We Need the Power of the Spirit

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. So, tell you what, let's not debate tongues, prophecy, things like that.

Let's not debate cessationist versus continuationist, anti-charismatic versus pro-charismatic. Let's just think about this topic biblically because I think it will really be important for you today. Hey friends, welcome to the broadcast.

This is Michael Brown, 86634. Before we dive into the subject as to why we need the power of the Spirit, then I'm going to be speaking to a guest about this at the bottom of the hour. I just want to stop again and say that as things unfold in Afghanistan, the horror of what happened, the degree to which we mismanage things in America, and yes, the buck stops with President Biden on this, the degree to which this is bringing international shame and humiliation, the degree to which this is opening up Afghanistan once again as a haven for terrorists, including the potential rise of Al-Qaeda, what that even means to Israel, which is a lot closer to Afghanistan than we are. We'll talk about that, God willing, tomorrow on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. The fact that it's closing in on the 20th anniversary of 9-11 is all the more tragic. So this is ever before us. I was just reading a post from Johnny Erikson Tada early about how rapidly the church in Afghanistan is growing, obviously all underground. But remember, we are very familiar now with the growth of the church in China and the multiplied tens of millions of Christians in China.

We are very familiar with that now, but that was a shock, that was a revelation. Because when China fell to Mount Sichung and to communism, and the bamboo curtain closed off China from the outside world, people had no idea what was happening to the Christians there, because there had been a strong Christian presence for centuries, and then rising especially with folks like Hudson Taylor and China Inland Mission and others, and the blood of martyrs being shed, and the church was growing, and now suddenly no contact, persecuted, imprisoned, killed underground. And when China opened up again, it was a shock to find out that there were tens of billions of believers. We'll be shocked to find out what's happening in North Korea, underground, behind the scenes, as the church of Jesus continues to grow. It's the same in Afghanistan, but it's a very dire and difficult time, that the Taliban are as ruthless Sharia radical Muslims as you'll find, and as draconian, as primitive, especially when it comes to women, and education, and training, and rights, and things like that. So, this is ever before us, we need to continue to pray, and pray somehow that God will redeem a very messy, ugly situation, but we're just not focusing on it again today.

If you missed my article yesterday, 10 Reflections on the Disaster in Afghanistan, and then we talked about it in the air yesterday, you can catch yesterday's broadcast, or read my article at AskDrBrown.org, or wherever you normally read my articles. Alright, let's go over to 1 Corinthians 2. I want to read the words of Paul there. He's already laid out in the first chapter how God works through the weak, and God works through the foolish of this world, and how the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who perish, but to those who are being saved, it's the power of God. Let's take a look, 1 Corinthians 2, and see what Paul says there. As he comes to Corinth, he says, Listen, I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom.

In fact, I'll start reading right from the beginning. In other words, I wasn't going to impress you with my rhetorical flourish. I wasn't going to impress you with, whoa, he's an amazing speaker, or what rhetoric, or what logic, or what philosophical depth.

No, I'm going to preach a simple message. Jesus the Messiah, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. Remember in Lystra, he's stolen basically to death. That's Acts chapter 14. Acts 16, he and Silas are terribly whipped, flogged in Philippi. Chapter 17, they're accused of trying to turn the world upside down.

There's a riot there. Now he comes to Corinth, and this is Acts 18. So Acts 14, 16, 17, now Acts 18. I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Okay, so here's my question for you. If Paul could not minister effectively outside of the power of the Spirit, what makes us think we can? Again, I'm not debating tongues, prophecy, healing, miracles today, although I'm convinced by Scripture they remain to this very day, and I'm an eyewitness to those gifts in operation.

And yes, that is an aspect of the power of the Spirit, but I'm speaking more broadly. Is the devil different today? Are the demonic strongholds different today? Is the power of sin different today? Is the power of the world different today?

Are human beings different today? If Paul ministered by the power of the Spirit, if the apostles were told by Jesus himself, after being with the master for three and a half years, being taught by him, being mentored by him, having their eyes and minds and understanding open to understand the Scriptures, after being sent out in practical ministry by him, what does he say in Luke 24, 49? Stay in the city of Jerusalem until you're endued with power from on high.

