[00:00:00,000 - 00:02:27,360]
I kind of wrestled with what to title this, but I titled this message, Jesus to the rescue, Jesus to the rescue. And here we're gonna see that the disciples, they failed. They had a job to do Jesus, gave them power to witness and to cast out devils and to heal people and help people, but they were unsuccessful. Have you ever been unsuccessful in trying to do something? Have you ever failed and maybe suffered a loss or maybe been stuck in defeat? And critics and haters and mockers are kind of right there looking at you and you kind of maybe feeling vulnerable, a bit like, man, I wish this didn't happen. And well, that happened here in the passage. These disciples, they failed. And all of a sudden Jesus shows up to the rescue. And how many of all Jesus has showed up for you this week to your rescue? And he's just come through again and praise the Lord that he is the deliverer. He is the savior. He's the one, not just a one- time savior, but he continually shows up on our behalf. He is the great deliverer. And today we'll see how he cast out a devil out of a person and the instruction he gives to his disciples as to why they were unsuccessful. And it's with this feedback, we wanna take into our life and assimilate it so that we too can grow in our faith. Mark chapter number nine, look what it says in verse 14. Mark chapter nine, verse 14. And when he, Jesus came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them. And the scribes, these are the religious leaders, questioning with them. So picture all of his disciples there, the scribes are questioning them. Jesus shows up, verse 15. And straight away, all the people, when they beheld him, Jesus, were greatly amazed, running to him and saluted him. So their attention went right to Jesus. Verse 16 and he asked the scribes, what question ye with them? It's almost like Jesus saying, what are you guys conversing on? What are you asking my disciples? It's almost like the leader stepping in, checking or apparent, checking on the kids or something like that. It's like he's stepping in like, what are you questioning them on?

[00:02:28,320 - 00:06:09,600]
And in verse 17, it says in one of the multitude, so somebody else chimes in, answered and said, master, I have brought unto thee my son, which had the dumb spirit. And wheresoever he takeeth him, he tareth him. And he foeeth and gnasheth with his teeth and pineeth the way. And I speak to the disciples that they should cast him out and they could not. So this dad is bringing his son saying, hey, I brought my son, he's messed up. Like he's full of devils. Like he can't control himself. He's under the influence of satanic oppression and it's messing with them. He's foaming at the mouth and gnashing with his teeth and he's not eating, he's pining away. I mean, he's all over the place. He has no emotional behavioral control at all. And I brought him to the disciples and the disciples, they can't help him. And he answers in verse 9, he says, oh, faithless generation. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? And then he says these words, bring him unto me. I love that about Jesus. When everybody else fails, Jesus never fails. Bring him to me. I'll take the case. I'll take the difficult ones. I'll take the hard pressed ones. I'll take all those that are helpless and hurting. Bring them to me. I love that about Jesus. Bring him unto me, verse 20. And they brought him unto him. And when he saw him straightway, the spirit tear him and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming. So this devil that's inside this boy is thrashing him and throwing him down. And Jesus asks the dad, verse 21, how long is it a ghost since this came unto him? And he said, well, of a child. And oftentimes it casteth him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. You know, the devil's, they come to steal, to kill and to destroy. They're not playing nice. And it looks like this dad is like, man, my boy's been like this for a long time. And then he says to Jesus, if thou can'ts do anything, have compassion on us and help us. You can almost feel this dad's heart, please, please, help my son. If you could have some compassion, if you could feel my pain, if you could feel my plight, please have compassion on us. Please heal my son. Jesus says in 23, if thou can'ts believe, all things are possible to him that believe it. Listen, if you can believe it's possible is what he says. And straight way the father of the child cried out and said, with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. You can almost sense that this dad is just doing the very best he can just to hang on. But he also senses this overwhelming defeat from years of spiritual attacks and oppression. And the fact that he's there trying to get his boy some help from the disciples and now with Jesus is an indicator of an expectation that his son can get healed. But then he also has this feeling where it's like, please help my unbelief because it's been so long and I've tried so many things and it's just not working.

[00:06:11,160 - 00:06:40,560]
And when Jesus saw the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit saying unto him, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee. "Come out of him and enter no more into him." And the spirit cried and rent him sore and came out of him and he was as one dead in so much that many said, he is dead, but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he rose.

