Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Why don't you stand as we honor the reading of God's word? Yeah.
[00:00:09] Got a good word for you, boy. Holy Ghost met us in the first service.
[00:00:16] I was praying on my knees, Lord, I need you to refresh me and make my voice work in the second because I got a little too excited when God starts moving. I think my shirt finally dried. I was sweating through this thing. I.
[00:00:29] I have to be one of those guys that starts bringing a shirt to change in between services. But Romans, chapter 15 is our theme verse. Verse 13 should be coming up here. And this has been our theme from the beginning of the year. And we're going to declare it together. There it is.
[00:00:46] Can you see it?
[00:00:47] Let's read it together. 1, 2, 3, go. Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that. That you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Come on, everybody, say power.
[00:01:03] That's what we're believing for today. That's Holy Spirit's doing this. Acts, chapter two.
[00:01:08] Of course. This is our Pentecost verse. Acts, chapter two and verse one, also on the screen. You don't have to read it out loud. This is what it says. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. This is why worship's important. We all get in one accord. We're all looking the same direction, worshiping the same God. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven. A sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind.
[00:01:41] It filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire. One sat upon each of them, and they were all filled. Who was filled?
[00:01:55] All. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, chapter four. We've also been reading this the last number of weeks. Acts, chapter 4 and verse 29. This is.
[00:02:10] They experience Pentecost now. They're walking in the power of God. They see a miracle for a man who's begging by a gate, paralyzed. Rise up, walk.
[00:02:21] And the religious get offended. This tends to happen, by the way. I don't know why it is, but religious people don't like miracles. They don't like the supernatural. They don't like Pentecost. They didn't like it with Jesus. They didn't like it with Peter. They don't like it today. There's always critics. These guys are just crazy, emotional, whatever. But praise God, we keep on with it. Hallelujah. And so they continue on and they're praying. So this is a glimpse into their prayer meeting.
[00:02:48] Acts chapter 4 and verse 29. Now, Lord, look on these who are threatening us. And grant to your servants that with all boldness we may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal. That signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.
[00:03:08] And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken.
[00:03:19] Wow.
[00:03:20] The place.
[00:03:22] This is not talking about. A guy got a touch from God and he shook the building. Shook. The place where they were assembled was shaken. They were all filled. There it is again. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they spoke the word of God with boldness. Oh, my goodness. This, my dear friends, is God's word, and we believe it to be true. You may be seated.
[00:03:51] It's my joy to bring the word on this Pentecost Sunday.
[00:03:57] I love Pentecost.
[00:03:59] I love the Holy Ghost.
[00:04:02] I grew up a Baptist boy, so I learned to value things like scripture, memorization, and, you know, you get yelled out about hell all the time, and it was great.
[00:04:13] And I.
[00:04:16] You know, but it wasn't until I came through my addiction, I came through God set me free and broke the devil off of me. I found myself at Christ for the nations, and I had my first encounter with the Holy Spirit.
[00:04:33] It was dynamic, it was powerful. And I'll tell you how I know it was real. It wasn't an emotional moment. I was at a minze orientation.
[00:04:43] We were going over the rule book.
[00:04:45] But in that meeting, they welcome up a young man to come and lead worship. A student.
[00:04:52] His name was Rick Pino. Rick comes, gets up on the piano. Rick, would you just sing a song before we have our men's orientation?
[00:05:00] Just begin to pray in the spirit. And I never forget standing in the back of that room for men's orientation. This is not an exciting meeting. This was not a Pentecostal meeting. It was men's orientation. And as I'm standing there, I hear Rick begin to sing and play and pray, and people around me begin to pray in the spirit. And I. I felt as if there was a. Not a mighty rushing wind. I won't exaggerate what I felt in that moment, but I. I literally felt like just gusts of wind just began swirling around me. And I remember hearing people praying in tongues. I wasn't raised that way. I remember hearing people praying in tongues and feeling the tangible evidence of God's presence around me. I remember thinking, what in the world have I been missing my entire walk with God? Remember that semester, I watched people get healed. I remember an evangelist.
[00:05:54] I'm going to share totally different stories than I did in the first one, but I remember this evangelist and he'd call for people to come down for prayer, and you need a miracle. What do you need God to do? And remember, it was so simple. Oh, I.
