Well let's see if this one makes it to T V. Um I'm going to give you ladies a kind of a modified peek into something I shared with the men at our men's conference last year. I was going to go different directions for Father's Day. Spirit of God kept bringing me back to this. Would you listen to me?
Can we finally admit There's What is going on in our culture? With a breakdown of marriages, family, gender confusion, transgenderism. deviant sexuality, can we all finally admit It is demonic in nature. This is not natural what we're dealing with. It's very interesting.
Help. Um even skeptics, people who do not come from Christian backgrounds. People like Dr. Richard Gallagher, Ph.D. He's a psychiatrist from Yale University.
He's on the faculty at Columbia University. He says, What I'm now experiencing in my psychiatric practices, the manifestations I'm seeing, he said, it's not normal, it's supernatural. It is demonic.
Well, this Columbia professor is now saying. Even cultural commentators who don't come from a Christian or conservative Christian background, cultural figures like Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Jordan Peterson, are now very open to the reality of the demonic. And the supernatural. The paranormal. Isn't it interesting when you have non-Pentecostals more open to the reality of demons than Pentecostals?
That's kind of sad, isn't it? They're all saying the same thing. There's something demonic going on in our culture. Last year It was very popular. It was very trendy for preachers to preach about this concept of a.
Have you heard of this before? A Jezebel spirit. Have you heard of that? Every time I looked at last year, it was like Jezebel Spirit. Jezebel Spirit was very popular.
Now, those of you who don't know Jezebel, she lived about a thousand years before the time of Jesus Christ. She was a wicked, demon-possessed queen. And it's interesting. A thousand years later, in Revelation 2:20, Jesus is fussing at the church at Thyatira. And here's what he says: He says something very interesting.
In essence, there is a woman in your church. Who has the same Demonic Jezebel spirit. that was on that queen a thousand years ago. In other words, that wasn't just an isolated thing. There is a demonic.
Entity called the Jezebel spirit.
So that was. Real popular and real trendy.
Now, here's my problem.
Something you need to know about me. If it's popular or if it's trendy, I do the opposite, okay? I'm just not into trends, but it be fashion, style. My wife, a little while back, she wanted to buy me. I don't know what it was, boots for Father's Day or something.
So she went to REI and we're there. And the salesperson at REI said, you need to buy these boots. Here's what it is: all the people in Hollywood are wearing these boots. And my wife said, You just lost a customer. You tell my husband that he ain't gonna buy those things.
I'm not into trends. And so when everybody's talking about the Jezebel spirit, I didn't pay any attention to it. Cause it's trendy. And then last year I was fishing. with a buddy of mine who pastors down east.
And we're out on this boat in the sound down east. And we haven't been talking about church. We haven't been talking about demons. We haven't been talking to any of that stuff. And we're on that ship just having a good time fishing.
And the captain of the boat, out of the blue, turns and looks at me. Here's what he says: He's the captain of the boat, he's also a shipbuilder. He just says, Chad, you do know that Jezebel's spirit is real, don't you? And it was almost like the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me. No, no, Chad, you need to look into this.
Now I could do an entire series. Actually... We could talk for several weeks about this idea, the concept of a demonic Jezebel spirit. We don't have time, obviously. But let me give you some manifestations of a Jezebel spirit.
I could give you 30, I'm giving you six right here. Number one: conflict. Jezebel of the Old Testament, she's always. Fighting men. She's always fighting God's divine order.
Genesis 3 says, men are supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the family. It's repeated in the book of Ephesians. The Bible makes that very clear, but the Jezebel spirit fights that. No, no, we're we're equal. Which means I want to lead the family, not you.
That Jezebel spirit always has conflict against God's divine order. We believe men and women are equal in nature, but in function they have different roles. The Jezebel spirit cannot tolerate that. Secondly. The Jezebel spirit hates men.
particularly strong men. If you look at the story of Jezebel, she hated strong men like Elijah. She hated Bible preachers.
So, what does she do? She has them all killed. That's what she does. Because the Jezebel spirit hates men, and to justify their war on men, they will put it in terms of we're fighting toxic masculinity. The Jezebel spirit hates men.
Number three. The Jezebel spirit deals with castration. Jezebel surrounded herself with weak, castrated men. Her husband was a weak man. And that castrated Jezebel spirit is manifested literally today in the transgender movement, where we are castrating our little boys.