Don't leave until you have this. Why did they need the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work of the gospel, but we sometimes act as if we can just do it by our own power? The latest church growth strategy, the latest effective evangelism method, just working harder, trying harder. Why do we think that we don't need the same power that they ministered with? You say, we're not the apostles. I know we're not the apostles. We're not writing the Bible. We don't have the authority that the apostles had.

We understand that. We're not claiming to be apostles like they were, capital A apostles. So people have apostolic ministry today.

To me, that would be a Hudson Taylor that I just mentioned. That's modern day apostolic ministry. Or my friend Yesupanam in India planted seven, eight thousand churches in tribal regions and goes into places where the gospel is not gone and builds up whole works there and changes the society around them through the gospel. That's apostolic.

But no, we don't have apostles like the twelve apostles. Remember, this power was not just for them. This power was for everyone. The Holy Spirit poured out on all flesh, Acts the second chapter. From when on? In these last days. Yeah, from now, from then until Jesus returns. Or, for example, in Acts the sixth chapter, Stephen, he's going to wait on tables.

Philip, he's going to wait on tables. But they were men full of the Spirit. They could not even do that unless they were full of the Spirit. And when Stephen ministered, God's grace and power was upon grace, meaning enduement there. And then Philip, in Acts the eighth chapter, he ministers in the power of the Spirit and the Samaritans are saved and delivered from demons and healed from sicknesses. So, why do we think that we can do the work without being as dependent on the Holy Spirit?

You know, A.W. Tozer said this well over 50 years ago. He said in the early church, if the Holy Spirit had left the earth, that 95% of the work would stop and everyone would see the difference. In the contemporary church, and again he said this over 50 years ago, if the Holy Spirit left the earth, 95% of the work would continue unaffected and nobody would notice the difference.

Here, for example, I could get on the radio and just do a good show, good in terms of human evaluation, without the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm talking to you. I'm a talker. You call in. We talk back and forth.

I play news clips. We have special guests. I could do all that without the anointing, without the grace and power of God, and it would be interesting and informative, but it wouldn't eternally change people's lives. So, you don't have to be jumping, shouting. You don't have to be prophesying. You don't have to be going through all kinds of gestures to operate in the power of the Spirit. And by the way, I'm not saying, do you feel it right? Can you feel the power of the Spirit?

No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that a lot of what we do, we can do without the Spirit's help. And in fact, before I went on radio 13 years ago, Nancy said to me, you've got to be really careful because there's a real danger here. You could do good radio without God.

Right? There are plenty of good radio hosts that aren't even believers, but they do a great job, and they're entertaining, and they're fascinating, and they've got listenerships massively bigger than mine. So, even just getting on the radio to talk, I want to pray, God, may the words be effective. May the words be backed with your Spirit. May we speak truth that will change people's lives. So, in the same way, we know how to do church today. You can have a good service.

You've got good music, well organized, good children's programs, very creative, pastor, great communicator. You can have good services and churches that outwardly seem healthy, but if the presence and power of God are not there, lives will not be radically changed in lasting ways. People will not be genuinely set free and transformed. And ultimately, when shaking comes, many of the people, if not most, won't make it.

So, simple question. Why is it that the early church was so deeply dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit and sought God earnestly in prayer for God's intervention in God's hand? And yet today, so many of us seem more interested in programs than the power of the Spirit. What did they know that we're missing? We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us, friends. 866-34-TRUTH. Do you get my emails? If you're not sure, you probably don't. So, let me encourage you to go to my website, AskDrBrown.org. Hey, it's your website.

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AskDr.Brown.org. I'm going to go to the phones in a moment. 866-34-TRUTH. But please, please hear me. I'm 100% sure, in terms of my own heart, confidence, that I could debate anyone, any qualified theologian, Bible teacher, academic professor, pastor, on whether the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit continue until this day. I have no question whatsoever that I'm on the side of truth. Now, you may differ with me. You may differ just as strongly.

