A Flow of Revelation

0:00A word versus a flow of revelation

Amen. Go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation chapter one, Revelation chapter one. And I’m feeling good in the neighborhood today. Hallelujah. The Lord is good and his mercy endures forever. Amen. I think the kids are worshiping the Lord right now. I can hear them up there. Why don’t y’all out-praise them? Give the Lord a shout real quick and out-praise them kids. Go ahead. Lift up your voice. That’s right. Amen. Hallelujah. Revelation chapter one. So we’ve been in a series for the last four weeks. This is week number five, called “We Are Rooted in the Bible.”

This is a value in our church that we are making sure that we put into the concrete here. We want this thing stamped on our church. We are rooted in the Bible. We started by talking about the value of the Scripture, how the Bible is inspired. It’s inerrant. It’s infallible. It’s immutable. How it’s authoritative. And then we’ve been talking from there about how to hear from the Lord, how you can actually get a word from God on your own. And so the series started there and has morphed into this bigger idea of how you can hear from the Lord. And this week we are going to talk about the third level of hearing from God.

We’ve talked about the first two, and now we’re going to talk about the third level of hearing from God. And I’m calling this today a flow of revelation, a flow of revelation. And before I get started, I want to work out just a little bit of what will be no more than semantics, but I think it’s important. I use some of these words like any good Southerner. I use them a little loose. Sometimes I’ll just throw the word revelation out. Sometimes I’ll throw out—I’ll just confess here. That gets everybody nervous when the preacher says that. But let me just confess here that sometimes I’ll say I’ve heard from the Lord, and it might not be the same thing as what I’m talking about in this particular message.

So sometimes I’ll throw those things out casually, but for today’s sake, I want to kind of get defined on the language. For the last several weeks, what we’ve been talking about is really getting a word from the Lord, how to get a word from the Lord. And the way I would define this—this would not work in a theology textbook. This is not good. You can’t superimpose this on every preacher you’ve ever heard. The way I’m about to describe an experience, the language I’m using will only work in this message, but I want you to understand the difference.

Okay. A word from God, it is smaller in scope. It’s normally instruction, maybe inspiration, maybe insight, but it is smaller in scope. It doesn’t affect everything. It typically will be the Lord speaking to you about one thing to do, one thing at one time, or maybe a small series of things, but it probably won’t have 50 years of implications. It doesn’t touch everything. So a word from God, smaller in scope. What we’ve been talking about up till this point really helps you to receive a word from God, how to get instruction, direction, and insight from heaven on your own.

Are you with me so far? Say yes. If you’re not with me, you can just pretend. Amen. But it’s limited in scope. It’s limited. However, today we’re talking about a flow of revelation. So revelation versus a word: revelation is large in scope. It touches everything. It impacts everything. It has far reaching implications. It is a shift in your paradigm. It will change the way you think about everything. In fact, it won’t only change the way you think about everything. It’ll change the way you think, period. It changes everything. It can become and should become a framework for theology. Out of revelation we really begin to understand who God is.

When you operate from a place of revelation, you will know the Lord in a way that you would not have known him otherwise. Now, the interesting paradox on this is that most people develop their theology and their doctrine not only before they get revelation, but before they’ve ever given the Bible a good pass through. Most people know what they believe about God regardless of what the Bible says. That should startle us. It should startle you. If you have very strong beliefs about God and you’ve never read the Bible, I want you to go home tonight.

I want you to stand in your bathroom, look in the mirror, and think about that for 15 minutes. Do you hear what I’m saying? Some of y’all are the most spiritual people on the planet. You ain’t got to Genesis 5 yet. Do you hear me? And so that is—it’s just a paradox. Now, let me tell you this. A flow of revelation is a flow. It’s a flow. Once you get it, you’ll kind of operate there constantly. Even if it’s not flowing, because you’ve got the revelation, it impacts everything. So if it’s not a flow, it feels like a flow, but you do have to turn it on.

5:34Get in the right place: Revelation 1

And the way you turn on a flow of revelation is you get in the right place. If you want to turn on a flow of revelation, you got to get in the right place. I had a preacher who used to say, “You got to get under the spout where the glory comes out.” Bless God. So you got to get in the right place. I figured we could start today—if we’re going to talk about revelation, let’s go to Revelation chapter one, and we’re going to start here about getting in the right place. Revelation chapter one, verse nine says, “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

“I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day. And I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet, saying, ‘Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and Smyrna and to Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis, Philadelphia and to Laodicea.’ Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.” If you want a flow of revelation to turn on, you’ve got to get in the right place.

