 Today I'm going to start a series called The Anointing and I'm going to start the first message today that will talk about what is the anointing, why we need the anointing, how to receive the anointing, and how to walk in the anointing. The title of my first message will be called today, Stay On Fire, somebody say Amen. Stay On Fire, 30 neighbors say Stay On Fire, 20 other neighbors say it's time for you to get on fire. Anointing really makes the difference, in the Bible prophets were anointed, kings were anointed, priests were anointed, sometimes they even anointed objects, or Jacob anointed a pillar, and he said that this would be the house of God, priests would anoint different objects in the temple to consecrate them to God. The word anointing it simply means to smear anointment on something, we know that Jesus was anointed, Jesus Christ, Christ is not Jesus's last name, Christ is just a Hebrew word for anointed, so Jesus Christ thought it was necessary for him to be anointed, how much more it is for you and I to be anointed by the Holy Spirit. Jesus had no sin and he still need anointing on his life, because the Bible says that he was anointed to preach, see without the anointing you're a motivational speaker, with the anointing you're a preacher with a difference, without the anointing you're a singer with a talent, with the anointing you're a worshipper with a difference, without the anointing you have a title of a father, with anointing you're a dad that makes a difference in the life of your kids. Without the anointing you know we just preach information, with the anointing we release impartation, revelation, manifestation and every other asian that is there in the book in Jesus' name, can somebody say amen. Anointing makes the difference, anointing is not about the numbers, anointing is not about the looks, anointing is not about the eloquence, emotionalism, anointing is not really about the manifestation, anointing is the unction, it's the power of God that moves through a person. We can write this down, anointing is the overflow of the life of God that's flowing through his dedicated servant, anointing of the Holy Spirit is the overflow of the divine life of God through you as a consecrated servant of the Lord. Really what the anointing is is when the overflow of God's life comes through you on every area of your life. It's very important to understand that Satan fights anointing. The spirit of antichrist that is at work today and eventually there will be the antichrist, a person that's going to fight the anointing, but right now what's at work is the spirit of antichrist. The spirit of antichrist is a spirit that typically works through religious people to fight and to try to belittle, make fun or mock anything that has to do with genuine move of God. Satan is afraid of the anointing because the anointing is his only threat. The Bible says the talents don't break the yoke, anointing does. Emotionalism don't heal people, anointing does. You know, screaming and yelling as great as that is, passion. It's not what really changes people's life. It's the anointing that changes people's lives. And Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit. He went about doing God's work and the Bible says destroying the works of the devil. The anointing is the threat to the kingdom of the devil. And that's why what he will do is he will raise accusation. He will raise all kinds of Google stories and news stories against anyone who is anointed to try to blamish their reputation so that people will be intimidated and frightened by them. It's a spirit of antichrist. He fights the anointing. He's okay with you knowing that Jesus is a good teacher. He's okay with you knowing that Jesus is a good man. But the moment you start going to the side that Jesus is full of the Holy Ghost and you can be full of the Holy Ghost. Satan trips over that. And he will do whatever it takes to try to stop from that. But we're going to be an anointed church. We're going to be anointed Christians. We're going to be anointed, we're going to have anointed home groups. And we're going to have anointed houses, anointed cars. Everything we touch will be anointed because we're full of the Holy Spirit. Can somebody say amen? When we were in the world, we were full of darkness. That's why we cursed. That's why we lied. That's why we slept around, smoked, got drunk and did all the stuff. We were full of the devil. Being in church, we are not full of religion. We are full of the Holy Spirit. And therefore, we will live in the anointing of God. Can somebody say amen? Put your hands together for Jesus Christ. I want us to open the first Samuel chapter 9 verse 19 and verse 20. We will tackle the story of Saul. And it says the following. Samuel answered Saul and said, I am a seer. Go up before me to a high place and you shall eat with me today. And tomorrow I will let you go and tell you all that is in your heart. But as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, don't be anxious for them, they've been found. I want you to see something. Samuel meets Saul. I want you to see this. Saul comes to Samuel about the donkeys because they were lost. And Samuel tells him, he says, I will tell you tomorrow what's on your heart. Means the donkeys were not on his heart. Oh, by the way, he says the donkeys, they've been found. That means the donkeys were on his mind. What was on his heart? The next day, Saul sends the servant away, anoints him with oil and says, you are the next king of Israel. That's incredible. Saul carried inside of his heart a dream to be a king of Israel. But he was so embarrassed to tell anybody and the reason why he hid is so deep in his heart because Israel has never ever had a king. Does anybody here has a dream that has never happened in your family? Do you carry something that is so radical and so crazy that if you tell other people, they will say, you're nuts? You're crazy? What, you have a dream that you're going to do this? You're going to do