That's fine. I'm saying to me, that's non-negotiable. That's as sure to me as the nose on my face.

And yeah, it's a pretty big nose, so pretty non-negotiable nose there. But I don't want to debate that with you. I don't want to go there now. I want to talk about mindset. I want to talk about attitude.

I know when I'm asked to go into a church and they say, hey, Dr. Brown, we're really struggling with questions about gay activism and some kids in the church think they're transgender and how do we deal with this? And could you do a teaching on it and then do a Q&A? You bet. So I take that seriously, right? I pray for God's wisdom in the message, for sensitivity, for God to bring the right people out. I pray for the Lord to work. But I'm doing a teaching there, right? If I'm about to debate a rabbi, a messianic prophecy, of course we pray for the Lord to speak and work through it.

But I'm really preparing my notes and thinking through where things could go in the debate, etc. If someone says, Dr. Brown, our church is hungering and thirsting for a fresh encounter with God, we are longing for revival fire to fall in our midst, could you come and preach on revival and maybe minister to us, you know, open the altars for prayer? And I go into that in a very different way because there is something that people are expecting me to bring that in myself I can't bring. In other words, I can debate a rabbi based on the knowledge and information that's in me.

Maybe you're a gifted marital counselor and just by the wisdom you have from decades of marital counseling, you can do a good job in counseling a couple. It's another thing when you're faced with impossible situations or let's say that that you were known for praying for the sick and you get a call from a friend said, hey, just want to prepare you that there are there are five people that in the last six months have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses. They're all supposed to be dead within three months.

They're all going to be there. The families are praying for a miracle. Well, you don't just kind of stroll in there and think, oh, I've got the wisdom. No, no, you say, oh, God, oh, God, if you don't touch, if you don't move, if you don't act, these people are going to die. So there's this greater sense of dependence on the Lord. Do you, do we have that sense of dependence on the Spirit? God, you have to move. God, our work in itself is not getting the job done.

There must be more. Think of this vast young generation, millions and millions of people, the millennials, the generation Zs and then even younger. So many have never had an encounter with God. So many have heard about the message but never encountered God. It says at the end of Joshua 24 that the children of Israel served the Lord during the days of Joshua, during the days of the elders who had experienced the Lord. And then after that, when they all died, Israel fell away because no one was alive carrying that testimony of firsthand encounter on that national level. Every generation must encounter God for itself, otherwise they'll fall away.

Grandpa's stories, mom's stories will not save Junior unless Junior encounters the God of mom and the God of grandpa. Are we relying on the power of the Holy Spirit? You say, Mike, I don't believe in tongues for today. I don't believe that we pray for miracles of healing.

Okay, fine. Are you deeply dependent on the Lord in your preaching and teaching? Are you deeply dependent on the power of the Spirit when you go out and evangelize?

Even putting those other things aside, I'm talking about a mindset. What I can tell you is around the world for many decades now, where the gospel is spreading most powerfully, it's with signs of a miracle. So it was just as God did it in the book of Acts, same God, same principles, same power. Where is the evidence, the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, in my life, in your ministry, in my ministry? That's what I'd ask you to think about. And trust me, it's something I often think about in my own life. All right, let's go to the phones.

Mark in Salt Lake City, Utah. Welcome to the line of fire. Well, thanks for taking my call. You were obviously talking about the current approach and attitude as it pertains to God, and I completely agree. But I wanted to ask you, how do we confront different attitudes? Can I ask you a question? Mark, can I ask you a question? Do you feel that it's a good thing to call a Christian radio broadcast under completely false pretenses, to give false information to our call screener, than to start something off only to say something profane, ugly, and actually kind of sick?

Do you think that's a good civil thing to do? No, I don't. Well, then why did you do it? Because it's enjoyable. Yeah, so Mark, rather than cut you off here, how can I help you get your own life right? Because you're obviously messed up. If you find it enjoyable to do something that perverse and to do it in a public way, you obviously have some real needs in your life. How can I help you? I'm not as messed up as I must actually be. Yeah, so Mark, tell you what, I would help if you let me. So, just an example of why people really need Jesus. So here someone calls in, and for whatever reason, once I started exposing sexual perversion in society, the people that enjoy that perversion and celebrate it, attack my mustache. Figure that one out.

