The Power of a Personal Encounter with God

0:00 There's always a fork in the road that you're going to hit when you decide to pursue the Lord. Your mind will be screaming and telling you to stop. Your mind will say, you're getting weird. By the way, you're not the one getting weird. You know what's weird? Having a facade where you tell the world everything is okay, but you're a mess on the inside. That's actually weird to God. What's not weird from heaven's viewpoint is you pursuing the Lord and then breaking down in front of his presence. Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com.

0:41 That's citylightnyc.com. Pastor Boyan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you. Worship team, be ready at any moment. I don't know how long I'll preach and then I may have you come up and then I may continue preaching. Who knows? Who knows? I just know this.

1:23 The Lord really, really wants to touch you. See, for some people, that's a completely foreign concept. I've been reminded of that lately. from the Christians I'm meeting to even some believers that the Lord is bringing in here, the idea of having an encounter with God or coming to service to receive a touch, being touched at home, it's just not even on the grid. They don't even know to want that, to value that, to pursue that, because they've never experienced it.

2:05 So they haven't really tasted and seen that the Lord is good. It's like a well-marbled ribeye. You don't even know. Unless you've had some once. You're just like, oh, a hunk of meat. I'm going to Mickey D's. But you don't know what you're missing out on. And being touched by the Lord... That's not so we can have an emotional experience, although it does involve the emotions because we're humans and we're emotional creatures, but it's not so we can have a wild time.

2:45 You know, it's not so we can get down or it's not so you can just have an experience for the sake of experience. It's because it forever changes you for the better. It makes you more like Jesus and to be Christ-like is a pleasure. Hallelujah. So I want to encourage you this service to open up your hearts wide. And ask the Lord to touch you. To give you an encounter with him. And then I would like you to this week pursue the Lord.

3:28 And pursue encountering him. Like you've never been encountered before. Paul, he prayed for the Ephesians. To the Ephesians. You know, his letters are really letters of discipleship. You get to see what's important to the Lord. Because what's important to the Lord, Paul is communicating. This is important to the Lord. And you are all new believers. And this is what I want you to know. And this is what Paul says. I pray for you daily that you would know the love of Christ that cannot be known. You know, on the surface, it almost seems like he's contradicting himself. Like he's clumsy with words. How do you know the love of Christ if it can't be known?

4:11 And then you pause and you realize the word of God never contradicts itself. You just dig a little deeper. And you see that in the Greek that word know, the first time he uses it is experience. The second time he uses it is gnostia, which means knowing with the mind, understanding. He's saying, I want you to experience the love of God, which cannot be understood or known intellectually. Yet frontal lobe in Christianity is a disease. It's rampant. It's the real pandemic. Frontal lobe in Christianity. It's everywhere. And I've been reminded lately.

4:52 I've met some believers. God bless their heart. But they just know what the word says about God. It's like they've not really met God. When I talk to you guys and you tell me something that the Lord did in your lives, you're talking about Jesus like an old friend. Someone you know, someone you've met. There's a glimmer in your eye. And I notice when they talk about him, it's like they're talking about a theory, a concept. Somebody they read about in a book one time. But it doesn't drip with that personal experience. And having encounters with the Lord, it's vital.

5:33 If you don't have encounters with the Lord, what do you have? A one-way street? You're just talking at him? What kind of relationship is that? What kind of marriage would we have if we got married December 1st, 2012? I wrote a really long letter. I wrote a collection of letters. I said, here you go. I want you to read them. They tell you everything you need to know about me. I'll see you in 50 years. What kind of marriage, what kind of relationship is that? Well, he gave me all these letters, you know. Let me tell you what he's like. Well, where is he? Oh, you know, he's on an Arctic exploration. He'll be back in 2063.

6:13 Yet that's how many people treat Christianity. No, the Lord wants to impact you. Reveal himself to you. I was... reminiscing and talking to Pastor Mo before service, and I just said something I've never really said out loud before, but it's a reality. I said, you know, staying on fire, it's not easy. Like, it's not super hard either, but it has to be intentional. Because the tendency, if we're just left to our own devices, is towards complacency. And I even said this to him.