We are castrating them in the name of gender affirming care. That's the Jezebel spirit. And to the transgender community, let me say this: don't tell me I have to accept you for who you are when you could not accept yourself for who you were. And I do believe this. I believe we conservatives are actually more compassionate than the left when it comes to transgenderism.
Because what we say to them is: This: No, there's nothing wrong with you. God created you. You are special, created in the image of God. You may be confused, and we'll walk you through that confusion, but there's nothing wrong with you. The left is the mean ones.
They're the ones that say, No, there is something wrong with you. You are messed up.
So let's cut and glue because you're messed up. That's not biblical. That's the Jezebel spirit. Number four. The Jezebel spirit advocated child sacrifice.
The religious movements that Jezebel was associated with sacrificed their children. We're seeing that Jezebel spirit in our country today. I get it. Roe v. Wade was overturned.
The Jezebel spirit is still here. At one time, abortion was supposed to be, quote, safe, legal, and rare.
Now, abortion is a sacrament to the left. They are proud of their abortions. They'll brag about how many abortions they have had. That's the Jezebel spirit. Number five, the Jezebel spirit is sex saturated.
Jezebel was connected to the Baal and Asherah religions, which is big into sensuality and sexuality. And in fact, Jesus himself points that out in Revelation 2 when he says to the church at Thyatira, You got a lady in your church, she's sensuous, she's sexual, she's getting all the guys riled up. That's the Jezebel spirit. And I could go on and on. Let me give you one more.
The Jezebel spirit is connected to cutting, to self-mutilation. The prophets associated with Jezebel, the wicked prophets in the Old Testament, they cut themselves. Jesus Christ cast a demon out of a man, and the Bible described this man like this: He would go into the tombs and cut himself with rocks. Self-mutilation. If you read the stats.
Self-mutilation is on the rise in America. It's going exponentially. And the group that it's affecting the most are young teenage girls who are engaging in self-mutilation. That is that demonic Jezebel spirit. And beloved, that spirit is at work in every institution in America.
It's at work in our churches. A few years ago at Duke University. Second year master divinity student started her prayer at a worship service at Goodson Chapel at Duke Divinity School by addressing God as, quote, the great queer one. I I get periodically invited to interfaith gatherings because you're clergy, Chad. I got one one time.
So we're having a clergy interfaith gathering. Come downtown and let's pray and show support for the LGBTQ community. I said, if I wanted to show support for the LGBTQ community, I'd go shopping at Ulta or HM. I mean, that's, but whenever. But that's the Jezebel spirit.
It's affecting our churches. It's impacting our city. It's the month of June. Walk downtown Raleigh, you'll see the banner of Jezebel everywhere. And the Jezebel spirit is destroying our families.
According to a Pew study, for the first time in our history, listen to this: young men are more interested in settling down, having children, having a family than women are. We've never seen anything like that before. Historically, traditionally, it's the women who ultimately would like to settle down, have a family, have kids. For the first time, we actually see not women who want to do this, young men. That's unsustainable.
That can't last. There's a religious revival going on in America.
Somebody asked me about this between services. Did you know that young men are coming back to traditional churches? They are flooding traditional churches. Young women are not interested in that. There's something demonic going on in our culture.
And that Jezebel spirit, it's not a new thing. I am convinced that same spirit manifests itself throughout cultures, throughout history. In our culture, What are the manifestations of the Jezebel spirit? It's radical feminism. That is the manifestation in our culture.
In ancient Babylon, same demon, different name, the Jezebel spirit, manifested as the goddess Ishtar. She was a wicked, demonic, sensuous goddess, demon god over Babylon. She celebrated sexual perversion. And do you know what sacred month, the month celebrated her and her demon lover, Tammuz? Do you know what the high month was?
June. Do you know what her banner was? The rainbow. That's ancient Babylon. In Roman times, the Jezebel spirit manifested in the form of the goddess Sybil.
Sybil celebrated gender confusion. Sybil's priests were called Galli, G-A-L-L-I. They dressed like women, they castrated themselves, and they would stay castrated women for the rest of their lives, these men would. Also, in Paul's time, the Jezebel spirit manifested as this demon goddess named Diana. The cult of Diana or the cult of Artemis.
was a highly sexualized religion. She dressed like a hunter, kind of a butchy type goddess. And she was a very strong god. She was probably the most popular god of the ancient world. And in Acts chapter 19, here's what Paul does.
