 I know you're hungry for the presence of the Holy Spirit. You desire a touch of God's power on your life, but we have to be careful so that we're not so desperate for an experience that we instead settle for emotional hype. I wanna show you, biblically speaking, how to discern between emotional hype and an actual move of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. I'm gonna tell you the differences between your emotions and the Holy Spirit's presence. First, let's take a look at John chapter three, verse six. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Now here, of course, Jesus is talking about the born-again experience, but a takeaway principle that has universal application is that there's a difference between the flesh, the things of this material world, and the things of the spirit. What is the source of what you're experiencing? You see, all of us are body, soul, and spirit. You are a spirit who has a soul that lives in a body. You are not your body, you are not your soul. Your true identity is your spirit, because your spirit is the part of you that's connected with the Father God. Now, many times we seek God from the outer shells of who we are. When you seek God from the place of physical posturing, you are participating in religion. That's ritual, and you cannot make up with ritual what you lack in the spirit. So, ritualization or physical posturing looks something like, well, if I shout loud enough, if I jump high enough, if I pray for long enough, if I pace aggressively enough, maybe God will respond to my physical posturings, and therefore I will experience something from His presence, but God does not look necessarily at the physical posturings. Now, if that physical posture comes about as a result of something that's actually taking place in the spirit, that's a genuine move of the spirit. For example, I've been in services where the glory of God was so intensely manifested, was tangible, that I could do nothing else but fall on my face and worship. Now, the glory of God was there, that move of the spirit originated from the spirit, and that move of the spirit caused me to posture my physical body in response to what God was doing. That's very different than trying to cause that glory to manifest from the place of physical posturing. So, God was already moving, and I recognized it, and that's when I responded with that posture of bowing down before the Lord and worshiping Him, and maybe you've experienced that before, where you're so overwhelmed in His presence that you respond and go down upon your face and just begin to worship as you lie on the floor in humility and reverence toward what you're sensing, that beautiful weight that's on the room. Now, that's wonderful if you're responding to a move of God, but if you are going onto the floor trying to cause a move of God, and you imagine that God cannot move until you've taken that physical posture, well, now you're borderline entering into ritualization, and there's a close relationship between what we're experiencing and how God is moving, and that's why sometimes it's difficult to discern between these, but right now I'm just kind of talking about the various ways that we pursue the moves of God. So, you can pursue God from that outer shell, the physical body, or you can pursue God from another outer shell, which is a little deeper, but that's the soul. So, the very outer shell, the outermost being is my physical body or my earth suit, and if I'm trying to posture myself to cause a move of God, that's religion, that's ritualization. Now, if I try to pursue a move of God from my spirit, I'm pursuing a move of God from the place of emotion, from the place of intellect, and I'm trying to cause God to move based upon the emotions I'm expressing. I cannot emote myself into an encounter with God's presence. I cannot think myself into an encounter with God's presence. Now, does the mind respond to the presence of God absolutely? Do the emotions respond to the presence of God? Absolutely, but the mind and your emotions cannot cause the presence of God to manifest in the way that you are looking or you are looking for. So, if it begins in the spirit, then it's of the spirit. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. So, I wanna make this clear. There's nothing wrong with shouting for the Lord. There's nothing wrong with jumping up and down in excitement. There's nothing wrong with dancing in His presence. There's nothing wrong with crying before the presence of God or thinking about the presence of God. I'm simply saying that those things in and of themselves are not the cause of the manifestation of the presence of God. It begins in the spirit. Now, cynics will ask questions like, do you want an encounter with God or would you rather have an emotional experience? And I think that sometimes we forget the close relationship between our response and the manifestation of God's glory. And therefore we sometimes imagine that our emotions are always at odds with what God is doing. Well, I've been in services and I know you have too. And you can see in scripture, I'll show you a little bit later on the different responses that people have to the presence of God. There are times when the beauty of the Lord is so apparent to you that you can't help but weep. There are times when the beauty of the Lord is so apparent to you that it brings you joy. So yes, your emotions respond to the presence of God, but again, they cannot cause a manifestation of his presence and power. And that I think is the difference between hype and a genuine move of the Holy Spirit. I'll share other differences, but let's assess this just for a moment. Because when God begins to move, you will sometimes feel that physically. Now this does not mean that God comes and goes and often Christians imagine that. They imagine that when they're worshiping, the presence of the Holy Spirit comes down. That's not what's happening. It's not that the presence of the Holy Spirit is coming down, he dwells in you. How can he come and go if he forever abides in you? No, what's happening in those worship services, what's happening in those prayer services is not that the presence of God is coming nearer, it's that you are becoming more aware of the presence which was already there and therefore that apparent nature of the presence of God. When you begin to see it and sense it, that is the manifestation of his presence. So in our emotions, we can respond to him. I mean, everything about you was created to respond to God. So how can you be near to God who is love? How can you experience that presence? How can you be aware of such