Transcript of a published sermon by Josh Herring, 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.
The head text and the subject
- The sermon opens with the head text read entire: Jesus comes to Bethsaida, and a blind man is brought to him by others who beg him to touch the man.
- He takes the blind man by the hand and leads him out of the town; he spits on his eyes, lays his hands on him, and asks if he sees anything — the man looks up and says he sees men as trees walking.
- After a second touch the man is restored and sees every man clearly, and Jesus sends him home with a charge to go neither into the town nor tell it to anyone there.
- His subject is announced from the story: your miracle is already in motion — and he thanks God in advance for what he is about to do in this place, as in the service earlier this morning.
Scriptures: Mark 8:22-26
Faith is vision: promise before proof
- You do not need a track record when you have a promise: faith is what it has to be in the moment — a gift, a fruit, a shield, a lifestyle.
- Satan asked for Peter for the same reason he asks for you: your faith is what he is after, and Jesus has prayed that your faith fail not.
- Faith comes by hearing, and hearing changes how you see: Elijah heard the sound of abundance of rain while his servant, sent to look toward the sea, saw nothing six times and only a cloud like a man's hand the seventh.
- And heaven keeps the same order: the rejoicing is over one sinner who repents — praise goes up before the evidence comes into view.
Scriptures: Mark 8:22-26
The miracle is in motion before anyone can see it
- On the backside of a mountain, before any deliverance, God told Moses: I am come down to deliver them — the work started before the people knew it had started.
- The feeding miracle was in motion that morning in a kitchen no one saw, when a mother made a lunch for a boy who would hand it to Jesus.
- Mary carried her miracle through confusion and pain, and carried it again into an upper room — the promise outlasts the season that hides it.
- The town that should have believed could not: Jesus marvelled at their unbelief, and unbelief in a place can hold back what faith elsewhere receives.
The second touch and the ministry close
- Jesus took the blind man on a walk away from the people who brought him: some miracles require separation from the voices that keep the view blurry.
- Men as trees walking is what happens when the flesh connects a new move of God to an old thing; and do not magnify a man — a guest preacher included — above your own pastor, who will stand before God for your soul.
- In a Jacksonville service, a deaf man's block proved to be a spirit and not a physical problem: when discernment dealt with it, his ears opened and he heard instantly.
- The second touch came with a command — look up — and with a boundary: do not go back to that town; the banked capture ends inside this closing ministry, mid-appeal.
Scriptures: Mark 8:22-26
Scripture index: Mark 8:22-26.
Transcript
he cometh to bethsaida they bring a blind man unto him and besought him to touch him he took the blind man by the hand let him out of the town and when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands upon him he asked him if he saw ought he looked up and said i see men as trees walking after that he put his hands again upon his eyes made him look up and he was restored and saw every man clearly he sent him away to his house saying neither go into the town nor tell it to any in the town isn't it interesting that jesus knew he did not live in that town without even asking him i want to talk to you this morning from the subject your miracle is already in motion your miracle is already in motion would you turn to somebody and speak those words to them your miracle is already in motion thank you jesus for what you're about to do in this place thank you for what you did this morning we give you all praise glory and honor have your way today release the gift of faith in every situation and every trial and every pew right now god you know what everyone's going through we give you all the praise and the glory for what you're about to do in this place in jesus name if you love him can you clap your hands to him one more time don't you he's so amazing praise god you may be seated the most amazing thing to me about faith is that faith transforms into whatever you need it to be in the situation that you are in it's a gift of the spirit it is a fruit of the spirit it is also a shield of faith in the bible when it talks about the armor of god so basically there's all other there's a lot of other places where faith is mentioned being a different type of weapon but basically faith is whatever you need it to be in the moment that you're in so if the enemy is shooting at you and attacking you faith becomes a shield to stop the attacks of the enemy if you are trying to help someone faith becomes a gift that you use to bless them if if you're going through something yourself and god is taking you through a trial faith is the fruit that grows inside of you during that crisis faith is amazing that's why satan wants your faith more than anything in this world that's what happened with peter when right after he had just entered into judas satan asked for peter in the exact same chapter hell is never satisfied he has just taken over one disciple now he's asking for another one and jesus said peter i've prayed for you that your faith failed not because jesus knew if the devil's after you there's only one thing