JUN 17 2020 | Holy Spirit Workshop S1E1

Sea Change Church · Holy Spirit Workshop · "Holy Spirit Workshop S1E1" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · June 17, 2020
Genesis 27:30–38
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

And we just want to pray tonight and start the evening by inviting the Holy Spirit. And then we're going to go over some notes. I'm going to explain what we're going to be doing for eight weeks. And I expect the class to grow. I expect great things to happen. So let me just begin to pray. And let's invite just if you haven't done it before, just open your hands up and just invite the Holy Spirit. And just do it as easily as you would invite somebody to your house.

Just Holy Spirit, I invite you in. Holy Spirit, we invite you. Just in your own heart, just invite you into my heart, mind. Spirit, we just bless you and we thank you. We give you praise. We welcome you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, this is the Holy Spirit workshop. And we're going to be doing a few things. First of all, if you look at your notes, one of the things you're going to see is it is not a class. It is not a lecture series.

This is a workshop and it is a Holy Spirit experience. The hope of any workshop. When you go to a workshop, let's say we go to a pottery workshop. The last thing you would want at a pottery workshop is to never touch the clay. I remember when I was a kid, a little kid, they had clay day. And I just used to love making things. I made, my parents didn't even smoke. And I made them an ashtray with my first thing I made.

But I got to play and experiment with the clay. And one of the things that was really cool is, even though my parents didn't smoke, I didn't know what I was doing. I still, it was the easiest thing to make because I was five years old. And then I made a hippo and I have the hippo at my house. And I always liked the clay that had the sparkling. But they let me get my hand in the clay. And so, in this Holy Spirit workshop, we are not just going to talk about the Holy Spirit.

We're going to give you exercises, opportunities to seek the Holy Spirit, to try things out at home, to try things out together as a group. And to do different experiments of the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit, as we're here. And that is why it's a workshop. And so, if you'll see in the first part of your notes, it says you're allowed to practice and experiment with your relationship with the Holy Spirit for the next eight weeks.

If you make a mistake, it's okay. If you make a mistake, it is okay. Now, I came out of a lot of different traditions. Started in the Catholic Church and kind of wandered around from there. And I've been everywhere since. Almost everywhere. And in that time, when I was at the Wesleyan Church, they had this thing. With the gift of tongues. And they said, well, we allow for the gift of tongues. So, if you want to speak a tongue, you have to come up, raise your hand, walk up to the front.

This is at Skyline Wesleyan, like a long time ago, in the 70s. In 1979. And if you came up and gave a tongue and no one interpreted it, the ushers would come and kick you out of the building. You would be asked to leave the building. Who is going to experiment with that type of pressure? And so, I remembered learning very early that there were rules and there was etiquette. And Paul talks about that. Some of those are really, really good.

He said, there's certain times you shouldn't do things because you look like fools in front of the world. And if they came in to your church service right now, you would look stupid. But sometimes, I think, in the Western context, that has allowed us to kind of just throw the baby out with the bathwater. And so, this is an eight-week workshop experience. Some of you have been in CrossFit classes or some kind of cooking class or something.

And you expect to get your hands in the clay. And so, I want to give you an opportunity to get your hands in the clay. I had about an eight-year experience getting my hands in the clay. I'm going to explain a little bit about that tonight, my own history with the Holy Spirit. And God had started showing me his spirit for a long time. But in the situations in the churches I was in, it was regularly denied or not encouraged as I was experiencing things.

But God kept having me experiencing things anyways. I didn't know what it was. And I had no context because I wasn't surrounded by anyone or any mentors that could lead me in that. Then I ended up getting a job at a vineyard church in 1997. It was my first, quote, real job. And I didn't know what the vineyard was. I was just a youth pastor. I didn't really even know what the charismatic movement. I knew nothing about the charismatic movement.

I knew nothing about Pentecostalism. And I was a graduate degree. I had a BA in religion and a youth ministry minor. But never really studied much of that. Or maybe I just missed it. I remember when I was at Point Loma, we took a spiritual gift test. And mine came out prophecy, word of knowledge. Leadership. And then it was like administration. I mean, there was like, you know, and ones like that. And I remember they came out, here's your strongest three.

And the first one was like word of knowledge, prophecy. And there was one other one. And then the other ones were like more normative, like you would hear about. I don't remember. It was in the 19, whatever. It was 1989. And it was my first year in getting my BA. And I remember the professor saying, well, these first three at the top, don't really worry about those. We don't use those anymore. Use the bottom three. And it was like, I think it was like leadership and, you know, encouragement or something like that.

And I was like, oh, okay. Well, gosh, I wonder why that was on the test. But whatever. So, yeah, there was no leading into that. But in the midst of that, I was having a pretty radical conversion experience at Point Loma Nazarene College. I had come off the streets. I'd gotten sober. Within a month of getting sober, God started moving on our campus. I got saved. And started getting thoughts in my head that were more real than thoughts I'd ever had before.

Thoughts in the middle of the night. That, hey, there's somebody up that you need to go talk to up on campus. I'd be studying at 2 in the morning. Something I wasn't used to back in the day. And I got a thought. Hey, Gabe. I just got a really strong thought. Never had a thought this strong. Gabe, who you were talking to about Jesus, because I was really fired up for Jesus, is up on upper campus. Go up there and find him.

And I walked up there, and there he was with his girlfriend. I started speaking to him. I'd read the Gospels that day. I don't remember how much I read. But I started speaking the Gospels, and I spoke verbatim, word for word, two or three chapters of the Gospel. Straight out of my mouth. Like it had been memorized. I'd never memorized it. And I just spoke it authoritatively without even thinking about it. I just started talking to him about what I read, and it just, boom, it just came out.