that? And Saul had a dream to be a king. He carried that dream. He comes to Samuel because he has problems with donkeys. And so Samuel says, I'm going to tell you tomorrow what's on your heart. Or by your donkeys? They're actually found. So the donkeys were never really on his heart. What was in his heart was his dream and his destiny. See, the problem many times in our lives is that the donkeys cloud the destiny. Sometimes the enemy uses our circumstances to cloud the real dream and the real vision and the real purpose that you and I have in our heart. Because see, the devil wants you to chase donkeys all your life. Means he wants you to just live your life from paycheck to paycheck. Just finish school, literally get a girlfriend, get a car, get a new iPhone, get a new watch, get a new shoes, get this and get that. He wants your life to be spinning in the donkey world. But deep on inside, you were born with the destiny. And sometimes that destiny inside of you is something nobody ever has seen in your family tree. And you close your eyes when you get in the presence of God and you see the picture of your dream. Tears rolling down your eyes, but there is a fear in your heart because what you are dreaming about is beyond your wildest dreams. That means that dream is from God. Because if that would have been from you, it wouldn't fit in your tiny, small, little, limited heart. But if it's from God, it will be buried deep, deep in your heart. Never apologize for the dreams deposited by God. Never shy away. You might not be able to see them come true today or tomorrow, but you have to understand true prophetic ministry is not to tell me what my donkey problems are. True prophetic ministry cuts through the donkeys and gets into what's buried inside of your spirit, which is a dream from heaven. It doesn't take a prophet to tell me what my sin are. They're pretty much all the same. All of us struggle the same. But it takes a prophet to cut through the sin and get into your spirit, where there's a dream that is laying there from God and pull that out and say, what you think is crazy is God. See, when I worship and I close my eyes, I see this large stadium full of people. Tears begin to roll down my eyes when I see them, because I know this is so scary. I see literally a row of wheelchairs. And I see as I'm walking up, pow, pow, pow, people just getting up from the wheelchairs. I close my eyes and I realize we just have ten people at morning prayer. But see, the Holy Spirit will always get through the mess you are in right now into what's in your spirit. And so listen, that which you carry in your heart is from me. Some of you here in your spirit right now, there is an idea to have a business. But the very idea of having a business throws you in a cold sweat. The very idea that you will be free, the very idea that one day you will be a millionaire and that you will sponsor, build orphanages. That idea says, but today I'm struggling and asking God, where will I get money to pay for my gas? Listen, your donkeys are not a reflection of the destiny you have in your spirit. The destiny is from the Holy Ghost. The donkeys will be solved. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Anybody here has a dream from God. Anybody here, if you be very honest, you see that dream is unrealistic. That means it is from God. Maybe you're saying, but that's not so, that's not me. That which I'm believing and keeping in my heart. That's why there is a prophetic word for you today. God says, I will tell you what's on your heart. The donkeys come to cloud that. There are some of you here today, you're in sin, but you're called to be a pastor. Your donkey is the sin. Satan will wrap you around it. And you may be sitting here today and you don't see one day you will be having a home group. You have never been to a home group in your life. But in your heart and in your spirit, there's a dream from heaven. Don't let the donkeys cause you to live your life in just the donkey world, because you're destined for greatness. You were created by God, not just to go to work at eight and get off at five, and just eat and watch the TV series and rest on Saturday and playing golf. You were created by God to live for a reason and for a purpose. The Bible says through abundance of grace and through the gift of righteousness, we were destined to reign in Jesus Christ in life. Not just get through life, not just survive through life, not just make it through, get it by, but to reign means to thrive, to rise above and fulfill the true destiny God placed inside of our spirit. If somebody would have told me 16 years ago that this is what I would be doing, the once a month I would be invited to speak at conferences and youth camps and that I would be mentoring other people. I would say you are out of your mind. You are crazy. You mistake me for someone else. But deep inside I had that. When I saw a preacher preaching in our large church where I came from in Ukraine, it was about two and a half thousand member church. I saw that somewhere deep inside I said, I would love to do that one day. I didn't know that I would love to do that one day. It was actually God's voice speaking through an insecure 12 year old teenager saying, I bury that in your heart. Hallelujah. And so I want you to remember the destiny was in his heart. Donkeys were on his mind. Unrealistic dreams require the Holy Spirit. And that's why Samuel not only said, you have a dream. So he said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. And he said, you will be a changed into a different man. Because to fulfill the dream God placed in you requires God's enablement, requires God's anointing. You have to understand in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, God didn't require a degree for destiny. He required anointing. You don't see Jesus going to a four year college and then God said, now you're ready to cast out demons. You see Jesus filled with Holy Spirit and God begins to use him. You don't see David