Paul goes. to the very capital city Of this demon goddess Diana, the demon manifestation of Jezebel. The city is called Ephesus. It's the third or fourth largest city in the Roman Empire, 250,000 people. That is the headquarters of Diana.
And the Apostle Paul goes to the very den of Diana and he brings down that demonic spirit. It's a fascinating look there in Acts chapter 19. I was there just a few weeks ago. And took a, here's a picture of ancient Ephesus. And call me crazy.
It's a beautiful place. But as I walked through that place, maybe it's just because I knew the story, there was still this unsettled feeling. There. Acts chapter 19. How does the Apostle Paul bring down the spirit of Jezebel?
Because I think it might be a good pattern, a good paradigm as to how we are to confront the Jezebel spirit in our culture.
Now, I'm talking to men. 'Cause today's Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, Philip. It's Father's Day. But much of what I'm sharing goes for for you women as well.
So, how does Paul bring down the Jezebel spirit in the form of Diana in Acts chapter 19? Turn there, if you would. Acts 19:1.
Now, it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper regions and came to Ephesus, and he found some disciples. And he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him, no, we've not even heard if the Holy Spirit is being received. And he said, into what then were you baptized? And they said, into John's baptism.
Then Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.
Now there were in all about 12 men. And after he entered the synagogue, he continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and were not believing, speaking evil of the way before the multitude, he left them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
So here's my question. Y'all believe that there is some kind of demonic something going on in our culture? You believe that word right there teaches us how to address that? I want to share with you how God brought down the spirit of Jezebel, the Diana spirit, in her own backyard. I want to show you how God did it, and this is for men and women.
But again, I'm talking to you fellas specifically today. How does God bring down this Jezebel spirit? Number one, He uses men. Look at verse 7. Paul goes to this town, 250,000 people.
Big town, big metropolis, demonic stronghold, and he starts this whole revolution with 12 men. 12 men who are hungry for God. 12 men who are not satisfied with the status quo. God uses men, church. I know that's not popular to say in our culture, God uses men.
Which is why Hey. This is why there's confusion in our culture as to what is a man and what is a woman. We got a Supreme Court justice. Did y'all remember this? When she was going through her confirmation hearing, one of the senators asked her.
Ma'am, can can I ask you a question? What is a woman? A lady who now sits on the highest court of the land said, I can't tell you what a woman is. That's a depraved mind. We're trying to confuse men and women.
We may have fellas here.
Somebody's whispered in your brain some gender confusion. Am I really a man? If you want to know if you're a man. There's a very easy self-test you can do at home. Go get your full-length mirror.
My wife's glaring at me, so that's all I'm going to say. But you know where I'm going with this. See, Jezebel hates men. Jezebel hates men because she knows God uses men. In Exodus one, you have Pharaoh.
Okay, Pharaoh is is a uh a symbol of Satan. Israel are God's people. And Satan, Pharaoh, says, we want to neutralize the effectiveness of the people of God.
So here's midwives, what I want you to do. When Jewish women, Israeli women, go into labor. Heal all the boys.
Now why boys?
Well it's simple because population control. It has nothing to do with population control. I'm actually in a bow hunting group where different places will bring us in and we thin out the deer population with our bows. And we work with a biologist, and the biologist tells us: if you want to control the deer population and limit the deer population, don't target the bucks. You target the dose.
That'll reduce the population. Oh wait a second. Why then, if Pharaoh is trying to manipulate the population, why is he targeting the boys, not the girls? Because this is not about population control. Satan is terrified of strong men of God, and Satan will do whatever he can to neutralize men of God.
Fells, I want to tell you something. A hundred and five-pound man in this church that doesn't lift weights, but they're born again and love Jesus and they're in the Word of God, they are spiritual giants in the heavenly realm. They are stronger than a 255-pound man with muscles. They are giants. Satan is terrified of men of God.
And he uses the same tactic today. Let's neutralize the people of God. By taking down the men. There's one of the biggest proofs of this. A study is done, it might have been a Barna study a few years ago.