And John happened to tell us the right place. It’s the place where he was. It’s the place where you can be. And he said this, he said, “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day.” I was in the spirit. That’s what he was doing. On the Lord’s day. That’s when he was doing it. So where is the right place at? I’m going to take you there. Are you ready? Now I was going to bring in my board so I could draw on it, but to get it to go to the computer, it would cost $700. Lord. So I decided not to do it. So I’m going to use an imaginary dry erase board here this morning.

I want to turn your attention to what we talked about during the offering this morning, the tabernacle and the temple. This is where the Jews would worship the one true God in the Old Testament. The tabernacle, the temple—the tabernacle and the temple followed a similar structure. One was obviously transient. The other was permanent. And essentially you had a big gate that’s around, or a big fence that surrounded it. And inside of that big fence was an area called the outer court. Okay. In the outer court, you had two pieces of furniture.

You had the bronze altar and the brazen laver, right? That’s what was in the outer court. Then there was a big tent, big rectangular tent, that was in the middle of the court, a little off center of the court. And in that tent, there were two rooms. There was a front room that people could walk into, that the priest could walk into. In that front room—it’s called the Holy Place—in the Holy Place, you had an altar of incense. You had the table of showbread, and then you had the golden lampstand, the giant menorah. Okay. And then if you were the high priest, you could go into the next room.

Only one person at a time, and in a timeframe, was allowed to go in here. They could go into what was called the Most Holy Place. That’s actually what we’re going to name this back here. This is going to be the auditorium. This back here is going to be the Most Auditorium. Amen. Way more auditorium than out here. Amen. And so that’s the Most Holy Place. In the Most Holy Place you had the ark of the covenant and on top of it, the mercy seat. This is where the glory of God would dwell. This is where the presence of the Lord would physically manifest on earth during the time that Israel were the only ones who could access God’s presence.

John says that it was the Lord’s day. “I was in the spirit,” and I heard a voice behind me, and the voice gave him instruction, started to give him revelation, said, “I want you to write these things to these seven churches.” And John says, “I turned around,” and he saw amongst the lampstands one whose feet were like bronze and his eyes were like fire. John was in the Most Holy Place. John was in the presence of the Lord without the help or assist of anyone. It was the Lord’s day. He was in the spirit and he had gotten into God’s presence on his own. And the Lord speaks, he turns around, and he has to exit the Holy Place to operate in the word that he got.

He couldn’t stay there, but that’s where he was when a flow of revelation turned on. He was in the presence of the Lord. He was in what you’ve heard me refer to quite a few times as the secret place. He got alone with God. That’s a good place to say amen. Amen. So the right place is the secret place, but the right place is also usually going to be the same place. It’s usually the same place. It’s the place where—the apostle Bruce Wayne said that the secret place, if you want to get in the presence of God, you’ve got to go to the same bat time and the same bat channel.

Amen. It’s the same place. It’s the place where you meet with the Lord daily. As you continue to show up over and over and over again, the presence of the Lord will meet you there. And a flow of revelation can activate in your life. John was in the Most Holy Place. You can be in the Most Holy Place by simply showing up and doing what we talked about last week, spending 27 minutes with Jesus every single day, because 27 minutes can still change your life. Not just last Sunday. It still can this Sunday. Amen. So I want to talk about the experience of revelation a little bit and what it’ll look like.

If you want revelation to flow in your life, I will refer you to the last four weeks of messages. That will get you there. That will get you there. Everything we’ve talked about. But I want to tell you what you should be looking for when revelation turns on in your life.

12:18Revelation becomes a North Star

So number one, the first thing I want you to know is that revelation becomes a North Star. I started with this by saying that it’s big, it’s large in scope, and it becomes a framework for your theology. And what will happen is the North Star of revelation will help you to navigate the path of the Scripture that’s leading you to what you believe, because revelation is huge. It’s massive in scope, but it’s also massive in size. It is seismic. It’s tectonic. I think I’m out of words, but it’s all of those things. Amen. It’s a big deal. It’s huge. And so when a flow of revelation is turned on in your life, it can be hard to take that thing and allocate it to everything that you’ve ever believed. In fact, when revelation comes, you’ll find yourself standing there with the revelation in one hand and everything you think you know in the other, and the revelation will constantly challenge everything you believe. It may not change it at all, but it will challenge it.

And it may not change it, but it’ll probably shift it. It’ll probably curate it. It’ll probably update it. It’ll probably do a little work on it, because some of you have got some good basic doctrine. You just don’t have a full understanding because you haven’t flowed in revelation yet. Amen. And so revelation will challenge all of that. And so when revelation comes, because it’s a North Star and you’re having to figure out what you believe about things, I’d encourage you to do three things. One is give yourself lots of grace. I don’t know if you know this, but you have to know everything about everything right now.

