Gateway Church's Podcast
The Holy Spirit Is Life
I want you to listen to something, this is going to disturb some of you, we'll listen to this for a minute, and in average lifetime, the average American spends three years in business meetings, 13 years watching TV, he spends $89,000 on food, consumes 109,000 pounds of food, makes 1,811 trips to McDonald's, he spends $6,800 in vending machines. He eats 35,000 cookies, that's a great life, it's pretty good. And 1,483 pounds of candy catches 304 colds, that's about four years so, is involved in six motor vehicle accidents, is hospitalized eight times for men and 12 times for women, and they spend 24 years sleeping, that's the average American, so that's what you have to look forward to, and if you're behind in any of those categories, then you probably need to eat cookies and some candy and go to McDonald's for lunch today, just to keep the average up. Well here, if you're a man today, listen, here's the seven stages of life for a man, if you're a man, the seven stages of life are spills, drills, thrills, bills, pills, pills, and wills, here's one of the places today, you know, for me, I hope I have not skipped over the thrill part, you know, I'm kind of waiting for the thrill part, I hope I haven't just ran past that and already got into the bills, but I think I'm in the bills already, I have that feeling, but you know what, honestly, the Holy Spirit, when I met the Holy Spirit as a living, breathing person, when the Holy Spirit came into my life, one of the greatest fears I had when I was a young man and deciding whether or not I wanted to follow my parents and follow the people I knew and become a believer, one of the things that I was afraid of, honestly, was that being a Christian wasn't any fun, because many of the Christians I hung around were not having much fun, it was a miserable existence that seemed like to me, and especially I didn't want to be a pastor, you got to be kidding, that had to be one of the worst jobs ever I thought when I was growing up, and changing churches all the time getting voted out, and churches all the time putting up with all of that, why would you want to be a pastor? I thought in my heart when I was a teenager, poor guys, they just must not have any other skills that they have to be a pastor, and I never wanted to be one, and then the Lord began to speak to me that I was going to be one, I thought he was mad at me, if I was upset with me, but you know what, the more I know about the Holy Spirit, the more I know that he's come to give me life, and it's been the most fun thing that I've ever done when I receive the Holy Spirit at salvation, then when I receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, my life has never been born and never lacked for excitement, and I'm going to read through some scriptures today because I want to prove to you today at the end of this message that the Holy Spirit has come to give you life, and John chapter 6 verse 63, here's what the word says, the Spirit gives life, it's the Spirit that gives us life, the flesh counts for nothing, the words I have spoken to you are Spirit, and they are life. Romans chapter 8 verses 1 and 2 says, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." The word Spirit there is capitalized, he's saying through Jesus the Holy Spirit came into the world. Jesus released the fullness of the Holy Spirit now to give us that, by the way, life with the Holy Spirit, living under the power of the Holy Spirit, is a much better deal than we got through the law. Can you agree with that? That living through the Spirit, by the power of the Spirit, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a much better deal. Now do you believe today that we got more through Jesus than we lost through Adam? We received more through Jesus than we lost through Adam. Jesus came not only to break the curse of Adam, but to make us a better deal. And he did by releasing the Holy Spirit into our life. Job chapter 34 verses 14 and 15 says, "If it were his intention, and he withdrew his Spirit, capital S there, and breath, all mankind would perish together, and man would return to the dust." Job understood that the Holy Spirit was moving upon the earth even in the Old Testament, and wherever the Holy Spirit came in the Old Testament, life suddenly sprang up. Psalms 104 verse 30 says, "When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the faith of the earth." And finally in Luke chapter 1, the most powerful event that the Holy Spirit ever caused to happen came on the Virgin Mary. He says, "The angel answers, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you, so the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God." Literally what happened in the Immaculate Conception, the Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin Mary, and overshadowed her, and in her womb was conceived the Lord Jesus Christ. And he went through a natural gestation period, nine months later, a baby boy was born. He was fully God, and fully man. And we were able to relate to him as man, and we were able to receive him as God, because the Holy Spirit came into the womb of Mary and conceived there. See, the Holy Spirit came to create life, wherever the Holy Spirit comes, life comes in. I'm here today to challenge you to embrace the Holy Spirit, not as some mystical force that comes into the church service for 25 minutes, but as a living, breathing person that wants to walk beside us and habit us, and give us life. I believe today that the Holy Spirit is the created force in our life, that the Holy Spirit literally wants to come today and be a creative agent, a creative force in our