 Hello, David Diga Hernandez here. I want to encourage you to watch this edition of Spirit Church all the way through. Don't skip anything. I want you to watch until the very end. There's a very special ministry update that I want you to see. Maybe you've watched these videos all the time and you've never watched until the end. I want you to watch until the end. There's an update at the end I want to give to you. God bless you. Enjoy the program. Well, I'm continuing my series, 7 Trials of the Called. And on this edition of Spirit Church here on Encounter TV, I'm going to be talking to you about the test that is probably the most difficult to pass, because most people who are in this season don't even realize that it's a test. When it comes to the other tests like discouragement or faithfulness, it's easy to see that we're in a trial. It's easy to see that our faith is being tested because we sense the resistance. But in this area, and I want to talk to you ministers, I want to talk to every single one of you who feels called. This is so important that you get this. This test, you may not even realize you're taking. This is the test of blessings. That's what I'm talking about here on this edition of Spirit Church here on Encounter TV. First, Stephen Moctezuma is here. He's going to lead you in some worship, and then we're going to get right back into this lesson. Here is Stephen Moctezuma. In Jesus... So in my series, I've been paralleling this message to the story of Joseph. Well, at the same time telling you my story in the ministry, I know many of you have been writing to me saying you're encouraged by what you're hearing because it's really lifting your spirits to know that this didn't happen overnight. This ministry didn't just pop up out of nowhere, that there was a process to this. And while we're still growing and we don't think that we've achieved any plateau yet, we still got lots to do, I do believe that there are some truths that I can help offer. And so I also found some truths in the life of Joseph, and you're going to find this lesson to be a little bit different than the others because as I said, this test, most people don't even realize they're taking. So go to Genesis 39. I'm going to read to you just a few verses about a dozen or so verses here. And we're going to begin reading at verse number five, and we're going to pick up the story with Joseph. This is after he's been sold into slavery by his brothers, after he's been faithful in the house of Potiphar. Remember, we talked about faithfulness, being consistency with excellence and not just consistency with apathy. So Genesis 39, and you're going to love this one. It's going to challenge you, it's going to get right to the core, I promise. So Genesis 39, verse five, from the day Joseph was put in charge of his master's household and property, the Lord began to bless Potiphar's household for Joseph's sake. So just the very fact that Joseph is there is enough for the Lord to bless Potiphar. So now Potiphar is reaping the benefits of having Joseph's favor, the favor of God that's on Joseph in his household. And so Joseph is being faithful to the call. He's being faithful to what he knows is right. He's continuing with excellence. And so the scripture says, all his household affairs round smoothly and his crops and livestock flourish. That's just supernatural. That's outside of man's control. Verse six, so Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn't worry about a thing except what kind of food to eat. So basically Joseph comes in, he administrates everything. He takes care of things with such excellence, with such quality, with such accuracy that Potiphar doesn't have to worry about a thing. Everything runs smoothly. So the scripture tells us that Joseph was a very handsome and well built young man and Potiphar's wife soon began to look at him lustfully. Come and sleep with me, she demanded. She's being very direct, as you can see. But Joseph refused. Look, he told her, my master trusts me with everything in this entire household. No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God. Now, what's interesting here is that Joseph is in a place of blessings. Now, this is where many people begin to settle in their walk with God. Trials produce the desire to do better, but comfort and blessings at times can be more dangerous because they can produce in us apathy. And they can take away the hunger, they can take away the drive, they can take away that desire to push for more and do more and be more for the glory of God. So Joseph finds himself in the house of Potiphar. Now, here's what I would be thinking if I was Joseph, not in the situation with Potiphar's wife, just in the situation of being a ruler over Potiphar's house, just in the situation of being in charge of so many things. I would have thought if I was Joseph, that the dream that I dreamt in my father's house had come to pass. Now, many people do mistake the blessings of God for the destination that he has for them. Now, you who are called by God, please remember this. There is no more dangerous season for you spiritually than in the season of blessings. Then where everything runs smoothly, where everything is in order, where you have enough, because it's in that season that you become tempted to stop seeking God, that your prayers aren't as fervent because you're not as desperate. And yes, God wants to bless you. Yes, God wants to allow you to experience seasons of rest and abundance, because even Paul the Apostle said, I've learned how to live a base and abound. He talked about