Transcription
My husband and I have the opportunity to minister to women and children who've been sold into, and to be part of that rescue and restoration. One Sunday morning, it was Mother's Day, and I was in a church in Spain where some of these young women, teenagers, were in the morning service. At the end of the service, we went to the front and invited women and men in the service to come for prayer. Suddenly, a young woman stood in front of me, an African young woman with tears running down her face, and she was asking for prayer. I took her in my arms and I said, "My daughters are not here today, but you'll be my daughter this morning. Can I pray for you?"
And as I began to pray, I felt led of the Spirit to pray a specific kind of prayer. I began to pray over her; the tears just started coming down, and her whole face changed. It wasn't until the end of the service that I discovered that this young woman who had been trafficked, trafficked from prostitution, for prostitution, from an early age, and now was 18, after 10 years of slavery in this place where she was being restored. No one knew her name, but that morning, as I had prayed over her, the Spirit had given me words, and I had prayed over her using her name repeatedly, telling her that God loved her. At the end, she said, "For the first time, I know there's a God. He loves me, and He knows my name. Thank you."
If it wasn't for being able to rely on the anointing and guidance of the Holy Spirit, we could not begin to minister to those in sexual slavery. We totally depend on the work of the Spirit. I just want to encourage you to believe for more. I can tell you this: sometimes we think God wants to do it for other people, but God wants to do it for everyone, and I want you to have your faith rise up. My own son was healed of autism. Now I know people say that can't happen, but my son was in special ed for two years. He would line everything up like a train; he couldn't make eye contact. And one day after church, with just a simple prayer, we laid hands on him and prayed for him. A prophecy was given that God would heal our son for His glory. Our son started to look up at us; he no longer made the train. We brought him to special ed; the teacher said, "What happened to Connor?" I'm telling you, we told her that he was healed. She brought in the supervisor; they did not believe what God had done. I want you to believe for more.
I was in a position where I saw God as a loving God; I saw Him as a kind God, but I didn't believe for more, and that day changed me forever. I believe God for more. I believe that God wants to do the miraculous; I believe He wants to heal, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can lean into this. There's no shortage of supply, and I'm saying, "Believe for more." My new granddaughter, my new grandbaby granddaughter, Eevee, had just been born, and we were—it was Saturday night, and she was three days old, and I went over to see her and, uh, her mom and dad—her mom and dad don't matter as much; I mean, the grandbaby is what matters. And, uh, on the way home, driving from Tyler's house to my house, I had a sudden picture of my son as a single dad with his wife gone. It just—it captured me so hard. I just began to—to pray. I'm old school; I was pleading the blood and just praying protection for my son and for his wife and for their daughter.
That next morning, about 7:00, I got a call from my son, and they were rushing my daughter-in-law to the hospital. When she got there, it—it looked bad; the prognosis wasn't good, and her blood pressure was super high, and her pulse rate was 157, and her pulse ox was super low, uh, and as she—as she hung on to life, I thought back to the night before and that the Spirit had prompted me to pray. Then that afternoon, a pastor friend in town, Hugh and Katie Arborough, Katie messaged me, and she said, "Pastor, I heard what's going on with Emily, and I got to tell you, I know you and I know your wife, Cindy; I know Tyler; I've never met his wife, but last night I couldn't sleep because the Holy Spirit was just tugging at my heart to intercede and to pray for Emily, and I want you to know I stayed up last night praying for her." The Holy Spirit spoke to me; the Holy Spirit spoke to Katie because the Holy Spirit knew what was going to happen and called us to prayer. Fifty-seven hours after she entered the CICU, Emily walked out of that hospital healed and whole, and she's healthy today, and I'm so thankful for people who pray. Hey, God bless you. This is Pastor Choco with New Life Covenant Church.
