Bishop Joseph Marcus | Bible Study | "What Should We Do After Prayer and Fasting?" | NFAMI

Open your Bibles to Isaiah the 58th chapter. I want to express to the saints, when you're in the house of the Lord and you are the conduit by which the Spirit works through, when you sit there with your mouth closed, you're telling God essentially, "Force me." Did you hear me? "Force me." Nobody likes being ignored. Above all, God doesn't like being ignored. And some of you think it's spiritual to sit there and wait for the Spirit to come. That's not spiritual. All right, that's really prideful. I got to say that. That's really prideful for you to be a spirit checker instead of being a person who instigates a move of God. All right.

When Jesus brought those four, and Mark, and Mark the first chapter, we're not going there, but just for your reference point, He was in the house already. The Bible says He was in the house. The house was filled with people, and nobody got a miracle. Nobody got a miracle. Why didn't anybody get a miracle? Because then there was one born of four. When He saw their faith, He performed a miracle. Many of you waiting for miracles with your mouth closed, your hands in your pocket, your mind off somewhere else, and you're not going to get your miracle there. All right. Amen. I just gave you silent instruction. You need to give God glory for that. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. Hallelujah.

Only hungry people get something. Only hungry people. Bartimaeus got healed because he was hungry. The woman with the issue of blood got healed because she was hungry. Jairus, Jairus's daughter got healed because he was hungry. The centurion's servant got healed because he was willing to go the distance. As long as you sit there not willing to go the distance, you're not going to get anything from the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Learn to stretch out. Stretch out. You say, "I'm waiting for somebody else." You're the one that needs your miracle. You're the one that needs your breakthrough. Don't wait for somebody else to do it. You do it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Truly, we honor You, Lord. We glorify You. We magnify You, Lord. We ask You, God, forgive us, Lord, for our pride and arrogance, Lord. Oh God, for our non-shalom attitude, Lord, even in a time that we dedicate to You, Lord. Help us to be aggressive about our faith, Lord. Help us to trust You, Lord, not to live on response, Lord, but to move forward in faith in the name of Jesus, by the Spirit of God, right now, Lord. Hallelujah. Lord. Hallelujah. Lord. Help us to be gate crashers, Lord God. Hallelujah. In the name of Jesus, right now, Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Isaiah the 58th chapter. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Isaiah the 58th chapter. I'm going to start at verse number one. I'm going to read all the way down. Thank You, Lord. To verse number eleven, and we'll be disresponsibly. Isaiah 58. It says, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins." Read, "Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?" Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes unto him? Will thou call this a fast, an acceptable day to the Lord? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? Wherefore when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; last verse, and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."

Again, Father, I praise You. Thank You for what You have done. Ask You right now in Jesus' mighty name, Lord, have Your way today in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you put your Bible to the side and clap your hands and give God glory? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You can be seated in the presence of the Lord. And we honor the Lord for His grace and mercy. Give honor to the Spirit of Christ. Amen. And we thank God for Elder Picket and his wife, and amen, Lady Nestor. Amen. All the elders, evangelists. Amen. Visitors, saints, and friends. To everybody, we say, "Praise the Lord." Amen.

