I press on toward the goal to win the heavenly prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
All of us who are mature, pursuing spiritual perfection, is what that means, should have this attitude.
And if any respect you have a different attitude, that too God will make clear to you.
Only let us stay true to what we've already attained.
And that's the key part that I wanted to read this morning,
because there's a pressure happening right now in belief systems, been going on for a long time.
But it's really getting heightened as to distractions to get you to veer from what you've already attained.
There's also something that's very much like addictive behavior or immaturity,
where you're always looking for something more or some bigger thing or some, you know,
and we're not practicing the thing we've already attained.
Remember I told you a few weeks back that the Lord had said that we need to really take a look at our foundational belief systems
and make sure we're doing that.
Make sure we're actually operating in the thing that we have.
So it's interesting, I was having a conversation with somebody, not from this church, but from another one.
And I just said, what if someone asked you, what is it that you believe?
And of course, your brain comes up with the pad answer first, like, well, I believe in God.
Oh, amazing depth, you know, right?
It'll come up with that. It'll just skim off the top and come up with that.
No, but I mean, what do you believe? What do you believe about God?
Who he is? Who he is to you?
Because it's a foundational thing that we go back to that when we're going through anything,
we have to be able to hold on because it's our anchor, right?
The bigger the anchor, the deeper the water, you can just drop that puppy down and it'll make the boat, you know, hang there.
And we're not tossed back and forth on every wave of doctrine.
So there's something about staying true to what we have already attained.
So then you have to name what you've attained.
If I had to give you a piece of paper right now, what is it that you've attained in Christ?
I know my biggest one in 1981 would have been, I'm not going to hell.
That's huge. That is just so huge and there'd be a lot that's built around that.
But now I would have to have more than one piece of paper to be able to say, this is what I've attained in Christ.
This is the miracle season. This is the foundation that's on.
And you're very familiar with your foundation.
This is what's going to keep us in this hour is our foundational belief system.
If we don't know what it is, if we don't know how to stand on it, if we don't have that built, we're going to be in trouble.
And we're going to be tossed back and forth on every wave of doctrine and easily deceived.
So deception is on the rise and it just gets more crafty.
I mean, sometimes I just laugh. I'm like, that's good.
I mean, if you're going to be crafty and a liar, it's like, wow, they come up with stuff that it's like, I wouldn't have thought of.
And so they're good at it. The demons are good at it. The demonic realm is good at it.
And then when he uses people who've been convinced of it, you know, then they operate it in it pretty intensely.
Stuff you'd never think of doing, that they do. Amen.
And so he's wanting us to, he goes on and says, brothers and sisters, together follow my example and observe those who live by the pattern we gave you.
I think that's interesting too, because religion can get stuck in a pattern and then you can't think outside the box.
And this is all that we see. But yet there's a pattern of how to live that secures your foundation.
That says, here's the structure. Everything goes back to this. Everything goes back to the Word and the Spirit.
So I have been, you know, preaching different churches.
Last week I had the privilege of being at Minneapolis Teen Challenge and then back the next day up at Brainerd Teen Challenge.
And then I hang out afterwards and just chat with people.
And it's interesting, those that are just finding out what God has done for them and how excited that they are about that.
Or those that have been saved for years but still don't know what they've attained.
They still don't have, it's like, hmm, you know, they weren't told. They didn't get the memo.
Somebody didn't show them. How will they know unless someone tells them, right?
And so it challenges us to make sure that we're in a constant state of teaching and telling and exposing things and things like that.
But this is what gives us the ability to press on toward the goal of the heavenly prize.
Now I say all this because the same way we're going to see anointings come in waves right now.
Like, you're going to see just a bunch of people get saved all at once.
And then it's going to come for a little bit. And then it'll come again like waves.
How do I know this? It's been prophesied. I've been in a few of the waves already.
And it's so fun to get on those and just write them. Just write them.
It's like, you feel like you could just say, hey, you need Jesus. And yes, everybody around you will say that.
And then all of a sudden it'll go into a different wave of healing or something like that.
Now all of those things can happen at the same time. But I'm telling you to watch for the waves.