My experience, uh, what I've—with the Holy Spirit is, uh, we saw God move in a mighty way just a few weeks ago when we did a series on honor and how we honor folks, how we honor ordinary people. And a particular Sunday, we invited in our three services, uh, an eighth grader to come, and we honored him for his perfect attendance. And then we—second service, the 10:00, we honored a basketball coach, Coach, and he came, and it was very emotional. But the third service is where we felt—where the Holy Spirit really moved, because what happened there only the Holy Spirit could have done that. We invited a lady to come from a pizza organization, and we ordered pizza for the 12:30 to come right after worship. And when she arrives, she's caught off guard; she's in front of the entire church. And, um, from there was just what the Lord did. I gave her a $100 tip. I asked her how much she would—she normally would get, and she told me $5, and I took a $100—off, and I gave her a $100 tip. But then I asked the—the people of the church, I needed 10 folks that would come and bless this lady who we don't know; we don't even know the story that she's going through, her drama and so forth. Well, what happened after that was the move of the Holy Ghost. We had close to 100 folks come up to give this woman—she began to weep before the Lord in the church; she began to cry. And here she is, just going to deliver pizza, and little did she know that her—her day would be marked by God. God marked it that day, and when we gave her the money, we prayed over her, and—and then she left. It didn't stop there, because I met her four days later again on another news station, and she told me that when she went back to her job, she was able to share that, uh, money with other folks. Well, that video went viral—over 10 million views—at different, uh, news outlets were able to see it, and just for that moment of that week, the name of Christ, the—the—the—just the gospel was being preached by folks that were watching what the Holy Spirit did. And only the Holy Spirit can get the credit for what happened, 'cause you don't wake up one morning and say, "I'm going to go viral with this video and 10 million views in one week." Only God can do that. That's my [Music] story. All right, uh, I'm super, super excited to be here. All right, uh, I'm super, super excited to be here, but I have to be totally honest with you, um, I barely got here because it seems like every single one of you has your own personal parking spot, and so that was kind of—what was honestly even more bizarre to me is, for people who believe in healing, you have a large number of handicap parking spots, like—just like an abundant amount. I'm super pumped to be here; it's going to be really fun. Um, so I guess before we get into anything, um, so your mind is tie bucking. I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, and me and my wife have the incredible opportunity to minister on the Holy Spirit in a way that's very normal, not strange or anything like that, and so we get to do that, uh, for a living, to—to make a church and many churches, and it's absolutely awesome. And that's what we're going to do this morning; we're going to do it in a way that's very normal, and hopefully we can have some fun doing this. Um, I guess a couple other things to tell you is, yes, so I am married, um, I've been married for three and a half years. No clapping; that's fine; it's fine; whatever. Like, okay, here's what I realized when I first got married and I preached somewhere; people would lose their minds; like they'd make standing ovations. It's like they never seen someone married before, and now I've realized this morning that nobody seems to care, and so it's funny, like I'm over it; it's whatever, um, it's only a hol thing, but whatever. And so—so we've been married for a little bit, and—and I've been married for a couple years. People ask us whether we're speaking somewhere, where you know, family especially, they're like, "Hey, so when are you guys going to have some, you know, some little pastors, you know," you can ask some kids. And so honestly, we have no idea; we practice constantly, but you know, that's just whatever, you know. So I want to talk about the Holy Spirit, but before we do that, we have to talk about something just about spiritual. I want to talk about pets for just a moment. Raise your hand if you have a pet. Raise—not here; that'd be weird. A lot—a lot of you. Okay, some lonely people; it's cool. Um, so but for me personally, uh, when I think of a pet, I think of like four main categories of pets, and so like what I've realized is this is like—like the first category would be this: are people who have dogs. We have any dog people here? Okay, for real, like when I imagine the American family, it's like mom, dad, two kids, golden retriever with an American flag bandana, like—like that's America to me. We actually recently got a puppy two months ago, and the moment we got home, I felt more American, like honestly, like I had this intrinsic need to go out and vote for something, like—like I said, we have this puppy, and it's cool, and—and I honestly feel like that's like the most normal pet, like that's like the normal pet. And so, but the second—would be a second category of pets are people who have pet cats. Do we have cat people in the house? Basically, by raising your hand, you're saying I make bad decisions. And so, like, for real. And so—and it's cool; it's—it's totally cool, but like—and I get that; I've been there; like I have a testimony like that, and so—and so like—and it—it changed my life. We—we had a pet cat for—for a year and a half actually, and he was really cool, but we had to get rid of him. He had this really weird medical condition; it was called him peeing on the couch. And so, and he would do it regularly enough that honestly, one time should be enough, but that's how cat people are, honestly. Like when we were cat people, we're like, "Oh, peeing on the couch, but you know, it's our son; you know, we're not going to get rid of him, you