lives. Now I want to read something to you, and I want you to bear with me as I make this point. When you look into the animal kingdom, you do not see creativity. Robins sing the same song, blue jays sing the same song, beavers build the same kind of dam, spiders build the same type of web, birds build the same nest, animals do not exhibit creativity, birds do not create new music, they sing the songs that were ingrained into their mind by their creator, animals do not have the creative abilities that man has. God, through the Holy Spirit, is creative. It was us, it was human beings that God said, I'm going to put my creative nature in them, and they will have the ability, through their words, and through their gifts, and through their talents, to create something new. Creativity is not simply about artistic ability, some of you may be painters and songwriters and musicians, and by the way, if you are, the Holy Spirit is about to become real to you because he's going to absolutely blossom your talents and skills, but it's more than just that. If ever the case, I'm only speaking about 15% of us, and I wouldn't be in that mix either. I'm not naturally creative, I'm not artistic, I don't draw and write and paint, I don't sing and dance, I try, but I don't do it very well. Even under the anointing, it's not that good. That's not the Lord's fault, believe me. But creativity, I want you to write down the definition of creativity today because this is for every person in this room. Creativity is simply our ability to make something new, something that did not exist before. It is the ability to do things in a new way. And I want to say something to you today, as I was praying about it this week, I believe today, there are businessmen sitting in this room today that you're at a dead end. And you're wondering, what do I need to do to go to the next step? And they're homeschool moms, especially praying this week, and there are mothers here today who homeschool your children. And you're wondering, what can I do now to get, I can't get across to my children. They're parents of teenagers here today, and you've read all the books, you've talked to all your friends, and you still cannot make intimate contact with your teenager. You're here today. There are many people here today, and you're frustrated because you're at a dead end. You've tried and tried and tried to communicate to your spouse, and something that works. You can't break through. And the Holy Spirit stands next to you today, beside you, front of you, around you, and he comes today to create something new. You know what the definition of insanity is? I know this personally, actually, because I've struggled with insanity at times. And here it is. Do the same thing over and over again, and expect different results. That's the definition of insanity. That's what the enemy wants you to do in your mind, in your thinking. He wants you to try to do the same thing over and over again, and expect different results while the Holy Spirit stands next to you and says, "Listen, if you'll listen to me, I'm going to tell you a different way. I'm going to give you something new. I'm going to give you an innovative idea. I'm going to give you a creative nature so that you can think this through, so that you can have an idea for your business, an idea for your family, an idea is going to come to you, a way of talking, and thinking is going to suddenly come upon you that's going to give you something new to think about." John chapter 20, listen, I want you to understand something that the Holy Spirit literally is the breath of life. And John chapter 20 verses 21 and 22 says, "Jesus said, 'Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you,' and with that he breathed on them, and he said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" Now this was a New Testament release of the Holy Spirit, but I believe this is not the first time that God breathed upon man. In fact, I believe in Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, when God created man, that it was the breath of the Holy Spirit that came into that pile of dirt that created the life of man. In Genesis 2, 7, the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now I want you to see those last few words, living beings, because a pastor friend of mine was listening to a Jewish Orthodox teacher who was reading through the Genesis in the original Torah, through the original Hebrew language. And when he got to the part where it's that living being, you know what that really means in the original language, speaking spirit. That's what you are. You are a speaking spirit. God has always wanted to use us as his voice. He has always wanted to use us as his creative agents on the earth. Listen, all he wants us to do, Jesus, when he taught us to pray, to pray that the will of God be done upon the earth as it already is in heaven. He said, "You are my agent. You will come and you will enforce my will upon the earth through the power of the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit has come today to show you the will of Christ and not only to show you what the will of God is, but to give you the power to create the will of God, to make it happen. Listen, listen to what happened in Genesis 2, 7, when we were created, only 12 verses later, and Genesis 2, 19, look exactly what happened. Notice what happens when the Holy Spirit created man. Now, the Lord had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man calls each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the field, but for Adam, no suitable helper was found. Now listen, here's what happened, Adam is sitting there, and he's just