Now during the waves, you can be deceived. Just because the supernatural is moving,
if you don't know what you've attained and what you're standing on,
you'll get caught up in stuff that's not the pure water. Right?
Right now we have to be watchful of something that just seems like it would be obvious.
But you can fall right into it. It's like almost the worship of Charlie Kirk.
I talked about this last week or a president or whatever your belief system is.
Once your passion is running hard towards something, that is your worship.
So if we leave it in a factual thing, if we leave it in an honor thing,
you know, like, hey, I want to honor this person, they did good.
They did good handling those foundational beliefs and standing there.
I mean, they did good. And there's an honor that comes.
When it switches over to passion, it gets cray-cray.
And we are seeing this and experiencing this.
A couple of my children have shared some things at their workplace that were just way out there.
Christians going way out there almost like it's a purely political thing
rather than a biblical stance of truth.
And just trying to just be really hurtful, cussing up a storm, doing all kinds of stuff.
And it's like, what are we doing?
That's what happens when the wave of change comes and you go to ride that wave,
but you don't stick to the foundational, the anchor, right?
You don't have the anchor on you, then you're in the water, but what waters are you in?
Right? So we have to stay true to what we've already attained,
which means we have to go back and rehearse.
What is it that we believe?
Or you'll get talked out of anything.
Really, if I can talk you out of something in two minutes, you didn't believe it to begin with.
Kind of like a salesman comes to the door and you're like, we're just going to look.
That's what we're going to do. Okay, that's all we're going to do.
And then you're like, we're not buying anything.
You might even announce it to that person, we're not buying anything.
And if in five minutes, two minutes, you're like somehow you're signing it.
You're like, what did I do?
Right? So what did you believe to begin with?
Was that a real belief system?
If you can get talked out of it or into it so easily?
Right? So it's something that we check ourselves on.
And so we see that there is many misbeliefs, many misbeliefs,
wherever I'm traveling is wild to me.
But it always makes me question my own belief.
Every time you're like, okay, where is that founder?
Then I have to go back and say, here's the scripture.
This is, okay, this is what I believe.
You know, some things are just welded in there,
but they're coming up with some pretty crafty stuff.
And saying some pretty crafty things that are really based in a lie
that are very twisted and can seem true.
So if we don't know what we've attained, then we won't know what to believe.
I see this when it comes to healing.
And I want to mention this because I do a lot of teaching on healing.
And some of the places that I teach are the same places,
sometimes the same people.
And it's interesting belief can start out the lowest level belief,
you've heard me say, is just like in Christianity,
the lowest level belief is I go to church because I believe there's a God.
Well, sort of the demons and they tremble,
but they don't change their behavior, right?
That is the lowest level of belief when it comes to God.
And you might move up and marry Barry and deal with crisis at a church.
That's another level of belief.
But until we kick into the following of Christ,
our true belief system doesn't really...
there's not much for a foundation.
Because to follow you have to trust.
And as you're following, he's building the foundation.
Right?
Because that's when we go, why? How come? Where? What?
All of those things and he'll disclose those things,
which helps us to continue following.
Sometimes he doesn't say much of anything
and it's a principle he's already laid out in the Word.
And so you know it's a fact. Just go do it.
Right? So that's the follow.
And then we move into discipleship.
Well, we have to know to move from one of those places to the next
that we have to know our foundational truth
and that gets put into us.
But it's interesting. I'll teach on healing
and the confession and whys and what's or whatever.
And the next week someone else won't be feeling good
and we just go back to square one.
It's like all over again.
Because beliefs that have been trained into us
or that we didn't really grab onto
and fight for our right to have,
we will go back to our old thinking and heartbeat.
Because it changes, takes a lot to change the synaptic nerve in your brain.
Right? When you grew a pathway that's an unbelief
and then all of a sudden the one meeting you were at
is just going to switch over. Sometimes, sometimes that's miraculous.
Most of the time, you got to go home and fight for your right
to hang on to the new thing that you believe.
And so most of our Christianity is fighting for our right
to hold on to a new belief system, to explore that,
to seek it, to knock, to ask, and then enter into it
and then stand there for.