As I walked away from there, I felt this just incredible heat hit my body in joy. As I walked away, we talked for like an hour, him and his girlfriend. I told him, hey, you shouldn't be sleeping together anymore. And I was telling him, you know, I was just out there. I was like, I had gone, like I was selling drugs like six weeks earlier, you know. And so I told him all those things. And then I walked away, and then I got this strong thought again with this power hit my body and this joy.

And it said, now you know that I'm real. And I was like, whoa. And so what is that? And then I just started, I'll tell different experiences as we go. I don't want this to be an Adams experience night because that kind of tailed off for about six years. And then I got a job at the vineyard. And all of a sudden, being at the vineyard put context to things that I had experienced before I ever knew they existed, which made them very real to me.

Because the Holy Spirit, when you start experiencing things of the Holy Spirit, and then you find out later on that these are things of the Holy Spirit, it wasn't like I grew up in a context of Pentecostals who did all this stuff. And I'm like, oh, I want that. Oh, I want the gift of tongues. Oh, I want this. I want the presence of God to fall on me, like in this certain way. Or I want, I seen all these things that I was striving to get to them.

I had no idea what they were. And not only did I have no idea what they were, things started happening to me. And I didn't know what they were. Or sometimes when the presence of God falls on you, your body will physically experience it. You see this with Peter falls into a trance. John on the island of Patmos. And your body will experience it. You see that Jesus was working with people. Sometimes they'd have a physical manifestation.

And so one of the things, when the Spirit of God falls on me sometimes, just like when God's creation and the wind blows on you, and we're going to get into Scripture here. I'm just telling you my story to start this out there, because I want this to be a scripturally-based class. And when the wind blows on you, my body kind of shivers sometimes. So I remember, like, sometimes when I'd be in the Word or in worship, all of a sudden I would just start getting like I was shaking.

And I'd be like, I'm cold. Or sometimes if my wife was, she wasn't my wife yet, if my fiancé was at my house, and it was like midnight, and I'm thinking she needs to go home. And, you know, thankfully God kept us in purity before we got married. But there was a time where I'd think, like, I don't want her to go home. All of a sudden my body would start shaking. And it was the weirdest thing. I had no idea what it was.

And I kept thinking, why do I get cold? Why do I feel cold? What is this? Fast forward six years, or a couple years ahead of that, and I get a job at the vineyard. I go to this conference. And they say, if you want to meet the Holy Spirit, come forward. I'm like, hey, I'm game. I'll have for it. So I go forward, and I'm up there. And as I'm sitting there, all of a sudden I'm like, man, it's the air conditioner? I'm cold again.

And I look to my left, and I look to my right, and there's like, I don't want to use hyperbole, 10 to 12 people, and six or seven of them are going like this. And I'm like, I've been doing this. And every time I did it, I would be like, make sure no one was looking at me. And I was usually alone, or praying, or on a retreat or something. And then I looked around, and I'm like, what the heck is this? I had no idea what the context was.

I'm just going to leave it there for right now, because I don't need to explain any more about that. We can talk scripturally, and we'll get into these things. Once again, this is a workshop and an experience. But I have to say, from that point on, like a rocket ship, I started like, diving into what is this? I started reading about the revivals of the 1800s. I started reading about the Jesus People Revival in the 1970s.

I started reading about all the Pentecostals, and the charismatics, and began experimenting. I was a youth pastor by that time. I had had my degree. I was in graduate school at this time. I was 27 years old. I had a youth group at the vineyard. They allowed it. They were up for things. I started going on mission trips to different parts of the world, Thailand, working with other Christians. When you get out of the Western mindset world, you are going to experience way more of the Holy Spirit, because our scientific understanding, our materialistic understanding, doesn't allow for a spiritualism that exists.

There's another realm. So, with that said, God began to move, and I ended up actually working for a very charismatic ministry out of England. If you've heard of Matt Redman, he wrote a bunch of songs like Better Is One Day. He wrote The Heart of Worship. I worked for this ministry, this British ministry that was very charismatic, and I dove in completely, had a great time, to the point where I was, if I was on the street, moved to Australia, I'd be on the street, and God would say, hey, I just want you to get on your knees and cry out to God for this city.

I'd do it. I'd be like, I'm down. Let's do it. We would take our guitar and go downtown in front of strip joints, and we'd get eight or ten of us in a circle, and we'd start worshiping. We wouldn't go in. And as we worship, people would walk by and fall down. Like, just get slain in the spirit. Now, I've been here seven years, I've never talked about any of this, because there's a reason for that, and I'll tell you that, too.

Australia didn't, I'm not a fan of motorcycles. Australia didn't work out like I wanted it to work out. God moved. It was amazing. I thought I was going to live there forever, and I thought I was going to see revival come to Australia, and amazing things happened, and actually, what I wanted to start in Australia, God gave me here in this church. The surf ministry, I wanted to plant a church in Australia, just like this, started from scratch, and this ends up being better, but it's here.

I like it here, but I really wanted to be in Australia. I came back, my wife was unhappy with me, we went through a very difficult time, and I just looked behind me after seven years and thought, what was all that prophecy about? What was all that words about? What was all that shaking about? What was all that about? Because here I am now, with no job, we sold the house, we had $100,000 from the house, we spent it in 18 months trying to start a church in Australia, spent all of our money for God, like, I come back, bankrupt, I'm living in one of her apartments that she owns, it was 350 square feet, you remember, not a good time, my wife was not pleased with me, we weren't doing well, and my daughter's sleeping in the closet, it's a 350 foot studio, I don't have a job, and my wife's like, I don't even think you should be in ministry, it was miserable, and I just, I was like, really God?

