 I would rather do things by God's power than my power because the scripture says that God shows the things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. In other words, God is looking for the weak. God is looking for the empty. God is looking for the surrendered when it comes to being used by the Holy Spirit. It's not a matter of how gifted you are, how talented you are, how intellectual you are, how charismatic you are. It's a matter of how surrendered you are to the Holy Spirit Himself. Isaiah chapter 66 verse 2 says, My hands have made both heaven and earth. Powerful language is this. Look at this. My hands have made both heaven and earth. They and everything in them are mine. I the Lord have spoken. I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts who tremble at my word. I love that the way that that's phrased in the scripture, those who tremble at my word. What does it mean to tremble at the word of God? It means that when God speaks, I don't take it lightly. Some people, they've heard the word of God so many times that they've allowed their hearts to become hard toward what God has spoken and they become apathetic toward the word of God. They become neglectful of the word of God. They become disobedient to the word of God. The voice of God speaks. They hear it and they sort of laugh to themselves and they say things like, Oh, you know, God's really dealing with me or, Well, yeah, God's been speaking to me about that. Oh, you know, that's something I've been struggling with all the while, never really trembling at His word. They invite compromise into their lives. And this is something I know that God is not pleased with. Unless we tremble at His word, we will never surrender to the Holy Spirit. I heard an anecdote about the way an eagle takes flight. And the reason that an eagle can soar so high and that is much higher than most other birds is because when it takes flight, it comes to a certain point. It'll flap its wings to get to the high winds. And once it gets to those high winds, it spreads its wings. Let's go and just surrenders to the wind. That's how I want to be in the spirit. You see, sometimes prayer feels like flapping your wings a little bit. You have to work past the flesh. You have to get to that point where you can find the wind of the spirit. And once you do, you surrender and the Holy Ghost takes over from there. But in order to get that, you must walk in obedience to the Word of God. You must obey His voice. The scripture very clearly says that God will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts. He will bless those who tremble at His word. In other words, the blessings of God are tied to obedience toward God's Word. If you're not walking in the blessing, it's likely that you're not walking in obedience. Because when I walk in obedience automatically, that aligns me with the Word of God and the Word of God commands the blessing of God. It's impossible. Hear me now. It's impossible to obey the Word of God and not walk in His blessings. It is impossible to obey the Word of God and not walk in His blessings. His Word commands that it be so. His Word demands that you be blessed when you walk in obedience toward Him. And we must respond the right way. You see, sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit isn't just about how clearly you can hear Him. It's about how quickly you respond when He speaks. I want to say that again. Sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit isn't just about how clearly you can hear Him. Because we have many people who claim they can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and it becomes a point of bragging for them. I know the voice of God or I can hear very clearly or I can prophesy with accuracy. God is not so much impressed with accuracy as He is with purity. Whether or not you hear the voice of God with clarity doesn't matter if you're not obeying that which He speaks. So I'll say it one more time. Sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit isn't just about how clearly you can hear Him. Oh, I'm a discerner. I'm a seer. I'm a prophet. I'm one who hears from God. That's great. Are you listening to His voice? It's about how quickly you respond when He speaks. Delay is disobedience. Delay is disobedience. Hide His Word in your heart. Hide that treasure of God's Word spoken to you in your spirit. Let it permeate your being. I will hide your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119. I will hide His words in my heart. I will hide your Word in my heart. Why? So that I might not sin against you. When you have a reverence for His Word, when you know His Word, when you cherish His Word, when you walk in a way that's almost just in awe of that Word, the blessings of God are commanded over your life and you learn to surrender to the Holy Spirit. I've often been asked, what does it truly mean to surrender to the Holy Spirit? It's quite simple. You surrender to the Holy Spirit by obeying His Word and voice without compromise. You surrender to the Holy Spirit by obeying His Word and voice without compromise. Surrender is not some personality trait. Surrender is not some ethereal existence. Surrender is not walking around like you're high in the Spirit. Surrender is not like being centered in the New Age teaching. Surrender is simply obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit and if you truly want to walk in that surrender, then you must cherish His Word. And I mean cherishing. How neglectful we are of His Word. How apathetic we are toward His Word. We make up our own ideas and then we cling to those ideas despite what God's Word says and we claim that we know God. We claim we're obeying the Holy Spirit when in fact we have a powerless version of Christianity. Remember this. Religion is superstition disguised as spirituality. Actually when you begin to walk in that religious manner sometimes the danger comes when you elevate your opinion above God's Word. Hear me now because we say, oh I would never do that. I mean what believer really thinks that they would put their opinion above God's Word. What believer actually imagines that they would contradict God's Word knowingly. That's not something you do knowingly for the most part. I mean there are some who do it knowingly of course but for the most part sincere believers don't contradict the voice of God or the Word of God knowingly. The scary thing is that most people who contradict the Word of God are doing so without even realizing it. And that really is the danger. Hear me now please. God wants to tell you something right now. That really is the danger because there are some people who elevate their opinions above the Word of God and they don't even realize they're doing it. They've come up with their own doctrines. They've come up with their own ideas. They prophesy out of their imagination and then they cling to those imaginations thinking that they're clinging to the Word of God when in fact they are in pride clinging to their old way of doing it and not allowing the Holy Spirit to truly speak to them. The real power, the true power is found in reverencing His Word and allowing that Word to like a hammer shatter every mindset that is not from Him. You want to surrender to the Holy Spirit you got to elevate the Word above your opinion. If you want to surrender to the Holy Spirit you must elevate the Word above how you were raised. You want to surrender to the Holy Spirit. You must elevate the Word above your politics, above your culture, above your mindsets, above your paradigms, above what someone on YouTube told you, above what some political figure told you, above what Hollywood tells you you must learn to elevate the Word of God above all.