Spirit-Led Life | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

turn in your bibles with me to exodus chapter 13 and verse 17. and uh last week at this time we were we were getting real close of course in nashville's an hour earlier but we were getting real close to to start the first service of national youth convention and i will say i've been i want to say i want to say i've been to 20 uh 24 consecutive national youth conventions and i believe this year's youth convention was the best youth convention that we have ever had in the assemblies of lord jesus christ and i say that not not because not because my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are the president it's not because of that they just absolutely knocked the ball out of the park and to our student body was that not unbelievable this year nyc everything from the services first of all all the way to the activities to the to the breakout sessions everything um including the little hotel we stayed at was just absolutely absolutely amazing and um man i'm just i'm still feasting on the word we heard preached uh last week and everything that took place well as as pastor nolan said brother and sister carpenter they are they're they're on a plane uh i don't know how many hours they they've got a few hours i'm sure to get down to santiago chile um but when they get there how many remember the chileans that were here i don't know six eight ten months ago they are putting on a great conference this week and i'm so excited that the carpenters i know our world missions director brother ball are our director brother gray that's over south america i know he got to be there so uh they're just having a great time and they are um they are forming a brand new organization there in chile uh this sim is the lord jesus christ of chile and so we're just we're just very excited about what god is going to do and i'm glad that our general superintendent and his wife our first lady uh were there for the very first conference of of the organization there so just pray for them uh they'll be headed back very soon after the conference well let's let's get into the word of god tonight exodus chapter 13 verse 17 says this says and it came to pass when pharaoh had let the people go that god led them not through the way of the land of the philistines although that was near for god said lest perventure the people repent when they see war and they return back to egypt verse number 18 says but god led the people everyone say god led the people he let him about through the way of the wilderness of the red sea and the children of israel went up harnessed out of the land of egypt let me tell you what that word harness means the word harness simply means they went out in military formation people who had been slaves people who had really had no leadership for some 400 years until moses came along at the very end almost 450 years these people came out of there not with their heads down not as just a group of people making their way out of a land of slavery but the bible says they came out in military formation verse 21 i'm just going to keep along the same lines and the lord went before them by day and by day it was a pillar of cloud to lead them and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night verse 22 my last verse he took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people my bible lesson today uh very simple spirit led life that that that is my greatest desire church family first episode church who i love dearly my greatest desire is to have a spirit-led life that's what i want to live if that's your desire before we see it let's just lift up our hands i i feel the spirit of god in this place and i feel like he wants to lead somebody somewhere this evening father i believe lord you have a word for your people lord i i believe that every person under the sound of my voice is here tonight lord to receive of your word to to hear something lord god that they can take home with them tonight and lord god this week it's going to help them it's going to bless them it's going to lift them up and i i just believe that you've given me a word tonight lord to help your children lord to help me tonight lord i i just believe lord god as you lead us and as you guide us lord god into all truth lord as you as you bring revelation into every mind in the room i'm just going to believe lord tonight that we're going to make a declaration that we don't want to be led by our flesh we don't want to be led by anything in this world that your spirit is the only thing lord god that we want to lead us in jesus name we pray somebody clap your hands and give god praise today come on give him honor in this house tonight amen and amen and amen in jesus name you you may be seated today i looked up i googled i wanted to know how many uh how many books are there on the subject of leadership y'all want to know what google said so there's 394 million books that have been published on the subject of leadership 394 million and i i kind of i was kind of wondering myself i said why in the world i mean i mean obviously we understand uh that that leadership is is a great part of of the business world it's a great it's a great part of the church but but it seems like everybody has an opinion of what good leadership consists of everyone has an opinion on the correct way to implement that leadership the leadership skills and apparently people are buying these books to try to better themselves to become the leader they feel they're supposed to be 394 million now i got no issue with these books on leadership matter of fact i enjoy reading i enjoy reading these books because it's funny how you can read 10 books and 10 different authors will will give you a totally different way to lead and that's okay because we get ideas out of that but but in our in our highly educated fast-paced society it seems that everybody wants to be a leader and not many desire to be followers this is going to be a little bit different than probably uh some of the leadership training that you've had at your workplace in your in your in your job but it's the paradigm we have of leaders that drives us to always strive to become greater right to become stronger to become smarter to become better looking because that's how we view leaders let's be honest with ourselves and uh the people that you see leading in the business world today the people that the people that other people want to follow what is it about them well they see the results that they've had and they want to have the same results in their life and so they're willing to follow after those people our culture feeds off our society's desire to be successful universities we we have universities upon universities you you get on you get on google and you search um online college or online university and you'll have multiple thousands tens of thousands of universities brick and mortar universities online universities universities will give you a free diploma i say free diploma free of work but you got to pay for it i mean they've got them out there it's kind of crazy but but the idea that you would appear successful through your knowledge what about our high-end clothing stores you drive to places like atlanta and go to some of their malls and and you walk through and and i've been through some of those stores those louis vuitton stores i i don't purchase anything and i just walk through them you go to you go to some of these these stores that i look at the key chains and i can't even afford a keychain forget about the purse for my wife i i maybe i can get her the mace