I want to talk to you tonight because there's some things that's on my heart. I want to talk to you on something very important and powerful, uh, if we would just understand it. And I taught on this some years ago, but I feel I need to teach on it again. And what I'm going to talk about tonight is what we should do after prayer and fasting. What we should do after prayer and fasting. If, if I am correct in my thinking, and I believe so, because I've been around here for quite a while, uh, I've, I've known enough about what we do in church, uh, that most times when the fast is over, the mission is over. See how quiet it got right there? The mission is over. Because for many people, the mission is to complete the fast. Amen. And, and for some of us who are so used to enjoying ourselves on all of life's dainties, a fast is a major undertaking. Praise the Lord. It's a major undertaking. It's like telling somebody to put their phone down for a day. Amen. If, if you tell most people in today's culture to put their phone down for a day, they think the world is going to end if they don't look at their phone. And for most of us, uh, unless there's something that is more important than food, most of us are going to make sure we get our squares. Amen. Somebody. And so, I had you read Isaiah 58 not because I was going to spend a lot of time there. Of course, that is, uh, a clear-cut understanding of what should be a proper attitude about fasting, and that's good. It's good. We need to have the proper understanding about fasting. But I also want us to have an understanding of what we should be engaged in, uh, when we are finished fasting. Because for most of us, when we finish, we go back to norm. The televisions go back on. The social media account gets you lit up again. Amen. Most of us start to gossiping again, and backbiting. Amen. I'm telling the truth. Amen. Most of us who were not faithful, didn't become faithful, and we think the fast didn't work. Anybody else felt like a fast didn't work? How many ever felt spiritual while you were fasting, and then a day or two after the fast, felt about regular? Anybody can I see some hands on that? Uh-huh. Yeah. And, and all of you who didn't raise your hand, I know you felt like that too. You just got a pride issue, even while you're fasting, you don't even want to acknowledge the truth. Amen. See, that's where the problem comes with us. Many times, we don't want to act like we have real normal experiences that everybody has. Anybody ever have a real normal experience? When people step on your foot, don't you go, "Ouch"? Praise the Lord. And so, all of us, after we finish the fast, we feel this euphoria. We feel this lift while the fast is going. Amen. Sometimes we may feel more sensitive to God. We may feel closer to Him. Amen. We may be given to tongues more than normal. You know, we may be able to hear the voice of God a little closer. And all of those things that make us feel spiritual. Amen. But I really want to talk to you about what happens after the process. Now, fasting requires self-control and discipline, as one denies the natural desires of the flesh. Eating is not a sin. Gluttony is. All right. So, eating is not a sin. And everybody's not fat because they eat a lot. Praise the Lord. Some people have poor exercise habits, which means the food that they eat is going to make them fat. Amen. I know y'all don't want to say that. Amen. Some people have been given medication that made them fat. Praise the Lord. I know what I'm talking about. And so, uh, fasting is denying yourself, uh, the, the natural desire of the flesh. All right. Natural. God put innate in us a desire to eat so that we will be able to take care of our bodies. And of course, we, like most things, we abuse it. Okay. But during fasting, uh, the believer's focus is, is, uh, to remove physical things, worldly things, and intensely concentrate on God. If you're not intensely concentrating on God during the fast, then the question is, why are you fasting? All right. Now, there are some people that go to the gym, and they intensely concentrate on the television. You've seen people like that. They're at the gym, they're on the elliptical trainer, but they're really not doing nothing. They're kind of watching television, or they're sitting on the exercise bike and they're watching television. They're not really doing anything. You know, you got. And what am I saying? It is possible to fast and not think about the Lord at all. To think anymore about, "I miss lunch. I miss breakfast. I miss dinner." Okay. "I miss my favorite show." Amen. So, the goal is to intensely focus your attention on God. All right. And so, to put it differently, fasting directs our hunger towards God. And so, instead of taking my hunger and focusing on some type of food, I am focusing my hunger on the Lord. And, and some of us who have problems fasting all the time, and never seem to be able to get through one fast without a parachute, it really denotes how much you are sensitive to your flesh. Oh, I just said a whole lot right there. You're very sensitive to your flesh. And you know what you know you need to do with your flesh? And I'm talking to whoever that may be. You need to teach your flesh a lesson. You need to tell your flesh, "Every time it tries to force you to quit today, you're going an extra day." Oh, my goodness. Praise the Lord. You need to tell your flesh, "Uh oh, oh, you acting like that today? Okay, we, we got one more day to go now." Praise the Lord. And believe me, your flesh will calm down because your flesh will know that you're not playing with it. Uh-huh. It's okay. That's what's going to happen. And so, it's really important to understand that. So, fasting, if the process is right, and we're doing what we should do, it clears the mind and the body of earthly intentions and attention, and draws us close to God. So, in fasting, we gain spiritual clarity of thought. That's what we do. We get spiritual clarity of thought. That means I'm not worried about what show is on. I'm not worrying about no Netflix series. I'm not worrying about who's saying what on whatever platform. All I am concerned about is what God wants. Amen. Somebody. And so, fasting also demonstrates a profound need for God's help and guidance through complete dependence upon Him. So, when we fast, we're saying, "My daily substance is not the most important thing." Well, let me use biblical terms. "Man shall not live by bread alone." All right. I'm not depending. So, when people say, "Well, why, why do we fast?" Because what we're doing is, we're saying to this life, "This is not the most important thing to me." To the Lord, "I need the Lord more than my daily bread." Praise the Lord. That's good. And so, in Isaiah 58, He makes reference to, uh, something in verse number three. He talks about afflicting of the soul. Okay. Fasting is afflicting the soul. Say that with me. Fasting is afflicting the soul. Okay. That's really important to understand. Okay? Because fasting doesn't force God to do anything. All right. Fasting is not for God. And, and many of us think fasting is an arm-twister for heaven. Fasting is not an arm-twister for heaven. Okay? So, Leviticus 16:29, and don't worry, I got a PowerPoint presentation I'm going to be working with. I'm kind of working with two different sets of notes. I'm going to tell you that out front. I'm working with two sets of notes. Uh, at Leviticus 16:29, and it says, "And this shall be a statute forever unto you, that in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls and do no work at all, whether it be of your own country, or stranger that sojourneth among you." They were told constantly about afflicting their souls. Leviticus 16:31, "It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls by a statute forever." Leviticus 23:27, "Also on the tenth day of the seventh month, there shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord." In Leviticus 23:32, "It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest: and ye shall afflict your souls in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath." Numbers 29:70, "Ye shall have on the tenth day of the seventh month a holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls." Why do I keep talking about that? Because if fasting doesn't hurt you, you're not fasting. All right. If it doesn't hurt you, you're not fasting. Okay. Fasting is, uh, can quickly become a ritual. Some, some of us have days that we call our fast day. Uh-huh. And we may go without a meal, but it doesn't mean it's making us spiritual. Okay. I, I know in every, uh, national organization that I've been a part of, there's been a designated time that has been given to fast during the week. Of course, this church has designated times. When you get the calendar, you'll see it again, that we fast. But just because we have a day that we set aside to fast, doesn't mean that we're actually doing what we should be doing during that fast. Amen. Okay. And so, what spiritual fasting is not, and why am I answering these questions right now before I really, because I haven't gotten into what to do after prayer and fasting yet, I'm just setting the table for that. Okay? Uh, spiritual fasting is not a way to earn God's favor by getting Him to do something for us. Okay? That's not what this is about. We're not trying to earn God's favor. "Lord, I gave up my meal, now you got to do this." So, no, that's not what this is about. All right. "Lord, I want a husband. I want a wife. Lord, I'll fast three days a week until Big Bruce or Big Bone Brenda walk in the door." No, that's not what this is about. All right. You can find your husband and wife. Just be cute. Take care of yourself. Be a man with a decent job, and somebody in the church can come along you find attractive, and boom, you got one. You don't need some woman to drop out of the sky. You don't need no man to drop out of the sky. Praise the Lord. I just, I need to just tell you all that, 'cause some of y'all waiting for John to fall out of the sky. And if he falls out of the sky, that means he fell off a plane, and he's gonna be dead when he hits the ground. [Laughter] God is not gonna parachute him to you. Some of you are not nice enough to have a mate. Praise the Lord. I just said it. That's right. Amen. You gotta be more than cute. You gotta have more than muscles. Praise the Lord. You gotta be compatible. Praise the Lord. You know him. Amen. You can't be as mean as a bug. Praise the Lord. And expect to get anything other than squashed. I just thought I'd throw that out there. And I'm being spiritual while I'm saying it. All right. So, fasting, spiritual fasting is designed to produce a transformation in us. Did you get that? In us. So, if you come out three pounds or four pounds lighter, you're still the same mean old caddy person. You're still robbing God of His tithes. You're still not faithful in church. You still don't care about any souls. The only thing that's important is your life. It didn't work. All right. It didn't work. And some of us go week in and week out, and month in and month out, and year in and year out, and we stack up all these days that we say we have fasted, and we make no impact because the only thing we accomplished was the end of the fast. Amen. Thank you, somebody clapped on that one. I know that was a hard one, but it's supposed to produce a transformation in us. A clearer and more focused attention and dependence upon God. That means your vision should get sharper and clearer. Your burdens should get greater. I saw some of the prayer requests. Give me a greater burden. Amen. If you just focus on what He wants and not on what you want, your burden will increase. As long as all you're thinking about is yourself, guess what? You'll never care about nobody else. Praise the Lord. Amen. And so, He said, "What are you doing, Pastor?" "I'm poking the bear." Praise the Lord. Hopefully, the bear will wake up. Amen. Fasting is never to be a public display of spirituality. That's why the scripture tells us in Matthew the sixth chapter what we ought not to do. Fasting is supposed to be a private thing. All right. It says, "When you fast, you know, you don't go around looking on somber." [Music] No, no. That's not what this is about. So, get up, wash your face, anoint your head, look regular. Tell somebody, "Look regular." Let me walk around your cheeks. All in. Praise the Lord. It's supposed to be private, and it should be because you're being humble. Otherwise, we forfeit our benefit, benefits from it. Okay? We forfeit our benefit. And it's really important that we begin to recognize this. You got me powered up back there, Minister Troy? All right. So, we're ready to go. You can put me up on the screen, sir, so we can get ready to get started into the what. And that was just a preface to what we're going to be teaching on today. Amen. To kind of give you some insight of what we are talking about. Okay? Because, uh, for many of us, thank you. You can put it back up. Thank you. For many of us, uh, like I said, once we finish the fast, and some of you have probably already planned your meal. You already got some food. You went to the grocery store, you got all the articles. "When I get friends, I'm having me some Alfredo." Oh, my God. Mm-hmm. You'll get some breadsticks and some Texas toast. Praise the Lord. Amen. I know some of you already planned it out. I already know what's coming Friday after seven. Uh-huh. Yes. You surpass. You can't be having this much fun talking about fast. Yes, I am. And so, the, the challenge of fasting is, the fasting is supposed to produce something. It's supposed to produce something. And so, after you pray and you fast, it's supposed to produce something. Tell somebody next to you, "After you finish praying and fasting, it's, it's supposed to produce something." That's what it's supposed to produce something. And this is really important that we understand that. So, so there has to be something after it. All right. If we take Brother Cameron and we send him over to the music academy, gospel university, he comes back and he can't play a key, something's wrong. If he comes back and he's like, "What have you learned?" "Well, I learned I met some nice people, you know, and they were talented." "Have you, have you learned some new chords?" "No." "Triato?" "No." "What did you learn?" "Well, I learned I had to be there at a certain time." That's not why we sent him there. Everything should come with reason. Amen. So, let's get into this and try to get some understanding so that we will recognize what we are engaging. Okay? All right.

