Navigating the New Covenant and the Impact of Prayer

0:00 For we are His workmanship, his own masterwork, a work of art created in Christ Jesus, reborn from above, spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used for good works which God prepared for us beforehand, taking paths which he said so that we would walk in them, living the good life. 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 citylightnyccom.

0:41 That's citylightnyccom. Pastor Boyan Jansik 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. Welcome to City Light Auto Repair Shop. We're offering a special on oil changes this morning, and so expect fresh oil and expect the Lord to speak to you and to move on your life, which is what's supposed to happen when we get together every Sunday.

1:32 Whenever we gather bodily and that's what that word corporately means whenever we gather bodily it's so that we could receive in another way from the Lord and the Bible. It gives space to us individually pursue the Lord, and the Lord can meet us when we're at home, alone. And there's things you can get alone at home that I feel sometimes you can't get in a corporate setting. There's private, sweet, very intimate times you can have alone with the Lord that you can't get in a corporate setting. But conversely, there's things that you can get in a bodily or corporate setting that you can't get alone at home, just the way the Lord is, and that's how he built his church.

2:17 The wine is in the cluster of grapes. The very word church means the assembled ones. That's where the assemblies of God gets its name from. Ecclesia are the called out and assembled ones. That means you're actually assembling. You know, people tried to have church without assembling. That didn't work. We're all different parts of the body and we're celebrating the head Jesus, and that didn't work and doesn't work over Zoom, doesn't? Those of you joining us online I love you, but you know I'm not telling you this for the first time.

3:02 You know already there's a limit to what you can get online, which is why many of our online folk they can, they're physically far from us and they drop in as often as they can. But there is something the Lord wants to get to you corporately and that's how church should be. Just know that Two way. I love that verse in Galatians where the apostle Paul says Now, he who works miracles among you, that's the Holy Spirit's job to, when we're gathered together, move up and down these aisles. I feel the anointing to move and work miracles among you.

3:47 A life change and interruption. You're going one way and then, all of a sudden, he speaks to you. You make the necessary adjustments on the inside. The anointing touches you and you come out. You're different. Your spiritual back was all out of alignment and out of whack. You came hobbling and you didn't know it. You thought you had it all together, but then the anointing came upon you and God did business with you in an environment where he's welcome to do so, and he sets us straight that way. You know how many times I'd come into church one way and walked out another. That's why the Psalmist said my foot had almost slipped, I had almost gone astray, but then I stepped into the house of the Lord.

4:34 Something happened in the house of the Lord. What happened? Came in contact with the presence, Came in contact with the anointing. What a scary. Worse my foot, because we've all been there, I've been there. My foot had almost slipped, I had almost gone astray. You know when you're titter-tattering and you feel the world raging and Satan raging and it wants you back. But then I stepped into the house of the Lord and first I was reminded where the real party was. Oh yeah, it's here. And all those deceptions that were clouding my perception, they just. You know, a deception can seem so powerful and so intricate. And you come into the house of the Lord and one drop of God's anointed truth. You're like, oh, I was hypnotized for a few days.

5:15 There Wasn't I? I was believing. A lie has nothing to do with what's good for me, what's real from the Lord. That was just gonna take me where every lie takes me, where sin takes me Much further than I wanted to go and much longer than I wanted to stay. But no, when we gather together it's to experience the Lord, amen. And if you're used to just going to church, that might be strange to you, which we're getting guests all the time and don't get nervous. But I can tell some people are just used to going to church Because they look at you like you're on TV.

5:59 I can look right at them and they're just like kind of a hundred yards there looking right through you. They're used to just being non-participatory. But no, this is for you to be engaged. You don't have to engage me. Engage the Lord, because he wants to get you something that if you're not expecting and you're closed, you'll miss out on. I was speaking to some older gentlemen from my new neighborhood of Rosalind, new York, a very Jewish neighborhood, and they were all Jewish and they're fascinated by me being a minister and they have all these questions about what I do and what is our church like and what is it that I share, what is it that I speak, and I shared with them some of our ministry philosophy, if you will, and they were absolutely blown away.