[00:06:08] My knees hurt. And will you pray for them? And Lord, I pray for these knees to be healed in the name of Jesus. And I remember in the name of Jesus. I felt as if like a wave came from the back of the room right there to that person receiving prayer. Next thing you know, they're running around. My knees don't hurt anymore. And I watched miracle after miracle after miracle. I saw devils cast out. Man, I just got dumped into Pentecost. I remember my first semester going back on break to my humble Baptist church. And I thought, these guys just don't even know. Like, that's why they're not operating this way. So I'm going to start Deliverance ministry, and we're going to start Miracle Ministry, and I'm going to go to that prayer meeting and I'm going to teach these guys what they've been missing out on.
[00:06:59] I got kicked out of that church within about like a week. I don't know, we used to do stuff like that. But I'm just telling you, Pentecost got in me. I just started getting around these guys. I started, you know, hearing about Brownsville and the Toronto outpouring, and these incredible men and women of God had been used so powerfully. I began to dig into the revivals here, all across this metroplex. And I'm just, You know, it's one of these, you get ruined for normal sort of things. Like, I can't just go back to scripture memorization and business as usual. And it's the Holy Ghost.
[00:07:42] So now for 20 years, 20 years this year, it's just, I'm. I'm a hair on fire. Go after God. Come on. Greater level, greater glory. I still believe that the greatest revival is ahead of us. It's not behind us. It's not in the rear view mirror. God, the. The Amos said that the glory of the latter temple would be greater than this present temple. That means God is saving the best for last. That means we're going to see increased glory. So I don't need you to get discouraged when we see wickedness arising. And, well, is. Is AI going to be the Antichrist. And, you know, people freak out about all kinds of goofy stuff. You're not going to accidentally get the mark of the beast, any of this kind of stuff. But we will see wickedness rise and alongside that we will see the glory of God arise. It's not a balance. No. We're going to watch both of these things elevate and the gap in between is going to become wider. It's going to be harder and harder to stay on the fence while I'm kind of in the church and I'm kind of in the world. No, you're going to watch these things vastly divided. We're going to watch wickedness increase. We're going to watch the love of many wax cold and we're going to watch the glory of God increase as we get nearer and nearer to the return of Jesus Christ.
[00:08:58] You'll notice that every Pentecost verse that we read has got end times in the last days. It's always got so hallelujah.
[00:09:12] Had somebody ask recently, was listening to a conversation and their question was, do you think watching Asbury and watching some of these other moves of God that we've seen in recent years, do you think that this is the greatest revival that has ever taken place?
[00:09:29] And to me, I began to dissect that idea with a number of other pastor friends and I'll just tell you my heart was a little saddened.
[00:09:39] What I've discovered is that most of our Pentecostal brothers and sisters, and when I say Pentecostal, this is charismatic, this is, you know, Spirit filled churches, this is assembly of God, this is for these are people that build their church and their doctrine around the activity of the present moving of the Holy Spirit. It's what I mean by Pentecostal. And so what I've noticed though is many Pentecostals don't have a church history that goes beyond a hundred years.
[00:10:06] We see what God did at Brownsville on Toronto. We see what God did through the healing revivals, the 40s, the 50s, the 60s. We may go back as far as Azusa Street. William Seymour and the great outpouring there in California, glory clouds in it was incredible.
[00:10:22] But do you realize that all throughout church history God has done radical things? In fact, about every 500 years there's a significant outpouring of the Spirit. And with that outpouring of the Spirit there comes reformation that comes in the church. We're actually in one of those windows right now where I believe God is doing some new things. There's man, we're, we're, we're seeing people break out of religion. We're watching young people come to Christ in droves. We're watching revival in the Middle East. People encountering angels or Jesus himself coming in dreams. I'm Jesus. Then a preacher shows up six months later and, hey, I've already heard about this Jesus. I met him in a. I mean, God's doing wild things.
[00:11:08] We're in one of these seasons. But what you'll notice is about 500 years ago, there was a Reformation, which we today call the Protestant Reformation.
[00:11:18] There was all kinds of corruption and ugliness that was going on in the church. And kind of the final straw was this doctrine we do not believe called indulgences.
[00:11:28] You ever heard of this? Anybody ever paid indulgences? This is the idea that, listen, you know, your uncle who died wasn't really saved, but he wasn't super bad. So he's not. He didn't make it to heaven, but he didn't. Wasn't bad enough to make it into hell. He's probably in this place called Purgatory.