So, fasting and prayer is a precursor to faith. Did you hear me? Fasting and prayer is a precursor to faith. The great challenge that, uh, Jesus, uh, saw before His disciples in, in Matthew 17. I'm going to be giving you a whole load of scriptures that I am not turning to because there's too much time to talk about this tonight. All right. And so, for everybody that's online, you'll get a little longer chance to be able to see what's there. And everybody's in, in the church, and I'm gonna say this again, uh, it bothers me when I spend time to put things together and you take no notes. It bothers me. I got to tell you something that really bothers me because either you are Einstein plus, or you're really not concerned about what's being said, and you should be the most productive people in the church if you are so good that you don't need any notes. Amen. All right. So, you know what my preference is. And if it's not your preference, okay, then I'm gonna expect something from you. All right. So, the precursor to faith. Why? Because faith is not normal to humanity. All right. Man, once he fell out of fellowship with God, he became sight-oriented. Everybody in here is sight-oriented. Okay? All of us are sight-oriented. Our first leaning is to sight. Okay? When, when you buy a car, you, you didn't say, "I'm trusting God for this car." For a car, you wanted a car that you liked. Amen. Amen. That's because your sight says, "I like Cadillac." Your sight said, "I like Mercedes." Your sight said, "I like Audi." Your sight said, "I like Infinity." Your sight said, "I like," okay. And so, we are used to operating in our sight. So, fasting and prayer, prayer becomes the precursor to faith. In Matthew 17, Jesus encountered His disciples who had encountered a man with a son, and the son was demon-possessed, and they could not get him free. They could not. And listen, I want to tell you this, if, if, if you learn nothing from tonight's lesson, learn to take responsibility when you fail, because you cannot fix anything if you refuse to say, "It's my fault." Some of us that are good at blaming victims, y'all get that one. See, John came up here, he didn't have no faith. No, you didn't have no faith. Praise the Lord. John came up there because he believed that you had something, and you didn't produce nothing. John walked away disappointed, and now you still pointing at John. And that was the issue that Jesus had. The man believed in Jesus and His disciples enough to bring his son. The problem was, he was disappointed when they got to the disciples and they couldn't help them. And when they, they asked the question, "Why couldn't we cast out?" And Jesus didn't go through a long theological discourse. He just said, "Because of your unbelief." Praise the Lord. And then He told them how to deal with that unbelief. And I'm not going there. It's Matthew 17. You can go there and read for yourself from the beginning of the chapter where it starts where He's in the Mount of Transfiguration, all the way to verse 21, where He answers your question. He said, "This kind, this kind of faith goes out only by fasting and prayer." And some of you would love to say it's the demon He's talking about, but the question was about their faith, not about the demon. All right. So, fasting and prayer is the precursor of faith, and faith is the catalyst for power and miracles. All right. So, when you come out of this fast, you come out of the time of dedication and prayer, then it should be a place where your faith is riding high. Now, what do you do with faith that's riding high? You use it. If you don't use it, it becomes dead faith. Did y'all hear me? All right. So, many of us have wasted fasting in prayer by doing nothing afterwards, and then we said, "I don't know what happened." After I finished, I just, after, you know, a day or two, I felt regular. Well, you did feel regular because you refused to exercise faith for anything. Praise the Lord. All right. So, Jesus gives them this information, tells them what happened. Amen. So, you can get some clarity about it. All right. In the name of the Lord.

So, let's look at Jesus a little bit because there's some things about Jesus that we have to understand how He ministered. Okay? We have to understand how He ministered and how these things apply to us as believers in the church. All right. How they apply to us in the church. So, let's look at it. Jesus was priest. Okay? He was priest. We, we're gonna understand these are very clear, and I'm not gonna go give you all the background references. You'll find scripture references in here, okay? Jesus was prophet. All right. He was priest. He was prophet, and He was king. All right. We can say "was" or "is." We're just talking about Him in His earthly ministry. Very important to understand this because these three elements have to be included in your life in order for you to be effective in ministry. Did you hear me? These three elements have to be effective in your life in order for you to be effective in ministry. And so, we're gonna see some things and get some clarity. All right. We're gonna understand what the Bible says, and we're gonna begin to see something. Okay? Because these three offices also exist in the body of Christ. All right. Jesus, in His physical person, is not here, but He does dwell in His body. And somebody say, "Amen" to that. And anything He did in His physical person, He wants to do in His spiritual body. Okay? In His spiritual body. He wants to do it in His spiritual body. And I want to take some time and really talk you through this, and, uh, this, I could take this lesson to teach it for a couple of days, but I don't have a couple of days to teach it today. All right. And so, there, there must be an understanding of believers, uh, that all of us must operate or learn to operate in the priest's office. The Bible says, "You are a royal." What's the next part of that? "Priesthood." So, all of us get to operate in the priest's office, the royal priesthood. Okay? The royal priesthood. Most of what should have been happening during this week should be directed to the idea and, uh, perspective of priestly ministry. Okay? Let's take the next step in this process and understand a little bit more. And then, of course, there's the prophetic office, or the, the voice of, of God speaking to the people. Okay? That's very important. Okay? That's very important. There's the prophetic office. And all of us understand, uh, the Bible says in First Corinthians the, uh, 14th chapter, Paul said, "I, I would that you all prophesied." Anybody read that before? It is God's will for everybody to give words of edification, exhortation, and comfort. Did y'all hear that? Edification. Now, when I say that, I don't mean that everybody's going to give words of knowledge or words of wisdom. Those are revelatory operations. I'm not talking about revelatory operations. I'm talking about edification, that means to build up; exhortation, which means to encourage one; and then comfort, means to soothe and to help bring peace to a circumstantial situation. Are you getting that? And so, all of us should be sharing in the prophetic office. Okay? And you say, "Well, man, okay, I'm starting to get some clarity." Anybody getting some clarity about what I'm talking about today? I hope somebody's getting some clarity about it. And then, of course, the last one is the kingly office. Okay? The kingly office. And why, and why is this important for us to understand that we have to operate in all three dimensions? And if we don't operate in all three dimensions, then we end up losing the benefit of fasting. Somebody say, "Man." We end up losing the benefit of fasting. Many of us have lost the benefit of fasting because we only operated in one, or we only operated in two. And then when the fast was over, we felt spiritual, but we really didn't fulfill all that God desired for us to feel. So, let's look at this a little further and get some more understanding. Okay? The priestly office. Okay? Priestly office is a relational office. That means the priest was there to establish and keep connected the relationship between the man and his God, or the woman and their God. Amen. That's what the priest's job. That's what he did. His job was to maintain sacrificial relationship between him and God. It is a personal interaction between that person and God. Amen. And so, here's where we build relationship with the Lord, and we seek God on behalf of each other. Y'all gonna catch up with it in a few minutes, okay? The priest was there for himself first of all. He offered sacrifice for himself, and then for the people. And y'all Bible scholars know I'm telling the Bible truth right now. All right. And so, he was there for that twofold reason, for himself and for the people, so that they could maintain him and the people maintain good standing with God. And then he was there to minister unto the Lord. All right. So, once he got into good standing with the Lord, which required repentance, that's what he needed to do was repent, then he could maintain good relationship with the Lord and then spend his time before God ministering for Him. Amen. Ministering before Him. See, here's where a lot of times in church, we mess up. We try to go before the people without going before God. Amen. Somebody. All right. And so, the priest's office is very important during your time of consecration, especially. You got to make sure you connect on the priestly office. All right. Now, the priestly office is not there for us to fulfill the Great Commission. No. It's for us to make sure we're connected with God, and that we try to keep each other connected. All right. That's what it's about. That's what the priests in the Old Testament, the priesthood was not an evangelistic ministry. Did y'all hear me? And many of us in the church don't have evangelistic ministries, but we claim to be very spiritual, and it's because we are following an Old Testament model of ministry. "Save thyself from this untoward generation." That's what we're willing to do. We're willing to save ourselves. There's nothing bad, but wanting to save yourself, but it's not just about saving yourself. Okay? Very important to understand this. All right. But it's really about ministering directly to the Lord. All right. It's really about ministering directly to the Lord. Once you get everything out of the way that hinders your relationship, now you want to minister to Him. Praise the Lord. And when you start ministering to Him, then He starts ministering to you. Okay? Let's take it to the next stop. All right.

The prophetic office. Oh, most people, I want the prophetic. Oh, Pastor, I just, oh, I just want to be able to say, "Thus saith the Lord," and all that kind of stuff. And that sounds good, but we've got to understand, the prophetic office gives us words of encouragement to each other. And here's, here's what the church loves. They love for Pastor to come out every Sunday, "You're gonna make it, and God's gonna bring you through." That's prophetic. That's what that is. And that's good. It's good. But at some point, uh, it's got to go beyond just you. Praise the Lord. It's got to go beyond. And some of us have been in church a long time, living on the prophetic office, just living off of it. Praise the Lord. We've fasted many times. You should see a preacher when they know they have to preach. They go before God. "Oh, be with me, Jesus." When did He leave? He didn't leave. You left. Praise the Lord. Oh, Cindy, anointing that makes preaching easy. You mean He's got to anoint you again? Praise the Lord. How many times He need to send it? If He's got to send it, that means you lost it. Praise the Lord. Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." Luke 4 and Isaiah 61. "For He hath anointed me." He said that one time and never said it again because He wasn't looking to get anointed again. Oh, I just said something controversial. All right. So, the prophetic office is wonderful because it gives us the opportunity to speak to each other in words of exhortation, edification, and comfort. And then, on a deeper level, if, if God so wills, then there's revelatory words. But we're not even talking about those today. All right. So, let's go to the next phase of this. But this is primarily not for the Great Commission. Praise the Lord. It's not for the Great Commission. Because if I spend all my time preaching to you, every sinner that comes in here is going to feel good, but he's not going to want to repent because my message to him or to her is going to demand a change in lifestyle. Praise the Lord. And unless the saints are sinning, they're not going to primarily hear that message. Praise the Lord. I'm talking good right now. Amen. So, let's go to the next phase of this and see what we got. All right. So, it's primarily for ministering to the body of Christ and speaking forth words, praise the Lord, uh, to others. So, that's what it's about. So, we exhort one another, we encourage one another, we comfort one another. Great deal. Great deal. And some of us, during these fasts, we come out of it, we feel good. We feel really good. Praise the Lord. And we feel more spiritual for a weekend or two. Praise the Lord. But God wants to do more than make us feel spiritual. All right. So, let's go a little further.