6:47 And in so many words. This is what one of them said. He said you know, the temples and the gatherings at the temples are really waning. We can't get ahold of the younger generation. And he and I've said this, we've all said this for decades now. But he, as we're talking, he's realizing he's going. You know it's a lot of work to get up on a Saturday and gather your whole family and go to temple to hear somebody speak for 30 minutes to 45 minutes and really just speak and share something from a historical perspective, something from a theological perspective, salt and peppered with a little dash of this is how you can apply it for your life today.

7:30 Like what he's really trying to say is I can get this on YouTube and that's and it becomes very old and very dull every Saturday, doing all that work to come to a place to hear someone just share with you what they were reading Monday through Friday. And that's why churches are in decline, because if you're coming just to be a consumer and see what the preacher's selling, that can't last, that's unsustainable. For some people it's sustainable because they have a very high threshold of boredom, but for me that's not sustainable If I'm not receiving from the Lord, you know, after just a few times of that, I'm like, oh, what am I doing with my life and my time?

8:19 You know, which is what makes the true Christian church different? Because you're not coming. You're not. I hope you're not to hear my deep thoughts. You're coming to experience the Lord and the Lord, the Lord, is free to move when his people are hungry, when they come with expectation and when the pastor is good at getting out of his way. And so some pastors are so married to their message they got to get it to you.

9:02 Then the Holy Spirit wants to move on God's people, but they're on point 14B. So I want you to raise your expectation level. There is something that the Lord wants to get. You say what's something? Well, it depends on where you're at. Maybe you just need some of his love, you just need a revelation of his love, because you're your own worst enemy and you're struggling under guilt and shame and condemnation, and you need a fresh revelation of the blood of Jesus and what this new covenant of grace is all about. Maybe you're going one way and you think you have it all figured out, but actually that path leads to suffering and that path leads to pain, and he wants to speak to you right now and just get you to it.

9:46 Just a few things Now. I'm not even talking about a huge 180, although that can happen, but just tweak you a little bit so that you get into all that he has for you, which, I assure you, is far, far better than anything you can dream up for yourself. He is a loving God, a generous God, and he's got your best intentions in his heart, hallelujah. So we're going to be good sponges and good drinkers today. And just once you just say that Lord, whatever you want to do, do it in my heart, do it in my life.

10:28 I give you permission, Jesus, whatever you want. Amen. That's a great, great opening prayer. He said do I really have to give the Lord permission? Yeah, I mean, if you didn't have to give him permission, he'd forced you to get saved. He didn't do that, did he? He made himself pretty irresistible, but it was still something of you involved there. Not that you can take credit for it, but I mean, if he could violate my will all the time he would, I wouldn't have made the messes I made. If he could violate my will. I mean it seems like he tried. He was screaming in my spirit and in my head Stop.

11:11 No, what are you doing? You're being dumb. I love you, but you're dumb. He doesn't start off that way, you know. He starts off with a Psst, not that way. I'm sorry, my Lord, now don't go in that direction. Oh, it's, lord, I'm good, and you get a little bit more awareness, like no, I said, don't go that way. And you keep a son, daughter, I'm telling you that pain, that path, it seems right in your own eyes. There's much suffering down that path, lord, I'm good, until you're finally too far gone. And he's, what did I tell you? Come back to me now.

11:52 You're too far gone, come back quickly. Hallelujah, some of you, if you're hearing the loud voice of the Lord and now is the time to about face, because guess what, it doesn't get louder After that, it just stops. When the Bible says the spirit of the Lord will not strive, will not wrestle with man forever, it's talking about something particular happening under the old covenant, but it still applies to how he deals with us today, cause he'll talk and he'll speak and he'll try.

12:33 But if you're so stubborn that eventually you go this way, he stops speaking, and that's when people go. Yeah, I knew it all along. The Lord has no problem with me living my own life. I don't even get convicted. Huh huh, huh, huh. This is great. No, it's not that it's right now, it's wrong. You just have what the Bible calls a seared conscience. You've resisted his voice so long that now your conscience is like with a hot iron it's seared, it's no longer tender and susceptible. Now God himself could appear next to you in bodily form, beating two tambourines and a bass drum right in your ear, and you still won't hear. Cause it is seared conscience, you'll go. Yeah, I knew it, I could do whatever I want when I want.