Anybody like that? Anybody feel like they don’t want to talk till they know everything? I get that way a little bit. Sometimes I’m like, I feel like I can’t talk about something until I can tell you all about it. Right? So one, give yourself lots of grace. Number two, give yourself lots of time. It takes time. It takes time. It takes time. You can’t get it all at one time. If God told you everything about everything right now, your brain would just leak out of your ears. It’d melt. You’ve got to give yourself time to allocate the revelation to your life.

And the third thing is, keep your mouth shut. Excuse me? You heard what I said. Keep your mouth shut. And let me tell you why. When you come into revelation, God will reveal his goodness to you and you don’t know what to do with it. You won’t necessarily know what to do with it. And you get out here and you start telling everybody the deepest stuff you think you’ve got. And that’s what we do. Our greatest spiritual achievement in our life is to show off to other people. So as soon as we get something a little deep, we want to show it to everybody. “Look at this thing I got. Look at my little spiritual thing. I’m so much deeper than you are.” That’s what we do. But when revelation comes, it only takes one conversation of you having something you don’t know what to do with and someone else having an argument that they do know how to operate with. You can be wrong and armed. You can be wrong and competent. You get out here and talk to somebody who’s got a PhD but doesn’t know Jesus Christ from his right hand to his left, and he’ll have that revelation ripped off you in a heartbeat. I’m giving y’all stuff that’s too good to amen this morning, apparently. Hallelujah.

But I’m telling you, you gotta take some time. And guess what? Paul did that. Paul starts off Galatians. He says, “I’ve received a revelation that did not come from man or through man, but it came from God.” And then the next thing he says is, “So I went away to the desert of Arabia for three years.” There’s something about when you get revelation, you got to go do the work on that and not get out here and ask all your Facebook friends what they think about it, and not necessarily ask everybody in your life what they think about it. You got to take a little bit of time and see if the revelation allocates itself out, how it works itself out in your world.

You’ll know if it’s working or not. How? Because it’ll have fruit. You’ll know if it works. And so you got to give yourself a little bit of time. When I came into the great revelation that changed my life, the one thing I wish I would have done is isolated a little bit more. But like any good preacher, if I got something, I need to preach it. Hallelujah. I’ve learned a little better since then, but you got to sometimes take this stuff and do like Mary did: treasure it up in your heart. And obviously I know I’m a pastor and I’m a preacher, and so when I talk about revelation, a lot of the stuff I receive is theological in its nature. But I really believe that God can unlock a flow of revelation in your life in the areas that actually impact you.

If you’re a realtor, I believe God can give you a real estate anointing. If you’re a contractor, I believe God can give you a contracting anointing. Amen. I believe God can do it. He’ll change your life. If you’re an educator, I think God will give you an education revelation. Oh, look at me go. Now I can make a rap song. Hallelujah.

17:44Revelation maximizes level two

Number two. Number two, the second thing I want you to know is that revelation actually maximizes the second level of hearing from God. Number two, revelation maximizes level two. So to go back, we talked about how the first level of hearing from God is through the preached word.

If you’re sitting here this morning, congratulations, you’re at level one, even if you didn’t want to be. You’re there. So that’s the first level you can operate at. The second level is that the Holy Spirit draws the Scripture to our memory and communicates with us through drawing that Scripture up to our memory. It could be a specific word from God, but it’s going to come through the Scripture coming to your memory. But what I also told you is not only is this level two, not only is this the way that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would communicate specifically, but this is also the primary way the Holy Spirit communicates with people.

If there were 19 levels to this—which I don’t think there are, but hey, I’m young, we’ll find out one day. Amen. But if there were 19 levels, level two is still where the Holy Ghost communicates the most often. Anybody who I know who is deep as deep gets, level two is how the Holy Ghost is talking throughout the day. It’s not visions. It’s not dreams. It’s that the Holy Spirit is constantly bringing things back to their memory from the Scripture. But level three can maximize level two, because here’s what happens when you come into a revelation, when you get under a flow of revelation. Remember what I told you: it kind of frames up your theology.

Anytime that you operate in some confines, you activate a type of shorthand. Doctors have a shorthand with each other. Contractors have a shorthand with each other. They’re able to say some things without calling everything what it is. Pastors have a shorthand. I know this because if I walked into a room full of pastors right now and all I said was, “Well, folks, I got a lady who wants to sing”—that don’t sound like anything to you, but a bunch of preachers just heard, “Well, he’s got a lady who wants to sing that can’t sing, and her husband gives a lot of money to the church and her kids are ministry leaders.