The kingly office. Well, that's a little different. Okay? The king's office is a little different than every other office because we are here representing the kingdom of God. And the Bible tells us He will make us kings and priests in His kingdom. And we've got to understand the responsibility of the kingly office because kingly, a king's office is different than the priest office, and the, the king's office is different than the prophet's office. See, the priest deals with himself and the people. The people of God. The prophet, uh, prophesies to the people of God. But the king, he deals with more than just the people of God. He deals with everybody. Amen. So, let's look at it. Let's see what we can get here. All right. Ah, that, that's really primarily fulfilling the Great Commission because now we're here to announce the kingdom, the coming of the kingdom. He said, "Well, I'm glad that's, I'm not really concerned about that kind of stuff. That, that kind of stuff gets on my nerves. You know, I mean, Pastor, you harp on that stuff too much." Well, what are you fasting for? You fasting for your healing? For your encouragement? For your exhortation? But nobody else? Is that what this really is about? Oh, my goodness. So, well, let's see what happens now. All right. Okay. Well, the king's office is to destroy the works of the devil. Amen. Who wants to fast and the devil is able to run shipshaw in your life? Who wants to do? You see how tight it got in here all of a sudden? Oh, I was talking about the priest. Yeah, Pastor. Oh, yeah. Glory to God. They even talking about the prophet. He's rebelling. Not talking about doing something for somebody other than yourself. So, let's look at this now. We're going to get some understanding. Okay? Ah, for healing the sick and proclaiming the kingdom of God to the lost. And so, my fasting, remember Isaiah 58, the fasting of Isaiah 58 is to deal thy bread to the poor outside of thy gates. It's time for us to move outside of our gates and move into the place that we are ministering to people who are desperately in need. Praise the Lord. And so, let's go a little further with this and get some understanding. All right. Let's look at the direction of these three areas that we're talking about. All right. The priestly office is up. Me looking up. Everybody look up right now. Yep. That's what it's about. You looking up. Long as I can get in connection with God. We're looking up. We're looking up. That's all I'm doing during the week. Some of us, "Oh God, oh God, oh God." That's good. Looking up. That's good. Amen. And then, at some point, uh, you know, somebody's gonna feel spiritual, and they're gonna feel prophetical, and then what's gonna happen? They're gonna stop looking up and they're gonna start looking across. Who, who can I give a word to? Who can I encourage? Who can I exhort? Who can I comfort? That's good. That's real good. Amen. I mean, but unfortunately, can I tell the truth tonight? Unfortunately, many of us are not even getting to part two. We're not even getting to step two. We're stuck in step one. We're stuck laboring that, "Oh God, oh God." Praise the Lord. But this is about deeper than just me ministering unto the Lord for myself. And in that sense, no, it's about, it's more than me just making intercession for people because I can go get in a cave and do that. And God is interested in more than me being in a cave doing that. Amen. And the prophetic is great, but He's interested in more than me just exhorting and comforting and and edifying the people who should be as strong as the Incredible Hulk. This church has got enough word coming through it, and I'm not pushing me, I'm just pushing this Bible. This church should have the best preachers, the best teachers, the best soul winners, the best healers, just bottom line, just there, right here, right here. He said, "Why would you say that?" Because the amount of information that you have gotten for what? Throughout the years. If you've been here half a minute, I have covered these subjects over and over and over. And the problem is not what you're getting. The problem is what you're doing with what you're getting. Praise the Lord. Amen. And I'm not pushing me, I'm just telling you the truth. All right. So, prophetic is horizontal. Look across. Look. Put your hand on. Go like this. Put your hand on. Go out. That's prophetic right there. Prophetically, you know, you're not prophesying to the Lord. "I decree and declare." That's what the problem is. Y'all, y'all telling God stuff, and He said, "Why are you talking to me about that? You can't force me to do nothing." If you're decreeing and declaring, it didn't come down to go up. It came down to go out. Oh, I just said something right there. And if you say it this way, and it doesn't come out the way you said it, then you spoke presumptuously. Praise the Lord. Amen. See, we want to put it on God, but it's not God that's blowing it. It's us. Praise the Lord. And so, the prophetic is horizontal. It's horizontal. And you don't have to be a prophet, and you don't have to have the gift of prophecy to give edification, exhortation, or comfort. Praise the Lord. All you need is the Holy Ghost to move on you. Praise the Lord. Amen. So, let's go a little further with this. All right.

The kingly office is down. Praise the Lord. You know, when the Lord spoke to the children of Israel, and they asked about the king, you know what He, He told them? He said that He's going to take your sons and put them in the war. He's going to take your daughters, He's going to make them into concubines. He's going to take wives of them. He's going to put a poll tax on them, so forth. That's down. That's not horizontal. Because the people He was king over were not His equals. Praise the Lord. And He, He was not king over God. Praise the Lord. Amen. So, the kingly office is down. So, the authority that the believer walks in is supposed to be those who are under the control of the devil. Praise the Lord. Oh, I'm talking tonight, man. I'm talking tonight. Some, some of you, I hope you don't walk away as forgetful hearers. Praise the Lord. And actually, I'm telling you upfront, ministers, I'm going to test you on what I'm saying tonight. Praise the Lord. So, that right there is downward. Praise the Lord. When you come out of your time of consecration, you should be all right with the priestly deal. I have sought the Lord. I've gotten everything that I know out of the way. All right. I have sought the Lord on behalf of others. So, I've been able to engage in intercession so that other people can get to their right standing and healing and deliverance and so forth before God. And then, of course, I have, in seeking the Lord, the Lord gave me words of encouragement, words of exhortation to encourage my brother and sister so that we can go forward. But then the third step is, now I am standing in a place of a king in faith. Praise the Lord. In faith. See, a king, a king knows that he's king. And because the king knows that he's king, he doesn't ask questions. He tells people what to do. Praise the Lord. Oh, you heard that, Brother Cameron? You heard it. You see it. That's right. That means some people still at the priest part right now. All right. Let's get with this. Okay. It's really important. Okay. When Jesus had called the twelve together, He gave them power and authority. Why? Because He is not trying to establish priesthood. Praise the Lord. No, no, no. Priesthood for private devotion. Priesthood is for intercession. He's not giving you. You don't give your child the keys to the car with no license. At least, if you're smart, you don't. You know what you do? You wait until you get a license, and then you give unto them power and authority to drive. You see how that happens? When they get the key, they now have the right to operate. Oh, some of y'all gonna catch that tomorrow. So, when He called the twelve together, first thing He did was call them. Praise the Lord. He called them. And after He called them, then He gave them. Praise the Lord. Is the difference? Praise the Lord. There's a difference. And so, He gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure sicknesses. We all love those verses of scripture. And He sent them out. Uh-oh. Why? Why would you give me all this just to sit in the house with it? He didn't. He sent them out. And some of you are wondering where your power is at. It's not in this building. Praise the Lord. It's not in this building. He said, "Well, one day the Lord told me nothing." So, it's not in this building. He sent them out. What are you doing, Lord? I don't give away power and authority just so you can say you got it. It's got to be used. It's got to be exercised. If after your time of consecration, you exercise nothing, then you lose what you should have had. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Praise the Lord. Let's see. Let's go a little further with this process because we really, we're going to walk through this, right? We're going to walk through this. He sent them out and said, "Look, you're a representative of the king, and so you're going to operate as kings, and you're going to go out there and you're going to heal those people." Uh-huh. You're going to preach to them. You're going to heal to them. Okay? Let's see. Are these, are these two, uh, commands still valid today? Because some people don't know. I don't know. You know, I don't want, maybe just for a select group of people. You know. No, no, no. Let's go a little further with this. Let's get some understanding. Okay? Because the next group of people in Luke the 10th chapter, they were in apostles. Jesus said, "You know something? I need other workers. I need other people." So, He sent them out into every village to preach to people and heal them everywhere. The question is, how far was Jesus willing to go to get and to produce ministry? He was willing to go wherever there was people. Praise the Lord. Wherever there was people. All right. In Matthew 21, and when He had called to Him His twelve disciples, okay, well, that's a good deal. He called His twelve. He gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out. All right. To heal all kinds of sicknesses, all kinds of diseases. Why is this important? And as you go, proclaim saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." The king, the king. What, what ministry? The king. The ministry of the king. Praise the Lord. You, you fasted, you prayed, that's good. But it should end with something. Something should happen as a result of it. If all you have to show for it is another notch in