13:14 The Lord doesn't even speak to me anymore about it, cause he's just. Cause I'm different For others, the rules apply me and the Lord got a thing we worked out. I'm special Thunder and lightning for everyone else. For me it's just a wink. I got you, you're good. I know your heart, hallelujah. So at City Light Church. By the way, when I begin to sentence that way, I'm appealing to those who don't know what our church is about, cause I felt funny. It felt like a commercial here at City Light Church.

14:00 But at City Light Church we stand strongly in the new covenant of God's grace that is so vital. It is so important. There are two covenants that we read. Note that there is an old covenant which in the old it said it was gonna expire, and then the new. It reiterates that the old not only said it was gonna expire, but it's now expired. And then there is the new. Both we need to know, but you can only live under one and you cannot mix the two. And way too many Christians are trying to live under both covenants.

14:44 No wonder they're so confused, no wonder they're so frustrated when it's like a tossed bowl of mixed nuts in their doctrine and their old covenant one day, new covenant the next. Then something bad happens and they get all old covenant, then they're mid covenant, then they just mix the covenants. So we're doing this whole series on Galatians the best book in the entire New Testament for us to get understanding of the difference of the covenants and why we should live under the new and over and over again, paul. He shows Jesus Christ and him crucified and all of our sins placed upon him, jesus, and all of our sins, all of your sins, thoroughly and completely punished in Jesus.

15:37 So there is complete forgiveness for us and we have been justified by faith. Justified means not guilty. We're pronounced not guilty and we're given this gift called righteousness, which means right standing with God. That means that we can come to God anytime we want. See, when you really get righteousness, your prayer life takes on a whole another dimension. Then you're empowered to pray. We all know in our head we can pray anywhere, at any time, but many of us don't believe it in our heart. But when you really understand that you don't even you know we have this language.

16:18 You come in. Let me come into the presence of the Lord. You're there. You're seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Right now, you don't need to, you don't need a pre-workout warmup. Let me get into the presence of the Lord Shofar. Check flags, check Golden dust. I got in that conference back in 2014 in a little Ziploc bag in my Bible. Check, you're there and you know he's always a breath away and you don't have to. Some people feel they have to spend time repenting and asking for forgiveness and slowly you know it's because you've had so many fights in your life and always with those fights it's never the same afterwards.

17:11 You guys got a warmup period right. You got to get along for several weeks or a few months first, and then you let that person in again, right, right? No, you guys just forgive each other, and I mean I'm not talking about your spouse right now and so we think the Lord is that way. We think with the Lord, he kind of forgives us 40%, and then he's keeping an eye on us, we're on probation and he's saying, if we really really mean it, but guess what, he's not that way. The moment you turn your face to him, he's like this and he's saying I never left you, I never turned away from you, I'm right here.

17:51 He's just so much bigger than us and his heart larger and grander than ours. It's difficult for us to relate to him sometimes because we put all these human attributes on him, like he needs a cooling off period. You got to work your way back in play nice because you got some points against you. No, he loves you. And so we're beginning the series on Galatians, which is important because it is like the signature message. It is who we are as a church, it is our DNA. We are a new covenant church that yields to the Holy Spirit and that sees lives transform, and that's our vision.

18:41 See, what is the vision of city like church. I remember whenever my first seven, eight years saved, whenever any pastor I knew or even visited a church, whenever they were going to talk about vision, they always brought out a table a little larger than this right up to the altar, and there was something on the table that was covered with like a cloth and the pastor was going to talk about vision and then he would and guess what was underneath the cloth Right? An architectural rendering of a building. And I'm saying this because the vision was always a building. Is this just me? In the churches I went to years ago Must be Not feeling the resonance of the first service.

19:27 What I'm saying is the vision was always a brick and mortar and while the building is a good vision, it's not really the vision. It's a means and tools to attain the vision. The vision is to see God's people blessed, whole, overflowing, that they've been made disciples and now they're disciple making disciples. That's the vision. See this six week series on Galatians. I want you so rooted and grounded in new covenant realities that you could be sent up in an airplane parachute attached to your back and you could get dropped off anywhere in the world and you're so full of God's truth that you could begin preaching, whether they be total heathen or the other way in their Christian, but bound by religion and tradition.