finish a presidential university and God says, now you're ready to be a king. You see David being anointed by the Holy Spirit. You have to understand degree is important. Connections is important. Natural abilities is important. Your eloquence is important. Your background is important. All of these things are important. But if you want to fulfill something that came from above, you will need the power that comes from above. And that power is the Holy Spirit. God anoints Saul. And Saul begins to step into his destiny. Your calling, your vision without the anointing is really not going to happen. It's a heavy burden without the anointing. With the anointing, you may say, but I'm in the business world. What is anointing has to do? Saul wasn't a priest. Saul ruled the country. You need anointing for your business. The same way preacher needs anointing for his preaching. You need anointing for your family to raise your family the same way that apostle needs anointing to raise churches. Anointing is not limited to religion. You have to understand when God created the world, he never created religions. He only created humans and he created this world. The Holy Spirit was never religious spirit. We boxed him into our religion. We divided everything into Christianity, Baptist, Pentecostals and everything. But in God's heaven, there is no boxes God fits into. There is no, there is a sacred and there is a secular and God's world there is only God who fills everything. And he created the world and he wants your world to be impacted by his anointing. Can someone say amen? Without the anointing, our calling is dangerous. With the anointing, you are dangerous. Come on. Hallelujah. When Saul drifted from the Lord and the anointing lifted from his life, he was anointed to fight Philistines. We know where Saul died. He died in a battle with Philistines. His anointing, when it was lifted because of different things that he did, the calling Saul had was no longer a blessing to him. It was not only a burden, it became his graveyard. Those of us who think the success of life is dependent on how great your career is, I have a news flash for you. If you're not anointed in your place of work and place of success, your success is dangerous. The Bible says that Saul, when the anointing lifted, he became madman. He became insane. Things start going so bad. The weight of his office, the weight of his calling, the weight of his influence started to crumble on him so bad that he chased his own tail all his life. He would chase David who wanted no harm to him. We know that Saul started to literally become a coward. He couldn't fight a battle. The only victories he would get is because his son would rebel against his protocol and that's how God would give victory literally. Saul became trapped in his own throne because the throne doesn't give you success. It's the anointing that gives you success. It's the anointing that pushes you to the throne and you need that anointing to keep you sane in the throne. Many people think that if you just get a nice car, if you just get a nice house, if you just get a beautiful family, that alone gives you success. Yes, it will make it good on Instagram picture if you use enough filter and good lighting. But the inner happiness and inner success, the Bible says the blessing of the Lord enriches and adds no sorrow. The blessing, the grace, the favor and the goodness of God, the anointing of the Holy Spirit makes it smooth, makes it great, makes it enjoyable, makes you want to go to church in the midst of imperfect people, lift your hands and say, I love my God. I love my family. I love my life. Makes you go through life in the hardships or in the good times and there is a sense of purpose. There is a sense of fire in your eyes. There is a sense of flame in your soul. There is a sense of intention. Your life has a meaning. Your life has a purpose. You don't look at your dog and realize, you know what? You're living better life than I do because you at least don't have to work for it. I work for you. But I have to work for it. Nobody takes care of me. And when I cry, nobody answers. When you cry, I answer. You look at your dog and say, man, I wish I would have been like you. That's when you know you lost the anointing. Your dog has it. You don't. The anointing is a living life of purpose, living a life on fire, living a life with a sense, with a flame. I see sometimes people 25 years of age and they're dead. We're gonna have their funeral 40 years later, but they died already. No flame. They burned out. I say, you haven't done anything. Burned from what? You see already, they're exhausted. They're tired. Why? Not because the college, the sucked life out of them. Life is demanding. Life is like a vacuum. Religion is like a vacuum. Even church can be like a vacuum. Everything will suck things out of you. And if you don't have a flow of the anointing of God, there will be a time you will be draining on the inside. And you can't blame the vacuum. It's just there is nothing to take from you no more. That's why you have to have a life of God constantly flowing, flowing, flowing on your school, on your college, on your work, on your parents. Flowing, flowing, flowing, flowing. Anointing comes by association, but it grows by desperation. I want you to say this with me. Say anointing comes by association, but it grows by desperation. Anointing comes by association, but it grows by desperation. And this is the, let's get to the meat part of the message. First Samuel chapter 10 verse 11 says the following. And it happened when all who knew him formally saw that he was indeed prophesied. That he indeed prophesied among the prophets. So, King Saul. And the people said one to another, what is this that has come upon the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? Hey, Holy Spirit came upon Saul when he was in the company of prophets. The anointing upon Saul's life came when Saul was hanging out with the prophets. And it was so crazy that people