When the Disciples Multiply

Praise the Lord, everyone. [He leads the congregation in a song about the kingdom:] "Stepped on the scene, everything changed. When He cast out devils, He was saying, 'This is what it's like in My kingdom. There are no devils.' When He opened blind eyes, He was saying, 'Where I come from, there is no blindness.' When He unstopped deaf ears, He was saying, 'Where I come from, there is no deafness. There is no lameness. There are no lepers. No one dies.' He brought the kingdom down to earth, and we are the kingdom of God."

We just sang a powerful biblical song. Sometimes songwriters' theology is a little off, but whoever wrote this song, their theology is right on. Amen. Everything changes when the kingdom of God comes. Everything.

Right now, we're going to come against discouragement, depression, anxiety, fear, and spiritual weakness. If you are suffering right now with fear, anxiety, depression, or spiritual weakness — you just feel a little weak — I want you to raise your hand right now. Just raise your hand, all over this house. Just be real. Just be honest. We all battle with it. All right, now they've got their hand up. I want you to put your hand on their shoulder. I want you to take authority over it. Fear is going to leave. Anxiety is going to leave. Depression is going to leave. Discouragement is going to leave. Come on, I want the body of Christ to bring the kingdom. Come on, bring the kingdom. Speak it by the authority of the Word of God and the power of the name of Jesus. I command fear to go. I command depression to go. I command anxiety to go, in Jesus' name. Oh, come on, somebody bring the kingdom right now. Bring the kingdom. Yes, yes. Hallelujah. Oh, let's clap our hands and let's praise the Lord. Depression is leaving. Fear is leaving. Anxiety is leaving. Spiritual weakness has got to go.

If you have pain — if you have pain in your body, a headache, pain in your back, your feet, your legs, your knees, your joints, your neck — if you have pain, I want you to raise your hand right now. So many people are carrying pain. Look around, brothers and sisters. We're going to bring the kingdom to these brothers and sisters right now. Put your hand on them. Say, "By the authority of the Word of God, according to the power of the name of Jesus, I command pain to go." Command it to go. Command it to go. Bring the kingdom. Yep. Oh, the kingdom is here. The kingdom is here. The kingdom is here. The kingdom is here. Hallelujah. Thank you. Oh, hallelujah. Somebody clap your hands — clap your hands to the Lord.

Now we're going to testify. If you were prayed for, for depression, discouragement, fear, anxiety, spiritual weakness, or because you had pain in your body, and something has changed — would you lift your hand right now? If something changed — is the pain gone? Come on, raise your hand if the pain is gone. Is it gone? Look at this — hands all over the house. Glory. Somebody brought the kingdom. Oh, Jesus is in this house.

Praise God. I love everything that I see here and feel in this meeting tonight, in this great Connecticut revival district. Are you glad to be a part of a revival district? And when you drove up on this campus and walked in this magnificent facility, that's all you need to know about the favor of God on your bishop and his wife, and the congregation that they lead. Are you thankful for your leadership?

For your sakes, I wish that the announced speaker could be here tonight: Brother Josh Herring, church planter in Frisco — which is Dallas area, Texas. He is a very, very dear and close friend, brother, and colleague in the ministry. His family came down with COVID. I checked on them yesterday; they're all a little bit better. Continue to pray for them. So we stand in his stead.

And I'm reading tonight from Acts chapter 6. So good to be among so many friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. And it is a great honor to serve this conference and to minister the word tonight. My preaching partner who opened this service tonight — I don't know who you are, or where you went — but you were awesome. And so was your interpreter. Amen. If you can speak Spanish and English, you can preach to three-fourths of the world. And that was awesome.

I'm reading tonight from Acts chapter 6, verse 1 — just the first portion — and then verse 7. Acts 6:1: "Now in those days" — everybody say, "those days" — "when the number of disciples was multiplying." And then verse 7, skipping down to verse 7: "And the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith."

In case you're wondering: I have never seen verse 7 in the 21st century. I have never seen the word of God increase like it did in those days. I have never seen the number of disciples multiplying in one city, greatly. I have never seen a great company of denominational pastors — which is what that means — become obedient to the faith. But the book of Acts is our prophetic destiny, and I believe we are going to see it. My subject tonight is simply entitled, "When the Disciples Multiply." And everybody's going to help me preach by saying "Amen" at least one time. You may be seated. And most of you got your amen already out of the way, but I appreciate everybody being seated, because that means we have a spirit of unity, and you all are going to help me preach. There's such incredible atmosphere here tonight.