It's kind of interesting. We want to reach people for Jesus as this church, right? All right, listen to this. If we reach 100 children for Jesus in this church, 100 kids get saved, we will add three families to our church. If we reach 100 women.
For Christ? We will gain 27 families. in our church. If we reach 100 men for Jesus Christ, we'll gain 93 families in our church. There's something powerful about men of God.
So, how does God break the Jezebel spirit? Number one, He uses men. Secondly, he uses born-again men. Verse 2 Paul meets with these 12, here's the Bible calls them, disciples. And he said, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
Do you see that in verse 2? Not if you believed, when you believed. In other words, these are born-again men. And so we don't want to just start a A big man's club here, and women hater club, and no girls allowed. That's not what this is about.
We want to reach men for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a lions club or a rotary club where we just get together and do some community service projects. We want to reach men for the Lord Jesus Christ. So, how does God break that Jezebel spirit? First of all, he uses men.
Secondly, he uses born-again men. And the number three, he uses. Watch this. born again men who are in fellowship with other men. Verse 7.
Again, he goes to this, it's the epicenter of the Jezebel spirit. It's a stronghold of the Jezebel spirit. He brings down a city of 250,000. There's a revival in that city, and it starts with 12 men. You see that in verse 7?
There were 12 men.
Now, sometimes the Bible collectively will describe a group, and they'll tell you how many men were there, but not women. Like I think maybe when Jesus feeds the 5,000, okay, there are 5,000 men. But it doesn't count the women. There were women there. Or in Exodus, it talks about how many men left Egypt, but it doesn't count the women.
That's not what's happening here. I read several scholars who said, no, this was a small group of men. That were in fellowship with each other. Phillips, you need to listen to my heart right now. If you're a man of God.
And you're not in fellowship with other men of God. You're a sitting gut for the enemy. That's why we have this church. It's not to have some good music and for me to entertain you for an hour and 15 minutes. No, it's a war out there.
It's hell out there. There's a battle going on out there. And I want men and women to come together and find out: you're not the only person who believes the way you believe. You're not the crazy person out there. They've lost their mind.
Y'all have not lost their mind. And you only get that when you're in fellowship with other individuals. And the Bible makes this very clear. Jesus Christ did not choose 12 individual disciples. He shows one group.
of twelve men who were together. 2 Samuel 23. King David has a group. Of 37, here's what the Bible calls them, mighty men. Men who said, We're fighting battles, we're coming against principalities, we're coming against strongholds, and if we try to fight them on our own, we ain't gonna make it.
And so, in that chapter, 37 men. Come together. God's trying to tell us something. You can't fight these battles alone. In fact, the book of Ecclesiastes makes it really clear.
Ecclesiastes 4:12, a person standing alone, he can be attacked and defeated. But two can stand back to back and conquer. Three Or even better, for a triple braided cord is not easily broken.
Now, I told you, I don't think I'm psychotic, but maybe I am because I told you, like little kids hurting animals, that is a sign of psychosis. I don't hurt animals, okay? I don't. I kill them, but I don't hurt them. I'm joking, joking, joking.
I'd like to hunt. But I do like to watch these YouTube videos. of these lions who attack I've seen lions attack. Over and over and over again, they do the same thing. There's a herd of wildebeests together.
They don't take on the whole herd. They separate one wilder beast out from the rest of the herd, and he's fair game. Bunch of gazelles? I don't fight a whole herd of gazelles. They separate one gazelle out from the others.
And they attacked that gazelle. Phillips. You can be filled with the Holy Spirit. You can be in the Word of God. You can do all that stuff.
But I'm just telling you, in these last days, if you are not connected with other men of God, you've got to be very careful because the enemy, I think, is trying to separate you. to attack you. And it almost happened to Elijah. Elijah fights the forces of darkness. Elijah fights the prophets of Baal.
Elijah comes up against Jezebel, and he's so worn out after the fight that in 1 Kings 19:18, he basically says. I'm suicidal, God. I just want to die. I don't want to live anymore. And God says, time out.
Why are you so upset? He said, Because I'm the only one serving you. And God says, I've got thousands of men who have not compromised. You are not alone. But here's the problem.
Elijah didn't realize that. And because Elijah fought alone, Elijah almost lost. And I'm telling you, you are not alone. You're not the only one who sees the world through the biblical lens. You're not losing your mind.