“So he’s got to make a decision on whether or not he’s going to let this tone deaf woman get up there and carry on or not.” Amen. It’s a shorthand. It’s a shorthand. Well, you begin to develop a shorthand with the Holy Spirit at level three. And what happens is the Holy Spirit can begin to pull up—we talked about how he’ll pull up phrases and fragments that will start to take off. The Holy Ghost will tell you one or two words from a Scripture, and all of a sudden you’ll have insight on a whole situation that you didn’t have earlier. It’s a shorthand that the Holy Spirit communicates in.

It’s a shorthand, and it maximizes that. But it also takes your Bible reading to a whole nother level, because now you’ve got a framework that you’re working in. And so you’ll go to the Scripture and you’ll start to see stuff you’ve never seen before. In fact, for me, when I came under a flow of revelation, the only way I know how to describe it is—do y’all remember black lights? When black lights were cool? We all remember these black lights. If you don’t know what a black light is, you can turn it on, turn the lights off, and then you could see all this stuff you couldn’t see with the lights on. It’s kind of gross, actually. And it’s grody. If you have pets, don’t use this. And you’ll learn things—that dog ain’t so precious. Amen. And for me, what happened, I came under a flow of revelation. It was like the Holy Ghost turned a black light on over the Scripture. And I started to see things. I’m not talking about little odds and ends in the Scripture. I’m talking about sets of chapters, three, four chapters at a time, that I went, “That’s in there. The whole time. The whole time.”

And Mrs. Doubtfire, anybody? That’s a shorthand, by the way, because we say that to each other all the time. Don’t we, Jocelyn? Where are you at? Yeah. All the time. “So the whole time.” So it’s a shorthand, but it’ll take all of that to the next level. It maximizes level two. The Holy Spirit will be able to say less and communicate more. Number three.

22:09Exceeding abundant revelation: Ephesians 3

The last thing I want you to know is that a flow of revelation allows you to experience the presence and the person of God. It allows you to experience the presence and the person of God. I call this an exceeding abundant revelation, an exceeding abundant revelation.

How many of you know Ephesians chapter three, where it says, “Now to him who’s able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think”? Okay, well, I’m about to mess that Scripture up for you real good. So that passage of Scripture, we often treat it like this is the way that God answers prayer. And to some degree it’s true, because God is a God of excellence and he will do things in your life better than you could have ever brought them about. However, when we treat this like it’s the way that God answers prayer or comes through on our behalf, that he’ll do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think—the problem with that is it’s pretty contrary to what the Bible tells us about how God answers prayer. The Bible says, “Be it done unto you according to your word.” “Those who ask receive.” There’s a direct correlation between your asking and God’s doing. That’s why I’d encourage you to pray bold prayers that you can actually see if they happen. Not this nonsense that, “Well, Lord, thank you for the day.” What does that even mean? I’d get off on a tangent here, y’all, and y’all ain’t ready. I’m already tangented enough this morning. I don’t even know if that’s a word.

That’s how worked up I am, in Jesus’ name. That passage of Scripture, though, is not about how the Holy Spirit or how the Lord answers prayer. It’s actually about revelation. It’s about a flow of revelation. I’m going to show it to you real quick. Ephesians chapter three, starting in verse 14, says, “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory”—and I’ve got some things highlighted on the screen, so I want you to see these—“he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”

So we’re talking right there real quick about being strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit on the inside of you. Are you with me? Talking about being strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend.” So the Holy Spirit is inside of you. He’s giving you strength. Strength to what? Strength to comprehend. Strength to understand. Strength to wrap your brain around something. Okay. “So that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.” Okay. So the Holy Spirit is giving you strength on the inside. He’s giving you strength to understand, to comprehend, to wrap your brain around something. Around what? Around something that is so big that otherwise you would not be able to get it, because we’re talking about the height, the depth, the width, the breadth. We’re talking about this massive thing. So the Holy Spirit is giving you strength. Strength to what? Strength to understand. Strength to understand what? Strength to understand something that you would not otherwise be able to understand.

Okay. Here we go. “Strength to comprehend with all the saints, breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” It surpasses. So it’s the Holy Spirit on the inside of you giving you the strength to what? The strength to comprehend. To comprehend what? To understand what? To understand something that is so massive that you would not otherwise be able to understand it. But even though you have an understanding of it, that thing that you understand surpasses knowledge. It’s bigger than what you know. The best way I can say this is, it is a revelation that exceeds your ability to articulate.