[00:11:47] And if you pay the priest a good offering, that priest can pay and see your uncle get out of purgatory a little fast. We'll get him up to heaven a little quicker. Okay, again, we don't believe this, but this was the doctrine that hit the church around the world. And so there were people like Martin Luther and others who said, you know what? This is? This is horrible. This is heresy. We cannot tolerate this any longer. And so they began to protest. It's where we get the term Protestant. They began to protest. No, this is horrible. It's wicked. It's not in Scripture. And so they began to protest indulgences.
[00:12:28] And so God began this purifying work. And, boy, they were met with the spirit of God. One of the great things that came out of this was the releasing of the word of God in known languages.
[00:12:39] Now people were having the Bible released in, and they were able to read, and Holy Spirit is now teaching them. And, oh, it was so powerful.
[00:12:48] Out of that, there was a group of people called the Puritans. You ever heard of Puritans? This is where you get into, like, the Quaker oatmeal guy, you know, that guy was a Puritan. And you see these. They had mighty moves of God. In fact, you'll hear about these guys, like, called Quakers.
[00:13:04] You know what Quakers were? You know why they were called Quakers? These guys. There were critics that would come in again, religious that don't like the Holy Spirit. They'd walk into these meetings and they would see these people who are getting touched by God. Out under the power of God. And they would literally quake under the power of God. And so they'd walk in those meetings and, oh, they're just a bunch of Quakers. And they would. It was an insult. But they ended up adopting that and they got the cool hats and then they started making oatmeal. And it was awesome.
[00:13:34] So you've got these guys called the Puritans, because what happened was all of the church is now being cleansed.
[00:13:41] And they begin to look and they said, you know what? God still is doing a greater purifying work. And so they became the Puritans. It wasn't that they were like over the top religious or trying to live extra pure lives, but they just believed God's still cleansing the church.
[00:13:57] I believe we're actually in one of those periods right now.
[00:14:00] You're watching this. You can't go a week, you can't go a day without hearing about some other scandal, some other exposure. What is God doing? He's purifying the church. And I know it hurts when it's somebody you love, somebody you listen to, when it's your pastor, but I need you to know God has a plan.
[00:14:20] Because the Bible says that Jesus is coming back for a bride that has not spot, wrinkle or blemish. And right now there's some spots, wrinkles and blemishes that the Lord is trying to iron out. Hey, we need to pop that pimple. We need to get this wrinkle out. And the Lord's doing it. He's purified. So don't be discouraged.
[00:14:37] It's actually the Lord's gracious love. Hey, I need to bring my bride where it needs to be because that's the bride that I'm coming back for. I want to be a part of that. So the Puritans, now, they would experience the move of God and they began to understand some things. And this is kind of the outline for the day.
[00:14:57] They would notice that, like, there's moments where God can visit me personally in my prayer time, and it's powerful.
[00:15:06] But then there's moments where Tim Manigold gets up and just sings a single note.
[00:15:13] What is that? Anybody know what I'm talking? Like, you feel it just fill the room. And it's, whoa. It's something different than what I experience in my personal prayer time. It's. It's a. It's more than just me, you know, feeling, getting fired up, reading the Bible in my devotion time. There's something that happens in these moments. And the Puritans began to realize, like, dude, there's moments where God comes in, and this is very different than just my heart's getting excited for the Lord. You'll even see this in the ministry of Jesus. John the Baptist prophesied over Jesus, and he says, listen, I saw the Spirit of God come upon Jesus and remain.
[00:15:56] And Jesus walked in this continual fellowship with Holy Spirit. John 1:33. This is how he operated. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me. And then he goes through this whole list to preach and to heal and to set the oppressed free. Luke 4:18.
[00:16:13] So he went around and he was in this constant communion with Holy Spirit. And the Bible says, I only do what I see my Father doing. Luke John 5:19. And I only say what I hear my father say. John 12:49. So there was this cultivated presence that Jesus was walking in this beautiful dance of unity and flowing with Holy Spirit and the will of the Father. And what is he saying and what is he doing? And that's how Jesus operated. Well, I want to. I want to minister like that.
[00:16:51] But then there were moments, and you can read about this in Matthew 17, for example, Jesus goes up on a mountain, and the Bible says he was transfigured, he was transformed. I mean, you're talking lightning.
[00:17:05] Jesus began to glow. I mean, this was wild. Then all of a sudden, could you imagine being in this meeting?
[00:17:13] Moses and Elijah pop up out of nowhere. And then the voice of God, the Father, comes from heaven. This is my son, whom I love, list to him.