20:21 But you can come and bring the word of Jesus that'll set them free, the depth of what he did on the cross, the new covenant and total forgiveness of sins that it, just if you're poked it, leaks out of you. And that's our vision To see a bunch of cups that overflow, hallelujah, hallelujah. And in order for us to get to that place, there's a person you can't leave out and that's the Holy Spirit. You can't leave them out. To try to do church, to try to see any kind of change apart from the Holy Spirit, is nothing but frustration that eventually leads to some type of death.

21:07 And honestly, it smells rotten. Just talking about it, just imagining it, it smells to go through the motions and try to have the church of God without the presence of the Lord. The anointing, which is why we're in the middle of this series. The anointed one and his anointing Because in order to be a new covenant church and really taking fresh ground in New York City, what's been called a preacher's graveyard. We're not here trying to survive, we are thriving and we wanna take new ground, and the reality is is, when you go after new ground, satan doesn't just step out of the way and go right.

21:51 This way, sir, oh, please come on in. I've had this place for centuries, but oh, you seem rather nice. Here's some of my land. No, he fights, and he fights hard. And so how do you overcome the spirit of Satan, which is the anti-Christ, the anti-anointing spirit? You overcome any spirit by responding in the opposite spirit. So you come in with the Christ, the Christos, with the anointing. That's why God's people need to know who they are in him and how to be good drinkers, how to receive daily from the anointing.

22:33 The anointing is what gets the job done. It gets the job done, hallelujah. There is nothing that you're going through right now that one drop of his heavenly oil cannot fix, cannot heal, cannot undo, hallelujah. And so in today's service, there's no pressure. I just ask you to open up your heart and put a demand on him, place a demand that he would meet you.

23:14 I would give the example last week I have to do it again just of my chiropractor. And now, in 2010 and 11, I started visiting this chiropractor at four herniated discs and he explained to me his philosophy of chiropractic and I said what I believe is that your body has an innate ability to heal itself. I said I've heard that back when I still lived in Yugoslavia as a kid. There's just, the peasants understood that. The peasants knew that they were in tune with the harmony of their body, how God created it. And there's things you can do to frustrate its own natural self-healing ability, things you can do to frustrate it and things you can do to promote it. And he said you know, good chiropractic is your body is not in alignment and we get your body in alignment so that it can self heal.

24:00 So we're not just talking about the back you could have a liver problem but we fix your body and get it into alignment and your body will self heal the liver. And that immediately resonated with me because, frankly, that's exactly how the Lord works. The Lord loves you, the Lord is generous, the Lord is an ever flowing font of blessings. Many of us, we remain frustrated, however, because we're misaligned and we're not receiving all that Jesus died for us to have. And what a travesty that is. You know, in the book of Revelation it says that they all cried for about half an hour and then there was no more tears.

24:45 He wipes it. But I was wondering, why did they cry for the half an hour? Is it because they were in heaven and they saw all that was available to them all along and they missed out and then they wept. You can speculate. We know at that point women weren't in heaven yet, because in that same part it says there was silence for the space of half an hour in heavens, for eight more hours but, in everyday life there is a joke Hallelujah, come on. Come on, that was a good one, dude, that was a good one.

25:34 It was so funny in my mind. In my mind, she was gonna be roaring and stitches Hallelujah, trying to remember where we were. Oh, the crackers and cheese story we're talking about. You know why they were crying? But it's the crackers and cheese story. There was a young boy. He needed to make a transatlantic journey via ship, couldn't afford it.

26:17 Somebody paid for his way. All he had was a bag of his gold clothes and a bunch of stale crackers and moldy cheese. And every day he would go by around the dinner hour and look, peek into the dining room and he would see all of the other passengers just faring sumptuously, cracking the lobster, eating the steak, and he would look in, sigh deeply and go back into his little cot and eat stale crackers and moldy cheese. And he did this the entirety of his journey, until the final day. The captain himself knocked on his door and he said sir, just wondering if we have offended you in any way. And he goes no, why do you ask?