he's after and that is your faith because if he gets your faith he takes away your future there's nothing you can do in the kingdom without faith for without faith it's impossible to please god and so you understand that anything roman said that is not done in faith is sin what's reversed not of faith is sin so faith is essential when it comes to the kingdom of god the bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of god the bible also says we walk by faith and not by sight so if faith comes by hearing the word and then if you walk by faith and not by sight it's connected to vision in the spirit what you hear determines how you see and so if you hear the word of god you will see things differently because faith that comes through the word transforms how you see your situation if you're never positive about anything you're going through you need more bible inside of you because if the word gets in you it transforms your vision of what you're going through it may not fix what you're going through but it helps you get what you're what you're going through because of faith [Applause] so faith in its simplest form is is spiritual vision it's seeing what you cannot see with your natural eye faith is seeing things that your natural flesh cannot expect to happen that's faith it's seeing something in the spirit and so every morning when you and i wake up we either walk in the flesh or we walk in the spirit we either see things our way and react our way or we see things in the spirit the way god sees them let me give you an example of of two people that saw it differently same situation there's been no rain for three and a half years elijah tells his servant go and look to the sea and see if there's any sign of rain and so he goes to the mountaintop looks up and there's nothing comes back down and said there is nothing and so elijah said go again in fact go seven times and so dude climbs the mountain seven different times i've been worn out by the first time seventh time he climbs the mountain comes back down the seventh time and said there's a cloud like a man's hand and elijah said okay there's a sound of abundance of rain here's what's powerful elijah never told him look to the sky he said look to the sea but the servant was walking in the flesh and so flesh has to have something as proof as evidence before it celebrates when you walk in the flesh you have to have evidence before you worship you have to have some kind of positive report before you give god praise that's walking in the flesh the servant kept looking up at the sky and there was no sign of rain but elijah said look to the sea why because when sun rays hit the sea the evaporation of the water goes back up into the sky forming clouds and drops rain on the ground in other words the source of the rain was the sea not the cloud and elijah said if as long as there's a source i expect a miracle i expect to get through this situation as long as god is still alive we will get through this as long as god is still on the throne we will come out of this because there is a sound of the abundance of rain my source is still alive so spiritual vision is seeing what flesh can't see so what are you saying so flesh celebrates the manifestation of the miracle the proof spirit celebrates the motion of it the beginning of it we react after god does it heaven celebrates before it happens let me give you proof we get excited and we should when someone gets baptized when they get the holy ghost we rejoice we have excitement among us because this is a new baby in the lord angels rejoice when the sinner repents we go crazy when we have the evidence that they've prayed through but when heaven sees them repenting they start to party before we ever get to because they know it's just a matter of time when repentance leads to salvation and there is an answer that we'll see so we celebrate after we see it it's like the israelites 430 years in bondage ten plagues get all the spoils of egypt head to the red sea they see pharaoh chase them they're mad they're complaining get through the red sea god opens it up that's pretty big deal closes it up on the enemy and then they get their tambourine we better start shouting because god did yeah well god was doing that but and so they go crazy after it's all done but way before that even started god met moses on the backside of a mountain and said i am come down to not i will come down i am come down to deliver them right now i'm delivering them they're not going to thank me until they get the evidence but i just want you to know i'm already moving before they thank me do you realize god's already doing something for you right now and you don't even know about it why don't you just praise him for what you cannot see and then you can thank him for what you do [Applause] [Music] and i'm gonna go one step further i feel the holy ghost he said to tell some of you if you knew what i was doing you wouldn't even paticate me you'd run the aisles because if you knew what i was up to you'd understand wow he's worthy of pre-miracle praise he's worthy of the praise before i see the proof yes why can i not praise him without evidence because i'm walking by sight once he does it oh we're going to shout we see our family member come to the lord we've been praying for years we see him coming and we're we're they're at church and we're going oh god i hope they go to the altar i hope we don't have one of those weird services where sister cray-cray does her thing she's sitting right in front of us sorry if she's