[00:06:41,560 - 00:07:06,480]
And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast him out? And Jesus says to his disciples, this kind of cometh, this kind can come forth by nothing, say the next few words with me, but by prayer and fasting and he departed then.

[00:07:08,000 - 00:08:30,720]
And so in this message today, we see it's Jesus to the rescue. We see that the disciples couldn't cast out the devil and Jesus sees this boy and he deals with the evil spirits and this is an unclean spirit. Y'all know that there are devil still today. You understand that there are still tormenting people and plaguing people and Jesus is still the answer. He's still the deliverer, he's still the rescuer. - And in this lesson we see, this message we see, how to deal with failure. These disciples, remember Jesus said, you're gonna go out, you're gonna preach, you're gonna teach, you're gonna heal the sick, you're gonna raise the dead, you're gonna cast out devils. I have given you authority to handle business. Now go out and handle business. And they were successful up to a certain point than something happened. You ever had some momentum and have some success in your life and then all of a sudden you hit a sticking point? You hit a spot where all of a sudden the faith and the power and the conviction and the results, they dried up. And you find yourself in this horrendous spot where you don't know what to do and your critics are on you and the haters are on you and you're overwhelmed with not just a feat, but the shame and everybody else looking on you. When you know that you're supposed to see the results, but for whatever reason it's not happening.

[00:08:33,840 - 00:10:23,680]
Here we see Jesus shows us how to overcome the critics. He shows us how to get back to winning souls. We see that when there's a command to go, there's also power to accomplish it, but we also see this. There are some things in your life you're not gonna see results in if you keep doing the same thing. You're gonna have to dig a little deeper. You're gonna have to sacrifice a little more. You're gonna have to be willing to let go of the distractions, let go of the sins, let go of whatever's plaguing your mind and you're gonna have to be able to focus in on what God wants you to do. There's some things in your life that are eating away your faith. You see, you can get going and be successful for so long and not even realize that you're picking up things on the journey. You're picking up sins, you're picking up weights, you're picking up failures, you're picking up hurts and your energy, your power is waning. And this is when you have to realize just pressing through, grinding it out is not the answer. You have to step back and sharpen up. You have to step back and say, "Okay, King Jesus, "why am I not seeing results? "Why am I not being successful? "What is happening in my life? "I'm doing all the same things that you've called me to do." But for whatever reason in the ministry right now, I'm hitting a wall. You ever hit a wall? It happens to everybody. It happens in homes, it happens in marriages, it happens in churches, and I'll tell you what a lot of people do when they hit the wall, they quit.

[00:10:25,720 - 00:10:53,160]
And I'm here today to tell you, don't you quit, you surrender instead. There's a difference, don't you give up? Don't give up on God, don't give up on your marriage, don't give up on your home. You may be looking at a hard time, you may be in the valley, you may be pawn in the valley, you may not know what to do. You may be faced with critics and opposition and haters and all kinds of people saying, "Hey, just stop, just give up, hey, go away, "you're not successful, successful, "it's not gonna happen, let me remind you, "there's power with Christ."

[00:10:54,640 - 00:13:44,240]
You gotta come back to God. You gotta understand that you gotta back up. If the iron be blunt and he do not wet the edge, then he must put to more strength. Maybe you're blunt, maybe you're not as effective as you once were, maybe your ability to connect is not the same way. Maybe before you used to preach and to teach and to love and to serve and go on dates and connect, and all of a sudden, now you're physically there, but you're emotionally and spiritually empty and absent. And I wanna remind you something, the devil can see when you're spiritually and emotionally and nemic. Oh, your body's there, but it's not the same zest, it's not the same pop, it's not the same fire, there's not the same filling of the Holy Spirit. And when you're not filled with the Holy Spirit, your family doesn't get the power they're supposed to have. Your church doesn't get the power they're supposed to have. The soul when he doesn't get the power it's supposed to have. Why? Because you're missing the power of the Holy Spirit of God. How many all know? You need the power of the Holy Spirit of God. You need to get filled once again. You need a good dose of the Holy Ghost of God. Oh yes, you've had religion, you've had your works and you're wondering why I'm not seeing results. It's because you walked forward without the power of God. Oh sure, you had the command of God, you had the Word of God, but do you have the filling of God? Well these disciples, they're unsuccessful. And they come to Jesus and they ask Him, why couldn't we cast them out? Hey listen, what's the last time you asked the Lord, Lord? Why is my marriage not seeing the results it's supposed to have? Why is my business not seeing the results? Why is my church not seeing the results? Why am I settling for second best? Why am I settling for being a loser? Why am I settling for this when you called me to go forth and conquer? See what the devil will do many times and he'll just wear you down. And if he can't make it bad, he'll make it busy. How many are way too busy for your own good? You're just way too busy. And the thing about being busy is this, it's all just good things, it's not great things. And the enemy of great things is good things because you're just trying to do too many good things. And before you know what you're chasing this and then you're chasing that and you don't realize it that your vessel is getting dull. Your ability to execute, to be sharp and to be effective and to concentrate and to punch through and to see God work is being slowly dissipated. And the challenge is you don't even know it because you've just been doing the same thing over and over.