know, for his actions." And so, but we had to get rid of him, but you know, praise God, we have a dog and a new couch obviously. So I think, but that's still pretty normal pet honestly, like think dogs and cats are normal. Now the third out of the four categories that I think of—the third category are people who have like pet snakes. Okay, we—yeah, for real. So—so like, we be real, like if you have a pet snake, you either have or you will do jail time, like, but there's no way out of it, like there's just honest—like, okay, let's be totally honest; let's say—let's just say like Pastor Dar is having a party tonight at her house—she's not—so don't show up—but like let's say she's having a party at her house, and like I think I've invited him—we might—we have a donation before—and let's say like a bunch of us at our house having this party, and all of a sudden I'm kind of doing the tour of the home, and like, "Oh, there's a guest room, and the guest bathroom, and there's another room or whatever," and I'm like, "What's that?" "Don't worry about it; like it's really dimly lit." "What's—" "I have a pet snake; it's no big deal." Like immediately I've been like, "Oh, Donna has been timed," like—like for real, like—like there's no way around it, like—like anybody I know who has a snake, they're not my friend, first off, but like—like it's so crazy, like the likelihood of you being like eaten by a snake goes up dramatically if you have one living in your house, like—and so it just seems bizarre, and it just intends to me. And the fourth category—we're going to talk about this for a minute—are people who have pet birds. And do this for a minute, like just think of someone who has a pet bird; are they the most normal people you know? Like I'm not saying they're the weirdest, but they are—but like—like for real, like I want you just right now just like—just in your mind, like picture someone who has a pet bird, you know, like what do they look like? Like how many fanny packs do they own, you know, like—and like what colors are they wearing, you know, to church. And so, like—like for real, I don't know why, but everybody that I've met who's had a pet bird are just—are just straight up weirdest people I've ever met, and—and for real, if you're here and you have a pet bird, this is your pickup call, for real. And so, like—like you're crazy and you don't know it, and—but it's actually very funny. Um, I—I used to live next door—these people who had these—these exotic birds before I got married. I live next to these people and these exotic birds, and honestly, they were super ugly, and they were super loud, but I remember one day I went over their house, and I was just kind of being neighborly, just kind of saying hi, and I—and I walked in, and I didn't hear any—any of the birds, and I was like, "Oh, praise, you know, they're dead," you know, but—but—but actually they weren't. And so I end up actually seeing in their house this bird cage, which that by itself is interesting to me and kind of funny because birds are made to do one thing, and that is to—to fly, but then people who have pet birds, they put in a cage where they kind of hop around, and it looks ridiculous. But I see this bird cage, and there's a blanket actually over this cage, and I've actually never seen this before, and I was like, "What is up with the blanket? You know, what is this? It's kind of weird and kind of ugly." And so they're like, "Yeah, actually, when we put a blanket over the bird cage, uh, we don't have to look at the birds, and we don't see them or hear them either; it makes them completely silent, so all the annoyance or loudness like goes completely away." And—and what I've realized is this: so many people treat the Holy Spirit like He's actually a bird. You know, so many people confine Him to this cage of comfortability, or worst-case scenario, we have a weird or bad experience, and so we put a blanket over Him so we never have to see Him, deal with Him, or hear His voice, but He's in the corner of our room just to say that He's there, but He's not actually really there. And so what we want to do this morning in the most simplistic way is—is to talk about who is Holy Spirit really, and—and what do we do with Him, like on the most practical, normal level, because I don't know about you, but when I think of the Holy Spirit for the longest time, like I always think of this bird as a dove, you know, like you see on—on like stained glass images or on paintings; you think of Jesus, a halo, and then like this dove, you know, on church logos; it's like one in five church logos is a dove for whatever reason. And then like I used to wonder like why is it that I think of the Hol Spirit like—like I think of a dove, honestly, even in this room here, if I was to ask all of you to apply a piece of paper to draw a picture of the Holy Spirit, most of you would probably draw a picture of a bird. And I used always kind of wonder where this comes from, and—and honestly, I'm going to go there for a moment, so if you have your Bibles to say, "Oh, yeah," okay, like half of it seems like weird audience, but it's cool. Okay, so if you have your Bibles, you can go to the book of Matthew; I believe we'll have it on the screen as well. And I love this passage for a couple reasons; we'll break it down in a really cool—And it says this: and Jesus is getting baptized, uh, by John the Baptist, and this happens, and Matthew is writing down his firsthand account, you know, he's writing down later on what he sees. It says this: and when Jesus was baptized, immediately He went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him. Now you know it's a straight-up awesome day when heaven opens up for you; that's a good day. So like, behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God, or Holy Spirit—same person, different vernacular; like my name is legally Tyler, but everyone calls me Tai—same person, different way of saying it. So He saw the Spirit of God or Holy Spirit descending like a dove and coming to rest upon Him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." And