We Cannot Accomplish God's Work in the Power of the Flesh

Friends, we cannot carry out God's work in the power of the flesh.

It must be the power of the Spirit. It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity.

Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Michael Brown, so glad to spend this time with you. Listen, I have a very important announcement to make everyone listening on radio, podcast, watching on YouTube, Facebook.

Please give me your best year because this is an important announcement. You'll hear it a bunch more times in the coming weeks, but we are going to be making some major transitions which are going to allow us to continue with a daily radio broadcast that will build you up, edify you, equip you, strengthen you. So everybody listening on radio, you'll be able to continue to listen on a daily basis to The Line of Fire. I believe it'll be sharper, better than ever, but we are going to switch up what we're doing on YouTube. And instead of just doing a broadcast that is also going out on radio, we are going to do many more separate broadcasts that will not be constrained by radio time limits, advertising, things like that, time breaks, time limits for when we have to start and end. We'll be doing them in different parts of the world, God willing.

We'll be doing many more extended conversations, discussions, long-form videos, more detailed teachings, maybe shorter one day than another. But everyone that is watching on YouTube or Facebook, that'll be coming your way in that way. Everyone that's listening on radio, get the daily radio show, but we'll be having a lot more separate additional announcements or additional videos that are going on on YouTube. So if you watch on YouTube and you're not a subscriber, take a moment to click subscribe, but then also click the bell because that'll tell you when a new video is out. We may not be the same time every day.

We may be three or four hours one day and not for a couple of days. So this again is going to be for those that are watching on YouTube and on Facebook. So if you're not a subscriber on YouTube, again, just click subscribe and ring the bell. This way you'll be notified.

We'll also be putting out more short videos, excerpts from different broadcasts and things like that. So we want to be a blessing, serve you as best as we can. And above all, we're really seeking God because we want to serve you.

We want to equip you. We're not here for us. We're not here to promote our brand. We're not here to make a profit. We're here to serve you and equip you and help you as many others are as well.

It's not about me. It's about the work of the Lord and His work in your heart and your life. So let us be a blessing to you.

It is our goal. It is our prayer that we are here to infuse you with faith and with truth and with courage to help you stand strong on the front lines. As I have been seeking God, spending time in His presence, I've been overwhelmed with the reality, something I've known for decades, but overwhelmed with a fresh sense that we cannot accomplish God's work in the power of the flesh. We cannot see God's kingdom advanced through human effort. We cannot see the Great Commission advance with human effort unless we have the Spirit working in us and through us. I'm not debating here tongues, prophecy, healing.

I'm not even talking about those things, as important as they are, as much as the reality of the Spirit of God working in us, working through us, and changing lives. Friends, there's no hope. There's no hope for America outside of God moving miraculously. There's no hope for the world outside of God moving miraculously. It's just not going to happen.

We must have visitation. You say, we all know that. We all know, I understand we know it, but most of us don't live as if it's true. I am deeply convicted in my own life, and this has been a pattern over the years, not convicted of being lazy, not convicted of work, not working hard enough, not convicted of not producing enough material for the kingdom, but of running and running and not being, meaning running to do His work without the fullness of the power. Running to do His work without God working fully through me. And that comes when we pull ourselves away from the press of the world and the madness of the world and the adrenaline of being busy and deepen our quality time in the presence of God. Everything changes as we do that.

Pastors, leaders, you know how challenging it is because ministry is all-consuming, because the work of the ministry is calling you and it's knocking at your door and there are always needs. There's always more to be done that can be done. And most of us, just over the course of the day, there's more to be done than can be done. There was a time in a very different world than the one we live in today.

Maybe you worked on a farm and you had a certain amount of chores to do and at the end of the day you're basically done and then you start it the next day. But today there are always more emails than we can respond to, always more texts, always more posts, always more things. There's always something else that's calling on us and if we're not careful, all those things come first and quality time being with God, quality time in prayer, quality time in fellowship with Him, quality time in the Word doesn't even come at all. It's not that it comes second. It doesn't even come at all or it comes sporadically and weekly.

Why? Because we're not seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Because we're forgetting what Jesus said, without me you can do nothing.

