happening and it's taking place right now and we better reach out a little more and pray a little harder and press in a little stronger. I am a very very firm believer in the power, possibility and potential of a conference, of a meeting and of one service. My life has been at times personally powerfully rearranged by special encounters of a moment and that's why I came to this meeting. I believe in the effect. I believe in the power. I believe in what can happen. At the age of 13, I walked in to a tent camp meeting North Carolina. You had to go all the way to Georgia just to attend a youth camp. And at 13, I went under the tent. And Doll Spears was preaching. And at the age of 13, God filled me with the Holy Ghost. And my life has never been the same. When I was a senior in high school, I had another encounter. God called me to preach the gospel. It was a very unique experience that I had. My father is a backslidden preacher. The majority of my life, he has been an alcoholic since failing God and losing out with God. When I was a senior in high school, I began to feel the burden of the word of the Lord. And I went to my mother and asked her, "What does it feel like when God's calling you to preach?" I felt something happening, a burden. On my way to work after school, I would have to pull my car off to the side of the road cuz I couldn't see. I was crying so profusely. And she told me, "I have no idea, son, except that when your dad preached, it was just an extreme burden for the lost." And then in a service in our home church one Sunday night, the spirit of God began to deal mightily with me. And I said yes to the Lord. And God finally revealed to me what he wanted me to do. My pastor saw it happening in the service, called me to the platform, said, "I want you to testify." I don't know what happened at that point. Buckets of fire fell on my head. When I opened my eyes, the altar was full. People were getting the Holy Ghost. There are special moments that can happen to you that will render you never the same. In a prayer meeting 17 years ago, having been raised and reared in North Carolina, having seen men come with loaded cars with everything they had in those cars, stay a little while, head back to Louisiana, head back to Texas, God was giving me opportunity to move to the capital city of North Carolina. I will be honest with you right now and tell you I was scared to death. But in one of those special encounters in a prayer meeting, God spoke to me clearly and said, "If you will go, I will go with you and I will show you my power like you have never seen it before." There are moments of encounter that you can have. I remember when my wife and I were sitting at a CFC seminar in Fort Smith, Arkansas. And in that CF seminar, CFC seminar, I had never heard of teaching Bible studies. I didn't know that you could teach Bible studies to win the lost as an outreach. But Brother Jack began to tell of a powerful method you could use to evangelize the lost. I was burning with zeal, burning with enthusiasm, wanted to do something for God. When he began to speak, lights began to flash, bells began to ring. I knew this was it for me. I said, "That's it, honey. That's what we're looking for." I left that meeting. I went home and I began to do just what he said. You see, it's no use and no good if you just come and listen and go back and don't do anything any different than what you're doing before you came. You got to make the changes. I went back and I started doing just what he said. Just what he said. And within just a few short months, my wife and I had personally won over 50 people to God in teaching home Bible studies. From that moment to this, the majority of our church is filled with people who have been won by home Bible studies. I often wonder what would have happened if I hadn't have been at Fort Smith. I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't had that encounter. And that's why God has brought you to because of the times. Somebody's going to hear a word. Somebody's going to get a touch. Somebody's going to get some direction. And when you do, it's going to ignite your city. It's going to ignite your church. It's going to ignite our world. Glory. Every one of us have come in different at atmospheres and attitudes. Some have come on a mission of confirmation. Some have come in a maze of no direction. Some have come styed in stagnation. Some have come fighting frustration. Some have come agitated by intimidation. Some have come in a state of spiritual desperation. But all of us have come with this one thing in mind. What's keeping me out of my promised land? Israel gave a complete documentary of their perspectives and summations and diagnosis as to why they weren't taking the land. You notice the word of the Lord said they were very specifically and carefully enumerated all the reasons to justify their complacency, their mediocrity, their failure, and their lack of productivity. They gave a long list of why they should not even anticipate, much less receive the promised land. One of the most devastating things we can do in 1995 is prop up, shore up, and anoint ourselves with a soothing salve of human reasoning, self-justification, and very logical, sensible excuses and get around each other and say, "No, no, no one should expect you to do any better." Uhhuh. professionally. No one could possibly understanding your situation would expect anymore out of you, taking everything into consideration. We want to know today why we are not where we want to be in God. why we are not seeing what we want to see and doing what we want to do and being what we want to be and why we're not having what we want to have and why we have not laid hold on the promise of God. Is there anybody here today that's clinging tenaciously to a promise from God? It's not here, but it's coming. I might not be there yet, but I'm on my way. I I don't have it right now, but I'm going to have it. Are there any tenacious people in this building today? You may be seated. Israel said their problems were strong people, walled cities, giants, and a land that eats up people. But I want to remind you right now, not of what they saw, but rather what he said. He said in Deuteronomy 6:23, he brought us out from thence that he might bring us in to give us to the land. We need to forget and disrespect what we see and remember, renew and refresh what he said. And he said, "I brought you out to bring