[00:13:45,240 - 00:15:38,280]
See, it's not about us being bad. We can be busy in the work of the Lord doing good things but all of a sudden not have the same effectiveness because we're picking up little things on the trail like Hebrews talks about. He says, he says to run your race with patience. He says set aside the weights and the sins that thus so easily beset us. See, there's some things on your life today. You need to let it go. There's some things that you're way too busy. And by the way, if you're too busy for church, you're too busy for your Bible reading, you're too busy for the things of God than you, my friend, are too busy. What is it profit anyways if you gain the whole world and lose your soul? What good is it if you gain all the stuff but you lose the Savior? And these disciples ask a wonderful question, why couldn't we cast Him out? I thought we had the power, I thought we had the grace. Why couldn't we not do it? And so if you're taking notes number one, we see the haters of Christ want you to fail. You know there's some people out there want you to fail. They don't want you to be successful. They don't like you going to church. They don't like you praying. They don't like you reading your Bible. They don't like you posting scripture. They want you to fail. There's religious people, oh, you're going to that church. There's atheists and there's other kind of people that are, oh, you and they want you to fail. Oh yeah, those haters are out there. Now listen, I love haters. I love them. Don't hate the haters. Are you listening? 'Cause then you'll become like them. You gotta love the haters. They teach you, they give you fuel, they give you wisdom, they help you to overcome, they evil with the good. It pulls something out of you, right?

[00:15:39,120 - 00:16:06,800]
And so you gotta say, you know what? Thank you Lord for my haters. Thank you for the scribes, thank you for the Pharisees, thank you for the atheists, thank you for the agnostic, thank you for those that wanna talk all kinds of smack against me Lord Jesus. I know that you're working all this together for good. So thank you for them. Don't you become a hater. There's a song I'm listening to on my workouts. It's called No Hate. And I love it. It's like a rap Christian song and I'll be in my gym, pumping it. And I got no time for hate, you know? And it's like, it's a good little song.