You say, well, He's always with me. In a certain sense it's true. But there's a reason that the apostles in Acts 6 said to others, say you've got to take care of feeding the widows and take care of the food distribution because we've got to give ourselves to the ministry of prayer and the Word. Because if we don't do that we won't be effective in the mission and we won't be able to lead the people of God into the things God's called them to be. That's why it says in Jeremiah 17, cursed is the one who leans on the arm of the flesh. When Israel would go to Egypt for help or when Israel would hire the king of Assyria for help or when Israel would strip the temple of gold and hire somebody to come in and fight for them instead of repenting of their sins and asking God's help, they were leaning on the arm of the flesh. When we try to do God's will and our power, we're leaning on the arm of the flesh. When we're running ahead of Him or without Him, we are leaning on the arm of the flesh.

Blessed is the one whose strength is the Lord. Somehow, friends, we need a change in our thinking. You say, is voting important? Yes, voting is important, but America is not going to be changed through our voting. Can a vote make America righteous?

Ask that question. Can a vote make America righteous? No. Can a vote for the best candidates out there, can that make America righteous? No. Can it put us in a better situation than we are now?

Sure. The right candidate can do a lot of good, wrong candidate, a lot of bad. No question about it. Voting is important, but can voting save a single soul? No. Can voting transform a wicked heart into a good heart?

No. Only the gospel can do that. And if we gave ourselves to putting first things first, to meeting with God, to being with God, to being empowered by God.

Luke 24, 49, Jesus told his disciples, don't leave Jerusalem until you're in do with power from on high. Many of us would have been running. Well, we got a lot of jobs. We've got people. OK, let's figure it out. OK, we got to divide Jerusalem into sectors here.

OK, or no. OK, it's more than us. We're going to have to multiply. And we'd be plotting out the plan, the strategy. OK, well, how did they do that? We hear this other city.

They're having success with how. And he said, no, no, you seek me. Acts one, 14, they were continually seeking God. They were in the temple. They were seeking God. They were in the upper room.

You're different. So they were seeking God. They were continually going after him. You'll receive power in the Holy Spirit comes to you. When they were in do with power, everything changed. And then when crisis came, what would they do?

They saw him in prayer again. It's not prayer or evangelism, prayer or feeding the poor, prayer or fighting for justice, prayer or voting. It's not either or. It's not inaction versus action.

It's a matter of priority. It's a matter of recognizing that when we pray, we now cry out to the God who can change everything in a moment of time, who can shake America in a moment of time. We're praying to the God who can do everything, who can do the impossible. And then we have our mission. Now we carry it out, the life and the power of the Spirit. Now we carry it out with divine wisdom.

Now we carry it out with divine anointing. Look at look at what Paul said. First Corinthians Chapter two, verse one. After Paul has spoken about God, choosing the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, the weak things to confound the strong, taking the things that are nothing, things that are nothing to confound the things that are. And that we glory, if we boast, we only boast in the Lord.

We only boast in Jesus who has become our righteousness, our redemption, our sanctification. And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. First Corinthians two, one. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus, the Messiah, and him crucified. I came to you. This is Paul, the mighty apostle Paul, one of one of the greatest servants of the Lord in human history. I came to you, he says, in weakness with great fear and trembling.

Paul, the apostle Paul. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.

Can I read this again? This is the words of Paul. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus, the Messiah, and him crucified.

He kept the message simple and basic, didn't impress with all of his words and rhetoric and knowledge and wisdom. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. Remember, we read about his time in Corinth. It's 1 Corinthians. It's Acts 18 and Acts 16.

He's been severely whipped in Philippi. In Acts 17, there's a riot in the city. Prior to that, Acts 14, he's been stoned. Who knows what's coming in this imposing city of Corinth?

A very worldly, wicked city. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power. We must recover that again today, friends, in our lives, in our ministries, in the work we do for God. That the power of the Spirit in earth can be shaken. That the power of the Spirit in church can be shaken. That the power of the Spirit in heaven can be shaken.

That the power of the Spirit in heaven can be shaken. This is Michael Ellison, founder of TriVita. I remember sitting there with my doctor years ago. My body was on fire with pain when he said, Mr. Ellison, you must change the way you think about health and life.

If you do not change, you will have no quality of life, and you will die a premature death. I committed to go on my wellness journey, and that journey of wellness led me to Mexico, to the Seri people and indigenous people of the Sonoran Desert. As we sat around a campfire one night, there was this moment when they shared the secrets of the ancient people. I felt as if God was there, reminding me that He had created plants to heal and restore. It was from there we discovered the Nopal Cactus and its amazing anti-inflammatory benefits. A formula was perfected, now found in Nopalaya. Two clinical studies have been conducted to validate its anti-inflammatory benefits. Now thousands of people have benefited from Nopalaya to help fight and manage chronic inflammation. If you're living with pain, stiffness, lack of mobility, then you may be experiencing chronic inflammation, and Nopalaya may be your solution. I invite you to try Nopalaya.

