 If you sense the call of God on your life, then you are going to want to hear this series. I'm talking about the seven trials of the call. These are seven ways God will test you before he can use you. Seven ways he will process you before he can really anoint you for the next level of ministry. Now all of us are being used by God where we are right now, so long as we're filled with the Holy Spirit. But in order to get to that next place in ministry that God has for you, in order to grow into a new season, in order to grow into a new place of influence and authority, you have to pass your divine test. Now here's the thing about tests. Because once you fail a test, you have to take it over again. And perhaps in your ministry, in your life, in your walk with the Lord, you feel as though you're going in circles. Well it could be that you're not passing your test. I'm going to show you how to do it in this series. First, Stephen Moctezuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in worship and then we're going to get right into this lesson. It's going to challenge you. It's going to bless you. It's going to inspire you. It's going to equip you to fulfill the call of God on your life here is Stephen Moctezuma. So several years ago, before we were actually on television, the Lord had put it on my heart that I would be reaching people through media. Now this is something that I knew when I was 11 years old. But if you fast forward from the time I was 11 years old to probably maybe five, six, maybe seven years ago, there was a season in my life where I was very frustrated in the ministry. And during this series, I'm going to be very open with you. I'm going to be very honest with you. I'm going to share with you my journey that I've gone through in the ministry and perhaps it will bless you. But while we're going through my journey, we're also going to go through the journey of Joseph from his dream that God gave him to the fulfillment of that dream. So as I was saying, there was this year where I was really discouraged and this had been the third or fourth attempt on my part in response to what the Lord had spoken to me to raise finances to take the ministry onto television. Now at this point, I didn't have any resources or special connections outside of, you know, the resources or special connections that anyone in ministry would have. I wasn't connected to anyone in TV. I didn't personally know anyone who you might consider a big name. I had no political connections. There was no real big financier that I knew personally at the time. And so everything I had done at that point was really all by faith. And to this day, I tried to challenge myself to stay in the place where what I do requires faith because I like to say if where you are doesn't require faith, then you're not in the will of God. And so I remember I had this conversation with the Lord concerning this frustration that I was experiencing because I told him, Lord, you're the one who told me to do this. You're the one who put it on my heart to go into media ministry. You're the one who showed me the vision of reaching the masses through television. And here I am obeying what you've told me to do, yet I'm not seeing any fruit from this. I'm not seeing the vision come to pass. And I'll never forget the most ignorant prayer I've probably ever prayed in my life. I was frustrated. I was tired. I felt like nothing was going anywhere. And I know many of you have been there in your life before. You haven't been there. You'll be there at some point because you have to go through this. God will process you this way. So in my rebellious way and my immature way, I spoke to the Lord out of emotion. You ever talked to God out of emotion? It's not a good idea. And so I remember out of emotion, I just said to the Lord, I said, Lord, if you don't come through for me in this season, if you don't give me the breakthrough you promised, I'm going to quit the ministry. And immediately I sensed the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit very firmly but very clearly spoke to my heart. I said, if you don't respond, I'm going to quit the ministry. And the Holy Spirit spoke with perfect clarity, perfect love, but perfect authority. He said, then quit and I'll anoint somebody else. And I remember that shook me to my very core. I said, Lord, I don't want, I don't want to quit. I'll keep going. And you know, if the Lord talks to you that way, it'll shape you up rather quickly. And so then another year goes by and I repeated the same thing. Went through the fundraising. It looked like it was going well for a while. Then we hit a wall. There's frustration. And all of a sudden I find myself in the same position praying the same ignorant prayer. I said, Lord, if you don't come through, I'm going to quit the ministry. This time the Lord was more firm with me, reminding me of the way I acted a year earlier. And this time what he said shook me even more. The Lord said to me at that time, you just bought yourself another year. What I didn't realize was that the Lord was testing how I was responding to the frustration. And until I was able to respond to the frustration with faith, I wasn't the person that