 Hello, this is David Diga Hernandez, and you're watching Spirit Church on the Encounter TV Network. God wants to use your life for His glory. If you've been wondering about the call of God, or waiting for God to speak to you about how He's going to use you, then I want to talk to you about the call of God. The first, Stephen Maktazuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in some very anointed worship, and then I want to encourage you with this message. Here is Stephen Maktazuma. Lord prepare, be a sanctuary with thanksgiving. Be a live, Lord prepare, sanctuary with thanksgiving. Lord prepare, be a sanctuary. So, I'm going to read to you a very popular parable that Jesus told. This is found in Matthew chapter 25. Let's go and start with verse 14. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money. After a long time, their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more. The master was full of praise, well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more. The master said, well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. And then in verse 24, the master addresses the third servant. Then the servant with one bag of silver came and said, Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn't plant, and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back. But the master replied, you wicked and lazy servant. If you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest. So this is a very sobering story about a master who represents the Lord going away on a trip and entrusting resources to his servants. Now the first two servants did something with what they had been given. But that third servant, afraid of how his master might respond to what he was doing, did absolutely nothing with it. One of the biggest mistakes that people make concerning the call of God is succumbing to the fear of being judged by God for making a mistake. Many Christians, many believers are frozen in paranoia. They're frozen in fear, afraid to take a step, afraid to do anything for God. And they're afraid that they're going to get to heaven and God is going to be angry with them saying I didn't call you to do that and therefore I'm punishing you now. Now I understand, so let me balance this, that we should not walk in presumption. I understand that we should hear from God to receive our assignments in life. I understand that we must be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit and I understand wanting to walk in the will of God, wanting to do what God has called you to do. However, there are some people, some believers who are so paranoid, so full of fear that instead of stepping out and doing something, anything for God, they instead choose to do nothing, saying things like, well I haven't heard from God and whether or not I should move and do something for him yet. Now this is a little bit of a tricky subject because as I said on one hand I understand the need to avoid presumption. But there are two extremes to this that we have to understand. One extreme is that sin of presumption, just stepping out and not really hearing from God doing things in your own strength, doing things by your own power according to your own will and your own thoughts without ever pausing to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and then there is the other extreme, the one who stands still for fear that they might miss the will of God. There's a balance, there's a delicate harmony that we must walk in and hearing the voice of God concerning his call for our lives requires that we move. The Holy Spirit reveals to us progressively as we step forward. I'm going to show you something. In Acts chapter 16, here's proof of what I'm saying, biblical proof. Acts chapter 16, verse 6, this is talking about Paul and Silas. The Bible says, next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Regia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. Then coming to the borders of Mycia, they headed north for the province of Bethany. But again, the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. So instead they went on through Mycia to the seaport of Troas. So here we see Paul and Silas moving along their journey, doing something for God, active in the ministry and as they moved along the Holy Spirit would prevent them and correct them and cause them to not step into a certain land. You see, the Holy Spirit guides those who move. He does not guide those who stand idly by in fear saying, I haven't heard from God yet. I mean, the Bible says in Mark chapter 16, verse 15, and then he told them, go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone. Why are you waiting to be led when you've already been commanded to go? Why are you waiting for the sky to open and for God to speak with a booming voice, audible voice from heaven, telling you to go when you've already been told in the Word of God to go? The disciples of Christ are to be active, to be moving, to be obeying, to be evangelizing, to be reaching out and doing something to expand the kingdom and spread the gospel. But instead, many are just standing there saying, well God hasn't revealed it to me and it can sound very spiritual. This is what's so alluring about that stance. It sounds very spiritual. It sounds so right that I would hide myself in the secret place and I understand that, but I would hide myself in the secret place and never move and do anything. I don't want to start a Twitter account, not unless the Lord leads me. I don't want to get on Instagram and preach to my friends, not unless the Lord leads