If I were to offer you, every one of you, a million dollars cash money, right now — or I offered you a penny, doubled every day, but just for 30 days — how many of you would take the cash money? A million bucks, right now. We have a lot of independently wealthy people, I can tell right now. I am speaking to an economically astute audience. How many would take the penny? How many are not sure? Well, I can tell you that if you took the million dollars, you would go home really happy, and you would find lots of things to do with that million dollars. But 30 days from now — while you've been laughing at the penny people: "You should have took the cash on the barrel. You took that lousy penny, doubled every day for 30 days" — well, after 20 days, the people that took the penny might have think they made a bad choice, because it's only worth ten thousand dollars. But in 10 more days, that ten thousand dollars becomes ten million dollars.

Albert Einstein was asked the question, "What is the greatest discovery of your lifetime?" I thought for sure he might say, "Well, of course, my theory of relativity." That's not what he said. He said, "The greatest discovery of my lifetime is the law of compound interest." Interest that compounds has a phenomenal rate of growth over time. And I'm saying to this audience, this great revival district, that there is so much faith here. There is so much excitement. We're talking about mountains being moved. We're talking about chains breaking. Bishop preached about breakthrough last night — praise God. How many believe what our Bishop preached last night? We're headed to the greatest breakthrough, the greatest visitation, the greatest revival. And God needs every penny in this house. God needs every penny in this house. If we will get serious about becoming a book-of-Acts church, if we will get serious about living like they lived, if we will — when we get serious about obeying Jesus Christ like they obeyed Jesus Christ — amen, we will have what they had. We will see what they saw. We will do what they did.

The impulse of Pentecost, the Pentecostal spirit, the Pentecostal impulse, is to go back to the beginning. Turn to somebody, say, "Let's go back to the beginning." I mean, we've got to go all the way back to the beginning. I heard about one old bishop who was preaching one night, and the church was helping him preach. And he said, "Back before God created Adam and Eve" — and the church had gone back, "Bishop, going back." He said, "Back before God said, 'Let there be light.'" They said, "Go on back, Bishop. Go on back. Take us back." He said, "Back before there was God." They said, "Oh, wait a minute, Bishop. You went too far back there." I'm not talking about going back before there was God, because you can't ever get back before there was God. Amen. He was the first and the last. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and the ending. You can't go back before there was God. He always was. He always will be. He's the God that brought the church into existence. He's still the God of this church. And what He did for the first church, He's going to do for the last church. Oh, yes He is. He's not coming back for any less of a church than He started on the day of Pentecost. Amen.

So let me tell you what our challenge is. Now, I'm a deep preacher, so everybody get a theological deep look on your face right now, because I'm deep. I'm so deep, I talk about deep theological things like apples. And I brought a picture of an apple, just so you can go deep with me. Okay, here we go. You're going to be so impressed. So, what are the parts of an apple? At the top, that little thing sticking out is a stem. And then the red stuff wrapped around is called the skin. And then just inside that red skin is the cold, delicious, sweet part of the apple we call the meat. And then inside the meat, in the middle, is the core. And then inside the core is the seed. Man, I could have an altar call right now. So we know the parts of an apple.

Now, how many seeds are in a typical apple core? I heard six. I heard four. Five to eight. Five to eight seeds, typically, in the core of an apple. And do you know what happens if you take one of those seeds and go plant it in the ground? It becomes an apple tree. And every growing season, a mature apple tree can produce — do you know how many apples in one growing season? Three hundred to five hundred apples in one growing season.

Now let's imagine — and this is how most of us pastors think about our local churches. If I was in New York, I could preach about the Big Apple, but I'm not in New York. So here we go. So let's imagine that this apple is your church on Sunday morning. And I don't know about your pastor, but when I pastored, for 40 years, before I went to lunch on Sunday, I wanted to know: how many people came to church today? And if it was more than last Sunday, I was happy. And if it was less than last Sunday, I wasn't happy. And so I want to know how many seeds were in the apple. And that's what we've been doing. And this is why we haven't yet seen disciples multiply.

I've been in the United Pentecostal Church, with a license, since 1978. I have preached on four continents of the earth, and I have been in every state of the United States of America, for one reason or another. And I have yet to see disciples multiply. I've not missed a General Conference since 1983. I haven't missed it because of the Times, since 1987. I'm coming to my first WinterFire next year, and then I can go to heaven, finally. And I'm excited to come back and be here. But I'm telling you: I have never seen the word of God increase like that. I have never seen disciples multiply. I have never seen a great company of priests that are obedient to the faith. But I'm telling you, we are living on the edge of the precipice of the coming of the Lord, and it's going to happen. We are going to increase the word. We are going to see disciples multiply. We are going to see denominational pastors baptized in Jesus' name, and they're going to baptize their congregations. This is how we're going to multiply churches. We're not just going to multiply disciples; we're going to multiply entire congregations. And it's already happening. And let me explain to you how it's going to happen.

