 Radiant Church. Hey, this is Jeremy Riddle. I just want to say it's a it's a joy for me. It's an honor to join you guys during your midweek service and take it's a hang out with you a little bit. It's been too long since I've been in your city. I can't remember if it was 2017 or 2018 that I was last in Kalamazoo and with you all. But from all accounts you guys are thriving and the Lord is meeting you and He's leading you. And yeah and I consider it an honor just to pop in and get to share my heart a little bit. Please give my love to the whole gang, to Lee, to Caleb, to Cory and gosh the whole gang. But hey, Caleb reached out and asked me to just share a bit of my heart and some of the stuff that the Lord's been stirring inside of me in regards to a book that I just wrote and called the Reset. And as I was kind of praying and pondering and kind of conversing with the Lord just kind of going what am I actually supposed to share and what am I supposed to talk on. I really thought I was just supposed to talk about the Holy Spirit and it's not really the message of the Reset but I do think it's probably one of the most important resets that needs to happen in the church is where we begin to welcome and honor the ministry and the role and the leadership of the Holy Spirit and not just on a corporate level. And it'll only take place corporately when we begin to learn how to do that individually. And I just wanted to share a little bit of my journey and my relationship with the Holy Spirit which is I feel like an infant, you know. So this is not me coming to you guys as an expert. I was having a chat with our pastor here, one of our pastors and he's having these really profound encounters with Jesus and he's like I really know Jesus and I've walked with Jesus all of my life but in this season I feel like it's like the only way I can describe it is if I feel like I know one percent of Jesus and isn't that always the case when we really come into closeness or proximity with the Lord. It feels like everything that we've learned all the years of knowledge that we've accrued it's like oh Jesus I only know you like one percent. Show me more of who you are. And I feel that same way when it comes to the Holy Spirit and when I read about people who've had a profound relationship with the Holy Spirit I'm like I feel like I haven't even started like sincerely haven't even started. I just I've been reading Resoul's Intercessor and I just read about his encounter with the Holy Spirit and I'm still a little shaken inside like I feel tremble. I'm just reading about it and going oh there's a journey that I've yet to go on but I just want to share the little bit that I have experienced and hopes guys literally just in hopes that it awakens a hunger and creates an invitation for you guys to to step and begin to walk into this. So I'm just going to pray. Holy Spirit you are so precious. Your presence is so precious and forgive us how we have lived ignorant of you. Holy Spirit we want to fling wide the doors of our lives and our hearts to you. We want to know you. We want to be inhabited by you. We want to be full of you. We know that as a costly prayer to pray to the Lord. You have your way. You come and have your way. God it's amazing how many times we pray that prayer and yet we have so many reservations and and points of where we're like no no that's still that's still ours and Lord but I pray that you would teach us what it means for you to come and have your full way in and through us that is what our hearts are longing for so give us the grace the grace now to step into that more and more in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Over the years guys you know my journey started with some hippie parents who who were saved in the Jesus movement. I was raised in the Christian family raised in the Christian hall most of what I learned initially about worship was through my dad's devotional life it wasn't a lecture it wasn't anything that he taught me per se on worship although he did really help us give us a solid base in the word and in the Psalms but most of it was just watching him worship you know and I still believe that's the most powerful way that worship catches but you know and along the way I've had many different encounters I was part of the vineyard church it's the church that I'm now back at the Anaheim Vineyard which was kind of the hub the headquarters of the vineyard movement at the time it was John Wimbers church and and I remember when the Toronto there's a movement of the spirit called the Toronto blessing had had a lot of different names actually but it really really it began to move here in the mid 90s and it really touched the youth and I was kind of caught up in that I had some profound encounters with the Lord and and just a little bit of context for me in my story and then somewhere along the way I fell into that young adult black hole where you kind of get booted out of high school but you don't really have a place in the big church quote-unquote and and at you know the simultaneously this girl that I had a crush on in high school who was also is my same age started going out with my youth pastor which you know is you know many would say it's a valid reason for for some bitterness some offense you know at the church but anyway you know honestly it worked out beautifully they're happily married now a bunch of kids and and but anyway it just thrust me under this journey where I was I didn't really want much connection with the church and I didn't really walk away from the Lord but I wasn't walking strongly with the Lord and at that time music had become like this all-consuming passion and it's where I poured my broken heart out you know I started writing so many you know sad sad sappy love songs and and and you know honestly this dream took root in me where I just