[00:17:28] These guys are so overwhelmed. They're like, we need to build a new church right up here, right? One for you, Jesus, one for Moses, one for Elijah. And. And they don't do that. But I'm. How many understand, like, mountaintop lightning, voice of God from heaven, Moses, visitation. I mean, this is wild stuff. That's pretty different than I'm walking in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, right? They're both presence.
[00:17:54] They're both powerful. The puritans actually had different theology for what we would call those things.
[00:18:01] There's moments of personal prayer with Jesus where he's in the garden, he's praying.
[00:18:08] Father, if you're willing, would you take this cup from me? Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
[00:18:16] And Luke 22 actually records that angels came and ministered to Jesus. They strengthened him, they comforted him.
[00:18:27] I don't know about you, but like, voices from heaven, encounters with God, walking in fellowship, hearing the Father, angel encounters. Sign me up for all of it, man. Like, I'LL take. I'll take a little bit of all of it. And some of you, like, you've never really considered that there's differences in the manifestation of the presence of God. And so we're going to talk about this. I'm giving you Puritan theology coming out of some history here. Is that okay with you? You guys, I feel like the room's with me. So I want you to write this down. Number one, I want you to write this down. Three types of presence we can all experience. Number one, what we would call essential presence.
[00:19:09] Essential presence.
[00:19:13] This is the idea that God is everywhere.
[00:19:17] God is omnipresent. He sees everything. He hears everything. He is in everything.
[00:19:25] And to that I say, yes, I believe that with all of my heart. We all have the sense that God is around us.
[00:19:33] Like, we would do evangelism. I'd invite people to church, and I got this a lot in Hawaii. You'd meet these Hawaii hippies, and they'd be like, well, I don't need to go to church.
[00:19:42] The beach is my church.
[00:19:45] I hated that. That irritated me so bad.
[00:19:49] The problem is, like, I kind of get it. How many of you ever watch the ocean? Man, I feel God here.
[00:19:55] You're walking through the woods. I feel the presence of God here. You look at the stars at night and you're like, whoa, that's the glory of God right there. I mean, I get it. You can look at a fish and think, wow, God.
[00:20:09] Anybody know what I'm talking about? Like, this is. This is. God is everywhere. God is big. God is the orchestrator of our lives. He's in over and through everything. I mean, I share testimonies about 20 years walking with the Lord, but God was working on me. Way before he was ever on my radar, he was seeing me. My wife and I talk about it like, this woman was made for me.
[00:20:38] We were made for each other. I think people, they irritate me so fast.
[00:20:44] She's the only one that I'm just like, I want to be around her all the time.
[00:20:48] She wants to be around me most of the time.
[00:20:53] But I think about this. I was a military kid. I was born in Germany.
[00:20:57] My wife was born in Hawaii.
[00:21:00] Literal opposite ends of the globe. And yet the Lord was orchestrating. I ended up over here and here. And I went through. My mom went through this divorce. And then I'll put you here and then here. And I'm watching. Like, how did God do that? That? We end up meeting in Dallas, Texas. We end up showing up at the same Time. I mean, you guys. So, like, I had applied to go to Christ for the Nations.
[00:21:27] Problem was I had a dui, got arrested, overdosed on drugs, got kicked out of high school. That's right. I got a past. Hallelujah.
[00:21:36] And I remember I applied to Bible school, and then I began seeking the Lord. I mean, I'm weeks out of drug addiction. And I began to passionately seek the Lord. And I remember I fell under conviction because I had lied on my CF and I application.
[00:21:58] I hadn't told them about my dui. I had not told them that I had a legal matter that I was still working through.
[00:22:05] So I call the guidance counselor. I still remember her name. One of these days, maybe I'll meet her again. Her name was Junco. And I call the admissions department at Christ for the nations, and I say, listen, I wasn't honest about my application. The Lord is convicting me now.
[00:22:23] I need you to know that I'm still working through this dui. I've still got some stuff that I've got to take care of. Okay, I'll let the admissions board know.
[00:22:32] I went into a church service, and there was a prophet who was ministering. That name, his name is Bill Otten.
[00:22:39] Bill looks at me. He comes up to me. I respond to the altar call that night. And I look at him. He's a prophet. And I say, brother Bill, I'm getting ready to go to Christ for the Nations. I'm going to pursue ministry. I think God may be calling me to be a missionary. And he looks at me, wow, that's so exciting. And he comes down and he lays hands on me. And after he prays in the spirit for a minute, he says, huh?