The wrong question is: how many seeds are in the apple? That's the wrong question. That's why it hasn't happened yet. The question ought to be: how many apples are in the seed? That's a different question. We think we're counting all the seeds on Sunday morning, because we think all the ministry has to happen at our church on Sunday morning. That's what I call churchology. We think everything spiritual has to happen at an address, on Sunday morning. On the count of three, I want you to tell me the address of the church you're going to worship at this Sunday morning. Give me the address. Ready? On the count of three: one, two, three. That's the seeds in the apple. And we put all of our eggs in one basket — all our seeds in one apple. But I've come to ask you a question: is it more important what happens on Sunday, when the seeds are all buttoned up in the apple, or is it more important what happens Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday? Sunday — oh, come on.

I'll tell you what I'm tired of. I'm tired of dead, dry, stained-glass, dried-up, traditional Pentecost, where nobody's doing anything for God, and they're just waiting to sing their three songs, pay their tithes, get in the choir, say "Amen" to the preacher, go to lunch, and then do nothing with their life, and make no investments in lost people. And I'm telling you, that's got to change. That is not what you're called to do. God has called you to go make disciples, and be a world changer.

We talk about being world changers. Somebody said, "World changers." We hear it a lot at Youth Congress. It's great. We hear it at youth camp. We say it to the next generation. We want to give them hope that they can make a difference. But what does it really mean to be a world changer? Let me talk about it.

So, as a young 25-year-old pastor, I was elected by 41 voters, unanimously — but that was the best vote I ever got, and all the pastors said "Amen" — and I decided — elected by 41 people, in a building a third, maybe a fourth, this size — I decided my revival can touch the world. Come on. I may be in a little small church in southeast Wisconsin. And I was there for five years — then I'll have time to unpack that story. But there was a lot of challenges there, a lot of traditional Pentecost. They hadn't baptized anybody in two years. The baptistry was a spider condo. And so the second Sunday I was there, I emptied it out, cleaned it out, filled it up, warmed it up. People walked in on Sunday morning: "Oh my God, look what a young pastor — he's pretty bold, come in here and fill up the baptistry." "Well, that's not exactly a novel idea, Pastor. What's going on?" "Well, we might baptize someone today." "Oh, well, we haven't baptized anybody in two years." I said, "Welcome to my world. That's why I'm here." And in the first three months, we baptized 16 people. That church had never seen a revival like that. Why does that happen? Because I believe that my revival can touch the world.

On the count of three, tell me what city you live in: one, two, three. Let me tell you something: God has a revival for your city, and your city can touch the world. Your church can touch the world. You can touch the world.

Brother Royston pastored in Perth, New Brunswick. His congregation was never more than 75. But one Wednesday night, he has a missionary — a missionary comes and presents his burden. If the church is 75, probably Wednesday night there's 35. There's a little seven-year-old boy there, and he heard the missionary, and the missionary touched his heart. And they said, by the time he turned eight, anytime anyone asked him what he was going to be when he grew up, he said, "I'm going to be a missionary." And it's sort of like, oh, an eight-year-old — yeah, be a missionary. Go eat your Cheerios, and call me in the morning. But he couldn't get away from it. When he was 14, he had a vision. In this vision, he was on a large river, floating on a watercraft. And there was black water coming from this side, and brown water coming from this side, and there were jungles in the distance. And ten years later, he's on the Amazon River, as a fully appointed missionary: Benny and Teresa DeMerchant — the future apostle to Brazil. Today there's dozens and dozens of Bible colleges. There's thousands and thousands and thousands of churches. There's hundreds of thousands of constituents in Brazil. Don't say my revival can't touch the world. You never know who you're discipling right now. You never know, teacher, who's sitting in your four-year-old Sunday school class. You've got to plant seeds. You've got to multiply yourself, and invest in them. Come on, pastor, you've got to believe: my revival, in my church — I can touch the world. I can touch the world.

If I didn't believe that, I'd resign today. Wait — I did resign in February. I handed — my son was elected as my successor. And let me tell you something: there's no success without a successor, and succession is Apostolic. I still feel good. I can still preach the house down. Say that in sign language: preach the house down. That's what I'm talking about. But it was time. It was time. I don't have time to preach about that. But I'm just telling you: for the last 35 years in Kansas City, I've preached like my revival can touch the world. I've made disciples like my revival can touch the world. I've trained leaders like my revival can touch the world. We've sent out pastors. We've sent out evangelists. We've sent out missionaries. We've got 15 adults right now all over the world from our congregation — from the Middle East, to West Africa, to South America. Hallelujah. Because I believe my revival can touch the world. I believe it. What are you waiting for? Say — oh, you're a preacher. You're a preacher. You're an extrovert. Well, I don't even know if I am an extrovert, but I just love people. I'm in the people business. And so let me tell you about Ernie Cox, who's not a preacher. He's a factory worker in Cincinnati. And he loves God. And every day he's like, "God, let me touch somebody for You. I'm not just here to do my job, put in my 40 hours, punch my card, clock in, clock out, work here for 40 years, get my retirement, have enough money to retire, and then die." He's not that. He's reaching.