could have received the fulfillment of what God wanted to bless me with. And so it's important to pass your tests. And so as I said, I was 11 years old when the Lord saved me. I got a vision for ministry from 11 to 13 years old. There's this very key time in my walk with the Lord. I'm spending time with him in prayer. And then I want to now correlate my story with Joseph because this is a very similar season I found myself in. And I want you to consider the scriptures in Genesis chapter 37 verses 12 to 14. Now Genesis chapter 37 verses 12 to 14, this is after Joseph had shared the vision with his family. Keep in mind, Joseph's brothers were very jealous of him because they saw the favor of their father upon him and they didn't like that. So Joseph carries the favor of his father has against him the jealousy of his brothers. And so they decide to never speak to him. The scripture says they couldn't even say a word to him. And so Joseph tells them this dream that he has, this dream is that his entire family is bowing to him, that he's a person in authority. Now imagine your family dislikes you. Your family is jealous of you or your brothers are jealous of you. And then you come before them and say, hey, I had a dream all of you are going to bow to me one day. Well, this stirred the embers of their jealousy deep within their souls. And they came up with this plan to kill their brother. But instead they decide to do the merciful thing and sell him into slavery as we'll find in the coming lessons. But what I want to focus on here right now is the fact that Joseph received instruction from his father from whom he had favor. Joseph receives the instructions from his father to do something very menial. And the scripture tells us in Genesis chapter 37 verses 12 to 14. Mind you, this is after God gave Joseph the dreams about him being a ruler or a person of authority, of a person in power. Genesis chapter 37 verses 12 to 14. The scripture says, soon after this Joseph's brothers went to pastor their father's flock at Shechem. When they had been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, your brothers are pastoring the sheep at Shechem. Get ready and I will send you to them. I'm ready to go, Joseph replied. Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are getting along, Jacob said. Then come back and bring me a report. So Jacob sent him on his way and Joseph traveled to Shechem from their home in the valley of Hebron. Now what's interesting to me here is this took place again. I'm emphasizing after Joseph had a dream about his family bowing to him, about him being a person in authority and in power. Now the scripture says in Matthew chapter 20 verse 26, Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. Joseph passes his first test here by obeying the instructions of his father even though he already knew there was greatness in himself. Joseph passes the test of number one, service. God will look for a man. God will look for a woman who is serving in the ministry, who is serving in their everyday life, who is serving others around them through love, through compassion, through action, not inaction, who is serving by tending to the things that are spiritual in their life. The one who is devoting themselves to prayer and the word and worship, not just in public, but in private. God looks to anoint servants. The scripture says God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. God resists those who want to exalt themselves. In fact, he will humble those who try to exalt themselves, but he will exalt those who humble themselves. And Joseph, even though he sensed greatness within himself, even though he knew he was anointed, even though he knew that he would one day be a man of great power and authority through the vision, through the dream that God had given to him, he obeyed the instructions of his father and did the practical, did the daily, did those things that don't seem like they matter. He passes the test of service. Now, when I was in the ministry, in television ministry, when I started in the television ministry, I should say, excuse me, people said, wow, this guy came from nowhere. In their minds, in their view, I just popped up on their TV screen. But they didn't see the years that had led up to that moment. And please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying that television ministry is the end all for everybody or that being someone who is seen in the public eye is the goal. That's not the goal at all. I'm simply saying that for me, the vision that God had placed in my heart was to use media to reach the masses. And so the beginning of that came and people started saying this guy came from nowhere. But the truth is, I didn't come from nowhere. I was processed. I was serving. I didn't step into the ministry the day I went on camera. There were years that led up to that moment. In fact, I can remember how I started in ministry. I didn't start in ministry on television. I didn't start in ministry on a pulpit. I didn't even start in ministry by teaching the word. I started in ministry the day I was at church. And my youth pastor at the time asked me to run something as simple as a projector. Now, when I was