26:58 He said we just noticed you weren't ever in our dining room. Why didn't you ever come to the main dining hall he said oh no, no, no, that's not for me and that's for the others. I just have these crackers and this old cheese. And the captain stood there aghast and he said but sir, all of that was included in your ticket and that's my concern. The too many Christians are gonna end up in heaven and realize what they could have had and go Lord, why Look? The picture of that is the older brother. When the younger brother comes back to the father, the father kills the fat. The calf throws a big party.

27:39 Older brother's all upset and he goes to the father with his attitude and the father says hey, all that I have is thine. Nobody told you, you didn't get the text. All that I have is thine. All this is available for you and was available for you at any time, but you're too busy being legalistic, religious. Older brother, you never made a withdrawal. That's the PS in the prodigal son story that that older brother could have had the fat and Kathy could have had all that. But he was just being a professional Pharisee, so he missed out.

28:19 And too many Christians are gonna go to heaven and realize I had all that. You mean the 20 years that I suffered and I kept telling myself it's God, that it actually wasn't. It was Satan, whom I could have resisted and bound and rendered powerless, and I could. Oh well, I'm in heaven now. So I guess it does for about half an hour and then he wipes every tear away. So that's what these meetings are about so you can taste his glory, see his face. Definitely, I believe the Lord will be speaking to you outside of the words that I'm speaking to you, outside of the preaching that you're gonna hear, that is gonna whisper to you, adjust you, confirm things and empower you.

29:04 I believe you will walk out of here with a greater increase of the power and presence of the Lord. Hallelujah, he's doing something in our church. It's wonderful, I welcome it wholeheartedly and I know that he's doing something again corporately, together with us in general as a body. It's marvelous to see. But whenever he does that I've had several waves like that come in 21 years he always touches people on an individual level. I feel the freshness on me. Listen, my wife and I we just experienced the complete life overhaul. He just invaded our lives.

29:46 I went to bed last night and we're on the second floor and I'm seeing tree branches, swaying in the wind, and I sat there and I went, babe, I didn't even know how stressful it was that last year in that underground basement which then, when I do the math, as you know, I lived in a basement before I bought that condo in Williamsburg, in the church basement and about a two story condo, which is awesome, but half of it was underground. So really, since 2002, I've been like a hobbit sleeping underground in one manner or another. And now I'm up there and I'm going, babe, I didn't even really. The Lord has upgraded our life in every way and it blew my mind, overwhelmed me, but whenever I turned to him to say thank you, whenever I go, it's the same thing.

30:35 He's making an example out of me for your benefit, it's not for me to. He's saying as the head turns, so goes the body. I'm doing this in your life and there will be something. If you don't enter in through this, then that door will stay closed. If you enter in through this, then the door opens up. Paul wrote the Philippians. He said you are partakers of my grace. You are if I'm your preacher. That's a whole nother story. I know you got a lot of girlfriends, you got a lot of preachers. But if I'm your pastor, if you actually have come to that place of maturity where you have a pastor and that's how you can tell right away if a Christian is serious or not, because you meet Christians throughout the city, just ask them who's your, not what church do you go to?

31:24 Because they're just going to tell you the last one they visited on their list of 20 churches, the busy church hopping around. Ask them who's your pastor? Uh uh, uh, just like I thought. Well, you know, I go where the fire burns. No, you're unsubmitted, you're rebellious and you don't play well with others, so you can't stay too long in any one spot. That's a whole nother sermon for another time. Different people drawing different things in this service. Different people doing different things in this service. Where, how did I land there?

32:05 What was I talking about? Yeah, if I'm your pastor thank you, not your preacher then you are partakers of my grace, hallelujah. So that's why it's also important who you submit yourself under when it comes to finding a pastor. That is an important decision. I mean, you will always have the flavor of your pastor, that imprint that the Lord put on him, that spiritual DNA that runs through his spiritual veins. That'll be on you the longer you're with him. That'll be on you. So if you have a pastor who really embraces poverty and believes that the gifts of the Holy Spirit stopped 2000 years ago and that it's God's will to torture you here so he can get the best out of you later on, then that's gonna be on you.