And so what I see is people coming forward in health
and then falling backwards.
And people coming forward and even the baptism of the Holy Spirit
they'll get baptized in the Holy Spirit or whatever
and then by the next week they're not sure that really happened.
That's how much deception is in the air
but we can't blame everything on a demon or the devil.
And that's also how much our brain and our soul has been deceived
and we're trying to cross over into believing what his word says.
So what do you do if you're in that situation
arguing with yourself? Remember I always say
you're not going to win when you argue with yourself
because you're too good at it, right?
Your subconscious just knows everything to throw at you
and you're just not going to win.
So you always go to the anchor, which is the word
and it goes by the word and the spirit.
Like we talked about last week.
And so I have to stop and say,
okay, why have I backed off on something?
Where is my fervor on something?
And I go back to the word
and ask the Holy Spirit to light the word up inside of me.
Just fire it up.
And then, you know, sometimes we rely on him totally.
Like, you know, we're just sitting there,
like little kids, mom, get me the milk, mom,
go do this or whatever.
And he's like, you stir up the gifts within you.
What does it look like to do that?
Have you ever stirred up the gifts within you?
What does it look like?
Sometimes you start out crying and you're in a heap
and I don't even know if I believe anymore.
Well, how are you going to stir this up within you?
You have to go back to the true thing
that you already attained and remind yourself of that.
Right?
Nope, he's not going to forsake me.
I remember the time he did this for me.
So testify against it.
We'll stir it up.
This is unbelief. This is not of God.
I renounced it.
I ask forgiveness for it. I will not.
See, that's another way of stirring it up.
And then what is the word that he's given you before?
Take that word and began to preach it.
Preach, my friends.
Have you ever preached to yourself?
Now, you've argued with yourself.
Some of you out loud and be like, come on.
You're talking to yourself and yourself don't care.
It's not really going to get motivated by what you say.
I mean, you can even threaten yourself.
Yourself is like, ooh.
You know, you threatened me this time.
Where are you going to go?
You know, it's that kind of, it's that type of thing.
So you actually have to, you're stirring this up
and you're beginning to declare it in a way
that says this is what we're doing.
This is where we're going.
This is what I believe.
And you ignore your emotions.
Ignore your emotions.
How many of you have an easy time
ignoring your emotions?
Not too many people.
Not too many people because when you're going through
something that means a lot to you especially,
that thing will, your emotions are already wondering.
It's already projecting out there
how this isn't going to work and what if I lose this
and what if it all just caves in or whatever.
Then you stir yourself up in faith.
Amen.
So faith is sure.
You start out unsure, but your goal is to be sure
by the time you're done declaring over yourself.
That's a prayer meeting.
Sometimes an entire church needs to do that.
Sometimes we do that here and you didn't know
that's what we were doing.
Declaration prayers are things that pronounce,
here's where we're going.
And everyone goes, huh?
And you're like, I said, here's where we're going.
And the atmosphere has to shift to say,
you know, where we're going.
It has to shift into that.
And the next thing you know, we'll come up
into that most holy faith.
But when we wait for God to stir us up,
that's a victim's mentality.
Will he at times stir us up?
Fresh wind of the spirit, fresh fire.
Ooh, it's going to be good, right?
Yes, we can ask him for those things,
but everything comes by faith
and everything steps out in faith to attain it.
So many times we'll wait like,
I don't know, I just haven't felt God for weeks.
We'll stir yourself up.
His word is alive in you, right?
But we'll wait for the heavenlies to rain down something
and see, maybe it's a punishment to me.
That's what's happening.
Maybe it's this, maybe it's that.
Start declaring his word.
Even if you feel like there's been times
that there was so much unbelief in a certain area
and when I declared the word,
I felt like a liar when I was saying it.
Anybody here have that experience?
You know, like our finances are going to go
according to the word and everything inside
is like, here, you're full of it.
And that's like, oh yeah, you know,
and so you'll start out in that.
But as you fight the fight of faith,
that's part of how you fight the fight of faith.
As you do that, you'll start entering into the spirit.
It'll go from digital to like, here's what it says.