Like, what was all that about? That gave me Holy Spirit PTSD, I'm just telling you what I've experienced, and I've kind of moved, kind of more back to like, what Calvary Chapel would look like, I actually worked at a Calvary Chapel for 10 years, and I just decided, I felt a little bit safer, just making sure people got saved, baptized, and discipled, which is great, because if you get saved, if I get, if I spent my whole life, this is what Chuck, Smith, from the, after him and John Wimber from the vineyard, if you know the history split, when John became more charismatic, this is what Chuck decided, I just want to be about evangelism, and that's a great thing to be about, if you're only about evangelism the rest of your life, I think you can say to the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, I love you, but I'm not going to like, pursue all that stuff, and you're going to get to heaven, and God's going to say, well done, good and faithful servant, I don't think there's a prerequisite in the Bible, that you have to pursue the things of the Holy Spirit, you have to pursue holiness, there are certain things of the Holy Spirit, you have to try to obey his counsel, but if it comes to like, praying for a gift of tongues, or praying for healing for people, I, I, I'm not sure, and I wouldn't want to put it, in a definitive way, that you have to go after that, I think there's a group of people, and thank God for Pentecostals, especially in the world right now, like with everything going on in the world right now, send in the Pentecostals, trust me, if you go look at what's happening in Seattle, the Pentecostals are the ones, that are going in there, preaching in the streets, and you know, and I really appreciate them, it's just not who I am anymore, or haven't been, until God recently said, hey, what about that Holy Spirit thing, it's not, Father, Son, and Holy Scriptures, it's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so, this workshop is more for me, than it is for you, FYI, I've had a tremendous amount of coaching, and experience on the streets, doing things that would make, most of you very uncomfortable, and you know, not like crazy, but you know, just go up to somebody, pray for them, hear a word, pray for, again, you know, saw demons come out of people, just stuff you read about the Bible, it was awesome, and it was intoxicating, and if not shepherded with self-control, can really become a mess, and there's a lot of churches, that are just emotional messes, and so, I've strayed away from it, and the Lord told me, when I got to this church, in the main service, pitch a fastball, that's what he told me, and it's still clear today, for the most part, I want you to throw fastballs, in the main service, as many people as you can get, to come to the main service, as possible, don't go crazy, just straight, but on the side, I'm going to give you opportunity, to move into it, now this church, as Olin and Lori know, has a charismatic history, for years, for a hundred years, the head pastor, at eight in the morning, used to blow a shofar, on the street, I bet the neighbors loved that, before the service, every year, every Sunday, so there was a lot going on, that's a longer history, than I expected to tell you, but let's move further, run on the notes, that's where I am today, and I want to tell you, that this is a workshop, and we are going to get, a lot of chances, to experience, and experiment with God, I put on your notes, following God, is an experience, how much of God, that you experience, is often up to your willingness, to experiment, let me say that again, following God, is an experience, how much of God, that you experience, is often up to your willingness, to experiment, experiment with prayer, experiment with silence, experiment with fasting, experiment with, prophecy, lower P, we'll talk about prophecy, there is no more, capital P, prophecy, there is no more, the things that the apostles said, of the end times, that it's going to be different, than it used to, no, but there is, lower case prophecy, where people have come up to us, we couldn't get pregnant, and a guy prayed for us, I won't tell the whole story, but he said, you're going to get pregnant, and we became pregnant, I gave a word, a prophecy to a woman, who had cystic fibrosis, they said, she had all these tumors, in her womb, you're never going to get pregnant, it was guaranteed, the Lord said, go tell her she's going to get pregnant, and I thought, really Lord, I'm going to go up to a woman, who has this, like really, like that's so, that's way too much, risk, we were very close friends, and so I went, and I did it as best I could, and they got pregnant, she had a baby, now, coincidence, maybe, I talked about this on Sunday, we can talk ourselves out, of working in the Holy Spirit, I told that story on Sunday, about the professor, who said, you know, the teachings of Jesus, would have matured, if he would have died, a younger man, and so, let's try to live according, to what the mature teachings, would have been, as opposed to what he said, so you can talk yourself, out of what these things were, but I'd have to talk myself, out of an awful lot, of things, it's an experience, and so, I guess one of the challenges, this week, is going to be for you, and to ask you, and to begin to think, when was the last time, you experimented, with God, reading the Bible, it can become, less of an experiment, the longer you do it, putting the Bible, into practice, learning how to worship, the Holy Spirit, which feels, anathema to me, because we worship God, and Jesus, Father, but they're a trinity, so I can worship, the Holy Spirit, and praise the Holy Spirit, it still feels, weird to me, because