[00:16:07,760 - 00:20:28,480]
But the haters that Christ want you to fail. Number two, the disciples of Christ are discouraged. Hey, is anybody out there discouraged right now? I mean, you're weary and well doing. I mean, you're trying to put some food on the table for the family, you're trying to pay the bills, you're trying to pay the electricity bill, you're trying to love your family, you're trying not to get angry and cuss people out and punch people in the face and you're trying to do right, come on. Am I talking anybody? You're trying to get out of bed because you're depressed and all you want to do is eat ice cream and put the pillow over your head and put the blanket over you. And you did everything you could just to get here today? So I know there's two kinds of people. There's people who want to fight, there's people who just want to lay in bed. Depending on where you're at in the moment. Listen, you're gonna get discouraged. That happens in life. 'Cause you're not always gonna be successful. You're gonna go through issues and pains and trials and sorrow, people are gonna go shoot, people are gonna hurt you. You're gonna be dealing with all kinds of stuff. There is a season for everything in life, right? And so here can you imagine the disciples being discouraged? Listen, the people around you right now, you can't tell me everybody in this room is all high on Jesus right now. There's a lot of people in here, they're wondering if their marriage is gonna make it. They're wondering if what about their adult child who's wayward? There's some people in here, they got cancered. They don't know who they can tell it to. There's some people in here, they got a body issue, nobody knows about it. There's some people in here, they lost their spouse. There's some people in here that are grieving over a death. There's some people in here that they don't know how they're gonna pay the bills. They don't know where their next food's gonna come from. There's some people in here, listen, they've got extended family members, custom them out, they've got friends out there who turn their back on them. Come on, there's all kinds of people in here that are going through discouragement. Anybody out there going through some discouragement? Some seasons of discouragement. That happens, guys. And if we walk around and they're like, no, everything's good, everything's good. No, everything's not good. Don't you lie to me? Everything's not good, I'm messed up, I'm hurting, I'm vulnerable, I don't know how I'm gonna do this. I've failed at this and failed at this and my sins are overwhelming me. Oh God, help me. Anybody ever been there before? Yeah, we gotta be real with ourselves. And we need to let other people be real. These disciples, I bet you they were discouraged 'cause they didn't see the result and they got everybody on them. But then we see number three, Jesus to the rescue. The power of Christ delivers souls. It's almost like our great hero, Superman, Jesus Christ shows up, da, da, da, da, you know? And like, I got this, boys, bring him to me. And by the way, he's still doing that today. Hey, bring that cancer, bring that sickness, bring that divorce, bring that deprivation. Bring it to me. Let me show you what I can do. I can take this situation from a zero and I'll show you why I'm the hero and he delivers souls. That's why we're here today because of Jesus, right? How many are here today because of Jesus? I mean, he is our savior, he's everything. And he shows up, he says, bring him to me. And he commands the unclean spirit, get out of him. And imagine the kid going, (mimicking) you know, fall under the ground, (mimicking) you know, just to, fall in at the mouth. All of a sudden the evil spirit is pulled out of him. You understand that spirit's attached to vessels, right? That's why you've got to guard the loins of your mind. That's why you got to put on the armor of God. That's why you got to walk in the Holy Spirit. That's why you got to stay humble and gracious and full of the Spirit because if you're not full of the Holy Spirit, listen, you give place to the devil, the devil will play you and mess with your mind and eat your lunch and take everything from you. That's why we need more preaching and more Bible and more church and more walking with God because the devil's roaming around as a roaring lion seeking whom they may devour. And the challenge is you can't see them. And so what the devil does is he tempts you into all kinds of sins. He loers you like you did with Adam and Eve. He loers you just like you did all those in the Bible through the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. And you don't even realize it's behind the scenes he's working. He's using physical vessels to draw you astray.

[00:20:29,720 - 00:21:55,200]
And if you give place to him, oh yeah, he'll oppress you. He'll mess with you. And if you're not saved, listen, he'll hijack that vessel big time and mess you up in a huge way. Listen, I'm not playing games up here today. I think many times in our Christianity, you and I, we take it way too casual. We start thinking, I'm gonna go to church, I'm gonna sing a good song. I hope it's a good, good, good, good message. And you fail to realize that the devil is, he wants you to have this casual Christianity. He doesn't want you reading the Bible. He doesn't want you praying. He wants you to forget about him. He wants you to forget about God. He wants you to get so busy on building your business and on doing your family and on all the good things that you forget about the best thing, King Jesus Christ. It'll just wear you down, causing you to chase every little thing. Oh yeah, I love how Jesus shows up and says, come on over here, I got something for you. You know what I love about Jesus? You don't see him running away from the devil. I watch a real the other day and it was the difference between somebody who's trained to fight and somebody who's not. And it just shows how this person comes out and he's trying to scare people and the people that could be scared, they run the other way. But the person who's trained to fight sees this weird looking image of a guy come out of nowhere and the guy steps up into him.