you in." I want to remind you, God didn't bring you out. He didn't anoint you. And he didn't call you to wander in the wilderness with no direction, stagnation, frustration, intimidation, and confusion. He brought you out to bring you in. He brought you out to bring you in. You may be seated. What's keeping you out of your promised land? They said walls, giants, strong people, a land that eats up people. Every time they pointed this out, and every time they pondered it, every time they rehearsed it, every time they hashed it and rehashed it, the land got hungrier, the giants got bigger. That's right. The walls got thicker. That's right. And the people got stronger. Amen. But I'm so happy to tell you that was just one side of the story because the book of Hebrews is the Holy Spirit's commentary on the Old Testament. It is God's perspective. Yeah. It is God's observation. And it's God's report. Yeah. And you know what they said, but the reason we came to this conference is we want to know what God says. Very good. So we see, so God says kind of incidentally and matter of fact like through Paul the writer of Hebrews. So we see that they could not enter in because God speaking now and he said you heard what they said. Uh-huh. But let me tell you what the truth of the matter is. Uh-huh. Let me tell you how it looks from up here. Uh-huh. You see their perspective. Yeah. But let me tell you how it really is. So we see they could not enter in because and God didn't mention walls and God didn't mention giants and God didn't mention strong people and God didn't mention landscape because of unbelief. Walls didn't have anything to do with it. No. Giants didn't have anything to do with it. Strong people didn't have anything to do with it. Landscape didn't have anything to do with it. God said all you needed to do was believe me. If you would have believed me, I want to ask somebody here today, what's a wall to God? What's a strong man to God? What's a land that eats up people to God? And what is a giant to a God who said, "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. You may be seated now. Stand up if you'd like to. I don't mean to borrow, but let me just make this statement. You ain't got no problems. All you need is faith in God. God's going to baptize this UPC with a supernatural apostolic New Testament faith in God. What's keeping you out? Not believing God. What's keeping you out of that new property? Not believing God. What's keeping you out of revival? Not believing God. What's keeping you out of the financial situations? Not believing God. You may be seated. So unbelief is what kept them out. The second thing that kept them out was the fact that they were intimidated. Intimidated. I want to tell you what I feel the Holy Ghost is saying to the United Pentecostal church. the platform upon which the first New Testament miracle was performed or the first miracle after the birth of the church was performed is the platform of Peter and John stepping out from the shadows stepping out from the dark places of not being noticed. And with three words, they laid a foundation for a miracle ministry. Yeah. They simply said, "Look on us." Amen. And that's what's going to happen in 95. The UPC is coming out of the dark places of insignificance and not being known. And we're going to step out on the corners of our street and say, "Look on us." I believe Peter and John were telling them, "Look at me. You can tell I don't have any money." We won't be able to say that. Anybody got change for a one a $1 bill? That is they were wanting them to acknowledge it's not in my person. Look at us. Yeah. There's nothing phenomenal about us as a people. But silver and gold have I none. Such as I have give I unto thee. It's time for the UPC to step out and say to our city, to our state, to our nation, to our world, look on us. here. A while back, we have we we do have a ministry to the homeless in our local church and and we were picking up a bunch of homeless people downtown, bringing them church on Sunday and and the shelter downtown is not fond of our church. And so the shelter said, "If you go to that church on Sunday, you'll get no lunch at lunchtime to these homeless people." Said, "If you go to that church, then we won't feed you." My workers came to me and told me that. I said, "That's no problem. Go downtown and tell them they ain't the only ones that know how to cook. We started cooking for the homeless and one of the renowned restaurants in our city heard about it and they said, "Y'all don't need to do the cooking. You just tell us how many you're going to have. We'll cook the food. You come by, pick it up." Hey, America needs to look at our preachers. America needs to look at our choirs. America needs to see our services. America needs to feel our joy. Look on us. It's time to get over intimidation. We do have the best preachers. We do have the best talents. We do have the best choirs. They were intimidated because they measured every opposition, every barrier and every obstacle by an improper measuring stick. They measure giants against themselves, high walls against themselves, strong people against themselves, a land that eats up people against themselves, when in reality, it would have been an alltogether different picture if they I said, "You want to you want to have a little measuring contest to see if we're able or not? Then then let your giant step out." All right. All right, God. Let's just see who's the biggest here. Let's see how high your wall is. Now, let me show you how big my God is. We don't need to measure our barriers against ourselves. We're measuring them. They're not our problem. The obstacles are not our problem. We've got a God that says, "If you'll believe me, you can possess the land." Woo! Reach over and lay your hand on somebody right now and ask God to charge them with a brand new faith. Woo! Somebody needs to stand up and say, "I'd almost given up on it, but I believe it's going to happen now. I'd almost thrown the towel in, but I'm ready to fight another round now. My husband will be saved. My backslid son will come back. We will have You don't have to resign. You can't have revival. Go ahead and build the ark. God will send the water. Go ahead and march around the wall. God will pull it down. Go ahead, fill the water buckets. God will turn it into wine. Go ahead, get in one accord. Get in the upper room. God will send the spirit. You may be seated.