Transcript of a published conference session by Gearld Jeffers, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
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Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
Summary
- **John 3:17, read two ways.** Jeffers has John 3:17 read in the King James form, then again through the Amplified version: God did not send his Son into the world "to judge to reject to condemn to pass sentence on the world," but that the world through him might find salvation and be made safe and sound through him. He announces his subject — condemnation interferes with intimacy — has the congregation tell someone "God is large and in charge," and prays that God would open their understanding, grant revelation, make the word flesh, and make them "doers of the word and not hearers only."
- **The December shut-in.** A full-time evangelist, Jeffers says that before coming to this conference, in the month of December, God began canceling the things he had lined out: "I want you home for about 3 weeks and I want you shut in and I want to talk." He stayed home and listened, and his prayer life shifted — he does more listening now than talking. God told him he would find wounded people at the conference, a place of tremendous passion, but that their passion had sometimes pushed them to condemnation: many were winning souls out of guilt and condemnation, and he was to make them understand that this interferes with intimacy, because God doesn't use condemnation. The soul-winning teaching he had heard over the years, he says honestly, was mostly guilt-ridden.
- **The earlier shut-ins.** Many years before, the Lord began taking him into shuttings: he would take time off work and shut himself into his church for five or ten days, taking the commentaries and the Book of Proverbs, fasting, praying, and seeking after the Lord. On the third day of one such occasion he saw angels appear in the church. "But then there came a shift," he says — and the shift came in 1993.
- **1993 and the forty-day fast.** In 1993 he first met "this great man of God and his wife" over in England, where he was preaching the General Conference of the UPC of Great Britain and Ireland. He came back from it depleted, and the Lord told him, "I'm taking you on a 40-day fast," to give him a paradigm shift: "you have placed Ministry over relationship and you're wrong." People seek God's hand and not his face — they want him for miracles, for soul-winning, for finances. Through the fast he was not to seek souls or miracles but God for himself, and to understand the purpose for which God saved him: not to win souls, but to become a wife, intimate with God — "souls are automatically born out of the intimacy." His greatest opposition, he was told, would be fear of man — fear of how his colleagues would perceive such radical thinking.
- **"I never knew you."** The fast opened Matthew chapter 7 to him. Reading verses 21–23 from the Amplified version, he notes that people will point to ministry for validation — prophesying, casting out demons, many mighty works — and they are not liars; they did it. But the answer stands: "I never knew you." The Greek word for "know," he says, means "I do not recognize nor acknowledge you" — God does not remember seeing their face "up in my bedroom." And God named the soul-winning that runs without intimacy: "artificial insemination" — "procedure no intimacy."
- **"Your exceeding great reward" — and the jealous husband.** Genesis 15:1: "Fear not Abram, I am your shield" and "I am your exceeding great reward" — not souls, Jeffers stresses: "I am greater than the worth of the world," and the one who comes to God and gets intimate becomes the wife who gives birth. Then God told him, "you're making me jealous." Counseling a husband and wife with a new baby, Jeffers named the husband's unspoken trouble: "you're actually jealous over your own child aren't you" — before the baby he was a husband and his wife loved him; now all she talks about is the baby. So it is with God and his people: the baby — the ministry, forever needing a word, finances, direction — gets all the talk, until God says, "I am no longer your husband I'm just father of the ministry."
- **Espoused to one husband.** Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11:2, "I'm jealous over you" — a godly possessiveness, Jeffers says — "for I've espoused you I've given you to one husband," to present the church as a chaste virgin to Christ. The whole purpose of the ministry, he says, is to present the church as God's bride; the whole purpose for salvation is that God wants a wife. His own strength in God's presence is not his degree — "you can freeze by degrees" — but the little boy he brings with him, about eight years old, who walks into the presence of God saying "I don't know what I'm doing" and lets God pick him up, hold him, and whisper understanding into his ear.
- **The bride is one body of cells.** He warns the conference about the afterglow: people come to Because of the Times pumped and excited, and within a month they are depressed and frustrated, saying this only works for Alexandria. God told him the problem is that they put more emphasis on the ministry than on the relationship — and that he is not letting some ministries work, because if he did, they would take it as endorsement that this is the way to do it. Then one morning Jeffers was taken into the heavens and saw a creature so beautiful and glorious he could not describe it; drawn in closer, he saw his own tiny self in its midsection. He was told: "this is the bride of Christ and you are a cell in the bride" — God is so large that, as a human body takes a trillion cells to make up one body, it will take all of them, each cell surrendering its will, to make one bride. "What I'm looking for," God said, "is a lover."