actually said, is Saul among prophets? It became a proverb in Israel. Means it was so unlike Saul. It was so unnatural to him. It was so his family, none of them ever kind of like, they're not the prayer warriors. They're not the kind of passionate. They're not the people who would fast. They were not the people who were interested in the things of God like that. And here is their son, one of their, you know, this handsome, tall, good-looking son. And he's hanging out with the prophets and he goes around. Thus says the Lord. Thus says the spirit of God. He's speaking in tongues. He's walking with the prophets and they're looking at him and they say, is this Saul? Is Saul among the prophets? See, when you start hanging out around prophets, you start prophesying. You can ask Adrian when he shared today. When he started to being around people who see visions from God and prophecy, now he goes on the street and look what he said. I was shocked myself what came out of my mouth. Why? Because anointing gets released by association. When you watch YouTube clips of deliverances, you will begin to notice when your minister, demon started to manifest. Why? Because that anointing rubs on you by association. On the other side, if you watch someone who curses every other word two weeks and by accident, F-bombs will be released by you. You will notice that you're like, where did that come from? Anointing is released by association. We have some businessmen here in our church who would literally, in the area of their business, they reach out to the other businesses. They read the books and everything. And you're looking at their business, you're like, man, just two years ago, this guy's business wasn't doing so good. This lady's business wasn't doing so well. But because they got surrounded themselves with the associates, with their association became, they put themselves among the prophets. See, they grew up in the house of the kish. But where you put yourself is where really the anointing is going to change your life. See, you can change your future by changing the company you're around. That is why Apostle Junji came to our conference. That is why Bob Larson came to our conference. That is why we encourage people who read Derrick Prince, who read Pastor Benny Hinting on the Holy Spirit, who read Dr. Yungi Cho Why. We want you to be surrounded in your life not to reflect your past, but to reflect the association you put yourself in. Because anointing comes by association. You want to see the anointing move on your life? Associate yourself with the anointing. If you want success to move in your life, associate yourself with success. Did you know that Jesus got filled with Holy Spirit? Not when he was fasting, not when he was praying by himself. When Jesus went to a minister of God who was anointed by God, his name was John the Baptist. But John the Baptist did not have miracles. He was just anointed to preach repentance. And Jesus, the Son of God, comes to John's ministry and says, John, baptize me. If that would have been me or you, you would be like, John, you need to sit down and take notes from me. Because I am the Son of God. You have so much to learn from me, cousin. Because he was his cousin. But when Jesus comes to John and he says, John, baptize me. John says, no, no, no, no. You are the one that's going to give fire. And Jesus says, I know. But right now, I need to jumpstart. And when John baptizes him, the Bible says the spirit of God comes upon Jesus. Anytime you associate yourself with the anointing, it comes on you. You may have a greater grace in your life than the people you associate with. But remember, it works by association. Come on, somebody. Can you say amen? The Bible says, he who walks with the wise is wise. But the companion of fools will be destroyed. You know what that means? He who walks with the successful is successful. He who kicks it with the idiots will be that. He who hangs out with the wealthy will be wealthy. He who always hangs out with people who criticize the wealthy and blame their poverty under something else will be just like that. He hangs out with people who heal the sick will heal the sick. He who hangs out with people who don't sleep around, he will live in purity. See who you want to be. If you want to be this, change who you hang out here. You cannot hang out with the wise and be a fool. And you cannot hang out with the fools and be wise. Anointing works by association. And anointing came upon Saul because he was connected with the prophets. Anointing will come upon your life because you were connected by that as well, in Jesus' name. See, if you can hang out, someone said this. If you run with the wolves, you will learn how to howl. If you associate with the eagles, you will learn how to sort the great heights. Remember this. It is better to be alone than to be in the wrong company. As a mirror reflects man's face. But it is really shown the same thing as the mirror reflects your face. Your friends really reflect who you are. I just want to bring... Can you give me a few napkins? Because I think I'm getting too excited here. Remember I said anointing is not emotionalism. But it could produce great emotions. What I found out with young people is this. Because many times they want to associate themselves with very successful people in their perspective callings. And they get disappointed when those successful people, they don't have time for them. So instead of finding a different route, they blame those successful people by saying, well see, you became proud now. You don't even respond to my 300 word message on Facebook. You're no longer like my pictures. You became too arrogant and everything. And I want to teach you a lesson or a secret that I've learned. If you find people that you want to be like, but they don't have time for you. Don't ever seek their mentorship. Offer them service. If you attack them and say, you're so arrogant. I had people write to me literally like an essay. I wrote shorter essays