There's a man that works beside him. His name is Denzel. And Denzel is an alcoholic. And there's trouble in his house. And Ernie hears him saying a few things, and he reaches out to Denzel. They sit down and have their lunch pail — they're factory workers, and they're having lunch together day after day. And Ernie starts writing out scriptures and putting them in Denzel's lunch box. And Denzel gets home — oh, comes in next morning: "Ernie, did you put that scripture?" "Yeah, I put that in there." "He said, that's exactly what I needed." And so one day Denzel told his wife — he said, "I can't stand most Christians I've ever met. But if I ever decide to be one, I'm going to be the kind of Christian that Ernie is."

And so some time goes by. Denzel comes to work on a Monday morning. He's smiling, he's excited. Ernie said, "Denzel, what happened to you?" He said, "Oh, I went to a friend's church yesterday and I got saved." He said, "Oh, you did? Tell me about that." He said, "The preacher preached. He invited everybody that wanted to get saved to come forward. I came forward. He told me what to say. I repeated his prayer. I signed a card. He shook my hand, and he told me I was saved."

Now listen: this is where some of you would blow it. You would say, "Oh my God, you didn't get nothing. When I — you've been saying there, you know, don't show me nothing. No, we're no — no sinner's prayer, and God saved you — you need to come to a real church." That's not what Ernie said. He got the spirit of Aquila and Priscilla, who heard Apollos preach. He was fervent in the Scripture. He was mighty in word indeed. They didn't put him down and take away everything from him. They said, "You were awesome today. But have you heard of water baptism for the remission of sins in the name of Jesus? Have you heard of the infilling of the Holy Ghost?" They expounded unto him the word of God more perfectly.

So Ernie was wise. He said, "Oh, Denzel, that's awesome. I see the smile on your face. I see you've got joy." He said, "You went to your other friend's church. Would you come to my church this Sunday?" He said, "Oh, I'd love to come and visit your church." So he came. Ernie's pastor preached on water baptism. Denzel said, "I want to get baptized, have my sins washed away." He came back the next Sunday. The pastor preached on receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and Denzel was filled with the Holy Ghost. And a few months later, God called him into the ministry. And then God called him, sometime after that, to go plant a church a few miles down the road, which he did. And then while he was pastoring, God called him as a missionary to the Philippines, and he obeyed the call and went to the Philippines. And then God dropped the bomb on him and called him as a missionary to the island nation of Madagascar. And when he got there, there was only 12 churches and six licensed ministers. But today Madagascar is one of the greatest revival nations that we have. There's over a thousand churches. There's over a hundred thousand — don't tell me you can't change the world. Don't tell me, "Your revival — Mr. Factory Worker, Mr. Eight-Hours-a-Day, 40-hours-a-week" — don't sit there and say, "I can't change the world. You can't be a world changer." If you get the Spirit and go out of the house of God and plant a seed — oh, somebody clap like you mean it. You may be seated.

There are 34 million Oneness Pentecostals in the world today. 34 million. And that's great, except it's only .03 percent of the population. You know why? Because we're still counting the seeds in the apple. We're not asking the right question: how many apples are in the seeds? But here's how powerful what we have is. Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all nations." He's not saying go across the world. He's not saying jump in a plane and go to Central America, Africa. He's not saying go across the world. He's not saying go across the state. He's not saying go across the city. He's saying, as you go — right here, there's somebody in this house tonight who needs you to walk across the aisle and introduce yourself to them. Don't just hang out with your friends and your little fellowship circle. Go out to eat tonight with all your bunch — why don't you invite somebody who doesn't look like you? I'm preaching to the choir, because you already got that. Most of my disciples don't look like me, because that's what Jesus taught us. I'm not really being intentional about that. I'm not saying, well, I'm not going to disciple any white Anglos — you know, that's not — I'm not saying that. It's just how it happens. I'll talk more about that tomorrow.

But here's how serious this is. If 34 million Oneness Pentecostals — and I'm not saying everybody has to be a Oneness Pentecostal, but you do have to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, as Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, okay — how many years would it take, if you took an entire year to disciple and plant your seed — for one entire year, plant your apple seed for one year, and then after you disciple that person — well, how do I disciple somebody? Well, just read your Bible. Matthew 11:19: Jesus was the friend of sinners. All right, that's right. See, I read the Bible. I don't read church growth books. I just read the Bible. I have read them, but they didn't help me much. The Bible really helped me. Jesus turned sinners into friends, and friends into disciples.