cover or something i don't know like it's it's a keychain or keyring everything's so expensive but the clothing stores the nutritional stores are popping up everywhere we got gems and boxes we got tanning salons and we get we got uh hair salons and nail salons and we got plastic surgery centers right why is that well it's in order to appear more knowledgeable to appear better looking to appear like you got because see our society everything that we see every newspaper article and ad every every a magazine ad every television ad now you can't even get on facebook or social media without ads popping up and everything is promoting the very same thing it's wanting us to be something that we're not it's wanting us to be this great leader this person that because why you have models and this is what a woman ought to look like and how she's shaped and this is what a man ought to look like and how he's shaped and and this is the this is the skin color and tone that you ought to have to be successful education style of clothing body shape body build skin tone color hair style and for the wealthy the right facial curves right the the right poles and stretches the right the right nips and tucks the the right the right bone curvatures and and our society has taught us what it takes to be successful in our culture and those that succeed in the look that i'm talking about they're they're they're the person that everybody looks up to they're the ones who who lead the businesses and become the social media influencers all right follow along with me because please understand i'm not here to preach against any of these things i i just said i'm not against any of this stuff well plastic surgery i don't know i'm not against it some people might want to look into it i don't know i'm just i'm joking maybe not but but i i'm definitely not against any of those things okay i'm not because i believe the church we are we're not going to major in holiness homelessness we major in holiness right i believe it's okay we we want to look the best we can look i'm not talking about in in a prideful way i'm not talking about in a way that that's seductive i'm not talking about any of those things i'm just talking about taking care of ourselves physically getting a good education taking care of ourselves mentally good time management there's a lot of things i i just believe although the world is promoting them as this is who you have to be i still at the same time believe that even the church i'm proud of the image that first apostolic church has in our community i'm proud of that image not not a prideful proud but it's a simple proud that i'm glad to be a part of it and that this building is not the miracle miracle it's what god did through the givers of the church they gave towards this building it was the miracles that took place we have a book i believe sister wilson's been working on on this book of testimonies of what god did for people their families their homes their children things that that people protection from harm people have all these testimonies of how god took care of them during the time we built this building so i i'm just it's the people that i'm in front of that make me proud to be a part of this but but here's the temptation that we fight i want to get back into the subject the temptation we fight and where we get sidetracked in our relationship with god is when we desire so strongly to be the leader and we lose our god-given instinct to be the follower i'm going to say that again we we strive because that's what our society is pushing that's what everything we see online everything we see on the news every every person that they put in front of you on fox news every person they all look very similar have you noticed that they all look very similar they're putting these these thoughts in our minds and and it's causing us as a church to want to try to be i'm not talking about dressed like them i'm not talking about live like them i'm just simply talking about like we have to be something that we may not be and god has given us an instinct to be a follower matter of fact there's an important word in the bible the word is yield matter of fact romans 6 and 13 it says this and and you can follow along i'm going to read verse 13 and verse 16. the bible says neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness under sin but yield yourself unto god then verse 16 same topic know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or i like this one of obedience unto righteousness so this world he this word yield means to give up the contest or to submit or to give away and not to oppose that that's what that's what this bible word yield means uh think of our our roadway signs got the yield sign right it's not a stop sign you don't have to come to a complete stop you just got to be aware of what's coming and if there's another car coming you've got to yield to them you got to let them pass on before you get into traffic you got to let them pass on through and that's all this is simply saying it's not that god is trying to stop us or or trying to contain us or trying to put his thumb on us he simply says you you got to yield to me you got to allow me to get in front of you so you have something to follow i want to follow after righteousness i i want to follow after holiness i want to yield to the spirit of god it's it's my desire it's my desire and this is what i've come to speak on tonight it's my desire more than ever before to live a spirit led life i listen i want to know this is this is my this is my prayer when i'm praying when i pray in this auditorium in the mornings this is what my prayer is i say god i want to know for me personally what is my thus saith the lord i'm faithful for how he leads you and what he says to you but i want to know what what is my thus saith does anybody else have a feel a tug on their heart sometimes when you're in prayer were you just like god i could kind of see the big picture but i just want to know what what is your calling from my life what are you saying to me where are you leading me because i don't i don't want to be led by my flesh i i don't want because listen flesh will mess you up because flesh is what feels good flesh is what makes sense flesh is the loudest voice you will hear the bible talks about that god speaks in a still small voice that's not the way your flesh speaks it's a loud voice it's a it's a big voice that you've got to cut through in order to hear the voice of god to understand where is god leading me i don't want to be culture driven or culture-led i don't want to get my ministry direction from the latest and coolest non-denominate church we gotta be careful of that i i i don't want to i don't want to somehow i get my world view from philosophers of of man and of this world i want to yield to the spirit of god and allow him to lead my life you want to talk about a blessed life yield to the spirit of god you want to talk about a life of favor oh my gosh i don't know about you i i want to live a life of favor that i just know that brother thompson everywhere i go everything i do i i might be silly in some ways but there are times when man it's getting close to christmas time and i'm driving we're we're at the mall we're at a restaurant everything's packed and i drive around and there there's a spot open right there at the door i might i might be silly but brother steph i just look at that as favor and you're saying oh brother eric says are you saying that god told you to park no no no no i'm just living the life of favor it's a lifestyle it's just who it's just who we are if