Yeah, trust me, when I say we get hit from all sides, we do. But it makes me feel bad that this is someone actually took the time to call, lied to our call screener, started talking to me about complete lies. In other words, nothing to do with what he wants to. To then make some ridiculous statement, but it shows you how lost people are without the Lord. So Mark, what you didn't intend is now you get a bunch of people praying for you. That suddenly you get people praying for you that didn't even know your name, and whether this is your name or not, God knows who you are. So, it's an interesting thing, I was sharing my testimony earlier today on a podcast, and explaining how when I was shooting heroin and speed and using LSD and living it up and playing drums in a rock band and thinking I was super cool and all of this. People in this little church, older people, traditional people with jackets and ties, they began praying for me. And the Holy Spirit brought me under conviction. Now, you may have been resisting the Gospel for 20 years, you may have hardened your heart a long time ago, it doesn't mean God can't break through. But let's pray for this fellow, if Mark's actual name or not, God knows.

Let's pray for him. That God will bring him under conviction, will show him the depth of his sinfulness, which is the depth of all human sinfulness outside of God's grace, will bring him to a place of conviction and transformation and salvation. And I'll tell you what, that'll be a sweet call when we get a call, if it happens, we shall see. Oh, a few months or a few years from now saying, hey, I was the guy that called, I was that jerk, and Jesus really changed me and had mercy on me, so may that be so.

And for those that want to call in and be gross, just tell the call screener, I'm going to call in and be gross, or I think this brown guy is a jerk and an idiot and I want to insult him publicly. Hey, I'll put you on, no reason to lie about it, just don't use profanity, and if you can try to avoid perverse statements, that's wonderful. May the Lord have mercy on you, bring you to repentance, Mark, and others that are listening and watching that your life's not right, and you kind of wonder what's going on, hey, you're listening, you're watching for a reason. May the Lord work in your life.

And by the way, I've got no problem with my mustache, I'm quite at home with it, it's been a fixture here for a long time. Okay, we come back on the other side of the break, we are going to talk with David Edwards, he's a graduate from our ministry school, he's got the heart of a revivalist, and he's written a fascinating book called Mystify. It's going to tie in directly with what we're talking about as far as the power of the Spirit.

We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire 866-34-TRUTH is the number to call, but right now I want to focus on a special guest.

I've been asking the question if Paul, Peter, Philip, Stephen, early church leaders, early church servants needed the power of the Holy Spirit to minister, to advance the Gospel and the Kingdom of God, why don't we need that same power of the Spirit today? And my guest, David Edwards, has a book called Mystify. We're going to open up the contents of that book in a moment, but we get stacks of books sent to us constantly from different publishers and media agents asking if we'd have guests on the air. And we don't do a lot of interviews. In fact, it's rare that we do a couple in a week.

We did one yesterday, another today. And got a list of new books that have come out from one of the publishers that we work with. And I was looking at some of the names, I said, wait, David Edwards, he's a grad. And this guy's burning with Revival Fire.

If he's got a book, I want him on the air with us. So that's why we're talking about this. And in fact, my subject matter from the first half of the broadcast before some of you have just tuned in, my subject matter tied in with this very content for this reason. So David, great to have you on the line of fire. Thanks for joining us. Dr. Brown, it's an honor. I'm really excited to come on today.

It's a high privilege. Well, great. So tell me about what Revival means to you and the impact it's had in your own life. Well, Revival for me definitely goes back to our roots at Brownsville. You know, I remember being a student and I would wake up in the morning and it wasn't like, oh, I'm bombed.

I have to go to school today. It was like, oh my gosh, what is God going to do? We lived right next door to the BRSN campus and we walked through the woods, almost running, eager to get into the presence of the Lord. And you know at Brownsville, we saw this, for me, I characterize it as the amazing level of presence and the amazing level of repentance. Because every night, you know, hundreds of people were coming to know Jesus and to give their lives to the Lord.