6:56 And by the way, I'm only saying what I said to him. He said a lot back to me, which I've stolen and I'm using right now. I'm not just recounting to you what I preached to Pastor Mo. It was a beautiful little, like 60 seconds, but it filled me up, you know. I said, it's even harder when everything is good. It is. Like right now, everything is so good in my life. And so I have to come to the Lord daily, aggressively, just because. When I know when some things are off, man, I'm running to the Lord. My eyes open.

7:36 I'm like, I got to go to God or I'm finished. Just something to know. And right now, maybe I'm being tested a little bit. I mean, I've had these tests before. Can't say I've done really well each time. But I should note that the Lord is watching. How do you behave when everything is wonderful? Do you take your foot off the gas? Do you just coast a little bit? Can I trust you with more wonderful? Or does that mean you're going to completely backslide? I want to read to you an account from one of the revivals that took place in America.

8:21 America, this is what we didn't learn in school, is a very, very peculiar and strange nation with an incredibly peculiar founding. It was a nation that was settled by Christians. Real Christians. Like born again Christians. You know how you learned in school that they came here for religious freedom? They were born again, Protestants who believed in the gospel of Jesus, who received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They didn't believe in the papacy.

9:02 They didn't believe in salvation by works. They didn't believe they had to do penance and... on their knees crawl around the church 50 times and say 800 Hail Marys in order to be forgiven. They believed that salvation is a free gift you received by faith. And they were persecuted for that. These were incredible men and women. You know, you see a picture of them. You see a picture of them and they don't seem too impressive. You know, they got a weird, funny black hat with a belt buckle on top. And you're like, you know, men, it looks like they're wearing pantyhose. But you study it a little bit. You realize these were wild people, strong people, committed people with a conviction, willing to die for their faith.

9:49 That was the founding of this nation. And because of that founding, there was no other nation founded like that. Because of that, I found that God visited this nation multiple times. He was always with us. You know, this is a very, very Christian nation. I know you can't tell right now because culture is awful. And in a sense, not in a sense, it's really, really backslidden. But there's a reason why I got saved here and not in former Yugoslavia. There's a reason why I never, ever heard the gospel. I probably never would have heard the gospel if I stayed in that country. You probably never would have heard the gospel. Very few people do I meet, they say, oh, I was saved outside of the United States. I mean, it happens here and there. But it was when I moved to America, I saw subway preachers.

10:31 I heard some Christian music. I mean, one of the first songs, Amazing Grace. I didn't know what it meant. But even as a grade school child, I heard it. I recognized, wow, this country is different. They actually, like, they believe in God. They acknowledge there is a God. They might not name him Jesus, but they do acknowledge him as God. It's very, very precious. And God sent these awakenings. In the 1740s, the first great awakening. Almost 100 years later, the second great awakening. These awakenings changed the landscape. Changed the laws of the land. And these awakenings today, if people actually, you know, if they had phones back then, they would be shocked to see what they look like. Because when God comes, he doesn't come in a convenient way.

11:15 He's not seeker sensitive. He's not... He's not really considerate of what looks appropriate and dignified. He just comes and people respond to his presence. So here's an account from the second great awakening. From the famous Cain Ridge revival in Kentucky in 1802. A young man who attended the famous 20,000 person revival at Cain Ridge. Remember this was before microphones. 20,000 people would gather. 20,000 people would gather. And Cain Ridge, Kentucky in 1802 captures the spirit of these camp meetings. Because that's what they would do.

11:56 They would come with horses and wagons and camp out because the Lord was visiting them. And they would just camp out and sing songs and pray and talk about Jesus and have meetings in the morning, have meetings in the night. They were like saturation meetings, 16 hours a day in the presence of God. And the presence of God would build and compound. Oh, hallelujah. I feel the anointing. James Finley, a Methodist circuit writer, speaks of the revival. The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. I counted seven ministers all preaching at one time.

12:36 What about decently and in order? Seven ministers preaching at one time. So offensive to a religious person, so offensive to somebody bound up in tradition. All preaching at one time, some on stumps, others in wagons, and one standing on a tree which had, in falling, lodged against another. I stepped up on a log where I could have a better view of the surging sea of humanity." The scene that then presented itself to my mind was indescribable. At one time I saw at least 500 swept down in a moment as if a thousand guns had been opened upon them, and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens.