[00:23:06] You're not going to Bible school when you think you are.
[00:23:10] He says, God has seen your sin.
[00:23:13] You have yet to repent.
[00:23:16] Have you ever got a word like this? This is why prophets freak people out.
[00:23:22] You still need to repent. And I remember in that, I felt like Nathan being confronted, you know, confronting King David. I mean, I felt like my heart was shattered. I began to weep in the presence of God. I remember leaving, getting in my car, driving home and weeping the entire drive home. I'd never wept in the presence of God, but it was the first time that I'd been honest. That prophet told me, you're not going to CFNI when you think you are. The next day, Monday, I get a call from June Ko.
[00:23:49] And she says, jacob, I'm so sorry to inform you, but we will not be able to accept you as A student at Christ for the Nation. Until you've gone through all of your court and your court supervision, which was about two years, we will not be able to admit you into this school. At this point in time, I said okay. So I let it be.
[00:24:10] Go to work, fasting, praying, staying right with God, staying on track.
[00:24:16] I get a call not even a week later.
[00:24:19] Jacob, this is Junco.
[00:24:22] I don't know why, but your application just kept on coming back to my heart. I took it to the board and I asked if we could admit you sooner than two years from now.
[00:24:34] I need you to take the summer and I need you to take the fall. But if you stay on track and you get through your court, you can come in January of, What was it, 2005, 20 years ago? Now I think about this. I was frustrated by that situation.
[00:24:51] But my first semester, my second semester, I get into these classes I'm going through and I meet Leah.
[00:25:00] If I had gone to CFNI when I thought that I was supposed to, I never would have met her. Our paths never would have. I would have been a second year student, she would have been a full year behind me. But because I was delayed, I was able to meet my wife. And I'm looking at. What was a frustration for me was actually God orchestrating and ordering my steps. I need somebody to hear me on this. You may be experiencing a delay. You may feel like God, shut the door. But I'm telling you, if you'll continue to walk it out, if you walk with Jesus long enough, you're going to begin to realize God, you're orchestrating my lives. And what feels like a delay is actually a divine setup. God, you're ordering my steps. You're destining me to meet the right people in the right moments. So, Holy Spirit, help me to stay in sync with you every day of my life.
[00:25:50] I don't want to miss it.
[00:25:52] Wow.
[00:25:55] Romans chapter one says, since the world was created, people have seen the earth and the sky through everything God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Psalm 19:1 says that the heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his glory, craftsmanship. That's why I gotta say, you know what? These Hawaiian hippies are actually right.
[00:26:25] You can look at the stars and experience the glory of God.
[00:26:29] You can look at creation and those things begin to preach sermons to you. I'm watching the volcano erupt in Hawaii right now, and I'm thinking, that's the Glory of God. You watch these storms and the rain come and you're like, wow, I see God in the way that he's moving there. In fact, that's what it says in Acts 14 and verse 17.
[00:26:47] But he never left them without evidence of himself. Speaking of God and his goodness, for instance, he sends you rain and good crops.
[00:26:57] He gives you food and joyful hearts. You ever just laugh with some friends and man, this kind of feels like church. This feels good. You're not even talking about the Lord. But joyful hearts are in evidence of God food. You see that? Oh, they just took it down. Don't bring it. You don't.
[00:27:15] It says he gives you food.
[00:27:18] I'm telling you, you can sit around a plate, a fried chicken.
[00:27:29] Glory to God.
[00:27:32] I feel God in this restaurant right now.
[00:27:36] I was eating enchiladas and tacos with queso last night. Refried beans.
[00:27:43] Oh, I. I finished it with double shot espresso.
[00:27:49] It's the glory of God.
[00:27:53] Food, he says, is evidence of God. Why is it that you can sit around and just enjoy a meal with some people and it's like, man, this is. Fellow, we're not talking Bible, we're not talking scripture. But I just. You. It's evidence of God.
[00:28:06] Hallelujah. So go to lunch today. Let it be an act of worship. It's awesome. God orchestrates. So that's essential presence. I spent too long talking about that. But number two is what we call cultivated presence.
[00:28:19] Everybody say cultivated presence.
[00:28:23] This is not just God is everywhere. God is on the beach. God is in the trees. God is in my lunch. No, this is.