we can learn how to live oh my god if we could just learn how to live and walk and heal to the spirit of god i i just believe it can come easy what do they say live for god easy and it's hard live for god hard and it's easy if we find a way god i want to be spirit led in every thing i do be in spirit let us it's not just for ministry staff it's not just for pastoral stuff a lot of people think about oh people that are are spirit-led they're they're they're the they're the leaders of ministry that's not true every person in this place can be spirit-led if you yield your life to god but but let me interject this because this is this is where we can get off track the spirit of god will not lead us to a place he is not first revealed to pastor when you bring a situation or a big decision that you face the pastor the spirit has not revealed anything to him yet because maybe he hasn't been told about it however allow him let me just let his pastor just for a little while allow him to pray and get direction from god see we've got to be wise i was just talking about our flesh how loud our flesh is sometimes the flesh just makes sense it can speak so convincingly that sometimes we just we just assume it's it's god's will in god's word and god leading us you know people i've we've counseled with people who took jobs and and brother erickson it was obviously the will of god it was a 10 pay raise i said did you did you pray about it brother erickson it has to be of god it was a 10 pay raise we we got young people that are that move move out of state and move to another church or whatever well my boyfriend's going there we're about to be engaged we're about to be married and obviously it's the will of god that i moved there well that's not true because god's will is not always obvious it's not always the obvious answer now our flesh usually will always give us the obvious answer the easy answer but here it is when you've already reserved the moving van and you've already put the down payment on the apartment it's too late to come to pastor and say pastor how do you feel about this i want to be blessed it's too late for that we've removed the covering of our past we've removed it it's kind of like having insurance or warranty on something and deciding you know what before i bring it in i'm just going to open it up myself and check this out if you got an iphone i don't suggest doing that don't don't you find you a little screwdriver and try to get into that thing because as soon as you get in that thing and start messing around and you bring it to apple you know what they're going to say to you your warranty is void because you mess with it and the same thing with us when it comes to pastor when it comes with us bringing a situation to our man of god listen i want to be spirit-led i believe i believe i can pray and i can fast i believe god's gonna lead me but at the same time if it's a decision that involves any anything large for my family for my career if it's moving whatever it is i'm gonna go to pastor first and say pastor i've prayed about this but i want you to pray about this because you are my spiritual covering you're who's looking out for me you're who you're my doctor if you will listen there's nothing worse than than jumping from doctor's office to uh doctor's office well this one has a little i got a little less co-pay over here i'm gonna start going with this doctor well you know what i tell you what i didn't like you know i don't know he he he didn't have good bedside manners i think i would go over this doctor over here i like this doctor better and then this dr will i don't really care for his nurses so i'm gonna go check out this doctor over here and you hop from doctor and the bottom line is nobody knows what's really alien you right because you don't have anybody that knows you that knows your circumstances where i thank god listen i don't know about you but i thank god for the covering of a pastor who loves me a pastor who knows me a pastor who understands me a pastor who can look at me and say i know where you are and i know where you need to be the spirit of god will never lead us to a place he doesn't reveal to our pastor brother hammond brother hammond preached about this at nyc a little bit but i i've heard this term we had a conversation the other day we've heard this term multiple times now people talk about well i'm gonna call my mentors and we're gonna we're gonna call our mentors and find out you know uh i'm gonna find out if this is a good idea and my mentors are gonna are gonna let me know we ought to be paid for this position and and if i should even take this position and and i believe this it's this generation's crutch okay because why because you're not spirit-led you're finding somebody that you heard preach a good message at a youth conference and what you're doing is you're you're putting yourself under them and saying you're now my mentor you don't know me it's kind of like that doctor you don't know me don't know me from adam you might have prayed for him in the altar but but i need you to speak into my life and tell me what to do oh my goodness what happened to us being spirit-led what happened to us talking to god why do we call somebody five states over and ask them an opinion why do we say god what would you have me do where would you have me go how would i how would i get into this situation or get out of this situation it's called being spirit-led matter of fact i i joined the the john maxwell team a couple years ago and it's a great it's it's really it's about understanding leadership it's about uh perfecting public speaking it's uh john maxwell is just a brilliant leader he's a brilliant leader in so many ways but one thing that that gets on my nerves is i get phone calls all the time and i get emails non-stop saying you need to choose a mentor you need to choose a mentor and i'm like y'all don't know me i don't know you how do you mentor somebody you don't know how do you how are you going to mentor me i i don't understand but here it all comes back and brother hammond brother hammond brought it all together so beautifully last weekend at national youth convention our pastor is our mentor whatever we do outside of our own praying our own fasting are on saying god what would you have me do how would you help me do it if we need somebody to speak into our life our pastor watches out over our soul he gives an account for our soul i guess listen church family i just want to be spirit live i want to live in that lifestyle you see god god gave moses of course not only ten commandments but god gave moses gave aaron gate gave the people instructions on how to live right we understand why we understand leviticus we we understand why these people are in the wilderness they they've never been a nation before they're they're all they're all hebrews but they've been slaves for generations they're clueless that they have no laws uh they have nothing they have they've not had any leaders they've not had a president they and i had a king they had not had anything and so here they are a group of people who have come out of egypt and god gives moses and gives aaron he starts to give them all of these laws and not only laws but it gives them instructions on how to live and then he also tells them okay if you do this you're going to pay this price if you do that you're going to pay that price and and what what does it do well i don't have time to read but leviticus 11. um it's kind of going through and it's it's even talking about what animals they can eat right what animals they can't eat it's talking