He Called Me Faithful
Christians started Cancel Culture
Hey friends, so I recorded already because it's a bit of a message more than just a podcast today, but I realized it was a little dramatic within an intro. So here we are. This message has been on my heart to share because I feel like the church and Christianity as a whole is a sleeping giant. The reason for that is because a lot of the church canceled the Holy Spirit. The culture is a newer term, but that's what came to mind when exploring why the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit have been canceled in so many denominations and parts of Christianity. I think some pastors are scared of the potential chaos. When the funny thing is, it actually adds order in God's eyes. I'll dive into that as we continue in a bit, but I also wanted to mention the other reason this happens is if a Christian hasn't experienced the Holy Spirit themselves, so doesn't understand and would rather stay in control of their own life. Which let's face it, probably isn't going well anyway. If that's you, take a chance. There is so much freedom and purpose waiting for you, and I'll pray for you at the end of this episode too, but it all starts with Jesus, so let's just dive in. Jesus died for us so that we could have intimacy with God our Father. Not just know about Him, not just pray to Him when we feel like it, but have an intimate, deep relationship with God our Father where He would transform and renew our hearts, our minds, our Spirit. Jesus died for that so that we would be known in a Father-child relationship to have a friend in Jesus, a friend in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is speaking to us always. We just have to listen and baptism in the Holy Spirit is a way that we can do that. Yes, you always have the Holy Spirit even before you become a Christian, He's talking to you, and when you accept Christ, you accept the Holy Spirit into your Spirit, so then you become the temple of the Holy Spirit, but throughout the Bible of the New Testament, we see these times when people are baptized in the Holy Spirit, often through the laying of the hands or just the Holy Spirit coming down on someone and giving them that intimate encounter with Him. There are too many Christians that are being taught, not just that believe it themselves, but are actually being taught by their pastor in their church that miracles, prophecies, tongues, all of these things do not exist, which is actually crazy because in our media generation that we live in, it is so easy to find examples of these things happening today, right now. God is alive and well, His Spirit is alive and well. Sometimes people get caught up on this one verse, 1 Corinthians 13, 8 to 10. It says, "Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away." So some pastors use this verse to say that these things stopped after the Bible was written. But this is actually talking about when the perfect comes. That means Jesus is second coming. When Jesus comes back to the earth, which is a real thing and makes all things new and perfect again. When that happens, that is when these things will cease because they're not needed anymore. Prophecies are from the Lord. It is to encourage, edify, build up, call out things in people, and often with prophetic words, it's something that God's already been speaking to the person that He uses another person to confirm, or that God's been trying to speak to somebody, but they're not listening to Him. So then He'll use another person to kind of give them a bit of a wake-up call, but to something that He is calling them to. Yes, people get it wrong sometimes and make mistakes or add their own spin onto God's words, and that's why it's so important for us to have our own personal relationship with the Lord so you can test things with Him. Just test it with Him. If it doesn't sit right with you or doesn't resonate, you just leave it. That's okay, and I think that's where some people get tripped up. They get worried about potential chaos from including these things and including the Holy Spirit in these ways and letting people just worship freely, how they feel led, and speak freely, how they feel led, but we need to make room for that because God is actually a God of order, not chaos. We see that in the creation story. God is a God of order. We see that in how He creates our families and our bodies and all of these things. God is a God of order, and that is no different with the Holy Spirit, especially when it comes to prophetic words because He is actually, He has His will, His design, His plan for your life and for the world. He uses prophetic words to bring people together, to unify, to get people on the same page. He uses tongues to speak a holy language and speak His will into life. When we choose to speak in tongues, we are actually saying, "God, you know better than me." We are putting pride aside, and I think that's a big issue sometimes that people have with tongues. It's pride. You want control. You want to understand, and that's not how it works with the Holy Spirit. We are sheep. We're called sheep in the Bible. Sheep are actually not very intelligent, and they need a shepherd, and that is us. No matter how much knowledge you have in the world, you cannot know everything. God in