[00:28:32] This is cultivating something intimate with the Lord. This is a conscious effort to draw near to God. It's actively engaging the Lord in personal prayer, worship, in the study of scripture. You've probably heard verses like James 4. 8. Draw near to God and he'll draw near to you.
[00:28:51] That's true. You're here today. The very fact that you came to church, some of you may be searching. I don't know about this whole God thing. Is Jesus real? Did he really rise? Is the Holy Spirit for today? The fact that you came to church and you're leaning in the Bible says, if you'll draw near to him, he'll draw near to you. You can meet God, you can know him. Psalm 27, verse 8. One of my life verses. My heart has heard you say, come talk with me.
[00:29:22] My heart responds, lord, I'm coming.
[00:29:27] That when we begin to cultivate the presence. You see, I love corporate gatherings. I Love to gather for prayer meetings. I love corporate worship.
[00:29:38] But the cultivated presence of God is not found in meetings like this.
[00:29:45] It's found when you get in the secret place with the Lord.
[00:29:49] It's found when you seek the face of God on a personal basis. Prayer meetings, Sunday services, Bible studies, these are all great. But if you're going to cultivate intimacy, cultivate the presence of God. It's going to require you to get alone with God.
[00:30:08] Inexperience is not a substitute for cultivated presence.
[00:30:13] I cannot impart to you a relationship with Jesus. I can release gifts in your life. We can have our healing teams, pray for miracles and God work a miracle in your life. But I cannot impart cultivated presence.
[00:30:28] It is something that you must get hungry for on your own. It's something you must get desperate for on your own. And it wasn't enough, even with the disciples. They walk with Jesus for three and a half years. But Jesus instruction was, you need more.
[00:30:45] I need you to wait in Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. There's something. It's not just teaching. It's not just what you've seen. You've been a part of the meetings. But I'm going to give you something personal.
[00:30:57] The same way the Holy Spirit's in me, I'm giving it to you boys. So I need you to wait until the Spirit comes. He's going to come upon you, he's going to baptize you, and he's going to fill you, Holy Spirit on you, Holy Spirit in you, Holy Spirit around you. The same way me and the Father and the Spirit are one. He prayed this in John 17. You are going to have that same glory released in your life.
[00:31:23] So you need to get filled.
[00:31:24] You need the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul is another one. I mean, this guy had an encounter like few others on his way to Damascus, persecuting the church.
[00:31:38] All of a sudden a light shone from heaven. He gets knocked down. All of those who are with him get knocked down. And they all hear the voice, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
[00:31:52] This is an interesting bonus point for you.
[00:31:56] Saul was persecuting believers.
[00:31:59] Saul was persecuting the church.
[00:32:02] Yet Jesus says, you're persecuting me because the church is his body.
[00:32:09] When we come against, when we're divisive and we slander, when we tear down, when we persecute even other branches of the body of Christ, non Pentecostal, God forbid, Jesus feels that.
[00:32:21] Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you? Lord? I am Jesus, whom you are persecuted. This guy has an encounter that knocks him to the ground. And all those with him. He's hearing an audible voice from heaven.
[00:32:34] And Jesus says, go to the house of Ananias.
[00:32:38] Ananias is going to pray for you and you're going to be filled. So he goes, Ananias prays for him.
[00:32:45] Something like scales fall from his eyes. He receives his sight. And the Bible says he is filled with the Spirit.
[00:32:52] An encounter is not enough.
[00:32:55] I love getting touched by God. I love these moments where the Lord comes in. I love falling on the ground. I love doing all of that. But after those experiences are over, I'm telling you, we must cultivate the presence of God.
[00:33:10] You got to get close to Jesus.
[00:33:16] My spiritual father was a man of God by the name of Steve Hill.
[00:33:22] Got saved and really on fire under his ministry and spent the first number of years under his ministry. And never forget the first time I was sitting down with him and he says, jacob, I'm going to.
[00:33:35] I'm going to tell you the same thing that my spiritual father, Leonard Ravenhill told me.
[00:33:41] He's like, come close.
[00:33:44] I lean in. We're sitting across from each other. I lean in.
[00:33:48] He says, closer.
[00:33:51] I lean a little closer.
[00:33:54] He's like, I come closer.
[00:33:57] I get out of my chair and. And I actually begin, like, really closer to the point where I'm like cheek to cheek with Steve Hill.
[00:34:11] And then he whispers, God has secrets.
[00:34:20] But God doesn't shout his secrets.
[00:34:24] He whispers them.