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Didn't lose his cool, didn't lose anything. Just, I'm right here. You wanna do something, let's go. See God hasn't given us a spirit of fear. He gave us a spirit of love, power, of a sound mind. You and I were not supposed to be running around. Oh no, everything's falling apart, it's gonna fall apart. Oh the devil's, listen, next time you have a nightmare, a nightmare, next time the devil tries to push you around, you need to understand his tool is fear against you. It's gonna eat your faith. And you have King Jesus inside of you. The hope of glory is inside of you. You have to be able to say, rise up God in the name of Christ. I plead the blood of Christ. Sue me with the Holy Ghost of God. Oh God, resist Satan off of me. Oh God, give me power, bind principalities and powers and all spiritual wickedness and high places. And King Jesus, take rulership of this situation. Oh yeah, you have that power inside of you. Every Christian has that power, but not every Christian uses that power. See when you're practicing in your faith and you're walking with Jesus, he'll deliver those results. And remember this, it's him, it's not you. See when you look at the devils and you look at your trials and you look at your defeat and you look at your failures and you size them up against yourself, it's gonna be discouraging. Because you know you don't have it. It's not you. But when you size up the devils and your problems and your failures and your defeats against King Jesus, the ruler of the galaxies who spoke the earth into existence that has power, sovereign power over everything, all of a sudden you begin to go, that's nothing to my God. Those bills are nothing to my God. He can pay them, he owns the cattle on a thousand, he owns the owns at all. Hey, that cancer is nothing to God. He rose the dead friend. He can do it in this situation. When you start sizing up those situations against King Jesus, it encourages you because he's the deliverer. And then number four, write this down. The feedback from Christ provides new faith building tools. Now one of my pet peeves is when I'm given somebody counsel and they're not listening. How many of you all understand what I'm talking about? You're trying to help somebody and they just want it, they're not listening. (sighs) Listen, if what we're doing isn't working, like if what you're doing in your marriage is hitting the wall, if what you're doing in your business isn't working, if what you're doing with your children isn't working, you gotta open your ears and open your heart and say, "Okay God, what changes do I need to make?" Right? We need feedback. Listen, if you don't take feedback, you're gonna live the same day, the same week, the same year, over and over again, expecting a different result. You know how many people are walking around on autopilot right now? Like, for example, how you got here today, you just got in your car and you went to church. Many of you don't even had to think about getting here. It was unconscious. You just drove right here, same route, same routine. That can happen in your Christian life. And that's a problem. That's a big problem. Listen, we need to take feedback. And if we're gonna get feedback, we've gotta ask these questions, okay, why was I unsuccessful? Why is my body feeling this way? Like some of you guys that are struggling with your body and with your health, you need to back up and say, "Okay, what am I doing, God, that I need to change?" Hello? Come on, talk to me. See, if you don't ask the question, then why would Jesus give you the feedback? If you're just gonna go on, well, it's my way and nobody's gonna tell me what to do, okay, go ahead and be a complete fool for the rest of your life and take no feedback. And don't grow at all. But the work of the Holy Spirit is to sanctify us and to grow us into, and to mature us. And so the disciples, they show up. And I love how they did it privately. They said, "Hey, how come, how come we couldn't do it?" Like, "Why did I fail?" Like, "What was up with that?" And Jesus says, "Okay." He says, "I'll tell you guys why." He says, "The reason you're failing, I hope you're listening. The reason you're not getting the results, the reason you're failing, reason is not happening for you. It's not because you don't have the power, the power I gave to you." He says this. He says, "This kind in verse 29 can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting." Here's what that means. I am not gonna give you the results you're looking for in your life until you finally get serious. See, you're just playing the game, but you haven't given up your food yet. You haven't put some things away. You wanna add me to your life, but you don't want me to become your life. You wanna add church to your life, but you don't want to let me have 365, 24, 7, full custody ownership of your life. On until you give me full custody cart blanche, 365, 365 days a year, 24, 7, access into ownership of your life, where I am everything, then you're not gonna see those results. Anybody listening? Let us think in from it. You say, "What do you get in that preacher?"

[00:27:41,280 - 00:30:02,760]
I'm saying, you have a choice here. You can stop living as a failure if you accept the feedback that Christ is giving you. You can start getting massive results in your life if you'll start praying and fasting. What do you mean? Stop eating so much. Really? You're saying, "I don't have to add more to my life. "I need to take something away from my life." Yes. See, our minds are so geared to more and more and that's the devil's trap. Hey, Eve, if you eat this, then you'll have this. What she already had, what she needed. She was already in the likeness of Christ with Adam. See, the devil is always baiting you along, adding more to your plate. Here, if you just take another job, if you just go after this sport, if you just do this, more, more, more, and before you know it, what are you doing? You're running yourself ragged. You're dissipating your energy, chasing everything. Chasing multiple rabbits catching none. And what Jesus is saying, listen, what you actually need to do is you need to stop and you need to pray and fast. You say, "What do you mean fasting?" Stop eating. Take a meal. Take a lunch. Take a full day. There's different fasts in the Bible. There's water only fasts. There's juice fasts. You say, "What, what do you mean fast?" Yeah, think about this. Every time you put food in your body, your blood has to go to work. And how many of you guys have been like me when you eat something big, like, I love Mexican food. I'm so glad to live in San Diego. Give me a carne asada case, Adia. And I'm gonna dip that sucker in guacamole and sour cream and hot sauce. I do all three with every bite, friend. Oh yeah, I love it. But how many of you guys after you get done eating, especially a big meal, you're about, you wanna go to sleep. You're sluggish. Your brain doesn't work the same way. Because all the blood is going to breaking down the food. You see, what Jesus is saying is,

[00:30:03,680 - 00:30:33,280]
if you wanna start seeing more spiritual results in your life, you need to spend more time with me and stop thinking that your physical hunger is the end all be all for your success. See, we live in a time where, listen, we want our physical power, but more important in your physical power is the spiritual power. It's the wisdom of God. See, you're just one good spiritual powerful idea away from transforming your life. Just one.