His infinite wisdom and understanding is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. He knows everything. He knows the number of days of your life. He knows the number of hairs on your head. So why would we not want Him praying on our behalf, which is what tongues is? When you choose to speak in tongues, you're actually saying, "God, I don't know the best thing to pray right now. I don't know what your will is in this situation, but I trust you, and I want what you have for me and what you have for my children and what you have for my life." That is a full act of surrender and humility, and that is such a beautiful thing. I just wanted to share a few other verses about this. So Acts 19, verse 6, it says, "When Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying." This is not an uncommon verse. There are so many of these verses throughout the New Testament about people speaking in tongues and prophesying. And even the Old Testament, there's so many prophecies that is such a God thing, a Holy Spirit thing, and God is not done with that. We are still on this earth. There are so many people that need to know about Jesus, so He is not done. Why would He just stop what He's been doing and how He's been communicating with us? And I think this is just an important message for so many Christians because one, a lot of Christians don't read their Bible because they think it's irrelevant now, which is another lie that is told in the church sometimes. It's not that one obviously not by leaders or pastors, but I've heard that from a lot of proclaiming Christians over my life or throughout my life, sorry, before I became a Christian, a lot of people I knew who claimed to be Christians said they didn't read the Bible because they didn't think it was relevant anymore. Me now being a Christian, the Bible is so relevant. It speaks to every single situation we ever go through. It speaks life and truth in everything. It's so beautiful. And all the prophecies again in the Old Testament, so many of them have come to pass already. And there's so many prophecies being fulfilled right now today, which is just wild to think about just how relevant the Bible actually is. So one, we need to be in the Bible. We need to be in the Word. But two, we need to embrace the Holy Spirit and let God speak to us because when you read the Bible, I heard this from Vlad, I forget his last name, but he's the preacher at Hungry Gen Church or something, but he had such an amazing analogy about the Holy Spirit when it comes to reading your Bible. When you read the Bible without the Holy Spirit, it's like eating dry rice. You're still getting the food. You're still getting some of the nutrients where I guess all the nutrients, but it's hard to eat. It's not fun to eat, but when you are reading the Bible with the Holy Spirit, it's like eating nice, warm, cooked rice. It feels good. It goes down smooth. You understand it. It's fun. You want more. You're hungry for it. You hunger and thirst and crave it, right? So that's the same thing with the Bible. I think a lot of people struggle to read it because they haven't accepted the Holy Spirit in their life and asked the Holy Spirit to speak to them through the Bible, through his words. The Bible is God breathed. That is so clear in Scripture as well. So yeah, when we just ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us through the Bible, you could read the same verse so many times and every time he can give you something different that pertains to the exact place you are in your life and what you're going through. He is so intentional, again, a God of order, and the Holy Spirit helps that to come to pass. Another verse, 1 Corinthians 14, 1-2, "Follow the way of love and eagerly desires spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God." Indeed, no one understands him. He utters mysteries with his spirit. So again, this just points to just our A, that we should desire these things because they are good and they help our hearts and our spirits actually align with gods and our will and desires align with gods. And that is why it says, "When you seek the Lord with all your heart, he will give you the desires of your heart because he actually changes your desires to align with his best for you, which is so beautiful." Acts 2, this is just about the day of Pentecost, just another verse that you've probably heard a lot of times, but just a reminder of this, "On the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like a roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them, and everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability." So, this is just, yeah, again, a beautiful image of just the Holy Spirit coming down, and you can have that even in your living room. Honestly, this is something I wanted to encourage too. Most people I know, when they got baptized in the Holy Spirit, it was personal. It wasn't necessarily through someone laying hands on them, sometimes it was. I do know a lot of people that had it that way too. But for a lot of people I know, it was personal, and me included. So, for me, it was when I was in YWAM Youth with a Mission, and we had this Holy Spirit night that there had been all these prophetic words about that it was going to be this amazing night, and I'll give you kind