compassion, such love, such peace, such joy and not be moved? So people will ask, again, as cynics, they will ask, do you wanna move of God or do you want emotion? Forgetting that moves of God can sometimes cause emotions. Encounters with God can be emotional but emotions cannot cause encounters with God. Let me say that again. Encounters with God can be emotional but emotions cannot cause encounters with God. So it's not as though you have to choose but you do have to recognize that emotions do not cause the presence of God. So people will criticize you for experiencing the presence of God when you weep or maybe you tremble in reverence or maybe you sense the overwhelming joy of the spirit and people will criticize that expecting that you're supposed to be like this fake plastic individual who isn't moved by the beauty of the Lord. Well, that's just nonsense. How can you not be moved by who God is? So again, it's not one or the other and emotions aren't necessarily against the move of the spirit but here are some rules for experience, some wisdom here I wanna give you in this area that will help you to be more discerning because the truth of the matter is that some believers are caught up in hype and that's just the reality. And sometimes, and this is a little bit more nuanced sometimes we are experiencing an encounter with God but then we add to that encounter with emotion and hype. I'll give you an example. Just recently at the service, I believe it was in Brooklyn there was a woman getting delivered in the service. She began to manifest the power of God was moving and so this was during the service and what happened is actually during the worship as we're worshiping the Lord I was leading the people telling them to be focused on Jesus telling him he would heal them, deliver them. This woman starts to receive the touch of the Holy Spirit on her life. She begins to manifest like a demon, she's screaming and what happened was the Holy Spirit began to do a work in her but then people around her started to gather around her and started to like scream at her. I don't allow that in our services where people gather and start screaming at the person who's manifested because their emotional additions could take the person beyond the place where they need to go in order to be delivered. You don't need to scream to be delivered. Now if your demon possessed, okay, usually that comes with a scream but another example is Christians, born again believers who insist that they need to vomit on the floor in order for God to deliver them. Now, God can work through that. Maybe that happens sometimes. I'm not necessarily against that so don't hear what I'm not saying but if you're insisting that that needs to happen now you're moving beyond the spirit and you're adding to it. So I told the people, leave her alone. In other words, don't hyper. It's already happening. The Lord's delivering her. Leave her alone, let the Holy Spirit do it and within 15, 20 seconds she was delivered and it was the Lord who did it. Now what usually happens or what can happen, I should say, is someone gets delivered, the Lord does it, it's done and then someone will come along and say, no, it's not complete, as if the Holy Spirit missed something. No, it's not complete. Come on, everybody, let's gather and then they all start screaming and yelling and then that person gets hyped again. Well, that began in the spirit and then it took a turn toward the flesh or someone will experience the touch of the Holy Spirit's power and they feel it like electricity on their body and they're shaking but then they add to it maybe with a little bit of extra and they start kicking or they start punching the air or maybe they start screaming when they're not necessarily moved to be screaming by the spirit. Again, the manifestations themselves are not what we're looking at, but the source of them. So the Holy Spirit can move on someone and then they can add to that spirit-filled experience with emotion. They go above and beyond and this is what we call mixture where now they're beginning to add flesh to what the Holy Spirit is already doing in them. So this is why I wanna give you some wisdom here because again, we are sincere about seeking the Lord. We want encounters in His presence but again, don't be so desperate for an encounter with God that you throw discernment out the door to where now you're just willing to be hyped into anything and that's where we have to be careful. So number one, here's some wisdom and then I'm gonna give you more keys to discerning the difference between an emotional experience, a purely emotional experience and an encounter with God. And again, emotion is not necessarily against it but sometimes we will mistake encounters that are entirely emotional for moves of the spirit. Number one, experience is valid when it's consistent with God's word. Yes, experience has a place, especially if an experience aligns with God's word. So if you're experiencing something that contradicts the word, believe scripture, not your story. I tell people all the time. Scripture over stories. We do not get our theology from our stories. We do not get our doctrines from our stories. We do not get our biblical applicable teachings from our stories. We get them from the word. Now I understand the word of God is comprised of stories and experiences but the word of God, the written word of God is comprised of stories and experiences that were inspired directly by the Holy Spirit to be recorded just as they were. The word of God is infallible, we are not. And so take your experience, don't dismiss it but instead ask yourself, is this consistent with the word of God which leads me to point number two. Interpret your experience through God's word not God's word through your experience. In other words, when you experience something you don't take your experience and then try to force that upon the scripture or your understanding of that experience upon the scripture. Rather you take the word and you use that as the lens through which you interpret your experience. So if anybody ever tells you something that contradicts the word of God and their defense is, well, what I experienced was this, let God be true and every man a liar, believe the word, not them. Number three, experience is a result of seeking God but not the purpose of seeking God. Please hear me now, this is a major point. Encounters and experiences in God's presence are wonderful. I believe in these with all my heart. You know it, you've seen it in our services. In fact, I'm constantly talking about the wonderful experiences that we have in our meetings all around the