[00:30:34,240 - 00:31:01,320]
You know that, right? And prayer and fasting is a way of saying, I'm pushing everything away, God. And I will go to be with you at breakfast time. I'll go to be with you at lunch time. I'll go to be with you at dinner time. Now listen, you can go one day, you can go three days, and I pray, Lord, for one of the men in our church went seven days. Listen, you can go 10 days, you can go 21 days, you can go 40 days. But here's the deal. Don't you come crying to me when you're not seeing results in your life when you're not even practicing what Jesus said?

[00:31:02,320 - 00:31:59,760]
Right? I mean, if he said to do it and then you're not doing it and you want to cry and squawk about it and play the victim all day long, and I'm not having the results, and here's what happens next. Well, she's doing this. He's doing that. Okay, so it's their fault. You guys have been in those conversations before? So you're telling me that you're absolving yourself from all responsibility by blaming this person for the failures in your life. So you're a victim in this situation, is that right? And here's what happens. You're gonna stay as a victim because you're not taking personal responsibility for your actions. I always love those conversations. Typically I'm like, "Lord, what do you want me to say "and when do you want me to say it?" Because if you get somebody who's so fleshly and so carnal and you all of a sudden you start taking the mirror of the word of God to them, they start going, "Yeah!" They start squirming like a vampire, you know? Like with the light coming out of us. I don't know, you know, it's just, because they're not used to truth. Listen, you need truth.

[00:32:00,760 - 00:33:54,600]
You don't need more lovey-dovey, oh, you're so wonderful. We have enough of this lovey- dovey, you know, hogwash that is devoid of truth. You need truth for your life. Your children need truth. They need it in love. And so if we're gonna grow, we've got to ask these questions, "Lord, why am I not seeing the results?" And the Lord will say, "Talk to me about your prayer life. "Talk to me about your Bible reading life." Hey, you never miss a meal, but you seem to miss your Bible reading pretty frequently. You never miss a sports game, but you always miss the prayer closet. So let me get this straight. You want me to bless your life when you don't really care about me, you don't prioritize me, and I'm leftovers in your life. Did I get that right? Anybody feel and convicted in here? That's what we need. See, you're in high, we're not gonna change unless we start getting conviction. Godly sorrow leads to repentance. See, there's some of us in here, we're just sorry we got caught. And if that's you, listen, that's not enough. That's not enough to change your life. The fact that you got caught. You got to be in the heart and say, "Okay, God, I get this." You're telling me that if I want to see the results in my life, I've got to give you the priority and the preeminence, and I have to push away the busy and I have to push away going after everything, and I need to prioritize the prayer closet. I need to prioritize fasting, and I need to push away some things so I can focus in on you. Yes. That's the message. It's pretty simple, isn't it? It's not do more stuff to build your faith. It's do less and enjoy Jesus. Now watch what happens here. The moment you start praying and fasting, what happens to your mind?

[00:33:56,440 - 00:34:24,880]
What happens to your vessel? What happens to all the toxins in your body? What happens to all the candida and all the messed up broken cells, dead cells inside your system? What happens to the brain fog after a little while? Everything starts getting cleaned up. See, God designed your body to clean itself. It's in the blood.

[00:34:26,240 - 00:34:52,440]
It's in the blood. Now here's the thing, you've heard a great message. There's a good Bible message. Now this is what separates people who are spiritually successful and those who say spiritually losers. Every one of us has been given knowledge today, but knowledge by itself just puffs us up in pride.