about what kind if it's a cloven-footed if it chews the cut if it's a split toe or if it just goes through and it's it's to me i'm not a farmer i don't i don't have a clue all right i don't have a clue but what i did look at what i did research is i began to see where their diet that god commanded them to to have if you got with your dietitian today the same meats that god forbid them to eat are the same meats that your dietitian would probably tell you today hey you need to stay away pork i need to stay away from poor you go through all the different you do all the different food groups that god was very he was trying to keep them eating a healthy diet he went into he went from there into uh talking about exodus 20 uh remember the sabbath day right keep it holy six days shout out labor and do all thy work but the seventh day is the sabbath the day of the lord in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man servant no thy main servant not like cattle nor thy stranger that is within within the gates for six days you're going to talk about that god created heaven and earth and the last day he rested and it's all about this what is it about it's about time management because if god would have made sure that his people rested on that day he would have had people that were what their bodies would be given out their minds would be given out come on i'm looking out at leaders today that oh if we're not careful we could work seven days a week we could we could work four weeks a month we could work 12 months a year go go go go go and what happens over time our minds are broken down over time our bodies are broken down and so all of these laws they were beautiful they were beautiful because god was making sure okay i want to make sure that your time management is good i'm going to talk to you about what you need to dress in i'm going to talk to what you don't dress in who you touch what you don't touch what's clean what's unclean where you go where you don't go and then he even gave them plans for this tabernacle where they could sacrifice for their sin where they could come to worship god only gave him a blueprint but he also told him he gave them clear instruction this is how you're going to move this tabernacle because it was just a it was a mobile temple is all it was and so god gave them very clear instructions you're going to have priesthood and this tribe is going to carry this part this tribe is going to carry these instruments and these this part of furniture this tribe is going to carry the tent and this it was a beautiful everything was so well organized and so well structured however here we go what god did god taught them how to form habits but what god did not want to happen was their habits became rituals to where every part of their walk with god their relationship with god became nothing more than a ritual god was looking for a relationship the whole time but he made these laws and he gave these laws to keep the people in order not realizing or i'm sure he did realize because he's god but i'm sure the people at first were like man this is great this is keeping us in order this is keeping us all going the same direction but over time because they did it over and over again everybody just knew it's my job i got these staves i'm gonna move these staves and and you're gonna carry the altar and we're gonna carry uh the incense over here and my tribes over here we got we got the poles of this great tabernacle this great tent we're gonna carry the poles and everybody had what they did and they just knew out of ritual what they were supposed to do and over the time over time they just began to go through the motions so that when their kingdom was finally set up when they finally did have a king when when king saul became their first king they placed their their tabernacle and gibbon and king saul decides now you know what we're gonna do this this ark this powerful box that contains the spirit of god inside of it we're gonna take it to battle and it's gonna be uh it's going to be a weapon of mass destruction we're going to take it before the army and our god is going to take care of the battle we're not even at some of the some of these battles they didn't even have to fight god said put your sword away the battle is not yours the battle is mine and so this ark went before but but again god i i believe at first it was it was it was okay but then god got tired of the ritual and we know the story that the ark it was it was it was uh captured by the philistines and it was it was brought into philistine land and in such a long story i wish i had time to talk about but only one man in the old testament truly succeeded in breaking the relational ritual because king david when he brought the ark back into jerusalem back into zion we know the story of the thirty thousand we know all about the orchestras we know all about the singers we all know all about that but what's so beautiful is that the bible says that david prepared a tent for the ark of god he didn't stop it by gibeon now sometimes i've asked myself and i prayed to god i said god why did you allow david to pass by gibeon and not put the ark back behind the veil back into the holies of holies i said god that doesn't make sense to me but i began to get a revelation i believe from god where god wanted to be in the presence of his people just as bad as his people wanted to be in his presence and he was willing to allow his ark his presence where the presence of god dwelt he was he was willing to allow that to go into zion into the city of david into a tent that david had erected for it because david wanted to build a great large huge sanctuary where all his people could come before god and worship god openly and worship god freely and not have to worry about that just one time a year one high priest would go beyond the veil and would be in the presence of god but when david brought that ark and set it in his own tabernacle all the people came in to the house and they worshiped god and i believe that's what god desired most than anything else was for his people to worship him but still in worship i want to go a little bit deeper because even in worship worship is not where relationship begins praise is not where relationship begins god is worthy of worship god is worthy of praise we've gotta like like brother nolan said tonight we gotta put him where he belongs he's high and lifted up we worship him because that's what he deserves but that's not where relationship begins listen ritual is the biggest blocker of god's blessings that there ever was that's where religion comes from that's why we're so adamant about saying that that pentecost is not a religion right it's an experience it's who we are it's a lifestyle we're apostolic in doctrine we're pentecostal experience this is not a ritual we don't come here and have ritualistic things uh i don't want to want to throw off on any denominal religions but listen if you're if you come in this place and you grew up in a denominal church you know what i'm talking about you know what you did every sunday you came down and did the same thing every sunday or maybe it was on a saturday evening at mass at the catholic church you know what you did every mass you did the same the same the rosemary you did the same the beads you did you did all the same thing you did it every single mass because why it was just simply ritual it was simply religion but that's not what god desires oh ritual might have began from law but i'm so glad that jesus christ came and fulfilled that law and now we're living in grace dispensation and now