sitting right in front i don't know who she is i'm just making it up you know anyway and you're going oh god i hope i hope i hope oh and then i hope the preacher i hope he preaches to my family member oh boy i hope he prayed i hope he brings it to her and then okay yeah okay i hope they go to the altar and they go to the altar and they start praying oh i hope god touches him and when we see him break through we go yeah thank you lord but three days before that when they were driving in their car saying i need to get back to god i need to get back to that church and they made the phone call to you we were just hoping because we walk in the flesh but the spirit said you should have been celebrating when they made the call to you because that was your signal that the miracle was all ready [Applause] we praise him after he provides after we see the miracle of the fish and loaves feed 5000 then we praise him but mom made that lunch that morning when nobody was around and that miracle was in motion when nobody knew about did you know god's doing stuff for you right now that you have no idea about that everybody in this church has no clue about but god is working it and you can't [Music] [Applause] let me move quickly so the reason i'm saying all that is because this guy needs a miracle he's blind he doesn't live in bethsaida they brought him there uh that say it is where peter's from where andrew's from where john is from phillips from jesus is coming from one direction into bethsaida they bring the blind man from another direction into bethsaida for this divine encounter this divine moment jesus is only coming here for this dude and so he's he's coming toward bethsaida they bring the blind man if jesus is coming anything can happen so they bring him to jesus you would think that he would just heal him right on the spot they had faith they brought him but instead the first thing he does to set the miracle in motion he severs the guy from his friends and says you're about to go on a lonely walk with me for a while now how in the world is this my miracle in motion when things start going bad we are taught that when god gives us favor when god opens doors when god gives us proof that stuff is in motion but in the spirit the signal your miracle is in motion is after he gives you a glimpse of it all hell breaks loose and when it's like he gives the demons the keys to the car and lets them drive you to your destiny joseph's dream was going nowhere as long as he lived at home with the coat of many colors but the second they threw him in the pit he was officially on hell's radar and his destiny was now in alignment with what his dream said because when you get a miracle in motion things start breaking down things start falling apart pain comes i told them this morning when when you talk about an awesome moment you're in your you're in your house and gabriel comes in your room hello i'm gabriel i don't know if he talked like that or batman whatever hello i'm batman hello i'm gabriel gabriel mary you're gonna have a baby the holy ghost is going to overshadow you no one's ever had this in the history of the world the savior of the world's in your womb wow i'm on my way miracles in motion right oh by the way as soon as i leave your boyfriend is going to want to dump you because he's not going to believe you and no one else is going to believe you and when you have the baby i hope you don't mind birthing him in a barn and all the other moms their babies are gonna die because your baby gets to live because the king is gonna kill all the babies because your baby's alive because he's looking to kill your baby and he's looking to kill it so he's looking so and uh so ferociously to come after your son that that you're gonna have to leave town and leave the country and move to a different nation you've never been in and live and around people you don't know and be a stranger in a foreign land and sit there until i tell you the king is dead now i'm going to come back and tell you just trust me i'm going to come back and tell you the king is dead until i do you stay there in a foreign land raising your son and when he's 12 you'll lose him in a crowd of thousands of people and you'll almost lose your mind because you can't find him and when he's 33 he will be executed publicly naked in front of you still want the miracle but if you go through all that you'll go to an upper room and suddenly there'll be a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it will fill all the room and the one that you're carrying now you'll carry again because he's going to come inside of you and you'll never lose him because you're officially on the road to your miracle it's in motion right now you don't have any idea you think it's just all pain but there's something you're going toward that's amazing [Applause] so he says i want you to walk with it so he's he's talking he's taking him on a walk and sometimes you got to walk with god before you get an answer and he's he's walking with god and and then all of a sudden he he's sitting there and and jesus just spits in his face i don't know if jesus gave my heads up hey dude i'm just going to spit in your face real quick uh-huh what he's just like how's things going huh it's been going okay you know i heard about you just wanted to heal you and i wasn't going to get healed and it's been a wild situation i've been through so much oh it's amazing wow well i'm here for hey i'm just going to spit in your face real quick huh and you like hear footsteps like