 Hello, this is David D. Hernandez and you're watching Spirit Church here on the Encounter TV Network. There are many signs that indicate that you have the Holy Spirit. But I want to talk to you about one of the indicators that's rarely ever mentioned. One of the signs that you have the Holy Spirit, one of the signs that you're surrendered to the Holy Spirit is excellence. Excellence is a mark of the Spirit filled. In everything that we do, we are to give our best. In everything that we do, we are to give our all. Why? Because we do it unto the Lord. Colossians chapter 3 verse 23 says, Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. So we offer our best every day unto God. If you're doing that which is right, if you're doing that which is holy, if you're doing that which is productive, if you're doing that which is loving, then do it as unto the Lord. And when you do that as unto the Lord, what begins to happen is that you begin to walk in a way that glorifies God and in giving our best in everything that we do, we spend our lives for the glory of God. Sometimes at the end of the day I like to evaluate what I've done. How productive was I? Did I work hard enough for the ministry? Did I study enough of the word? Now I'm not talking about a religious mindset. I don't think that God's watching over from the balconies of heaven, nitpicking everything that I do and waiting to tear me down. No, I do this because I love him. I do this out of love. It's not some complex, tedious religious thing. Rather it's something that I do because I love him. At the end of the day I will evaluate myself. How well did I live today? How did I treat my wife today? How did I model Christ for my daughter, for my friends, for my family today? How, again, how hard did I work? Was I efficient in the ministry? Was I productive? Can today count as a day in which I glorified God? And if I sense that the Lord is pleased with how I lived that day, then metaphorically speaking I will take that day and I will offer it unto the Lord as a sacrifice of worship. I'll say, Lord, take this day as an offering. Take today and be pleased with it. And in doing that, and in doing things like that, we bring glory to God. You can offer each day as an offering. You can offer each task as an offering. This is why we work so hard at the ministry. This is why everything we do, we do well paying great attention to detail. We do with as much efficiency as possible. We do with as much excellence as possible. Why? Because it's a reflection of our Father and it's an offering to Him. And there's joy in doing it. Again, it's not some burden, some thing. Rather, it's a joy to present good things to the Lord. You must understand that excellence is spiritual. The spirit filled our people of excellence. There is excellence in heaven. Excellence is heavenly. Revelation chapter 21 verses 10, 11 and 21 say this. So he took me in the spirit to a great high mountain and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It's shown with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone, like jasperous clear as crystal. Verse 21, the twelve gates were made of pearls. Each gate from a single pearl and the main street was pure gold as clear as glass. That's heavenly excellence. Think of those who crafted the temple and all of the elements that went into the temple. Exodus chapter 31 says this. Then the Lord said to Moses, look, I have specifically chosen Bezalel, son of Yuri, grandson of her, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability and expertise in all kinds of crafts. Think about this for a second. God filled this man with the Holy Spirit so he could perform crafts. Verse four, he is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver and bronze. Here he's handling earthly materials, yet the Holy Spirit is with him. The Holy Spirit is empowering him in dealing with the earthly realm, in dealing with the material world. He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft. Verse six, moreover, I have given special skill to all the gifted craftsmen so they can make all the things I have commanded you to make. The tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark's cover, the place of atonement, all the furnishings of the tabernacle, the table and its utensils, the pure gold lamp stand with all its accessories, the incense altar, the altar a burnt offering with all its utensils, the wash basin with its stand, the beautifully stitched garments, the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons to wear as they minister as priests. The anointing oil, the fragrant incense for the holy place. The craftsmen must make everything as I have commanded you. So all of these things were crafted, they were created by people who were specialists and those people who were specialists were specialists because they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They all had to have the Holy Spirit in order to participate in the crafting of the temple and its items. Why? Because what they were creating in the temple was actually a earthly reflection of a heavenly reality. Let me show you this, this is powerful, Hebrews 8.5. Look at what this verse says. They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the tabernacle, God gave him this warning. Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain. So when Moses was getting ready to initiate the building of the tabernacle, God first showed Moses the real tabernacle in heaven. And Moses was to cause what he saw in heaven to be reflected in the earth. Think about what's happening here. God is appointing certain men to build the tabernacle. And he has to fill them with the Holy Spirit. Why? Because excellence is when I create in the earth what I see in heaven. I want to say that again, I want you to catch this. Excellence is when I create in the earth what I see in heaven. What God shows me in the heavenly realm, what God reveals to me. If I am to see that vision come to pass in the earth, I need the power of the Holy Spirit. I need His excellence to flow through me. This is why God appointed craftsmen who were skilled, because even those things that we do that seem mundane, that seem material, that seem earthly can be reflections of the heavenly realm. Think about God's creation. He created the world and He said that it is good. It was excellent. It was complete. It was perfect. Think of the imagery in the throne room in the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 4 verses 1 through 6 says this. Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven. And the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, come up here and I will show you what must happen after this. And instantly I was in the spirit. And I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it. The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones like Jasper and Carnelian. And the glow of an emerald circled his throne like a rainbow. 24 thrones surrounded him and 24 elders sat on them. They were all clothed in white and had gold crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne were seven torches with burning flames. This is the sevenfold spirit of God. In front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass sparkling like crystal. That's heavenly excellence. Even in the throne room of God there is excellence on display. Think of how Jesus made the most excellent wine at the end of the ceremony. John chapter 2 verse 10 says, A host always serves the best wine first, he said. Then when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now. Think of Solomon's temple in 1 Kings chapter 10 verses 6 to 10. She exclaimed to the king, Everything I heard in my country about your achievements and wisdom is true. I didn't believe what was said until I arrived here and saw it with my own eyes. In fact, I had not heard the half of it. Your wisdom and prosperity are far beyond what I was told. How happy your people must be. What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day listening to your wisdom. Praise the Lord your God who delights in you and has placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord's eternal love for Israel, He has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness. Then she gave the king a gift of 9,000 pounds of gold, Great quantities of spices and precious jewels. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon. The queen of Sheba was moved by the excellence of Solomon's temple. In fact, she worshiped God because of his excellence. When she saw what God had done through Solomon, she worshiped his God. When you walk in excellence, it causes you to honor God in such a way that those who take notice of that excellence are moved too to honor God. She gave because of his excellence. This is a great point for those of you in ministry. This woman, the queen of Sheba, gave to Solomon. Think about it, Solomon was already demonstrating great wealth and prosperity. Why would she give him more? It's because she was moved by the excellence. Sometimes people want to make sure that what they're giving toward is filled with excellence. They want to make sure it's going to be effective, efficient, high impact. If you're in ministry, you must walk in excellence if you want people to give in to your ministry, if you want them to get involved, if you want them to support what you're doing. This, in fact, goes for all different aspects of life. If you want people to honor God through what you're doing, if you want people to get involved in what you're doing, to get behind what you're doing, it must be done with excellence, which leads me to my next point, and that is that excellence is stewardship. Luke chapter 16 verses 10 through 12 says this, Jesus here is making more than a point about money. This is the principle of stewardship. In other words, taking care of what you have. Excellence is found in work ethic, or it can be, or it should be. Excellence can be in your conduct. Excellence can be in your speech. Excellence can be in how you dress. Yes, I'm serious. How you dress is a presentation of who you are, and I'm not talking about wealth here. You can have excellence in your health. You can have excellence in your finances. When we use our resources, time, energy, influence, connections, skills, and breath, when we use our lives to please God, we are bringing Him glory. We are demonstrating to Him that we are not being wasteful with the precious gift of life He has given to us. And the Holy Spirit gives us this ability to be excellent. The Holy Spirit was in Daniel, Daniel who was forced to live in Babylon. And even while living in captivity in Babylon, he demonstrated excellence. In fact, Daniel walked in excellence and even found favor with authority figures. Daniel 5.12 says, For as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding, interpreting of dreams and showing of hard sentences and dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel whom the king named Balthashezar. Now let Daniel be called and he will show the interpretation. Think of Joseph. Joseph who was betrayed by his brothers, thrown into a pit, who became a slave, who was thrown into prison. He eventually rose to the heights of power. Why? Because of the excellent spirit within him. Genesis chapter 41 verse 38 says, So Pharaoh asked his officials, Can we find anyone else like this man? So obviously filled with the spirit of God and you have the same Holy Spirit. We are without excuse. We cannot be apathetic. We cannot be lazy. We must show strong work ethic. We must show productivity. We must show that we are stewarding well this gift of life that God has given to us. Here's the good news. Excellence is neither having the best of everything nor being in the best situation. Excellence is simply doing your best with everything you do have and in everything you do. In everything that we do, we do it as unto the Lord with excellence. With the help of the Holy Spirit, excellence is spiritual. Excellence is heavenly. Excellence is a mark of the spirit field. Father help us do it. Holy Spirit, I pray you convict us deeply in the areas where we're apathetic and lazy. Show us Father how we can be more excellent. How we can become reflections of the heavenly realm. Show us Father how to establish in the earth what we see in the heavens. How to establish in us what we see in your nature and your character. Let us be more like you and let us be walking testimonies of the excellent spirit, the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, I want you to say it because you believe it, say Amen. Well that's 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. We're praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. If you'd like to join our online church, go to davidhernanisministries.com slash Spirit Church. And now to your comments. These comments come from the video yielded vessels the cost of