Nopalaya is supported by clinical studies for lowering inflammation and improving mobility, flexibility, and improved quality of life. Order today and use promo code BROWN25 to receive 25% off your order. As a new customer, 100% of the proceeds from your first order will go to support the Line of Fire radio broadcast.

So call now 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584, or online at t-r-i-v-i-t-a, tryvita.com. This is how we rise up. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

I'm waiting for the show. I had my Trivita, nitric oxide, and myo health together for my daily drink in the Nopalaya earlier today, so thank you Trivita for your generosity towards the ministry and for blessing our listeners. Much appreciated. 866-34-TRUTH. I want to read to you from a book of sermons by Duncan Campbell that's known for being used by God, the Hebrides Revival, 1949 to 1952. The book is titled The Price and Power of Revival, and it's the third chapter. He said, let us consider the principles that govern quickening, that govern spiritual quickening.

I will base my thoughts on Acts 4 29-37. So this is the apostles praying when this persecution that rises as a result, the place is shaken, they speak the word of God boldly, etc. He said, I suppose it might be considered a truism to say that we live in a world that is rocked in a sea of trouble.

Now remember, he's speaking these words probably in the 50s, something like that, long time ago. Solid foundations that we once built upon are being abandoned and we think of them today as mere shadows belonging to a vanished past. And every hand we see signs of frustration or barrenness and of defeat. I suppose we all agree that the stream of vital Christianity runs very low indeed. Now it seems to me that the all-important question for us to face at this hour is, what if we as a church to offer a generation that is awake, but a generation that is failing to find the true way of life? I know no question in all the range of thoughts so vital in its issue. So devastating in its implication is this one question. Is the church we know today a light that marks the road that leads men to the cross? Is it not true that too often faintheartedness creeps over us and accordingly there springs up an unwillingness to make strenuous effort toward revival? Now if any book is fitted to correct that tendency, that book is the word of God.

And here in this portion that I've just quoted, we have a signal illustration. Here we have one of the most encouraging, the most stupendous facts in the records of revealed truth. I discover here that a power is placed at the disposal of the church that can outmaneuver and baffle the very strategy of hell and cause death and defeat to vanish before the Lord.

Baroness is made to feel his fertilizing power. I feel that we would do well today to face honestly and sincerely one or two questions. Again I'm reading from Duncan Campbell, The Price and Power of Revival. How is it that while we make such great claims for the power of the gospel, we see so little of the supernatural in operation? If Christianity is a religion, not of aspiration alone, if Christianity is a religion, not of aspiration alone, but preeminently of fulfillment, how is it that revival tarries? Is there any reason why the church today cannot everywhere equal the church at Pentecost?

I feel that this is a question that we ought to face with an open mind and an honest heart. What did the early church have that we do not possess today? Nothing about the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, nothing about the power of God. I would suggest that one of the main secrets of success in the early church lay in the fact that the early believers believed in unction from on high and not entertainment from men.

Let me pull back here for a moment and say that entertainment has infiltrated the church in a mind-boggling way. Please hear me. If your musicians are going to play, let them play well. If you've got a sound system, let it be a good sound system. If you're going to sing, sing well.

If you're going to put a video announcement up, put one up that we can watch without falling asleep, I'm fine with all that. If you're going to preach, preach your heart, share your heart. But that is so different from putting on a show.

Friends, these are my words, not Doug and Campbell's. It's all about the show and the spectacle and the moment, and we don't need God. We don't need the Spirit.

Just put on a show. Of course, it affects you soullishly, but it doesn't change you on the inside. It doesn't get to the root and the core of your being. No, it's charged, excited, and moved, and stirred, and all eyes, and the man of God, or the woman of God. And there's very little attention on Jesus. Oh, we may get psyched up into a Jesus chant. Boy, just the adoration of Him. They take in a life-changing word. Often, it's blurred with just human entertainment. Please hear me.

Let me say it again. I have no issue with doing things with excellence. I love worship teams that play instruments well, and that sing well, and that really point us to Jesus because the Holy Spirit's on them.