It is so big. You know it. You know that you know it. You know it, but you don’t know. But it can’t be known, but you know it. But you can’t know it, but you know it. It’s exceeding. It’s abundant. Now, if you go to that verse and read it in the context I just showed you—which by the way is like five verses above it. This isn’t secret knowledge. It’s right there. And we’ve been quoting this verse left and right. All the information’s right there. Look at what it says. When you read it from there: “Now to him, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”

More than you can ask or think. It’s revelation that exceeds your ability to articulate or explain to others. It’s exceeding abundant revelation. And I know some of you are going, “Well, what do I do with that?” Well, it’s a way that God gives you insight that you can’t go off and share with people. It’s just for you. It’s just something you experience in his presence, and he gives you because he loves you. And it can be massive and it can change everything in your life, but you can’t go off and just share it with people, because you couldn’t tell it to them if you wanted to. It’s not that you’ve got to obey God and keep your mouth shut. It’s that you couldn’t go tell them if you wanted to. It’s exceeding abundant revelation, because you comprehend something that’s beyond knowledge. This is massive. It’s major. And both John and Paul—I think Ringo too. Anybody? I think John and Paul both had this experience. In Revelation chapter 10, verse 4, John is receiving his great revelation, and the angel tells him, says, “Don’t talk about this. What you see, don’t talk about.” He heard something that was being said in heaven, and he was told, “Don’t write it down. Don’t.” It was just for him. Paul had a similar experience in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 2. It says, “I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago”—a lot of people believe he was talking about himself, but we don’t know. He says, “who 14 years ago was caught up in the third heaven.” Listen to what he says. He goes, “I don’t even know if this was in the body or out of the body. God knows, but I don’t know. I don’t know what this was.” He goes, “And I know this man was caught up into paradise, whether it was in the body or out of the body, I don’t know. God knows.” And he heard things that cannot be told, which no man can utter. It’s an exceeding abundant revelation. And like I said, most people want to take their most spiritual experience—which by the way, I have come to find out usually ain’t that spiritual—and go run around and tell everybody about it. “Oh, I was doing this and I did that. And I saw this and I saw that. And I heard this thing, and this is what the preacher said.” Or sometimes they want to correct you and go, “Oh no, that’s not what that verse means.”

A lot of times people go, “You got to read it in context.” Well, by all means, honey, go ahead. Tell me what it means. Walk me through the context. I’d love to hear this. But when you come into this place, exceeding abundant revelation, you can’t do that. You can’t show it off. It’s just for you. It’s just from the presence of the Lord. So this is a glimpse into what is possible. You may say, “Well, Pastor, have you been there?” Yes. My life was changed because of this moment, unlocking a flow of revelation. And I want to tell you something, because I want you to know this.

What I have shared with you the last four weeks is enough to change your life. It’s enough. If you’ll just do the things I’ve talked to you about the last four weeks, you pretty well are set. I mean, I’m talking about, you could be supernaturally wealthy off the stuff I showed you the last four weeks. You can walk around, lay hands on people and see them healed with little to no effort with the stuff I’ve shared with you in the last four weeks. You could become an international evangelist on the stuff I’ve shared with you the last four weeks. Most of you, if you did what I told you the last four weeks, outside of needing the call of the Lord, you would have every qualification you need to walk into the ministry.

You have it. The last four weeks—you’re good to go. This is another level, though. This is another level. And when I experienced it, it changed my life.

31:01Revelation costs

But this is what I want you to hear. It costs. It costs. This does not come free. It does not come easy. It costs. It will cost you. You will feel the price that you have to pay for this. There are some levels that you go in the Lord that you don’t just get free admission. And with this particular thing, not only does it cost to get it, it costs to keep it. There’s a cost to obtain it. And then there’s an operating cost.

You can go out and buy a business if you want to. Can you keep that thing open? It costs to obtain it. It costs to operate. It costs to get it. It costs to have it. I like to say it like this. Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to give up their privacy. But there’s a cost to get it. And there’s a cost to have it. Everybody wants to be rich, but everybody also wants all their relationships to stay the same. And I can just tell you right now, that don’t happen. It shifts things. There’s a cost to get it. There’s a cost to have it. I’ve heard it said that knowledge is power.

I have a tendency to agree with that, that knowledge is power. But it’s also been said that ignorance is bliss, and I happen to agree with that. So at bare minimum, revelation is a burden. It is a burden. It’s something that you have to carry. And this isn’t in my notes, but I was actually with the Lord in the last few days, and I felt like the Holy Spirit was showing me that we talk about a burden, but we’ve confused a burden with being bothered. See, you can be bothered and move on. Some of y’all are just bothered by stuff. You’re just bothered.