we can have hope and worship and we can praise god the veil was rent and because the veil was rent it put us back into the exact same relationship that david taught the people when david was king relationship not a lifestyle of rituals but a lifestyle of relationship the only way to have a spirit-led life is have a relationship with the spirit and that sounds so basic but man listen prayer creates relationship there's got to be a two-way street you say well why doesn't praise create relationship because praise is one way praise is going one direction why doesn't worship create relationship because worship is going one way and it ought to we don't deserve worship it's not gonna come back at us but prayer is a two-way street it's a communication between deity and humanity between flesh and spirit oh listen sometimes it that's why prayer is so hard do we realize that it's flesh it's humanity trying to communicate with the spiritual realm maybe you're like maybe maybe you're not there's sometimes i'll be praying in here i'll be i'll be praying i'll go through you know i try to go through and and i praise god we go through i go through repentance thanksgiving going to petition i'm i'm going through with trying not to be ritualistic i'm i'm trying to really open my mind and really say god lord lead me to what you want me to pray for right and i go through it but there's times when i don't even believe or feel like what i'm praying is even leaving this building or that god can even hear what i'm saying just praying in the open air and maybe you all are super spiritual maybe you all maybe you all feel goosebumps every time you kneel down by your bed or every time you wake up in the morning maybe maybe you feel that i don't know but i don't matter of fact it's a struggle it's always a struggle now i will say this if you struggle long enough you can break through and boy there's some great times of of just intercessory prayer and great times where i just can't even speak words and whether all this coming out of my mouth is just syllables i can't even understand it's a beautiful language it's a it's a beautiful praise to god but up to that point it's hard up to that point i'm thinking god i i really need to feel something i really just kind of knock me on the head or something do something just to let me know that you hear me just just give me give me a sign give me a sign that you're here but but it's just like praying into into into silent space and and then and then just because of the way my mind works uh my thoughts begin to wander further and further as i try harder and harder to concentrate my to-do list starts screaming at me and everything that i couldn't remember yesterday well once you know i remember it during prayer the next morning i'm pulling my hair out trying to remember who was i supposed to call what meeting was a meeting's coming up what was the meeting coming up what time was that and all of a sudden during prayer but i'm just woo getting getting i'm receiving everything i'm like oh god god hell but it's because humanity is trying to communicate with the spiritual but we can't be too hard on ourselves because i want you to think about even even the disciples who had a very close relationship with god and flesh were confused when it came to prayer right the the request of jesus was teach us to pray we never read where they requested that jesus teach them how to perform a miracle you know jesus that was awesome man jesus how did you raise that girl from the dead teach me how to do that you don't see that the only request that we read in the word of god that the disciples made of jesus as a whole was please teach us to pray they said give us give us a tutorial on prayer because why because they saw jesus praying continually they saw jesus he prayed before he ate he blessed his food he prayed for little children he he prayed oh for the sick he prayed with thanksgiving he prayed with tears and as god he created all the planets he he created everything in this world yet as mankind he had to pray there had to be communication between flesh and spirit and they saw this they they recognized there was power that jesus received after he prayed i'll prove it to you one of the one of the one of the greatest stories is uh is is when is when jesus finds out he finds out that his relative his forerunner john the baptist has been beheaded and been killed that same morning he was flesh he was he was just as much man as he was god he was 100 man 100 god and don't you know he was looking for a place to get by himself to mourn over john the baptist being beheaded not just killed but beheaded disrespected but at that very same time there there came a throng of thousands of people that discovers him and and the story goes on he begins to teach and he begins to heal the sick and and as he's teaching these 5 000 uh 5 000 men plus women and children uh it comes to his attention that they're hungry and there's no food in the region and and so now where where where jesus he should have been somewhere by himself some are taking some time off because of everything that was going through his mind with john the baptist and everything that he was suffering mentally because of john the baptist what does he do well he finds a way to feed the 5 000 or the 10 000 or 15 whatever you believe however many you think were there he finds a way to feed all of the thousands and thousands of people and just in a span of a few hours he battles sorrow he battles stress the demands the needs everything that's going on in his culture everything that's going on in his day he deserves a good night's rest but here he is with these people and he finally says i've got to go up the mountain and find a place to pray and the disciples recognize they're they're like well he's going to pray again he's he's going he's always praying jesus he's he's always praying but every time he prays he always returns with more power because even the man christ jesus had to be led of the spirit of god he returns well what happens next well it's quite simple the disciples get on a ship they go over they go over the sea and as they're headed across the sea a great storm comes up uh and and the waves come in and the sails come down the mast come down and it's and they're about they're about to capsize and and peter looks out and hears a form of a man walking across the water same day about three o'clock in the morning three a.m jesus is walking across the water just got out of prayer up on the mountain now he's walking across the across the water we know the story how peter calls out and says he says is it you jesus has been me to come in with you bit me to step into the water with you and jesus bids him to come we we know the story and the story kind of gets lost with peter peter uh beginning to sink in the water but the truth of the matter is this jesus got his power from prayer the man the the flesh said don't don't don't get lost what i'm saying here the the flesh son of man receive power from prayer and so his disciples were like listen tell us how in the world are you getting this power how are you how are you being led of the spirit we want to be led of the spirit too teach us how to pray luke 11 1 and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place when he when he ceased when he stopped one of his disciples said unto him lord teach us to pray as john also taught his disciples how can we be led by the spirit without constant communication oh listen i i believe when jesus taught them how to pray when jesus gave them that prayer it wasn't just he jesus didn't say this