in high school that they wrote to me in messages. One guy had more questions to me recently than Job had to God. And I didn't know where to start. I wanted to start with the first question. By the time I got to the end, I was like, there's no way I can answer that. And people think that the only thing I do is sit on Facebook and look who's questions I can answer. I don't have time for that. And so what people many times do, and they will message you back and you say, you're proud because you can't respond to my 300 questions. And many times people like that in our church, they have this. They're like, I want pastor to mentor me. I want this apostle to mentor me. It's not like that. When you start moving with God, your time becomes to be limited. And if you want to get the attention of the person you look to, don't come for mentorship. Come with service. See Saul didn't come to Samuel for a word. The Bible says the Saul asked his servant. He says, do we have anything to bring to the man of God? Really? Saul, why do you need to bring anything to the man of God? Because he's very busy. And the Bible says the gift makes room for the king. When he offered something, it was something very small. The word of God was released. I saw that last year when Apostle Junchi came to our church and our church blessed him and everything. And we started to call Junchi every Friday for a few weeks, actually about a few months. And Junchi would mentor us and just kind of talk to us, pray for us and everything. But he got so busy and he got so busy and we got so busy and things kind of stopped. This year that he came and it really just got in my heart saying, you know what, Lord, I want this man to just continue to bless me, pray for me and everything. And so instead of asking, hey apostle, can you call me every Friday? I said, apostle, I see your Apple watch is not working. Can I give you mine? Have you tried these ear pods? He said, no. I said, you should try them. He put them on. He said, they're so nice. I said, do you like that? How are they feeling? He's like, I'm like, they're yours. And I asked him, is there anything I can help you with? And I noticed there's one area that he needed help with. And I said, can I offer to help you once a week? No strings attached. Two weeks later, apostle calls me. He said, Vlad, how are you doing? I said, doing great? Is there anything? He said, no, just call me. Just let you know I'm praying for you. Two weeks later, he calls again. He says, I just want to let you know I miss you so much. And I was like, oh, Jesus, fire of God, hallelujah. He spent 10 minutes talking to me to the point I had to ask him to hang up because I had nothing to ask him. Because I know the anointing works by association. And if I cannot get associated with him by mentorship, I'll always get associated by serving. Just serve. Ask where you can be serving. And another thing, the second thing about association that you have to keep in mind, the reason why many times people ahead of you don't give you association is because people behind you, you don't give it to them either. God looks at you. How do you treat people who want to be like you? How do you treat people who want to start a business in the same field you're starting? And when you feel insecure and threatened, what we do is we shut them down and we say, you're not good, you won't succeed. We shut them down and then we go to someone who we want to be like, can you show me? And they treat us the same way we treat them. If you want to improve how your association treats you, change how you treat your associates. You know what happened to Saul? Saul was looking for Samuel's advice. But when David rose up and wanted to be a king, he chased 20 years trying to kill him. God says, I can't bless you. Why? Because when somebody wants to be like you, you stomp them. That's why I'm not going to let someone else mentor you to be like them. That's why I ask myself today, not only how can I serve my pastor instead of just kind of milking all the wisdom. As I serve him, God will release the wisdom. But secondly, I look at people who look at me and say, Vlad, how can you help us in this, in this area? And I say, how can I help them? Like I just came from a trip last weekend when I was in South Dakota. Amazing youth group as I went to visit them. And I saw that a lot of mistakes that they were making that we made just a few years ago. And I was so busy there at the trip that I wanted to work on the internship lessons and so many other things. I planned out that the whole week I'm going to finish all of my lessons. As I am there, Holy Spirit convicted me. He said, Vlad, they need your advice. They need your input. I want you to begin to mentor them because they're looking to you guys to get to your level. And I said, but I don't have time for that. You see, the Lord start convicted me. He says, you can't expect an apostle to pick you out to his level if you don't take them to yours. I want to challenge you. If you want to have association, watch how you treat your associates. Watch how you treat people who want to be like you. And you may say, well, you know, there's not too many. See those people who look to you for advice. Give them the same attention. You want someone else you will look to to give it to you. A lot of sewing and reaping will always work in your favor. Can somebody say a man? Come on, put your hands together for Jesus Christ. Anointing comes by association. I want you to say this with me. Say anointing comes by association. But it grows by desperation. Say it again. Anointing comes by association. But it grows by desperation. And so I want you to focus on this now. Anointing grows by desperation. And the verse that we read is this. And he also stripped of his clothes all and prophesied before Samuel in like matter and laid down naked all day and all that night. Therefore they said is Saul among the prophets for Samuel 1924. I want you to see this verse looks so familiar to the chapter 10 