You need to understand: there's a lot of people, and you see them all over this place, they have not compromised and they have not bowed their knee to Baal.
So God uses men to break that Jezebel spirit. He uses born-again men. to break the Jezebel spirit. He uses born-again men who are in fellowship with other godly men to break that fellowship. And then, number four, he uses men, watch this, who study the Word of God.
Verse 9. They kind of cut through all this stuff. Evidently, these 12 disciples that get kicked out of this place to study the word of God. And so there's a man who owned a place. This man's name was Tyrannus.
And so they take. These 12 disciples, and they go to the school of Tyrannus, and the implication is they begin to study the Word of God. Fellas, listen to me. You've got to be in the Word of God. You've got to let the Bible Define Masculinity, not the world.
You let the world define masculinity. I'm going to have a bunch of Andrew Tates running around this place acting like, no, that's not what the world, look, look, the world doesn't know what biblical masculinity is about. You let the word of God define masculinity. If I can get you saved, filled with the Spirit, in fellowship, and in the Word of God, I'm going to make a warrior out of you. Seriously.
Um So many of the issues we run into as men and husbands and fathers will be dealt with if we'll live by that word. Can I give you one? Let me give you one example of a man being in the word of God. 1 Peter 3:7 says this. Hi fellas.
You don't be harsh to your wife. You don't talk to her like a dog. You be kind to her. You'd be caring to her. Have you read that before?
You live with her in an understanding way. I remember I shouldn't say this, but one time, you know, my son, we had. had sons and daughters, all this kind of stuff. And the son was like... Daddy, why does she act that way sometimes?
Well, I said, sweetheart, you need to understand.
Sometimes women get sad and they go shopping. That's it right there. They get sad and they go shopping, they feel better, okay? I don't understand it, can't explain it. Peter says: listen, live with your wives in an understanding way.
You don't talk down to them. You don't be harsh with them. Because then Peter says this, have you read this? That your prayers will not be hindered. See, some of you fellas are going to God wanting the promotion, you're wanting this, you're wanting that, you're praying, and God doesn't seem to be answering.
And you're wondering what's going on. And I wonder if God is saying, Hey, I've been watching the way that you've been talking to my daughter. Nobody talks to my daughter like that and then asks me to help them out, okay? You're on your own. But look, that's one example.
That's addressed in the Word of God. That's godly masculinity. Are you with me on this thing?
So look, I want men. Who saved In fellowship. In the word of God. That's what God uses to bring down the Jezebel spirit, but that's not. It.
There's something else as well. Not only does he use men, Who are born again? in fellowship in the word of god number five How does God break the stronghold of Jezebel? He uses men who are filled with the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 6.
And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. They were filled with the Spirit. And they speak in tongues and they prophesied.
Now, here's a challenge. I love the Baptist denomination. I thank God for the Baptist denomination. I grew up Baptist, and I was told this. When you get saved, Holy Spirit comes to live in you.
And that is true. I think it's Romans 8, 9. You get saved? It's an amazing thought, isn't it? You can be closer to Jesus than Simon Peter was during Simon Peter's Jesus' ministry because in Jesus' earthly ministry, Jesus was just walking beside Simon Peter.
Now that you're born again and the Holy Spirit has come, the Spirit of Jesus actually comes to live in you. Isn't that great? But then I'll stop. That's it. That is the quote unbaptism of the Holy Spirit.
That's it. Why I don't say that here. Because I've already told you. Paul wants to change the city. He gets these 12 men and he said, Did you receive the baptism of the Spirit when you believe?
Not if you believe. He recognizes they're Christians. In fact, the Bible calls them disciples. Anytime the word disciple is used in the New Testament without a qualifier, it always means a follower of Jesus Christ.
So, according to Romans 8, if they're saved and they are, Holy Spirit's already living in them. And yet, Paul says, that's great. But there is another encounter that you can have with the Holy Spirit who's already living in you. There's another encounter that you can have that will empower you for service. Five times in the book of Acts, five times, we see people who are already born again.
So the Holy Spirit is already living in them. Five times we see these Christians have another encounter. With the Holy Spirit. Five times. And you say, now describe this baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Well, baptism means to be immersed.