- **Warfare runs on the love affair.** A lot of us don't know how to rest or how to come out of the warfare, Jeffers says, but nobody can stay in the warfare 24/7 — even Jesus pulled away. The warfare is empowered by the love affair: to resist the devil takes strength; "the joy of the Lord is my strength"; and the joy is gotten in his presence, where there is fullness. The strength to resist came from the presence.
- **Praise is the outer court; worship is kisses.** Jeffers distinguishes praise from worship: the Greek word for worship, he says, joins "towards" and "kisses" — when you worship God you are actually kissing God; you throw kisses. Praise is strictly outer-court living: shouting, dancing, running the aisle is still only outer-court living to God. Under the tabernacle plan David gave, you enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, then bless his name — his character, his identity — and there worship begins; he pictures Isaac sporting with Rebekah, flirting with her. God's favorite cologne on the worshipper is prayer: "let my prayer be as incense," released as a sweet aroma into his nostrils. His favorite garment is the robe of righteousness — the bride of Revelation 19 in white linen, the righteousness of the saints. Then, with the will submitted, the word comes and impregnates, depositing the seed of God. But "you can't have intimacy with armor" — and a lot of people are feeling condemned and guilty over past mistakes and missed opportunities.
- **Initial, progressive, ultimate.** When God talks about salvation, Jeffers says, there are different definitions: there is initial salvation, progressive salvation, and ultimate salvation. "We are so stuck on acts 238 until we are missing god." He reads Hebrews 6:1: "therefore leaving behind the principles of the doctrine let's move on to Perfection." Acts 2:38 cannot perfect you — it was never designed to perfect you — and that perfection means maturity.
- **Study to know me.** God told him: "the only reason why Souls count is because I said they count" — if he had not said they count, you'd have to do something else. And he said it to preachers: "would you please stop studying to preach and would you study to know me ... if you will study to know me you will have plenty to say." Prayer means communication with God — talking, listening. For many, prayer has become a duty — I have to pray to get finances, to get healed, to win souls — and that is not love; he is looking for a lover, one who talks to him because he loves him, not because he is afraid God will slap him or condemn him. Intimacy, he explains, is the revealing of the secrets of your heart: draw nigh to God and he draws nigh to you; you uncover your heart, and God uncovers himself — and that unveiling is what revelation is. In seeing him, you become like him.
- **The equation, and "Do you love me?"** Daniel 11:32 is an equation: "they that know their God shall be strong and do exploits" — if you know him, you will be like him; being like him makes you strong and do exploits. Yet God told him many pastors dread Sunday mornings, afraid of what will mess up, and sigh with relief when the service is over — "that was never the purpose of the service." Jesus said to Peter, "Peter do you love me?" — then "feed my sheep." Most of us, Jeffers says, jump to the feeding and miss the whole point, which was the love: if you love me, love persuades you to move — not guilt, not condemnation, not shame, not fear of failure. He names the shame of report time, when a pastor fills out how many were baptized and filled and feels humiliated beside other men's huge numbers, and answers it: "God does not base his pleasure on you on how many souls are saved — God bases his pleasure on you on your worship." Ministry, he insists, is a byproduct of intimacy, and "we've missed the process."
- **Four services, no souls.** Soul-winning has seasons, he says — there is a time when God is not trying to win souls. He went to a beautiful, strong UPC church whose pastor had called him because there were souls on the altar to be worked with. Jeffers started seeking the face of the Lord and preached four services, and every sermon God gave him seemed to be for the church — not one word for souls. He struggled and fought; not one soul had been saved, not one baptized, and he felt like an utter failure, beating himself up — maybe he should have fasted five days instead of four. When it was time to go out to eat, he wanted only to be taken back to his hotel room; he didn't even deserve the offering.
- **"I had a gun to my head."** In the car, the pastor dropped his family at the restaurant door and kept Jeffers back: "hold on I want to talk to you." He pulled into the parking lot, turned the car off, bowed his head, and started crying until his whole body was shaking. Through his tears he finally said: "A week before you came here I had a gun to my head" — the only thing that stopped him from pulling the trigger was that he thought Jeffers just might have a word for him — "instead all four messages were for me." The Lord spoke to Jeffers: "you would have been trying to save sheep and you would have lost the shepherd — follow me, I am the Savior, not you." Get the guilt off, get the condemnation off; it interferes with your intimacy. Condemnation, he says, "ties your tubes": you go in and worship, but you don't walk out with a baby.