is an outline of prayer we realize that right he said this is how you pray and he began to talk he began to pray and began to explain this is how you reach the father in heaven this is how you ask him for his will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven this is how you say uh forgive me my sins as i forgive those those that are debtors to me he began to tell them all these things but it wasn't just an outline of a prayer it was a prayer that jesus was giving them to show them this is how you do it this is how you touch god this is where you have to be if you want the spirit to lead you not a ritual communication it's not like the religious men of the synagogue but it's a relational communication it's like david described in psalm 27 and 4. he said i'm asking god for one thing only one thing to live with him in his house my whole life long i'll contemplate his beauty i'll study at his feet that's the only quiet secure place in a noisy world i think you recognize that verse out of the king james what was this house of god that david was referring to what was it he was seeking was he wanting a building like this with four walls where he could just live there the rest of his life no that's not what he was looking for he wanted to be in the presence of god the rest of his days he wanted to be led by the spirit of god by god himself the rest of his days he said if i could just live here if i could just stay where i am right now and feel what i'm feeling right now and being led the way i'm being led right now he said this is what i would want to live the rest of my life acts 17 24 tells us our lord does not live in temples built with human hands david was not looking for a place to worship he was just wanting to be in the presence of god he didn't want to have some ritualistic religious experience he was just wanting to have a relationship with his god he wanted the presence of god more than anything else it's why he was the first worship leader there was no worship leaders before david the bible talks about that david built assembled made 4 000 instruments so that the people his people could feel what it felt like to praise god in song what did he build i don't know tambourines probably put some harps together symbols drums he put whatever instrument he could figure out he was building because why he wanted to make sure i want the people to feel the relationship of having the presence of god with them not behind the veil not somewhere else but with them and i just believe today oh god help us to figure out and i'm going to tell you just a moment but to figure out how it is that we can be in his presence at all times but here's where i want to kind of get to because being in the presence of god and following the spirit of god is not always easy because sometimes the spirit doesn't move our text described a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire bible talks about that that pillar during the daytime it was just nothing more than smoke than a cloud but at night it would light up and become a fire they would just billow and they would follow whenever it moved they moved they picked up camp whatever they were doing it didn't matter if if people were off hunting this or hunting that or trying to find this or if they were scattered abroad when they saw that cloud starting to move they would get back into their tribe get back into their camp and they would get they would do whatever the tents would come up the tabernacle would come up and they would follow that cloud wherever the cloud went but don't you understand today that there must have been such frustrating times when that pillar stopped moving and stayed in the same place for months and i could just i could just i could just i could just see in their minds as they began to begin to grumble and complain because they were good at that began to complain we've been here we've been here for so long and this was supposed to be a short trip across the wilderness we're we are supposed to be to a promised land and here we are we're still waiting for this cloud to move we're we're still waiting for this pillar of fire just if you would just move just a little bit but i believe the church today if we're not careful in our fast-paced culture in our fast-paced society we want to get the cart before the horse and we want to begin to move before the spirit moves and it kind of reminds me a little bit of abraham and sarah how how they tried to move before god moved you got you got you got god given abraham and sarah a promise and say listen i'm going to give you offspring in your offspring there's going to be so many you're not going to be accountable be like the stars in the sky like the sands of the of the ocean of the sea you're not going to be able to count how many offspring you have and then the pillar the the pillar if you will the pillar just stood still and somewhere along the way sarah got this great great idea i'll bring my hand mane in i'll bring hagar in and she can sleep with my husband and there'll be offspring from my husband and i'll adopt this child as my own and it will raise his child and then we'll have great offspring and i believe in the church today if we're not careful if we're not led by the spirit if we try to lead the spirit the same thing is going to happen to us that happened to abraham and sarah once it happened they couldn't control the result once it took place once she got pregnant once ishmael was born and a people the ishmaelites and and the arab people had a foundation and had a beginning oh it was all hell for the people of god for the israelites from that moment forward they were the greatest the people that hated the most the people that ward against them the most the people that even today can't stand them and what happens when we get in front of god is we see that all of our life things will break loose that we never meant to happen but if we get in in too much of a hurry and that's why the bible is clearly it states wait upon the lord wait we gotta learn how to wait listen i've been to conferences that tell me oh your church uh you know what what is your one year plan what is your five year plan what is your 10-year plan listen again i'm not against five-year plans and 10-year plans if you can map out your life 10 years from now that's great because i don't know what i'm doing tomorrow yet and i don't even i don't even know if i'll be honest with you i don't know if it's biblical because it's really hard to give a 10-year plan when you don't know where the spirit's going right but don't get me wrong i don't want you leaving you're going brother erickson he is a he's a right now guy i'm not i i want vision i want to see i want to see what god's doing we got great plans we got man we're working right now on on uh plans for uh for our our training center the dorms we're starting to work on blueprints for that and man it's exciting and we have plans okay i'm not trying to say we don't have plans but at the same time we can get in a hurry and we can get in front of god and not yield to god and say i see you coming but i'm gonna go ahead and get out in front i'm gonna go ahead and god i'm gonna let you know what's the easiest process and the easiest plan man we i we we were at the uh at the farm a few weeks ago i told you about it the leader the leader leader lab kingdom leader lab so good because i learned so much i was i was talking to i was talking to a pastor and he said you know what i'm just sick and tired of hearing this whole idea of of who's your next pastor what's the succession plan of your church he said he