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It's the application of this. So you say, "How do I apply this preacher?" You schedule it. The older I get, the more I realize, you can't just wait on a good feeling all day long. Feelings got to, you got to stop letting feelings lead you everywhere. You're gonna have to do some stuff out of duty. Like, I don't feel like doing the dishes, but I do it because I love my wife. I don't feel like doing a lot of things and I do it out of obligation because it's a command of God for me to love my wife and to be faithful to God and so on and so forth. Here's what I'm getting at. You do things because it pleases God. You say, "How does it please God?" Matthew chapter six, "When you pray." Is what he says? Now check this out, "When you pray, your ability." I'm gonna say this one more time for you. Your ability to focus all of a sudden, everything out here, are you following me over there?

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Everything out here goes silent. Now, all of my power and all the power of the Holy Spirit is so focused in on one thing, you. Now I pick up not only the physical presence, but I'm picking up the spiritual, the emotional, the mental. I'm picking up everything off your vessel, even the stuff that you're not saying.

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What do you think's gonna happen to my ability to effectively minister when I'm all the way in? Now I'm picking up everything. Now when I say a word, when I give a command, whatever it is that I'm doing, I'm not all over the place. Now when I go to cut with the sword, it's, (shutters) it's clean, it's effective. And you know what causes lots of problems in Christianity? When you're cutting with a dull blade, how many of us shaved with a used up razor? And it's dull. What happens to your skin when you're shaving with a dull blade where the blade is all messed up, it cuts you. This is what happens to our Christianity when we don't pray and fast. We just keep going, we don't realize we're dull. When you step back and pray and fast, you're sharpening. (shutters) Your soul, your spirit, your mind, your heart. So now when you step forward again to preach, to teach, to go on a date, to love your spouse, to be a good parent, whatever it is, you're locked in. Then you're gonna see the results. Now my question is this, how many of you are willing to sacrifice the busyness of doing everything and instead pray and fast so that you can see the results and spend more time with Jesus? If that's you, would you raise your hand? Okay, now listen, you've heard this before, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It's not enough just to have good intentions. You've got a planet and schedule it. So this week, this week, 'cause I know our minds go everywhere. Pick a day. In fact, usher's, I have clipboards in the back. I want it, this is for your, your sake. There's fasting clipboards back there. Begin to think right now, what day can I go? What day will I give up a breakfast? Now today, was it my fast day? I was so hungry when I walked in, I smelled our leans,

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omelets and whatever else she was making. Yeah, that. My stomach is like, hello. And I thought, and my muscles are like, feed me. You lift strong yesterday, feed me. I don't know if your muscles talk to you, but I do. Quiet. But I remembered, I'm preaching on praying and fasting.

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So what I tell my stomach and the muscles and the body, shh, we're going to do what Jesus wants. You say, you are commanding your body? Yes. Your spirit must command your soul and your body, and put it in check. And so that was what I did today. Even though I wanted to eat, I wanted to practice this message, so it's clear for you. Now, I won't go beyond lunch, 'cause I want that carne asada case idea. Okay. But I did breakfast and it wasn't even my fasting day. Right? Here's my point, just a little bit, it goes a long way to focus. So as the clipboards go by, pick a day. I don't care if it's water- onely, I don't care if it's juice, I don't care if it's coffee. But on that day, if it's going to be breakfast, lunch, or dinner, all the above, make sure that you get alone with God during that eating time. So if you would have sat down at the table and eat, you go to a spot that you can pray. Now, you may not have a big closet, you may have a car, but you get away and you talk with Jesus. And you tell them about what's happening in your life, and the areas that you're not seeing, healing, or success in, or whatever it is, where you want to see some results, and you ask Him for His guidance and His power. Now, do you believe this is going to work? Yes. How do we know it's going to work?

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He said, he said, this kind come forth by nothing but by praying fasting. Now, a little caveat. As you're praying and fasting, you may not get what you're after in the praying and fasting, but God will get what he's after. Did you hear that? You say, what is he after? The full vessel, all of you. He wants what he paid for. And he bought you with his blood, not just your soul, but your body as well, which means this body, this soul, the whole thing belongs to God. And when all of a sudden you give that whole thing to God, then when it's time to pull you out as a sharp, rushing instrument, because you've been in the secret place of the most high God, and he's been polishing the shaft if he would sharpening the shaft, then when it's time for you to come forth to battle, you are a whole nother vessel. Meet for the master's use that whatever he wants to accomplish, he will see it succeed. He want to be that vessel. Let us not be vessels under dishonor. Let's be vessels to honor. This is the way to do it. Amen? All right, let's pray.