me. I don't want to have, there are some people I know they won't create ministry websites because they haven't been led to go and do that. Or God hasn't spoken to them clearly, go and create a ministry website. Or they don't want to go and preach the gospel because God hasn't told them specifically to go and do that. And I'm not trying to sound facetious. I'm not mocking anyone. I'm not trying to be condescending to anybody who's stuck in that. But we have to admit there is some silliness to this mindset because the Bible is so clear. Go, go, go, preach, preach, preach, do something for God. As we see with these servants, the master left them. Notice that the master left, but he did not give them instructions. Instead, he gave them resources and expected them to do something with what he had given to them. So, I understand that not all of us will be prophets or pastors or evangelists or teachers or apostles. I understand that we must prayerfully step into different arenas of influence. We must prayerfully step into new ministries. We mustn't just go about our lives doing as we please or doing whatever comes to our mind. And on the other extreme, as I said, there are those who just go with a sin of presumption. They appoint themselves. They try to anoint themselves. They give themselves titles. They proclaim themselves men and women of God. They work to create their own calling, which is not really possible to do. I'm not talking about that either. I'm talking about this very balanced approach that you must be doing something for God if he's going to guide you in the rest. These servants were not told what to do, but they were given resources. So, what are you called to do right now? If you don't know what your specific assignment here is on the earth, if you don't know what you're called to do as far as the five-fold ministry, if you don't know what you're called to do as far as what you'll commit your life to in a ministry assignment, then do something. God has given you time. God has given you skill sets. God has given you a personality. God has given you influence. God has given you relationships and resources. He's given you breath. He's given you a body. He's given you expression. He's given you passions and desires. And these things we must put to use for the spreading of the gospel. Maybe you do feel led in the spirit to wait and not start preaching in public pulpits yet. That's perfectly fine. In fact, that's biblical because there is a process before God will put you on a platform. We understand that. But in the meantime, what I'm simply saying is do something. While you're waiting to hear from God about what's in the future, do what you already know the Scripture has commanded you to do in the now. Don't wait for the future. Don't wait for the ideal situation to begin doing what God has called you to do right here and now. What is every believer called to do? Every believer is called to worship. Every believer is called to holiness. Every believer is called to evangelism. Every believer is called to give to their church. Every believer is called to serve. Every believer is called to do something right here right now with what they've been given. And that is all I'm talking to you about. So again, and I want to make this very clear. I know I keep repeating this, but it's so important that I make this clear. There are extremes to this. On one side, there are those who never do anything for God and they spiritualize their idleness. They spiritualize their apathy and they say things like, I haven't heard from God or I'm locking myself in my prayer closet or I'm waiting to make a move and they live in paranoia and they never do anything. I'm talking about paranoia to where they won't even do simple things that help to expand the ministry that even God has already given to them. And then on the other side, there are those who just go about presumptuously assigning themselves titles and platforms and they go and they seek things and they push things and they make it happen on their own. I'm not talking about either one of those. I'm talking about right there in the balance doing something in the meantime while you wait to hear from God about your assignment. So maybe you feel you're called to be an evangelist, but it might not be the time for you to be preaching publicly or going around the churches yet. Maybe you feel called by God to be a pastor, but it might not be time for you to start a church yet and so on and so forth with the other public expressions of ministry. But at least right here, right now where you are, do something for God. The Lord called that servant who did nothing a wicked and lazy servant. Look, you're not going to get to heaven and stand before God and find that he's angry with you because you evangelized to someone and he didn't tell you with an honorable voice to do it. He's not going to say, wait a minute, why did you evangelize to that person? Why did you preach the gospel to your family? Why did you go and give to that church? Why did you volunteer your time at that Christian school? Why did you give of your resources and your time and your passions? Why did you give any of that to those organizations or to those causes or to those projects? Do you really think he's going to be angry with you for that? I don't think so. And the sad thing is in Pentecostal superstition there is that sort of teaching that floats around. That we're going to stand before God and God is going to say, well, I called you to pastor in this city and you pastor in the city that was 40 