 I want to show you three habits that weaken you spiritually and many believers aren't even aware of the effect that these habits are having on their spiritual life. Now of course, as I've mentioned several times in other teachings, we need to be in daily prayer. So prayerlessness is a habit that wreaks havoc on your spiritual life. We need to be reading the word every single day. We need to be consuming and knowing the word of God. So of course, a lack of devotion to the word is a habit that can weaken you spiritually. We can also talk about compromise. We can also talk about the lack of church attendance. So these are the very basic spiritual disciplines that should be implemented in the life of every believer. So again, some of the obvious ones, prayerlessness, a lack of devotion to the word, sinful compromise, a lack of church attendance, and so forth. But I want to cover three habits that many believers don't often think about, which is why I'm going to cover them here. Now remember that when I say that these things weaken you spiritually, it's important that I qualify what I mean by that phrase. Because technically your spirit doesn't get weaker or stronger. Let me explain. When you were born again, you received the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit joined with your spirit. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. So in the spirit, you are fully grown. In the spirit, you have peace, joy, freedom, revelation, perfect, unhindered fellowship with God. That's what's taking place 24-7 in the realm of the spirit. Deep is calling unto deep. So your spirit remains steadfast. Your spirit doesn't grow weaker or stronger depending upon your behavior. But I still use the phrase spiritual strength, and I still say things like, oh, that will weaken your spirit or that will strengthen your spirit. But by these phrases, I simply mean that the influence that your spirit has on your life can either be stronger or weaker depending upon your obedience to God. So it's not that your spirit is actually growing or becoming stronger. It's that your spirit is either gaining influence in your life or it's having its influence weakened. Either the spirit man is dominating or the spirit man is being set into the back room. I like to say that spiritual growth isn't actually your spirit growing. It's when your spirit influences the outer shells of who you are, soul and body. With that said, I want you to comment right now, make a commitment, say that you're all in by typing these two simple words, all in. Write that whether you're watching live or on the replay. That's a public commitment that you're making that you are all in. You're ready to deal with these issues. I'm going to show them to you from the scripture and I want you to, as you hear them, not to condemn yourself but to correct yourself. This is not a message of condemnation. This is a message of encouragement to be called to higher places, to know what's available to you that you might aspire to those things in the spirit that the scripture describes. Let's look first at number one. Again, I've talked about this in the past in other lessons. We understand you need to be praying daily. You need to be reading the word daily. You need to be going to church. You can't be living in sinful compromise. I can list many of these basics of Christian disciplines that, of course, I've covered several times before. Again, I'm covering three habits here that are not often talked about but that can be detrimental to your spiritual life. Number one, here's the first habit that you have to break if you want to stop weakening the influence of your spirit. From here on out, I still may use the phrase, weaken your spirit. You know what I mean by that. Number one, it's condemning self. Many believers live under the power of legalistic thinking. In other words, they judge their salvation based upon their performance. They judge the security of their salvation based upon their own performance. Now, I am not saying nor do I believe that anyone can just go on sinning and living however they want. There will always be severe consequences to sin and compromise even in the life of the believers. Nobody is saying that you're free to sin. Nobody is encouraging you to sin because you're free. Nobody is saying that there are no consequences to sin. I want to be very clear on that. There are consequences. God will judge it. There is punishment. It will bring destruction to your life and no true believer. Hear me now. No person who has genuinely experienced the miracle of salvation will continue in sin without conviction or will continue in sin without any attempt at repentance. True believers have been given new desires and therefore true believers do all that they can to resist the influence of sin in their life. Having said that, we also have another extreme. There are some believers who live so aware of sin, so sin-conscious that they view themselves as like a worm before God. And while this might seem spiritually virtuous, it's not. It's actually a subtle form of ego and pride because it's actually self-reliance upon your own works, rather than the finished work of the cross. So let me show you something here. Let's first establish this truth. Guilt plays a role and a positive one. I should say, guilt can play a positive role in your life. Second Corinthians chapter 7 verse 10 says this, Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. But worldly sorrow brings death. So it's a good thing if you sense shame over shameful acts. It's a good thing if you sense shame over shameful thoughts. It's a good thing if you sense shame over shameful attitudes. We should feel guilt when we're guilty. We should feel the need to repent. Godly sorrow works repentance. So guilt does have a positive role. It can have a positive role. Your conscience is to your mind what pain is to your body. If you didn't have any physical pain, you would never know if you had some disease that needed your attention. You wouldn't know if you experienced some injury that could kill you. You need pain because you need something to indicate to you when something is wrong and that's what the conscience is. What pain is to the body, the conscience is to the mind. And so God has given us all a conscience so that when we violate his holy standards, when we violate his spiritual and moral laws, we sense it. We can be affected by it emotionally and mentally and we start to sense this heaviness for our wrongdoing. Now it's dangerous if you allow yourself to get to a point to where you're no longer sensing anything in your conscience. That is what it means to sear your conscience. In other words, you've abused your conscience so badly you've done things so long that it no longer even bothers you and you don't care that you don't care. Now if you care that you don't care, that means you still care. So don't allow yourself to be paranoid about that either because I know I might get some messages saying, Brother David, a part of me allows compromise. Well yes, of course, all sin is a choice, but we have the power to also choose holiness. So the Holy Spirit convicts us when we do wrong. He also convicts us unto righteousness. Watch this in John chapter 16 verse 8. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. So here we see that the Holy Spirit convicts not just of sin, but also of God's righteousness and the coming judgment. In other words, he doesn't just tell us when we're doing something wrong. He helps us to aspire to all that God created us to be. So it's not like he's just condemning you. The Holy Spirit will correct you. But please don't mistake the Holy Spirit's correction for his condemnation. The Holy Spirit only corrects what he wants to heal. He only corrects what he wants to help you overcome. So if you're being corrected by the Holy Spirit, if you're sensing conviction, if you sense that strong weight of his hand coming down upon you because of the decisions that you've made, that's a good thing. God corrects those whom he loves. Conviction is not a punishment. Conviction is God's grace. Conviction is not just God judging you. Conviction is God's power. Conviction is God's love. Conviction is God's mercy and compassion because he loves you too much to leave you to your own compromise. So the Holy Spirit convicts us of God's righteousness. He calls us to higher places. Now if you're constantly focused on sin, what not to do, you live in condemnation. But if you begin to lift your eyes and look to the Lord and see what you can become in Christ, well then you begin to sense real freedom from sin because you actually have a standard against which you're measuring your life. You're actually aspiring to something greater. You're aspiring to be more Christ-like. You're aspiring to God's standards of holiness as opposed to just fretting about the sin. Now I want to say this again because I need to make this clear. I am not saying you can compromise. I am not encouraging you to sin. I'm not saying sin doesn't have consequence. I'm not saying that sin won't destroy. Sin will destroy. Sin has consequences. God will judge sin even in the life of the believer that's a different lesson for a different time. It's exactly how he does that. But I will say this, some believers live so weighed down by their own mistakes that they continue to condemn themselves even after God has forgiven them. So I'm not talking to the Christian who just is allowing compromise in this season of their life and they don't care. I doubt that that person is even saved to begin with. But if there is a believer, if there is such a believer who is allowing compromise, doesn't care, well then I'm not talking about that person. I'm talking about the individual who is wrestling with that sin nature, who is doing all that they can to aspire to God's standard of holiness because that's what true Christians do. True Christians desire to be truly holy. And if there's no desire for holiness in you, that means that the nature of your desires has yet to be changed, which could be a sign that you've not yet really received Christ. Now, that's another lesson from the time, maybe we'll address that at some point. But I just want to focus in now on this. Here's something I wrote that I think can encourage you and it helps me to clarify this point. Condemnation is not of God. Conviction is of God. Condemnation tells you that you are a mistake. Conviction tells you that you made a mistake. Condemnation pushes you away from God in shame and fear. Conviction draws you to God in repentance and humility. So again, let's balance this. On one side, there are believers who allow compromise in their lives and they're not exactly attempting to overcome that. Whether or not they're true Christians, that's debatable, that's a different conversation for a different time. But then on the other hand, there are Christians who are condemning themselves for sins that God has already forgiven and that's just not productive. Look, don't mistake self-hatred for humility because there are certain doctrines and certain, how shall I say this, theological persuasions that equate self-hatred with virtue that equates self-hatred with humility. In other words, if you look at yourself as this groveling worm, if you just see yourself as just this depraved, horrible, evil, wicked thing, then of course that is spiritual virtue. That right there is true humility. Now again, we have to balance this because I'm not saying that we weren't depraved. I'm not saying that sin isn't ugly. Of course, sin is a violation of God's holy standard. We understand this, we understand that before Christ we were depraved. But even though we still make mistakes today, our identity is no longer sinner, our identity is saint. No longer slave but sons. Now that we've stepped into this new identity, when we make mistakes, we recognize that it's not a part of who we truly are. It's an aspect of an old nature with which we are still wrestling. We're still trying to overcome and fight. Yes, we are in that battle against sin. But please avoid those two extremes, the extremes of apathy, where you don't care about any compromise in your life, but then also don't go to the other side of the spectrum and be filled with self-hatred. Don't allow yourself to condemn yourself for past mistakes that God has already forgiven, from which you've already repented. You've already renounced it. You've already repented. You've already moved on from it. You've changed directions. You've agreed with God, God, this is wrong. It has no place in my life. And then when you try to move forward, you still feel condemnation for something that's already been dealt with in your past. Once conviction has served its purpose, it's time to move on. Once conviction has done its job, it's corrected you. You've dealt with the issue. You've confessed to God. You admit that it's wrong. You turn from it. That means that's what renounce means, to turn from, to forsake. You've forsaken it now. You've repented. You've changed your mind about it. And now you're moving forward. This is where many believers fall into the trap of self-condemnation. And