[00:34:27] You gotta get close.
[00:34:29] You gotta get close.
[00:34:32] You gotta get close.
[00:34:34] I'm telling you, I've lived that way my. The entire time I've walked with Jesus. I get in the prayer meetings. I'm the first one to respond to altar calls.
[00:34:43] But I get close to Jesus. I didn't download this sermon off the Internet. I didn't use ChatGPT.
[00:34:52] I get close to Jesus face to face.
[00:34:56] Holy Spirit, would you show me something?
[00:34:59] Would you? What do you have on this Pentecost Sunday? I've preached other Pentecosts, but what do you have for this people today? I lean in and I hear his heart.
[00:35:08] The way you're going to cultivate relation. I'll just give these to you real quick and I'll. And then I'll move on.
[00:35:14] You're going to cultivate a relationship with the Lord through prayer.
[00:35:19] That seems common sense, but that's what Jesus did. He often withdrew. The Bible says, to lonely places or places of solitude to pray the disciples. After the outpouring at Pentecost they went to the temple daily so that they could pray.
[00:35:33] Secondly, they would worship. Everybody say worship.
[00:35:37] They would worship. The Bible says that they were praising God daily, praising God daily. And God gave them charis. He gave them grace, he gave them favor. As they were praising and worshiping. This became a lifestyle for them. They would worship God not just corporately, but personally as well.
[00:35:57] The third thing they did to cultivate their.
[00:36:00] To cultivate the presence of God was giving.
[00:36:04] Giving.
[00:36:06] Don't shout me down about that one.
[00:36:09] But if you study Matthew 6, this is like. This is part of the model for prayer. Like Jesus is teaching them to pray. And he says, when you pray, this is what it should look like.
[00:36:19] When you fast, this is what it should look like.
[00:36:22] And when you give. There were three topics he talked about in drawing close to the Lord. Praying, fasting and giving.
[00:36:33] And he says, when you do these things, you do it in secret.
[00:36:36] Pray in secret, fast in secret and give in secret. And when you do these things, the Father in heaven will himself reward you openly. He'll elevate you. He'll trust you with more. He'll anoint you. Why? Because you're cultivating something. It's coming close, it's getting in you. And he's raising you up.
[00:36:57] The study of scripture is very important.
[00:37:00] Read your Bible and invite Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, would you teach me? Would you show me things in your word? The Bible says that the disciples, after the outpouring of the Spirit, they devoted themselves to the apostles doctrine. That means they were hearing teaching and they devoted themselves to it. Now if you want me to give you a formula, well, you got to pray this long every day, read this many chapters. This is how much you should give.
[00:37:29] That's not what these guys did.
[00:37:32] All of this began to flow. There was no formula for them.
[00:37:37] All of this began to flow naturally. They had an encounter with the Lord. They were filled with the Spirit. And then there were things that God just directed them out of their relationship.
[00:37:48] We should go to prayer out of their relationship.
[00:37:52] We should teach this out of the word of God, out of their relationship. Barnabas, I want you to sell that piece of property. Give it to the church. And he did it.
[00:38:00] So don't get legalistic. Don't look. Well, I got my checkboxes and I prayed and I did this and that. No walk in the fellowship of the Spirit. And when he tugs on your heart. Hey, this is a season of intense prayer. I need you to up that. And then the season may shift. Listen, I'm getting Ready? You're gonna lead a Bible study. So I need you to dig in, and I need you to study this. And you hear the heart of God and you come into the flow. Hey, this is a season. We've got a vision for the church. I need you to increase your giving. I need you to believe in me for more, because I'm gonna trust you with more.
[00:38:31] It's not going to be every season, but you walk in fellowship with the Spirit and you respond thirdly. Everybody doing okay?
[00:38:42] All right, number three, I want you to write this down.
[00:38:46] Manifest presence.
[00:38:50] Oh, my.
[00:38:52] I believe we're good at two of these, but we're lacking of these.
[00:38:59] Everybody's aware of the essential presence of God.
[00:39:03] We've all been taught about the importance of a personal prayer life and walking with the Lord. Cultivated presence.
[00:39:11] But one thing that I have not seen a lot of is the manifest presence.
[00:39:17] I hate hearing questions like, why is God working more miracles overseas than he is right here?
[00:39:23] I don't necessarily believe that's true, but I do know that it's true for most of the church. And it breaks my heart.