where's he get in front of me what's he doing like i can't see but i'm about to blink anyway and he just spits in his face now i know that i should never question the lord but i i read that i go isn't he already going through enough you cannot even see i know i shouldn't ask the lord that's i don't want him to but it's just like wow lord he's already blind and then jesus says what do you see well first let me wipe um i i see men as trees walking this tells me that he has seen before because how does he know what trees look like he has seen trees but the problem is because we walk by flesh and not spirit when god's doing a new thing we want to connect the dots when the blessing is blurry and because we can't see what he's doing we revert to the past what he's doing now reminds me of what i used to see i just told him this morning if you're expecting a post or if you're expecting a pre-covert revival post covid you've got god in the box because god is going to do a brand new thing and if you force him to do it the way he used to do it it will be blurry to you and you'll wonder why he's not doing it like he used to do it but he's not going to stop doing it he's just going to do a use a new pattern but we cannot put him in a box i think it's going to be like that the reason we do that is flesh cannot see in the future flesh can only see in the past so flesh looks backwards when god's trying to move us forward and flesh says i know you're doing something i pick up on some motion but it reminds me of things i used to see see that's what got mary when she went to the tomb of jesus she said who will roll away the stone the reason she said that was because when her brother had died jesus came to his graveyard and said who will roll away the stone roll away the stone so mary assumed if i'm gonna see jesus i have to do what i did before to have something happen now but when she got there the stone had already been rolled away and god said to tell you that what you had to do last time you will not have to do anymore you will not have to do it this time because i'm already removing obstacles to your breakthrough that you have no idea [Applause] of being moved [Applause] somebody shout my miracles in motion you you you you kind of fixed it but it's still blurry you ready jesus knew he would touch him the first time and it would be blurry he's god he knew the man would say i see ministries jesus this is so cool jesus wanted to make sure the man could still hear his voice faith cometh by and hearing by the in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and the word became flesh the word is talking i know i'm working it out and you're so focused on the past but can you still hear my voice while you're trying to connect the dots will you keep the prayer meeting going when it's still dark when it's still foggy when the details aren't aligned yet and you don't have the proof will you still keep the prayer going he said i see him in his trees and when you see ministries you're magnifying men trees are bigger than men usually so when you magnify men as trees you're saying i i i see men bigger than what they are i told them this morning this is going to get me shot but i'm going to say it never fall in love with a guest preacher more than your pastor because here's why we've got too many people praising superstar preachers like they're the only thing that god uses you've got the same holy ghost every preacher on the planet does oh i know it's i know i'm not going to get popular with it but i'm just being real you've got the same path but that man's gonna stand before god for your soul one day so thank god for your you can love any guest preacher love me all you want but love him more that's the man that's answering to god for your soul don't magnify ministry i shouldn't tell the story but i'm going to tell i may have told it before i walked into i preached the service on a wednesday night went back on a sunday morning and walked in the lobby pastor greeted me at the little small little little tiny church walked in the lobby and this lady i could tell she was fooled the devil i walked in and she said oh good i got you both here at the same time about her pastor and me she said talking to me would you please teach our pastor how to preach i looked at him i said can i say what i want to say he said go for it please i said i hope god don't come back today lady because you're going straight to hell she said what i said you heard me i said let me just tell you something i could care less about you i don't even know you i said but that guy that you just mocked is going to stand before god on judgment day for your soul so you might want to rethink your request about a preaching sermon when the guy standing beside you will stand before god one day he tears roll he said thank you i said sorry but we need to put it in perspective this is the angel of the city this is the man god sent you be thankful and be you have the greatest pastor you could possibly have it's impossible to get better than this i'm off my notes but i'm in the holy ghost i feel it i know you love him i this is awesome and they're well deserving of it sorry i'll get back to my stuff so jesus touched him a second time watch first touch came with a question what do you see second touch came with a command look up don't go back to that town wait a second there is a touch coming that will give you so much clarity it will bring such divine direction it's not just a touch to strengthen you and to heal you it's also going to