as I said, some teach that this is somehow spiritual virtue. What it really is is a lack of faith in God's work. What it really is is self-reliance. It's a form of pride. Well, God may have forgiven it, but my standards are so much higher that I can't forgive myself. What kind of an ego does it take to say, well, God can forgive it, but I can't? Well, God can let it go, but I can't. Well, God can choose to forget about it, but I can't. What ego is that? In other words, you're saying my standards are higher than God's standards. Now, again, for the third and final time, I need to balance this. Yes, sin has consequences. No, sin does not belong in the life of the believer. No, the believer should not compromise in any way. True believers will have a desire to be truly holy. But again, I'm talking about this extreme that many people fall into, and it's religion. It's legalism. It's a works-based view of salvation. The Bible says this in Romans chapter 8, verses 1 and 2. So there is now no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. Wow. So even though we fight temptation, even though we every day resist the desires and the cravings of the flesh, we don't live under the condemnation of our mistakes so long as we continue to walk with the Lord. So long as we are agreeing with God, walking in that repentance, so long as we are forsaking our sin, walking in what we've renounced, walking in that renouncing of what God hates, so long as we are aligning ourselves and saying, Lord, I want you to work on me. Lord, I'm surrendering to your will. Lord, help me to obey you. Lord, give me the desire to live right, so long as we are with Him on this, so long as we are surrendered to His process of sanctification, it's not a matter of perfection but progress. Don't condemn yourself because you lack perfection. Instead, simply submit to God's process so that you see progress. We're no longer living under the power of the law. What does that mean? Does that mean we're free to live how we want to? No. It means that we live in Christ. Christ fulfilled the law and I live in Christ. Christ stands in perfection and I stand in Christ. And so I trust Him as I'm being redeemed, as I'm working through mistakes, as I'm seeking God's grace to help me overcome sinful living, as I'm seeking God's power to help me overcome compromise. I also recognize that He who began the work is faithful to complete it. He's going to complete the work. He's going to finish it. Look, when you are saved, you are justified. Justification means that you are set free from the penalty of sin. And you are now in the process of sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which you are being set free from the power of sin. But one day, and you stand before God and you cross over into the other side of eternity, you will stand in glorification. And glorification is freedom from the presence of sin. One day, we will throw off those chains completely. One day, the presence of sin will be completely gone. But for now, we do as Galatians says in chapter 5, we were fighting flesh against spirit, spirit against flesh. And as we're doing this, we have to realize that it's counterproductive to walk in condemnation. Now, if you're continuing in a sin, you haven't repented, you haven't got things right with God, you're still doing those things that you ought not to do without any regard, without any attempt at changing it. Okay, that's not for you. You should sense a heavy, heavy conviction. And I pray that that conviction will become more intense until you can't stand what you're doing anymore. And you have to turn. God loves you that much. He won't let you just live in that compromise. But I'm talking to that one. Perhaps it's you. And you are struggling. And every day, you're just saying, Lord, help me do this, help me do this. And you agree with God, this is wrong. You're doing all that you can, everything in your power to transform, to change. And you're cooperating with God, you're in the Word, you're praying and you're saying, Lord, help me overcome this. There's grace for you. God's not going to abandon you. He's not going to leave you to do that on your own. He's going to help you. But here's one of the keys. This isn't the only key, but this is one key that you need. You have to remember that once you've repented of something, truly repented and renounced it, and you confessed it to God, that God forgives you. Here's what the Bible says in 1 John 1, verse 9, but if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness, or some translations say, unrighteousness. Many believers get stuck in what I call OCC, obsessive, compulsive confession. And they constantly, just like, and I'm not mocking, I'm using it as an analogy, just like someone with OCD will wash their hands, or maybe someone who struggles with a germaphobia, they wash their hands so much that their hands begin to bleed. And again, I'm not mocking, it's a good analogy, it serves as a good analogy. They wash their hands to the point where their hands begin to bleed. Some of you, that's how you confess sins that have already been forgiven. And you won't let yourself let it go. You won't let yourself walk in the freedom that God has prepared for you. You won't let the joy of your salvation fill your heart again. Well, what does Psalm say? Your hand weighed heavily upon me. I confess my sin to you. And then the Scripture talks about the fact that the Psalmist wants to receive joy again. Okay, yes, you weighed down on me. My strength is gone. But give me back the joy of my salvation now. And here's where some of you get stuck. Because in a way, you're trying to pay penance for your past sins by punishing yourself mentally and emotionally. Please, I need someone to hear this. You're trying to pay your penance because it's a workspace mentality you have. You're trying to pay your penance by punishing yourself mentally and emotionally. You won't let God bless you. It's very hard for you to receive blessing because you know you don't deserve it. It's very hard for you to receive miracles from God because you're constantly living in the memory of your sin. It's very difficult for you to even expect that God would use your life. Why? Because you're stuck in the memory of who you were. And you won't allow yourself to begin to enjoy your life. You won't allow yourself to enjoy blessing. You won't allow yourself to enjoy the company of friends or the presence of God or a good worship service. You think, and this is not everyone, but there's somebody watching, you think that even though