13:32 I'm always fascinated by the Pharisees. Because they were the most learned. The theologians, the spiritual leaders of the day. And Judaism, unlike Judaism today, Judaism back then, everything was about the Messiah. Everything was about the Messiah, the deliverer to come. And recognizing him when he came. And studying the scriptures. By the way, the Pharisees had to have all first five books. The Pentateuch memorized the first five books of the Torah. memorized in order to be a Pharisee. So they knew the word and the Messiah, the clues about how he would be, who he is buried in all of those books. And they were studying these things. Yet when God in the flesh came and was right in front of their face, they're the ones who missed him the most. They're the ones who tried to get others to not believe in him.

14:14 How do you study the word of God so much and then miss God in the flesh? Religion, tradition. They're like blinders. And they put God in a cubbyhole. They had an idea of what Messiah should have been like. They wanted a physical conquering deliverer who was going to obliterate the Romans and set Israel free. Instead, Jesus said, I'll be doing that soon enough. Amen. I'll be a warrior. I'll come in on a white horse. But right now, I'm saving you from you. And I'm saving you from your sin debt. And I'm delivering you from the grasp of Satan first. That's what you need more than being saved from the grasp of the Romans.

14:56 And they couldn't see. They missed him right there. Now, we can go, oh, man, those Pharisees, how awful. But those are all warnings to us. Because we could miss him right now. We can miss the signs of the times, the seasons that we're in, and slowly get lukewarm, slowly get cold. I don't want that for me. I don't want that for my family. I don't want that for the people of City Light. I want him to dip us in the kerosene of his spirit and set us on fire that we would burn for him. And that this week you would increase in the presence of God. That every single one of you would have compounding experiences with the Lord. That's what's available.

15:37 And there's a great value to that. There's a great value to that. You show me a believer who's actually experiencing God's presence in private. And a believer who hasn't. It's a night and day difference. One is crusty and musty and dry, and the other one, they're fresh. Everything about them, there's a swirl of freshness. Hallelujah. They're alive from the inside out. There's the light of heaven in their eyes. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let me read to you another encounter.

16:18 One of my favorite conversion accounts is that of Charles Finney. Born in 1792, he was a lawyer with little knowledge of the Christian faith. One day, Finney decided he needed to read the Bible since so much of the law was based on it. The more he read, the more convicted he felt over his sinfulness. One day he determined within himself to get right with God, so he went into the woods to pray. Yet every time he started to pray, he thought he heard someone in the woods, and he would stop, afraid that he might be seen praying. Eventually he realized the great pride in his heart that it should bother him if someone saw him praying.

17:03 It broke him down before the Lord. But that is only the beginning of God. Give me a second, please. I normally number my pages, and I did not this morning. So I got different lettuce leaves here. It broke him down before the Lord, but that is only the beginning of these waves...

17:44 continue to pass over me. I feel like I'm missing something. Ah. But that is only the beginning of, you know where it was? It was on the back of the same page I was reading. That is only the beginning of his conversion story. He went back to his house where God met him. This is his account of what happens next. By the way, everyone ever used by God had a God encounter. A God encounter is not for the select few. A God encounter is for his children. Yeah. Yeah, Moses had an encounter. That's how he became Moses.

18:25 Joshua, he was just Joshy boy. And then he had an encounter with the commander of the armies of heaven. And then he was Joshua, the victorious general who led Israel into the next phase of God's plan for them. Everyone had a God encounter. You, don't say you never had a God encounter. If you're saved somehow, that didn't just happen coldly. He warmed your heart. He touched your heart. If you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, you had a God encounter. If you've ever sensed God come to you and wake you up from the inside out, that's a God encounter. And yes, there are levels. You say, well, what determines what level of a God encounter I get? Your hunger level and how deep and far you're willing to go.

19:05 Most of the time, we're the ones who pump the brakes. Why? Because we're weird. God's not weird. We're weird. Because we're scared. Because we like to be in control. Because this natural world is so familiar to us. So we don't want to cross over into the supernatural realm. That's what the Lord is inviting you to do. He did that with me. When I really started crossing over into the other realm, I was about 18. And it was my freshman year of college. And God was really pouring out his spirit. That would be 1994. And God was pouring out his spirit around the world in a fresh way.

19:46 And so I'll never forget the first time I realized, wow, I can really like get somewhere with God alone. And she's a minister right now. Remember we had lunch with her, Gail Wasik? She had this tape. And it was touching the father's heart number 22. Hallelujah, glory. And she came and she said, hey, I'm going to play this. And she put the cassette tape in the boom box. And I heard these guitars. I just like five seconds. And I went, I just felt God touch me. And I go, in my head, I'm going, what is that? Like, why would I just heard a guitar riff?