So let me just, all right, look. I um I've always thought I'm not good at photography. And I'm not. Anytime somebody asks me to take a picture, my thumb always gets in the thumb. I'm not good at photography and lighting and artsy stuff.
I'm not into all that kind of stuff. But I took these pictures myself. And I saw them, I thought, man. I actually did a good job. I'm actually, you know, I'm smart.
Look, I'm smarter than you guys. Give me credit for, okay? In fact, every day, I don't know if y'all know this, I start my day by looking in the mirror and said, You were smart. You was kind. And you is important.
So, all right, all right.
So, this first picture, and I'm sorry, this screen is out. It's some kind of expensive box we got to do to fix it. And if y'all start tithing, we'll be able to fix stuff like this. But anyway, uh. All right, here's a picture of what happens when you get saved.
The water is the Holy Spirit. The cup is you. When you get saved. According to the word of God. Got it.
Puts his spirit inside of you.
Now I'm going to stop right there. That's powerful. And I don't care if you're Methodist, Presbyterian, I don't care who you are. If you're truly born again, Romans 8 says: if you don't have the Spirit of God, you don't belong to God. Implication: everybody who gets saved, God puts His Holy Spirit in them.
Baptism of the Spirit means you are immersed in the Holy Spirit. Baptism means immersed. Look at this next picture. That's the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Well, now the Spirit in you is now surrounding you. He's above you. He's below you. He's all around you. You are now saturated, baptized in the Holy Spirit.
And that's what you're going to have to have in these last days if you're going to fight the demonic. You've got to have that. We are now to the point in human history where you cannot defeat demonic attacks without that saturation, this baptism of the Holy Spirit. Acts 1.8, you will receive what? Power.
When the Holy Spirit comes on you. Hey, you know how Jesus In the flesh? Fought demons, fought Satan, and overcame them. You know how he did it? Acts 10:38, it says, God anointed Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit, and as a result, he defeated the works of Satan.
Let me ask you something. How arrogant is it for you to think Jesus needed the power of the Holy Spirit to do what God had called him to do? But I don't need that power. I'm a little bit better than Jesus. That's pretty arrogant.
Is heat? If he needed the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the evil one. If he needed the power of the Holy Spirit to fight the fight of faith, You and I have got to have that power of the Holy Spirit. I mean, I was. Look, we got a neighbor who's doing some work on his property, whatever, and he had this big old dirt pile, huge dirt pile.
And I knew he wanted to move the dirt pile. And um Look, if I was a good neighbor. I would have taken my shovel and went out and helped them move it, but I'm not a good neighbor, so I didn't help him. But you know what the guy did? He rented a bobcat.
And in about five minutes, that bobcat had done what about 10 hours of digging I would have had to have done. Why? He relied not on his power. On the power of something else. And fellas, I'm telling you, one of the reasons you're losing your battle to porn is you're trying to fight this battle through your shovel when the bobcat of the Holy Spirit is ready.
And the Bible says, hey, walk in the Holy Spirit, and you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. You hear me, Annius? We need The power Okay, you can do whatever you want. I need the power of the Holy Spirit. I need that.
And beloved, I uh I learned that the hard way. I learned. The hard way, the victory comes through the Holy Spirit. And Paul models this. The Apostle Paul gets 12 men in the fourth largest city of Roman times, 250,000 people, a demonic stronghold.
He takes men, born-again men, men who are in fellowship with other men, men who are in the Word of God, men who are filled with the Holy Spirit. And what happens? Verse 17. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified, and many who believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who practiced magic, black magic, brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.
And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled 50,000 pieces of silver.
So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. God brought down the stronghold in Ephesus. To the point where witches and warlots burned their books. 50,000 pieces of silver is equivalent to about $7 million. They had a $7 million bonfire, and that whole city came.
came to Jesus. Because 12 men, filled with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, did what God had called them to do. You try to be a man of God that lives today for Jesus, you're going to come under demonic attack. And again, I experienced that the hard way. My early 20s were tough in the ministry.
Now, I've pastored four churches. If you're listening to one of these churches, I pastored online, you don't know which church it is, it's going to be one of the four, okay? But in retrospect, what I dealt with that almost sunk my ship It was it was demonic. It was spiritual warfare, and I was oblivious. Um I had strong Women with a Jezebel spirit in my church.