This is very factual.
This is what I know.
This is what I've attained.
This is what I've seen before.
I have never seen the righteous forsaken,
nor their seed-begging bread.
I will not, and it'll start crossing over, right?
And it's not just getting emotional
because anybody can do that,
but you will end up emotional
when you're stirred up.
Hmm?
So if you're a person who doesn't like
to experience your own emotions,
you're not going to want to stir up in Christ.
At the same time, if you're a person
who is over the top with emotions
and you can't tell if it's God
or you or what's happening on step out of faith anyway
and declare it, if you fall apart, you fall apart.
You'll live through it.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Lord God.
So I've felt to mention this today
because there are waves of anointings
that you're going to experience.
There's waves that are here now.
There's waves that I've experienced
up at Red Lake and other places
that are preached even when I was down to Teen Challenge.
On Monday night, I could feel that I walked into the place
and I was like, I didn't even preach or anything.
And it was like, ooh, it's hot in here.
There's a wave of the Spirit
that God has a purpose for this.
And you get on that wave and you ride it, right?
But you're not going to be sensitive to it,
nor are you going to hang to the truth
if you don't know what you've already attained.
Only let us stay true to what we have already attained.
So, if you came and not stirred up
in your most holy face...
I'm not talking about get stirred up.
You're just mad.
You know how when you're mad, you pace?
When you're afraid, you pace.
And you look in the fridge a hundred times
and the same stuff is in there.
It's the last time you look,
but for some reason you got to go again.
Like it's going to solve something.
You're looking in cupboards.
What are you looking for?
You don't know.
Your heart is saying,
come on, let's stir up.
Now, we're stirring up,
but we're getting stirred up
about all the wrong things, right?
So, we're working on a project
harder than we should be
and it's actually the wrong project.
So, when you get caught up,
then we switch over
and we start to declare the things of the Lord.
So, what has he already told you
about where you're going?
Well, if you don't know that,
part of getting stirred up,
part of stirring up your faith is to attain that.
Otherwise, you can't stay true
to what you've already attained.
You have to obtain something.
And if you know, here's what he said.
Now, one of the things that I've done
to know is I go back
through all the prophecies
that were either spoken over the church,
which involves me,
or they were spoken to me personally.
And they better line up
and it better be something I said,
yes, and I meant to.
This is why we went over the prophecy,
there's two prophecies,
three last weekend,
because if you treat them like cool prophecy
and then you move on,
they mean nothing.
Same way you can read the Word for God's,
so love the world.
Okay, nice.
And you just move on, it means nothing.
It has to come alive in you,
it has to take root in you.
You have to be able to declare it,
say it, speak it, live it,
fight for your right to be in it.
Right?
You got to get stirred up in faith
regarding it.
That means in order to be coming over
into faith,
your measurement has to know when you're an unbelief.
How many of you know when you're an unbelief?
Most of the time, we're not aware.
It has to be something that you know,
like I'm, you know,
I got saved in 1981.
I know that, I know that, I know that.
So that measurement, if I had feelings
opposite of that, I'd be like,
wow, I don't know why unbelief is here.
But many times we're walking around
in unbelief,
and we don't even know it's there.
It's stuff that puts a limit on.
Remember the word dam means to put a limit on?
Salvation means to take the limit off.
Yeshua, the Christ,
the anointed one in his anointing,
removes every limit.
Damnation puts it on.
So wherever we're in unbelief,
there's a damning that's being built up
that says you cannot pass, right?
Like the movie, you shall not pass.
You know, it's that.
And there's something that puts a limit there
that says you can't go any further.
And so if we know that,
and we're stirring up this gift of God in us,
this faith gift, this,
this attaching it to Christ himself,
which is the word,
and we're getting stirred up in the word,
we're not just getting emotional,
but we're making a choice to believe
and we choose it again and I believe
and I choose it again and I declare
and I choose it again and I pray on it
and I choose it again and I speak it out
and I choose it again and I renounce anything
that's opposite and I choose it again.
I mean, this is stirring up the faith.
Many times what we think it is
is a prayer line that went intense
on a service that went, you know,
half an hour late and we're like,
whoa, I got stirred up. You might have.