minutes away from it. Now I'm banishing you to hell. And that really is not how God works. God works more like this master in the parable of the talents. He gives you something. He gave you a life. He gave you breath. And now he says, go do something with that for my glory. Now, you might be asking, okay, what do I do then? I know the basics. Like you said, David, worship, holiness, evangelism, serving in a local church, giving to a ministry, so forth and so on. But what am I specifically supposed to start doing right now? Look, I believe this, God put passions and desires and talents in you for a reason. God put those passions, desires and talents in you because obviously he created you with that inclination that you might fulfill a specific purpose. Your specific passions and talents were placed in you to fulfill a specific calling. So if you have a talent for media, if you have a talent for writing, if you have a talent for encouraging others, I would call that a spiritual gift, then go and use those talents. Go and use those gifts wherever your passions are, wherever your giftings are, wherever your resources are, use what you have right here, right now. And then as Paul and Silas did, just keep your ear in the spirit. They were moving toward Asia. They didn't pray about going there. You know how I know that Paul the apostle didn't pray about going to Asia? Because when he tried to go there, the Holy Spirit had to stop him. What does this tell me about Paul the apostle? This tells me that he wasn't just waiting to hear an audible voice of God telling him, go to this specific region and this specific region. And there were instances that that happened. But this tells me that there was another aspect to Paul the apostle's expression of ministry to where he just went places that he saw a need. He saw that there was a need for the gospel in Asia, so he went there. He was on his way there and the Holy Spirit had to stop and say, not yet. So that proves to you that he did not pray about it. He did not wait for the heavens to split and for him to hear an audible voice of God. He just saw a need and went to fill that need. And this is why we must keep our prayer lives intact. Look, those who get stuck in the sin of presumption. Those who go on and on in ministry without ever hearing God do so because they don't have a prayer life. But if you have a prayer life that's intact, if you're studying the word daily, then you're going to be in the safety net. You're going to have that safety net of the voice of the Holy Spirit. So long as you keep your prayer life, so long as you keep your devotion to God's word, so long as you maintain that sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit, then as you go about in ministry, as you go about doing things for God, he will always be able to put you on a corrective course if ever you're doing something that will derail his call for your life. But don't be so paranoid about missing the will of God that you do nothing for him. Don't be so paranoid about fulfilling such a specific ministry that you fulfill no ministry. Don't be so paranoid about angering God with doing something for his kingdom that you never do anything to expand his kingdom. I bring it back there once more. I'll say it once more because I really want to get this in your spirit. There are two extremes. On one extreme, there are those who do nothing for God because they're afraid. And on the other extreme, there are those who go about doing anything and everything, never finding real focus, never finding real impact, self-appointed, self-supposedly anointed prophets, pastors, teachers, apostles, evangelists. But I'm talking about being right there in the perfect balance of the will of God where there is action and faith as well as discipline and instruction that you have to be moving in order for the Holy Spirit to guide you. Look, there are some of you hearing this message right now and maybe you've succumbed to that superstition. I know of too many great, great ministries with so much potential and they've bought into this idea that they're not supposed to do anything at all until they hear from God. And here's the problem. The reason they listen to that preaching is because of an elitist mentality that taught it to them. There's a system out there of people who view themselves as God's elite anointed and they teach messages like that, well, if you want to be where I'm at on the platforms, you have to first do this, this, and this. And again, I need to balance this by saying I acknowledge that there is a process. You have to balance that. But on the other hand, what I'm talking about now, there are those who will do that in the hopes that the people never step into ministry, that they never fulfill the call of God, thus making them the special ones. So don't get stuck there. I kid you not, I've talked to ministries, they're anointed, they're evangelists, they're called by God, and they will say things, well, you know, I'm still waiting on the Lord. I need to hear from Him whether or not we're starting that website. I need to wait and hear from the Lord whether or not I'm going to preach another time this week. Maybe God has instructed some to be that strict, but honestly, that's not in the Bible. It just isn't. That's paranoia, that's superstition. So we must balance this. No more presumption. Don't just go about doing things without a prayer life and being devoted to God and without sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. And don't stand idly by telling yourself that you'll