I love strong women. I don't love demon-possessed women. And they They made things very, very, they wanted to control the church. They made it very, very difficult for me. I'll never forget there's a lady in our community who just calls up one day.
She says, I have no food in the house. I'm hungry. I don't go to your church, but I live in your community. Can you bring some food to my house? I said uh I said yes.
And something told me, you need to bring a deacon with you.
So we loaded up some bags. Go to the lady's house. Knock on the door. And a lady answers the door in black lingerie. Um everything about her was just spiritually dark.
Now people ask me, Check, you're a pastor and pastors fall morally. Do women flirt with you? Uh And I've only had ugly ones flirt with me. I've never had a pretty one flirt with me. But this...
She was beautiful. She's in lingerie. And when she sees that deacon, she said, What's he doing here? He's not invited. We drop the food and we leave.
And that deacon, this old country boy, old laid back. We didn't talk for a second, and he finally went. Pastor Chad, I don't like that. I said, I don't like it either. It was demonic.
There's an evil man who tried to destroy the church I was pastoring. He told me to my face that his calling was to be a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to pastors in the area. And he was gunning for my church. I could go on and on and on. It was a weird season.
Of um Pastoral suicides, I don't know if you remember this, but there was a season where there were a lot of pastors. Committing suicide. And I remember the enemy's like, why don't you just kill yourself? Be over in a second. It's just this weird mind game she was playing with me.
And that was when I realized. This is demonic. And I'm worn out. I'm tired. And I'll never forget going before the Lord and saying, Lord, I have been told the baptism of the Spirit is not for today, that was just for the first century.
But I'm reading the book of Acts, Lord. And in Acts chapter 2, there were 12 men who a few weeks before ran like scared chickens when Jesus is arrested.
Now they're filled with the Holy Spirit. They stand up, they look their enemies in the eye, they proclaim the gospel. They are bold, strong, confident men. They are changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. I need what they have.
And I was filled with the Holy Spirit, and everything changed after that. Hey, listen, there was still a battle. There was still a battle. Best way I can describe it is this. Before getting filled with the Holy Spirit, I fought the battle with...
bows, arrows, slings, and rocks. After I got filled with the Holy Spirit, I started to fight the enemy with drones and guided missiles and cyber attacks. My warfare went to a whole nother level. And so men and women. who have never received this immersion of the Holy Spirit.
Or some of you who've experienced that, but we do this all the time. We revert back to the flesh to try to fight our battles. I got a word for you right now. If you're tired of the battle, you're weary of the battle, you're tired of the attacks, you don't know how much longer you can fight, I got a word for you. You're going to win this battle, but it's not by might.
It's not by power, but it's by the Holy Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Here's what I want us to do. I received the baptism of the Spirit in the context of worship. Here's all I want us to do in just a few moments. Listen to me, really carefully.
We're going to come and we're just going to worship Jesus. We're going to sing and worship Him, just worship Him. And then we're going to let the music calm down for a second. And we're going to pray a very simple prayer. Father, fill me with your Holy Spirit.
God, I'm so tired. I can't do this anymore. I need your Holy Spirit. Father, fill me, saturate me, plunge me in your Holy Spirit. I need your Holy Spirit.
You say, Chad, what else do you do? Nothing. The Bible says this: How much more will your Father give the Spirit to them that? Ask, you just ask. And while you're doing that, and I want you to be very sensitive to this.
Sometimes it's like a wave. You just feel this wave. And when you do, Don't keep it to yourself. Just open your mouth and start praising Jesus. Did you notice in that passage I read?
It doesn't say they meditated on the Holy Spirit. They contemplated the Holy Spirit. It says right there. They spoke out. They spoke out.
And I'm going to tell you something, English will not be sufficient to cry out to God and express what you're feeling. Just open your mouth and just start babbling like a little baby to God, okay?
Sometimes it's not like a wave.
Sometimes it's like something wells up inside of you. Jesus said that. Holy Spirit would be like a... A fountain that wells up.
Well, same thing. When the Holy Spirit starts to well up in you, don't keep it to yourself. Open your mouth and just start praising Jesus. This ain't weird, ain't crazy, ain't weird, crazy, or creepy. Trader, I've heard some people that, when they get filled with the Holy Spirit, the eyes roll back in their head and they start talking in a voice that's not theirs.