I love people who communicate messages well, and it's not a chore to sit and listen. Praise God for all that. I'm all for doing things well and with zooming in and out of the world, and with zeal and passion, but the whole entertain the crowds and drink them in with the great emotional display. Often, it's lacking the spirit. It's often our best efforts, our frenzied efforts to make up for the absence of the presence of God. Friends, these are things I wrote and shared decades ago, but I'm stirred with the fresh, the search of my own life for fresh, searching a ministry of fresh. How much of what we do is what we can do, and how much is it God working through us? Then Campbell said one of the very sad features that characterize as much that goes into the name of evangelism today is the craze for entertainment. Again, he wrote this in a time that was very, very different, very tame compared to now. Here's an extract from a letter from a leader in youth work in one of your great cities. We are at our wit's end to know what to do with the young people who make a profession of conversion recently.

They're demanding all sorts of entertainment, and it seems to us that if we fail to provide the entertainment that they want, we are not going to hold them. Yes, Campbell said, the trend of the time in which we live is toward a Christian experience, or should I say experience and leave Christian out of it, an experience that is light and flippant and fed on entertainment. Some little time ago, I listened to a young man give his testimony. He made a decision quite recently, and in giving his testimony, this is what he said, I have discovered that the Christian way of life can best be described not as a battle, but as a song mingled with the sound of happy laughter. Campbell says, far be it for me to move the song or happy laughter from religion, but I want to protest that that young man's conception was entirely wrong and not in keeping with true New Testament Christianity.

Oh, but, said the advocates of this way of thinking, how are we to get the people if we do not provide some sort of entertainment? To that, Campbell says, I asked the question, how did they get the people of Pentecost? How did the early church get the people?

By publicity projects, by bills, by posters, by parades, by pictures? No, the people were arrested and drawn together and brought into vital relationship with God, not by sounds from men, but by sounds from heaven. We are in need of more sounds from heaven.

Seems to me that heavenly sounds are dying out. I'm sure you must have noticed that Pentecost was its own publicity. I love that passage in the Acts that tells us that when that this was knowing about the abroad, the multitude came together. What was noise to broad? What was happening in the midst of them? What was noise to broad that men and women were coming under deep conviction? What was noise to broad that men in the community appeared like drunken men because they were drunk by the mighty power of God?

That was God's method of publicity. Until the Church of Jesus Christ will rediscover this and act upon it, we shall at our best appear to a mad world as a crowd of common people and a common market babbling about common wares. The early church cried for unction and not for entertainment because they knew that unction creates interest and real soul concern. He said yes, unction meaning anointing. Unction, unction is the dire and desperate need of the ministry today.

They believed in unction and not an entertainment for the early church put power before influence. The present state of our country presents a challenge to the Christian church, he said. Those who have eyes to see and who are truly observant tell us that this very hour forces are taking the field that are out to defy every known Christian principle.

Again, he wrote this in a world we would consider much more Christian than today. The need is dire, it is desperate, and it is awful. We have got to do something. What do we need?

The power of the Spirit working afresh in our own lives, convicting us of our own sins, getting us on our face before God, and working through us to glorify the name of Jesus. If not now, then when? It'd be like that. Hey friends, Michael Brown here. My delight to serve as your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. We are living in such urgent times today, friends, that all of us are in the line of fire.

There's a target on your back, there's a target on my back. If you simply seek to live by biblical values or just conservative moral values, you could be canceled, you could be cast out, you could be put down, you could be silenced. I'm here to say, friends, that I am not about to be silenced, and I don't believe you are either. It is time for us to stand up, it is time for us to say, enough is enough, it is time for us to push back in Jesus' name.

Not fighting the way the world fights, no. Overcoming evil with good, overcoming hatred with love, overcoming the flesh with the power of the Spirit, overcoming lies with truth, and that's what we're here to do on the Line of Fire broadcast. And friends, it's not just a broadcast, it is a movement of people around the world. God's people standing up saying, enough is enough, and saying, Lord, here we are, send us, use us. I want to urge you today to join our support team, because we are on the front lines together, and we are literally touching people around the world, in America, in America, in the nations, in Israel. And together with your help, we're going to amplify this voice and spread this movement around the globe. So I encourage you, go right now to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org, click donate monthly support, thelineoffire.org, click donate monthly support. When you do, you become a torchbearer, we immediately send you two great life-changing books, we immediately give you access to many classes I've taught, others have to pay to take those, you get them for free, exclusive video audio content, a new audio message every month, an insider prayer newsletter, 15% discount online bookstore, so much more.