20:30 But I'm not going to deny that something just awakened within me from some guitar strings. Like I understand how I was praying for an hour, really fasting, pressing in. So I realized there is something on that music. It's transferable. It's tangible. The presence of God is actually on that music. And then when I play that music, it came on me. I go, ooh. It's almost like a cheat code. Like, wow, this will help me press in so I don't have to press in as hard. So I said, can I borrow this tape? She said, sure. I put the tape in. I'm like, let's try that again. Maybe it was a fluke. I put the tape on.

21:10 Oh. Oh, now that tape in particular, by the way, it's dripping. It's dripping. When I traveled to minister in Serbia, Luke and I were reminiscing about different moves of the Holy Spirit. And I talked about that. And we found it on YouTube. And we played it. We sang. Man, me and Luke. He's a musician. I'm tone deaf. We sang in that hotel room through the entire album multiple times over multiple days. Laughing, rejoicing, Lord in the room. But anyway, I'm learning now that you can experience the Lord on your own. Because before that, the only times I'd really experienced the Lord, I mean, there was a few encounters that were, but was like with a man of God laying hands on me, or in the middle of a church service, or people gathered around me praying for me.

21:57 I'd never experienced being cold, deciding, Lord, I want to be with you, and then entering into his presence and receiving something from heaven. That was brand new. And he taught me so much. He taught me that... There's always a fork in the road that you're going to hit when you decide to pursue the Lord. Your mind will be screaming and telling you to stop. That's the fork in the road. Your mind will say, you look foolish. You're getting weird. By the way, you're not the one getting weird. You know what's weird? Having a facade where you tell the world everything is okay, but you're a mess on the inside.

22:39 That's actually weird to God. What's not weird... From heaven's viewpoint, is you pursuing the Lord and then breaking down in front of his presence. And so he would visit me. And I would have to choose each time, you know what, I'm not going to be afraid. I'm not going to hold on to the natural. And, you know, because a voice would come and say, you're going to get weird. You're going to move into excess. You're going to become one of those religious nutjobs. You're going to maybe even touch on the demonic realm. You're being deceived. I had to have more faith in God's ability to bless than in Satan's ability to harm. I had to believe that the Lord would actually keep me.

23:21 And he did. And if anyone had the potential to get extra weird, it's me. And he kept me. This is the account of what happened next. The Lord is inviting you to encounter him. If it wasn't for these encounters, I would never, I wouldn't know what to preach today. It was during those encounters where I learned to hear his voice. I'm sorry I'm gesticulating to my ear. That's just how we communicate here. But you obviously don't hear God with your natural ear. You hear God out of your spirit.

24:04 I learned to hear his voice. Made mistakes along the way. That's how you learn to hear his voice. You will make mistakes. It will sometimes be an emotion. It will sometimes be your own soul, your own mind. But you learn to tell the difference over time. That's a relationship. That's a relationship. So Finney is in his house now. There was no fire and no light in the room. Nevertheless, it appeared to me as if it were perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then. Somebody, let me just put a pause here. Somebody is going to say, Jesus, I want to know you more.

24:46 I actually want to meet you. And so I'm making a decision to pursue you. I'm gonna shut my door and I'm gonna just start talking to you as if you're in the room. And I don't care how I feel, I don't care what Satan screams into my mind, I'm gonna ignore all that, I'm gonna press in. And I use that term press in because that's the best analogy from the woman who pressed in through the crowd. We read that so quickly. A woman with an issue of blood pressed through the crowd, touched the hem of his garment. Think what was up against that woman. Think what was raging through her head. There's a reason why she is eternally immortalized in the scriptures. Because she's a woman with an issue of blood.

25:26 Twelve years. You are not allowed to be a woman with an issue of blood out in public. So she's out in public illegally. The masses are thronging Jesus. What are masses? Thousands. We know that from the scriptures. Thousands. Mainly fans. Not followers. Looky-loos. That preacher, the miracle man is in town. What's he like? Oh, look. Doesn't look very impressive. That's what they thought. The prophecy in Isaiah says there was no beauty or comeliness that we should desire him. No matter how good they want to make him look in the paintings and pictures. In the natural, the scripture says that he was not attractive. The glory and the beauty was from within.