- **Rest is a command.** Jeffers says the Lord had to start talking to him about rest: "do you understand that rest is a command — it's not an option." When he protested that souls had to be saved, God answered that if he had wanted him like that, he would have made him like the angels, who don't need to rest; when you don't rest, you violate your design. In the Scriptures, Jesus' disciples came back shouting from preaching and deliverance, and Jesus said, "now come you apart in the desert and rest a while" — he called them off the soul-winning, off the Bible studies, off the laying on of hands, to come away and rest with him. Jeffers confesses he didn't know how to do that; it felt sinful. Yet even if they had run and won the other soul, they would have been disobedient, because he had called them to rest at that moment: the Spirit applies the word to your life — "the letter kills but the spirit makes alive" — so if the Spirit is telling you to rest, you must follow the Spirit to the fulfillment of the word.
- **Rest is a state of mind; remember the Sabbath.** Many are not resting even when they stop working: you sit back in a recliner, go hunting, play golf — and feel guilty the whole time, or spend the game thinking about Sunday's sermon. "That's not rest," he says; "rest is a state of mind." The word Sabbath means rest, and remembering the Sabbath stands as the fourth commandment — the first four commandments toward God, the next six toward your brethren — "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy": rest is holy. When a man was found picking up sticks on the Sabbath day, Moses held him, and the Lord said stone him — he was killed for not resting when he was commanded to rest. A burden for souls can push you into disobedience camouflaged as doing it for the Lord, but you can't do it for the Lord if you're disobeying the Lord. In this grace dispensation, grace gives you a space to get it right and mercy keeps the judgment back — but if you keep on not resting, judgment starts seeping through: high blood pressure, stress, dying faster, no stamina.
- **Spend time with the Lord of the work.** God's concern with the apostolic church, Jeffers says, is that you are so busy with the work of the Lord that you have not spent time with the Lord of the work — you have confused spending time with the work for spending time with him, as spending time with the child is not spending time with your spouse. Many are so consumed with intercession that they feel guilty and condemned for talking to God about their own needs. God said to him: you don't think I'm a good daddy — "what good father wouldn't celebrate their child's birthday? why have you never asked me for a birthday gift? I was there the day you were born and I breathed breath into you." "I've waited for you... my heart bled... will you not come into my chamber?" The invitation: find a place — in your seat, kneeling, at the front — and talk to God about you, not about the ministry, not about souls, not about Sunday's word. Some are pastors but scared; he doesn't want to condemn you. If you can't preach like Bishop Mangum or sing like sister Mickey Mangum, God says, "I'm not condemning you — I gave you the voice I wanted you to have."
- **The closing prayer — and the capture ends mid-prayer.** He leads the house to just love him, to expose their hearts, and to ask God to teach them how to rest and to move the condemnation, the guilt, and the shame. The Lord is reaching, he says, to get the whips out of your hand: many whip themselves after a message that didn't go as they hoped or a note they missed, though he was already whipped for you — as a parent picks up a child and says, "that's okay, I'm proud of you, I love you... you'll do better the next time." God didn't come to condemn you. He has them reach over and take someone by the hand — somebody just needs to know they're not alone — and he prays that God would lift the spirit of condemnation and guilt, let his wife come into the bedchamber and be productive through intimacy, and move the shame and guilt that are binding up the productivity. The capture ends mid-sentence inside this closing prayer, on the word "than" — the prayer breaks off unfinished.
Scriptures: John 3:17; Matthew 7:21-23; Genesis 15:1; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:8; Hebrews 6:1; Daniel 11:32
Scripture index: John 3:17; Matthew 7:21-23; Genesis 15:1; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:8; Hebrews 6:1; Daniel 11:32.