Your belt, it's a little that you pulled up on, and your clothes are a little looser. And man, and your television got a chance to get a break, and your computer got a chance to cool down. And then you stopped fussing at your wife for a day or two. Or, you know, your kids felt safe for the week because they knew you were gonna bust them up while you're fasting. That's, that's not what this is about. That's not what this is about.

Says, "I got, I need you to do something with this. I need you to do something with this. I need you to be engaged in something." Notice everything he said. He's putting a whole lot on their shoulders because if you're going to operate like a king, then I need you to understand your responsibility. I need you to recognize that fasting is not just about getting slim. Praise the Lord! Oh, I'm talking good now. I'm talking good. He's like, "Oh my goodness, yeah."

And you know, and like I said, some people say, "Well, you know, it's just for those disciples." Well, no, it's not just for those disciples because he sent it past those disciples and Luke 10, and he appointed 70 others. Why? Because there's so many people who have needs. There's so many people that are burdened down. There's so many people who need to hear the gospel. There are so many people who need their lives changed. And if your fast is only about you, then your fast is really not very good. It's not really good.

So, what should I be doing after this fast is over? Should I just go to the television? "Hi, television. Hi, Netflix. I'm back." Hula! I'm back! Hula! Praise the Lord! Is that, is that, is that the summation of what this is about? Does this result in anybody being touched by God because we have touched God? Or does it just, we come away from it feeling like, "I am closer to God"? Oh, oh my goodness. I'm talking good now. I'm talking good now.

Now, he sent these 70 out two by two. He sent them everywhere he was going to go. Praise the Lord! Everywhere he was going to go. But, "Pastor, the pandemic is is raging out there. Pastor, oh, Pastor, this. Pastor, that." Some of you were ineffective before the pandemic. Praise the Lord! Amen. I'm telling the truth. Praise the Lord! The pandemic didn't make you ineffective. Praise the Lord! Amen. And unless people, I know 800 some thousand people have died during this time of pandemic. Amen. But I got to tell you something. You know, there's still a whole lot of people left. And those people need to hear the truth. Praise them! Thank you. I'm glad that somebody over there. Thank you, sister. And then, I appreciate you just came back into town and your hands working good. I appreciate your hands. Praise the Lord! Amen.

Look at what happens. "Heal the sick." Who are there? And tell them this clearly. "Are these, are these people who don't know God? These are people who don't know God." Heal the sick and tell them, "Tell them what? The kingdom of God is at hand. It's near you." Why? "Because the King has sent me in his authority to talk to you." Praise the Lord! Oh, I'm talking good right now. I'm bothering people. I know I must be talking good. Praise the Lord!

And let's see, let's see what we will return with. They came back with joy. What are we going to come back? Their testimony? "The devils were subject to us." Our testimonies may be, "We had a good meal." Really? Should that be our testimony? Their testimony was, "The devils were subject to us." That's, that's their testimony because they understood the goal of the fast, or the goal of being anointed, or the goal of being called, or the goal of being sent, was not just to say, "I have it," or that, "I have completed it." But it's bigger than that. It's bigger than that. It's bigger than that. It's bigger than that. We've got to get to that place. Uh-huh.

Mark 16. He told him, "Going to all the world." Well, I'm going to make it real personal for us. Go into your world. Go into your community. And all the people that you've talked to already, leave them alone. Praise the Lord! You know, there's some people, they have this. I've never done this before, but, um, they tell me there's some people that do sport fishing. You know, sport fishing is, sport fishing is when you catch the fish and you throw them back. Yeah. The goal is not to eat the fish. And I guess that's why I can't do sport fishing because everything I catch, I want to eat. Praise the Lord! But sport fishing is when you catch your fish, you take a picture, and then you throw them back in. And some of us are sport witnessing. "I've been witnessing to John for three years. He's almost ready to get right." And you've been able to pacify yourself for three years with John. You know, you know how you know when you're infected with somebody? When they say, "I'm going to surprise you." "I'm going to surprise you." Really? You're going to surprise me? That person is a candidate for a six-person carry-in. You know the six-person carry-in? I said, "That's pallbearers." "I'm going to surprise you." "You're going to surprise me." You mean you trying to surprise me? Who am I? Praise the Lord!

It's funny, all the witnessing I saw in the Bible either caused revival or riot. But your witnesses end up saying, "I'm going to surprise you." Praise the Lord! I'm talking good right now. Praise the Lord! So he gave him a great big feel. Great big feel. Why? Because the reason why I called you was not just to be a priesthood. No, priesthood is good, but it's not just to be a priesthood. The reason I called you is not just to be prophetic. Prophetic is nice, but guess what? After you know, I, I can honestly say, you know, uh, Sister Mara, I was telling Sister Mara, uh, you know, she did that, that short. And some of the young people, they didn't do a great job with that. They did it. I mean, really. I was watching that thing. I was getting convicted. Boy, I was like, "Jesus, am I all right?" Lord, I'm telling you, Mario had me gone. You know, like, "Jesus, let me check it out." You know, Marco Riley, y'all say, "I gotta make sure, man. I gotta make sure I'm right, man." Marco. And, um, I mean, it was really good. But it was one part in that little play or that, that short that really had me, uh, had me thinking. "Not the gifts today, Lord. Turn the gifts off." And that's how people in this church really are. "Come and talk about, please turn the gifts off. Don't let nobody get a word of knowledge. I ain't right today, Lord. Please don't let Pastor get prophetical today." He was like, "Oh, I hear the sound of them tongues." They say, "Oh my goodness, here it comes." After all, people get tired of being prophesied on. Praise the Lord! That's why you need some new fish. Praise the Lord! So when the old barracudas, you know, they can blend in the crowd. Amen. I'm telling the truth. Y'all think I'm not telling the truth? That's why some of us are having such a hard time with this lesson because you've gotten old and stiff. Praise the Lord! Amen, somebody.

And so he gave them this commission, this responsibility. Because if you're actively engaged in relationship with me, it's not just priesthood. It's not just prophetical. It is also kingly. It is also kingly. Praise the Lord! And so, let's look at this. Let's look at this. Okay? Let's look at what the Bible says because I want you to understand some things about what the scripture says. Because now, here's what happens. We get in the church, we do our little, little penance, and then afterwards, we have some risk-free things. Can I show y'all one of the risk-free things? Risk-free. That's risk-free. Y'all know that's risk-free, right? That don't prove nothing. Praise the Lord! You could have just cut your mama out and come in here and do this. You could have slapped your wife upside the head, come here and go, "Risk-free." That doesn't prove your spirituality. Am I telling you to stop shouting? No. I'm not telling you to stop shouting. That's not what I'm telling you to do. What I'm telling you is, what we do should be for genuine purpose, according to the scripture. Praise the Lord! It should be according to the scripture.