you've been forgiven, you deserve to have at least some of that still lingering in your mind and weighing over you, even just subtly for the rest of your life. And you're not called to live in that. You're not called to live in self-condemnation. You realize that self-condemnation, once you've repented of a sin, let me make that clear, once you've repented of a sin, do you realize that self-condemnation is going to prevent you from being able to walk in holiness? When you condemn yourself after God has forgiven you, now you have a real issue because you're living still under the guilt and the shame, and that guilt and shame actually drives you further into compromise. But when you know you've been forgiven, when you receive the forgiveness of the Heavenly Father, and you've been released of it, and you know that you know that you know that you're free not just in a small way, not just proportionately to how you repented and how you grow. Not proportionately, yes, to repentance, but sometimes we mistake our imperfection, and we take our imperfection to mean that we don't deserve any of God's forgiveness. Well, we don't deserve it anyway from the start, but if we repent of a sin, we renounce that sin, we can turn from it. And this may seem like a simple truth. This may seem very basic, but you would be amazed at how many believers are condemning themselves, and they're not able to enjoy the freedom of their salvation. They're not able to enjoy the freedom of God's forgiveness because they are so stuck on what they did. They're so wrapped up in the emotion and the shame and the guilt of something that God has already forgiven. Now, I know I stood a while on this point, but I think it's important that you hear it, and there's a lot to balance here because on one hand, I don't want people to think that I'm saying that you're free to sin. On the other hand, I don't want people to think that you should walk in condemnation. It's a balance. You should feel guilt for sin. I'm talking about after you've repented from it. It's time to be released from it. So that's one habit that's actually weakening you spiritually, this self-condemnation. It's not furthering your walk with God. It's stunting your spiritual growth. It's not drawing you closer to Him. And many of us think it's producing something in our lives. It's not producing anything, but stagnation. So it's time to trust that Christ's sacrifice was good enough for even your mistakes. It's time to trust that Christ's sacrifice is good enough for even your mistakes. Oh, when we hear about what others have done, we tell them so easily, oh, God will forgive you. God will forgive you. Isn't that funny? How we're so quick to tell others of God's great forgiveness and how it's limitless, yet when it comes to our own sins, we somehow, for some reason, have trouble receiving that forgiveness. It's time to break free from that. Number two, rejecting correction. Second Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is breathed by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Number one, we need to receive correction from the Word of God. Now, be careful of insecure individuals, and there's probably two or three in every church who think it's their job to take the Word and just kind of go around correcting everyone. God will assign to you the proper relationships through which He brings correction, and He brings correction through His Word. But there are some individuals who, unless you agree with every point that they have, doctrinally, they're going to say you're out of line. I find it funny because it's interesting to see when these kinds of people get together, they're all just correcting and rebuking each other thinking they're the final authority. So remember, the Word of God is perfect, but our interpretations of His Word are not always perfect. So we must study, obviously, the Word of God, show ourselves approved unto Him, but we also have to study, and as we study, we learn truths, and as we learn those truths, we must allow those truths to bring correction in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives, in our behavior patterns. And this is important because if you're not receiving your correction from the Scripture, then you're going to live a life that's completely unstable. Your spiritual walk with God, your spiritual growth, your spiritual influence, everything about your spiritual life will be damaged if you do not receive correction from the Word. Now, here's the thing. Nobody says, well, I don't want to receive correction from the Word. I should say no true believer says I don't want to receive correction from the Word. Every true believer wants to receive correction from the Word. The problem comes when it comes time to actually receiving it. Many times we dismiss it, we make excuses, and we just kind of gloss over it, and then we also reach for explanations to where we try to force our own will, our own intentions, our own desires, our own preconceived notions. We try to force those onto the Scripture. You must elevate the authority of God's Word. You must elevate the authority of God's Word above your opinion, above your experiences. Yes, even above your experiences. You've heard it said that if your experience doesn't align with the Word, you've got to change what you believe about the Word. I wouldn't do that so quickly. I would say it's best to base your experiences and how you view those experiences through the lens of the Word. Otherwise, it's not the Word you trust, it's yourself. Now, the Bible says also in Proverbs 1532, whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. Now, we ought to listen to the correction that comes from others, and we ought to listen to correction that comes from legitimate sources of correction. Like, for example, someone who broadcasts like me, I have a channel, social media, it's just a tool for ministry. It's really not more than that. It's just a tool for ministry that I use to spread the gospel. But because I use that tool, I'm connected with thousands of people from all around the world who vary in multiple different opinions. And you could take any subject, any doctrine, any topic from the Word or theme, and I could discuss it. And not only will there be many who are blessed by the message, but there will be hundreds for every message, for every opinion, for every possible subtle variation for every opinion. There will be hundreds of people who disagree and who all think they're right. Me included in that group, because I wouldn't teach something if I didn't think I was right. None