doing the projector in the church, we were using not the modern-day digital projectors. We used what was called an overhead projector. This was a giant box with a light in it that would shoot up upon a glass. And on that glass, you would lay a transparent sheet of paper that had writing on it. And that light would go through up into the magnifying glass and it would be projected overhead onto a screen. So I had to literally change the slide by hand. There was no button I pushed that changed a digital slide. I would have to flip the songs. They called them the song flipper. That's where the name came from if you've ever heard it. And so, when I devoted to that ministry, I didn't do it half-heartedly. I didn't say, well, I believe that I'm going to be someone who's used of God greatly one day. I'm going to be in the healing ministry. I'm going to be in the television ministry. I'm going to be an evangelist. Therefore, this is beneath me. No, that service, that projector was the gateway to the pulpit. I did not enter ministry the day that I walked in front of a television camera. I entered ministry the day I stepped in front of that projector. And God saw my heart. I remember saying to the Lord, every song I flipped, I said, Lord, this is for you. Lord, this is for you. I wasn't looking to be recognized. I wasn't looking to be celebrated. I was just looking to please my Heavenly Father. This is the thing about the act of service. It can feel frustrating because it can feel to some like it's a waste of time. Well, it's not. Service is never a waste of time because service never goes unnoticed by the Lord. But too few people want to serve. They want to enter right into what they call major ministry. They want to enter right into the dream. You will never walk through great doors until you can first walk through the door of service. This is the first test. And again, we see Joseph passes this test. We see that even though God had given him these very clear dreams, even though Joseph knew deep within his heart that he was to be a man of greatness, he still obeyed the instructions of his father to do the little things. Are you doing the little things? If God has called you, that's wonderful. If God has anointed you, that's wonderful. If God has given you a gift of healing or a gift of prophecy, those are great gifts. But are you serving? Are you doing those things that are small? Jesus said, if you can be trusted with the little, you can be trusted with much. If you could be trusted with the matters of the material and the natural, you could be trusted with the matters of the supernatural. So number one is the test of service. And next week I'll talk about the next test in our series on the seven trials of the called. I want to pray with you now. And I want to believe that the Lord is going to anoint you and to use you. Let's focus now our hearts on saying, Lord, we want to be servants. We want to be used by you. We want you to anoint our lives. So Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for that one watching now. And I ask, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would reveal to that one watching the areas where they can serve. Father, I pray that as they serve, the anointing of the Holy Spirit would come upon them mightily. In Jesus' name. I want to pray for you now. Just keep your hands stretched toward mine. I sense the anointing of the Holy Ghost. There's someone watching. You were convicted as I was talking. And in your heart, you know God's given you a gift of prophecy, gift of the prophetic. And you've been asking, Lord, when is this going to be recognized? When are people going to recognize this? When am I going to be able to minister? The word of the Lord to you and to everyone watching is simply this. Do what God places before you. And promotion comes from the Lord. Leave the promotion in God's hand. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you, Lord, for not only the anointing flowing, but your healing power flowing. Someone's just been set free from depression. I thank you, Lord. There's a heart condition being healed right now in Jesus' name. Someone with arthritis and diabetes is being healed. You're a woman. You have arthritis and diabetes. God is making you whole in Jesus' name. Lord, I thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Father. There's someone else watching me when I said arthritis and diabetes. You said, well, I have arthritis, but I don't have diabetes and I want to receive a healing from the Lord. You can claim that, too. You can claim that, too. I thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Lord, I thank you. And I pray, Father, we would commit ourselves to serve your ministry for your glory, Lord. We'll do anything. In Jesus' name, we pray. And I want you to say, if you agree, say amen. Well, I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you. We are praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. If you'd like information on how you can join the Spirit family, then go ahead and use the information at the bottom of the screen to join for free Spirit Church. Now, we do encourage Spirit Church members if Spirit Church is their primary church to give