But the thing that has hang time
is when you stir up your faith,
it doesn't leave that quick, right?
Because if I asked you about the prayer lines
that have been here,
say, you know, six weeks ago there was something,
what did we agree on?
It was, I don't know, right?
And yet it's moving us forward.
The things that we address and say,
I'm not going to be an unbelief,
I choose to renounce it as sin
because it's opposite of our father's kingdom.
So you can't play with unbelief.
You can't talk sweet to it.
And unbelief is based in lies
and you cannot dispel a lie without absolute truth.
So you can't sort of tell it something true, kind of.
Well, in a way, I think God is sort of kind of...
You got to throw punch it.
That's what you got to do.
It's just like, right there.
You got to throw punch it.
It has to be to that point where you say,
well, I feel it or not, this is true.
And you get up and you talk about it.
Well, there's nobody here.
There's no, who would I talk to?
Yourself and God.
That's the best time to get it stirred up.
I sometimes do it when I'm driving
and then that's unsafe.
I have to pull over.
If I'm getting stirred up about something in faith,
I'm like, and a lot of times I'm addressing me.
It's not, you know, a lot of times
we want to get stirred up in faith
so we can dress the demonic realm.
The demonic realm is not really the problem.
Most of the time it's us.
Faith is neither even in my piehole.
Right?
It's not like, well, I'd have faith
and it would work better
if it wasn't for these demons.
No, it's in my heart
and what's in my heart comes out my mouth.
So declaration is everything.
When you get up and you talk about it
and you declare it
and you don't care what ends up happening emotionally.
Like, when I start declaring something
I might start out just so even keel
and the next thing I'm driving down the road
just, you know, I got to pull over
because I can't see.
I'm not getting worked up when it's the spirit.
I want you to know there's a difference.
Anybody can get worked up over something.
That's when you're feeling sorry for yourself
and you think you're praying.
You're like, no, I was praying about this.
Yeah, you're just feeling sorry for yourself.
There is a difference between
get that out of your system,
go ahead and cry it out, do the thing, right?
But then you know when you bring that to a close
it's like, okay, that's enough.
Now we need to declare something.
Let's stand.
Hallelujah.
And, you know, as a congregation
but sometimes this can happen
with people on this side of the pulpit.
They're waiting on the congregation
to be really fervent so they can get stirred up
and many times we're waiting on the preacher
to stir you up.
Don't wait for me.
Don't wait for Jim.
Don't wait for Pastor Vern or Pastor Eve.
Don't wait for us.
Be stirred up on your own before you ever get here.
I like to get stirred up over the service.
Well, we don't know where the service is going to go.
Exactly. I'm taking it by faith.
Something good is going to happen here today
because I declare it in the name of Jesus.
Because of belief, we put our belief forward
that there is going to be eyes opened here today.
We will see what we could not see before
and we will hear what we could not hear before.
To the point, if God has to dig our ears out,
Lord, go ahead and do that.
Go ahead and do it. See, I'm starting to stir up.
Right? I'm not just getting emotional.
I'm starting to stir up.
I'm declaring and you can prophesy into something
through that and the Word, right?
Hallelujah. We thank you.
Let's just start out by our Father who art in heaven.
Holy is our name.
Holy is the name of our God.
Jehovah, the God of covenant, the God of promise.
You are so good that you game at your son
so we could have access to a covenant of exchange.
So there is going to be exchange here today.
We are confident that as we give ourselves to you,
you give more of you to us.
And then we graduate out of things and damnation lifts off.
All forms of curse have no place here.
You have no place here.
We're coming up in the Spirit, up in the things of God.
Up, up, up.
Now there's a place where your body will try to get involved.
And it will feel like you should have had another cup of coffee
or something because you just don't feel it.
Hallelujah.
Don't let your body tell you what to do.
See, you have to picture yourself when you're getting stirred up
that you are in this temple as an under shepherd under Christ.
This is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
So is mine, right?
So I got a temple thing going on here.
Right?
And I'm the under shepherd, under Christ,
under the anointed one here.