world where people are saved, miracle healings take place, people are delivered from demonic power, people are empowered by the Holy Spirit, people receive the gift of tongues and spiritual gifts. I'm all for that. However, those experiences themselves must not become our pursuit. Jesus and Jesus alone must be the object of our affection. Jesus and Jesus alone must be the goal. Jesus and Jesus alone is the focus, his person, who he is. And so we do not seek experience. We do not seek necessarily encounters. We seek Jesus and in seeking Jesus we often will experience things. In our seeking of the Lord, we will have encounters, but don't shift it. Don't take your eyes off of him. Don't remove the focus from his heart to his hand. Seek his heart and you'll receive from his hand. And this of course is important because you may look at some believers who are having a certain experience or a certain encounter and then you start to fill a certain way about that because maybe you're not experiencing it like that. So you may wonder, has God abandoned me? Does God not love me as much as he loves that person who's encountering his presence and the way I want to encounter him? Is there something wrong with me? Do I lack faith? Am I not as spiritual? Am I not as important to God? Am I not as favored by God? And those questions arise only when we begin to elevate experience above the word of God. Only when we begin to elevate experience above faith in what God has promised. You do not need your emotions. You do not need an experience to convince you of something that the word of God already says. Well, is God near me? Yes, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. And the Holy Spirit will dwell with you and he will never leave you. Well, that's what the word of God says. Who cares what your emotions say? Who cares what you're interpreting your experience as? If God has promised to be with you, he's with you, whether you're experiencing what your brothers and sisters are experiencing or not. So no, there's not something wrong with you. No, in most cases, and I said in most cases because there are some exceptions, in most cases it's not a lack of faith. In most cases it's not because you made a mistake and God has not favored you and God doesn't love you as much as them. It's just that maybe you're so focused on having the experience that you've forgotten to seek Jesus. Because sometimes an intense desire for an experience can itself become a distraction from having an encounter with God. We become all tangled up in our emotions, in our doubt, in our confusion, in our questions. And we're so focused on one thing and so obsessed. Well, this person told a story and this is what they felt. Or I saw this in a church service once and this is what I saw them encountering. Why can't I have that? You can, just take your eyes off the encounter. Take your eyes off the experience and get it back on Jesus. So let's recap what I've said about the source, the source being the spirit. There's nothing wrong with emotion. There's nothing wrong with jumping up and down and praising God. There's nothing wrong with shouting and dancing. There's nothing wrong with feeling his presence physically. There's nothing wrong with weeping before the Lord. There's nothing wrong with being overcome in joy. There's nothing wrong if when someone is getting delivered from demonic possession, they're screaming and foaming at the mouth and rolling on the floor. That's all well and good as long as it's genuinely beginning in the spirit. As long as it's genuinely move of God, what I'm simply saying is those expressions, those outward expressions in and of themselves cannot cause something of the spirit to take place, which is why I've been giving you these points to help you balance it. Now, I want you to write in the comment section whether you're watching live on replay, write, give me balance. If you're someone who wants an encounter with God but also wants to make sure it's based on the word, give me balance. Just some examples here real quick and then I'm gonna get into the differences, some more differences between the Holy Spirit's presence and your emotion. So the first difference is that true moves of the Holy Spirit begin in the spirit. And very often we can add to what the spirit is already doing. And you've seen it in church services. It's happened where the spirit's moving, people are enjoying the presence of God. Maybe the congregation is weeping. And then there's one person who out of wanting attention or out of wanting to height the mood will just begin doing something weird and it throws the whole thing off. They're adding to the spirit with the flesh. So be careful of doing that. So here are some just biblical examples of this. The presence of God brings joy. Psalm 1611, thou wilt show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. There are physical reactions to the power of God. John 18, five through six, they answered him. Jesus of Nazareth sayeth unto them, I am he and Judas also which betrayed him stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he they went backward and fell to the ground. Now there are some who are very hyper critical of moves of the Holy Spirit who will take that instance and get ultra specific with it and say, well these specifically were guards who specifically fell backwards, specifically in response to the judgment of God's presence. And that may be true, but a universal application here that cannot be denied is that the presence of God can cause a physical reaction. The manifested presence of God can cause a physical reaction. So here we're not looking for anything particularly specific in this area. Just the general principle is biblical that the presence of God manifested can cause a physical reaction. You see this a lot in the Old Testament and some references in the New Testament. Acts 26, 13 through 14. At midday, okay, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me and then which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and sang in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecuteest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Now here we see an example of Saul being physically thrown from his horse. He's physically thrown onto the ground and he has this experience in the presence of God. It's a physical reaction in the presence of God. Luke chapter 24, verse 32. They asked each other, we're not our hearts burning within us? Well, he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us. So they sense this burning in their hearts and even if you don't take that to mean something physical, it is an emotional