of us teach what we think is wrong. We all think what we think. We all teach what we think is right. And so there's going to be lots of variations, lots of opinions. So if I gave credit to every Facebook theologian, every YouTube scholar, every heresy hunter, if I gave any credibility to anything that they were saying, and I did that for all of them, I'd never be able to do anything. I'd never be able to please anyone, because everyone will say, well, that's why we have to come to the Word. We agree. Yes, we all have to come to the Word. The problem is, we all have different interpretations of it. And then that's where people will say, well, let's debate it then. But the moment you start debating with certain people like that, they use it against you. There are very few people who legitimately want to debate out of a pure motive. Usually they're baiting you into giving them something that they can use. And as I said, there are people like this in every church. There are people like this in every ministry. There are people like this all across the internet. So you're going to deal with it. I'm going to deal with it. Everyone's going to deal with opinionated people who have a false sense of authority and a false sense of importance that try to control what you do and say because they disagree with you. Now, if you give credibility to every voice, if you give credibility to everyone who speaks their opinion to everyone who tries to correct you, you're going to lose your mind. And you'll never be stable enough in anything to do or accomplish anything at all. So the key is to find the proper relationships, people who genuinely care about you, and people who are grounded in the Word. Now, God will place in your life a pastor, a spiritual leader. God will place in your life friends. God will place in your life family. And these are the people you're surrounded with who love you and care about you, who can help bring correction to your life. The problem comes when we start to resist even these people. You should probably be dismissive of 99% of the different opinions that come toward you or against you or around you online. 99% of them probably just have to dismiss. But then there are legitimate sources of correction that the Lord will bring around you. And this is where you have to be careful that you don't dismiss because I'll tell you what some people do. They get around a group of believers, people who love them, they develop relationships and friendships and connections. And then when they get offended or when they're told something they don't want to hear, they just move on and go and develop somewhere else. The problem is they're never anywhere long enough to develop true and meaningful connections. And they're never anywhere long enough to experience healthy kinds of conflict that bring forth productive kinds of correction. You will need conflict. You need people who will tell you the truth and not just to say it just so they could say, well, I'm just saying, I found that to be a funny catchphrase when somebody says, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, usually it just means they have a big mouth and they want to be regarded as someone who has valuable opinion. And I'm not talking about anyone in particular. This is just, I'm talking about an archetype, if you will, an avatar, a certain type of person that you will experience, you will meet, you will be connected with someone around you, we'll try this on you. I'm not talking about that individual. And so what happens is we start to move around, we hop from place to place, and we never receive correction in the way that it's supposed to be received. We never receive that loving correction from the hand of God that comes to the people we care about. Now, as with my last point, again, I'm balancing this. There are opinionated people who are going to try to control you. That's a fact. Make sure that you're not giving into those voices. On the other hand, don't resist the loving, legitimate voices of correction that God brings to you because that's going to be really important. I'm telling you right now, you don't have that around you, you're in danger. If you don't have people around you who can tell you the truth without you getting offended or saying something or trying to spiritualize your offense by saying, I don't know, something in my spirit doesn't feel right or I don't know, I didn't feel comfortable with the way that was done or I don't know, I didn't like the way that came at me. And then you go to a different church, you go to a different ministry, you hop around for the rest of your life. If that's something you're constantly doing, you need to reevaluate where you are. If you have a track record of just leaving one place after another because you didn't like the correction that came against you, you need to reevaluate where you are spiritually because you're missing something that you're going to need. Now, correction is not comfortable. I don't like receiving, still to this day, I receive correction. There are many women of God in my life, there are friends I have, there are family members I have who can bring correction and I'm not just going to dismiss them. I'm going to hear them out. You know why? Because I know they care about me because I know they know and love the Lord because I know they bring the scripture to me. And so we have to be careful that we're not just labeling everyone who disagrees with us as illegitimate and it kind of is self-defeating and it reveals a bias when we do that. Think about it. If everyone who corrects you is dismissed as not knowing any better, then how will you ever receive correction? If we only listen to people who tell us exactly what we want to hear, how will you ever receive correction? I'll give you an example. I teach and practice deliverance, spiritual warfare and exorcism. You all know this, especially if you've been to the services, you've seen demons manifest, people get delivered. We have thousands of testimonies every year from people who receive deliverance. But the Lord had to correct some of the things I believe about how I was carrying out deliverance ministry. And so every so often I will attempt to share this with the body of Christ and I'll still do this. In fact, very soon I have more spiritual warfare teachings I'll be releasing and we're going to go and make sure that we're really putting more out there on this subject in the near future in the coming weeks and months. Well, if you watch this years from now, then it's probably already happened in the past. But I noticed