In fact, some of y’all are more bothered by the fact that you get a waitress that doesn’t keep your tea glass full than you are that people are dying and going to hell. It’s easy to be bothered. You can be bothered and kind of have it in the back of your mind. But when you have a burden, when you have a burden, you can’t let that thing go. It’s all you see all day long. God bless you for being here today, Bill and Cheryl. When you have a burden, you can’t let that thing go. You think about it every night. You think about it every morning. You’ll lay there.

Your brain will just go and go and go. You’ll order French fries from McDonald’s, and the next thing you know, you’re thinking about whatever the burden is you have, and it doesn’t take—but it’s always on you. And then you get put in places where you have to share, or feel like you want to share, the revelation that you’re walking in. And here’s the thing. You can’t be given revelation from someone else. You cannot go get revelation on your own. It only comes from the secret place. “And I heard a voice behind me, and I turned and I saw one standing amongst the lampstands.”

It has to find you in the right place, which is usually the same place. It’s the secret place, and revelation will flow in your life. And it’ll change your life. And it’s a burden because it can be difficult. And I’ll tell you that when I first came into my revelation, me and Ashleigh didn’t come into it at the same time. Now we’re both in it now. We both believe it now. But I’ll never forget. I’m drinking from a fire hydrant every day. The Lord’s showing me his goodness and his glory. And I’ll never forget. We were living in Michigan.

I was standing between the kitchen and the living room and I’m talking to Ashleigh about it. And I can tell she’s getting irritated, and not because I’m just keeping on. I know the difference, because I do have a tendency to talk things to death. Hallelujah. So I don’t care about that countdown clock for these messages anymore. I’m just done with it. And I’m telling her, so I can tell she’s getting irritated. And I don’t know how we got to the next place we went to, but I probably just asked, “What is going on?” The next thing I know, Ashleigh’s on the couch.

I’m standing up over here and she’s screaming at me. She’s going, “It can’t be that good!” First of all, let’s talk about whose house this is. Amen. Nobody. I’m not about to yell at me in my house. Gosh darn. But she did. She started yelling at me and I’m taken aback by the whole thing, because it costs. It costs. I’ll never forget. I was sitting—and I feel like I didn’t push this on everybody, and maybe I did, but I don’t feel like I did. I was sitting in a staff meeting one day and the pastor said something and turned and looked at me and goes, “You don’t like it when I say that, do you?”

Because the revelation costs. It costs. It costs, but it is worth it. It’s worth it, because here’s what I can tell you. I’ve seen the goodness of God. I’ve beheld his glory. And the reason I’m talking through these messages and doing a message like—everything I’ve given you the last four weeks you can implement. You can’t implement this. You can just kind of be ready for it. You can ask for it. You can wait for it. The problem is, if you want to ask for it before you do level one, you’re never going to get it. I will tell you this.

37:09The levels come in order

If you can’t receive from the preaching, you can’t get revelation. If you can’t listen to a person, how are you going to listen to the Lord? In fact, Hebrews says this. It says, “If they did not listen to the one who warned from earth, how will they adhere to him who warns from heaven?” You don’t want to get in the Word every day. You don’t want to spend just a minimal time with the Lord Jesus every day. You’re not going to step into revelation. And most people don’t walk around talking about level three. This is what’s funny. And I’ll talk about it next week.

Most people, what they do is they jump the gun to level four and act like they walk in level four and haven’t done nothing. But these levels, these aren’t varieties. This is Hebrews chapter one: “Many times and in many ways the Lord spoke, but now he’s spoken by”—this isn’t many times and many ways. These aren’t four options. These are sequential. You go through level one to level two to level three to level four. This is how we keep nonsense from happening, is we hold people accountable to this stuff. Because if you come say crazy stuff to me, I know the questions to ask based on these levels.

I ask three questions. I’ve been open about this. This is on video, me saying this for years. So I’m not being ugly to y’all, but this is what I ask. You come say some nonsense that’s crazy to me: How many times have you read the Bible? How often do you pray every day? Can you provide me with a giving record before the day is over? And typically it’s going to be “none,” “I don’t,” “I can’t.” Because crazy nonsense don’t come out of these levels—crazy nonsense that doesn’t do any good for anybody, and just people showing off and acting a fool and misbehaving. None of that happens when we’re held accountable to these levels.

God is a God of order. And these levels happen in an order. But the reason I’ve been teaching you this stuff, and I’m talking about this today, is because it is within the realm of the possible for you to experience this, for you to do it. And here’s the thing. In about six months, because I’m a planner, in about six months I’m going to start teaching from the overflow of this revelation all the time. You don’t have to have me teach it, though. Here’s what’s funny. I believe if you’ll follow these steps I’ve given you, you will end up at the exact same revelation I received.