living in little, living in lack, and living with much in abundance and prosperity. So, well, prosperity isn't the central message of the gospel. I don't believe in the prosperity gospel as it's been defined to mean that everything is replaced by the pursuit of riches. But I do believe God wants to bless you. Now, here, as it goes with Joseph, we see that he's here in Potiphar's house. He's blessed. He has authority. Remember, his dream was that people would bow to him. Maybe he could have thought, here, I've arrived. There's no more to obtain. Everything I've dreamt of has finally come to pass. And here's the problem. Many believers get stuck in this season. Because they want to settle for what is comfortable, they refuse to receive from God what is better. Because they want to settle for what is immediate, they never end up receiving from God what is the fullness that he has for them. The scripture goes on to say in verse 10, she kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. So he didn't go looking for temptation. Here's the problem with most Christians. They say, Lord, help me when I'm tempted. But Jesus said to pray, lead me not into temptation. Don't put yourself in tempting places and then say, Lord, help me. Flee from temptation. Lead us not into temptation, not help me when I place myself in tempting situations. Verse number 11, one day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, come on, sleep with me. Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. Look, she said, my husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us. He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me. Now preachers, pastors, ministers, this is one reason why you should never, one of the many reasons why you should never be alone with someone from the opposite sex who is not your spouse because of the possibility of accusation. It doesn't even take a real sin to lose your reputation. It can just take an accusation to cost you your reputation. And so long as you have witnesses around, they can never really say anything about you, but staying on the point now, we see that Joseph was tempted in the place of blessings, and this is the place where temptation will come. When you are walking in the blessing of God, when you are walking in the abundance that he has ordained for you to walk in, that is the place where temptation comes. That is the place where we get spiritually lazy, spiritually relaxed. Our guard begins to go down. We don't need faith in this season. Why? Because everything we've prayed for has already come to pass, and now you're not relying on God, you're relying on the systems. You're not relying on God, you're relying on everything that you have. You're not relying on God, you're relying on the blessings, the material gain that you have. The season of blessings is very dangerous because many Christians stop there, but Joseph refused to settle. Joseph refused to settle in the temptations of blessings, and he moved forward. He continued to do right, and he resists the temptation from Potiphar's wife, and here's what happens. He gets accused of doing something that he didn't do, and so what happens in the Scripture? The Scripture goes on to say in verse number 16, she kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. Then she told him her story that Hebrew slave you brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me, she said, but when I screamed he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me. Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her, so he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king's prisoners were held, and there he remained. Now, I know the Scripture says that Potiphar was angry. He may have been angry upon first hearing this story, but I think that if Potiphar really thought that Joseph had tried to rape his wife that he would have had him killed, I am inclined to think that part of Potiphar believed Joseph's story. Nevertheless, Joseph is thrown into prison. What do you do when the right decision seems to put you in the wrong place? What do you do when the decision that you make strips away from you the blessings that God has given to you? I think of Abraham and Isaac, Abraham was willing to give what he knew God had promised to him in obedience to God, and God tested his faith in that way. I think of the parable of the talents where people were given by the master who represents God. They were given certain things to invest. One servant who was wicked and lazy was afraid of losing it, was afraid of being judged for how he used the talent to the point that he didn't do anything with it. He got lazy and many people do that in the season of blessings. They don't want to mess up all of the things that they have going. They don't want to mess up their system. They don't want to mess up how everything is running so smoothly. Because of that, they stay stagnant. If you are not growing, then you are stagnating. Ministries lose momentum. Ministries lose influence. Ministries start to shrink the moment they settle for the blessings that God has given to them. I've talked to ministry leaders who were in charge of mega ministries. Many of them say it was when the blessings started to come that waste started to come in, that laziness started to come in. That's when things first started to fall apart. We cannot be this way. We have to be people who will say, Lord, even in the season of blessings, I'm going to obey you. Even in the season of blessings, I'm going to take steps of faith. So this is what happened with me. Remember I told you that after