something about the body of Christ. Whenever you tell them something, and this is not the body of Christ at large, this is just members of the body, you can tell an individual something and if it's different than what they've been told, if it's different than what they heard, the first reaction usually isn't to go, maybe I was wrong. The first reaction will always be, that's not what I heard, therefore you are wrong and therefore I can't receive that. Well, if you're constantly rejecting things that are different than what you've been told, how will you ever receive correction? How will you ever receive the truth of the Word of God that liberates you from religious thinking? How will you ever receive the truth of the Word of God that helps to set your future, that helps to stabilize your spiritual growth, that helps to lay a foundation in your life? You can't receive correction if you're constantly dismissing everyone who disagrees with you as not knowing any better. Just because it's different than what you've been told, doesn't mean it's wrong. And this is where we have to humble ourselves and say, okay, let's go to the Word together. Let's make sure that we are basing what we think and say and do on the Word. But ego digs its heels in. Ego says, no, I'm going to believe it just because I believe it. And that's, we have to be careful. Because again, the Word of God is perfect, but our interpretations of it are not. This is where we have to demonstrate humility. And if we're not demonstrating humility, we will never receive correction from our pastors, from teachers of the Word, from friends, from family. I'm only using some examples in my life to help you understand what I'm saying. But you have your own examples. You have your own connections. It works the same, but different formats, if you will, in everyone's life. And so I want you to know that if you're not one who can receive correction, if you want to be perceived as someone who has all the answers, then if somebody tells you something you don't know, you're going to go, yeah, I know. Oh yeah, yeah, I agree. And that's one of the signs that actually, it's very difficult for you to receive correction. That's a great sign. There's a bonus point there. If you have trouble admitting that you learned something new when someone teaches it to you, then you also probably have an issue when people try to correct you. But again, correction is good. It's healthy. Again, it doesn't feel good. Yeah, I know. I get corrected all the time, and it doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good. But if it's legitimate correction and you heed that legitimate correction, you're going to see growth in your life. You're going to see fruitfulness come out of that. It will mature you. It will stabilize you. It will ground you. So number one, condemning self. That's a habit that will weaken you spiritually. Number two, rejecting correction. Number three, avoiding responsibility. Here's what Galatians chapter five verse 16 says. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. If anyone ever says that surrender to the Holy Spirit isn't a biblical concept, there you go. Yes, the Holy Spirit can do whatever he wants to do, but he works in conjunction with our free will by his own choice. That's just the way he wants to work. So verse 16 says. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. Now, of course, then we read of all of the different manifestations of the sin nature, sexual morality, impurity, lust, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, etc. Then verse 22 and 23, we see the fruits of the Spirit. Now, look at verse 24 of Galatians five. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, watch this now. Let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. You let the Spirit have his way in your life. You choose to follow the Spirit's leading. Watch this in Ephesians chapter six verses 10 through 12, a very popular portion of Scripture. A final word, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil, for we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in heavenly places. Did you notice that? You, there's the command, you be strong in the Lord. You be strong in his mighty power. And then look at what the Scripture commands us to do in verse 11. Put on God's armor. So God supplies it, but we must put it on. You put on the armor. You choose to pray. You choose to be devoted to the Word and so forth. Think about this. The Holy Spirit will provide the desire, but you must provide the discipline. The Holy Spirit will give you the desire, but you must make the decision. You have to begin to take responsibility for your spiritual growth. Stop blaming your church leaders. Well, they didn't give me the attention I wanted. They didn't take me out to eat. They didn't have a conversation with me for hours after service. Stop blaming curses and demons. You're a born again believer. You can't be cursed. I have a whole teaching on this. It's a very thorough lesson. Check it out. It's right here on the channel. You're a born again believer. You can't be cursed. Whose words are powerful enough to speak curse when God speaks blessing? Nobody. I call it generational consequence because it only has power if you make the choice to give into it. You've got to stop blaming demons. People of God, you've got to stop. And I say this as someone who practices deliverance, who casts out demons, who believes in spiritual warfare. Guys, I've been doing that for 20 years. I believe it. I teach it. I practice it and I encourage others to do it. But please, body of Christ, stop blaming demons for everything. You've got to stop doing that. We've got to grow out of that. I'm sorry. I'm telling this to you because I love you. We have got to grow out of that. It's time to break free from that religious, powerless way of seeing the world. And it's time to go to higher places in the spirit. It's time to rise and be mature. It's time to take responsibility for the decisions that we make. Yes, demons may tempt you, but demons don't do the sinning for you. Demons may lie to you, but demons don't make your decisions for you. Demons may present the sin, but they don't do the sinning. Yes, demons can attack you. Yes, spiritual warfare is real. But you ultimately are the one who makes the decisions to give in to the temptations that they place before you. Stop blaming demons. Stop blaming word curses. Stop blaming your pastor. Stop blaming your parents. Stop blaming former generations who've gone before you who didn't set you up in quite the way you want