said man i was i was a part of a succession plan where one pastor was going to turn this age and when he was that age this pastor was going to step into this place and and when that pastor in that age this pastor was going to step into this place he said it was no more spirit led he said we got to that point when one pastor turned this age and the next pastor was supposed to take over got into a board meeting and said well okay well it's planning session next year i'm going to step on out of here because this next pastor is the one that's going to be doing the planning and the next guy said i'll tell you right now this the spirit was not saying go the spirit was saying wait and he said i got put in this horrible position where here we have the succession plan which was man-made and the spirit of god was still staying still and the spirit of god had not moved and here we are trying to move forward and we're going to change up this and change that and i'm i'm hearing it listen it's happening all over the country this year was was a big year of this where where you know this is the year where so-and-so is going to step up be the next pastor and this one this church the so-and-so is going to step up being the next pastor and i don't know i can't speak for them they might be following the spirit that that's great for them but all i know is this if god says wait the last thing we want to do is be in abraham and sarah and say god we got our own ideas on how to do this i i began to study i began to study psalm 123 and 2. you could quote it we sing about it but they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint wait on the lord i've preached this before but i remember when i first called on the to this word this word wait this this hebrew word wait means serve serve the lord wait on the lord like a server like a like you go to a restaurant tonight after after service and and you have somebody that comes up to you and serves your table it's simply saying while you are in waiting just do something for god just do what you know to do and sing in the choir teach a sunday school class be on the fit team you're like but i i feel like god wants me to do something he does want you to do something but it's not time yet you're still in the waiting so serve god serve the lord while you are in waiting the bible talks like the lord will renew your strength renewing takes place during the waiting room we understand that he says you shall mount up with wings as eagles when the storms come chickens but the eagles soar because they've been given in their wings they've been given a mechanism internally that locks their wings that no matter what wind what gale hits them their wings are locked they could they can soar through the worst of the storms matter of fact they go to the storm they don't they don't fly from the storm if you see oh i saw one just we were down in florida for my for my niece's wedding and we were going across the bridge from pensacola uh towards the pensacola beach area and as i was coming across the bridge i looked up and listened i i didn't have to ask i knew it was a bald eagle because when i i looked up i thought oh my god i don't see many bald eagles i don't know if you all do i don't see many of those but it was just it was the most beautiful sight the most elegant bird looked up and saw that eagle just soaring above saw that white head no question about it just the beauty of it those those eagles they don't soar away from the storm they soar into the storm because why because in every storm there's an eye and in that eye is a powerful updraft and that eagle understands that it it's built in it's built into their brains that if i can get into that storm if i can lock my wings and get into that storm i'm going to catch an updraft that's going to take me to higher heights than i've ever been before i begin to think about that because here is what it's talking about you shall mount up with wings as eagles god help me not to fear the storm help me lord god right where i am just to wait on you just to realize that god you will be a god that if i will just follow after you if i will just lock into place lord you're going to take me to places that i have never seen before bible talks about run and not be weary listen tired will rule if it's not challenged let me say that again tired we'll rule if it's not challenged have you ever heard somebody that says they're always saying i'm so tired oh i'm so tired i do that to my wife sometimes it drives her crazy it's kinda like that story you know we've all been shot you know go to go to three services on sunday and i'm just like oh what's wrong i'm so tired we've all been shot we've we've all we the whole family went to three services right and if it's not challenged this is this is something that turns into weariness and weariness is is exhausted in strength exhausted and endurance vigor or freshness and it has a lot to do well if you haven't been to planet fitness in a while and you go there you just decide you know what i'll tell you what i'm gonna pick up where i left off four years ago i was running this fast little treadmill is at this elevation i'm gonna go lift the weights i'm gonna i you go ahead and try that and you're going to really see what weariness feels like because you can tell how fit you are by your speed of exhaustion right have you ever watched have you ever watched a canyon run and i know we have a canyon here who so happens to be from a very fast bloodline i i've been to kenya many times and they run everywhere listen i won't run to the bathroom at night i'm just being honest with you i don't run unless i'm being chased they they run everywhere you're like driving down the road they're like running past you it's like you're like looking behind them seeing who's chasing them and oh no they're just going to the store that's they don't walk that's why they win olympic medals i'm talking about you you'll run and not be weary listen if we want to be spiritually fit listen we've gotta we gotta wait on the cloud i love i love the design that brother dale ate here so many times that the cloud it's just one of those things listen people don't don't let people tell you when it's time don't let people push you if i need a new mic just bring me one don't let don't let people don't let people push you wait oh oh god allow god in his own time allow god in his own time to take you where he wants to take you check hallelujah what does that mean that doesn't make sense to me because i'm thinking of myself you're talking about soaring with wings as eagles you're talking about running and not being weird now you're talking about walking and not fainting i think i would have done that backwards but that's not how god works because god sees it in our lives when we're young we soar and then we come to the place where we can still run and it's a place in life where we can still walk but god's saying every phase of your life i'm gonna be with you i'm going to make sure you get to where i want to take you but it's all going to come from the waiting it's all it's all going to start with you saying i refuse i i refuse to get ahead of god i know the spirit of god wants to lead me i know that that his ways are perfect his ways all his thoughts i can't even imagine he he's beyond anything that i can think of he's beyond anything that i can explain how can i even understand who he is or what he is and god is simply saying if you'll just wait on me right where you're living if you'll just wait on me and wait for my spirit i will lead you and i will guide you stand with me tonight i