or chapter nine we just read. Except in this story you see Saul now sends one set of soldiers to Ramah to capture David. They go there and it's the prophesying. Anointing, words by association. Amen. He sends the second set of soldiers. They start prophesying. He sends the third set of soldiers. They start prophesying. Because Saul is afraid to go there. He knows what's going to happen. And then finally he musters up the strength and he goes in there. But he doesn't go there to see change in his life. He goes in there to capture David because David is there. And the Bible says as he goes in there this is what happens. God's spirit comes upon him. He starts prophesying. He kind of goes a little bit awkward weird way. Almost looks like a demonic manifestation. This would have been in our church would be screaming out, out in Jesus name. But because it's all testament I'm pretty sure this was acceptable. In like matter lay down, the Bible says he stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like matter and lay down naked in that day and all that night. So day and night he prophesied. But I want you to see something. Association without desperation for God equals tribulation. Equals problems. Saul got up from this prophesying experience and went back to his old life. Sooner or later every association every manifestation and experience with God has to fuel our hunger for Jesus. Otherwise those experiences they only enlarge our pride and they actually hindered us from going to God. Saul had association. Saul had even manifestation he experienced but one thing Saul lacked in his life which I believe why the anointing never remained on his life is Saul was never hungry for God. Hunger for God grows and maintains the anointing from God. Saul had experiences but he never repented. He never became hungry for God and therefore anointing always lifted. Actually there was another Saul in the Bible. Remember the New Testament? When Saul went to Damascus I was in Israel and I oversaw where Damascus is from Jerusalem to Damascus it's actually a very long way to walk to ride a horse. Saul went for a very long way to go to Damascus he wasn't going to Damascus to prayer meeting he was going to Damascus just like King Saul he wanted to attack Christians Saul wanted to attack David and Saul in the Bible wanted to attack Christians and Jesus knocked Saul out of his horse he falls on the floor he goes blind just like this Saul he falls on the floor he goes naked but I want you to see the difference one Saul gets up and goes back to his old life this Saul while he was there with the encounter with God he asked the questions he said who are you Lord? and secondly what would you have me do? that Saul shaked and baked, laid and rolled spoke in tongues filled the spirit felt the goosebumps got up and he said that was good and went back that Saul said God who are you? I want to know you I'm hungry for you I persecuted you Jesus I thought you were a force Messiah but I just have I have a change of heart now I see you are truly the son of God what would you have me do? and God leaves him blind for three days because for the first three days in his life he could actually see and after three days we see his eyes get open and he is filled with the Holy Spirit he gets baptized in water he goes to Damascus the next day and he starts to preach the gospel see King Saul became an apostate but Saul in the New Testament became an apostle because it's not experiences that change you it's the hunger of God you derive from your experiences God replaced a man who knew it all and had it all with the boy who was after his heart Saul knew how the kingdom works Saul had the servants he had the reputation he had everything but he didn't have one most important thing that God looks for in every person is hunger for him and one time when Saul in the peak of his pride when he didn't obey God and he instead of being concerned with the callousness of his heart and repenting before God he grabbed the rope of Samuel and says Samuel but honor me before people meaning I don't care that God rejected me I just make sure my reputation stays intact and Samuel looks back at him and he says the way you ripped my rope is the way God ripped your kingdom from you and God has found a man he's a boy he doesn't have experience in reigning he doesn't have military experience nobody knows him but he is after God's heart he doesn't have a God's heart he is not perfect but he is fascinated he is captivated by God and God says since he is God he loves people that are passionately in love with him and he says Saul he will raise that boy up and he will give him your throne and he will bless him and protect him and boy David was not perfect he needed worse sins than Saul but see when you are hungry for God you repent when you are passive you make excuses when you are hungry for God you make mistakes but you never make excuses when God even winks at you and says that something is wrong there you drop on your floor and you say God I am sorry I am not going to blame it on my mama I am not going to blame it on my daddy I am not going to blame it on my boss God it was my fault and I am sorry and when you do that your hunger stays for God but Saul when you are not hungry you make excuses you blame everybody you lose that I want to let you know if you want to keep fire for God in your life you got to keep repentance in your life many of us don't fall out of love with God we only fall out of repentance are you with me I want you to open this verse with me at the end Revelation chapter 2 verse 4 and 5 never the less I have this against you that you have left your first love remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent this verse used to intimidate me when I heard preachers talk about this verse I just felt so sick in my stomach it's kind of one of those like yeah they are going to tell me again right now that I have fallen from God but now this verse has become one of the greatest encouragement to my life