But then they would experience in prayer time, immediately after that, the power of the Holy Spirit. And how was your own life impacted in a lasting way? How has it impacted who you are and what do you do today?

Absolutely. So I take everything from that experience at Brownsville and it drives me every day. It was fuel for the fire. You know, I remember sitting in your Giants of the Faith class and I began to hear about these amazing men, women of God, who experienced God in amazing supernatural ways.

And I thought, wow, I didn't know that was available. I remember the story of Smith Wigglesworth praying and the light got so bright and the heat got so intense that people actually had to leave the room. And I thought, Jesus, I want to know you in the way that Dr. Brown's teaching me. I want to know you, Lord, in the way that I'm hearing about these revivals of the past. And you know, fire burns brighter.

I haven't cooled off. It's been a trial to stay focused on Jesus in our day and age. But I've walked through it and I've kept that fire burning. I've kept my lamp lit.

And yeah, just going for it. Incredible. I'm smiling as you're speaking because it's so wonderful to hear. Obviously, I can feel it in your voice. You actually have a school where you're teaching and training the next generation, right? We are. We are.

You know, a lot of it is based on my experience from Brownsville and from fire. But we're down here in Destin and we've launched a school called School of Revivalists. And we're just wanting to see the Kingdom of Heaven come and transform our city and transform our nation. I'm believing for, you know, the audacity that God can actually, even in the state that the world's in, the power of His Spirit can touch and it can transform this planet. You know, one of our main messages is Kingdom family. And you have Father loving Son, Son loving Spirit, Spirit loving Father. And Jesus made a way for us to be adopted into this amazing family. So our heart cry is to raise up a generation of believers who can demonstrate the power, the love and the wisdom of the gospel in any sphere of society, whether they're ministry, whether it's their business or anything they're called to do. So our heart down here is just to do that, to take kind of the baton of what we learned at Brownsville and fire and hopefully to be a conduit to pass it on to the next generation.

Yeah. And David, this is the hour for it. You know, as America is being shaken, as people are in so much pain and uncertainty, as things are just not the way they normally are, it's a difficult time, but it's the best time for the gospel to advance. And around the country, I'm getting reports of God really moving, of people having extended meanings, of many lost people being converted and transformed.

So the fact you're training people, sending them out is so wonderful. So out of the overflow of your burden, your vision of the fire of revival and touching this lost and dying world with the power and truth of the gospel, you wrote of a called mystify, and you're challenging us to prepare to be mystified. So what's the mystery?

What are we being mystified by and about? I think, you know, there's a word in 1 Corinthians 4-1 that says we're stewards of the mystery of God. Now that comes on the heels of 1 Corinthians 2 where Paul says, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, but among the mature the Holy Spirit searches the deep things, even the depths of God. So I think there's this thing, this pattern in Scripture where men and women have gone beyond the natural into the supernatural to discover everything that God has for us.

The mystify really came out of the season. We began to work with someone named Lace Hetland, and he sent us out about five years ago to go do some ministry in the southeast region. It was kind of the first time we were really sent out by someone who really carried that apostolic mantle. And as we began to go out, some of the experiences we had when nobody was looking, it was just us and Jesus, began to happen around us. And we noticed the pattern that even God was moving through the elements of creation.

We experienced visible lightning and fire at a couple of different occasions. One time I was praying, and I was doing my due diligence just to seek the Lord, and then suddenly my whole house began to shake. And I thought, wait a minute, I've read about this in the book of Acts. Oh, wait a minute, I've read about this in even one of the South African revivals, Andrew Murray and some of their prayer meetings.