i always i always want to bring i always want to bring application into every message because tonight some of you are going all you did was told us to pray i know i i realize that i realize that but sadly it's what we fight it's what our flesh fights it's a very thing because because here's the deal we we want to ask ourselves why how how can we communicate with god how can i communicate with god i've never heard the audible voice of god well that's why god gives us his word that's why god gives us this right here he says you speak to me audibly and i'll speak to you through my word i got some i got some help if you'll come i i i want to give application number one we talked about it a couple weeks ago get find find a prayer chair get get a prayer chair find a place every morning that you can talk to god and then and then and then bible prayers bible bible prayers i'm gonna i'm gonna make a preaching commercial is what this is called we have we have an apostolic study bible that's for sale in in the lobby let me tell you something if you don't have this apostolic study bible this is this is holy ghost filled one god apostolic writers who are who are commentating on the verses of the king james bible it's the most it's one of the most beautiful things i've ever read because because why a lot of times we read where trinitarians are giving us how they feel uh scripture ought to be commentary right pick up pick up this because this is where we learn who god is relationship what is relationship i think relationship is relationship is getting to know one another think back before you're married think back before before you're engaged when maybe that first date or the second date and you you had those those those five hour phone calls where you're like you hang up no you hang up i'm not hanging up until you hang up i'm not hanging up either i'm hanging right what gets said in those phone calls those very first phone calls i'm not talking about the ones once you know uh i'm talking with the ones where you just get to know each other right you talk about all this and that when i was young this is the my parents were like this and my mind did this and we went here we all the things you talk about well that's that's what relationship building is all about we got to know our god and the only way we're going to know him is to study his words we've got to study his words let me see what you have i know we have these devotionals i believe it was i believe it was brother hamid was telling me um that it was a g mangan the late g.a mangan bishop g mangan he had a devotional book that he would take into the prayer room and would just begin to read the written prayer in the book now that blows my mind i'm thinking of him as you know he's praying through the tabernacle you know but brother hammond said it was it was the most awesome thing he had these prayer journals and these in these these these these prayer books that he would get and just begin to pray what was on the pages if you're having a hard time if you have a hard time coming up with i just don't know what to say i i run out of five minutes i run out of what to say buy you a prayer book and begin to read that prayer to god get into the book of psalms begin to read a psalm to god a psalm of worship and a psalm that's what it's for it's not just for inspiration these are what we pray back to god the very psalms that he put in his bible it's what he loves to hear get these we have men's and women's devotionals we i lord and mercy y'all have so much stuff here we have a four of four it's like weightlifting we had a four of four books set um on pentecostal theology figure out what you believe you've experienced it you might as well know what it's about right i promise you you could probably learn something in here i know i can you got the spurgeon study bible you knew something about preaching oh here's a good christmas present right here a kids study bible wow i want to be awesome if our if our eight nine ten-year-olds we found them up at night with the light on studying the word of god here oh i like this beth moore has one called praying god's word day by day this is kind of what i'm talking about right here the lost art brother nate whitley the lost art of spiritual disciplines avail yourself the best thing we could do is study the word of god because that builds that builds relationship people that are religious and follow rituals they don't have knowledge like this do you understand that they just do the same thing over and over again because why it makes them feel like they've done something holy but thank god that we're a part of the church tonight let's just lift up your hands to heaven come on i'm glad we know who we serve we know his name oh god i'm so thankful i'm not part of a religion oh i'm not a part of a denomination we didn't come on we didn't come off we're not a branch off of something else that came off of something else we are the trunk we are god oh we are the true apostolic pentecostals oh god we were born on the day of pentecost when your church was birthed that's when this that's when this experience was birthed god i pray right now in jesus name lord i want to be spirit-led i want you to pray that prayer right now god help me to be spirit-led lord teach me how to pray lord when i'm in your presence lord when i kneel down lord speak into my mind lord let there be a still small voice that leads me that speaks the words that you want to hear come on come on somebody i just believe tonight i believe that tomorrow morning we could wake up in the morning and have the greatest prayer life that we've ever had we could have the greatest time of devotion we've ever had i believe we could study god's word in a way that we can understand and be uh have revelation of who he is and of what he is and what he needs and what he wants and what he desires and what he loves because i don't know about you i want to love the things god loves and i want to hate the things that god hates i want to give god the worship that he's wanting and all i wanna i wanna make sure that i'm not worshipping in a way that he doesn't wanna be worshipped god i pray in jesus name lord as we leave this place put a hunger in every heart put a hunger in every soul to follow after your spirit it's not good enough that we come to church on sunday and wednesday father it's not good enough that we bring our kids to sunday school in the kids church it's not good enough that's not enough of a relationship we've got to have a relationship with you every single day of the week i want to live in your house father i want to live in your presence god i want to always be directed always be guided i want to always know that you're present in my life i never want to go to a place where you're not god help me lord god to be led by your spirit i want to live a lifestyle of being a spirit-led son of god come on if you feel that way clap your hands onto the lord hey hallelujah come on lift up your voice now join your hand clap and lift up your voice and give him a shout and say lord we bless your name tonight lord we thank you lord god for giving us another day to come together with our church family we thank you for the opportunity to come and praise your lord in your house today lord i pray in jesus name go with every person with every family bless the families of first apostolic lord god i pray every school student lord god i pray in jesus name protection will be upon them lord god bring us lord god into your presence tomorrow morning to pray to worship to praise to study in jesus name i pray and everyone said amen