a few minutes hours old. We don't know how much time has elapsed between those 12 verses, but he's sitting here and God says, "Look, I'm going to bring some animals by you, you tell me what they are." Elephant, Zebra, I'm careful who I'm pointing out here, okay, I'm not pointing out you. Elephant, Zebra, rhinoceros, he says, "These are all going to be all over Africa. They're going to be in zoos one day." Elephant, Zebra, rhinoceros, hippo, he said, "Well, what would you call an elephant? An elephant, that's what it is." Why didn't God, in other words, why didn't God just say, "Now, Adam, or this is an elephant?" Oh, okay, why aren't you writing this down? Elephant, and he's going to birth other elephants, that's all he can do, is birth other elephants. Why didn't he do that? Instead, he said, "Adam, you tell me what it is, tell me what you see, what would you call it, Adam?" See how relational God is, you see how he's always wanted to use us, he's never wanted to bypass you, he's never wanted to go around you, he's always wanted to speak through you. And from the very beginning, when the Holy Spirit came upon man, something was released in mankind that gave us creative powers in our words. For example, if you call your kid stupid, what will they become? If you call them geniuses and wonderful, powerful, and anointed, they'll become what? Wonderful, anointed. That's what they become. You see, the power of our words, through the power of the Holy Spirit, has the creative nature of God. Mark 13, verse 11, it says, "Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say." Listen, I read this, this is talking about the last days, it's talking about being brought to trial, to court, in front of very powerful people, having to defend our faith. Now listen, how many of you would honestly obey that scripture? You know what, go to bed that I say, "You know, I'm just not going to worry about tomorrow." In fact, I'm not even going to write anything down. I believe personally, I would make at least a few notes on the napkin and the prison cell. Think, and maybe, why don't they ask this question? Maybe I could write down a few notes. Lord, I know your scripture said not to worry about it, but I'm going to believe that most of us wouldn't do it. I believe, though, it's what Lord was saying. He said, "Whenever you're brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say." He said, "Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking but the Holy Spirit." Now, this is what happened, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with careful planning and preparation, but there is something wrong if we don't leave room for the Holy Spirit. You see, we can plan and prepare our way right out of the Holy Spirit's purposes. We can so plan our day and so prepare our day and so have day timers filled up with the details of our day that we do not allow for the Holy Spirit to come in us and maybe give us a better plan, a better idea, a better solution. We have planned the Holy Spirit out of our lives. Jesus went to extremes and said, "Don't even worry about it, the Holy Spirit will fill your mouth." Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9, before you put it on the screen, I'm going to read a scripture here that I believe many of you do not believe. The only way, if you do believe this scripture that I'm about to read, I'll tell you why you believe it because one day you can do your wits end and you totally exhausted your own ideas. This is when we believe this scripture. This is a very difficult scripture for us to receive and make a part of our lives. Isaiah 55, 8, 9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways, my ways," declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. The Lord is saying, "Listen, do you understand that I created you? I understand business. I understand your family. I understand where you are. I've come today to release my creative nature in you. Listen, guys, for every man and woman in here that's in business, can I tell you that it's not fair to your competitors, that you have the Holy Spirit, that you're playing with a stack deck? You're playing with an unfair advantage. I remember one time that I was in ministry and then for about a six and a half year period, I stepped out of ministry because I needed to, I was supposed to. I took the lowest sales job I could, the only job I could find, I made $500 a month. I have a college degree that's like $500 a month, but this is where the Lord put me. This is what they started me off at. I went in there and there was nine other salespeople and two managers and I was the low boy on the totem pole. I went in there. I'd go to those sales meetings, but the difference was every night I'd go home and I would sit before the Lord and I'd say, "Lord, I don't know anything about this industry. I don't know how to do this. I've never sold anything. Lord, can you give me some innovative ideas?" I would sit and I would listen and the Lord would begin to show me by the power of the Spirit, things that I was supposed to do, ways that I was supposed to approach my clients, the ways that I was supposed to write it out. I mean, He gave me the ability to sit in front of people and the Holy Spirit would tell me things to do and I would close the deal. I mean, I started bringing back sales. I thought everybody was supposed to go out and make sales every day. I would come back and I would just sit them on my sales manager's desk and say, "Look what I--?" "Is this what I sold today?" He said, "You did what?" I said, "I sold this, this, and this, and this." I said, "Have you ever thought about that maybe if we presented this way or