really I had this thirst for influence this thirst for significance you know and I just chanted all the towards towards all this energy towards trying to make it in mainstream rock and roll and I was on that path for a good five years and it was quite the wrestle because I knew that there was a call of God on my life and but I just really didn't want to surrender surrender to this day is the hardest thing I've ever had to do and and I'm so grateful that the Lord was persistent and didn't relent until I finally laid it all down I gave up my band I gave up all all these dreams and I just I just entered in this this see this period of consecration I don't know what else to call it I certainly didn't call it that at the time that's really what it was it was consecration to the Lord and and I just began to pray oh Lord whatever you want to do with my life you can do what you want with my life and and the Lord was faithful to answer that prayer still faithful answering that prayer along the way guys I got married got married super young I got married when I was 21 years old was a dad by the time I was 23 I now have five kids 20 years later I have a 19 year old a 17 year old 15 year old a oh gosh it's getting it's getting tricky 12 year old and almost nine year old so the journey's been rich it's it's been full and and I've been leading worship for gosh who knows how long but I I've been so blessed to lead for multiple different streams of church and see multiple powerful worship moments of God sweep the earth and I think in this 20-year journey of mine almost 30 years really honestly leading worship I think the thing that I have been thoroughly convinced of is this the greatest need we have in the church right now the greatest need we have in the church and the hour is urgent and and I'll just leave it at that the hour is urgent and the greatest need we have is for men and women who are full of the Holy Spirit full under the full influence and power of the Holy Spirit we do not need more amazing anthems for the church I mean of course we do in that sense but we don't need them anywhere near as much as we as we need the Holy Spirit and honestly I have no real appetite for those anthems if they weren't birthed if they were birthed apart from the Holy Spirit not under the influence of the Holy Spirit and we have this a bit of war with that with the influence of industry when it comes to worship and and and who is really going to be at the helm of this thing who's gonna be leading this thing and I'll tell you this is that with a kind of worship that we need in the earth is not going to be led by the industry it's not going to be led by their stats it can't be led by what their their their their pulses their their rewards their their their numbers that their their formulas for success it cannot be led by that true worship must be led birthed born of the Holy Spirit and guys I feel like there's a worship that's waiting to truly be unlocked in the earth but it will only be unlocked under people who have given themselves fully to the Holy Spirit it is going to be worshiped by the spirit Philippians 3 verse 3 says we who worship by the spirit which is such a key phrase which means that the kind of worship that God is seeking is actually the kind that can only be born by the Spirit it can only flow as we come under the influence of the Holy Spirit it makes all the difference in worship and beyond that it makes all the difference in church and beyond that it makes all the difference in your personal life and and in the witness that God has called you to be you know on the earth so I'm just gonna share a bit of my journey I think the best blessing of my life was being dropped into an environment where the only way that I could deliver as a worship leader quote-unquote deliver was was to be led by the Holy Spirit and I had never been pushed you know before this and I I realized up in that point I'd really just been dabbling I had been responding to some instincts and different things when it came to the Holy Spirit there were times where I was led by the Holy Spirit but I really didn't even know how to discern you know the difference and but you know the Lord dropped us into the beautiful church it's now known around the world Bethel church in Redding California and and I I remember coming into that church for one it was why it was pretty you know you think you've experienced the charismatic church if you've been a part of the vineyard but then you realize like oh I've really been raised thoroughly evangelical I got no real grid for true Pentecostals and Charismatics and and and honestly Bethel was it was it was much more wild than you know that it that it is now in so many ways but but I think what was so precious to me was was not all the manifestations and the incredible ministry times and all that kind of a thing but I came into an environment that was really what when they said we honor the presence of the Lord like we honor the voice of the Lord we honor the movement of the Holy Spirit and when we feel him moving everything bends to follow his movement nothing it's like the program literally went out the window and I actually watched a senior leader I've heard a lot of people talk that talk but I've seen remarkably few people who actually meant it when they said it and would follow through with that and and what I'll just tell you is that's a terrifying place to lead worship in because you know I came from a pretty structure environment where I had about 30 minutes to lead worship and then I had this weird fluke thing happen on Christian radio where I'd hit single in 2007 and I thrust open some doors to kind of experiment with being a Christian music artist which I realized at the end of that time it was nothing that I was called or gifted to do and so but I led worship probably for two years