Do you know how long it would take if 34 million — let's start with 34 million — you know how many years it would take? You say, "Well, it'd take my lifetime and three more lifetimes." No. It'd take nine years to disciple. And I know the whole world is not going to be saved. I read my Bible. I know they're not going to be saved. I've met people. I know they're not going to be saved, unless their heart changes. In nine years, what could happen in Connecticut? I don't know how many we got here tonight. 300. Let's say we got 300 here tonight. What could we do in the next 10 years? If somebody did the math — I know it's theory. I know it's 300 times 2 times 2 times 2 times 2 times 2 times 2 times 2. But I guarantee you, we can disciple almost, if not the entire population of, the state of Connecticut, if in this room — is that 10 times 300 — 300 times 2 times 2 times 2 times 2 — just keep it going. I don't even care about that. I didn't even know how many we've got, or what the population is. I'm just saying that what happened in the book of Acts chapter 6 — let me explain what happened. Disciples were being multiplied, because they weren't counting the seeds on Sunday morning. But everywhere the church went, they were impacting lost people.

If you would have walked up — if you would have walked up to a first-century believer — stand up, sir. If you'd have walked up to a first-century believer and said, "Where do you go to church, my brother? Where does Pastor Peter — where is his pulpit at?" — that guy would have went, "Huh?" Thank you. They didn't have dedicated church buildings for over 200 years after Pentecost fell. The first dedicated Christian building wasn't even built, I think, until about 240 or 250 A.D. Over 200 years. How did they have the revival? Let me ask you a question: if Jesus was a pastor today, would He have an outreach department? Come on. I don't think so. You are the outreach department. Why do we need a department for that? This is the vision. What are we waiting for? What's holding up the delay?

I shouldn't think — if Jesus was a pastor in the 21st century — yeah, but we got this churchology. "Come to church. Come to church. Come to church. Come to church." I can't tell you the last time I invited somebody to church. I take the church to them. Jesus never said, "Y'all come to church." He said the church go to y'all.

I know we got this beautiful arrangement right here. But behind this arrangement is something we call the pulpit. Now, the Bible says the word of God increased. Is that the text we read? So what does that mean, "the word of God increased"? Does that mean all the first-century Christians ran down to the bookstore — the Christian bookstore — and they bought big family Bibles? They bought big family Bibles. "Oh, the word is increasing. We bought bigger Bibles." Oh, the word is — no. Did they have Bibles? Could they go down to the Christian bookstore and buy a lousy five-dollar Bible, a little New Testament? No. The only Bible they had was in the synagogue, in a whole community, and it was locked in a little cabinet. So how did the word increase? I told you I was a deep preacher. How did the word of God increase? I'll tell you how it increased. They didn't just go to church and listen to the apostles on the first day of the week, and Peter got up like I did tonight, gave his text, preached a sermon with three points, had an altar call, then they went to lunch. That's not how they did it. They didn't even have one of these. Did you know that a pulpit is not even Apostolic? We talk — we're Apostolic, we're Apostolic, we're Pentecostal Apostolic. Well, a pulpit, for starters, is not even Apostolic. And we got 11,000 preachers in the UPCI, and we can't even get all of them to preach, because they think they have to have one of those before they can preach. Oh, come on, people. We got to get back to the first century. I feel the Holy Ghost calling us back. We got to get the seeds out of the apple. We gotta get him out of the apple. Everybody all right? I'm just reading the Bible.

Yeah, the Bible says in Acts 8:4: "And they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." They didn't have Bibles. They weren't lining up and taking turns. [He brings the front row up and has them preach to the congregation, one after another, to laughter and applause.] Is that what was going on in the text? "They that were scattered" — why were they scattered? Persecution. Oh, he said a bad word. They were scattered, not because they'd been fasting and praying. They were scattered, not because they were operating in seven of the nine gifts of the Spirit on a good Sunday night — it would rise with a gust of wind, it would go up to eight or nine gifts of the Spirit. Why are they scattered abroad? A push came on the church. Somebody just push your neighbor, just a little bit. A push came on the church. Somebody say, "a push." A push came on the church. What happened in January to March of 2020? A push came on the church. It's only the beginning. More pushes are coming.

But look: this building, these people scattered. The people that used to call this church their church — I don't know where they are. This pastor bought this church for pennies on a dollar. And more of that is going to happen, because uncommitted people in traditional churches could not withstand the push. But the Pentecostals are still here. Come on, we're still here. COVID didn't shut us down. And I'm telling you, more push is coming. Persecution is coming. Trouble is coming. But it's not going to stop the church. It's going to put the church out into the street. That's not going to be the only pulpit where you're going to be preaching. You're going to be preaching at Starbucks. You're going to be preaching at McDonald's. You're going to be preaching at kitchen tables. You're going to be preaching anywhere there's a hearer of the word. What would happen if 300 people in the next 24 hours would go preach to somebody? Say, "Well, I don't have a license to preach." Just read your Bible. Don't wear me out. Give me a break. Go preach. Paul said, "Preach the gospel." How do you preach? Tell somebody your story — what Jesus did for you — and put the gospel in it. "I repented of my sins. I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and He washed my sins away. He delivered me from alcohol. He delivered me from drugs. He delivered me from anger. He delivered me from immorality. He set me free. What Jesus did for me, He can do for you." Preach. You don't need one of those to preach.