33:00 Amen, hallelujah. So we're clearing blockages, we're seeing alignment happen so you can better receive Ephesians. Let's go to that verse in Ephesians. Let's read it out of the amplified Ephesians 2.10. For we are his workmanship, his own master work, a work of art created in Christ Jesus, reborn from above, spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used for good works which God prepared for us beforehand, taking paths which he set.

33:55 You know there's set paths God has. You don't have to go down those paths. You can take a secondary path, you can take a tertiary path. You are a free agent. Have you ever taken a secondary path or a tertiary path? I have just long enough to find out that God's number one path is better. The further you move away from his will, the more painful it is. Don't tell, listen. The Bible says the way of a transgressor is hard and full of sorrow.

34:37 So don't tell me that's the the better path. It's hard and full of sorrow. God took these paths, he preset them, he laid them out for you. Our time with him, our time in his anointing, is really so we can decipher what path to take so that we would walk in them, living the good life. Somehow Christianity got associated with living the bad life, but he's praying that they would understand and walk in the paths that God foreordained for them, living the good life which he prearranged and made ready for us.

35:23 I don't know how you viewed Christianity. Maybe, like my wife, you were born into a Christian home. I was not. I was born into a Christian home in name only, went to church probably five, six times in my whole life before I got saved at age 16. But my experience with the way the world presented Christianity to me was always not one not only one that was negative, but also one that was a defeated faith for weak people who needed just a little bit of medicine. It wasn't gonna help them in any practical way, but just a little bit of medicine to help them put one foot in front of the other and go on with their mundane lives.

36:03 Cause when I would see Christianity presented in the media. One of the first ways was some priest holding a crucifix, rebuking the devil out of a little child whose head was spinning around, and that's like, oh, this is Christianity. Or a vampire, or a funeral scene. Whenever I'd see priests it was some 80 year old looking priest, looking like the crypt keeper at some sad funeral. Oh, depressed. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, you know. Then you read about or hear about monks, and they're living up in the mountains and they've, like, surrendered all their worldly passions. They don't, they believe in poverty, they weigh the potato sack and sandals.

36:44 And somehow Christianity got associated with defeat and poverty, when Christianity is a faith of victory, for Jesus died on the cross, suffered a temporary defeat on our behalf to give us the ultimate victory, and God's way is the good life. Yes, trying seasons will come. I have gone through them. I have endeavored throughout the years to transparently share them with you. Is it always a mountaintop experience? Seems to be, not always.

37:24 But you know what, whenever I'm there, I endeavor by faith and stay there as long as possible, amen. And even if you suffer, guess what? You can suffer good. There is a good way to suffer, and usually when you suffer good, the suffering isn't that long. It's when you suffer bad and you're not in faith and you're whining and complaining and belly aching and there's no spark and you haven't come into contact with the anointing in forever. That then you, just now you're living in a rut and now you've made your home in a rut and you wonder why change is so hard. What I want you to see is that God foreordained you to live the good life in Christ Jesus. Can you see that?

38:06 And what needs to happen in order to enter in and let him take you from glory to glory to glory is we need to get realigned, we need to get the blockages that are blocking us, the hindrance has, blown out of our system and allow the anointing to come upon us. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, jesus. Let's read Isaiah 55, the great invitation to partake of the anointing. Hallelujah. Thank you so much, pastor James.

38:47 I didn't necessarily need it, but I'd be looking at it all sermon long. This is how you know that Isaiah was an American West Coast charismatic. You see how he starts ho. In the original Hebrew they left out the words show-out, whoa-out, but it's there in the original Hebrew Ho. You have no clue what I'm talking about to you and consider yourself blessed that you do not know. Consider yourself blessed, ho, you know what I'm talking about.

39:31 You know what I'm talking about. That's also how you know. Isaiah was white, ho, ho, it's a very white. You never see a black person, ho, but go to any state where there's a lot of white suburbanites Show-out, whoa-out. Consequently, you never see a white person begin to dance like this, but Like, I just feel the anointing on this.

40:19 So when a white person gets touched, it might be ho, show, but a black person doesn't get touched. They get quickened. Ho, they're quickened. Erica, am I right? Don't you get quickened? You get quickened, you don't get touched. This is how I get touched. He quickened me. Hmm, hallelujah, ho. Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat, because the anointing is free for all.