we presented this this way, how that could help us?" You know that six months later, I was in charge of the whole thing. I was over all nine salespeople and I was over both those managers because, see, I was planned with an unfair debt. It's not that I'm that smart. I made average grades in high school, average grades in college, but the Holy Spirit came upon me because I asked Him and He blessed me and I had favor with the Lord the whole time I was in the business world because the Holy Spirit came upon me. He wants to do that. It's okay. Look, if you are a plumber here today, you should be the most creative, innovative plumber in the metro plaque. If you lay carpet down, you should be the most innovative, most creative carpet placement in the whole metro plaque. If you sell cars, whatever you do, the Holy Spirit wants to come today. He wants to walk with you. He wants to invest in you and he wants to release his creative nature in you. How do we--how do we release it though? How do we release this creative nature of the Holy Spirit in our lives? Number one, make sure that your soul and your body are rested. Here's the saying, I want you to remember this. I want you to remember this next time you see our president on TV and the next time you see any world leader, the world is ruled by tired men, tired people rule the world, and this is what God's people shouldn't be tired and exhausted though. See, this is the advantage we have. There's rest for our souls. You know what your soul is, your mind, your will and your emotions, and before you can become inherently creative, those things must be in order. You must make sure that you're sleeping well, taking care of your body, and that you're able to receive, that you are rested, that you're not working in your own strength. Every time I get outside the strength of the Lord, I get tired and I'm no good, but when I get under the rest of the Lord, this is when the Lord makes me creative. He gives me the idea when I am sitting still, when I'm taking care of my soul and my body, and I am rested. Number two, be still and listen. You've got to listen. You've got to sit in the presence of the Lord. Listen, it requires your time. It requires your spiritual ears. Ask every day or give me spiritual ears. Give me spiritual ears. For example, listen, if who wrote the Bible, we know the names of the men who wrote, and we know that, but who inspired them to write the Bible? There was a Holy Spirit that came upon men and anointed them to write it. For example, when Pastor Robert's book comes out, and you're reading the book, would it be great if Pastor Robert would just schedule a day with each of you and sit with you at your coffee table or dining table, and as you read through his book, if he were sitting right next to you and said, "Oh, Pastor Robert, just one line here about this," and he said, "Oh, let me tell you what I was thinking when I was writing that. You know what? This is what the Lord was saying to me. What if he just came and sat with each of you throughout the whole process of reading that book and gave you editorial insight on every word that was written? Wouldn't that be nice? That's what the Holy Spirit does. He wrote it. He inspired them and to write it. And when I sit still and when I listen and when I read the Word with the Holy Spirit next to me, he says, "Let me tell you what Paul meant there. Let me help you understand. You know what, Paul, I was there with Paul that day. Paul wrote that, and this is what I was trying to say, and he opens my eyes for the Word. It comes alive to me. It's powerful to me. I sit still, and I listen, and the Holy Spirit reveals his nature to me. Number three, you've got to believe what you hear. Can I say something to you today? You are hearing the voice of the Lord just fine. You are hearing him. Some of you hear some of the craziest ideas, and you think, "Man, that can't be the Lord. That's way too good. You know, I've never fought at that level before. It's the Lord that comes to you, to give you innovative ideas." Believe it. Believe that it's the Lord that's helping you think in another stratosphere, in another realm. It's the Lord that does this. Number two today, another thing that I want you to see today is that the Holy Spirit is your ticket to a life of great adventure. Now, when I grew up in the '80s, and you know, when I was all about me, it was very materialistic time. It was about getting ahead, about just being the stew out of each other and business. That's what it was all about. That's what I saw in movies. That's what I saw in songs. There was just one song that really defined the whole decade of the '80s, and there was a guy who wrote it. It was a little ditty about Jack and Diane, this little song. If you're from the '80s, you know this song, but here's a line out of the song, "Oh, yeah, life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone." In fact, it says in the song, "Hang on to 16 as long as you can." Here's what John Krugermel and Camp was saying. There's going to come a time in your life that it's not going to be fun anymore. There's going to come a time later in your life when it's going to be just about paying the bills and surviving. The fun will go, he said. You see, today John Krugermel and Camp struggles with chronic depression. He is in and out of hospitals trying to get over a chronic depression that has plagued him all his life. You see, he's wrong because the thrill doesn't go. The thrill of living does not stop. The thrill of living continues. You see, something happened. I turned 35 this year, and before you get all upset about it, I know that, and I'm young, I think, but