because the fact you can lose your first love and find it again gives me source of comfort every single person in here your first love for God is when you got saved your passion for Jesus was all time high you were literally curious you were curious George you were just curious about God you were just like passionate about God you literally complained because they didn't meet a church you barely have time to come to church once a month but when you just got saved literally every prayer meeting every single thing no sacrifice was too high nothing for Jesus was too difficult today anything for God is a burden but before it was just a passion it was a privilege to do this for God and see with time sometimes we lose that and I love the fact that God comes and he always gives me a second chance and he said listen you can relive those experiences for the rest of your life if you do this remember repent it works it's a recipe to find that passion again for the Lord in my experience as a youth minister for over 14 years I found out four things that always killed my fire number one it was a fence any time I got offended at somebody I lost my fire people leave the churches because of a fence actually 99% of people that leave the churches today leave because of a fence and for those of us who think yeah it's about church do something so the people stop leaving the church because of a fence actually in one meeting Jesus had 75 of his key leaders leave him if you think that if the church will get perfect less people will leave the church because of a fence if the church will get perfect more people will leave because of the offense because they could not live up to their perfectionism a fence is unavoidable we can only stop causing offenses but we cannot ever stop having offenses you will be offended and a fence is the devil's trap to cause your fire to die out it's just a devil's trap that's all it is if you look today somebody offended you tomorrow you are unknowingly you are going to offend somebody and it's the devil's trap to kill your fire that's all it is the second thing that I've seen in my ministry and personally in my life what kills the fire is disappointment it's when you dream you believe you fast you pray and it doesn't happen you prayed for somebody who wanted if you believed is they going to be healed and nothing happened and next thing that happened is that becomes like a water that goes on your fire and it's very important I want you to see this when you get offended honestly Jesus doesn't really go after you and tries to butter you up when the guys got offended Jesus didn't go after him so he guys let me explain I didn't mean you to eat my flesh I meant communion Jesus didn't do that but when guys left Jerusalem he walked beside them encouraged them with preachers until their hearts got on fire again anytime you're disappointed Jesus will walk behind you and remind you of his word so your heart will catch fire again and the third thing that kills our fire is honestly business it's when we become so busy that we don't have time to spend time with the Lord we don't have time to even make you to church and please understand intimacy intimacy makes you fruitful not busy business could be a result of intimacy but business itself does not make you successful only intimacy with God makes you successful if you are too busy to pray you are too busy if you are too busy to be with God you are too busy and this is what I know about busy people you actually don't make more money you make less because you break God's rule God ordered for us to rest on Saturday if you say but I'm gonna work 3 jobs 4 jobs I mark this you will not make more money because God blesses order and you are out of order God blesses order not out of order I mentioned how Chick-fil-A decided not to open its fast food restaurant chain on Sundays and people said did you know that on Sundays all the fast food restaurants make the most money and the main guy of Chick-fil-A he says I know but God said people should take a rest at least one day and he says and I'm gonna choose the most busiest day to rest average fast food restaurant makes $1 million a year Chick-fil-A makes 5 why because when you but it doesn't make sense nothing with God makes sense but when you follow the order God blesses you same thing when you give it seems like but you're gonna lose money somehow you have enough when you hold on to that it seems like it's never enough business is good if it comes out of your fruitfulness and it doesn't affect your intimacy with God but the moment you see your file is dying out your file is dying out cut back on some things catch your breath relax you're still gonna die it sucks so hard that you waste your ruin your health to get more money and then you spend your money to get your health back why don't you just keep both at the same time because this is not just about relationship with God this is about your health being this is about your kids knowing who you are this is about your family this is about your spouse this is about everyone everything being intact and the last one is materialism materialism is not when you have stuff it's when the stuff has you I have this Apple watch I have this watch this watch doesn't have me because at any moment this watch can be yours not today the most freeing thing for my relationship with God has been is when I can hold things without holding on to them when God has the right to take anything out of my hand and I have the privilege to take anything out of his pocket because some of us you slip your hand into God's pocket and God has his hand denied to cut touch your pocket materialism kills fire is when we run after things when we think that the more things we have the more happy we'll be materialism a young boy came to Jesus he was morally sound everything was great with him and he had a lot of things but it's not the things that he had but when Jesus signaled and he says can you give sell everything you have and it's amazing Jesus