Transcript
cry we're in the book of St John chapter 3 St John chap 3 verse 17 what a privilege what an honor and a pleasure it is to be here with you for the very first time we thank God for this host church and the pastor amen even his willingness to receive me there's such love and Hospital Hospitality in this church and we give God praise for it St John 3:1 17 verse1 17 St John 3: 17 and it reads for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but though the world through him might be saved want to read it through the Amplified version for God did not send send the son his son into the world in
order to judge to reject to condemn to pass sentence on the world that the world might find Salvation and be made safe and sound through him I simply want to speak to you on this subject condemnation interferes with intimacy condemnation interferes with intimacy would you just lift your hands before you're seated we're going to pray together father we thank you for every person in this house we pray that you would speak a sound and clear word we have heard so much word already we thank you for all the great speaking and the things that we've heard but we ask you now that you would open our understanding Grant Revelation deposit by the spirit let the spirit make the word flesh help us to use what we've already heard that we may be doers of the word and not hearers only for this father we give you praise in Jesus name before you seated to give someone a high five and tell them God is large and in charge he's large and in charge condemnation interferes with intimacy before coming to this conference I'm a full-time evangelist and the month of December the Lord had certain things lined out and the next thing I know God was canceling things of course we have a saying blessed are the flexible but they shall not be bent out of shape God began to cancel things and I just looked at him saying okay he said I want you home for about 3 weeks and I want you shut in and I want to talk I have no problem with that I love that that's fine live by the gospel finances come from the gospel but really what he's trained me is the church is not your employer I am so whether you go out and preach or not I'm responsible for you while I remained at home and listened to the Lord my prayer life is drastically shifted I don't do much talking anymore I do more listening in fact when I do too much talking I feel the Lord tapping me going you'll get a whole lot more if you just listen he began to tell me coming here he said you will find a lot of wounded people here you said you'll find a place of tremendous passion he said but the issue is that their passion has sometimes pushed them to condemnation he said they want a world saved and I want a world saved he said but many are functioning under condemnation they're winning Souls out of guilt and condemnation make them to understand that interferes with intimacy Jesus said I I didn't come to condemn God doesn't use condemnation I've heard many soul-winning conferences and unfortunately I have to tell you in all honesty most of it was guilt-ridden most of it was pushed under guilt it took God to give me understanding many many years ago the Lord began to take me into shuttings I would take my time off of work I would shut into my church for 10 days 5 days take just spend time take the rical commentaries in the Book of Proverbs seek and fast and pray and seek after the Lord on one such occasion on the third day I saw angels angels dis appeared in the church and one of the those things are just a wonderful things when God does that but then there came a shift the shift came in 1993 was the first time i' ever met this great man of God and his wife over in England I was pre preaching the General Conference of the UPC Great Britain and Ireland and I came back from that depleted so many people hurting so many things going on and the Lord spoke to me and said I'm taking you on a 40-day fast I said can we discuss this you know I have a model God I'm never rude to food he said it's time for you to get a paradigm shift he said you're wrong on a lot of counts he said you have placed Ministry over relationship and you're wrong he began to take me to Matthew chapter 7 if you wish to look with me Matthew chapter 7 and he began to talk to me very severely he said the problem that's happening is people are seeking my hand and not my face you don't want me for me
you want me for what I can give you you want my hand you want me for miracles you want me for soul-winning you want me for finances but he said when's the last time you just stepped into my presence and say I need all those things want all those things but my greatest need is for you he said when you go into this 40-day fast I don't want you to seek for Souls now this was growing against my grain I've been raised in this atmosphere I I didn't get that he said I don't want you to seek for miracles I want you to seek me for me and I want you to understand the purpose for why I saved you the purpose for why I saved you was not to win souls the purpose for why I saved you was to be become a wife if you will become intimate with me souls are automatically born out of the intimacy he gave me a total paradigm shift he told me he said your greatest opposition is going to be fear of man fear of your colleagues for how they will perceive you with such radical thinking Matthew chapter 7 listen toes Jesus as he talks starting Amen in verse 21 not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he that does the will of my father many will say to me on that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name driven out demons in your name I'm reading the Amplified version done many mighty works in your name Jesus said that what people are going to do in the last day is point to Ministry for validation they're going to point to gifts they're going to point to Ministry they're going to point to how many Souls were saved they're not Liars he doesn't call them Liars they did it but now listen to his response verse 22 or 23 and then will I say to them openly publicly I never knew you now how do you win Soul many wonderful Works how do you cast out demons how do you prophesy in his name and he doesn't know you the Greek word there for know means I do not recognize nor