Join our support team today, go to thelineoffire.org, donate monthly support. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on The Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, James, for joining us on The Line of Fire. Hey, we've just got a little bit longer to make this announcement to you. But remember, my newest book, Hearts of Compassion, Backbones of Steel, how to discuss controversial topics with love and kindness, it comes out October 8th.

Actually, that's the release date. We have copies, we've signed some for you, put a scripture verse in. So we've got copies set aside, we can send out in advance of publication. I really feel this is kind of a signature book, because it articulates what God's put in my heart over the decades, that we walk with hearts of compassion for those we differ with. We don't demonize them, we humanize them.

And yet, without compromising our convictions, we have backbones of steel, we reach out to the people, we resist the agenda. How do you have the difficult conversation about abortion? What about a girl who was raped by a relative, by her father when she was impregnated?

You're going to force her to have the baby? What do you say to two people, a nice couple, two guys, two gals, as long as they've had sexual romantic attraction, been to the same sex, why can't they be happy and love each other? How does that affect you?

Why should you care? What about some of the divisive issues about race and social justice and so on and scripture? We lay it out, we actually have the conversations in the book, and we go through principles.

How do you handle being rejected for the gospel? What do you do with that? Of course, you can order the book wherever you order your books, an ebook or a physical copy, a pre-order. But what we'd love to do is send you a copy for your gift of any size. Where's your gift going to go? It's going to help us as we stand against the rising tide of anti-Semitism, continue to raise our voice, and by God's grace, he's given us a big loud voice and a large platform to push back against the lies that are impacting not just the world, but the church as well. But at the same time, we reach out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

We resist the lies of anti-Semitism while we reach out to the people and offer them new life through Jesus the Messiah. So your gift will help us at a very critical time in history right now. And your gift of any size, we want to send you this book as our thank you and sow it into you. So here's how you get it. Call 800-538-5275. That's 800-538-5275. One more time, 800-538-5275.

I want to read a little bit more from Duncan Campbell, share a few thoughts with you. First of all, we'll grab one call, Kenneth and Tampa Bay. You wanted to weigh in? Please go ahead. Yes, this is Kenneth Hershey. Go ahead, Kenneth. You might remember Suresh David synagogue down there.

Great, yes sir. In our synagogue, we work with people like Sal Pishon of the New Life Solutions out of Pinellas County, and working with women in pregnancy situations. I've been talking to the new managers since Charles passed away about working with the men involved in the pregnancy, helping them come and be responsible.

That's what happened when you see that the way that Jesus dealt with women, you know, when the men brought the woman but didn't bring the man that was accused of adultery, when the woman at the well, he had compassion on the woman. You know, that's, I think we cannot change the fact that people are going to continue to get abortions. Many states are not going to pass laws.

They're probably going to turn to democratic candidates because of abortion issues, so that's what's happened in the last election. Here's the thing, Kenneth, and thanks for sharing those thoughts. Obviously, we are grieved over the taking of innocent lives, beginning in the womb, and we want to have God's heart on that.

When you do, it's really quite devastating and very, very intense, for sure, for sure, and you think, I've got to do something. We've got to do something. At the same time, America is not the church. America is a nation of believers, unbelievers, and people from all kinds of different backgrounds, and our goal is, yes, have righteous laws, but we've got to also change hearts, and hearts can only be changed through the gospel, so it's not either or. It's both and, but friends, it's the recognition that no matter who gets in office, no matter what laws are passed, no matter what statutes are put forward, human beings are going to continue to do evil and sin, and if a good law is passed without hearts being changed as well, soon enough, as we just heard from our caller, things are going to shift in the other direction. There's going to be more pushback pushback against it, and we cannot simply live our lives that we got the buckets, the ships going down, the boats going down.

We got our buckets furiously pumping the waters, emptying the boat while the water keeps coming in. It's a losing proposition. Something deeper, something more fundamental needs to change. It needs to change with our mindset.

Please hear me as I speak as carefully as I can. We should be politically active in a democratic society, democratic republic like America. We should use our right to vote. We should hold our candidates and political leaders accountable to do what we're voting for them to do. Some are called to lobby, some are called to fundraise, some are called to campaign, some are called to run for office.

So be it. It's part of the opportunity that we have to be a blessing to our nation and to be salt of the earth in light of the world, but those efforts for the church are not the top priority. It may be your primary calling, fine, but for the church as a whole, that is way down the list of how we bring about change.