So, you get these risky events. Well, let's, let's see. Let me see. We're going to come to church on Sunday after we've had our little time and, you know, a little consecration. We gather together of the believers for free from the risk of any public indictment because it's just us. And now, because things have gotten the way they are, now people in the house can just worship by themselves. Nobody has to think I'm funny. Oh, I can just speak in tongues freely. Speaking in tongues freely in my car. Oh, I can feel powerful. I can quickly jerk and carry on. Oh, risk-free. Cost you nothing. And do that. Praise the Lord! Cost you absolutely nothing. Gather together and do that. Is that going to be the end of your fast? Is that going to be it? You'll feel more powerful. Can I tell you something? That's going to wear off very quickly. Praise the Lord! Once you have a nice piece of Sister White Keith's cheesecake. That's that cheesecake. Make you feel carnal. I'm telling you, man. That cheesecake be making you be saying, "Glory, but not to God." I'm telling you, that cheesecake is good, man. I'm telling you, man. It's sure enough good. So once you have a piece of that, man, you don't want to sleep. You ain't going to speak in tongues. You're going to want to prophesy. You ain't going to do nothing. Lay down. So here you, "Oh, well, the spirit has gone out of me now. Had a piece of cheesecake and it's gone." Some of you going to turn right back on those dirty Netflix movies. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! The same trash that was watering your spirit down before, you're going to turn it right back on. And then you're going to have a problem with laying on our hands. Why can't I stop laying hands on myself? Come on, somebody. Come on. Because after you fasted, you didn't do nothing spiritual. Praise the Lord! You ain't do nothing spiritual. You think you're gonna cry, "Oh God, I'm right back where I was." No, you never left there. You never left there.

See, right now, you should be there being out your phone. Praise the Lord! You should be cutting things off that need to go. Praise the Lord! I'm talking good right now. I'm talking real good. You should already be like, you know, somebody told me, they said, "You know, I'm gonna, uh, in 2022, I'm gonna win more souls." Right on, dude. Ain't won nobody yet. 12 days in, having won a cricket. You know why? Because you keep planning on doing it tomorrow. Praise the Lord! You let them tell you they're about to evict you today. You're not gonna be talking about tomorrow. "I'm gonna go find a U-haul truck." Oh, no. You're gonna get one today. You'll go find some money somewhere today. You're gonna find some way to lay your head today. And here it is with the spiritual stuff. Oh, tomorrow. I'm gonna put it off to tomorrow. Put it off to the mall. Put it off to the mark. Well, guess what? You're not going to do it.

So, you, you said, "Well, we'll come to see. We'll come to church." Oh, we're coming to church. This is nice. This is powerful. We, I can feel the spirit. You know, I'ma wait for everybody else to start worshiping because I feel convicted already. And I'm gonna wait for everybody else to get the spirit high, and then I'm gonna jump in. And nobody will know 'cause they had their eyes closed. That's not what this is about.

So, we, you know, by contrast, the first-century church didn't operate like that. They fasted for purpose. And when they fasted, they went out and they ministered. Praise the Lord! Somebody. Even in the Old Testament, they, they didn't just fast nonchalantly, man. They got engaged. They got involved. Something happened with their fast. Praise the Lord! Amen. Some of us have this concept that it's like God just does something. And no, that's not how it happens. That's not how it happens. When God speaks to His people, He demands something of us. And then, in obedience to what He demands, if we do it, then He does something for us. Did y'all get that? He said, "That's how that works." And we've got to understand how that's supposed to work. And until we begin to catch a hold to that, we're going to keep on just going through the motion. We're going to end the fast. We're going to have a meal. We're going to turn on the television. The married couple's gonna reunite. And all of that stuff's gonna go on. And nothing's gonna come out of it. And that's not the goal of it. The goal of it is to make a difference. Praise the Lord!

Now, we already read Isaiah 58. Then we read it. We read very clearly what was listed there. And so, we're going to see, "Okay, because the first-century church didn't operate like this." Okay? They didn't operate like this. Uh, they, they didn't just sit back and do nothing. In the end, they engaged in the work of God. They engaged in the work of God. But you know why we don't want to do that? The very reason why it's listed there: "Such actions are subject to risk, public failure, and embarrassment." Praise the Lord! When's the last time somebody told you, "Get out of my face, you're just a religious nut"? If you're not hearing that regularly, you know what that really means? You ain't talking to nobody. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! You ought to be hearing that quite regularly.

You said, "No, no, no, no." See, love will make them. How many of y'all wanted to give up y'all sin? Don't leave. Don't put your hand up. You liar. None of us wanted to stop sinning. None of us. And guess what? None of us want to stop now. Praise the Lord! Now, you, now you talking. You shout. You run the aisles. But let somebody get on your nerves and see how spiritual, see how quickly you come up out of that spirit. Since you all filled up to your top of your head to the tip of your toes, let somebody mess with your children and see if you turn the other cheek or go to fighting and fussing. Praise the Lord! You don't want to be spiritual.

So, it's not possible that you can talk to every person. Jesus wasn't able to do that. Jesus wasn't able to do it. Jesus's own sibling sent him to Jerusalem to be killed. Praise the Lord! Some of y'all don't read your Bible. Y'all selectively. Y'all, y'all read letter readers. That's it. Read letter readers. Praise the Lord! You're not reading that whole Bible. Praise the Lord! It wasn't just the apostles that were suffering. Jesus suffered horribly. At the first time, Jesus stood up in the synagogue in Luke the fourth chapter. He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." As soon as he said this, "Today is this scripture fulfilled in your ear." And then they started questioning him. And he, and he said, "Physician, heal myself." And he told him, he said, "Look, there was a whole bunch of widows in Israel. He said, but, but none of them got healed." As soon as he challenged them, none of them got healed. He said, "But that widow in their fat, she got healed, and she was a Gentile." He said, "A whole bunch of lepers out here in Israel. He said, and none of those lepers got healed." Only naming the Syrians. Soon as he challenged them, you know what they did to Jesus on the first day of his ministry outside of the wilderness? They took him to the edge of the cliff and they looked to throw his behind over. And here you are, elder, evangelist, brothers, sisters, "So saved and sanctified." They love you. You ain't as saved and sanctified as you talk. You're compromising. You're compromising your faith. That's what you're doing when you tell people the truth. Some of them are not going to like you for it. Amen. Amen. You know, some people leave this church because I tell them the truth. That's what I tell them. They go in that office, and I said, "Well, here's the truth." "He's dogmatic." No, I'm biblical. That's the bottom line. If you want to compromise and go up the street, that guy up the street will let you do everything. Praise the Lord! But you and him both going to hell. Praise the Lord! Somebody got to tell you the truth. Amen. Hallelujah! Glory to God!

So, such actions, oh, they come with a risk. You might get cussed out. You might be called a fake Christian. You might be told you're in a cult. You might be told that you ain't who you think you are. And since you don't want to hear that, you know what you do? You tiptoe around the work. You know why you won't put your hands on enough sick people to see them healed? I ain't talking about these saints in here. Let somebody outside of this building testify what God is doing through you. You know why you won't put your hands on them? Because they're going to tell everybody, "You ain't no healer." And what you should have told them at the beginning is, "I'm not no healer, but God can heal through me." Praise the Lord! Show a fear of not being wrong. It's easy to prophesy to one of these people in here because they just, because they love you, they won't tell everybody you missed it. Praise the Lord! Amen. I'm telling the truth. I'm telling the truth here.

So, we got to understand what's here. So, Jesus said these words in John 14 and 12. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever believes in me and will do the works that I have been doing." If you believe in me, you're gonna do what I was doing. Why? Because he was operating as a king. You believe in me, you do what I was doing. Praise the Lord! I need, that's why we fast. To do what He's doing. We're not fasting just so we can feel, "Oh, I got my joy back." Good. But do something with it. Praise the Lord! Man comes home, his family's hungry, and they, you know, he tells his wife, "Honey, I'm happier than I have ever been." And she said, "Well, now, will you pay the rent? Because when you were miserable, you was out drinking up all the money." You know, the wife comes on. She said, "Honey, this is the happiest I've ever been in this marriage. Will you start spending up all the money there?" Because if, if I'm the reason that you're happy, then why you got to have every outfit to come out? He said, "Well, what do they have to do with that?" "Oh, I'll take Jesus for myself." If you take Jesus, then you mean you want to be like Him. And the purpose of your time with Him should not just be about you. Oh, I'm talking good.