[00:39:30] Why is it that you read about these great revivals throughout history and in Scripture, but we see few of these things now. Church, we're blessed here at Trinity. The way God moves in our services, the prophetic movement and the healing. I mean, we've got some testimonies. God has shown up in different moments. But I'm just here to tell you there's more, and I'm hungry for the more. This is when God's presence become evident. It is often accompanied with miraculous signs and a sense of his nearness. It's accompanied by experiences and encounters with God. When we read in Acts 2, we read the verse, just a moment ago, people were filled with the Spirit in speaking with other tongues.
[00:40:16] Now they've got something to cultivate.
[00:40:18] But something else happened on that day. There was a mighty rushing wind.
[00:40:26] That's manifest presence.
[00:40:28] Suddenly from heaven, there was a mighty rushing wind. You ever wonder where that crowd came from? Because in the following verses, 3,000 people get added to the church.
[00:40:41] Where did all those people come from? There's only 120 in the prayer meeting.
[00:40:46] But the Bible says in Acts 2, verse 5, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, when the manifest presence came into that meeting, the multitude came together. They were confused because they heard them speak in their own language. The manifest presence drew a crowd.
[00:41:14] The manifest presence. In Acts, chapter four, we read it earlier. They Prayed, God, give us boldness to preach your word and stretch forth your hand that mighty signs, wonders, and miracles will be done.
[00:41:29] And when they prayed, the place they were assembled was shaken. You I'm not talking about, brother. So and so got a touch from God and shook under the power.
[00:41:43] The building was shaken.
[00:41:49] For real, guys, I think about this kind of stuff. I mean, on both of those accounts, it says all of them were filled.
[00:41:59] You know that in Acts chapter four, some mom brought their rebellious, backslidden kid that didn't want to go to church that day, and he's sitting and whining and complaining in the back row.
[00:42:12] People are praying, they're going crazy. He's not about it.
[00:42:18] And all of a sudden, the building begins to shake.
[00:42:24] And the Bible says all were filled.
[00:42:28] This was not a moment like. Like, we've all had church services where we turn to one another like, man, that was good, huh? Oh, Susie got touched by God. Well, that was awesome. And did you feel that, too? There was no need to, like, did you feel that? Did you feel. Oh, I felt something. I felt my heart. No, the place shook, the glory came, the wind blew, and everybody inside and outside the church knew it. I believe, man. I'm just crazy enough to believe that the greatest church growth strategy that we could ever come up with is not programs, it's not systems, it's not this study or this series. I'm all about all of those things.
[00:43:10] But the manifest presence of God. I'm telling you, unbelievers with, like, look at what God is doing. Those guys had, like, a tornado come into their church. What in the world? There was a fire that came down upon that house.
[00:43:26] Am I the only one that's, like, faith enough to believe for this kind of thing? If God did it there?
[00:43:33] In the Old Testament, they were dedicating the temple worship team. If you come, I will never stop talking. Come, come.
[00:43:41] In the Old Testament, they build a glorious temple.
[00:43:46] And the Bible says that Solomon gets up and they're offering sacrifices and Solomon prays a prayer of dedication.
[00:43:56] And in second Chronicles 7, verse 1, Solomon finished praying. And fire flashed down from heaven. It burnt the offerings and sacrifices. And the glorious presence of God filled the temple. The priest could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glorious presence of the Lord filled it all. The people of Israel saw the fire, all the people saw the fire coming down.
[00:44:21] And the glorious presence of the Lord filled. And they fell on their face on the ground. They worshiped, praising God, saying, he is good and his faithful love endures. Forever.
[00:44:32] You understand?
[00:44:34] When God came down, these priests didn't turn to each other.
[00:44:41] This feels like a time that we should lay down.
[00:44:45] People seeing the fire come down, I feel like we should worship God right now. They didn't need a worship leader to get up and say, this feels like a good time to worship the Lord.
[00:44:54] We should pray God came down.
[00:44:59] Manifest presence.
[00:45:03] This is something beyond. I see it in scripture and I see it in history.
[00:45:07] Azusa had meetings like that. Wales experienced a move of God like that. These early Quakers and reformers, they experienced moves of God like you can look all throughout church history. The Methodists, they experienced this kind of thing. You'll watch as God has moved all throughout history. You'll see radical encounters where there was no question, is God here? Did you feel that too?
[00:45:32] Manifest presence.
[00:45:35] I don't know about you, but I'm hungry for that.
[00:45:40] I'm hungry for that.