Look, let's be candid. Within the church, we have massive problems. How are we going to change the world when we, I'm not saying you, I'm saying we, us, the body, we have massive problems. We are terribly divided. Even among fellow believers who hold to the Bible as the authoritative word of God and Jesus, the only savior, we're narrow in what we hold to. We still can't even work together in so many of our churches, congregations, because they're different in this and different in this.

And then our divisions are deep and ugly. And then there's just so much sin in our midst in other ways. What if one of the greatest sins in God's sight was prayerlessness, because it was the arrogance of flesh saying, I can do this or God, thank you for saving me, but I can make it on my own. How big is our sin then? What if one of the greatest sins we could commit in God's sight is self-righteousness? How great is our sin? What if one of the greatest sins we could commit in his sight is neglecting the lost and not sharing the gospel? How great is our sin? I haven't mentioned other sins that may pollute us, be it sexual lust, be it greed, be it pride, be it other things. We need to be on our faces saying, God have mercy.

Well, you can get on your face. I'm going to go do something. How about we get on our faces, we repent of our sin, we get refreshed in God, we get our marching orders, and then we go do something that can really make an impact. Then we go do something that can really last. Perhaps the strategy in the book of Acts is the strategy that we need to recover more than all of our best frenzied efforts.

Let me read to you a little bit more of what Duncan Campbell said. The early church cried for unction and not for entertainment because they knew that unction creates interest in real soul concern. But you say yes, that happened in the Acts of the Apostles, but there we expect that to happen today. Are there sounds from heaven today? Are men moved in this fashion today? Are men arrested by a power that seems to be apart from all human agency today?

I say, yes, it is happening today. Some of us saw it happen in churches comparatively empty, the youth given to pleasure rather than seeking after God. Then suddenly there was a sound from heaven. Three young women were praying in a barn.

He's talking about in the Hebrides, the small islands off the coast of Scotland. Three young women were praying in a barn when there was a sound from heaven and the whole community became saturated with God and many women were swept into the kingdom. We had not organized, we had no publicity program, but heaven's messengers moved in the midst of the people and in a matter of hours, churches became crowded. The scores were swept into the kingdom of God. Yes, unction, unction, unction, the anointing, the anointing, the anointing is the dire and desperate need of the ministry today.

They believed in unction and not entertainment. Further, the early church put power before influence. In many quarters today there is a growing conviction that unless God moves, unless there is a demonstration of the supernatural in the midst of men, unless we are moved up into the realm of the divine, we shall soon find ourselves caught up in a counterfeit movement, but a movement that goes under the name of evangelism.

Let me stop reading for a moment. Say, as I was reading these words a few nights ago, my heart was struck by the degree of counterfeit evangelism we have of the feel-good message we've preached for decades of the ask Jesus in so you can have a more successful life that bypasses the cross and bypasses repentance, bypasses the renunciation of sin. It just looks to Jesus as some kind of magical genie and just there to meet our every whim and desire and that's called evangelism.

Let me read this again. In many quarters there is today a growing conviction unless God moves, unless there is a demonstration of the supernatural in the midst of men, unless we are moved up into the realm of the divine, we shall soon find ourselves caught up in a counterfeit movement, but a movement that goes into the name of evangelism. There are ominous signs today that the devil is out to sidetrack us in the realm of evangelism and we are going to become satisfied with something less than heaven wills to give us.

Nothing but a Holy Ghost revival will meet the desperate need of the hour. The early church, the men of Pentecost, had suddenly beyond mere human influence and human ingenuity, but what do we mean by influence? The sum total of all the forces in our personality, mental, moral, academic, social, and religious. We can have all these, we can have them at their highest level and yet be destitute of power. Power, not influence, was the watchword of the early church.

Let me read this again, I think it's really important. The early church, the men of Pentecost, and the women of Pentecost, had suddenly beyond mere human influence and human ingenuity, but what do we mean by influence? The sum total of all the forces in our personality, mental, moral, academic, social, and religious.

Campbell says we can have all these, we can have them at their highest level and yet be destitute of power. Power, not influence, was the watchword of the early church. The influence came because of the power of the Spirit.

All of our human efforts were not advanced by the Holy God, and we must do it through the Spirit. This is Michael Ellison, founder of TriVita. I remember sitting there with my doctor years ago. My body was on fire with pain when he said, Mr. Ellison, you must change the way you think about health and life.