faithfulness, years of faithfulness suddenly, this was last week I talked about, suddenly there was this move of God. And I talked about the many times that God moved just in response to our faithfulness. We didn't do anything different. We just stood faithful and God took our faithfulness, met it with opportunity and blessed it, and there was sudden growth. So over time in ministry, you will experience a gradual growth and that gradual growth will every so often spike to become multiplied growth. A sign of God's blessing is multiplication. So you will go through growth that is addition until you hit certain seasons in your life where God will suddenly multiply you and only he can decide when those times are. So at one of the earlier growth spurts that our ministry had experienced, the Lord challenged me to give away all my TV equipment. I could have been stubborn and said, well, I think that's foolish. I don't think that's the Lord. I have to keep this because, and then when we get the next set of equipment, then I'll go ahead and do it. I could have said that and it would have been foolish to do that had God not spoken it. But here's the difference. You want to know the differences in faith and foolishness. The only difference between faith and foolishness is whether or not God has spoken. If God truly has spoken and you know his voice, you have to step out and do it. And so this is what happened with the Camry equipment. We remember we were on cable. We were doing okay on the internet. We just started to see some momentum. There was some growth. There was some finances coming in. The Lord says, give it all away. I said, Lord, this is difficult. And if I am being honest with you, my faith was challenged. My faith was being stretched. It did not come easy for me and it rarely ever does. But had I held on to that equipment, had I had kept my grip strong over the things that I felt was giving blessing to the ministry, I would have shown God that my trust was in what he gave to me and not in him. The season of blessings, the test of blessings. You see, nobody is above the challenge of the call. I don't care how big you get, how blessed you get. You're not above the challenge of the call. I'll say this again. I've said this in the series. If where you are doesn't require faith, you're not in the will of God. God will always challenge your faith. Now you may make that decision. I made that decision and I gave up that camera equipment. Joseph made the decision and resisted the temptation. He ended up in prison for doing the right thing. I ended up very stressed out for doing the right thing. Sometimes when you do the right thing, the blessings for it don't come right away. God's testing you. He wants to know, did you do this because you love me and because you want to obey me? Or did you do this because you thought you'd get more out of it? I told you this would go right to the core. This is going to challenge your motives. It's going to challenge why you do what you do. God will challenge you in this way. What if the dreams as you imagine them don't come to pass? Will you still love God? What if he has something planned for you to do that isn't according to your plans? Will you still love him? What if he requires to give up things that he has given to you to get to the next place? Will you still obey? This is the question I had to answer. This is the question Joseph had to answer. This is the question you'll have to answer. What do you do with the blessings that God tells you to surrender? What do you do with the abundance that God tells you to place on the altar? Until you've placed on the altar the blessings, God cannot promote you to the next place of ministry. Now, here's the interesting thing is that Joseph ends up in prison. His promotion was prison. You see, what looks like a demotion in the natural is actually a promotion in the spiritual when you've obeyed God. In the natural, they could have looked at Joseph's life and they could have said, that's a step backwards, not forward. But in the spirit, God knew that it was going to the prison that set him up to move to the palace. So where are you? Are you so blessed that you can no longer sacrifice? Have you paid your dues and become above stepping out in faith? Or are you ready to go to the next level of ministry? Pass this test. Be ready to give what God tells you to give, even if it means giving what he gave you. He's testing your heart. After I gave that equipment, that was the seed. Remember this, the seed is never the harvest. It's the beginning of the harvest. If what you have is not enough, that's not your harvest, that's your seed. That Camry equipment I had was enough to do local cable and some internet broadcast, but it wasn't enough to take us national and international. It was a seed of what was to come. It was a smaller portion of what was to come. What do you have? You have a seed, a form of what is to come. God wants to know. Will you give that to him? And I'm not talking about just giving away material things. I'm talking about living in the posture of surrender and willingness to leave anything at any time when he tells you. And that will do it for this lesson. I want to pray for you now. I want to pray that God would so stir your heart that you wouldn't be trapped by the blessings that you would surrender them. Remember, blessings are not a reward. They are a responsibility. God has given you resource. God has given you influence. God has given you ministry and leadership platform, not so that you can make your own name great, not so that you can make