So I listen to what he says and then I do that.
I invoke his presence and then I do the thing.
It's the obedience, it's the willing in the obedience
that are blessed.
We get right into that.
Hallelujah.
And when you picture that, picture yourself being a pastor
in this house.
A prophet in this house, an apostle.
Use the five full gifts.
That God will give you increments of that
and stronger in certain areas,
but definitely will give you increments of that.
How do you apostle this temple?
It's about establishing it.
You go to God, he gives you what to do,
then you say this is what we're doing.
This is how we're bringing this together.
Right?
You can pastor.
You can teach.
Amen.
You take all of those gifts and do that in this temple.
Praise you Lord Jesus.
The apostle says, get up.
The prophet says, we're going somewhere.
Come on, we're going somewhere today.
And we're not going to miss it,
because we're supposed to buy up every moment
for the days are wicked.
So we're buying this morning.
We're taking this time, Lord God.
And we're buying it up for you.
That you're going to make a difference in our hearts,
our children's, Lord God and the generations.
You're going to make a difference in this atmosphere
that it will affect the surrounding areas
and in this house and the other churches
in the mighty name of Jesus.
We're buying it up and we're making this
very important for the days are wicked.
When you don't know what to pray as you want
to rule the temple,
to stir up the things in the temple
to stir up your gifts and all of that,
what are you supposed to do?
When you don't know what to pray as you want,
what are you supposed to do?
Pray in the spirit. Let's do that.
We renounce the demonic realm.
We are not a part of your kingdom,
so your rulership, your domain, we are not under.
Do you agree in the name of Jesus?
We're not under that.
So we're under the domain, the rulership
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we thank you that you're arranging
our temple this morning.
Exactly, exactly the way it needs to be.
We go beyond the flesh and we're of the spirit.
Hallelujah. Lord God, we just stir up,
stir up, stir up, stir up within us.
So God, we're asking right now
that you reveal to us any form of unbelief.
What did we say about our finances?
What did we say about our calling?
What did we say that we should not have said
that's opposite of our Father's kingdom?
We renounce that right now.
Lord God, we cut that off as you show that to us.
Let those words fall to the ground.
We can't have what we speak against
and we speak for the things of God.
We choose to speak for the things of God.
So right now, Lord God, anything that we said
that's opposite of your kingdom, forgive us.
Forgive us.
Rewire our brains, even Lord God.
Renew our minds to the things of the kingdom
because we've left one kingdom
and we've come over to yours. Renew our minds.
Give us newness
that we might have the mind of the anointed one
and his anointing.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Praise you, Lord Jesus.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lord.
Praise you, Lord God.
Hallelujah.
We worship you.
We thank you.
See, there's a lot going on
even as we're praying.
But some good is going to happen here today.
Something good is going to happen here today.
So what's the limit you want gone by the end of the service?
What's the limit that you want gone?
What is the thing you're in the fight of faith on?
What is that thing?
Don't be afraid to address it.
Stir up your faith in it.
Here is one of the lies of the flesh.
It's also of the demonic realm, but it's built into the flesh
because the flesh has been touched by sin.
And one of the biggest lies is,
I don't know if I would touch that
because you might have just touched the bear.
Right? Like, dress sickness.
You know what? I'm done with this. I'm going to come at it.
A lot of people will stop and they'll be like,
just leave, you know, maybe just pray around that a little bit.
See what God's going to do. Just wait.
Because we don't want to stir it up in a way
that comes back and slaps us in the face.
That's the belief system.
It's unbelief, but it's a belief system.
Huh?
Have you ever addressed something and things got worse?
Yeah.
They usually get worse before they get better.
We all love the testimonies. It's like,
whoa, and then that happened and everything was wonderful.
You know, that's wonderful.
And those are the kind we just really love.
But the fight of faith is a fight.
Yeah.
And sometimes you get popped.
Right?
Get back up again.
Get back up and address it because we've been promised the victory.
We've been promised the victory.
So don't fear touching that thing.
Now, we want to hear from God on it.
We want to pray in the spirit and whatever it is.
But don't be afraid to address it.
Hallelujah.