They would hear like a wind coming way off in the distance, and it would come hit their church, just like it did on the day of Pentecost. So, yeah, and I think of the Hebrides revival, where people thought there was an earthquake as they were praying one night, and Duncan Campbell realized Acts 4 31, when they prayed, the house was shaking. So, are you saying that God will do certain things at certain times, you know, Whitefield preaching one of his famous sermons, and talking about the judgment of God, and suddenly the thunder comes, and then he's talking about the mercy of God, the light and the rainbow come, and the local newspapers ask if they can print his sermon, and he said, oh, if you can print the thunder and the rainbow, whatever, you know, some comment like that. So, is it just the glory of God being manifest through nature and creation, or is it something more specific? You know, Romans 8 19, it's one of my favorite verses, it says, All creation groans for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed. And I think, again, if you hearken back to the pattern in Genesis, that creation itself is groaning for the sons and daughters of God to arise and to reveal his glory. And I think if you look at the Bible, you know, Elijah was on the mountain, the wind blew, the rocks began to shake, and all of that experience on that mountain led him to something new, that God was speaking to his generation. So, when I talk about God moving through the elements, I know that Jesus is speaking something new.

He's calling his family together, he's calling his family to arise. Yes, it is wonderful that the glory does touch creation, but I think it reveals what Jesus is doing in our hour and our generation. And how is it that after being in the Lord now for several decades and being in the midst of a bona fide revival outpouring and school and now years of ministry and married, family, all of that, how is it that there's still that element of mystery and awe in your own relationship with God? And even more importantly, David, aside from folks reading your book, Mystify, what would you tell someone who just feels dull, stale, there's no mystery, there's no wonder, there's no awe in their own relationship with God?

You know, the Bible says that we have all of Christ and that we shouldn't speak after him. Well, when I eat a really good meal, it makes me hungry to come back to that restaurant and eat again. I don't eat once, and I'm like, oh, that was it, the rest of my life, there's no going back, that one experience. You know, the Lord showed me one time, it was kind of like a cave. If I own a cave, say I inherit a cave, and oh, someone says there's riches and jewels hidden in that cave. Well, if that cave's 10 miles deep and 15 miles wide, it could take me the rest of my life to discover and to explore all of the mysteries contained within the cave, even though I already own it all and I already have access to it all. So the very fact that we have all of Jesus, he's limitless.

I mean, he created the whole universe, right? And so even in my natural experience, combined with the supernatural presence of the Holy Spirit, if I experience him one day, that whets my appetite for even more of God. You know, he's limitless, he's everlasting, he's eternal, his love outshines the stars and it outburns the sun. And so if you're not feeling that fire, one of the things you can do is try to remember in the past where you had a good meal, remember how God touched you in the past and go back and revisit that memory. I often, I can't escape what God did at the Brownsville Revival. I'll be sitting, we live down here at the beach, and it's only about an hour from Pensacola, and I'll begin to remember everything that God did there, and I'll say, God, please.

I know that wasn't the end of what you were doing on our coast. God, come and move again, not only in the way that you did then, God, but move more powerfully, God, if you touch the city, then touch all the cities in Florida, let the fire spread throughout the nation. You know, I believe there are seeds that Jesus has planted, even in the midst of the world today, it's easy to look at what God is doing, but if we look at what God is doing, I believe there's seeds of a grassroots revival that are coming, I believe that the good sower Jesus himself has been sowing seeds, and that we're going to see a generation begin to emerge, where those seeds will almost be like Jack and the Beanstalk, where heaven will touch earth, and we'll see greater glory than we've seen in Hebrides, that's one of my favorite revivals, than we've seen in Wales, you know?

Even then we've seen in Acts, because Acts was a foundation, and we're 2,000 years later, you know? So, I love what you're doing, and the fact that we can just come on air and talk about revival. Hey David, thanks for joining us, and I'm sitting here, I'm just smiling on the inside and the outside, because the hunger, the passion, the fire is contagious.

Friends, you'll find that on the pages of the book Mystify by David Edwards. Check it out, and re-listen to what he said, because friends, Jesus will refresh us and renew us forever. Hey David, thanks for joining us, you blessed me for sure, and you blessed our listeners, really appreciate it. Amen, Dr. Brown, thank you so much, I'll talk to you soon. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks friends for joining us on The Line of Fire, Michael Brown, delighted to be with you. And again, I'm still smiling on the inside after talking to David Edwards, so here it is. You say, well what happens during revival, or meetings, it's a lot of emotionalism. Friends, emotionalism does not burn for 20 plus years. Emotionalism does not bring you to tears 20 years after the fact when you think back to the goodness of God in the past and his present goodness. Emotionalism is terribly destructive.