response then that they're having to the presence of God. So I could give you story after story, instance after instance, you can't read the Bible without seeing people respond to the presence of God physically and emotionally. Sometimes it's awe, sometimes it's fear, sometimes it's joy, but there's always a response to the manifested presence of God and it's a beautiful thing when you experience these things. So the point I'm simply making here is that there is a response to God's presence. Sometimes that response can be emotional and physical. Now, of course, hype can still cause issues. I gave you an example of some of the things I've seen for example, when people are manifesting demons, you can very easily hype that beyond to where God wants to take it. So that's why you have to be discerning, keep a level head and move forth with discernment so that you're not hyping beyond where God wants to go. Cynics, again, will ask for very specific references. Well, no, I wanna see a specific instance where they're in a church service and some of these hands on them and then they begin to cry. Well, you're not gonna get that, but you will get the biblical principle and we can't ignore biblical principle and nitpick and look for these ultra specific examples. We're looking for the biblical nature of the move of the presence of God and it's very clear in scripture how that affects us. So here are some differences. Number one, I should say number two. Number two, it draws you closer to God. Emotional encounters cannot draw you closer to God. Think of Moses, think of Isaiah, think of the disciples, think of Saul who we're gonna analyze in just a moment. When they had that encounter with God, they were drawn to him. They were not drawn back to their sin. They were not drawn back to their old lifestyle. They were drawn closer to the Lord. Now look at Luke chapter five. I'm gonna read quite a few verses for each one of these points. Let's begin at verse number one. One day, as Jesus was preaching on the shore, the sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God. He noticed two empty boats at the water's edge for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So Jesus is looking for a place to speak. He chooses Simon's boat. He steps into it. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, now go where it is deeper and let down your nets to catch some fish. Master Simon replied, we worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so, I'll let down the nets again. So here he's explaining to the Lord, Lord, we already tried that. We did it in our own strength. We're experts. We know what we're doing. We tried all night. He says, do it again, verse six. And this time, their nets were so full of fish that they began to tear. A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat. And soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking when Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, oh Lord, please leave me. I'm such a sinful man. So here conviction hits his heart for he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught as were the others with him. Now watch this, watch this. This is powerful. His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee were also amazed. Jesus replied to Simon, don't be afraid. From now on you'll be fishing for people. This is the key. And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus. Now I am all for preaching this text and emphasizing the miracle that they experienced. I'm all for acknowledging that in their faith they experienced abundance. I'm all for acknowledging that in their surrender to the Lord they experienced more than enough. That's a biblical principle that of course we stand behind as believers. But I want you to notice here that even in the midst of this miracle, even in the midst of this abundance of fish, even in the midst of this wonderful act that God had done for them, they left everything and said, I want Jesus. So here they have now this abundance of fish to where their partners had to come over and help them carry it. And they didn't stay with the fish. They didn't stay with the miracle. They didn't stay with the blessing. Instead they left everything and said, I want you Jesus. So the miracle, the experience, the encounter led them to Jesus. Now some believers, they become like consumed with looking for the next emotional high. Now let me be careful about the way I say this because I don't want to confuse God's people. There is nothing wrong with desiring an encounter with God. As long as I said a moment ago, there's not so much of an intense desire for an experience that you distract yourself from the Lord himself. So we must recognize that in the scripture, whenever they experienced a miracle or a healing or deliverance, it drew them to Jesus himself. So that's number one. A true encounter in the Holy Spirit's presence and power is ultimately gonna draw you closer to Jesus, not just to the miracle or to the experience itself. Next we see that the miracle brings a positive change. So Acts chapter nine verses one through 20, I won't read the entire portion of scripture, but let's start at verse number one. Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath. In other words, he's very passionate about what he's doing here and was eager to kill the Lord's followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the way he found there. He wanted to bring them both men and women back to Jerusalem in chains. So the way was the name of the movement of Christianity, the Lord's followers back then. So here we see that he's very passionate about destroying this movement called the way. He's very passionate about coming against the followers of Jesus. Now he has this encounter with the Lord and as soon as he begins to have this encounter, verse five, I love this, who are you Lord? In other words, he didn't know who he was but he knew enough to call him Lord. He was so moved by the beauty and the majesty and the terror of the Lord that he immediately becomes submissive. The Lord Jesus of course reveals his identity to him, says you're persecuting me. Tells him it's gonna be very difficult for you to resist my will, I have plans for you. And then of course we see, and let's go down to verse 19. Afterward, this is after scales fall off after he meets Ananias and so forth, verse 19. Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength. Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days, talk about a turnaround. He wanted to kill these people and now he's staying with them for a few days. Verse 20, and immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogue saying he is indeed the son of God. Well, here's actual transformation. Now let me balance this point. Yes, there should be actual transformation in your life when you encounter the presence of God. But let me tell you something that cynics often do that's actually quite manipulative is they'll look at your encounter with God and they'll say things like, well, I don't see how in any way that glorifies God or I don't see how this transforms you. Although say it's all emotion, no transformation. And I thought that's interesting. How could you possibly know that? How could you possibly know that there's no transformation taking place in that person? I've seen people have encounters with God and never again touch the object of their addiction. I've seen people have encounters with God and never again touch drugs, touch alcohol, touch pornography. I've seen people have experiences in the presence of God where they're shaking, crying, sometimes where they're overjoyed, where they're laughing, sometimes where they're just in awe of the beauty of his presence. Sometimes they sense it like a weight, sometimes they sense it like a fire, sometimes they don't sense anything physically or emotionally, but they just know in the spirit that the presence of God is moving upon them and then they walk away completely transformed. Now somebody who's cynical in watching that maybe from a screen or maybe just seeing 30 seconds of an encounter that they have with God, it's very easy for them to say, well, I don't see any change in this. Well, of course you don't see any change in that. You're watching a 30 second clip. You're watching a 10 minute video. How can you possibly know what's happening in that individual? How can you possibly know how that's going to affect them for months to come? How can you possibly know that God's not doing a deep work in that individual? I've seen people healed of trauma. I've seen people healed of mental illness. I've seen people healed of wounds from the past, of sinful addictions and they're transformed from that moment on, but all the onlookers and all their expertise will look at it and say, well, this doesn't glorify God and there's no transformation. How could you possibly know that? Next time somebody says that to you, just ignore it. How can they and all their arrogance possibly know whether or not you're being transformed, even if it's just a small transformation and something in your character, even if it's just drawing you that much closer to the Lord, even if it's just shifting your mindset slightly, even if it's just for the moment, encouraging you, uplifting you, giving you peace, giving you strength, giving you hope, giving you that ability to continue for another week. Who are they to say it brings no transformation? I rebuke that religious spirit in the mighty name of Jesus. Jesus would have rebuke people like that, but those who come to him humbly and recognize that the presence of God can change them, the power of God can transform them, that an encounter in his presence can alter the course of their life. Those are the ones who receive of the hand of God. And so you may look at it, maybe the cynics look at it and they say, oh, I just see them shaking. Oh, I just see them crying. Oh, they're just getting together and worshiping for 45 minutes. It's all emotion. It's all hype. Who are you to say that? And how on earth could you possibly know that? You know what that is? They're parroting things they've heard from the people they follow with no original thought whatsoever. And they are pseudo-intellectuals who are applying what they think as a great argument against the move of the Holy Spirit. But you, child of God, can know that if God is doing a work in you and you know it, then who cares what anybody else says? If God is doing a work in you and you know it, then that helps you to move forward in a new hope. You can be refreshed. You can be encouraged. You can have your spirit uplifted. Maybe you were just having a terrible week. Maybe you were just struggling with depression or negative thoughts. Maybe you were wondering if God was near to you and he and his mercy, compassion and grace decided to allow you to have an encounter with his presence. And for that moment you knew you were encouraged, you were strengthened until the next time. Even if that transformation is just to get you through the week, who is anybody to say that there was no transformation that took place? Again, I rebuke that religious spirit in Jesus' name. And don't you allow anybody to discourage you in that act of receiving from the Holy Spirit. I sense a strong anointing on that one. Next we see that true moves of God, true encounters in his presence, bring glory to God. Emotions alone cannot do that. Emotions alone cannot do that. Look at Acts chapter three. I'm gonna read verses one through 10. Peter and John went to the temple one afternoon to take part in the three o'clock prayer service. As they approached the temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the temple gate, the one called the gate. Beautiful. So he could beg from the people going into the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. Peter and John looked at him intently and Peter said, look at us. The lame man looked at them eagerly expecting some money. But Peter said, I don't have any silver or gold for you, but I'll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of the Nazarene, get up and walk. Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his feet and began to walk. Then watch this. Walking, leaping and praising God. There we see a miracle that allowed him to walk and to leap. And then he began to glorify God for what God did in his life. When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the beautiful gate, they were absolutely astounded. So when these moves of God astound people or wow people or confound the religious, that in and of itself is a sign, a sign not the tell all end all be all, but it is a sign and indication that it could be a genuine move of the Holy Spirit in that it brings glory to God. People rejoice and sometimes it's just to astound and to confound. Sometimes moves of the Holy Spirit can cause miracles and healing and transformation. Other times they're there just to astound and confound that we might go, wow, what a great God. That we might be awestruck and that's what the Lord does. So it brings glory to God. It does not bring glory to man. Be very careful and I wanna say this boldly. Be very careful about individuals who very subtly bring glory to themselves. Yes, they may verbalize that Jesus deserves the credit, but then on the other