it's not spoken, about much, but the Godhead, is the Godhead, and he will probably, direct us to the Father, like Jesus says, when you worship Jesus, he says, well all glory, will go to the Father, and so you'll end up, you'll probably, the Holy Spirit, if you start doing that, probably just leads you, straight to the Father, but to experiment, with those things, and be willing, to make mistakes, to be willing, to pray for somebody, when they're sick, I had a, two friends, Colonel Williams, he was a Navy colonel, I did his funeral here, and then another woman, a kid in my youth group, his mom, overdosed on crack, and she was in a coma, and I went, and tongue was out of her mouth, which I'd never seen before, and it was dry, I don't know if you've ever seen, somebody with a dry tongue, like this far out of their mouth, but it was really weird, and I went in, and laid hands on her, and as I led her to Christ, she might have already known Christ, but all of a sudden, her heart monitor, started going, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, that's happened three times to me, one with Colonel Williams, when I led him to Christ, he was a drinking buddy, of my father's, maybe it's coincidence, but God said pray, and there's other people in the room, maybe I shouldn't do that, I experimented, have, if you've lost the ability, to experiment with God, we start, relying on our past experiences, this is one of the things I found out, with the, all the guys at the vineyard, when I was at the vineyard, are all the guys, you know, they were like, from the 70s vineyard, in the early 1980s, well when I got there, it was like the 90s, and they were still living on the stories, of 1984, we went to England in 82, in Scotland, and there was a, IRA guy that walked in, and he was like a demon, there was a demon behind, ah, he'd tell these stories, and I'd, I'd be like, I want, I want fresh stories, I don't, I don't need any old stories, and so, um, old stories are great, but we have to experiment, even Joe, here, he's at an orphanage, he could easily settle into the fact, that, he basically started orphanages, and supports them, and he can do the same thing, for a very long time, and it's meaningful work, but never explore, and continue to be a pioneer, beyond that, is there more pioneering, for Joe to experiment with, so we've experimented, with our relationship with Jesus, but we also want to experiment, experiment with our relationship, with the Holy Spirit, now, Jesus, as you see in the notes, commands his followers, and this is really interesting, to bring others, into this experience, Matthew 28, 19 through 20, says, therefore, go and make disciples, go and make disciples, of all nations, baptizing them, in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, so that's a trifecta there, and teaching them, and this is the key, to obey everything, I have commanded you, and surely I'm with you always, to the very end of the age, to obey everything, I have commanded you, if you look at that, we have to ask ourselves, once again, is Jesus working in a hyperbole, is Jesus working in, well, not everything, I mean, I said cast out demons, I mean, obviously in night, you know, in 2020 America, because I know, you don't know guys, because I know the prophecy, but they're not going to really believe in demons, so you don't have to do that part, or the fasting bit, I know that's really annoying, right, but the Jews are good at it, because they like to do this thing, but you probably wouldn't, no, obey everything I command, that this is, this is in Matthew 28, this is right before he heads up, it isn't like he expanded, on this teaching, a little bit later, this is his final message, he commanded a lot of things, and a lot of times, we live in the promises, but not in the commands, I've been saying that, for a couple months, live in the promises, we love the promises, oh, he promises to raise you, I have to raise you from the ashes, he promises this, he promises that, what about he commands you this, now, some people live in so much command, that they're like a whip dog, you don't want, you don't want to live in that guilt, that's not what they're talking about, but an opportunity, you're going to hear me say on Sunday, this Sunday, I'm not going to get through these notes, because we're going to have time to experiment, but we're going to have an experimentation time at seven, and don't worry, I won't be weird, that terrifies me, I used to terrify me, the Holy Spirit terrified me, just all that stuff, one thing I've been talking about in the services, is I've been saying that I, for two or three months, that I haven't been willing to ask God, to ask me anything he wants of me, I've gotten to the point, where I've surrendered everything, I think, unless he can remind me of anything else, that needs to be surrendered, but there's been this one thing like, are you willing to, to have God ask anything of you, and I talked about Lucy, and how Lucy said, well no, because he does weird stuff, and I'm not sure I want to do that, I finally got to the place on Monday, Monday morning, after the church service on Sunday, very emotional day, great day on Sunday, especially one of the services, I got emotional, I think it was for second, and, but I went home on Monday morning, and I said, you know Lord, okay you know what, anything you want, every bit of money in the bank, I'm going to move to Africa, live in a hut, you want me, whatever you want, whatever you want, you ask anything you want, I'll do it, immediately, that strong word, that thought, I call them a strong thought, they call them a word, there's a lot of Christianese words, I get the strong thought, I don't want anything, I said, what?