of a synopsis of the whole night, actually, because, yeah. But, yeah, so we get there to this night. I was a new Christian every time I had entered into worship, into the Lord's presence. I felt him so strongly, and I was just so moved, and I just loved being in his presence. But this night, I didn't feel anything, and it was really hard. It had been like, we worshiped for like six hours, I think, so it had been a couple hours in, and I was like, "God, why don't I feel you tonight?" And he challenged me. He said, "If you never felt me again in worship, if you never got that warm feeling, never even got necessarily words from me, and even potentially, like, even if I wouldn't go to heaven, would I still follow him?" And my answer in that moment was yes, because I knew he was true. I knew the truth now, and the truth had set me free, and I knew that I did not deserve his grace. I had done so many things in my life, and so many things that separated me from God, which is what sins are, and a sin is something that separates you from God, no matter how big or small, so that is why we all need a Savior. And there was, yeah, so many things I had done wrong in my life, and I knew I didn't deserve God, but I knew I wanted people to know about him, because he was true. So I said yes, and in that moment, I felt his presence again in his peace, and it was so beautiful. Then later that night, they did kind of this baptism of the Holy Spirit call, anyone who wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and get the gift of tongues, and to pray in the Spirit, was to come up to the front and line up, and then the leaders were going down the road, just laying hands and praying for people, and I was in the line, and they never got to me. I was like, "God, what the heck, are they just not going to come to me? I just really want to be prayed for all this stuff, and I just really wanted to, yeah, it's more of God, again, this verse," and the Corinthians when we read, "eagerly desiring spiritual gifts," that was me, I was eager for it, I was ready for it, I was hungry for it. And then as I'm worshiping, I just, I forget what the worship leader was singing about, it was something about the Holy Spirit, but I just saw this ball of fire, like it's talking about here, too, a ball of fire just fall from the sky, like my eyes were open, and I saw this, and it just landed a ways in front of me, and then rushed straight into my chest and hit me in the chest, and as soon as it did, I felt tingles all over my whole body, and then I could speak in tongues. And it was so beautiful, and I had a leader pray for me later, and just confirm and just teach me a little bit more about it, and just the importance of practicing it in that way, too, and, yeah, what it's all for, all those things. So that was beautiful, too, to have the follow-up kind of discipleship, but everyone's experience isn't like that. Some people's is more just whenever, I've heard a lot of people just in their car are just pursuing this, and that happens then, as well. So if this is a genuine desire for you, I believe God will make that happen, and I'll pray for you, too, at the end of this, as well, for anybody who genuinely is just desiring more of the Spirit, we're just going to talk about again, too. So when Jesus died in, so Matthew 27, verse 51, "At that moment, the temple curtain was torn into from top to bottom. The earth shook the rocks split." So this is so significant, as well, because this was when our direct line of communication to God, the creator of the universe, was open. Up until this point, up until Jesus died for us, there were only certain people that could enter the holy of holies, the temple, back then, and there was a huge, thick curtain that separated, like people, from getting into the temple, and only certain people could go in. They had to go through this whole cleansing ritual, and if they did even one thing wrong, they would be dead, like they would just die in the presence of the holy of holies, because God is perfect, and God is so holy that he actually can't be around imperfection. He actually can't be around sin. And this is why, again, our need for a Savior was so great. So when Jesus died for us and took all of our sin and was our Savior, the curtain tour from top to bottom, that now met every single human being can have a personal, intimate conversation and relationship with God our Father. Isn't that amazing? I think we get used to hearing that and forget sometimes, but just pause for a minute and just think about that. We get to talk to our Creator. We get to talk to God our Father. We get to see Him as a friend. He's our Lord, and we're reverent as well, but He's also our friend, and He created humor and fun. And there are just so many parts of our relationship with Him that we get to enjoy and just be so intimate with. And that's why, again, repentance is so important because as soon as we have sins in our life, it blocks, it can block our direct communication to God, like us hearing Him clearly and stuff like that. It removes the way, but we have to repent to restore that relationship. And right in that moment, we are restored because Jesus took our sins. He died already. So all we have to do is acknowledge this free, beautiful gift that Jesus gave to us. And