side of their mouths sometimes they'll say things that indicate that they're the source. That's very manipulative. Watch out for that because true moves of God bring glory to Jesus. I'll tell you this right now. When you glorify God, he can trust you with more. When you see the Lord begin to move and you're careful, reverent, fearful even to make sure that he receives all the glory, now he looks and he says, okay, I can trust you with more. Finally, it upsets the religious and the comfortable. Your emotions don't have that strong of an effect. Look, if it really was just your emotions, why are people so upset about it? Think about it. You're crying in the presence of God. Someone has an issue with that. Well, whoever had an issue with crying, you're laughing in the presence of God because you're just moved and overjoyed. Now, I'm not talking about again flesh because there's that distinction I gave you where sometimes you can in the flesh move something beyond where the Holy Spirit wants to take it and you can always tell when this happens because there's a lack of beauty and a lack of reverence and a lack of heavenliness that is apparent when people do that. But really, notice how if you were just laughing at a joke or laughing with friends, no one would have any issue. Oh, but you laugh in church. All of a sudden it's an issue. Why do we do this? Why does the human mind respond in this way? Well, you can't reduce moves of God to your understanding. Moves of the Holy Spirit, please hear me now. Moves of the Holy Spirit will never contradict the word, but they will often conflict with our preferences. Watch this, Acts chapter two, verses 12 through 13. This is on the day of Pentecost after the Holy Spirit had come upon the church in the way that he did next to, they stood there amazed and perplexed. What can this mean? They asked each other. So they're amazed by this and they're perplexed by it. You know, you hear all the time, God is not the author of confusion. And I agree with that. God does things in an orderly way, but God does things according to his order. Now, if you're thinking in a carnal mind, you will be perplexed by some of the things that God does. In fact, there are things that happen in our lives where we wonder, God, what are you doing? Why would you allow this? And I'm not talking strictly about just moves of God. I'm talking about just life in general. Things happen, tragedy strikes, loss happens, things that we don't understand occur and we trust the sovereignty of God. So God is a God of order, but God is a God of his order, not your order. And so people often think that if they have an issue with it, or if they don't like the order that it's going in, or if they're uncomfortable, then that automatically means it cannot be of God. They think that automatically means it cannot be of God and that's just nonsense. Look at what happened here. They stood there amazed and perplexed and then others were mocking them. But others in the crowd ridiculed them saying they are just drunk, that's all. So people will mock the move of God, people will be perplexed by the move of God, people will be amazed by the move of God. But just because somebody is mocking the move of God, just because somebody is perplexed by the move of God doesn't mean it's not a move of God. Now, again, we have to make sure we're staying balanced in all things, biblically balanced. Of course, God is a God of order. Of course, we should do things with a heavenly culture and excellence. Yes, we understand that. But just because someone in the world doesn't like the way God is moving doesn't mean that we should sweep the moves of the Holy Spirit under the rug. I'm so amazed by Christians who see the move of the Holy Spirit and say really ridiculous things like, see, this is why the world mocks us. This is why the world rejects the gospel. This is why people don't go to church. No, Jesus told us why that was. Jesus said, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but those who are in darkness rejected that light because they love the darkness. So never mind blaming the moves of the Holy Spirit for the world not wanting anything to do with God. The world wants nothing to do with God because they love darkness and sin because they're carried away by their own carnal desires. That's why. So again, people tried to spiritualize their own personal discomfort and blame the Holy Spirit for their inability to accept what God is doing. So you can't reduce, I'll say this again. You can't reduce moves of God to your understanding. Moves of the Holy Spirit will never contradict the word, but they will often conflict with our preferences. So let me be clear on this. I'm not saying God is a God of disorder. I'm not saying our meetings should be disorderly. I'm saying that we should go by the opinion and the definition of what the word of God teaches is order. And sometimes what God sees as order contradicts what we see as order. Sometimes the way God wants to move will make people uncomfortable. So just because people are perplexed by it just because people are astounded by it just because people will mock it does not mean that we therefore should dismiss it. Think about Mark chapter five versus 14 through 17 the herdsmen fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside spreading the news as they ran. People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. So here we see a man who was demon possessed delivered. Remember Jesus cast that legion of demons into a herd of pigs. They went off the cliff and then the Bible says he was sitting there fully clothed and perfectly sane and they were all afraid. So people were freaked out by what Jesus had done. So already we see people were amazed. People were perplexed. People ridiculed the move of God and here we see it freaked them out. This is scary stuff. We don't like this. And so the Bible goes on to say then those who had seen what happened told the others about the demon possessed man and the pigs. Now verse 17 is really heartbreaking and the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone. Well, that's what many believers do today. Yeah, they're saved. Yes, they love the Lord. Yes, they're redeemed by his blood because salvation is by faith, not of works as any man should boast but they're missing an opportunity to experience what God has for them all because they're uncomfortable. And then we say things, oh, I'm gonna really upset some people now. Then we say things like, well, I don't know, this just doesn't sit right in my spirit. And I'm thinking it doesn't sit right in your spirit or you're trying to blame the Holy Spirit