Your eyes roll back in your head and you start talking in a voice that's not yours. We're breaking out the crucifix, the garlic, and the holy water, okay? This isn't weird, it isn't crazy. Don't fight this, just enjoy this. How many of y'all are ready to get supernaturally equipped to go fight that battle out there?
Stand up with me right now. Come right down here. Luscious. Get filled the first time or refilled again. I don't care.
You just need, I just need, we just need the Holy Spirit. Come right now. Let's just start praising Jesus and then I'll close it. I'll calm things down a little bit in a second. We'll pray.
Gang, just lead us. Come now and let's start worshiping the Lord. We worship you, Lord. Oh, I believe you're the one. You're the one do working.
Working God for the mirror. Miracles I've seen. They're too good to not believe. You're the one to win. Working God and you heal Because All the mirrors.
Miracles will see. You're too good to not believe Too good to not Yeah. Too good. Is it not? Believe.
And I've seen cancer disappear. I've seen broken bodies. Seal. Don't you tell me? We can't do it.
Don't you tell me? We can't do it. I see it really New life risk. Direction. I've seen meant to live Restored.
Don't you tell me? He can't do it. Don't you tell me? I've seen failures reunited. I've seen product goals reserved.
Don't you tell me he can't do it. Don't you tell me he can't do it. Stand to me right now, God. has a gift for you. You don't think through God.
Yes. She don't run from gifts. She don't get freaked out. You receive gifts. Right now.
If you're tired of fighting through your flesh, You need supernatural power to bring down strongholds in your life. and your family. in your home. In your marriage, you need a supernatural saturation of the Holy Spirit. I want you to do something right now.
Stand with me right now, wherever you're at. Stand with me. Lift up your hands. and start praising the Lord Jesus Christ. And start asking the Father right now.
Very simple prayer. Father, fill me with your Holy Spirit. Say that right now. Oh, Father, fill me. Feel me.
Father, feel me. Just say that to the God right now. This is your gift. Warrior? You can't fight without this gift.
Right now, just pray this, Father, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Orararama Santa Rama. Father, father, father, father. Father, fill your spirit. We need an infilling of your spirit.
Father, we're a hungry of your spirit. Fill us with your spirit right now. Fill us.
Now, right now, listen, listen. There's a right now. Do you sense that? The Holy Spirit, maybe it's just me, the Holy Spirit right now, it's like a dove, like a gentle blanket. He's now coming on you right now.
He is now saturating you right now. Did you sense that? Hey, for some of you, something's bubbling up inside of you. You just sense something inside of you that's the Holy Spirit wanting to come out and take over right now. Don't fight him, just release to him right now.
Just right now, Spirit of God, listen, He's doing it, He's moving right now in your life.
Now here's what you gotta do. According to Acts 19, now you got to open your mouth. And you just gotta start praising Jesus. And lift up the name of Jesus. Don't keep your mouth shut.
Listen. He's giving this to you right now. Just right now. Praise the name of Jesus right now. Bless the name of Jesus.
Pora ra da ra ba ma ma ma ma ma ma right now. Yes. Just open your mouth right now and just start praising Jesus. Open your mouth and just start praising Jesus. As the Spirit of God comes upon you, open your mouth and start praising the name of Jesus.
Bora ra la romasata rada bama. Open your mouth, praise Him. Just praise Him. Bless the name of Jesus right now. Jesus.
Jesus. Jesus. Oh, you're so weak and you're so tired. Jesus knows that. He understands that.
He's ready to give you a Second win right now. And that second wind is called the Holy Spirit right now. Jesus. Jesus or Abama Mama. I know we got to go, but I can't move.
We got to stick here for just a second more. He is coming upon you right now. Oh, I love my mama. Mama mamsa da da da. Stop trying to fight on your own.
This isn't your battle. This is God's battle right now. He's going to fight this battle through the spirit that he's given you right now. Warrior. Jesus.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Spirit of God is wanting to break open. He's wanting to push back the kingdom of darkness. He's wanting to tear strongholds down. Hey, we're gonna see dead people come back to life.
We're gonna see demonic strongholds come down. We're going to see families come back together. We're going to see cancers healed. Alzheimer's healed revival in the streets. A fresh move of the Holy Spirit.
We're going to see it. Bless the name of the Lord right now. Amen. Everyone feels it.