as a full-time itinerant traveling guy and you know honestly leading mostly in the Bible belt and which was deeply humbling because I realized I didn't know how to there's so much about leading worship I didn't know you know how to do and then out of that I was dropped into Bethel but you know what I realized is that I was used to being in control I was used to knowing when things started when things ended I was used to watching the clock I was used to doing all these things when I came to Bethel and Brian Johnson you know I was like nine months into my journey there at the church nine months in Brian's like hey would you want we want to co-lead with me on a Sunday night and I'm like well sure you know I'll do a couple songs that seems pretty easy and anyway I should have known in soundcheck because he never led a song he's just like no just keep going throw out another song and I'm like okay so we're going in and and you know I'm I just started leading and I just started going for it and and you know two songs three songs goes by you know 30 minutes and you know and then it gets to the 40 minute mark and I'm like out of songs I'm out of breath I don't know where to go and I'm looking around for leadership I'm looking around for like what how do I get off this train and I look over at Brian and you know it's so funny thinking about it now and he just I looked over him like help you know I don't know what to do and he and he looked back at me just kind of shrugged like just like you're doing it you know and and you know I did what all desperate worship leaders do and I pulled out I exalt the and and but I was I was I was done you know and I think they finally had Danny silk come up and rescue me and and I think I was assured of Sunday night service I didn't realize that Sunday night services could go an hour hour and a half you know in worship that was all brand new to me and so I think one of the best gifts for me is just realizing that the only way the only way I could survive in that environment was to actually learn how to really intentionally follow the Holy Spirit and the promptings of the Holy Spirit and and I made I made a couple promises to myself a couple vows and and one of those vows is I realized that I was working against a clock in my head and again I've learned how to work with the clock you know in my head but this was important for me I realized that there was something inside of me an internal clock that told me that we were done that the worship journey was done and it happened about 30 35 minutes and everything after it was like we'll push in a little bit more but we're really done and I realized that clock was gonna kill me so I had to throw that clock out the other thing that I did and this is the most important thing that I think is relevant for anybody is that I made about myself that whenever I felt the Holy Spirit rest to the presence of the Lord rest on a moment that I would not move on because what I realized is I watched that stream back that first said me leading back what I realized is that because of that internal clock in my head because I was always a song ahead of myself I was rarely present to the moment and I missed so many holy moments is what I as what I call them and by holy moment I just mean it's like that little moment where all of a sudden you're like there's life on this there's grace on this there's there's something happening in this moment and and because I couldn't recognize that I would just move through them and I was like already into the next song and I just violated so many things that I felt the Lord wanted to do and so the next time I got a fleet worship but those two vows that I was gonna worship until I was interrupted literally someone's gonna have to interrupt me I'm like a bulldog I'm sinking my teeth into this and and you know I was felt there's only way felt like I could survive and and the other thing was is that I was going to I wasn't gonna move on when I felt the Lord rest and that night guys changed that the course of my life as far as worship here is concerned because that night it worship went an hour and a half and not once did I feel like I was about to run dry not once that I was I really thinking about what song to do next all I was doing was trying to fall the Holy Spirit and and it's a bit of a terrifying experience I mean honestly you're so out of your depth it is it is what I call the best thing I know how to describe it as is it's kind of like walking on water and you are just following the Lord you hear his voice you see him back and saying come and you just step out of the boat and you begin to walk on water and I know that's a maybe a pretty grandiose you know idea that but for me that was just being faithful of going like I'm gonna rest here if I feel a little resting and in that resting I would feel like a chorus or even a new little song and I would I would just be obedient and I would take a risk and I would follow and it opened door after door and we went deeper and deeper into the glory and the presence of the Lord and honestly that mark that season marked like it's like a dividing line in my in my ministry you know as a worship leader it created drew a line in the sand and it was kind of pre really knowing how to follow Holy Spirit and then giving myself with even just a littlest bit of intentionality to fall in the Holy Spirit and all of a sudden something being to open up in worship and not just in worship in in my life and in my walk with God that has been so precious I can never go back I don't ever want to go back to to just what I can accomplish in it of my own strength to the power of a great set and a list of you know anthem you know pack songs that everyone will sing their hearts out to it just none of that satisfies me the best band in the world doesn't satisfy me the most incredible