41:05 Yes, come buy wine and milk, without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? You're concerned, you're obsessed, you're trying to buy something that'll never, ever truly scratch that itch that's inside of you, that itch that only God can satisfy, and your wages you spend for what does not satisfy. Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me here and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you that flows in the channel of the sure mercies of David.

41:56 What is Isaiah talking about? He's talking about the anointing, the presence of God, and different people will respond to the anointing in different ways. However, there will be a response, and the more you come into contact daily with the anointing, the more you will be open to receive from heaven the gifts that he gets you. Whatever it may look like on the outside, it always starts with you on the inside. That's why he wants to put a divine deposit in you. This is why I preach the cross, why I preach the blood, because you're not even going to think that you're worthy enough if you don't know the blood, if you don't know the cross, you always have a spiritual insecurity.

42:41 At least we get that out of the way and now you can get to that place of maturity. Where you go, you know what. I am God's child, I am totally forgiven and even though I'm still a work in progress, I deserve not in enough myself, but in Jesus. I deserve to receive all that he died for me to have. That's not being arrogant, that's being healthy, that's not heretical. That is the spiritual confidence that his death, burial and resurrection affords you now. Yes, a spiritual confidence. You now expect good things. Legally they're yours, hallelujah.

43:23 Then now we're getting excited. Legally they're mine. How is God going to get me these things? By the anointing, he'll always do a work in you. Somebody got a brand new shift in their careers and now they're making twice as much money. But, even more importantly, they're more fulfilled. And I'll interview. How did that happen? Oh, first he got you, didn't he? He touched you and you had that time with him and he put it in you. That's why it's important for God's people to be intimately acquainted with his anointing. But, yes, different people to respond in different ways.

44:04 I did not know in 1994, I was saved in 92. I did not know, I could have never imagined in 1994 that he was going to begin visiting me in my dorm room in my college and that nine out of 10 times I would respond in what seemed to be uncontrollable. After I didn't know that. That surprised me. I wouldn't have picked that. I didn't even know that was available Whenever he touched me here and there before I'd cry. He was going to really try to suck it in because I'd still hear my dad's voice, real men, don't cry. So he was like and that's when you start ugly crying, right, you hear dad's voice saying don't cry. The Lord is saying there, there, do cry, and you'll cry.

44:48 Obviously, if you know me today, you know I've gotten past my natural dad's voice, amen, hallelujah. But all of a sudden he touched me and I just started laughing and laughing and laughing. And when I say, seemingly uncontrollably of course you can I'm not saying that I'm not going to control it, but I'm going to control it. At least I'm going to control it, at least at the time, at least control it. But who would want to? Who wants to put a cap on joy? The only time I would control it is I would go into these churches and they were tight in the city. No move.

45:28 You know there's a move of the Holy Spirit. But you can tell and the Holy Spirit will respect there's very strict channels and parameters of how he's allowed to move. So, alter call, he can move, he can try, he can try. No, you know, there's the whole list. Our shirts are keeping an eye out. Seriously. I've been in a church like that and they'd hit some song that would set off my spirit and I'd start feeling anointing and I'd start laughing. But you've got to respect the house that you're in. So I would duck in between the chairs and I'd be like, ah, but enough about me, let's talk about you. I didn't expect that I would respond to the Lord that way. There are those who respond in other ways, all sorts of ways.

46:10 You know I'm using the word respond because the word manifestation it's too much for some people. But yes, we're talking about the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but already they're scared. So manifestation, now it's you're safe. You're safe. The Holy Spirit would never hurt you. But when he touches you, there is a response. You look throughout the Scriptures, whether it was Jesus, of course, bodily ministering or after he ascended, when the Holy Spirit was given, there was always a response. Now that response might be a quiet warmth in your spirit. Lean into that.

46:52 That response might be a peace, that response might be weeping, that response might be a silence and you sense his love and finally you have clarity of mind. But receive that. Don't allow the enemy to rob you of an experiential Christianity and he robs people of that because there's great power connected to that, because a Christian with a real experience is never at the mercy of someone else with just a theory. There's stuff, I'm there's, you know. People try to. It's funny to me, even people who know what I do.