26:07 And those who had eyes to see, they saw. The glory was the words that came out of his mouth. People said, never man spake like this man. His words are like the bread of life. And so she hears and faith arises. She illegally comes out into the crowd. And then she's trying to get to him. Thousands are in her way. How many elbows do you think she took to the face? As she was going through that crowd. And the Bible says she kept repeating within herself. If I touch the hem of his garment. You know why she kept repeating? Because in the Greek it's the perpetual tense. Over and over again. Because she was so discouraged. After the tenth elbow to the head. After somebody said, what are you doing here woman?

26:50 And she's just pushing through the crowd. She was going to get hers. I will be. And she pressed through. Why is that the best analogy, the best metaphor for us pressing in? Because you're going to catch elbows to the head. You're going to have resistances. It's called your mind. It's called Satan's lies. It's called right as you're pressing in, you hear a ding on your phone. You forgot to silence it. And now you're thinking about, oh, could that be important? You press in. The reward is great. And please don't tell me, oh, I tried that once. That's your problem. You tried that once.

27:30 Try it again. In fact, as Yoda says, don't try, do. Do it again. And then do it again. It's like digging for oil. And when you hit that geyser, it'll be a gusher. Somebody here has faith. This will change your life. Change your life. What's the alternative? A frontal lobe in relationship with God? A cold relationship with God? How are you not terrified? Like I meet people because Long Island is full of old people. Like really, Long Island is really old. Demographically, it's like ancient.

28:14 Like, there's going to be a huge shift in Long Island. Either housing prices will crash, or other people will come in and buy up those houses who are younger, but the problem is young people can't afford the price of those houses. Anyway, that's all another story. Like, I think, you're 70-plus years old. You're not saved. How are you not terrified? Then, that's because I didn't know, then I come to know them, and I realize they actually are terrified. They're pooping their pants. Some can put it into words. Others, it manifests as different anxieties. But what really you start thinking about is, it's not like the movies. I'm talking to a lot of old people. It's not like the movies. I've lived a good life and a long life.

28:56 They all say the same thing. That went by in a flash. I was so quick. And now I'm looking at the other side. And they don't know how it's going to go down. Terrifying. So now, for the Christian, how is it not terrifying to not be red hot with the Lord, hearing his voice, knowing he's with you, sensing his hand on you, and you're looking at this future? Because the future is going to be wild. You don't have to be a prophet to know that. I went bike riding with Kwok and Joseph.

29:37 Joseph's not here today, right? He is? He's an animal. Because he lives all the way out in New Jersey. And he still made it out to Nassau County by 8.30 a.m. to bike 25 miles. And then kept riding ahead of us and looking over our shoulders. Kept asking us, you guys okay? Yeah, we're okay, buddy. We're all right. We're all right. What was I? Oh, so no, no, listen. So for fun, you know, Joseph's a doctor. He's got his PhD. And so for fun, I take a picture of him and I have AI in 30 seconds, turn him rapping about his doctorate.

30:18 Showed it to both of you, right? You were blown away because six months ago, it couldn't do that. Man, I feel like I should send that to the media team and see Joseph rapper. You wouldn't believe it. It's his face. Like, even before it was like obvious weird stuff and six fingers and whatever. That was like two years ago. Then they got rid of the six fingers. But now it's like it's him. All right. So obviously where, you know, technological advancement is an exponential curve. It's a hockey stick. Like your great-grandfather's life was probably very similar to your great-great-great-grandfather's life. And very similar to his father's life. And there just wasn't much change, right? They came in on a horse, maybe a buggy.

31:00 Wife was churning butter. Well, kind of lived the same way. There wasn't that much. They didn't have any, like, new inventions. You look at 6,000 years of human history, all the greatest change is in the last 100 years. And then all of the greatest change of that is in the last five years. So great change is coming upon us. Like life for hundreds of years was pretty much the same. Then came the Industrial Revolution, which changed the face of the world, changed the way we live our lives, the way we relate to one another. And this AI robotics revolution will be 100 times the Industrial Revolution. If you don't know that, congratulations. You're hearing it now for the first time. It's happening. You might be going, you never know it's happening when you're living in it.