acknowledge you I don't remember seeing your face up in my bedroom and the Lord spoke to me in this 3-we period and he said many are winning souls he said here's the problem it's artificial insemination it's lab work step one step two step three it's procedure no intimacy he began to run down list of things for me Genesis 15:1 if you want to you can put on the screen after the the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying fear not Abram I am your shield and listen I am your exceeding great reward not Souls I am the soul is worth the world but I am greater than the worth of the world I'm greater than the worth of the universe if you come to me and get intimate you will become the wife that gives birth it's the end result of the Lord spoke to me and said you're making me jealous I was counseling with a husband and wife and the husband was struggling with certain issues they had a baby not long and the Lord spoke to me and said let me he said articulate the man's problem because he doesn't know how to say this I looked at the man I said you're actually jealous over your own child aren't you he said yeah yes he said I don't he said I don't know how else to say he said yes he said before we had a baby I was husband she loved me but now we have a baby that's all she talks about and the Lord said are you listening to this because that's what I deal with with my people you're making me jealous over my own baby you don't talk to me anymore about how you want me you only want me to get a baby and then once you get the baby all you talk about is the baby the baby needs a word the baby needs a Ministry the baby needs finances the baby needs Direction I am no longer your husband I'm just father of the ministry I send you to marry you you are my wife take a look at it 2 Corinthians 11:2 again if you would assist by putting up in the screens thank you sound people
you've done such an outstanding job 2 Corinthians 11: 2 listen to what he says he says I'm jealous over you this is Paul talking to the church I'm jealous over you that word jealous means I am Godly possessive or protective over you why am I jealous over you he said for I've espoused you I've given you to one husband as a chased virgin he said the whole purpose of the ministry is to present the church as God's bride he wants a wife the whole purpose for salvation is that God wants a wife now watch how this works I didn't understand it till explained it to me I'm not please a doctor do degree does not give you understanding to God please no way I've learned a long time ago you can freeze by degrees and when you walk into the presence of God when I walk in the presence of God I don't bring doctor I don't bring TI I you want to know my strength I bring a little boy he's about 8 years old and he walks into the presence of God going I don't know what I'm doing and he lets God just pick him up and hold him and Whisper understanding into his ear God said the problem that's happening is many of you you come to because of the times you're pumped you're excited you're ready to go back and within a month after because of the times you're depressed you're frustrated you're saying this only works for Alexandria and you're saying I don't know what to do God said I didn't come to condemn you some of you are trying your best to win souls you're trying your best to do what you know to do it doesn't seem like it's working God said the problem that you're having is you're putting more emphasis on the ministry than you are on the relationship and the reason why I'm not letting some of your Ministries work because if I did sayith the Lord you would take it as endorsement that this is the way to do it one morning I woke up and thank God for that you don't take that for granted you know and the Lord was there waiting so gracious so kind instantly he took me into the the heavens and I began to see a vision of a creature I could not describe to you I saw this creature from a distance it was beautiful it was glorious it was just it was it was just amazing I was zoomed in closer to this creature and in the midsection of this creature there I was very small very minute but there I was the Lord looked at me and said do you know what you're looking at I felt like Ezekiel th knowest he said this is the bride of Christ and you are a cell in the bride he said I didn't say Brides I said bride and you individually are not just a bride what you are he said let me explain it to you he said I am so large that as the human body takes one trillion cells to make up one body each cell can live individually on its own each cell has the ability to to function on its own in fact the medical world will tell you that an individual cell is very much like a city it is not a simple life it is actually a very complex life he said but they must surrender the will of the cell the cell must surrender its will to become a member of the body he said I am so large that it's going to take all of you as individual cells to make one bride for me now he said what I'm looking for is a lover I'm looking for someone that will enter into the love affair may I tell you this the reason why a lot of us don't know how to rest we don't know how to come out of the Warfare the Warfare will wear you out nobody can stay in the Warfare 24/7 even Jesus pulled away and what many of us have missed is that the Warfare is empowered by the love affair it is the source to empower you