strengthen you and pull you out of what you were thinking of going back to oh i feel the holy ghost right someone this was not part of the morning service but somebody in here you're being pulled by a source in the world and you're considering going back to it and the lord said to tell you i am going to touch you a second time but i've got a command with that touch don't you go back to what you came out of because i've got something in your future that's greater than your [Applause] and for everybody else in here that needs divine direction why don't you throw your hands in the air because god said i will touch you again and i will bring clarity i will bring discernment i and he opened his eyes and he saw he still stay standing he saw every man clearly oh my goodness the miracle was in motion the whole time when he was alone when he was getting spit on when it was blurry when he was questioning when he was looking back at his past when he wished magnifying the wrong people god was staying with him the whole time i wish somebody could see what i see right now i wish you could see what the lord's trying to show you i've been here the entire time when you couldn't see your way out and i've been here the whole time and i came just to talk to you jesus didn't come to that town for anybody else he came with one directive to find the guy that could not see his way out find the guy that didn't have direction find the guy that didn't know what to do cause him to walk with you cause him to talk to you and then cause him to see things he's never seen by the authority of the word of god the power of the name of the lord jesus christ i release the gift of faith in this room right now onto every pew into every situation there's so many different things going on i'm sure in this room there's so many different situations and battles and struggles and some are physical some are emotional some are family some are grieving some are hurting in in all kinds of voids some are financial but i pray right now in the name of jesus that faith would just drench you that the gift of faith would come upon you like a blanket like a cloak and would surround you and when you want to voice your doubt you can't because faith is making you believe and it doesn't make sense but you're holding on i release that upon you right now i release vision gosha and virtue in this room in the name of jesus to every situation that is blurry let there be clarity to every situation where there are no details let there be divine answers in the name of jesus christ release it in this room right now would you throw your hands up and would you begin to worship the lord and when you begin to pray in the spirit [Music] i'll tell you the holy ghost when i see god god there are gifts in this room right now and the one gift i'm really feeling is the gift of discernment is hovering in this room discerning of spirits we call it discernment it's really discerning of spirits the bible calls it you're gonna see what's really behind what you're talking to god's gonna give you sensitivity in the spirit to know what's really going on i remember a guy that walked into the service one time in jacksonville florida i i remember like yesterday sunday night earrings in both ears walked to the front a hispanic guy walked to the front sat down sat in front of where they had the um the deaf ministry going on and the lady was giving sign language he was deaf and she was giving sign language to him and and and and so we had a great service and went down to pray that everyone was praying for him went down and prayed god open his ears open his ears that he might see or i might might hear how many with my hair and so and he's he's got his eyes closed and he's praying he said god opens he might hear and he's and i'm praying and praying nothing happened i prayed over and over and i mean nothing put my fingers in his ears nothing i tried everything finally i just said god i i guess it's not your will he said it's not physical it's a spirit because i said to one person in the bible come out that dumb and deaf spirit sometimes it's physical sometimes it's spiritual he said you're trying to pray for healing when there needs to be deliverance i just looked at him his eyes are closed he can't hear me i said spirit of deafness come out as soon as i said that he instantly i'm not trying to gross you out he began to like vomit in his hands and dry heave someone told me they counted 500 times he did this in 30 minutes i mean it was like we were almost gonna call the paramedics he was something was wrong and when he got done he knelt on his knees i'll never forget it and then he signed something to the lady and i said what did he just say and she said he said the screaming and the torment is gone and i said then lord open his ears and instantly he began to scream i can hear i can hear the first touch it was it was blurry we were on the right track but god can show up with divine and when discerning of spirits hit he was delivered i pray god releases that right now in this room so you know what to do when to do it how to do it where to do it how to say it who to say it to how to text it what this ah i pray god orders your facial expressions your responses your tongues your words i pray a release of discerning of spirits upon you so you're not walking around blind getting hit left and right having to react to every bit of chaos that's coming at you but i pray god would give you clarity so you will see before it comes
Scripture references as spoken: Mark 8:22-26.