The word of God increased, because they went everywhere. That's why disciples multiplied. The Bible said, in the day of Pentecost, the Lord added to the church daily. Three thousand is not a bad addition. But in the Bible, 3,000 is an addition. Then the text shifts to multiplication. You've all heard this before, I know. Disciples multiplied. So when Luke is writing, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in Acts chapter 6, he said — thank you, Lord — when my readers read this text, they will recall that extraordinary window of time when disciples were being multiplied. They'll remember how exciting it was. They'll remember there was no division in the church. They'll remember that the division that rose up in Acts chapter 6 — it actually was racism, Hebrews and Greeks fussing at each other. And the apostles used wisdom to settle the issue, and it never came back. And God blessed the church right in the middle of this ugly thing that rose up. Spiritual authority said, "Here's how we're going to handle it." And actually, as our brother preached tonight, it was a blessing in disguise, because the issue of racism, when it was addressed by the leadership of the church, it actually decentralized the power of authority in the church. And the apostles shared their authority. They shared the ministry. They released others to do the work of the ministry. They chose seven men who were full of faith, and full of wisdom, and full of the Holy Ghost. And anytime you read the phrase "full of" in the text, it means controlled by. These men were controlled by faith. They were controlled by godly wisdom. They were controlled by the Holy Ghost. And the apostles laid hands on them. Think of that: they ordained table waiters. But if an apostle lays hands on you — to open doors, to drive a van, to clean the toilets, to run a vacuum, whatever it is — if you're ordained and you've come under spiritual authority, you're not going to be doing that the rest of your life. Philip's not going to be serving tables the rest of his life. Stephen's not going to be serving tables the rest of his life.

Stephen and Philip were so powerful. But they didn't have a UPC license in their pocket or in their wallet to preach. But if you don't think Stephen couldn't preach, you never read Acts chapter 7. And it actually ushered him to be the first martyr of the church. And with all the preaching of the apostles, [they] could not crack the shell of the fierce Saul of Tarsus. It was the way that Stephen died. And they that looked at him saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. And as the Spirit was leaving Stephen, he said, "Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge." And those people threw their coats at Saul's feet. And it haunted him. And he couldn't get away from it. And it kept him awake at night. "How could that man die like that? How could he look like an angel?" He could never get away from it, until in Acts chapter 9 a light shined down, and Jesus said, "Why are you persecuting Me?"

And Philip — don't get me started on Philip. He goes down, he leaves, he sat down in Samaria. He preaches Jesus, casts out devils, baptizes. But he sent for Peter and John, so the Holy Ghost would be poured out. The Bible said there was great joy in that city. And then the Spirit says, "Go out into the desert. I need the seed. Go down to the desert." He meets a man from Ethiopia who's reading in Isaiah about Jesus. He doesn't understand what he's reading. Philip preaches Jesus right out of the Old Testament. Can you do that? He had to do that. That's the only Bible he had. He preached Jesus right out of the Old Testament. And the eunuch comes to the desert place. He said, "Here's water. What would hinder me to be baptized?" And they both went down into the water. And when Philip came up, he was caught away. He was the first teleported man in the New Testament. He goes to Azotus, and he preaches all the way to Caesarea. And if you think Philip was just going to serve crabby old widows for the rest of his life, in Acts chapter 6, you never read the rest of the book of Acts. The Bible said Philip had four daughters that prophesied. What kind of a house, what kind of a man, is Philip? Four daughters are prophetesses. And where's Paul going to stay when he comes to Caesarea? Is he going to stay at the Holiday Inn? No. "I'm going to go stay with Philip, because I want to be in a house where there's going to be prayer." Why don't you turn your house into a prayer room? Why don't you turn your house into a Bible study center? Amen. Why don't you keep a pot of coffee when neighbors want to come over? Keep a Bible open somewhere. Turn your house into a prophecy center. Turn your house into a Bible study center. Paul wanted to stay there. The prophet Agabus — he wants to go there.

My wife and I ordered a new refrigerator a couple years ago. The 20-year-old refrigerator went out. I wasn't there when the delivery came. Two big old burly guys walked in, walked in the living room. "All right, ma'am, where do you want this refrigerator?" And a big old guy said, "Whoa, man, something's in this house." "What, ma'am? I feel something in this house." He said, "Ma'am, I'm in and out of houses all day long. I've never felt what I feel in this house." She said, "Oh, I know what that is. That's the Spirit of Jesus Christ." He said, "Ma'am, that's exactly what that is. I feel peace here. I feel love here." Amen, amen. We don't have to bring them to church — just bring them to your house. Amen. They'll feel what they never felt before, if you don't allow chaos in your house and you turn it into a prayer room.