to perform the Warfare here's how it works the Bible says resist the devil and he will flee now that's Warfare but to resist I need strength so where do I get that strength the Bible says the joy of the Lord is my strength so I get the strength from the joy okay but now where do I get the Joy from in his presence is fullness I got the joy that gave me the strength to resist the devil from the presence there is a Biblical difference between between praise and worship the Greek word for worship is Pros Canal Pros means towards Canal means kisses when you worship God you are actually kissing God you throw kisses worship is not praise and praise is not worship you enter into his gates with and his courts with praise praise is strictly outer Court living that's exactly right when you're shouting and dancing and running the aisle most of you think that's the height of the service not to God you're just in out of court when you start going now to the plan because David is giving a tabernacle plan he said be thankful unto him now and bless his name that word name again character identity this is where you start worship worship is where you start sharing your love with God watch how it works a couple become the Bible says that Isaac was sporting with Rebecca sporting with her he was flirting with her when you praise God you talk about God you flirt with him you dance with him you're going I know you want me because I want you too I am my beloved say my beloved is mine then what happens is it slows down and you start walking to the bedroom you have on God's favorite cologne it's not Chanel Number Five it's not white diamond but let my prayer be as incense his favorite colone on you is prayer he smells you prayers are smelt in the nostrils of God the Bible says the Angels release it out of the Angel's hand come a sweet Aroma into the nostril of God you have on God's favorite garment the robe of righteousness if you will notice that in Revelation 19 that the bride has on white linen pure and white for it is the righteousness of the saint you walk towards the bedroom and this is why we have praise and worship before the word because now you lay down in a horizontal position or in a vertical position meaning you submit your will to whatever he wants now the word comes and impregnates you deposits the seed of God into you something of God is given to you but you can't have intimacy with armor and a lot of you are feeling condemned a lot of you are guilty for past mistakes missed opportunities and God said I want you to understand I came to the world when I talk about salvation when God's talking about salvation there are different definitions to Salvation it is not just initial salvation there is Progressive Sal salvation and there is Ultimate salvation right I'm sorry but we are so stuck on acts 238 until we are missing god listen to Paul Hebrews 6 And1 therefore leaving behind the principles of the doctrine let's move on to Perfection acts 238 cannot perfect you it was never designed to perfect
you that concept of affection means maturity lift your hands just a moment and just love him would you in this house come on just love him a moment he is so good to us I must tell you simply what he said he said the only reason why Souls count is because I said they count if I did not say Souls count you'd have to do something else they count because I said they count he said but you're missing the purpose for studying and for preaching may I say this to you preachers as God said it to me he said would you please stop studying to preach and would you study to know me would you study to know me if you will study to know me you will have plenty to say he said the purpose for why we're doing things we are missing it prayer means communication with God is talking listening one of the reasons that's been founded for divorce is lack of communication you see what's happening to many of you prayer is a duty I have to pray I have to pray I got to pray in order to to touch God I got to pray to get finances I got to pray to get healed like got to pray to win souls got to pray to it's Duty it's not love he's looking for a lover he wants you to talk to him because you love him not because you're afraid that if you don't talk to him he's going to slap you or condemn you but he said come here I want to hold you see what intimacy is naturally speaking intimacy is the revealing of the secret parts of your body what intimacy is with God is the revealing of the secrets of your heart when you uncover yourself to God the Bible says draw nigh to God and he draws nigh to you so you draw nigh to God and you uncover your heart at this point God draws nigh to you and uncovers himself when God uncovers himself this is what we call Revelation the word revelation means to uncover or unveil impregnation happens in God revealing himself to you in seeing him you now can become like him Daniel 11:32 is an equation they that know their God shall be strong and do exploits if you know him you will be like him being like him makes you strong and do exploits but God told me to say this to you many of you oh I know you wouldn't want to admit it he said but you dread Sunday mornings oh I I know it's supposed to be the high time I understand that it's supposed to be woo woo woo he said but you're really dreading it you're dreading it because you're afraid what's H going to mess up what's going to happen you you you you're you feel like everything's on your shoulders you sigh a relief when it's over man made it through another Sunday that was never the purpose of the service if you will love me sayith the Lord you will give birth to my children listen to what Jesus said to Peter I'm not going to be much longer listen to what he said to Peter Peter do you love me mhm then feed my sheep you know what most of us do we just jump to the feeding of the sheep you miss the whole point the point was the love if you love me then love persuades you to move not out of guilt not out of condemnation not out of Shame not out of fear of failure oh you you know what's happened to many of you comes time to fill out the report of how many people got baptized how many people got filled you're ashamed you feel guilty you tried everything you know you brought in every soul-winning program you tried