If you do not change, you will have no quality of life and you will die of premature death. I committed to go on my wellness journey and that journey of wellness led me to Mexico, to the Seri people and indigenous people of the Sonoran Desert. As we sat around a campfire one night, there was this moment when they shared the secrets of the ancient people. I felt as if God was there reminding me that he had created plants to heal and restore. It was from there we discovered the nopal cactus and its amazing anti-inflammatory benefits. A formula was perfected, now found in nopaleia. Two clinical studies have been conducted to validate its anti-inflammatory benefits. Now thousands of people have benefited from nopaleia to help fight and manage chronic inflammation. If you're living with pain, stiffness, lack of mobility, then you may be experiencing chronic inflammation and nopaleia may be your solution. I invite you to try nopaleia.

Nopaleia is supported by clinical studies for lowering inflammation and improving mobility, flexibility and improved quality of life. Order today and use promo code BROWN25 to receive 25% off your order. As a new customer, 100% of the proceeds from your first order will go to support the Line of Fire radio broadcasts.

So call now 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. This is how we rise up. It's the Line of Fire with your host Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks friends for joining us on the Line of Fire. I'm not going to give out the number. I'm not going to take any more calls today, but thank you for listening.

Thank you for tuning in. I am absolutely not calling for inaction, to stay home and pray all day and God will take care of everything. No, I'm calling for, urging us to consider if God is calling for greater action in prayer, greater seeking of his face, greater time being in his presence, greater time devouring his word, so that when we act it can have an impact and that God can act through us in a greater and greater way. And if we put first things first, politics is not first. Social action is not first.

Our best efforts are not first. First is being with him. First is seeking him. First is laying our lives before him and saying, God, there's junk in my life. God, I need to be cleansed.

I need to be washed. Self-righteousness is one of the ugliest sins in his sight. We humble ourselves before God, every one of us, every one of us. Cleanse us, wash us, clothe us with your holy righteousness, Lord. Help us to live lives that are honoring in your sight. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Lord, help me to walk in purity, having these promises, dearly beloved. Let us cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. I quote from Matthew 5, the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit. And from 2 Corinthians 7, 1, that last verse, by your grace, with your help, empowered by your spirit, Lord, help us to live different lives and then let us shine. This is what the world needs, friends. Let me say one more thing, and then just want to talk to you briefly about Israel Update.

I thank God for good platforms. We try to cultivate what we have. In other words, the voice that we have on radio, the voice that we have on social media, the voice we have in books, articles, internet, preaching, teaching, training.

We seem to be good stewards of those things, because it's an entrustment. Every one of you I'm speaking to now, you're important in God's sight, and he's entrusted me with a message to help you, equip you, so it's important that I'm faithful to that as a steward. But I fully understand God can save with many or with few. I fully understand that you may have a congregation of 30 people, that you may meet in two houses in your community, that you may not be on social media at all, that nobody may even know your name, and you may be doing more to change the world than all of us who have big platforms. God doesn't measure the way we measure.

We've been talking about that a lot lately. As one old man of God said that God counts people, not weighs, excuse me, he weighs people, not counts them. It's not how many numbers there are, but what's the quality of the life of the people that are his.

That's what matters. It's not about multiplying consumers. It's a matter of producing disciples. It's not about how many church doors we have or how many social media followers we have. It's about how many people we're helping become disciples.

That's the only thing that matters. That work can only be done in the power of the Spirit, friends. Again, one of my besetting sins is busyness, is running, running, running, running, running, and not waiting and stopping and being. I wish that was the only thing I've had to deal with, but you hear what I'm saying, that laziness is not one of my besetting sins.

It's busyness. It's running rather than being, running to do God's will without first being with God. That's why I had a job at the church. That's why I had to adjust my life to do monthly prayer retreats and cut back from travel and continue to adjust my life because I know as I get older, I want each year to count all the more and above all, I want my life to be a pleasing sacrifice in his sight.

I know I'm cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We're free from guilt and condemnation, but I want to bring him joy and honor. I want to live a life that pleases him. I want the days ahead to count, whether it's two years or 20 years or whatever.

I live to be 110 or live to be 70. My life is his. I want it to count and bring him glory, and that can only come by being with him.

Let me remind you again of the words of Jesus, words that I don't think we can ever hear too much, and if we're just familiar with them, then we need to step back and really drink them in. Jesus said, I am the vine. My father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so it would be even more fruitful.

You are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Remain in me as I also remain in you. Your branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I'm the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you'll bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Do we believe that?