So, all the disciples were witnesses of Jesus, not just some of them. So, the church doesn't practice what she preaches. Mm-hmm. Don't practice what. No, Pastor, I see what we need to do. We need, we need to incorporate all these things to draw people because we refuse to go get anybody. Praise the Lord! We got to do better than that. What do I, what do we do after we fast? What happens after prayer and fasting events? What normally happens? Okay, it's really important. Well, we thank the Lord for a successful event and go home. None. [Music] Okay, that's nice. But is that it? That is, you know, okay, you guys want to take communion at the end? That's good. That's great. But what, what, that is it all we're going to do is take communion? That's it? No, Pastor, communion is the pinnacle. Yes, as much as you eat this, you know, eat this bread and drink this blood, you do show the Lord's death. Yeah, that's wonderful that we're commemorating and celebrating His death, burial, and resurrection. But that comes with the responsibility to fulfill the commission. Oh, my goodness. Let's see. Let's get it. I'm talking good now. Okay.

Let's see if we see this early. This pattern in the early church. We don't see this pattern that we have right here. Praise the Lord! We don't see that pattern in the early church. And it's really important. Okay. Acts relates to the acts, or the actions of the disciples after Pentecost. What are your actions? What are you doing? Well, Pastor, you know, I'm an usher. So after I fast for seven days, I'm gonna be a better usher. Does that sound kind of ridiculous to you? It'll sound ridiculous. Just after seven days, or five days, or 21 days, or 40 days, Brother Kevin. You think you're going to be a better musician? You're not going to be a better musician unless you practice every day. Praise the Lord! It's going to take practice to be a better musician. Hey, man, listen. I'm not, I'm not taking away anything from a spiritual endowment from God. I'm just talking about the reality of what's supposed to happen. And what's supposed to happen is priestly, prophetic, kingly. We seem to be stuck on priestly. Verse, you will enter into prophetic, and even less will enter into kingly. So, after seven or five or ten or 21 or 30 days, the question is, where are the actions that should follow the time of seeking? Where the actions? What happened to them? Did we actually end up with anything? Well, the disciples, they went everywhere. They declared everywhere. They went from house to house. They didn't just fellowship, but they went looking for opportunities to manifest the Lord Jesus Christ. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Amen. They didn't just simply get together with believers. You know, if that's, is that what you guys want to do? Y'all guys just want to get together and say, "Pastor, I, I think the church needs more love." What's, what is your definition of love? People catering to me, and people talking to me, and calling me up, and checking on me, and, you know, giving me gifts. And that's not love. That's selfishness. Is that selfishness? That's, praise selfishness, Lord. That's, that's that means I gotta cater to you. Why should I have to cater to you? Why can't we just serve each other? Oh, my goodness. Praise the Lord! Oh, I'm talking good. I'm talking real good.

But I got to tell you, the Lord's going to hold us accountable for failing to take the gospel to the lost, for allowing His grace that has been revealed to us so wonderfully to just go unchecked. Why? Because after we fast and pray, we feast and play. Praise the Lord! Shouldn't fasting and prayer and worship and gatherings make us more fruitful? Okay, I'm about to do something that's going to hurt. Okay, so I'm just going to hurry. It's gonna hurt. Let me show you something. If you have won a person in the last six months, just stand, please. Praise the Lord! Now, you think we don't need this lesson today? Hmm? Well, if you have won a person within the last year, the six months was constant, keep staying here. In the last year, stand, please. Last year. Okay. Since the pandemic. Since the pandemic. You think we don't need this lesson? You see how easy it is for us to fast, to pray. Thank you. You can sit down. To fast and to pray and to feel spiritual, to be priestly, to be priestly. Priestly is wonderful. It's good to minister unto the Lord. It's good to intercede on behalf of my brother and sister. But you know something? I want you to think about how many people the enemy has picked off among us in this time of pandemic. Now, why, why, why am I saying this? Because guess what? Most of them were faster than praying too. So what happened? Well, I'll tell you what happened. They were not engaged in the things of God. They gathered. They gathered. They definitely gathered. They might have done the priestly stuff. They might have. Most of them did not do the prophetic stuff. And even few of them did the kingly stuff. So if we gather, if we gather, if we gather, if we gather, John 15:8, "This is my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." You may be able to convince me that you're all right, but you will never convince God as long as you don't produce anything. Oh, that's pretty deep, isn't it? That's pretty deep. That's pretty deep.

I want you to see something. He said, "Well, you know, in the middle of this consecration, you just gave me a burden." You should have already had it. Because without me asking the question, you already knew the answer. And if the pinnacle of what we do is you speaking in tongues and missing a meal, then that means not only have you failed, you want to continue to fail. Oh, my goodness. I'm about to. Don't worry. So, our prayer events, or fasting events, the pretext for the lack of power to preach the gospel. Maybe that's why we're struggling with the power issue. Because how many, uh, I'm going to say this, and I know we're close. We're, we're right there at the pinnacle of when we should be ending. And I know you guys want me to pastor. You better be over at nine o'clock. Praise the Lord! Amen. So, just today, I'm going to do a little bit so I can finish these last couple of slides. And so, if you must leave, leave. Praise the Lord! Bates, I, I want to ask you a question. It takes a lot of work with all those children you got, right? A whole lot of work. You got to be on your, your, your P's and Q's all the time, man. I'm telling you, man. You done, huh? You died. You made a solid decision. Now, his wife's like, "See, see, see, if, if you're not producing, then you got to be raising, right?" Oh, I wonder how many raisins who are not producing. Ooh. It's not, I'm not on that committee. So, what? So, what? You know, there's some wives in here who don't act like, like act like mothers. And there's some, some dads in here who don't act like fathers. Praise the Lord! But we all know they should be, right? Praise the Lord!

Okay, so let's look at this now. Because we're wondering, "Well, wait, wait a minute now, Pastor. Wait a minute." So, to make up for the lack of miraculous power to draw the lost, what do we do? We have to program them. We have to program them. We have to come up with catchy phrases. We got to come up with praise dancing. And listen, listen, I don't think praise dancing is a sin. Let me say that publicly so you guys will get understand what I'm saying. I don't think praise dancing is a sin. I think praise dancing is carnal. There's a difference. It's a fleshly substitute for something that should be, praise, spiritual. Lord, we had a person come here one time, and they asked me, "Do they have praise at this church?" Because I love the singing, I love the worship, I love the gifts, I love the word. And I said, "No." They said, "I'm not coming here." That's carnality. Carnality. Because 20 years ago, no church had praise dancing. And if the only determining factor for you is whether or not somebody's doing this, you're carnal. Praise the Lord! And people got enough problems with their flesh with you with all your clothes on. Oh, I'm sorry. Oops. Excuse me, man. Excuse me. Men, y'all know I'm telling the truth 'cause we like the way you shake that thing. Praise the Lord! Now, I'm just being honest. Praise the Lord! So, we substitute other things to attract people instead of telling them the truth. Praise the Lord! We become the chief marketers. The best of us become the chief marketers. The worst of us become nothing. Praise the Lord! Some of us sell our businesses, but we don't even sell Jesus. And we might use Jesus as a front for our business. But if we don't, we don't know your business can't be successful claiming this for Christ and it don't win nobody for Christ. Oh, my goodness. I'm talking now. So, we draw people by marketing. We use all that kind of stuff to draw crowds and to get their money. Praise the Lord! And while I'm talking right there about money, some of you, shame, shame. When you get your statement, your statement made a statement. Praise the Lord! The expansion was not to replace your tithe. Praise the Lord! And some of you gave the expansion, but you stole the tithe. Oh, my goodness. I'm talking good now. Praise! I love my church. No, you don't. Praise the Lord! Jesus said, John 5:15, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit." Where are you? [Music] After you have fasted? Where are you? You meet on your most spiritual moment, on the pinnacle of the time that you have finished your time screaming and yelling and travailing and spitting and slobbing and speaking in tongues, you still can't produce. Oh, wait. That's pretty rough. That's pretty rough, man. On that, you mean on in that time? So, Isaiah 58 says, "Is this a fast? How could it be a fast?" Praise the Lord! I'm about that. I promise you. He said, "You will bear much fruit apart from me, you can do nothing." So, the question is, if you're doing nothing, then where are you? You must be apart. That's interesting. Okay. Well, verse number six, "If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are plucked up, thrown into the fire and burned." Wow. What happens after we fast? Okay, I'm down to the last slide. We preach endlessly. Can I say this? I want to say this to you guys. I want to say this. Immaturity. Please understand tonight. I'm talking. I'm not, I'm not angry. I'm firm. Can you be comforted? Can you be encouraged? How many times must I tell you that you can make it and it be enough to hold you? Listen, if I got to tell my wife 50 times a day, "I love her," something's wrong inside of her. She's got love issues with herself. Now, people, I love. I tell them. I tell them I love them, and I tell them regularly. But if every time I gotta remind you that I love you, there's something wrong with you. When will we grow up, church, to the point that we can believe that God loves us? Oh, my goodness. I'm talking good right there. Praise the Lord! Amen.