everything you know to do and now you got to fill out the report and send it in and you feel humiliated because you know others are going to have huge numbers I want you to hear me God does not base his pleasure on you on how many souls are saved God bases his pleasure on you on your worship we just heard it earlier he measures you by your worship somebody just lift your hands and worship him the Lord's come to remove the guilt move the condemnation move the shame off of you get the whip out of your hand stop beating yourself up he didn't come to condemn you let me love you let me take that armor off of you expose your heart to me tell me you're scared tell me you don't understand be real with me stop trying to fake it till you make it I want to tell you something I believe in Ministry please don't get me wrong but Ministry is a byproduct of intimacy and that's where we missed it we've missed the process we've missed the process if you will go into the holy of holies with him you will give birth to things it's a byproduct of it but you must learn to seek him for him and listen to me soul-winning has Seasons to everything there's a time and there's a season there's a time when God's not trying to win souls I oh God I know I'm I'm sounding Blasphemous I'll never forget I went to a beautiful church it was a strong UPC Church and the pastor had called me and said listen we got a lot of souls on the altar need souls to be worked with know you work with Souls come let's pray let's have great Revival let's have souls being saved awesome we got no problem with that that's great started seeking the face of the Lord started going after God went there four Services every sermon it seemed like God gave me was for the church do seem like an word for of souls I struggled I mean I struggled I I started fighting I started struggling and yet even though I struggled God wouldn't let me out of this till finally the last sermon I preached not one Soul had been saved not one Soul had been baptized and I felt like an utter failure pastor I was beating myself up I maybe I didn't fast enough you know what I should have gone five days instead of just through four it was time to go out to eat now I'm thinking just just take me back to my hotel room don't even give me the offering I don't deserve it we're in the car he got the his family in the car begins to drop people off at the front door of the restaurant I go to get out he says hold on I want to talk to you I go oh God it's on oh boy hey I have it I have it coming you know he made it clear and it didn't happen he pulls into the parking lot turns the car off bows his head and he starts crying till his whole body is shaking I'm going oh my God this is worse than I thought could we do the Rapture right now Lord please through his tears and his shaking he finally says to me I know why you were here I'm thinking God please tell me cuz I don't know he said A week before you came here I had a gun to my head he said the only thing that sto me from pulling the trigger as I thought you just might have a word for me and he said instead all four messages were for me and the Lord spoke to me he said see you would have been trying to save sheep and you would have lost the shepherd follow me I am the Savior not you get the guilt off get the condemnation off it interferes with your intimacy he didn't come to do that this is why a lot of you can't get pregnant you can't get pregnant in God cuz you're
condemned you go in and you worship but you're condemned you don't walk out with a baby it ties your tubes he's not trying to kill you Pastor shock brought us some beautiful message we've heard phenomenal messages thank God for all of them but he began to talk about rest and the Lord had to start talking to me about rest he said by the way did you do you he was talking to me he said do you understand that rest is a command it's not an option but wait a minute God there Souls that got to be saved you don't understand God I'm telling God this you don't understand God there Souls that got to be saved I don't get no time to rest he said if I wanted you like that that I would made you like the Angels who don't need to rest and he said when you don't rest you violate your design and in essence you tell me I don't know what I did by making you to rest I read in the scriptures Jesus said here's his disciples coming they had gone out and preached those were saved you know people getting delivered man this is awesome this is a move of God they're coming back they're shouting Jesus listen that's great yeah yeah yeah oh then he says now come you apart in the desert and rest a while he called them off the soul winning he called them off the Bible studies he called them off the laying hands of people and said come away and rest with me come away my beloved I couldn't do that I didn't know how to do that that was just contrary to my nature I didn't know how to do that that that that was sinful you understand no no no there's another Soul he said don't you understand if they were to run and try to get the other Soul even if they won the soul they would have been disobedient because I called them to come away and rest and they're running and doing something other than what I called them to do at the moment he said it's the spirit of word that applies the word of the Lord to your life so the spirit of the Lord makes the word of God alive to you the letter kills but the spirit makes alive so if the spirit is telling you go rest even though the word says there's more souls to save you must follow the spirit because the spirit will ultimately lead you to the Fulfillment of the word what's happening to many of you you're not resting in fact you feel guilty for resting yeah sometimes you'll sit back kick up in a recliner chair maybe go out and hunt or or do whatever but you feel guilty the whole time you're doing it that's not rest rest is a state of mind and even want a lot of you out there doing stuff you're you're not resting you're out there playing golf and you know what you're doing you're thinking about the thing you're getting ready to preach for Sunday morning that's not rest you can re think about the plans you got to do you almost like hurry up with this golf game I got work to do he touch your neighbor say he designed you to n rest tell someone it's a commandment it's not an option when God designed you to rest remember now about the Sabbath day the word Sabbath means rest I want you to notice the Ten Commandments the first four Commandments are towards God the next six Commandments are towards your fellow Brethren the fourth Commandment and it's not an accident for the number number four the number four is God's creative work through his creation like so that's why it's on it's the fourth Commandment that God said remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy remember rest is Holy rest is Holy so now he says now what happened when when they found a man working on the Sabbath day Moses says I don't know what to do with him hold him the Lord says Stone him kill him for not resting now isn't that a paradox yeah he was picking up sticks on the Sabbath day that's right he was working he didn't rest when he was commanded to rest and God said kill him for not doing it now did catch catch this I I want you to catch this because What's happen to a lot of you is you're letting your burden for souls and for the ministry push you