being anointed. Now in this lesson, I broke down the ingredients of the anointing and showed the powerful symbolism behind those ingredients and how those truths behind the symbolism apply to our everyday lives. In other words, I talked about what it takes to walk in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. So make sure you go and watch that. Again, the title is yielded vessels, the cost of being anointed. And while you're looking that video up, make sure you're following us all across our social media platforms. Subscribe to us on YouTube. And when you do subscribe to us on YouTube, make sure you click that notification bell so that you can receive notifications when we release new content. And by the way, if you have a question right now, then I may read your comment on an episode of Spirit Church. So here are the comments from yielded vessels, the cost of being anointed. Kali Lee Cisneros writes, rushing the process only slows down your progress. I was shocked by this message and it made me realize that I shouldn't rush things that need time to grow. Thank you, Brother David, for your wonderful message. Praise be to God. This was a really helpful teaching, Pastor David. Thank you. And blessings from India. Blessings to you. Debs DeLizzo writes, very powerful, Pastor David. This message really spoke to me. We are in the season that you described in this teaching. May the Lord continue to stir your anointing for teaching the body of Christ. If you want to know what they're talking about, what season they're talking about, you might be in that season too. So here are the comments from yielded vessels, the cost of being anointed. Nini writes, this ministry has been such a blessing to my life. Thank you, DHM team, for all you do. And the final comment I'll read from this video comes from Omega Family TV who writes, thank you, Brother David, my life has been changed since I started watching this channel four years ago. I have learned to acknowledge and be friend the Holy Spirit. Well, we give all of the glory to God for what He's doing through His ministry, through the power of His Holy Spirit. I want to read something to you and this is found in 2 Corinthians, chapter 9. I'm going to begin reading at verse number 10 and then I'll read verse 11 as well. For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way He will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous and when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. Paul the apostle here is taking an offering for the church and in this portion of scripture we see something so powerful this phrase, God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In other words, God is the one who has gifted us with our resources and I want you to say this to the Lord. Say Lord, make me a resource center for heaven on earth. Say it again, say Lord make me a resource center for heaven on earth. God has entrusted resources to you and the Bible says that in the same way He will provide and increase not just provide and increase the Bible says your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. You see, God gives us provision and then He gives us increase provision that our needs might be met, increase that we might meet the needs of others. I don't know about you but I want to walk in that generous nature of God. I want to be one who God can trust with more resources. When you sow to help ministries, when you donate and when you support the work of God, you are showing the Lord that you're a good steward, you're a good caretaker of what He's given you and when the Lord sees that you're a good steward of what He's given you, then He brings the increase and He can't bring the increase if we're not managing well what He's already given to us. Am I saying that God wants to make every believer ultra-wealthy and they'll never have any trouble again? No. Am I saying that the point of the Gospel is so that we can receive material things? No. That's a perversion of what's being taught here in Scripture. Really, it's quite simple. God gives us resources so that we can live here on earth and then He increases and we might use them to expand the kingdom of God that we might use them in the efforts of soul winning. He gives seed to the sower. He gives seed to the farmer. It's stewardship. It's taking care of what you have. Now I want to challenge you with this truth to be a good steward of what God has given to you and part of that stewardship is giving into ministries that He has blessed. God has blessed this ministry. His hand is in it. Lives are being transformed. He deserves all the glory for what He's doing through His ministry and we're just stewards. I'm just a steward of this ministry and you're just a steward of your resources and as we partner together we continue to impact more lives for the sake of the Gospel. I want to challenge you today to become a monthly supporter of this ministry or to give a one-time gift that we might continue to expand our operations and continue to reach people all around the world. Your support will fund the events all of the content, the live streams and the Holy Spirit School, all of that which we give away for free and we're able to give it away for free because of generous donors like you. So go right now and give a one-time gift or become a monthly supporter. To give a one-time gift go to davidhernandezministries.com slash donate. To become a monthly supporter go to davidhernandezministries.com slash partner and when you go to that page make sure you check out all of the benefits to being a monthly partner of this ministry. Whatever you decide to do hear from the Lord make a move, trust God step out in faith. Don't say Lord once you bless me I'll do something. Rather say Lord I know you're already blessing me and I know I can trust you and therefore I'm free to step out and give. Step out in faith today whether you're doing well or you're struggling. All of us have a part to play. All of us can pool our resources for the sake of souls and for the sake of God's glory. One more time davidhernandezministries.com slash donate for one-time gifts davidhernandezministries.com slash partner to become a monthly ministry supporter. Thank you so much for your support. It means the world to me and it really means a lot because you're helping us. You're partnering with us. You're standing behind us as we do things for the Lord. And 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.