it to be set up. Stop blaming God. Stop blaming people who hurt you and stop blaming the systems around you. Take responsibility for your spiritual growth. Take responsibility for what God wants to do in your life. You are not a victim. You are victorious. You are not the tail. You are the head. You are not under the power of the enemy. You're seated in heavenly places. You have been given a victorious nature. You are a heavenly being. You are a reflection of light. You are spirit, not body, not soul, not emotion, not mind. You are your spirit. You are one with Christ. You have the Holy Spirit living within you. You've been bought by the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus has broken any generational bloodline that you may be under. You are a person of the kingdom. You are a Son of God. You are a child of the King. You are one with Him. It's time to take responsibility for your spiritual walk. Nobody rejects prayer for you. Nobody ignores the word on your behalf. Nobody chooses to be swallowed up by unforgiveness. This is not a message of condemnation. This is a message I pray that would cause you to see that you don't have to settle for anything less than absolute spiritual victory. Now, when I say that, some will say, well, I struggle and I have this happening in my life and I have this problem in my life. I am not saying that you won't have trials. You will have trials. Jesus said, in this world, you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. We will be persecuted. We will have trials. We will experience tragedy. We will feel heartache. God's not going to do everything we want him to do exactly how we want him to do it and exactly when we want him to do it. But despite all those things, you can still be victorious. I'm not talking about being victorious to where all of your circumstances, the outer realities of your life, align perfectly as you've seen them in your head. I'm simply saying that no matter what goes on around you, you can choose to tap into the strength within you. You can choose to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit. You can choose to walk according to what God has given to you. So stop condemning yourself. Get up and get moving. If God forgave it, you need to let it go. You've repented of it, turned from it, time to let it go. Again, let's balance that. I'm not saying that Christians can go on sinning and doing whatever they want to do. If you're a true believer, you'll have new desires to live holy. But I'm also saying that we have to avoid the other extreme of constantly walking in the condemnation for sins that we've already been forgiven of that we've turned from. Number two, don't reject correction. And again, you have to understand in church culture, there is a fringe group, a percentage of the body of Christ that's always going to be hypercritical. There'll be two or three in every church. There'll be two or three in every family. You're going to run into people who are insecure, need to demonstrate how much knowledge they think they have, constantly want to correct you, constantly want to control you, and are doing so from a manipulative standpoint. Those are the people you can ignore. But God has also placed in your life people who love you, people who care about you, legitimate sources of truth, who will bring correction to you. And until you can receive that correction, you're not going to grow. Number three, we have to stop avoiding responsibility. Don't blame others around you. Don't blame your parents. Don't blame your pastor. Don't blame the church people because they didn't interact with you the way that you thought you should be interacted with. Don't blame anyone or anything else. You need to take responsibility for your decisions that you make that have to do with your spiritual growth. Number one, stop condemning self. Two, stop rejecting correction. Three, stop avoiding responsibility. Now I want to pray with you and I want to lead you in a prayer where you're going to repent before God for these things. And repent simply means to change your mind. You need to repent and renounce these things. So you're repent by agreeing with God here. You renounce by forsaking. Renouncing isn't just verbalizing something. That's not even what renounce means. Renounce means to forsake. And many people, they will speak what they renounce but then they don't live it. So then it just becomes a script that they quote. Powerless words. But renouncing is to actually forsake something. So change your mind about these things and determine within yourself to say, I'm going to change my mind about these things. I need to repent to these things and then I need to renounce these things. Let's go before the Lord right now. Come on. And I want you to know you can receive His grace, His mercy, His love. This is not condemnation because you can correct this. This is God calling you higher. You're watching this? Maybe it made you a little uncomfortable. Maybe there's some things in your heart you're saying, oh my goodness, I'm not so sure what this is. Don't mistake the conviction of the Holy Spirit for His discomfort because sometimes we do that. We'll say, I don't know. Something doesn't sit right in my spirit or I don't know how I feel about that or I don't know. You may even try to attack me and say, well, you came across this way or that way. Look, I love you and I'm bringing you truth. And what happens is we try to shift where that feeling is going when we need to point it at ourselves, receive the correction, allow yourself to sense that conviction, and then say, I'm going to change these things. I'm going to change these things and the Lord is going to help me do it. So Father, I give you the praise that you've given us the grace to overcome every problem of the flesh. Holy Spirit, help us to see ourselves the way you see us. Help us to turn from self-condemnation after we've received your forgiveness. Come on, just begin to ask Him to help you with it. To help you receive the forgiveness of God because many of you have been battling with this for years and years and years and it's time now you be set free. Be set free from the power of that deception and receive the forgiveness of God. There are things you've been caring, wow, there are things you've been caring possibly for over a decade, some of you, and it's time to let that go. Come on, receive this prayer now. Lord, help them to move past that and show them in your word after they've repented. You've forgiven. Thank you, Father. I love you. And Lord, we ask that you forgive us for rejecting the legitimate loving correction of those you've placed in our lives. Father, we lay our ego down. We lay our pride down before your word, before your loving hand. Say this out loud. Say, Lord, I receive your correction in whatever form it comes. Say it again. Lord, I receive your correction in whatever form it comes. Receive that now. Thank you, Jesus. I give you the glory and the honor. I give you the praise. Come on, just continue to pray right now. And I want you to also repent for not taking responsibility for those things in your life that you know you're responsible for. Time to stop shifting the blame. Take the responsibility now. That's how you grow. Take the responsibility. Say, Lord, I repent for not taking up my Christian responsibility. Help me to do it. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say, amen. Hey, if you enjoyed this message, do me a favor. Leave a like if you think other people need to hear it because when you leave a like, you're actually going to help many others hear it. So leave a like whether you're watching live or on the replay. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel to learn more about the Holy Spirit Prayer and Spiritual Warfare. And also, I do live streams like this, and we do live streams from around the world where you will see the power of the Holy Spirit in action, saving, delivering, healing, and empowering his people. Now, I want to talk to you about some of the things happening in our world. And I want to remind you to not let your heart be troubled. Don't let your heart be troubled. I know that when we look at the news or when we look at the social media feeds that we often scroll through, that we can become overwhelmed by the many things that seem so scary, that seem like they're bringing doom and gloom. And I know because that's the way the algorithm works. That's the way the news cycle works. But, you know, we also acknowledge that in fact there are things going wrong in this world. And even though we recognize that darkness is permeating the globe right now, we also recognize with great hope, by the way, that light is also advancing. So yes, the world is being permeated in darkness, but at the same time light is beginning to shine forth. You may look at the systems of the world pressing against the church. You see the darkness advancing in every area of society. You see darkness advancing politically in the media, in the music industry, in the sporting world. Darkness is advancing. And then darkness now is even coming for your children. And that's a scary thought. But remember in all our talk about darkness, darkness, darkness, the light is also shining. The light is going forward. And you may stand back and look at everything that's happening, because sometimes I find myself doing this. I look at everything that's happening and I say, someone's got to do something. And it can become frustrating because you look around and it doesn't seem like anything is working. It looks like nothing, nothing is working. And I reject this notion that the gospel somehow loses its power at any point in history. Some say, well, that's just the way it's supposed to go. No, no, no. Even if you believe these are the last days, what was the sign that Jesus said would be the ultimate sign, this gospel shall be preached to the ends of the earth and then the end would come. So the gospel doesn't lose its power in any season, even in the last days. And so you're looking at this world, you're saying, I'm frustrated. I want to do something. I want to make a difference. Let's stop talking about it. Let's start doing it. Did you hear what I said? Let's stop talking about it and let's start doing it. Let's do it. I am so ready to spread this message further than it's ever been. And I'm stirred up right now just thinking about it. You think about the darkness advance and you think about all the things happening in our world. I want you to know it's not hopeless. It's not over. The gospel has not lost its power. Jesus is still the answer and the gospel has not lost its power. I want to say that again. Jesus is still the answer and the gospel has not lost its power. So here's where I need you to join with this movement. And this truly is the Holy Spirit's movement. I need you to consider today financially supporting this ministry. We're not talking about it. We're doing it and it's working. People are being saved, delivered, healed and believers are being empowered to go and do the same. It is working. The kingdom's advancing. Lives are being transformed. The darkness is being pushed back. Don't just sit back and say, I wish someone would do something. You could do something right now. Join us. Give us a helping hand. Come along, sign our efforts and I want you to be involved with what God is doing through this ministry. So go right now to davidhernandezministries.com slash donate to give a single donation. You can also go to davidhernandezministries.com slash partner to become a monthly ministry supporter. Look, if you can support Hulu, Netflix, Disney Plus, all of those on a monthly basis, surely you can partner with the gospel on a monthly basis. So whether you're giving one time or monthly, large or small, I'm asking you to do something right now. If everyone who watches this stream, if everybody who listens to me saying this goes and supports in some way, we could advance our efforts exponentially. And that means more souls. That means more deliverances. That means more healings. That means more believers receiving the ministry to be empowered. The gospel is free, but the means to deliver it, that takes resources and that's where we join together. So again, davidhernandezministries.com slash donate to give a single gift davidhernandezministries.com slash partner to become a monthly supporter and it will only take a few minutes. You can get from anywhere in the world. Your support matters. Don't count yourself out. Give. The gospel might be advanced. I want to take this moment to thank many of you who are supporting this ministry. I can see some of the donations coming in online. Greta became a partner. Brianna gave a single donation. Thank you. Charlotte became a partner. Thank you, Charlotte. Dale became a partner. Thank you for your support. We so appreciate you who are giving. Alan, thank you for becoming a partner. Francesca became a partner. Janet became a partner. David gave a single gift. Ashish became a partner. All of these count. LaShawn became a partner. Man, I am so appreciative of many of you supporting and giving. We thank you for that.