into Disobedience and you are you are camouflaging it by saying but at least I'm doing it for the Lord you can't do it for the Lord if you're disob the Lord the Lord spoke to me said now in this Grace dispensation what happens is Grace gives you a space to get it right so if you don't rest the first time Grace keeps back judgment Grace gives you a space it empowers you gives you gifts Mercy keeps the Judgment back and and you have time to get it right but if you keep doing it and doing it and doing it after a while judgment starts seeping through high blood pressure comes stress comes judgment you're starting you you're dying faster you don't have the stamina judgment is coming oh yeah you're doing it for Souls oh oh oh oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you'll love me when it's over but can I close by telling you this the concern of the Lord with the apostolic church is that you are so busy with the work of the Lord until you have not spent time with the lord of the work his second concern is you have confused spending time with the work of the Lord for spending time with him spending time with the baby or with your child is not spending time with your SP spouse spending time with the ministry teaching Bible studies doing Administration preaching the gospel or whatever other Avenue of ministry you are in is not spending time with God right and somewhere God has got to help us to come into an intimacy where we don't only just spend time with him to deal with the baby the ministry but sometime friend you've got to come to God and say it's me you know a lot of you a lot of you are so into intercession that you feel guilty and condemned for talking to God about yourself come on you are so consumed with the needs of others that you actually feel guilty for talking to God about your own needs one day the Lord said this to me he simply just said this he saidon I have an odd against you because you don't think I'm a good daddy no Lord I I think you're a good father he said no you don't he said what good Daddy what good father wouldn't celebrate their child's birthday why have you never asked me for a birthday gift I was there the day you were born and I breathed breath into you and I will celebrate that day but you think you're not worthy I've waited for you days on in but you did not come my heart bled I waited to hear your steps I thought you would come but you were too busy doing your own thing will you not listen to my voice will you not come into my chamber I have many things to share with you and impart to you I love you please come to me and I will bless you that is a Divine invitation I want you to hear me now you need to go find yourself a place if you want to sit in your seat you want to kneel you want to talk you want to or I mean you want to come to the front that's all up to you friend but we need just to find a place right now don't talk to God about the ministry about souls being saved don't don't talk to God right now about the word you need for this coming Sunday or about would you just talk to them about you there some of you you're Men You're women but you're scared you're pastors but you're scared you don't know how this thing's going to work this thing's larger than you and you don't know what too and he just needs you in front of his face right he doesn't want to condemn you he's not trying to beat you up some of you are beating yourself in
cup and condemnation man I I I can't preach like Bishop Mangum or I don't sing like sister Mickey Mangum God said I'm not condemning you I gave you the voice I wanted you to have you didn't choose that voice I gave it to you come on and just love him would you this is true worship expose your heart to him ask him to teach you how to rest teach me teach me teach me how to rest teach me oh God Comfort my heart move this condemnation and this guilt shame hallelujah oh God I love you God I love you God I love you Jesus I love you you we're going to get ready to pray right now together and I want to just tell you this as we're going to get ready to pray together the Lord is reaching to get the whips out of your hand for many of you are whipping yourself if you don't do something right you whip yourself even though he was already whipped for you if you get up and feel like you to preach and you mess up you go back after the sermon doesn't matter how many people were blessed you go back after the message and oh God that was bad oh God I I should if if you were singing and people were even blessed you go back and beat up oh I missed that note oh God I'm awful would you want your child to respond like that is that joy to you no you know what you do as you as a parent you pick the child up and say listen okay you didn't do everything right but that's okay I'm proud of you I love you that was good come on you'll do better the next time that's God didn't come to condemn you would you just do this right now if you could please just reach over and grab someone by the hand you say why simple this somebody just needs to know they're not alone right now somebody just needs to know they're not alone you're not alone you've been feeling like a failure you've been feeling like you'll never be good enough a lot of you don't know how to accept God's compliments you can only accept his criticism if he tells you you done good you're afraid of getting proud you're afraid of getting PR you have fear oh God we begin to pray and touch and agree right now together lift the spirit of condemnation lift the spirit of guilt let your wife come into the bed chamber and be productive through intimacy but let her understand it's about loving you it's about being in your face it's about being naked before you and these other things are the byproducts of it move the shame and the guilt that's binding up the productivity yeah yeah that's it that's it that's it pastor than
Scripture references as spoken: John 3:17; Matthew 7:21-23; Genesis 15:1; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:8; Hebrews 6:1; Daniel 11:32.