then we can be in this perfect relationship with God and hear from Him and be forgiven and set free and our minds renewed and all of these things, we become all the things that Jesus was. Jesus was pure. He was holy. He was righteous. He was blameless. He was without blemish. And we get to become that whenever we repent and accept what Jesus has done for us. How crazy is that? Just so unearned. And that's why the gospel is called the Good News. The Good News, the original Hebrew word, meant too good to be true. Which is why it is so crazy to think about. It really is too good to be true. Yet it is true. How amazing is that? So before Jesus dies, he tells the disciples in John 15 verse 26 to 27, "But I will send you the advocate, the spirit of truth." Some other translations say, "I will send you the friend. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me, and you must also testify about me, because you have been with me." At this time, the disciples didn't understand what he meant or really that he was leaving. But yet it was just to encourage them that they would not be left alone. And we get to walk in that still as well when we accept Jesus. We get to call the Holy Spirit friend, and the Holy Spirit is our advocate. He advocates for us, but he also advocates for all of the Lord's people. And that is why it is followed up with, "You must also testify about me, because while we are on this earth, our role is to help other people walk in freedom, to help other people find Jesus, to share the gospel with those who have not heard it, to share the good news. We all have free will. We all have a personal choice if we are going to accept it or not. So other people's responses are not on us, but it is our responsibility to go. The Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19-20, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." So the original word used there for go is actually, the meaning is actually as you go. So it's not therefore go when you're on a mission strip or when you're overseas or things like that. It's as you go. As you go, make disciples of all nations. So that means in your daily life, the people that you meet, whether that's at work, whether that's your neighbors, whether that's in the grocery store. And again, this is where that sensitivity to the spirit comes to because the Holy Spirit wants His children set free and He can lead you to people as well, or even just through you talking to somebody, He can start revealing things to you about them. Whether it's a physical pain, something that you can pray for for healing, or whether it's just a word of knowledge it's called when it's something just about them. Maybe they're going through a hard time, maybe they're struggling with loneliness or depression. God might reveal that to you so that you can pray for them and help them be set free and then share the gospel so that they will know the power that set them free, and then they can have that intimate relationship with God as well. That is our role here on Earth still. All we are here is to, it's okay to have fun and stuff too, and to have passions and skills. God gave you all of those things, so whatever career you're in, whatever field you're in, you don't have to just leave it and become a missionary. You can, but the way to view it is that all of life is mission. All of life is mission. It does not matter what your job is, what your marital status is. If you have kids or not, what country you live in, your life once you become a Christian is on mission in all aspects. And when you live fully surrendered to God in every area of your life, that is when he can work the most, that is when he can bring his plans to fruition, that is when he can do more than you could ever ask, think or imagine, that is when he can truly work all things for the good of those who love him. So I want to pray for you, especially Christians who are feeling stuck or in a cycle or lonely or depressed or unpurposed or just caught up in the mundane parts of life, whatever it may be, or if you're stuck, just kind of complaining about the same thing for years. I've been in groups before where that happened, where every single week, month, year, the same people have the same complaints. And that's such a sad way to live when we have access to the Holy Spirit, and that's what living as a Christian without the Holy Spirit looks like, because you're not actually asking him for guidance. You just want him to fix things, but you want it your way, you don't want to release control, you don't want to trust him, that's not faith, that's you wanting kind of a genie, right? And that's not the God we serve, God knows better than we know what we need, and God knows better than us timing of things, and we just have to trust him. So yeah, if that's you and you're feeling stuck and you want to be set free, and you want more of the Holy Spirit in your life, and you want to be able to share words of encouragement to other people through prophetic words, you want dreams and visions, you want just change in your life and new direction, God says in his word that he came to give us hope in the future. He did not come so that we could just sit here moping, right? So yeah, if you were ready for that change, ready to take that step, I invite you even if this is totally out of your comfort zone right now, get on your knees, physically get down on your knees or even on your face if you want, and extend your palms upward, extend your hands out, and just invite him in. Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, wash over me. Holy Spirit, renew my mind. Give me a hunger and a craving for both you and your word. Renew my life. And then submit things to him, too. Submit anything that you've put above God, maybe your family, maybe your spouse, maybe your job, maybe your house. Get it all to God and say, "God, I hold these things with open hands." These things are all yours first, yours to do with as you please. God, I just surrender to you. I surrender it all. I want your ways. And then even maybe start casting off some things if you do. If anything's been kind of irking you throughout this or you sense maybe that spirit of pride or spirit of self-righteousness, whatever it may be that you may be grew up with, just cast that off, say, "I just cut ties right now with the spirit of pride in Jesus' name." I cast off the spirit of self-righteousness in Jesus' name. Just cast off these things, cast off selfishness in Jesus' name. Ask God for His Holy Spirit, for His vision, for the world, His vision, for other people, His vision, for the people in your life that are hard to love. Ask Him for insight into their stories and their background and why they are the way they are. Ask Him for His heart for people, His heart for people, especially even in marriage too, if you're struggling with your spouse. Say, "God, just give me a heart for my spouse. Show me how to love them. Show me how to love them." I've had that with my husband before when I'm struggling and asking God, "God, I'm so frustrated with Him. I'm so frustrated with this." Just kind of looking for validation or an excuse or an out-for-something, and every time I'm like, "God, what do you think? All God ever says to me is, "Love Him. Just love Him. Love Him. Love Him." So yeah, I pray that over any marriages, anyone who's married, who's listening, who's maybe struggling with their spouse. I just pray just for a deep love for your spouse and just new eyes for them, just new fresh vision of them, of all the good qualities they have, all the qualities you fell in love with. And I just pray for a renewed prayer life too. If this is you, just a renewed prayer life where you're praying for your spouse regularly, because prayer is what really changes things, because God changes people, right? People don't change people, God changes people. So pray for your spouse, pray for their heart, but also pray for yourself. If you're in this pattern of complaining or struggling or kind of hating on your spouse, pray for yourself too, say, "God, I'm so sorry for my pride. Show me what I can work on," and change my heart and change the way I see my spouse and change the way I see my life as well, right? If you're struggling with your life and just feeling stuck, just say, "God, like what? Is there something I can change or should change or is it an attitude shift? Help me to have a new attitude, help me to have your perspective." And the Holy Spirit is so good at just speaking to us and leading us and guiding us. And even when you're making decisions, even little things, like if you go to the grocery store and you're like, "Should I buy this item or not?" You can ask the Holy Spirit just for fun. Just include him in the conversation and just get used to hearing his voice, get used to hearing yes or no or sometimes he leaves things up to you as well, but just really seek him and get used to being in constant conversation with him. It says in the Bible too, "To just pray always." So that's a constant conversation, just always being in community with God our Father, always asking him things. Yeah, so God, I just pray for revelation and I just pray your Holy Fire, Holy Spirit, just to fall down on anyone listening who wants that, anyone with their hands out stretched, who is willing to say, "Jesus, take it all, Jesus, take it all, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know what the next steps are, but you do and I want your will for my life." I just pray these words over these people, I just bless these people, just bless them, bless their finances, bless their health, bless their home, bless them with peace, all of these things, bless them with direction, bless them with boldness, boldness to share their faith in what you've done for them. I just thank you Lord for your goodness and thank you for, yeah, just anybody who was touched today, I just thank you so much for their life and the things that you're going to do with them and through them. I just thank you that you choose to use us and that we are your vessels and that you could have just done all this on your own, reaching the lost, but you chose to use us where you're planning and there is no plan B. You chose us because you thought we were worth it and you saw purpose in us as your children. So we just thank you so much for that. Thank you for sending your son Jesus. Thank you for tearing the curtain and opening our line of communication with you, Lord. We just thank you so much, Father God, for your goodness. May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He give you rest.