record you know of talent you know that would never satisfy me I would trade it all for that moment for just a moment where his breath the breath of God is breathing and flowing and those moments where he does he puts you on like a glove and the truth is is is that that's not supposed to be in every so often occasion I really think it's supposed to be a way of living and there's an invitation to being given over under the control of the Holy Spirit and so just a couple little things I'm gonna throw in there throw out there you know in my journey maybe close with a couple stories I feel like one of the most important things we can understand about the Holy Spirit is that he is a person he's a person the same way that Jesus is a person that God the Father is a person the Holy Spirit is a person and I I feel like Holy Spirit really controversial in a lot of parts of the church and although less so now less so now I really feel like so so many walls of opposition to to the movement of the Holy Spirit have really come down particularly in the past decade and I feel like it's a new playing field I think people are really hungry and open to the activity of the Holy Spirit and one of the most important things that you can do when building a relationship with the Holy Spirit is just acknowledge him as a person it's okay it's like as a person it's like you can commune with the Holy Spirit he will speak to you he will lead you he will guide you he's not just a force or some kind of mystical thing that happens in a worship set or you know during a holy moment he is a person when we and I feel like we kind of created this language which which I love and I use it as much as anybody but we talk about the presence we talk about oh my gosh the presence was so strong so strong in the room you know it was like his presence came or the presence came and it was just like that and we use his presence in a way but sometimes it just feels like when we use that word the presence it feels very impersonal to me and I hope we have an understanding and again this isn't a discipline people use that language but I hope we have an understanding when we talk about the presence we're talking about the person of the Holy Spirit the one who has been who has been sent to us given to us the gift of our Father to lead us possesses convict us fill us anoint us to step into all that we were made to do to be true witnesses for Jesus sincerely and I think the less relationally we talk about the Holy Spirit the more we impede we we impede we we hamper our ability to develop a real relationship with the Holy Spirit and ultimately at the end of the day we want to be people who don't just live by the Spirit but we stay in step with the Spirit as Paul speaks to the glations of he says if we live by the Spirit let us then keep in step with the Spirit and for me what this simply means guys is just learning how to follow just learning how to follow him you know and we have fresh language honestly it was fresh for me a decade ago it may it may need another you know we may need even more fresh language now but you know this idea of hosting him hosting his presence what does it look like the hostess presence but I do still like that language I think it's very important for us because that was one of the most important things is like the Holy Spirit is in me and what kind of host am I being am I hosting him well am I aware of his presence I'm am I aware when he's trying to speak to me one of those important things in my journey that I had to do was just simply grow in awareness but that that was just like okay I had to live with this awareness I also had to kind of deal with my independent way of thinking and living it was like when I would go to pray that's when I would consult the Lord but it was like I still had a very compartmentalized life and I had to deal with a bit of that compartmentalization um to really walk and step with the Spirit and I had to start asking him and again for me the initial doorway was just worship sets and I began to like ask the Holy Spirit what songs do you want us to sing before I would just look through a book and be like oh I like that one and that one feels good but I just began to be like how I would look for every way that I could incorporate the Holy Spirit into my everyday life and I would look for his activity the same way I would look for his presence when he would resting in a worship set is the way I began to look for his activity in my everyday life as I would begin to prepare and um and I would ask questions and over and over give permission I would consecrate myself to be like I I live to do your will that is what I want to do lead me lead me help me glorify Jesus help me be a witness for you help me be a light help me in this interaction with this person I need wisdom Holy Spirit lead me in this help me in this financial decision help me I mean you get the idea help me in raising my kids Holy Spirit help me raise my kids um and he has he has he's really faithful to answer that prayer oh is he faithful I also realize the most important thing guys if we really really want to see his leadership increase in our lives is obedience if you're going to ask him you got to take risks you got to take risk and again I initially began to discover this I began to take these risks as a worship leader and they terrified me honestly I'll just and now it's like once once you just get in a rhythm or a habit of taking risks you start to just get over yourself a little bit and stop being afraid of looking like a fool or you know wiping out you know whatever whatever it may look like um but but initially this was the most deeply intimidating thing and so for me it just it just started by learning how to follow him in a worship set and learning how to wait when he said wait and um when that was a sense and