So my favorite book of prophecy in the Bible is not Revelation. The only thing I understand about Revelation is Revelation 1:1: "This is the revelation of Jesus Christ." Where's Irvin Baxter when you need him? He slipped away from us, and he's with the Lord. I guess he was pre-tribulation rapture after all. And he was my friend and my brother. I don't understand Revelation. I understand some of it. It's not — my favorite book of prophecy is not Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah — name him — Habakkuk. My brother read Habakkuk 3:17, 18, 19. It's powerful. I read him. I love him. But that's not my favorite book of prophecy. My favorite book of prophecy is the book of the Acts of the Apostles, because Jesus prophesied in Acts 1:8. He said, "You shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. You shall be witnesses" — He's prophesying — "You shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem" — that's your local church — "Judea" — that's the region — "Samaria" — that's other cultures, other language groups, other people — "and unto the uttermost part of the earth." My favorite book of prophecy is the book of Acts. And I'm excited, because there's scriptures in the book of Acts that were for — things happened in the first century, and I'm coming to a close — but I have never seen in my lifetime — okay, can I just give you a couple of them? Listen to this. This is where we're going. Okay, this is where we're going.

Acts 5:28: they filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. Talk about the word increasing. Have you filled your city with your doctrine yet? You'll never do it as long as there's only one preacher, twice a week, on Sunday and Wednesday. It'll never happen. But if you will start going everywhere preaching the word, you will fill the city with your doctrine, and they won't be able to get saved without the doctrine — the doctrine of Jesus Christ, what Hebrews says.

Acts 8:8: "There was great joy in that city." Is there great joy in your city? I've never — the only time I've seen that, I've seen it three times: in 2015, when the Kansas City Royals won the World Series; in 2020, when the Kansas City Chiefs won the World Championship in the NFL; when they won it again last year. And I'll feel it one more time when they win it this year. Now I stopped preaching and went to meddling there. "There was great joy" — listen, this is Acts 8:8. This is before they received the Holy Ghost. They'd only been baptized, and they had miracles. And I'm wondering what would happen if I could get some of you to just smile. We just need a smile revival in Pentecost. Your church would grow by 10 percent in the next six months if you just start smiling. Come on.

I like this. Acts 13:44: "On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came to hear the word of God." You know, I hear preachers — I've heard two preachers say, "We're blowing the book of Acts away." Really? Have you filled all Jerusalem? Have you filled all your city with your doctrine? Are they going everywhere preaching the word? Huh? Is there great joy in your city? Have you preached almost to your whole city? Until you preach to your whole city, and tell everybody in your church goes everywhere preaching the word, until you fill your city with your doctrine, we are not blowing the book of Acts away. But the day is coming. We are going to be the double fulfillment of the book of Acts, and somebody's going to write our story. I just believe it's going to happen.

So we lost a good man. If I could get the keyboard person, please come. We lost a man named George Clemens during COVID. He had a health condition. If you show his picture — he's the one with the waterfall behind him. This man is not a preacher. This man was a drywaller. He had a drywall company, a construction company — could do just about anything. And he's a veteran, a military veteran of the United States military. And so he would go to the VA to be treated, from time to time. And George met a man there named Quat Noor. Would you show the picture? Quat is from South Sudan. And Quat was an ordained minister in another denomination. He was filled with the Spirit, but he just needed more revelation. And I say that not arrogantly. I say it very humbly. So George is talking to Quat one day. Quat has a ministry in South Sudan, but he lives in America. In fact, he's a naturalized citizen. He is also a U.S. military veteran. And so they're talking one day, and George finds out that Quat, he's got a bathroom in bad repair. "Well, that ain't very spiritual." Yeah, remodeling bathrooms is very spiritual, because you get to be in somebody's house, and you get to pray together, study the Scriptures together. Now, George is not a preacher. George is a blue-collar, faithful man, who believes his revival can touch the world. And so George is preaching, not behind a pulpit. And so George says, "Well, I'd like to fix your bathroom." And Quat says, "Well, what will it cost?" He said, "Let me come and look at it." He goes in there. He takes pictures, takes measurements. He comes back in a few days. His truck is loaded with materials — tub, toilet, sink, mirror, tile. I don't know, I don't know anything about construction. He brings it all in there. Let's use your imagination. I saw before-and-after pictures. Amazing. So when George was done, Quat said, "George, what do I owe you?" George said, "Only the debt of love. Give me a hug." But receives the embrace. He says, "What kind of a Christian — I got to come to your church. I've never seen anybody do anything like this."