yourself important, so that you can do something for the kingdom. The question is, what's next? And are you willing to leave the comfort of what is now for what is the destiny of God? Father, I thank you for that one watching. And I pray for everyone who receives this prayer now. And I ask, Lord, that you would help us to identify the things in our lives that we cling to more tightly than we do to you, Lord. Father, we want to live with open hands, saying to you whatever it is that you require, we will give it. Help us, Father, to pass the test of blessings. Forgive us if we haven't been doing so. I thank you, Father, for the anointing of the Holy Spirit flowing now. And I thank you, Lord. Our pastors watching, you're repenting right now. I thank you, Lord, for that humility. I thank you, Father. In Jesus' name we pray. I want you to say it if you agree. You know, I feel led. I'm going to go a little over the time because I feel led to do this. I want to pray for healing. Those of you watching believing for your miracle, I want to pray for your healing right now. Come on, stretch your hands toward mine. Let's believe. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for that one agreeing for their healing. And I pray in the name of Jesus that you would remove every sickness and make your people whole. Lord, it's because of the promises that you've spoken that we can claim our healing. And I pray now, Lord, there's someone with heart palpitations, like a heart murmur. I sense the Lord's healing someone with a heart murmur. Go back to your doctor, have him check you. I believe God's healing you. Father, I thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. In fact, even as you were watching me, your heart started to skip. But now you feel the power of God on you. And God's healing you. I want you to go to your doctor, have him check you. And I believe God's making you whole. Father, in Jesus' name, we pray for healing in the bones, in the skeletal system, Lord, the nervous system. I command brains and eyes and ears and mouths and arms and legs to be made whole. In the name of Jesus, I thank you for this healing anointing that is flowing now. And we give the glory to God. And I want you to say it, if you agree, I want you to say amen. Well, that'll do it for this lesson. I want to welcome the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. I always say that because I always mean it. And if you would like to join the Spirit family, then go ahead and use the information at the bottom of the screen to sign up to become a member of Spirit Church. Today, it's absolutely free. You get a teaching email to you every single Sunday. It's brand new. It's fresh from heaven. And it will bless your life. On top of that, you can reply to that email that I send to you for prayer support from our ministry staff. And when you join Spirit Church, you will be joining membership of over 2,500 people from all around the world. And that number is quickly rising. I believe we're going to hit 3,000 members before the end of the year. 3,000 members, think about that, of Spirit Church Online. Now, I really do encourage you to do that. Now, those of you who are members of Spirit Church, remember, some of you have been asking where to sew your ties and offerings. Membership is free. You do not have to give to be a member of Spirit Church. But, those of you who consider Spirit Church your main source of of sustenance spiritually and your main source of discipleship, it's important that you support this work. So, Spirit Church members, you can wait to the end at the link. I'm going to talk a little more at the end about this. But stay tuned. Don't turn this video off. I want to talk to you guys about something important. I'm going to update you on where we are with the building. By the way, some news on that. Spirit Church members, that little red button at the end, you can actually sign up to not only they're not fixed amounts, you can actually sign up to give your tithes one time or you can set that up for monthly. So, I encourage the Spirit Church members to do that. If every single member of Spirit Church were to start giving, I'm telling you, there's quite a bit we could do with that. And we'd be able to reach a lot of souls. So, I'm going to read now your comments. This is from last week, 7 Trials of the Called. The Test of Faithfulness. Agape writes, I felt cold and dead for weeks and I suddenly saw this video in my notifications. I love how God puts hope in my heart and that I could always come back to His arms anytime. Thank you EncounterTV and Minister David for being faithful to God. More blessings to you all. Hope to see you someday. Agape from Philippines. Florence writes, God has really used you to speak to my heart. You really encouraged me when you said power is not found in struggle, it's found in surrendering. It's true. Another commenter writes, Before watching this video, the Holy Spirit already told me I was going to and now I am even more sure. Another commenter writes, First of all, I would like to praise God for this incredibly wonderful, encouraging message. I extremely feel that I am an edge of breakthrough and it is God who brought and used you to inspire me before quitting my gospel outreach ministry. Wow. I want to especially say thank you brother David. God bless you and use you mightily to encourage many people for the Lord's glory. Well that made my week. Someone who felt like quitting is not going to quit because of the encouragement they received from the Lord's ministry. This is His ministry. I have a