Why? Because it gives you the feeling of something happening, and it really psyches you up into an outward frenzy. So for example, if you are listening to this broadcast, let's say for example you're morbidly obese, and you're desperate to make a change, and you've kind of lost hope.

And I'm talking about the other dangers of obesity, and here are some programs that kind of help, and so on. You're just listening, it's like, you know, whatever. You're not getting your hope up, you're not, you're not thinking this is going to change, you're finally going to get on a good diet. No, you're just like, yeah, I heard all that. But if I get you psyched up with emotionalism, oh I'm telling you, this new pill, this new, it's going to do it, oh if you just get, oh come on, you get your hopes up, it's like wow. But I'm just talking about if it's in the flesh, if it's just empty words for me, okay?

I get you all psyched up, and like okay, and you tell your family, I'm going to make the changes, I'm going to be healthy, I'm going to overcome this, and then a few days later, or maybe a few hours later, you come crashing down. Now you're worse than when you started. Now you're more hopeless. Now you're more discouraged. And in fact, you're questioning me for good reason.

But if, if, let's just say, I'm just giving an example, I'm not trying to create anything, I'm just giving an example. Let's just say the Holy Spirit moved on me, right? And I said, hey, I don't know who you are, but I just see you.

So I'm just making this up, I'm not claiming this is a word of knowledge, okay? I see you sitting there, your name is Alan, you're 53 years old, I see you sitting there on your couch, it's too hard for you to get up and even walk to the kitchen, because you're so heavy. And the doctors tell you, you're killing yourself, and you've just been praying, God, is there any hope, is there any hope, is there any help, is there anything? And God told me to tell you that he's going to come through, and if you just take these steps today and take them the next day, the next day, the next day, your life's going to change. And it's really the Lord. Boom!

You take hold of it. It's like, yes, yes, Lord, that was me, I'm that man, that was me. And then I meet you three years later, you say, Dr. Brown, I'm that man, I was 470 pounds, I'm 160 pounds now, I'm off all meds, I jog regularly, I just did a 5K. My family's got a new husband and a new dad, and I'm a new man, and, well, that's the Lord, right? That's lasting, because it's God. Emotionalism, so you go to a church service, and look, people that minister professionally, worship teams, preachers, a lot of them know how to push the right buttons, and they don't even do it consciously. Look, I was listening to a guy preaching the other day, and he was railing. I mean, it was bad stuff.

It wasn't gospel, it was political, it was bad, it was nasty. But he gets a certain tone and starts yelling a certain way, and the people, amen, brother, amen! You just push buttons and get certain results. Play a certain kind of music, get the whole place jumping and hopping, your other music just, oh, kind of crying.

Tell stories, oh, and it touches, and it's just emotion. It goes nowhere. It doesn't last. It does no good. And, in fact, it's destructive, because now, you're high up for a little while, and all of a sudden, I'm going to live for your life, I'm going to turn away from porn, I'm going to be whole, and then just come crashing down.

Crashing down. And now, because that was a religious experience, now you question the whole thing. You question the church or the preacher or, worse still, God and the Bible. So, emotionalism is not just unproductive.

It's downright dangerous. Then, people have an encounter with God. And I'll tell you about my own encounter that transformed me going on 50 years ago now. But, around the world, I know people that encountered God in dramatic ways and have never been the same. It's now 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, longer than that, and they've never gone back.

They're changed. And I am an eyewitness to God knows how many hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, who have been dramatically touched in meetings. And now you hear from them, I've heard from many of these that I was an eyewitness to them being touched, and hear from them years later, that's the night that changed my life. That's the message that changed my life. That God met me. So, this is some of the lasting fruit. Someone now carrying this message to another generation.

So, the book by David Edwards, Mystify. Check it out. All right, friends, in a little over 20 minutes, so 4.15 Eastern Time, 4.15 Eastern Time, I'm going to be right back on YouTube.