again I've never heard necessarily audible voice of God it's always these impressions in my in my gut um like just wait or I would feel like the little look just a little prompting of course would come into my mind or something like that and I'd go like well I don't know if that's the Lord but I'm just going to risk risk to find out so I just share a couple stories it's the best way to illustrate this um you know there's a time I was leading and um I was excited to lead I was leading with some amazing worship leaders friends of mine who are full the Holy Spirit and but we were leading and for whatever reason the night was just dead it was like people weren't excited it's typical night of worship but but it didn't go anywhere every song that we lead it led it was just like it hit this ceiling and I couldn't figure it out I and I um and I will I will I will say this you know because this is the point here here's what I've discovered about following the Holy Spirit is that the spiritual breakthrough that we are longing to see only comes when you follow the spirit and that just makes sense doesn't it but it's really really true if you're hungry to see real true spiritual breakthrough something open up in an atmosphere in an environment and actual real breakthrough coming and invading people's lives where they begin to get wrecked and their hearts begin they begin to encounter Jesus at another level and they step into deeper intimacy um um in in his presence gosh there's so many different works the where addictions get broken off people's lives where freedom begins to break out in a room you can go down the list where basically where the works of the devil get destroyed and Jesus is exalted and glorified if you want to see real spiritual breakthrough you have to learn to follow the Holy Spirit and so I I'm in this thing and I just felt like it was dead and we were hitting walls and and we were singing songs that normally always open something up and I remember we were singing greater you Lord and this is I don't know four five years ago in the song it's still doing its thing now but it had just come on the scene and it was like explosive but for whatever reason even that like even that bridge like how can that bridge not break something through but again I realized it's it's not the song it's not the power of the song it is obedience to the Holy Spirit I remember hitting a moment and coming to a down moment and um and just going like I don't know what's missing and I just began to ask the Lord and I began to search in my spirit for for for what He would say and all I felt with is like sing the bridge again sing the bridge again and something will break and um but sing it with faith and I just felt I was supposed to exhort people to essentially sing it with faith um uh so I did and it was really awkward and I'm like guys I I don't know I don't normally talk in the microphone a lot during worship I'm like I don't really understand this but I feel like we're just supposed to sing that bridge again but we're supposed to sing it with and I said gusto instead of gusto or I don't I don't mean and I just like we're supposed to sing this with faith and I'm like who's with me you know kind of thing and people like all right you know they actually went there with me and I don't know what it was but that simple act of faith and obedience to what the Lord asked me opened up one of the most crazy journeys in worship I you know I've I've I've I've I've ever been in and it was like something literally broke open in the heavens and we went on this crazy creative 45 minute journey um where I don't even remember all the songs that were sung and everything that happened but it was wildly prophetic beautifully creative and full of Him and I and I had that phrase it was like where that picture first came to mind I'm like we're walking on water we're walking on water our eyes on you walking on water because you've asked asked asked too and um uh gosh there was the time where where um similar impression I had an impression when I was in preparing for worship that I was supposed to that the Lord wanted to break addictions um during spirit break out and again this is a lot of this stuff was just new new in my journey so they stick out to me because it was where I I took a risk you know I take these risks all the time every day I've not stopped taking these risks but these were the ones that that I was they were just the discovery process so they're like you know um branded in my in my mind but um but I was faithful to sing out and go after addictions um in the middle of of singing spirit break out and and just say how I feel like when we when we sing this this is what's going to happen and I and I just said and it wasn't again guys we can let me just warn you again something none of this is a formula because is that's that's when we just mimic when people try and mimic there will always be some measure of spiritual power but it won't actually the only way you're really going to step into this thing is when you take the risk for yourself when you seek the Lord for yourself when you discern what it is because you can follow your favorite worship leader and you can be like oh I really like what they did right there I'm going to do that same thing and you might experience a measure of power but you will not really step into the fullness of the spiritual authority that you individually will meant to carry in the Lord unless you go on this journey for yourself and I just want to want to say that so um spirit break out you know what's so cool is like I think it was seven years later I got one of the most powerful testimonies about how this girl had a deep these you know eating disorder um so intense you never thought she was going to get free from it but she would listen she listened that song non-stop for nine months