I mean, six months of building up to this point, like, I'm waiting for the big ask, and God says, I don't, I don't want anything from you, I just want to be with you, like, I'm a God, and then he said, I'm, I just felt, it kept expanding, I'm not a God in want, I don't have any wants, but, I would ask to be with you, I think that's a better way to say it, and all of a sudden, all this pressure, of having to like, bring the church back from, from COVID-19, you know what I mean, just like everyone's trying to bring their business back, or everything else, and it's like, all the pressure, we gotta, I just, I don't want anything, and there's that freedom that comes, one of the things you'll find, with the Holy Spirit, is this, it'll come with freedom, and peace, and joy, and the, and the fruit, the gifts and the power, come with the fruit, and as you operate in the gifts, you will operate, you will experience, the fruit, so we see Jesus making these commands, these commands to go out, all that I obeyed, and commanded you, and so you have to ask yourself the question, as we theologically look at this, is Jesus, really asking us in 2020, you have to make the decision on your own, I can't make it for you, to literally, live in the commands, that he gives, were they hyperbolic, or were they, like we'll see here in a moment, well let me, I'll get to that in a moment, there's an elephant in the room, called cessationism, we'll talk about that next, but before I get to that, Luke 9, 1 and 2, when Jesus had called the 12 together, he gave them power, and authority, to do what, to drive out demons, to cure diseases, and he sent them out, to proclaim, the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick, so he sent them out, that sending, I would imagine, was a command, I would imagine, he does command, so commanding, and asking, I think that, one of the things, is different than, what I was saying about, does God want anything from me, there's no burden, it's like hey, I'm asking, but this is, there is a command sense, where he commands us to do things, so you have to find, there's a balance, sometimes the Bible is both and, but in this, he sent them out to heal, to pray for the sick, to do these different things, and not everybody, the scripture says, that the different gifts, not everyone will be able to heal, and you are not a healer, if someone gets healed, when you pray for them, it's because God chose, to use you as a conduit, a conduit, is not the generator, God is the generator, we're just a conduit, we just do what God says, we share the word, salvation doesn't come from us, it might come through us, but not from us, that's why you see these things right now, well I won't go into that, but the elephant in the room then, is that you have to deal with, and ask yourself is, are the things that Jesus commanded the, disciples to do, relevant, is it true for us today, and if it is true, what does that mean for me, what does that mean for how I read the Bible, what does that mean for how I walk down the street, what does that mean for how I pray for people, do I really believe, believe the Bible, enough to do what the Bible says, and not just some of the stuff the Bible says, because I was in a holiness movement, the holiness movement, was all about doing all this stuff, it was kind of being holy, it was just like the Jewish law, you know, don't drink, don't smoke, I mean this is what killed, Pentecostalism of the 1915s, 1915, 1920, there was a social gospel movement, in the late 1800s, especially through England, happened because they started caring for the poor, they carried for the, they started Sunday schools in England, Sunday school came from England, you have the YMCA, the Salvation Army, start all through the late 1800s, they start caring for people, they start stepping in, helping their needs, and then the Holy Spirit falls, the Azusa Street revival, happened up here on Azusa Street, 1915, and God's power starts coming, and people, some people go too far, in my opinion, other things are clearly from God, people are getting saved, and then the fundamentalists come in, there's a fundamentalist movement, in the 1920s, fundamentalist movement, as, comes in as the roaring 20s are happening, and basically it clamps down, on the believers, and the charismatic things, that were happening, the Pentecostalism of the early 1915, so what happens, a lot of them start abandoning, for some reason or another, they start caring for the poor, but removing God from the peace, this is what you see in our society today, this is why we are where we are, and what happened to the great society, with FDR, people began to do what started, as a Christian movement, in the name of God, in the power of God, many other Christians came in, squelched the movement, with fundamentalism, Christians let go of it, the government, and secular people, who also want to do good things, took it over, and you could walk that history, I won't go any more, that biblical, that history, in the US history, but this is where secularism, has taken over this call, so all you see now, are Christian things in society, where God's not a part of, right now we're hearing about, original sins, we're hearing about, you know, care for the poor, love, you hear all these things, all this Christian stuff, because it goes back to, Christian started it, but we clamped it down, this is the same thing, that this holiness movement, that I came out of, we can focus on, if you want to just focus on, those things you can, but I think God wants us, to walk in more power, and you know, but I believe, you don't have to, it's as much as you want to experiment, now here's the elephant in the room, cessationism, cessationism, is a Pentecost, is a Protestant doctrine, that spiritual gifts, such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing, ceased with the apostolic age, reformers, such as John Calvin, originated this view, I love that he was the one, that originated it, but they believe, there was a basically, a big bang theory, that when Jesus died on the cross, there was a big bang, of his power, and you needed this, to get the engine going, it's like an airplane, you spin the propeller, and it spins, and then once it's going, it's like, you know, it's a lot easier, if you're riding a bike, once you get some speed up, it's kind of easier, just keep, you know, it's not like starting a bike up, when you first start, and so they believe, that as we got it started, you don't, that God began, it was, he ceased, he cessated, he ceased, the gifts of the spirit, because they're no longer needed, now there's a lot of other verses, that are used in context, and you can have a discussion on that, you can look up cessationism, in all the different verses, why people do that, it's never made sense to me, I mean, just from a practical, because you can, I could prove both in scripture, I really, I think, it'd be harder for me, to prove cessationism, although, the majority of the western world, are cessationist, the majority of the east, of the Christians, that are not western Christians, are not, you go to Brazil, these places, where Africa, they are not cessationist, the majority of Christians, in the world, are holy spirit seeking, filled, like, I don't use that word filled, because we're all filled, with the holy spirit, but, they're, they're going after that, it's the western countries, that aren't, and it's because of materialism, and scientific, things that have happened, but we have these doctrines, of cessationism, and a lot of these came out, during the enlightenment, where they started to have reason, over faith, over experience, and some of that needed to be, we didn't want our Christians, running around, thinking there was, you know, droods, and hobbits, running in the, you know, like they had all these, weird beliefs, and