something happened. You know what the Lord said to me on my 35th birthday, says, "Brady, I have set now the first half of your life as a foundation. I've given you a great foundation." He began to show me all the foundational stones that he had laid in my life for the first 35 years through my parents, through pastors, through friends, through the Word, through everything. God has put a place in my life. "Brady, live the second half of your life for the next generation." You live for yourself the first 35 years, and the last half of your life is going to be lived for another generation. I have a mandate today in my life, for as long as God keeps me on the earth, I'm going to live for somebody else now. I'm going to live for the next generation, and that, to me, is a great adventure that's ahead of me. This is a great adventure, and the Lord comes today to tell you, start living for something else, start living for somebody else, start giving yourself away, start living for the next generation. You see, when I'm 90 years old, I'm going to be a worshiping fool at 90 years old. I'm going to be the most exciting, most fun 90-year-old you've ever met. I want the life of the Holy Spirit to still be resonating in me. I did a prize victory in a church recently, and this lady came up on the stage, and she was in her 80s, her first time to ever go through prize victory, and the whole church leaned forward. They loved this lady, and she walked up, and there was a tremendous blow on her face. There was just a compassion. This was a wonderful, powerful lady in her 80s that stood there, and I looked at her, and the Lord said, "That's you, Brady, that you will just keep your eyes on me. That's you. That you will have the life of the Holy Spirit in you. It doesn't matter what your age is. The Lord wants to invest in you until you take your last breath. There can be life for you, Brady. Don't fear being an old cager one day. I just want to, at my funeral, I want to have some friends there. You know, I just don't want people to show up because they have to. Well, I guess I've got to go. I've known him for all these years. I want to have friends there. I want people to love me when I'm 90, and this is what this lady represented to me. Live my life for someone else. She had just made up her mind, and I said in the words, "Around 1965, I said, you made a choice to start living for somebody else," and her eyes as welled up in tears, and said, "You have lived for the next generation for 40 years," and the Lord came upon her. That's exactly what God's saying. Albert Schweitzer, who wrote no songs for the 1980s, that he's a missionary, and a pioneer doctor in Africa, this is what he says is, "The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he's still alive." That's the tragedy of life is what dies inside someone while they're still alive. They still have breath. That's not the purpose of a Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the giver of life. Do you know why you've been attacked? Do you know why that you just are under tremendous attack in this area? Because the enemy fears you, if you ever get your heart back, if you ever get your thrill for life back, if you ever get the creative nature of the Holy Spirit, this idea that life is one big adventure, if you ever get it back, you are a threat. You are a dangerous person. Why don't you look to the person next to you and say, "You are dangerous," because you're dangerous. John chapter 6, some of you just tell by some way say, "You're really dangerous. You're getting around the ribs." John chapter 6 verse 35 says, "Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." Listen, you know that most Christians today are just bored, bored stiff. Most believers today are just bored. Look, in the book of Acts, you read through the book of Acts, there's not an amen at the end. It is a continuing saga. We're supposed to be living out the book of Acts. We are the continuation. We're chapter 97 of the book of Acts. We're supposed to be living it out. What happens if they come back and write a chapter for the book of Acts about our church, about your life? Would it be as good as the first twenty-six or so chapters? Yes, it's supposed to be. I mean, listen, Philip was living in Samaria and began to preach and evil spirits came out of people, people were healed, and the whole city turned to the Lord, then he suddenly found himself in front of this Ethiopian ruler. He began to share Jesus with him and showed him the scripture. He baptized him in a nearby pond, and immediately was carried away, doesn't know what happened. He just woke up, and he's in another city. I've fallen into a trance before, but when I woke up, I was in the same place that I fell asleep. I just lost my mind for about thirty minutes. But listen, this is a great adventure, the Lord wants you to lead. Most believers are too busy trying to live up to all the standards of morality and fairness and sensitivity. We're not living the adventurous life that God has called us to live the one you dreamed about as a child. Listen, man, I want to say something to you especially. You know what you were created to do? Listen, you need to understand this about men. This is the soul of a man that I'm about to reveal to you. Man was created to explore, to build, and to conquer. Men are the ones who had fought wars throughout, men are the ones that go to battle. Men are the ones that stand against the oppressions of a Nazi Hitler. Men is the one that stood against Vietnam and the oppression of communism around the world. Man is the one. Man was created to do this. Every man needs a battle to fight, an adventure