lesson and I listen. I just can't resist crying. You have that passion for souls and it touches my heart every single time I keep you in my prayers. Well thank you for your prayers. I certainly do appreciate them. And there is a passion for souls in this ministry. I know you can feel it when I talk because it's the real deal. Help me win souls. Look, I'm not asking for your support so that I can go live a lavish lifestyle. I'm not asking for your support because I'm talking about souls. Every day over 150,000 people die. Many of them without knowledge of the saving power of Jesus. We must preach the gospel. I want you to think of all that's going on in this world today. All of the trials, all of the troubles many are saying we're living in the last days and in my heart I believe it to be so. Now we don't know when the hour is coming. Only the Father knows. But whether or not these are the last days, whether or not today is somebody's last day I know for a fact that somebody today is going to slip into eternity. Somebody today is going to slip into eternity. I want you to think about that. That's enough to cause me to preach the gospel with urgency. So here's what I wanted to update you on. We've looked at more buildings today. We've been looking at properties. So we need that monthly support. Here's what we want to do. We want to win souls. We want to reach more through media and events. So here's how we're going to do that. We are expanding the ministry outreach and the way we're expanding the ministry outreach is through monthly partnership. This is where you sign on to become a $30, $10, $100 month partner. Many times I get messages saying you're part of what you're doing. Well here's how you can help. Sign up to become a partner. Look, if you say in your heart I can't do $30. We accept partnership from all different countries. The link works for everyone. You say I can't give $30 but I can give $10. I can't give $10 but I can give $5. Sign up to become a monthly supporter. Some amount that you say I'll do this every month and I'm with you in the long term. Some people sign up and then they quit two months later. Don't do that. Stay with me, let's win souls and stay with me for the long haul. I'm going to preach the gospel for the rest of my life. I need partners who will stand with me for the rest of theirs. And so this is what we need. We're raising funds to get a new ministry television production facility. This facility is going to enable us to reach more people than ever before. We're going to do weekly meetings right there in the studio where you can come in sit in it'll be like a church service almost every single week. On top of that we're going to live broadcast in there so everybody watching around the world can join. We're going to be able to put out more content than ever before in higher quality than ever before and on top of that, that monthly support is going to also help us to do more of our miracle services. That's basically what we do as a ministry. We do those miracle services and we reach people through media. So help us do that, become a $30 month supporter today. We needed a thousand new $30 a month partners to reach our goal. That was a thousand new $30 a month givers. These aren't one-time givers. These are people who said I'm going to sign up and I'm going to give $30 a month. We needed a thousand more of those in order to get into the next phase which is the property phase which is getting into this new facility. And here's where we are in that campaign. Look at how close we are. I know I say this every program but please hear me when I tell you you are important. You are important. You are not watching this. You are not watching by accident. You don't feel connected to me for no reason. You are not receiving constantly from this ministry just because it's the Lord that connected us. And so I'm asking you by faith to step out and partner with me. If everyone who watches this right now, everyone and don't say someone else will do it. If every person who receives from this ministry who's watching this now signs up today to become a $30 a month supporter then we will be done with the campaign. And we can do it by next week. Now it may take us, practically speaking it will take us a couple of months to finish this up but super naturally speaking you sign up right now, this could be it and we'll be ready to go. So the way you sign up is if you're watching this on YouTube wait until the end of the video you're going to see a red button appear click that button. And then after you click that button you sign up to become a $30 a month supporter. Now if you are watching this on the app it will disappear and then you'll see the buttons appear after the video is done. If you're watching this outside of the app or outside of YouTube then go ahead and use the information at the bottom of the screen. Become a partner today. When you do sign up I'll send you a copy of either Carriers of the Glory or 25 truths about demons and spiritual warfare. I'll sign it, I'll send it to you and I know it will bless you. So do that today, sign up now. Let's win souls, let's do this big. I promise you big things are coming and you get to be a part of it. We're going to make history together, watch. We're going to change the world. Well that is it for this edition of Spirit Church. Until next time, remember nothing is impossible with God. Thank you for watching EncounterTV. Don't forget to subscribe. Also help me win souls by spreading the gospel through events and media. 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