You say, what do you mean right back? Many of you are listening by podcast, listening on radio, listening through other means. You don't know that we do a live video feed every day, so I'm waving at the cameras right now. And we do a live feed on our Facebook page, Ask Dr. Brown, and a live feed on our YouTube channel, also Ask Dr. Brown, A-S-K-D-R Brown. By the way, if you're watching on Facebook and have never liked that page, please like the Ask Dr. Brown page.

It helps us reach more people, and you become part of that reach. On YouTube, make sure you subscribe. Click to subscribe, and then click on the bell that will notify you when we come on, because we made you a special interview, or we have special videos that we put out, so you'll be notified immediately. But we'll be on YouTube in a little over 20 minutes, and it is our weekly exclusive YouTube chat Q&A, where I just get through as many questions as you can post. We get through a whole lot in the course of 45 minutes or an hour.

So we will be doing that next on YouTube, and then check out the resources that are there. So last night, I had answered a bunch of emails, and then I had been working on my Isaiah commentary, and done some other work, and just gotten off a phone call. And it was 1145. I was sitting at my computer, and I prayed, Lord, is there anything you want me to write? I write articles most days, but not every day. And then I'm always working on books, so we've got several books coming out.

I'm working on the books that are not finished yet, and then long-term academic projects like Isaiah commentary, etc. And some days, there's some burning in my heart. I've got to write on this, got to deal with this. If someone sends me a link, it's like, oh, my, I've got to address this.

But it was 1145. I'm a late-night person. I go to sleep around 3 in the morning, so there's plenty of time ahead. And I said, Lord, is there anything you want me to write? And instantly, the words jumped in my head, no time for passivity. And took me about a half hour to pour my heart out, write an article, and the words just came pouring out of me. So perhaps when you read it, you'll be stirred the same way I was. Perhaps you'll find it relevant and helpful as well. You can find that article over at AskDrBrown.org or wherever you read my article, stream.org, Christian Post, other places.

The article should be up now or up later today. No time for passivity. And as I was writing the article, I was reminded of the example of John and Betty Stamm and the words of John Stamm when he preached to Moody Bible Institute as the graduating class speaker in 1932 and said, well, shall we be at a retreat when things get hard or difficult?

Isn't this rather what we were promised, trials, tribulations, tests, but with it, victory? And he got to China. He had been in school with Betty Stamm. She was here ahead. She went over to China as a missionary. I believe her parents had been there before.

He gets to China. They meet up again. They get married.

1933 had their first child, little girl Priscilla, and they are martyred in 1934. It's quite a stirring story. And they're martyred and produced a wave of missionaries saying, hey, we want to we want to follow.

We want to take your place. We want to we want to get on the mission field. And they knew they were going into dangerous areas. Their testimony remains. Their blood still speaks to this day. So check out the article. No time for passivity. The articles are there for you.

We produce these things for for your benefit and your edification. And then, ah, yeah, just want to go back to a call I got the first half of the broadcast. It was a mocker and called in under false pretenses and then proceeded to just say some ridiculous things on the air. And to me, but I feel bad for him. And I said, hey, let's let's pray for him.

I tried to talk to him a bit more, but he had no intention of being serious, even even in the least. But the fact he called now makes him a prayer target in a good sense. There was people praying.

So my team shot me a note. And this was so nice to hear to all of you watching on YouTube. So I know listening on podcast, you're praying this on the radio, various means that you're taking the broadcast.

But we're monitoring chats and comments on Facebook and YouTube. And immediately before I even call for prayer, people begin to pray for him, say, hey, we're praying for him in our chat so that you are a great, great team. Yeah, I know you're listening and viewing audience, but you're a team.

We're in this together. And as you pray, you pray for me. It makes a difference. You pray for others. It makes a difference. You pray for the city in which you live, the country in which you live. It makes a difference. So let us continue to cry out and believe God for the greatest outpouring, the greatest awakening our nation in this world has ever seen for the glory of Jesus name. All right. A little over 15 minutes. We'll be right back with you on YouTube. Another program powered by the Truth Network.