to go on, and a woman to win. That's in the soul of every man. Yet we've been beat down. All we do is pay our mortgage and pay our bills and try every once in a while to get on the golf course. That's basically what our life is all down to. Most of the reason that men are under attack is for one reason. We're men. I'm telling you, there's more in your soul than you're living. God created you for much more than what you're doing. Listen, you're bored, stiff, and I understand. I've been bored before, and I've made a decision in my heart that I'm going to live this life. I'm not going to be bored in my walk with the Lord. I'm not going to -- I want my children to grow up in my house and hear me speak, but then go and look at me in my house and I'm not doing any of it. I don't want my children to grow up thinking I live with a hypocritical pastor who spoke about the power of God and ever lived with the power of God. He spoke about hearing God's voice, but he never spoke anything to me. I want to live this life in front of my children. I want my children -- they can't wait when they grow up to live this life of adventure. Let me give you some people's names here. Here's some pioneers that you've probably heard of. Have you ever heard of the white brothers? They were the ones who flew the first plane that worked. It wasn't the first plane. It was just the first one that worked. They happened to be flying it. Have you heard of Lewis and Clark, the explorers of the Louisiana Purchase? How about Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China? Have you ever heard of him? You know, Hudson Taylor was sailing into the port to go to China for the first time and wanted to speak to him and he said, "You know, Hudson, we're probably going to die here in China. These people are probably going to kill us." And Hudson Taylor looked at him and said, "I died before I came." You see, he expected great adventure. At any cost, it didn't matter to Hudson Taylor. "I died before I came." You see, he went there for great adventure. He made a tremendous impact. Neil Armstrong was the first one to step out of that lunar rocket and step on something that no man had ever stepped on. Do you understand he was probably fearful? Why did he got swept away into outer space? You understand, when he opened that door, he was not really sure about what he was going to do? He didn't understand completely. All his training did not prepare him for the fear that came into his heart when he stepped out on that lunar surface for the very first time. How about the Marines at Omaha Beach on D-Day with bullets flying? You can go to Omaha Beach today, by the way, and it's a pretty nice place, but on that day it was a bad place to be. And the very first three or four waves sustained almost 80 to 90% casualties, but they had a job to do. They were there for great adventure and their lives didn't matter. They were brave men that went to that cliff and took that cliff and allowed the others to come behind them. You see, we've heard of all these people. Now, can you tell me a famous settler who was not a first-appioneer? I don't know any famous settlers who were not first-appioneers. God's calling us is something more powerful than we're living. It's the Holy Spirit that wants to do this than us. For example, there was a man in our church who works at the Hyatt at the airport, has worked there for years. It's Ken Jackson. For those of you who know Ken Jackson, and he began to feel in his heart the Holy Spirit began to say something to him about five or six years ago about being prophetic, about sharing the prophetic words that God would give him. And there was a pastor's conference going on at the hotel, and he knew they were pastors because he worked at the hotel, he knew he was staying there, there was a large group of pastors from all over the world. And every day, this one particular man would walk by his place in the hotel, and the Lord would point him out to him and say, "Go tell that man one word, dig." And Ken said, "Lord, listen. I want to be prophetic. I want to share prophetic words because you give me just a little more." And every day the Lord said, "It's telling one word." This is on Monday, "dig." All week long, Ken Jackson battled, "I'm not going to go tell this man that I don't know. Dig." The Lord says, "Dig." Finally, on Friday, he just could not. He had to do it. So the man walked by and he said, "Sir, can I see you for a second? Can I tell you something to you?" I know you're a pastor, and I'm a believer as well. I don't know if you even believe in prophecy, and the pastor looked at him strangely, and now Ken felt back. He didn't know the God believed in this, because Ken says, "I just once, all week I've seen you and the Lord wants me to tell you one word, dig." This pastor looked at him, and big tears came into his eyes. He said, "What did you say?" He said, "Dig." So how did you know that? He said, "I don't know. I'm sorry. That's the only word I've heard for all week long." So this pastor from Guatemala said, "Sir, I'm a pastor in a small village, a mountain village in Guatemala," and he said, "We have a very small village, and no money to buy property, and our church is growing so fast. We have a building that's backed up to the back of the mountain, and we have two options. Either dig out in the back of that mountain, or turn people away. We have nowhere else to go. And I told my leaders in my church this week, "I'm going to be gone to America for a week, and I'm praying that this week the Lord will show us what to do. Are we to invest our money and dig out the back of this mountain and expand our property, or are we