their tithes and offering, but it is a 100% free ministry. Now, if you sign up, you're going to get a weekly email from me. You'll be able to reply to that email for prayer support from our staff, and we'll all be one family. You'll be joining a family. There's over 2,000 Spirit Church members from all around the world. I want to read now your comments, and these are your comments from a lesson I did a while back. If you'll remember, I was at a conference, so we had to rearrange the schedule a little bit, and I didn't get a chance to read some of the comments on some of the videos. So I want to read now for you some of your comments from the video, seven keys to answered prayer, which we had a great response from that video. But here are some of the comments now. Christmas Abigail writes, Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Pastor David. Sending love from Nepal. Jay Jerica writes, Thank you, Brother David, for the Spirit-filled teaching. I have noted so many hindrances in my prayer life, but now I can stand. Many thanks to you. May God bless you. May God bless you. Thanks for the lyrics to Our God is Able. I thank your team writing from Zimbabwe. Tatiana Z writes, Honestly, I am really thankful for this message in my life. I faced so many unanswered prayers, I was even thinking that God does not hear me. Thanks for this hopeful message. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, man of God. God bless you and your ministry. Clarissa Luna writes, Wow, this message truly couldn't have come at a better time. I love these Spirit Church teachings because through you, I know God is expanding my knowledge, softening my heart to his message, and building me to accomplish all I was made for. Thank you, David and the team. God bless your ministry. And the final commenter writes, This message came exactly at the right time. God is using you to speak breakthrough in my spiritual life. Thank you, Brother. I'm believing for a big miracle through your ministry. The best thing about you is you remind us that we have to win souls. You have a true heart for the Lord. God bless you abundantly. God is great. Glory to Jesus. And you're absolutely right. My heart is to win souls. And this is where I need your help. We want to keep this content free. We don't want to charge for this because some people, they can't afford it. And we should not charge for the word going out. So you'll notice I never charge for my podcasts. I never charge for my sermons. We just put them out there and people get them for free. So help us keep this channel free and the teachings free. Also help us with our fundraising campaign. Ultimately, the goal is to win more souls. But you know that we needed 1,000 new $30 a month partners to expand to the next level of ministry. And here we are on that campaign. Look at where we are. Look at how close we are to our goal. We need your help. Sign up to become a $30 a month partner today. I'll tell you where that support is going to go. That monthly support is going to go to two things. It's going to go to the monthly support, the monthly costs for our new television studio. Now in the new television studio, we'll be able to make more content, higher quality content. We'll be able to bring in a studio audience, have regular meetings in that building. We'll be able to go live from studio. We're going to have a 24 seven prayer room and we're going to be able to reach more souls than ever before. The second place that monthly support is going is to our ministry events. I want to do more miracle services all around the world because I want to win souls. So help me do it today. Become a $30 a month partner. We're almost to our goal that monthly support is what's going to help us expand the ministry. If you become a $30 a month partner today, I'll send you either carriers of the glory or 25 truths about demons and spiritual warfare. I will sign it as my initiation gift to you in thanks for being my partner. Now remember this support is going toward the facility and toward the events and it's going to help us to win more souls. Ultimately, that's what it comes down to. We want to win souls. So if this ministry has blessed you in any way, if you feel connected with me in any way, let me a helping hand. Let's do this together. We are on the verge of a huge breakthrough as a ministry and you're going to see us reaching more than ever before. God is expanding this ministry. Big, big, big, big things are on the way. So if you would like to give, wait until the end of this video. If you're watching on YouTube at the end of the video, a button will appear that you can click and you can sign it to become a $30 month partner today. If you're watching this anywhere else, like on the app, then use the information at the bottom of the screen. Actually, on the app, when this video is done, you'll see pop-up partner with David. You go ahead and click that. Other than that, use the information at the bottom of the screen. Well, that is it for this edition of Spirit Church. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. Also, help me win souls by spreading the gospel through events and media. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.