while she was in this battle and she was ultimately delivered but it was just that one song in that one moment where where something was to was declared and guys wow I could go on there um I think that's enough um here's so many fun stories I could tell but I think um it would get long I I think closing here the biggest obstacle I used to think that the biggest obstacle to to you know the church really beginning to move in in a in a power in a demonstration a demonstration of power you know of the spirit I used to think it was theological opposition I used to think that people were just um that that was that was where the root of it was and I actually don't think that that's really really the thing that that stops people from experiencing the fullness of the ministry of the Holy Spirit I I think it's control I think it's our need for control I think it's our unwillingness to step outside of ourselves um to take risk you know faith which pleases God it's impossible please God actually without faith faith you know John Limber used to say he's the founder of the vineyard church movement but he used to say faith is spelled r-i-s-k and it's risk and there's something about obedience to the Holy Spirit that is risky it's costly you don't know how it's going to go and um and I really had to I had to die to a lot of parts of myself that like because your image is on the line your reputation is on the line you feel all these things and you know who likes who likes looking like like a fool and you know in front of people but nobody but I had to overcome that and go like I want to follow you more than I want to quote unquote look good or look like I have it all together I want I'm hungry I'm hungry more hungry for this than I am to try and preserve something myself and someone described being fully yielded to the Holy Spirit as simply giving the Holy Spirit what he wants and I love that because it makes it very very practical sometimes we don't know what does it mean to yield does it mean to get low or you know this internal posture it just means giving the Holy Spirit what he wants and and when you um just on this journey guys start start with the littlest acts of faith you don't have to jump off some big you know you know cliff first first time out um just begin to cultivate begin to have a conversation with the Holy Spirit and watch not everything I've taken a risk on turned out to be the Holy Spirit it's just how we learn there is no other way to learn than to just take a risk to follow um the Holy Spirit and those little impressions but everyone has to learn how the how the Lord speaks to them how you hear his voice and the only way you know is is literally where you just whatever it's impressions little audible voice pictures um words I you know I don't know this would be a great conversation for you guys to have it'd be a great small group conversation just like hey how do you hear the voice of God how does the Holy Spirit speak to you how does the Lord speak to you and and it's a it's part of the way how we discover what his voice sounds like and how to follow him but if we never take risk we never really know what's him and what's not you can discern that as as you grow in maturity but initially it really takes risk and um and I and I learned by stepping out and then watching as heaven would step in behind me and um I'll just tell one last story you know we were I was leading an event called the send it was in Orlando Florida and I I you know I I kind of giving up trying to really prepare a set list um because I mean I still do and I send band songs and that kind of a thing but but at certain events I just like guys here's a list of 10 songs I really don't know what's going to happen that's kind of what I tell them because I honestly honestly don't know and so um you know the rough set list that I had we were going to do All Hail King Jesus like right out the gates and but I just didn't I just wasn't sure how the Holy Spirit you know would would lead and I've never let never led a stadium before and honestly I've done a couple stadium events where it's like there's supposed to be a bunch of people that show up and then it's like 8,000 people you know in an arena which is a ton of people but but not what it doesn't feel like a ton of people when it's in like a 50,000 seed arena you know but anyway we're doing this event and it was my turn we were the last worship set of the night and um and and we get up to lead and and my friend Michael Cuglianos who has a you know amazing ministry with his wife Jess in Orlando Florida called Jesus image and just love what God is doing to them but he was praying and he began to pray Lord let it rain let it rain and I couldn't hear him because my inners were in and I was on my face and kind of overwhelmed by the moment um it was such a significant moment and I don't know how many people there's maybe 50-60 thousand people in that arena and um and um and I get up to lead and I take one of my ears out and I can hear like a small group of people beginning to sing let it rain let it rain and honestly I have not thought about leading that song for maybe a decade you know it was it hadn't it was not in my mind it wasn't on the set list and um in any way I and you just have to hear me because I've led for a lot of different groups of people and and most of the time when when a chorus starts at a youth conference or wherever people start to sing a song it's not the leading of the Holy Spirit and most of the time I I don't follow it and and um but in this moment I just had that immediate sense that's the Lord that's the Lord and I got Cassie Campbell most world's most amazing worship bass player bass player periods he's this remark wider on the bass and they just kind of know the drill so they're on the they're on the one they're swelling on the one which is