39:56The revelation of Jesus Christ

And the reason is that there’s one revelation we’re heading to, and people have specialties. I’ve got some stuff that’s a specialty, but there is one revelation we’re heading to. And it’s what John says in John chap—or I’m sorry, in Revelation chapter one, starting in verse one: “This is the revelation of Jesus Christ.” There is a revelation of what Jesus Christ has done. I’m going to tell you, I lived for years and I had no idea how powerful the work of the cross was. I lived for years. I had no idea how powerful the finished work of Jesus Christ was.

I didn’t know why I couldn’t receive, why I couldn’t operate in power, why I had no revelation flow in my life, why everybody seemed to act deep and I couldn’t act deep. And I never understood this stuff. I didn’t understand why I wouldn’t get it. It’s a revelation of Jesus Christ. It unlocked everything. His goodness unlocked everything. His mercy, his grace unlocked everything. And I believe if you spend enough time in the Word, if you spend enough time in prayer, if you start to listen to hear from the Holy Ghost, I think you’ll come into the same thing. And by the way, I told you a few weeks ago that it takes about three times through the Bible for it to start making sense.

That’s also about the same time that revelation can start to unlock in your life. At that point, you’re starting to get good and trained and you can know the Lord. You can know his glory. You can know his goodness. You can operate in revelation. Folks, if I have a desire for this church, outside of it being humongous and me having a private jet—and I don’t want a used one either, bro. I want a good one. Okay. I don’t want no secondhand jet. Amen. I’m just kidding. I ain’t got no desire for a jet. Amen. Well, a little bit. I’m not trying to be in concourse C no more.

I’m just—I’m playing, folks. If you can’t take a joke, that’s going to hit you real wrong. I’m sorry. If you’ve never given a dollar to the church, that joke just hit you real bad. The end wasn’t a joke, by the way.

42:23Real power, not imitation Pentecost

My greatest desire for this church, all kidding aside, my greatest desire is that we would be people who authentically operate in the power that is found through God speaking to his people. You need revelation. You need a breakthrough. I told you this a few weeks ago, that breakthrough is built on the back of a revelation, on the back of a word from God.

You need to hear from the Lord, but you need to really hear from him. I’m not talking about playtime hearing from God, and I’m not talking about it being deep. I’m talking about what you need from God. Everything I hear deep from people has nothing to do with anything that impacts them or the people around them on any level. I hear all this deep stuff about those people and at that time and over there. It’s always—if you have a lost child, you need a word from God. You don’t need to buy another book about moons.

I’m serious. You don’t have to get off into all that stuff, but God will give you a word. God will speak to you. I’m telling you, when push comes to shove, when the rubber meets the road, you need the Holy Spirit operating in a particular way in your life. This is going to be—I’ll say this under the spirit of faith—this is going to be one of the churches in the Mobile region where people walk in and they sense the presence of the Lord in a way they don’t sense in other places. This is going to be a church that operates in Pentecostal power that they do not see in other churches.

This is going to be a church where we see unusual, uncommon, abnormal miracles take place, and breakthrough. But everybody that’s been with me for about 15 minutes knew that “but” was coming. It ain’t coming if we entertain the nonsense that everybody else entertains. That does not bring power. We can show up and we can do all the stuff everybody else does and we do stuff we’ve always done. And folks, listen, there is some stuff that is real that happens. But here’s what happens in churches like this one, where the power of God—now I’m just talking to you for real.

Today’s a good day to run me off. In churches like ours, where the power of God has moved in a powerful, significant, true, and honest way, what happens is we will tend to look at what that looks like. And these things happen in seasons. We’ve talked about this a few weeks ago. There’s ebbs and flows to this. There is a cycle to revival. There is a cycle to outpouring. What will happen is, as God is moving and it’s powerful, when that thing starts to take a downturn—which is its natural course, it’s supposed to do that. This is 2,000 years of church history.

This is what it’s been doing. A lot of people have gotten saved. Jesus has been glorified. God has moved. This isn’t abnormal. This idea of perpetual revival is something someone came up with to sell books. It ain’t real. There’s a cycle to these things. But what happens is, when that cycle starts on the downward trend back towards more like an institutional formal move, in a last-ditch effort we desperately grasp at all the stuff that looks like Pentecost, all the stuff that looks like power. And we’ll start to imitate that stuff over and over and over again.