things, and so some of that, needed to happen, but, it just has never made sense, to me, I think as you move, towards the end times, and as things get worse, according to scripture, why do I need less power, like that was the question, I had early on, when I first heard, about cessationism, why do I need less power now, when it's getting worse, why does he, why is he pulling off the accelerator, when things are ramping up, that's why I said earlier on, you know, send in the Pentecostals, you know, you always need, you know, somebody that's willing to run in there, and do those, you know, pray for people, and prophesy in the streets, or these things, all right, well, moving on to that next section, I want to move out of that, and you're going to have to experiment, and look into this, but one could argue, that we only experience, the entirety of the Trinity, through the person of the Holy Spirit, one could argue, now, Jesus says, I am always, I am in you, and so you can say, well, if Jesus is in me, then I experience him, but Jesus did say, I'm going away, yeah, he says, I'm going away, he says, all this in John 14, right there, in 25 and 26, all this I have spoken, while I'm still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send, so if the Father is going to be there, why is the Father sending the Holy Spirit, now, they're all one, so since, you know, so you can't really separate them, but whom the Father sent in my name, will teach you all things, and remind you of everything I have said to you, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, I do not give as the world gives, do not let your hearts be troubled, do not be afraid, so one of the things I have found, that I think is interesting, is one could argue very strongly, that the Holy Spirit has been left here, as a depositing guarantee on our heart, like the scripture says, and everything we do, our relationship with Jesus, our relationship with the Father, is driven by the Holy Spirit, through the intercession of Jesus, and after the intercession of Jesus, systematically makes it to the throne of God, now they are all one, so if the Holy Spirit is in me, they are all in me, but you can still scripturally look, at how it works, it is the Holy Spirit within us, although Jesus also says, he is within us, but from this context, you can see that, the Holy Spirit is the primary mover, that moves us towards understanding, and interpreting what Jesus is saying to us, which is being sent from the Father's throne, and it is like, in authority, and in progression, and it is systematic, what is so interesting, is how many Christians, in the western world, live their entire Christian life, never really thinking about the Holy Spirit, when one could make a very, very persuasive argument, and I'm not saying it's true, because I think there's a lot of ways to look at it, and there's a lot of, you know, different arguments, but, you know, I put it here, even if this were not true, there is an under-reliance, on the person of the Holy Spirit, in the western church, the Trinity is not Father, Son, and Holy Scriptures, it's just not, there is an absolute, under-reliance, on the power of the Holy Spirit, I would say there's an, under-reliance on the cross, and the blood, and all these other things as well, I'm very rarely, only when I'm praying with mature Christians, do I hear them pray, you know, it's the blood of Jesus, you know what I mean, like I pray for the cross, and the blood, and we're shed under your blood, and you know, your blood is shed for us, you know, they talk about these terms, that really matter, but, that whole thing is to say, is to ask you, have you really, allowed the Holy Spirit, to become, a primary voice in your life, or is it all about Jesus, I remember when I first got saved, it was all about Jesus, and Jesus wasn't, the risen Lord, he was my bro, and I needed a bro, I just needed Jesus, to bro out with me, to love me, and to be like the, you know, like the hippies, and hate Asbury, you know, just hang out, Jesus is a big hippie, and I, you know, grew my hair out long, grew a beard, and remember the white, outfit I used to wear, and the whole deal, like Jesus, and I wore scripture shirts, all the time, and I would just go down, to the, make lunches for homeless people, and go to the AIDS hospice, and just, I was just doing the stuff, and see somebody, I'd pull over, and pray with them, get out of the car, and say, hey I feel like God, told me to pray for you, can I pray for you right, I was like, God told me to do it, I did it, and powerful stuff happened, some people probably thought, I was a tripper, but with that said, I have to ask you, this is a workshop, this is for you to figure out, you want to go home and practice, as much as you practice, you're going to get as much, out of this workshop, as you want, how much are you relying on the Holy Spirit, coming in for a landing here, turn this over if you would, I want to talk about, power and authority, I'm going to share a story with you right now, when I was in England, I was in England, and we, had taken a group there, and I really started experiencing, the power of the Holy Spirit, it was in 2000, God had been, probably about a year, since I'd been at that conference, I took my kids to, I had 26 kids with me, and we met with another youth group, and we were going to go to a revival, up in Manchester, there was a 50,000 seat arena, that my ministry, that I ended up working with, Soul Survivor, rented out, and we were going to go up there, there was like, 10,000, 20,000 Christians, that came from the streets, and we would go do street ministry, throughout all day, like, make gardens for people, clean up, where, you know, there was a lot of like, heroin needles, and so, we'd go like, take them, and clean them, and throw them in the, we were trained how to do all this, and, and we'd go worship, some people were worshiping the streets, some kids, people did childcare, BBS, just 20,000 Christians, I think it was about 20,000, 25,000 maybe, and then we were supposed to invite another 25,000, to the arena at night, the 50,000 seat arena, and, if you, Manchester is, there's, there's, it's probably like Portland, but like, 500, you know, 1,000 years older, you know, it's like, just heavy, there's just a spirit on it, Manchester is just a heavy place, Manchester, that's where the Smiths are from, it's very depressed, and dark, and, I remember, I was, walking back from the scene, we had just done worship, our job, we did worship in the streets, so we would go somewhere, with 25 people, and we wouldn't like, put on a show, we would just get in a circle, somewhere in public, we're gonna pray in public on Saturday, we'd get in a circle, and then we would just start worshiping, in the streets, just God, move, Holy Spirit, people be on their knees, and whatever, and so, we went in, to this, it was a Sunday, and there was nobody, we went to this place, there was nobody on the streets, there was a pub, and the pub was full of people, but there was nobody on the high street, because the high street in England, on Sunday, back in the day, in 99 or 2000, they'd shut the high street down on Sunday, because you closed, they closed on Sunday in England back then, I don't think they do that much anymore, so, we all got in a circle, and we just start worshiping, and, pretty soon, we just started feeling this peace, and we just started, and we got more and more joy, and then this like, woman comes out, with a beer and a cigarette, she walks over, she goes, hi, what if I sit with you, and I said, no, pretty soon, a window opens above us, at one of the tenements in the house, because it's like tenements, like you know, like in Detroit would be, another window opens, another person comes out, I'm like, mind if I sit with you, I want to make sure, I'm