didn't ask him to give it to his ministry he says I want you to sell everything you got and give it to the poor and then come and follow me and the Bible says that man's heart was hurt he went with grief why? because he didn't have things those things have had him anything you cannot give has you now that doesn't mean God will always ask us to give everything but there are times when the Lord leads you I found out when my passion for the Lord dies out and the Lord prompts me to sacrifice something that alone literally shoots it through the roof and it's not the act of giving it's the act of obedience in giving I want to call those people who got baptized today to the front let's give them a round of applause please please come to the front right here you know I want you to look at these precious people you know some of you know how this young lady came a month ago drunk to the conference drunk people are welcome by the way God touched her at the conference and delivered her from his evil spirits she got saved and since that time she's been free from alcoholism and she came on on Wednesday because on Wednesday the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues God gave her his influence and she looked at me and she said my life is changing too fast and I look at her I look at Kayla and one thing that does something inside of me is how unfamiliar they are with God and how fascinating they are with him there's that curiosity because when I hear their story literally it's like that fire gets poured on my own heart because I'm reminded of myself when God baptized me with the Holy Spirit the fire in your eyes the fire in your mouth and that's why it's so important to associate yourself with brand new believers in the home group because so that your flame can remain the same you know this young lady she doesn't have anything today she just got her house a place to live and she had no place to live one day she'll share her full testimony breaking testimony but one thing that she does have that many of you here today you don't is she has love for Jesus and that is what David had and God raised them up but it's important when God begins to raise you up that you don't lose that love for Jesus because it's that thing that will keep you on track same thing with Kayla some of you remember that night prayer when Kayla was manifesting and God delivered Kayla from the bondages there and that deliverance continued her sons start coming to the Lord other people start coming to Jesus Christ and same thing Kayla you know people have to pick her up she doesn't have a car but she has a passion for God and today it's car keys this is car keys and the reason and the reason why we wanted to bless them is because we wanted to be reminded seek first the kingdom of God and everything else shall be added I understand some of you may say you are enabling these girls are hardworking these girls are going to serve God and these girls are going to make a difference in our community and I want to pray today that God will give fire in your eyes fire in your soul for Jesus anointing comes by association but anointing grows by desperation we are a hungry generation we are hungry for God we are hungry for the move of the Holy Spirit we are hungry for Jesus every eye closed every head bowed if you're in this room this morning and maybe you've been coming for some time but you realize today you walked away from God or maybe you used to be as a child that's when you were serving God and something is stirring inside of you and you know that this is your time you are that person who used to repent and come back to God and you would love to give you that opportunity for Jesus to come into your heart today for Jesus to forgive you of your sin for Jesus to come inside of you like the fire of the Holy Spirit and live inside of you maybe you brought a friend with you today and they want to come and stuff you can come with them just bring them to the front and if you're the person who say I want to get saved fast of light I want to give my life to Jesus just come, just come to the front that's it, that's all it is God is waiting on you Holy Spirit is waiting on you He's waiting on you He's waiting on you He's waiting on you and I know there's more people here today the Lord is calling you God is waiting on you, just come just come to Him today He's gonna forgive you, He's gonna cleanse you just come, He's waiting for you, thank you I see people coming out I see God moving on people's hearts right now thank you Jesus thank you Holy Ghost thank you Holy Spirit thank you, God bless you Hallelujah, thank you Jesus thank you Jesus, we're gonna take a moment right now and minister to them right now in the name of Jesus if I can have some more home group leaders to come up and just minister to them right now Church, I'm still waiting there's some people coming out come on, come on, the Lord is waiting on you the Lord is waiting on you the Lord is waiting on you Church, stretch your hands right now for them right now, it's beginning to release blessings I want more of you God in the front we're gonna take a moment, I'm gonna lead you in a prayer and I ask you that you pray this prayer from the bottom of your heart to ask Jesus to come into your heart to baptize you with His Holy Spirit and deliver you from the devil pray this prayer, mean it from your heart I want you to say this, say Lord Jesus I'm a sinner I come to you and I'll repent I repent for the way I lived my life for putting my trust in other things please forgive me of all my sin and wash me with your precious blood Oh Holy Spirit come and live in me and change me from the inside out deliver me from every demon and generational curses and fill me with your precious fire right now Thank you for watching this content I hope this was a blessing to you if you're like me and you like to click on things click on this subscribe to our channel and the content will come to you every time we post it and remember the best is yet to come