He comes to church. We meet him. A few days later, George and Quat and I go to lunch. Then Quat and I are going to lunch a few times. One afternoon, Quat and I are sitting in my office. It's a Saturday. Quat is telling me about his ministry in South Sudan. I said, "How many churches do you have?" He said, "I have 20 churches under my authority." I said, "How many licensed ministers do you have?" He said, "I have 40." So that's impressive. These are my old — Pastor — not that impressive. "One of my churches meets under a big tree." I said, "It's still a church, isn't it?" "Yes, it's a church." I said, "I celebrate the church under the tree."

And so we're talking. I said, "Pastor Quat, do you cast out devils in South Sudan?" He said, "Yes, I cast out devils. Everybody in South Sudan has a devil. I cast them all out." I said, "And how do you cast out devils?" "What do you mean, Pastor?" I said, "What do you say?" He said, "I say, 'In the name of Jesus, devil, come out.'" I said, "Does he come out?" He said, "Every time." I said, "Pastor, you cast out devils in the name of Jesus. Why don't you cast out devils in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?" He said — oh, he looked at me like I was stupid. "Oh, Pastor, there's no authority in the titles Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." "So if you tried to cast out a devil in 'Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,' devil would come out?" "Oh, Pastor, I say in the name of Jesus." I said, "Pastor, if there's no authority in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, then why do you baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and do not baptize in the holy name where there's authority?" When I said that, he fell back in his chair. He said, "Oh, that's exactly what Peter preached on the day of Pentecost." He said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you" — he started preaching to me — "in the name of Jesus Christ." He said, "I'm coming to church tomorrow with my wife. I want to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." Let me tell you how you know somebody's got a revelation. He went back to South Sudan. He re-baptized his 40 ministers. And they baptized 20 congregations in the name of Jesus Christ. He said, "We have more miracles. We have more authority. We have more power than we've ever had." I'm telling you, the day is coming when a great company of priests are going to obey the faith. And I say, let it happen in Connecticut. Thank you.

Stand with me. Stand with me, all over this house. I've come to this conference to bring the fulfillment of Acts chapter 6 verse 7, in its 21st-century form, to the great revival district of Connecticut. The word is going to increase. The disciples are going to multiply. And entire congregations are going to be baptized.

I want to tell you: the church across the street is not your enemy. The other Christian church across town — it may not have your theology, but if they've got a Bible open on the pulpit — a push is coming against Christianity, and we'll realize that we'll start agreeing on what we can agree on, and we'll start having Bible studies on what others don't understand. And revelation is breaking in. Jesus said in John 16:13, the Spirit will guide into all truth. If they're filled with the Spirit, revelation is coming.

I'm releasing you. When we leave this conference, every time you drive by a Christian church, or you drive by a mosque, or you drive by a synagogue, just stretch your hand out. When I go to the airport, which is quite often, I drive by a temple with an angel blowing a trumpet on the top of it. It's the angel Moroni, who is the spirit of deception. And every time I drive by it, I curse that demon in Jesus' name, and his temple, to the ground. I remind him he's headed for hell. And I pray a spirit of revelation and understanding of the mighty God in Christ, and the Acts 2:38 gospel. Next time you drive by a church, stick your hand out — keep your eye on the traffic — but say, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I'm praying revelation. Let the fire fall. Let the Holy Ghost fall." Build a relationship with somebody. Thank you. The only thing that's better than that is take somebody to lunch and build a relationship. I'll talk more about that tomorrow.

How many believe that the book of Acts is going to be fulfilled, every verse of it? Come on, it's on us. We're anointed. The anointing is here. We don't have enough room for everybody to come forward. But if you believe that your revival can touch the world, I want you to come up here. If you believe your next Bible study can impact a nation, come on. Pastors, if you believe that you can build relationships, come as close as you can, because people are coming behind you. I want you to lift your hands to the Lord and cry out to God. Come on, somebody lift your hands right now.

[The altar call continues over music, Gleason exhorting the responders:] Come on, Connecticut, let's go. We are not ashamed of the gospel. We are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Disciples are going to multiply. Come on, let's pray for a spirit of multiplication. Pray for a spirit of multiplication. Come on, pastors, walk among the people. Lay hands on them. Come on, evangelists, walk among the people. Lay hands on them. Go. "Yes, you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Come on, young man. Come on, young ladies. Let's go preach. Let's go preach. Come on, we're bringing a kingdom. We're bringing the kingdom to Connecticut. Come on. God doesn't need to change your life — you just need to change your mind, change your life. You just need to change your calendar. Time for lost people. Make time for sinners. Make time to make friends. Come on, go big or go home. Let's go, Connecticut. Come on, young man — there's more for you than a career in engineering. Come on, young lady — there's more for you to do than to earn your nursing degree. Go preach.