And it starts with us thinking, “Well, I’ll do it. Now I’m preaching a message.” I wasn’t preaching, but I feel like the Holy Ghost—all of a sudden what will happen is we will start to imitate those things at first, because we think, what’s going on? “I should be having this response, because this is the normal response, because the power of God’s moving. I ought to be acting this way.” And so we’ll start acting out of it in our own abilities, our own strength, our own power. And we’ll start to imitate Pentecost, not from a negative place necessarily, but we’ll do it from a place where we go, “I’ve got to keep this going. Something’s wrong with me. It’s obviously not—it’s me. So I’ve got to participate.” And we’re doing that as an honest best you can do, trying to keep it going. But then at some point we get into the habit of putting it on, and we put it on so long that we don’t know how to behave any other way. And so now what you’ve got is Pentecost that ain’t Pentecost. I’m going to say this. I’m about to upset everybody for two minutes, then you’ll come back. “Oh, I see where he went.” There is no power in falling on the ground. There is no power in speaking in tongues.

There is no power in laying your hands on people. There’s no power in water coming up out the ground—which actually my first reaction would be alarmed by that. What is going on? There’s no power in any of that stuff. But there is a power in the Holy Ghost who puts his effort behind things and causes those things to happen. But I can hit the ground right now. I mean, this ain’t that hard. I’m there. I don’t hear y’all hooping and hollering. Nobody’s running around the room because you know this ain’t it. And I’m on record. In church—okay, some things are bad ideas and I just go with them.

Amen. Getting up was harder than going down. I’m on record saying this, that the manifestation I like the most is when people hit the ground. I love it, because I feel like that’s for me. As the evangelist, when I go out and pray for people, people hit the ground, I get to enjoy that. I don’t get to enjoy any other stuff. That stuff’s for you. The hitting the ground is for me. That’s the Lord going, “Here you go.” I’m sure you’re blessed by it, but I think it’s for me, in Jesus’ name. But just falling on the ground don’t do nothing for anybody. Just crying doesn’t do anything.

Not all crying is weeping. Some of y’all cry at commercials about cats. Of course you cry in the altar. Some of y’all can’t make it through a Campbell’s soup commercial. They’re about to start doing the one with the snowman who turns into the boy and you’re just going to be—there ain’t no power in that. I mean, it’s just how you respond, right? Every time we bring structure to the things of God and we bring order and we have some restraint—do you know, it’s funny, because people like us who come to churches like ours want to talk about the importance of borders until you get some borders in the church service.

There’s some stuff we’re going to make sure of, because when it happens, it’s going to be the real thing. Because the pastor shut everything down? No. Because I’ve taught you and taught you and taught you and taught you, and you’ll know the real from the fake. You’ll know the real deal from the fake deal. If the evangelist comes in here and starts preaching all kinds of God-awful nonsense, he’s going to be sitting up here thinking he’s in trouble, because everybody in the church is going to be going, “No. No.” Why?

Because you’ve been taught. You’ve been taught. This is not a restriction. This is freedom. This is what the Lord has given to his church. Every supernatural miracle you need flows out of this place. God is good. And he’s true to his word. He’s not a man that he should lie. He’ll do what he said he’d do. But no amount of faking it’s going to make it happen. We’re going to have the real deal around here. And I’m not saying we’re not going to have no deal. Somebody needs to hear that. Next year I’m doing, I think, nine weeks on the Holy Spirit. That’s my plan right now.

Nine weeks on the Holy Spirit. God will move in power. If you want to watch the dove take off in the other direction, mess around, you get in here and shout when there ain’t no shout. You hit—that’s a good line right there. You hit the—I’m going to put that in a book. Amen. You hit the ground when there ain’t no ground. You shout at the Lord when there ain’t no shout at the Lord. You word of knowledge when there ain’t no word of knowledge. You prophesy when it ain’t no prophecy. I’m telling you, the Holy Ghost will run in the other direction. But you get in here, you get real, you get honest, you get true.

You don’t mess around. And you say, “Holy Ghost, we’re open to it.” He’ll move in a powerful way, a powerful way. Everybody lift your hands to heaven. Holy Spirit, we thank you for your ministry. We honor you. Holy Spirit, we respect you in this church. We respect your power. We respect your presence. We respect your person. Holy Spirit, we respect that you’re fully God, you’re fully Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you for the future of powerful supernatural ministry in this church. Thank you for your word and that you honor it. Thank you that you speak to people personally, individually.

You are good. You are good to your people. We worship you today. We honor you. Father, I pray that everybody in this church that has been active in the Scripture for any length of time, and they have felt like they have not unlocked a flow of revelation—God, I ask that you would take every hindrance off of them and you would unleash a flow of revelation that stuns them, takes them by surprise, causes them to be taken aback at the magnitude of it, in Jesus’ name.