for your own inability to accept a move of God, your emotions, your intellect, your preferences, your culture, your idea of how God should move, your box of how he should fit in, your box of what he should fit in. So we say, I don't know, this doesn't sit right with my spirit and this is the danger of that. This is what's so dangerous about that. Once we have equated our own personal discomfort with Holy Spirit discernment, it's very difficult for us to admit we have it wrong. You see, you block yourself in when you do that. You block yourself in. Once you say, oh, my spirit, it doesn't sit right with my spirit. Well, now that's it. Now your ego will never let you correct that or it will be very difficult for you to correct that. Now your pride won't let you admit that you weren't being discerning, but rather you were just being emotional. And it's ironic that those who tell Christians they're too emotional often condemn moves of the Holy Spirit based on their own emotions. Not on the word, not on scripture, not on foundational doctrines, but rather on their emotions. I've seen Christians comment on moves of the Holy Spirit and say things like, I believe in God's healing power, but this has to be fake. Why? I don't know because of how their emotions responded. And now they box themselves in. Well, it has to be right what I said because I said I discerned it. No, you didn't discern it, you felt it. And if you're twisting scripture like that to try to dismiss moves of the Holy Spirit, now you're operating in manipulation. So make sure you're being discerning and not emotional when looking at the moves of God. We have to be careful about this. So it upsets the religious and the comfortable. It upsets the moves of the Holy Spirit upset. Your emotions can do that. If it was really just your emotions, whoever had an issue with anybody laughing, whoever had an issue with anybody crying, whoever had an issue with anybody being passionate. We see it in sporting events all the time, cheering, yelling, screaming, jumping. That's awesome. We appreciate that. But somebody gets like that for the Lord and all of a sudden we want to condemn it. Why? Because we're being emotional in our condemnation of people's response to the move of the presence of God. So your emotions don't have that kind of power to upset the religious. And this is why we have to be very careful with how we react to things. Don't react, respond. Discernment is a response, not a reaction. And so people will criticize moves of the Holy Spirit and try to say it was the Holy Spirit criticizing it when it was just their emotion. You did not discern it, you felt it. And now you won't admit that you got it wrong. And that's a difficult place to be. I know I have to watch my own heart. Guys, we all do this. I'm gonna say this again. We all do this, myself included. We have to be careful to be truly discerning and not emotional. Because when we begin to condemn moves of God based on emotion, well now we're operating in a way that the Pharisees did. So that's the final point I wanna make is that moves of God bring this disruption to the religious. Your emotions alone cannot do that. Now I wanna pray something. I wanna pray, first let me read this scripture, Matthew 11, I'm gonna read verses four through six. There was another example I had, Matthew 12, 22 through 24, where the Pharisees accused Jesus of operating a demonic power. Why? Because they were uncomfortable with it. Why? Because it's something they had never seen before. Why? Because they were jealous. Why? Because they were feeling emotional themselves. Now granted, there are abuses, okay? Balance. There are, I've seen some crazy, loony stuff that is not of the spirit. We don't allow those things in our services, but that doesn't mean that everything that is intense, everything that is expressive, everything that makes you uncomfortable is not of God. Matthew 11, four through six, Jesus answered and said unto them, go and show John again those things which ye do here and see. The blind receive their sight and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. Embrace the Lord in his work. So we're gonna pray right now that you have an encounter in the presence of God focusing of course on Jesus himself. But let me recap here. Moves of the Holy Spirit begin in the spirit. It's okay to express things emotionally as long as we don't go believing that emotion can take us into the presence of God. If emotional expressions come from a move of God that's very different than if we tried to use emotions to cause a move of God. So moves of the Holy Spirit begin in the spirit. Moves of the Holy Spirit, yes, do affect us emotionally, but the differences are that a true move of the Holy Spirit will draw you closer to God. Your emotions alone cannot do that. True moves of the Holy Spirit will bring positive transformation in you. Your emotions alone cannot do that. And that doesn't mean that some cynic can judge you just because they can't discern the change that's happening in you. Next we see that true moves of the Holy Spirit bring glory to God, not to man. Emotions cannot glorify God in and of themselves. Finally, we see that moves of the Holy Spirit upset the religious and the comfortable. Your emotions don't necessarily always have that effect in and of themselves. Don't be offended by the Lord. Don't be offended by his work. I'm gonna pray the power of God touch you right now, but I want you to say this out loud and I want you to say it in faith. I want you to say it with sincerity. I want you to say out loud right now, welcome Holy Spirit. And I want you to mean that, welcome Holy Spirit. In fact, I want you to write that in the comments too. Let that be a public declaration. Welcome Holy Spirit. If you're someone who says, you know what? Whatever you have for me, Lord, I want it. Holy Spirit, you do your work. And yes, allow the Holy Spirit to correct you when you've added flesh to his moving. Allow the Holy Spirit to correct you when you've added emotion unnecessarily to something that he's trying to do when your emotions disrupt the flow of the spirit. That can happen. Let him have his way. Let him balance you out. Whatever extreme you're on, maybe you're just all about emotionalism. Let him balance that. Maybe you're all about intellectualism. Let him balance that. Be founded upon the word. Live your life based on the word. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you. Let him balance you in whatever way. Father, I thank you that your presence and power are now moving upon your people. And I pray, Lord, that even now they would begin to encounter you in ways they never had before. Refresh them, Lord. Bring joy and peace. Father, let them begin to sense the touch of your presence even physically in the room with them now. Some of you may sense like a wind blowing across your room. Others may feel like a heat on your body. Some may feel like electricity. Some may feel like a weight. Some may feel nothing at all. It does not matter. Just surrender to the Holy Spirit and say whatever you want to do, do it in my life. Lord, I thank you that you're bringing healing and deliverance. I thank you that you're drawing your people closer to you. I give you the glory and the honor. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray, say it because you believe it. Now, I want to read a portion of scripture to you. Go to Matthew chapter six. By the way, if you enjoyed this message, you're enjoying this video so far, I want you to leave a like. That's because it actually helps other people to see it. It's not just something I'm asking you to do for the sake of numbers in and of themselves. Are you leaving a like? You're actually helping to spread the content further. So if you think more people need to hear this, just leave a like. And also, don't forget to subscribe to my channel for more teachings like this. But go with me now, Matthew chapter six. I'm gonna begin reading at verse number 25. This is Jesus speaking now about the cares that we have in this world. That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more important than food and your body more than clothing? I'll continue to read the scripture right now. But let me comment on this just for a moment. You know, there's always a reason to fear. There's always a reason. I should rather say it this way. There is always an excuse to fear. Believers don't necessarily have a reason to fear, but we do have excuses that can cause fear. You hear the news reports about the job market, the stock market, the economy, the currency, the forecasts for the future. Maybe it worries you. You hear the news about society as a whole, things changing, some things collapsing, other things transforming. Seems like it's difficult to find solid ground to stand upon. If you're not careful, when you hear these reports of things going on in the world, you can be filled with fear. But here's what Jesus is saying. Here's what Jesus is saying. He's saying, don't worry about everyday life. Verse 26, look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns for your heavenly father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing. Yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? Ask yourself that. Why do you have so little faith? Do you wanna know the evidence of a lack of faith? It's fear. Fear is the evidence of a lack of faith. So don't worry about these things saying, what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers. So the world worries about this. If you're a child of God, why would you worry? But your heavenly father already knows all your needs. Now, Jesus gives us the solution here. Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously. And he will give you everything you need. So I'm gonna ask you to do what Jesus says here and put the kingdom of God first. I wanna challenge you to support this ministry financially. Every believer, those who are wealthy and those who are challenged in the area of finances, every believer has a responsibility to give in proportion to what God has given to them. Now I understand the message of financial fruitfulness has been abused in the past. Yes, we know this. There are many who have been turned off to the message of financial fruitfulness because so many have abused it before. But that abuse of the message doesn't make the message any less biblical. I know there are some believers who are uncomfortable when you talk about finances. You can talk about sin. You can talk about the end times. You can talk about judgment. You can talk about wrath. You can talk about hell. But the moment you talk about money, something in their heart turns. And that is revealing. It shows that there's something in the heart that needs to be corrected. Why? Because it is biblical to give to the gospel. It is biblical to present the opportunity to the people of God to give. And this is something we ought to do, live in faith, not fear. Instead of looking around and saying, God, how will this happen or that happen? Live in faith. You see, fear grips. Faith releases. So allow the Holy Spirit to move on your heart to support this work. Our encounter services that we do around the world, we do them absolutely free. We do not charge registration. And they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the large venues we have to get and the crew we have to bring. I can go on listing all day the various costs associated with these services, but we keep them free. Why? Because Jesus said, freely received, freely give. How do we do it? By partnering with the people of God like you. All of the content is free, even though it costs thousands of dollars to produce each live stream, each episode. How do we do that? Generous supporters like you. We want to reach more people. We want to see the gospel advance. We want to see more soul saved, more people delivered, healed, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to step into their God-given callings so that we might see the work multiplied. So I'm challenging you now to resist that urge to withhold and fear. There's that little part of all of us that holds grips and maybe is a little nervous about these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God above all else. Then all these things, what things? Those material things, they'll be added to you. So I'm asking you today to support this ministry as the Holy Spirit leads you. You can give a single gift by going to davidhernandezministries.com slash donate and you can become a monthly partner, which I'm encouraging many of you to do. Many of you have already done that. Monthly partnership helps us to plan for the year and the month and so forth. Monthly partnership is key. Become a monthly giver to the ministry by signing up for our automatic giving plan by going to davidhernandezministries.com slash partner. You're giving large or small, a single gift or a monthly gift. It all goes toward the advancement of the kingdom. So step out in faith today, exercise that faith muscle and do this for the Lord. This is for Jesus. This is for the Lord. This is for his kingdom. Do it today and we'll appreciate you and your giving. Now, if you enjoyed this teaching, you will also love, here's how a Holy Spirit encounter will change your life.