so obviously this is the voice of God the Father speaking to God the Son, Jesus, and then we have God the Holy Spirit in the same room at the same place, which is very cool to me, because even just by itself, that's interesting, because this is one of the only places in the entire New Testament where we have God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit in the same room at the same time. It's a really cool kind of demonstration of who He is, but I love this phrase, and I think it's important to us when we were talking about earlier this of like a dove. Do you say like a dove? Yeah, like a—like understand Matthew is seeing something that is life-changing and is so crazy. What Matthew is writing down later on, he's saying—he's writing down in his earthly language something that was a heavenly experience. I mean, even a moment ago when worship is happening, it's like, how do we describe the presence of God? It's almost always metaphorical; it's like, "Oh, it felt like, you know, a blanket, or it felt really good; it felt like—it felt like—it felt like." And so Matthew is trying to get some words to say, and it's basically saying like the best way that I can describe what I saw to you in an earthly way is this: it was like a dove was coming to rest upon a branch to kind of look like that, how the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus. Now that word, like—like a dove, like—is metaphorical in nature. And so the Holy Spirit is not a bird; the Holy Spirit is God; the Holy Spirit is God here on earth, living inside of us to have a relationship with us. And so that's what we're going to talk about today in the most fun way we possibly can. So today we're going to talk about why I have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, and at the end of this, we're going to say, "Okay, so then how do we do this?" So and the question might be this: like, so why I have a relationship with the Holy Spirit if I already have a relationship with Jesus? And the first reason is this: if Jesus is playing for you, like why have a relationship with Holy Spirit? Because Jesus wants you to; it's absolutely 100% a part of the plan the entire time. Um, in—the book of John, it says this: John chapter 16, verse 7; Jesus is talking to His disciples. Now understand this: His disciples have given up everything; they are following Him to basically whatever. And imagine planning for this to be a forever thing, and kind of all of a sudden Jesus is kind of wrapping things up with His disciples, and He's like—He kind of huddles them around, and He says these words: He says, John 16:7, "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth"—meaning He's not lying other times, but extra emphasis on this thing—"I tell you the truth; this is the real stuff. It's to your advantage that I go away now." Even pause there: if I'm a disciple, I think Jesus is straight up crazy. I mean, imagine you're seeing all these amazing miracles, signs and wonders, all these cool things, and then Jesus is like, "Has it been fun? Awesome—see you later!" Like—like it's actually better if I leave; I would be so confused. But—but Jesus continues and says this: so it's your—it's to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper or the Holy Spirit will not come to you, but if I go, I will send Him to you. And what I love about that in general is—is like Jesus is saying, "Hey, it's much better that I leave, because what you guys are experiencing—this one-on-one relationship where you can ask Me questions and I can respond—where like you're—you're around Me and like mirrors are happening on a regular basis—every believer should have this." And so Jesus is not just saying it's to your advantage of these disciples; He's saying it's to humanity's advantage that I leave so that the Hol Spirit can come. See what is happening is when Jesus is here on earth, He's confined to a physical body. What He's saying is, "I don't want to be confined to a physical body; I want to be in everybody." And Thomas sent the Holy Spirit to be on anybody who wants to have a relationship with Him and wants to have a way better life. So why have a relationship with the Hol Spirit? Well, first off, it's Jesus is playing for you from the beginning; He absolutely wants you to have a relationship with Him. And the second reason is this: it's way better than a life on your own; it's way better than life on your own. Okay, so this is real. Um, I had this one prayer I prayed six times in my life; this is real—over six different women. Okay, and so I prayed this prayer in all fervency; I was like, "Jesus, let me marry that girl." And I prayed that prayer six times over six different women. The first time I was 15 years old; I just had gotten into my first real relationship, you know, I was—I was pretty romantic at the time—15. I sent her a text message, and I was like, "Hey, girl, you know, do you want to be my girlfriend?" And she's like, "Yes." And immediately when I got that response back, I pray—I said, "Jesus, let her be my wife, you know, I'm 15; I know it all, like she's it, you like when you know, you know what I did." And so, you know, we had ups and downs, and eight minutes later we had broken up. And so, like, that's—that's real actually, um, you know, we had our differences; we were too young; we were too young. And—but honestly, five more times over my life that was happening, whether was in high school or dating someone for—for a year or for weeks or for months. And then I've been to college a couple times; I meet some girl; I'm like, "Jesus, let me marry that girl; she's so cool or spiritual or whatever." And now—now comes to a moment where I'm—I'm a junior in college; I'm walking out to Texas; I'm at a Starbucks, you know, typing away on paper, and all of a sudden this super attractive girl walks in Starbucks; I do not know her name still, but so she walks in Starbucks; I'm typing away; I see her; I look down; I'm like, "Jesus—
In the name of Jesus, you know, like, "Let me marry this; I'll take anything." Like and