you know we were the key see about to go into uh the beginning you know the song and and I just start to sing out let it rain and I'm not knowing whether it was the right key whether I could even sing the whole song um none of that stuff matters you just have to jump off a cliff you know and I I did have a couple months where I'm like this is not the moment a stadium leading a stadium worship it's not the moment where you want you want to fall flat on your face but again I think what I'm so grateful for is the momentum of consistency and learning to follow and be a beating to Holy Spirit is what steadied me in that moment and and and in that moment the whole arena erupted and let it ring I'm gonna sing that and guys the craziest thing happened is that it rained and it was the craziest like little rain and it's Orlando and it rains all the time but there was not rain in the forecast and what's even crazier is that someone sent me a clip of the radar you know a little uh you know an image of where it was raining and it was just this tiny tiny circle over over the stadium and that was the only place that rain was falling um in in any of the surrounding area and it was this this crazy rain it didn't soak anyone it was this this gentle misting rain that just fell on us the entire time we sang let it rain and then the second we moved into another song that lifted and I just felt like one of those kisses from the Lord and I'm and I just I look back and I go oh Lord thank you thank you that I didn't just go with the program thank you that I had I had learned a little bit in this journey just a little bit in this journey of how to follow the Holy Spirit and again all I all I want to do in this is make you hungry that's all that's all I want to do I I and um and not because for any of the big stuff I I really think this is about it's about the small it's about learning how to cultivate this in our everyday lives and and inviting acting like we are actually under the authority of our Lord and and for me I've had to really break with so much orphaned independent ways of operating that were ingrained in me you know it's his stuff I it's almost dysfunctional stuff I I learned a long way and um the thing about the Christian life guys I've read leadership book after leadership book I've wanted to be a great leader I've studied great leaders all that kind of a thing but the distinguishing mark about Christian leadership is that it's more about following than it is about leading and actually we're only being faithful to lead his people well when we are following in his footsteps and we are avidly after his direction and we're seeking him in every area of our lives and I feel like the Lord wants to open stuff up for you guys he wants to open stuff up for you guys as you begin to give yourselves and by the way I just want to encourage all you guys who are laboring in the prayer rooms Caleb just asked if I would just speak into that and I just want to encourage you guys who are laboring in the prayer rooms this this is where this is really solidified this is where you build that history with God this this is the thing let alone that prayer guys is the thing there's one thing that I came out of 2020 going I'm like I must give myself to prayer and I gave myself to prayer and I'm beginning to watch something unlock in my life if you guys are praying three times a day you're on to something stay the course stay the course God is going to meet you in that his ear is attuned like right now like he is he is hearing those prayers but here's the thing about those prayers is we we we need to begin to pray prayers that are aligned the Holy Spirit is the only one that that knows what we need to be praying over the saints and over the church and that and that's what we need his leadership and prayer more than ever and may the Lord open your ears may open your eyes to to you know you know in that realm anyway but I just encourage you guys I was like lit my heart up just hearing that you guys were praying three times a day let's go be encouraged and go after the Holy Spirit but I just feel like the Lord wants to open up so much for you guys who are listening whether you ever become a worship leader any of those kinds of things but just in your everyday life maybe you're running a business you know it's like you know raising a family all those kinds of things the Holy Spirit wants to meet you and fill you and lead you in in those places and so I'm just going to pray and bless you guys and and go from there the song that comes to mind is Lord I want more of you Holy Spirit rain down on me it's old old song but that is the cry of our hearts we just want you we want you Holy Spirit we need you Holy Spirit our programs our performances are not enough they're not enough to really shake things or shift things in our cities they're not even enough to do like we are literally bankrupt without you like unless you move unless you breathe unless you possess us Holy Spirit we won't step into anywhere near close to the fullness of what you have designed for us so Holy Spirit come upon us show us teach us how to follow you teach us how to be present to you speak to us open up our ears unstop our ears we give you permission to speak we give you permission to lead we give over authority I pray for those moments where where we know we're supposed to be a forgive us for our disobedience and those moments where we know that we should have followed you where you were speaking and Lord we want to set a new course today of obedience no matter what the cost we are ready to pay the price to follow you no matter what Holy Spirit come have your way lead us lead your church lead your people we give you our very bodies come and fill your people and your precious name I ask amen God bless you guys been so good getting a chance to speak with you