31:44 You don't know when it's happening around you. You don't go, oh, wow, I'm living in one of the most consequential times in human history. You are. And great change is coming upon. And when there's great change, there will be disturbances. The Industrial Revolution caused a lot of good that we're aware of now. But really changed lives for the worse. Some people's incomes was completely obliterated. The way they lived their lives was completely demolished. The AI robotics revolution is going to be a hundred times that. So just bringing this back to knowing the Lord and encountering the Lord. I would be terrified. If I wasn't walking close to the Lord, knowing the great change that's going to be thrust upon us, and we already lived through, remember how March 5th, 2020, we were all just living our lives?

32:33 March 8th, and then, this is going to be like that times 100. It's going to be very, very weird, very, very strange. This is not to put fear in you. God forbid we have any fear when we look out boldly into the future. But to encourage you to walk closely with the Lord. Because I don't want to go into the future without him. I mean, anything can happen. I know if I hold his hand really tight, I'll be on the winning side. Hallelujah.

33:15 But God forbid we're now in the end, call it the end of 2026. And we're just blasé. Our children, our children say, why were you asleep in such an important time? The antidote is the presence of God. All right, how I got on that from the middle of Finney's testimony, nobody knows, but somebody needed to hear that. I've been saying it a lot. And I just noticed after I said it about the 10th time, people started texting me about it. And I always am reminded that nobody really hears me until I've repeated myself where I'm so bored of saying it, and then all of a sudden people are hearing it.

34:01 As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed... This is Finney now, in the house, after praying in the woods. He started getting touched. He took it indoors. It seemed like I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then, nor did it for some time afterward, that it was wholly a mental state. On the contrary, it seemed to me that I saw him as I would see any other man." He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner... Those of you who've ever encountered the Lord, you know what he's saying here. Let me read it again. He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to break me right down at his feet...

34:46 I fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. I wept aloud like a child and made such confessions as I could with my choked utterance. It seemed to me that I bathed his feet with my tears, and yet I had no distinct impression that I touched him, that I recollect. As I turned and was about to take a seat by the fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without any expectation of it, without ever having the thought in my mind that there was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever heard the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me.

35:32 Body and soul. Soul. I could feel the impression like a wave of electricity going through and through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love. This sounds like a modern-day charismatic from Bethel wrote this. Ooey-gooey waves of honey-liquid love. Yeah, this is Charles Finney. For I could not express... Now, if he calls God Papa, I'm dropping... For I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense wings.

36:14 And those of you who've encountered the Lord, you know he comes in waves. Wave after wave. And it's like he's describing it as wings fanning the glory of God upon him. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love, and I do not know, but I should say, I literally bellowed on the unutterable gushings of my heart. These waves came over me and over me and over me, one after the other, until I recollect, I cried out, I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me. I said, Lord, I cannot bear any more. Yet I had no fear of death.

36:57 It goes on some. Worship team, won't you come up? Heavenly Father, this week, help us to yield more to you. Help us to cross over into the supernatural realm. Help us, Father, to not have a natural Christianity because that's unnatural. Walking with you is supernatural. It's above the natural. It's above the physical.

37:38 It's above. Super, it means above. It's above the normal. Lord, there's people in here right now, they've convinced themselves that they're hard to receive. They've convinced themselves that they're passive. Their attitude is if God wants to do that, he'll just do that. And they think they're holy and they're believing that. And yet they've resigned. They don't have a press. They don't have a hunger. And they're putting all of the emphasis on you to do it. And you're inviting them to pursuit. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

38:31 Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I want to open up the altar and just lay hands on people, minister the anointing by the laying on of hands. Let's first worship the Lord with our tithes and offerings, and then I'm going to open up the altar. Thank God for people who are joyful and see the value in giving and see that that's God's prescription for prosperity.

39:12 That's God's method to increase us. We make a living by our giving. See time and harvest, it's biblical, it works, it's real. God is not cheap. What is he? He is super abundant. He's the God of prosperity. He's the God of overflow. He's the God that causes our cup, which is indicative of our whole life, to overflow. The world calls it waste. He calls it his abundance and prosperity. So give with a glad heart.

39:54 And then the altar is open. I ask that you all stand as you give and put your eyes on Jesus. And whoever wants prayer by the laying out of hands, the altar is open. This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church, visit us at CityLightNYC.com. That's CityLightNYC.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace.

40:39 Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.