So, let's get to this. Okay, let's get to this. I'm closing. But what, what if, what just, what if we had testimonies rolling here on Sunday, not from the pulpit, but from the floor? What if all the things, 13 pages of prayers, somebody touched God and then touched somebody, and somebody got a miracle? Oh, my goodness. And then they came to church on Sunday with you and say, "This, this by him. He, he saw me limping and he reached his hand out and said, 'I know, I know pandemic, but can I just say a quick prayer?'" And then he called the name Jesus over that person, and instantaneously healing flowed into that person's body, and they felt that touch. And without any extra, they said, "Where do you go to church? I need to go to your church because I, I've never felt this before." And then they come and say, "Can I, can I talk to that preacher because I need to tell that preacher what happened to me?" Then you know that preacher's gonna say, "You don't just tell me, tell them." Praise the Lord! I'm talking good now. What do you do after you fast and pray? Praise the Lord! Amen. Because we, we say, "Where's all the power?" It's in the same place it was before. The difference is, after they fasted and prayed, they went out. After we fast and pray, we go have dinner. Praise the Lord! I'm talking good. See, we, we want holiness. Follow peace with all men, holiness without which no man can see the Lord. So, what if you're holy, but you won't help anybody? Praise the Lord! Oh, I'm talking good now. Praise and worship should result in effective evangelism. Effective. If I spend all this time talking to God, "Lord, I'm asking you, look on each and every heart. Lord, there's somebody out there, Lord, that don't know You. I don't know where they're at, Lord. I don't know what's going on in their life, Lord. But I ask You in Jesus' name, lead me and guide me to them, Lord. Help me not to be afraid, Lord. Give me boldness, O God, in the name of Jesus. Help me to stretch out my hand, O God, and call Your name over them, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Help me to open my mouth and tell them of Your goodness, Lord. I have spent this time with You, Lord. Oh God, not just to encourage the saints, Lord, but I have come right now in the name of Jesus, Lord, to minister to somebody who is lost and separate, Lord. Somebody that is bound and shackled, O God, in the name of Jesus. Right now, Lord, O God, bring forth testimonies, Lord, in deliverance, O God, in the name of Jesus. Right now." [Music] Hillary, see how quickly the spirit comes up when we're focused on others? The Holy Ghost will move. Oh. [Music] Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Let me hurry up. Acts 4:31, "And after they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken." See, the Holy Ghost moves. Let's see what happens. "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and spake the word of God with boldness." We get filled with the Holy Ghost and shout and go home. They get filled with the Holy Ghost and they go out and talk to others. So, after this time of consecration, if all you got to show for it is that you danced, then you missed a whole lot of blessing. Praise the Lord! You missed a whole lot of blessing. It's really important. Okay. Acts 16. "And at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and other prisoners were listening to them." What was the result of their praying and singing? Okay, well, let's see what happens. "Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prisons were shaken, and that all at once all the prisons, the prison's doors flew open, and every man's chains came loose." We'll see what happens now. Powerful miracle resulted. We'll see what's going on after that. "The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword, was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped." And they replied, "Hey, believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." And they spoke the word of the Lord to them. Wait. You mean I'm going, I'm in prison, I'm praying, I'm singing, God gives an earthquake, a miracle, opens the doors, it breaks the chains, it's for people to get saved, not us. You know what we call that message? A midnight dance. See, we don't even care about the jailer. Most of us preachers, when we preach this sermon, we don't even preach about the jailer. Am I telling the truth? You know what we're worrying about? We make sure it's just about midnight before we go off. It's about midnight. Come on, musicians. [Music] You're about to make all your change come off. And the miracle. Listen, I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded the miracle was not for Paul and Silas. You say, "How do you know that?" Because after they ministered to the jailer and his household and baptized them, he went, they went right back to jail. But he said, "How many of us can sit in jail for somebody else's salvation?" Oh, that's a whole story right there. All right. So, let's see. Okay. "At the hour of the night, the jailer took them, washed their wounds, and they immediately, he and all his household was baptized. The jailer brought them into his house, had a meal before them, filled with joy before he had come to believe in God, and he and his whole household." But you know the next verse says, "He took him back to jail." Praise the Lord!

So, let me close. I'm closing. All of those who had the perseverance and willingness to stay along for the ride. For those of you who are not saved, you have heard a lesson that's really designed and targeted to those who are believers. But I want you to know, God has not forgotten you. God wants you to be saved. He wants you to come to know Him. If you're not born again of the water and spirit, tonight is your night. If you're here in this sanctuary and you know you need God in your life, you need to get up right now. You need to get it right now. Hey, man. You need to get up right now and say, "I know I need the Lord. I mean, I'm not messing around. Tomorrow's not promised to me. I need to repent of my sins. I need to be baptized in water in Jesus' name. I need the Holy Ghost." Look at, look at the Lord. Look at the Lord. Come on, somebody. Come on. One of your ministers, go and minister. Come on. Y'all clapping like y'all got pity pat in your hand. Come on, clap your hands. Get excited about people. Some of us don't get excited about nobody but ourselves. If you're watching and you have not experienced the Lord in His fullness, it's your opportunity. Go ahead and play, son. It's your opportunity. Amen. To draw close to God. Your opportunity. I need a worship in church. I know you, you ready to go home. You ready to get on the road. Some of you haven't eaten your meal yet. You can't wait to eat. Praise the Lord! But for somebody else, would you just get into the priest of the king role for a moment? For somebody else. Is there somebody else here that wants the Lord? Come on. If there's somebody sick here right now, in the name of Jesus, and you want to be healed, come on. Come on right now in Jesus' mighty name. In Jesus' mighty name. If you're sick right now, in Jesus' name, and you just want somebody to touch you and command by the name of Jesus, not a long drawn-out prayer. Here's your opportunity right now in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Right now, in the name of Jesus. If you're here, hallelujah. Here's your opportunity in Jesus' mighty name. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Come on, church. Stop resisting in the spirit. Come on. Open your spirit. Stop being so programmed that God can't get in. Come on. Open your mouth. Come on. Worship the Lord. Come on. You, some of you were on the verge of giving up. You were ready to backslide. You need to come. You need to come in the name of Jesus. You need to come right now. Right now. Come on in Jesus' name. Come on. We don't need oil tonight. Come on. We need souls. We need bodies. We don't need oil. Come on. We've got two rituals. Ritualistic. Come on. We need a burden. We need desire. Come on. In the name of Jesus. Come on. If you need prayer, come on right now. Come on. By right now. Right now. Come on. Come on. Ask God to pour the oil out on you tonight. To pour the oil out on you tonight. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Come on. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah! Come on, brother. Come on up. Come on. One of you elders, come on. Stop sitting in your seat. Come on. It's time to move out of that place. Come on. Get out of your space. Come on. In the name of Jesus. Come on. We've been too passive. We've been too passive. Come on. We got to become a militant church again. Come on. We've been too passive. [Music] Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Those of you that are watching via stream, don't forget to give your offering tonight. [Music] Don't forget. Hallelujah!