not exaggerating the story, by the end, 50 people had, the street was completely empty, nobody there, we're worshiping by ourselves, 50 people had come out of the pub, pints of beer, smoking cigarettes, leaning on their windows, as we're worshiping, and oh, I just love this music, oh, it's great, I love me, family used to take me there, when I was a kid, to church, and we were passing out flyers, come tonight, and we just saw the power of God, just fall, we just saw God move, because we experimented, that same trip, I was in a church courtyard, and there was this guy, and he walks in, he was a witch, and there's a lot of witches, in America, and Australia, where I lived, and I had a big season, where like, we were just focusing on praying, against witches, and I don't want to freak people out, because when I share this stuff, sometimes people just end up, if you end up getting like, freaked out or anything, then you're not going, the place the spirit wants to lead you, so I'll just keep it mellow, but we were, this witch comes in, this warlock, and he, as I'm talking, we're talking about the spirit, and we're in God's country now, we're like in, behind, at Greyfriars Church, in Reading, and we're in the courtyard, and the spirit of God, is all over that place, they minister to the city, as you minister to the city, and you do things like that, like God just, like on this corner, when you walk in, you can feel it, and so, as I'm talking to him, and we're just discussing, the scriptures, he starts trying to recant, from Macbeth, the witches, like oil, bubble, and trouble, whatever, and as I'm just talking, we're just having this conversation, he just starts recanting, that in my face, and then it kind of spooked me, I was like, oh, and I got like this really heavy sense, and then I thought like, dude, you're in God's country right now, like, so I, so, I just start praying in tongues, like, but under my breath, I'm like, but under my breath, and, so as I do that, he goes, Mac, I've never forgotten that before, I've never forgotten that, he starts again, oil, bubble, and he goes, what's wrong with my mom, and then like, he's all, I can't speak it, and I was just like, shut up, and then I just started, like, I was like, yeah, let's go boy, you know, my other buddy's there, I'm like, you want to come in for a coffee, and he goes, no, no, and he like, stumbles out, it was like crazy, to watch him, just wither, in front, now I know that is a, absolutely, in Australia, you would say that's a nutter, of a story, like you're just a nut, like that sounds crazy, that kind of stuff, was happening, all the time, because I was going, and looking for it, not that I was looking for it, to like, demonstrate power, but, if it was available to me, when we went on a missions trip, these things would, these kind of things would happen, there is power and authority, now, you don't ever have to do that, and in seven years, I've never, only once, at one other Holy Spirit class I did, shared any of these stories, ultimately, because, that's not the direction, I want to lead the church, and I don't feel, it's the direction, God wants me to lead the church, but I do think, he wants me, to lead individuals, within the church, to experiment, with these things, and for me to give, an example, of what being naturally, supernatural, walking in wisdom, and self-control look like, but still, trying to have one foot, with the Holy Spirit, and one foot in reality, I don't want to be, I've met so many people, that were so focused, on the Holy Spirit, all they're ever doing, is fighting demons, everything's a deliverance battle, everything is a word of knowledge, everything's prophecy, everything, and I'm just like, can we just slow down, so that is where I have been, but there is a power, and authority, and the Holy Spirit, allows us, to have power, and authority, I want to give you two verses, and back these things up, with scripture, first Corinthians 2, four, and my speech, and my preaching, were not with enticing words, of man's wisdom, but with a demonstration, of the spirit, and of power, the spirit, of God, and of power, this is Paul, speaking, he says in 2 Corinthians 10, four, the weapons, that we fight with, are not the weapons, of this world, on the contrary, they have divine power, to demolish, strongholds, one of the things, I realize right now, is, as I've been trying, to step more into this, it's always been there, it's really funny, in the last, 2005, I decided, that I wasn't going, to do this anymore, I wasn't going, to like, do what I was doing anymore, I was just done with it, but it's always been there, so like, I'll drive somewhere, and the Lord will say, hey, I've got a word for you, to give, and I'll give people words, but I just, I just did it differently, I just, let's just say, I chilled out a little bit, and, but it's always been there, it wasn't like it stopped, it's always been available to me, and whenever I've wanted, to step back into it, a couple times, like at a camp, or when I was speaking, and doing ministry time, at like, Forest Home, or whatever, I could just jump right back in, it was the weirdest thing, it's always been available, it hasn't dried up, although I felt it, starting to kind of like, you know, he who is faithful with little, will be given more, and who isn't, will be taken away, scripture says, and so I began to, kind of, I think shrink back, but recently, as I've kind of stepped back in, I've noticed that it's coming on, like more full, so I was praying the other day, and I mentioned this at church, I said, that God showed me a picture of the nation, and he showed me that there was, these stronghold cities, the reason I'm talking about the stronghold cities, is because of the verse about strongholds, and there's intercessor cities, so he showed me that, New York, Seattle, Portland, those are stronghold cities, where the enemy has a huge foothold, I feel like there's a battle over Boston, right now in the north, I felt like, San Antonio, is an intercessor city, Jacksonville, Florida, intercessor city, Daytona Beach, actually outside of there, San Diego, just, look, and here's the thing, I'm never, I'm not going to get up on YouTube, and say, hey, I'm just going to say, hey, this is what I think, I could be totally wrong, it's when people start putting a capital prophecy on that, this is what the Lord saith, no, I'm not saying that, but I'll step out, so now what I've been doing now, my next step, is when something like that happens, with the Holy Spirit, I just start praying over the cities, I'm going to get a map, I'm going to pray over the cities, and say, God, I'm just going to be faithful, so pray over the cities, on Saturday, we're going to go pray, in San Diego, now God gave me this word about San Diego, and two other people, two or three other people have given it to me, about San Diego, and Dallas is another one, we're going to go pray, and over a hundred and something churches now, are going to be praying in San Diego on Saturday, in ten different locations, I'm praying for a hundred thousand people, to show up in the streets, but I felt like God said, the USA is like a tent, and we're a tent peg in the corner, we lock it, we're going to lock this tent peg down, and I got really excited about that, and so I felt like, when I heard about this, we pray San Diego, it confirmed what God was already showing me, that we're an intercessory city, I got that word, again, like two or three days, before I got invited by Miles, to go pray at this thing, and I thought, boom, let's go do it, and so all of a sudden, that confirmed, and I'm stepping into that, and so we want to step into that, as a church, but I want to pray to the north, we want to pray 270 degrees, over the entire country, that God would move that, so coming in for a landing here, before