have a more powerful ministry if you do nothing in the meantime. That's not the case. Do what's before you. Use what you have to do what God has already commanded you to do. Serve, participate, encourage, evangelize, live holy, reach out to people. Do what you can and let promotion come from the Lord. But in the meantime, my goodness, do something for God. Don't be like that man in the parable of the talents who say, Lord, I was afraid. And so I just buried what I had in the dirt. Don't do that. Move and let the Holy Spirit guide you. And that's it for this encouragement. I want to pray with you now. I want to pray that God would give you wisdom to walk in this balance, that you might not succumb to that presumption where you're just stepping ahead of the Lord and everything that you do. And that you might not succumb to that apathy, to where you're staying in that place that you think is setting you up for the future when, in fact, you're missing out on what God has for you now. Let's pray that you would not be led by ambition and you would not be held back by fear. That you would walk that perfect walk of faith. You would strike that perfect balance, which is that step of faith, not knowing the future, but obeying His voice right here, right now as you trust Him to lead you into your divine destiny. Father in the name of Jesus. I lift that one to you now. It's calling upon your name. Lord, these are your people. This is your servant. They want to do something for you, God. Annoint them, Lord. Guide them. Watch over them. Don't let them be pulled too fast into the future and don't let them be frozen by fear. Father, stir their faith. Cause them to see the assignment before them right here, right now in the name of Jesus we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it, say amen. And that is it for the lesson. I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you and we are praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. I always like information on how you can join the Spirit family. Go to DavidHernanisMinisteries.com. And now to your comments. And these comments that I'm reading are from the last portion of my nine part series on the Holy Spirit. By the way, that nine part series on the Holy Spirit is available right now for free You can watch part 1 through 9 on YouTube right now. Go and check it out. that, be sure to also subscribe. And if you're subscribing to us on YouTube, click that notification bell so that you can receive the notifications when the content comes out. If you're watching this anywhere else, be sure to sign up and connect with us on all our social media accounts. But again, these comments come from that teaching, the friendship of the Holy Spirit, which was the ninth installment in a nine part series, and I know that's going to bless your life. So these comments from the friendship of the Holy Spirit. Oh, one more thing. If you'd like me to potentially read your comments on next week's edition of Spirit Church, then go ahead and leave a comment in the comment section right now. Fanny Mochanu, right? Thank you for these teachings. Nowhere have I heard teachings about the Holy Spirit like these ones. I am so blessed by all of them. The Holy Spirit teaches me through these videos. Thank you. Jeff Heik writes, We have been watching all these videos on the Holy Spirit in our Bible study. We're using your videos to teach our newcomers. Well said, with biblical truth. Thank you so much. Well, Jeff, I'm super excited about that. And hello to everybody there connected with Jeff Heik and all those Bible studies. Thank you guys for joining me for those Bible studies on the Holy Spirit. I love the teacher about the Holy Spirit. Thank you for that comment, Jeff. JQ Sim says, I'm so happy to see the number of subscribers go up and up each week. Thank you, Jesus, that more and more people are being blessed by this ministry. We are so glad to see the Holy Spirit's channel spreading all over. We call it the Holy Spirit's channel because we told him it's his and he can do whatever he wants with it. And because of that, you don't know how many comments we get where people say this teaching came just in time or I was just praying about it. People always seem to find our content at the right time. And it's incredible all the stories we hear. But if you want to help us grow this channel, there's something you can do that's absolutely free and easy. Just share this video by texting it to at least three friends and tell them you have to subscribe to this channel. Amazing teachings on the Holy Spirit. I think that might get them to subscribe. And the final commenter, Alina Connery writes, Thank you for your teaching. Your ministry is nothing but the truth. You've always been teaching the truth straight from the Bible. I'm your ministry partner to help you spread the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord continue to bless your ministry to save more souls. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus, amen. Alina, thank you so much for being my partner and supporter. I love that we can offer these videos for free because of supporters like you, Alina, because you support us monthly. We can keep making this content. We can keep producing this content with high quality and sending it out all around the world. And many can watch around the world. And even those who couldn't afford otherwise, you know, sometimes people can't afford e-courses. They can't afford video downloads. They can't afford to buy the DVD. So by you supporting this ministry, you're making it possible for us to continue to spread this all around the world. And you're also enabling us to do free events all around the world. I don't ever want to charge for a miracle service. That just doesn't make sense to me. I don't ever want to charge for a video. It just doesn't make sense to me. That's just where I stand. I think freely you've received so freely give. So our model is simple. This is how we keep the ministry going. We give everything away for free and we trust God by faith to bring in the resources through your obedience, through people like you. You know, when it comes to giving, people often try, and I don't want you to turn this video off. You're watching this for a reason. People often try to spiritualize things when they want to make an excuse. For example, if they don't like someone in the church or they're offended by someone's personality, instead of just admitting that maybe they need to have more patience for a different personality type, they'll say something like, that person has a bad spirit. And maybe that's not always the case. And when it comes to giving, we try to spiritualize. Isn't it amazing that when you go buy your groceries, you just budget for your groceries and then you go buy them? If you want to go to the movies, you budget for the ticket and then you go buy it. If you want to go to a theme park, you budget for that and then you go buy it. Some of you have Netflix and Hulu and Disney plus and all these streaming services. Did you pray about that? Or did you just sign up for it because it was in your budget? Now, I'm not judging you. You signed up because it was in your budget. Great. If you can afford it, awesome. But don't put a wall between you and the gospel by saying to yourself, whenever giving is required, by saying, well, I need to pray about it. Isn't it amazing that for everything else, we just budget and spend, but when it comes to giving to the gospel, we say, well, I have to be led of the Lord. Or I'm not so sure. And this is what's funny too. They go, I'm not so sure. I have to check out your ministry. What do you believe? Did you say that to Netflix? Did you say that to your gym membership? When the gym, the gym might support causes you don't like? Did you say that to other things you're subscribed to and other things you buy, the clothing stores you went to shop at? Did you say I have to check your doctrines? Did you say I have to check where you're giving all this money? Maybe some of you have. But my point is, we make these excuses when it comes to the. And it's funny that we're harder on ministries than we are on the world when we should be more cooperative. Maybe you do disagree with me on some things. That's fine. That doesn't mean we can't partner in the gospel. That doesn't mean we can't partner on the message about which we agree. So here's my challenge to you. If you have any of those streaming services, Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, so forth and so on, if you have any of those streaming services and you can't afford to partner with this ministry monthly, I'm going to encourage you. I'm going to challenge you now. I'm not saying this is God. I don't want you to feel guilty if you can't do it. Here's a challenge I'm setting for you. If you can't afford to give to this ministry, but you have any of those streaming services, here's a challenge I'm going to give to you. Cancel Netflix, cancel Disney Plus, cancel Hulu, whatever it is, maybe some of you are gamers, you have that monthly subscription, cancel it and give to the ministry. Become a $10 month supporter, $20 month supporter, $30 month supporter, or maybe you have those streaming services and you can support this ministry. My question, why would you support that and help that machine crank out ungodly content to the world and not the gospel? Yes, you can watch wholesome content on those things. My point is simply this, if you can't afford to give but you have those, I challenge you to cancel it and give to the ministry instead. If you can afford to give to the ministry while maintaining those, then do that as well. But either way, I'm challenging you now. My challenge to my brothers and sisters, let's spread the gospel. Partner with me today, $10 a month, $20 a month, $30 a month, some can do 50 or 100. Do that today by going to davidhernandezministries.com slash donate. You can give that monthly gift or you can give a one-time gift for the year and we get major donations from all over the world all the time. My challenge to you is simple, give to Jesus. If he was standing before you in physical form right now, would you put just a little something in his hand to tip him or would you want to give to him the very best that you could offer? Well, when you give to this ministry, you're giving it to the hands of Jesus. You're giving a gift unto the Lord. Do it because you love him. Do it because you want to see the gospel go forward. Do it because you want to see this content and our events continue to touch the world, the power of the Holy Spirit preaching the gospel in Jesus Christ. Go do it now. One-time gift or monthly partnership, davidhernandezministries.com slash donate. Go and do it today and I know the Lord will bless you for it. Well, that is it for this edition of Spirit Church here on the Encounter TV Network. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. Thank you for watching Encounter TV. Don't forget to subscribe and click the notification bell. Also, help us spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.