supposed to look for something else?" And you come to me today and you say, "The Lord says, 'Dig.'" Now let me ask you a question. That, my friend, is an adventure. Isn't that powerful, though? Because he took a risk. He did it. Listen, every time I give prophetic words, or some word of knowledge, or whatever, in the crowd, when I'm walking up here, I get this mental battle going on with me. What if they reject you? What if it's just wrong? What if it's not received? You see, but I've decided in my heart, I am going to take a risk. I'm going to say it for the Lord's glory, and not my own, for the people may be encouraged that it's people may administer to. I just took a risk. Let me ask you to tell you some things today, three quick things as I close today, about how to live this life of adventure that the Holy Spirit has come today to encourage you to do. Number one, take some risk. The Holy Spirit is the great comforter that he does not let you live in a comfort zone. The Holy Spirit comes today to comfort us. He comes today to encourage us. He says, Brady, it's going to be okay. This is not the Old Testament. They're not going to stone you. Maybe, I'm not sure, but they're not going to stone you. You just give it. Just do it. Take a risk, Brady. But what I don't want to, it's much easier sitting over there in that corner, away from everybody. Take a risk. Some of you are sitting in your life group every week and you have powerful prophetic words for people in your group that you won't say to them. Can I say to you this week in your life group, take a risk. Do it. And listen, Armabon back was a hilarious lady. Here's what she says. She says, "He's the moment. Think about all those women on the Titanic who waved away the dessert cart. Take a risk. Do it." I mean, go eat some dessert. Live life. Quit being so safe. Quit playing it so safe. I mean, if you don't football, it's like some of you are just every play at the quarterback's knee. Every play is a quarterback's knee. Throw the ball deep every once in a while. Take a risk. Number two, believe that God is powerful and present in your life. Believe that He is powerful, that it's not just history that you're reading in the Bible, that it's present-day power that's available to you, that the Holy Spirit is powerful, that the Holy Spirit is not an elderly man, that somehow lost His virility and cannot help you anymore, that He was very powerful in the Bible, but He's kind of lost it in the days now. He's not. He's as powerful today. He's the same today as He was yesterday and He will be forever. Please believe today that God is powerful and present in your life. And number three, make room for adventure in your schedule. Make room for it in your schedule, it is not the Holy Spirit, it is adventure. That's the Holy Spirit wants you to live. Pam and I, when we were young Christians, my wife Pam, we got married very young in our early 20s and we just decided I'm not going to live this boring life of Christianity and our church during a very violent time in the city that we live. In fact, I lived in Shreveport, Louisiana at this time and in 1988 Shreveport led the nation in murders per capita. It was a very violent city, racial tension all over the city and there were certain neighborhoods in our city that were being ravaged by gangs and drugs and police officers were afraid to even go into these neighborhoods, but police did tell us the safest time to go is Saturday morning from nine to noon, be out by noon, be gone by noon. But if you want to go into those neighborhoods, go from nine to noon. So my wife and I adopted 20 homes and we went to the same 20 homes on Abbey Street for four and a half years every Saturday morning from nine to noon. We began to meet the people in every one of those homes and we prayed with them. I preached some of their funerals, they asked me to speak at their funerals. I let many of them to the Lord. We thought there was one couple that we got back together, they're living right now. One day I was walking down the street and a prostitute who we knew was a prostitute came out and she ran to me, fell on her face, said please tell me how I can receive Jesus. I had not said a word to her. We prayed for her and today she is teaching a fifth grade Sunday school class at a church on the corner there. She's doing wonderful, she's free. Another time there was a man who had chronic arthritis that we prayed for all the time and one day I took a 15 year old boy with me and the two of us laid hands on this man and his hands came out, his knuckles went back to their normal thighs and he ran off his porch and went and told his neighbor look I can cook for myself now, look I can hold the pot. You don't have to come cook for me anymore. He was yelling, went to all of his neighbors. You see every Saturday morning I turned down Gulf Day. I turned down times that I could have been on trips and doing other things. They called Saturday from nine to noon was my time where I was going to live this adventurous life that God called me to live. I believe that people still get healed. I believe that people are still radically born again and I just made room for it every week for four and a half years and today, today I'll look back. Those are the most powerful four and a half years of my life because I made room for it in my schedule. Are you making room for some adventure? Are you making room for it in your schedule? Are you putting aside some other things in San Lord? Please, by the power of your Holy Spirit, can I have some adventure? Can I go on a mission trip? Can I do some things? Can I lead a life group? Can this great adventure really happen in me?