we take a little bit of time, just to sit in the spirit, tonight, responding to the Holy Spirit's leading, so we talked about power and authority, and these are all things, you're going to have to wrestle with, in this class, if you decide to come back, acting in the power, of the Holy Spirit, is not a show, or miracles on command, I was in miracles on command, for a while, I'm not really into miracles on command, rather, we respond as led, in the power of the Holy Spirit, so as God leads us, now that's, slippery slope, right, slippery slope, let me read out of Acts, seeing Peter, and John, the beggar, about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms, as Peter directed his gaze at him, as John did, and said, look at us, and he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them, but Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do give you, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk, just that paragraph right there, is an unbelievable paragraph, what, they were just going to church, he didn't plan to go heal anybody, opportunity presented itself, he was spiritually prepared, prepared to receive the opportunity, spiritually prepared, I was just at Simon the Tanner's house, in Israel, where he had the vision on the roof, Peter, to eat the unclean animals, I was just there, it's very cool, and he had been, in the morning, God had spoken to him, because he had been spending time with God, remember I said on Sunday, it was seeing, hearing, doing, seeing, hearing, doing, it is that, and you will find, as you experiment, that you will get in a flow, where you'll start seeing, confirmations or patterns, now, here's one assignment, I want you to write this down, if you would, I want everyone who's going to continue on, because this class might not be for you, and that's okay, if you don't come back next week, you're thinking, eh, I don't really want a workshop, I just want to go through the scriptures, this is not the class for you, if you just want to go through the scriptures, get a book, a workshop book, and begin to write down, what you think the Holy Spirit is saying to you, and keep track, of what he is asking you to do, and what not to do, and then keep a record, of what happens when you do it, so, I'm going to give you a few examples, Holy Spirit, is going to say to you, see that person right there, I want you to give them a hundred dollars, that hundred dollar bill, you just got out of your wallet, I want you to give them that hundred dollar bill, Holy Spirit is going to say to you, hey, I want you to, you get up, you wake up in the middle of the night, and you think you're just, going to go to the restroom, and the Holy Spirit says to you, I want you to go to, and spend an hour praying, right now, and interceding for, whoever, Holy Spirit says, I want you to cancel that trip, that you're going to do, whatever, can't tell you what it's going to be, but when the Holy Spirit speaks, his sheep know his voice, Holy Spirit will speak, what God said to Jesus, Jesus will speak it, and the Holy Spirit will translate it, and counsel you, now, you are going to have to make the decision, at the crossroads, of do I want to experiment with this or not, I have had many times, where I have gotten to the threshold, and just said no, I'll give one story, same trip, Great Friars Church, they had a coffee house, I planned to eventually see this become a full time coffee house, people coming in from the streets, and awesome, just like in most churches in England, they use that as a massive ministry, and a homeless guy came, actually, yes, he was homeless, he hadn't gone to church, the wife was there, the kids went to church, and she kicked him out of the house, and he was, had been drunk, and he was dirty, and smoking, and just, did not look good, he was just a mess, and the pastor asked me to come over and pray, and she wanted to get back together with him, but not until he got sober, and let him back into the house, and this whole thing, but he was a mess, and just like, a mess, stumped, stumped, so, his feet dirty, he'd been, I don't know how long he'd been on the street, and, so as I'm praying, the Lord says, I want you to, get on your knees, put your hands on his feet, put your face on his feet, his nasty, dirty feet, and I want you to, beg for his soul, and not beg, like, oh Jesus, but like, beg that he would hear the message, like not beg, beg is, it's what he told me, I, you can explain what that means, but it wasn't like, I'm a beggar, it was just like, plead, maybe plead's a better word, so I did, wasn't super comfortable, FYI, was not super comfortable, got down, and I just, and I began to cry, now I am a crier, so I've cried like, three times at this church, one was Sunday, I remember, it's so, very rare that I cry, but, when was this time, maybe I should cry more, and I cried, and wept, got on a bus, the next day left, got a message from Sue Giles, a friend of ours, she was the secretary of that church, it was six months later, he had gotten sober, went to a program, moved back in with his wife, was back in the church, taking a membership class, completely redeemed life, got a complete message from her, and a picture, I remember, but it was a, she, it was before the internet, I think, no, it was 99, maybe she did send it on the internet, but it was a picture of him, with his family, coincidence, part of the puzzle, just a piece, I don't know, Lord told me to get on my knees, put a face on his, dirty, nasty feet, head like this, and beg for his soul, plead for his soul, I don't know, I can't tell you what to do, but, you are going to get an experience now, now, if this terrifies you, and you're not ready, come back when you're ready, but if you're ready, to move in, to beginning to follow God, I'm going to lead the way, and do my best, to do it with you, I want to go into this place, I want to say that, before we have a time, that'll be, that's the end, we're right on seven, we have a half hour, to wait before the Lord, before, this class is over, we're going to have experiences, that you can experience, I want us to go worship, in the streets, in San Diego, downtown, so you'll be invited, to come to that, if you want, we'll go do what I've done before, we'll petition, and prayer walk, I'll find some other fun, experiments, that we can do, that I've done before, I've seen God really move in power, and so you'll be invited, to come and be a part of that, and I will lead that, and we will see what God, can do, maybe we'll go down, and preach, or something like that, or something, in San Diego, on Friday night, downtown, I don't know, but I'll lead it, I've done it before, a million times, not a million, a hundred, but yeah, and I've seen God move, really, really powerfully, so that's where I'm going to lead, and you can experiment, and there's no shame, just like, with, when I was talking, at the beginning, if that's not for you, don't do it, and there's no shame, but, whatever is right, for you to experience, we want to see the Holy Spirit, move in this church, we want to see people healed, we want to see, I've had three reports of cancer, this week in the church, we've had pretty much, a cancer free zone, we've had two people, die of cancer in the church, in seven years, and numerous healed, numerous healed, we've just prayed, for a cancer free zone, over this church, but three reports of cancer, this week, and I really feel, like, a lot of it has to do with, some of the stuff, that's happening in the world, right now, I feel like there's just an attack, and things are open, but I also feel, there's a, God wants to heal, and move, so, before we, before I end, I'm going to end with that, and, bless you all, that are listening to this, bye-bye, one second, I'll turn that off, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, из,