Do I believe that? Apart from me, Jesus said, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers.

Just branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me, my words remain in you. Ask whatever you wish will be done for you. Well, because we're in harmony with him. This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

That's what he said to the 12. That's what he says to us in the same way. When I was in college, I heard a teacher on the radio saying, right now, I'm abiding. I'm abiding in Jesus. He said, I'm sitting in a chair. He said, I'm abiding in this chair. I'm abiding in Jesus. In other words, it takes no effort. On the one hand, it's true.

It's not like, oh, I'm going to try. We're here. That's not how we abide in him.

On the other hand, to use the chair analogy, the difference is that everything is trying to pull us out of that chair and everything within us wants to run out of that chair. So, to abide, we have to make sure to abide. We have to make a conscious decision to stay here. Whether it's something as simple as, before I check my email, before I check my text, before I get in line, before I do this, before I do this, I'm going to start the day with God. I'll change my schedule to do that, to start the day with God. Whatever it is, whatever it is that you make that conscious decision. And then, through the day that the Lord is before you.

Psalm 16, shiviti anonai, the negdita medev, set the Lord always before me. You say, that's easy for you to say, Mike Brown. You're a minister of the gospel. You're a radio show. You write books and preach. It's easy for you. You're not home changing diapers or out digging ditches or sitting in front of a computer screen programming for 20 hours. You're not doing that in the dog-eat-dog business world.

You got it easy. Oh, well, it's human nature. It's human nature for all of us to stray, for all of us to get out of that fellowship with God. But here's what I believe. No matter what is happening in our lives, no matter what's going on, that there can be that internal connection. Think of it like this.

I heard this taught decades ago. Did you have time to worry? I'm a busy man. Yeah, but you worry. We can worry all the time, can't we? And he said, worry the word. That was the statement.

In other words, have the word in your heart, in your mind. Have you ever been anxious about something? It's like, oh, oh. And you feel tense all day? Or maybe you've got a loved one in the hospital and you're in pain, or you think your family of one of the hostages is still held by Hamas in Israel. There's that ache.

Every day there's that ache. Well, in the same way, it's like when you fast and you're conscious, you're not eating. In the same way, we can have a God consciousness just through the day.

Oh, God. Whatever you're doing, you're doing with him. And you're just communing with him. I don't mean in a religious way. I said my prayers today three times. No, I mean just that heart, Lord, giving that sensitivity through the day that I'm never just out on my own. That communion, again, not in a religious way that you're, okay, three seconds went by and I didn't think of God.

I'm a sinner. Just, Lord, give me that sense of intimacy. Hey, you're in love and you're thinking about the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with. You're thinking about them all the time. You can do that no matter what you're doing. You can be playing sports. You can be working on a paper. You can be doing anything.

You can be closing a business deal and you've got, you're thinking about that. So, let it be the same with us in the Lord. Okay, please do keep praying. Please do keep praying for God's hand of protection on Israel and God's mercy on the surrounding nations. Right now, Israel said enough is enough with Hezbollah. They immediately joined in the attacks on Israel after October 7th. They've been positioned for decades in southern Lebanon, so right on the border to Israel.

It's brought great destruction and suffering on the people there. Israel's releasing videos to show, look, they store their munitions in people's homes. They're shooting their rocket launchers. These are terrorists that moved into areas and have brought great suffering on the people of Lebanon and tried to inflict whatever they can on the people of Israel and that's what they are doing. They're there to kill Israelis. It was one of their rockets that fell on a bunch of Druze kids playing soccer and, what, 10, 12 kids killed.

Horrific. That was the work of Hezbollah. So, Israel with the pager attack and the walkie talkie is doing its best to decimate Hezbollah right now. Hezbollah is launching in bombs on a regular basis. About 80,000 Israelis have had to flee their homes. They've been living for months now, hostages in their own country in a sense.

They can't go back to their own homes, captive in their own country in a certain sense. Israel said enough of this. So, Israel's now launching a lot of bombs and they are saying, look, to the civilians, we're going to be bombing your area. We're going to be bombing precisely. We know the sites. We know where the rocket launchers are.

You have several hours to get out. How many armies do that? They are doing their best. They're doing their best to minimize civilian casualties as they've done. But it's a very dire, difficult situation. Israel were learning this prayer. When I talked to my friends there, I said, yeah, we're here to catch flying overhead. This is every day. God have mercy on the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Intervene. God have mercy on Israel and the people of Israel.