47:34 They try to stump me with questions that they think are gonna, like, dismantle my Christianity. Like, well, have you ever thought about evolution? And what about carbon dating? No, I never consider that. Stop. Right now you're making my whole life to be a lie. Please quit uncle mercy, no more. Don't bring up the dinosaurs, no. So they try to evangelize me, to unfaith me. And it's hilarious to me, not just because the intellectual argument is hilarious and preposterous, but it's like you're coming to me too late.

48:18 You've got me too late. I've had too many experiences. You can gibber, jab, but you're too late. You've got to find a novice to work on with the level you're operating at. But I'm too far gone, not with doctrine, not with teaching, with experience. And Paul prayed. He said I pray that you would have an experience and experientially know the love of Christ, which he cannot. He said he cannot be known. Intellectually it cannot. You can hear poems about it, you can see great artists' renderings that move you and you can hear the descriptions of the love of God.

49:04 But I love looking at the faces of people who get touched for the first time, and it's always the same look. That's that look, because when he touches you, it's like no one else exists, it's just you and him. You become the center of his universe. This is also why, by the way, one of the dangers of getting touched by the Lord is arrogance and pride. This is a pitfall. You'll often find that prevalent in churches, where the Holy Spirit moves, because when he touches you, it's like no one else exists and you actually, you're God's favorite, which is true, you feel correctly. You're his favorite Somehow, because he's God. He's able to have a billion of those Amen. But you, you're overwhelmed, you're overcome and you feel like the center of his world.

49:54 And that's an experience. I see that look. Oh, that's an experience that'll mark you. I was just sharing with my wife. I said now I understand why, kenneth Hagan. He said something that really confused me early on. He said everything I did in my ministry is a result of 1948. And I thought I get that because I have a different relationship with the Lord and I was coming to him in a different way. It changes, it moves. There's obviously things that never change, but there's different seasons. But in the early and mid-90s, when I was 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, he was coming to me and back then I didn't understand.

50:40 He kept showing me pictures of the church, visions of the church, molding me, shaping me. I didn't understand. You know, I thought am I just going to graduate college and start the church? No, he's just showing you. Sometimes we get excited, but what he's showing is we think it's tomorrow. No, but he's impregnating you and he's putting in you now what you need, 10 years down the road. Why am I saying this? Because some of you are being invited into an intimate relationship with the anointing, with the presence of God. You need this. You need a season three months, six months where you can do a deep work in you and when that deep work is done in you, that'll manifest in your outward life.

51:24 You know how, you know when it'll get manifest in your outward life. Great, great barometer I found for gauging when, because that's the ultimate. You know, when is my life right now going to get better? When am I going to when you don't care, when you'd actually stop caring. Yours now so enthralled with him and his person and being with him that you still care, but not like you did before. You're like Lord, I know you got that. You're going to fix that. You're going to and you're going to him on the daily because you actually enjoy spending time with him, not because he's your mechanic that's going to fix your busted up car called your life. You actually like spending time with him and you forget. And the moment you forget that you realize oh, you weren't really joking when you said to make you my great quest and then all these other things would be added unto me.

52:12 You meant that that was real. Is this hitting anyone? Are you catching what I'm serving up this morning? Amen. So you hear that invitation to get into the anointing. He says oh, you got to say that first word, right, lest it be misunderstood. The people take sound bites and make you say all sorts of things these days. Oh, is anyone thirsty? Is anyone hungry? Because we got to get to be good drinkers, good eaters of his word and good drinkers of the Holy Spirit.

52:56 But there is a receiving problem. We got to get to be better receivers, better drinkers. And so I, your friendly neighborhood pastoral bartender, I'm here to help you become a better lush for Jesus, a better drinker. Oh, you're just walking around like this. You haven't even taken a sip in forever. And the Bible is saying taste, taste and see that the Lord is good. And you go.

53:36 No, I've been reading about it. It's very nice, looks very nice, looking into it, lovely, have a sip. I will later. No sipping. No, you got to get to be a drinker, a heavy drinker, of the Holy Spirit, of God's new wine. That's what'll fix you up on the inside, get you healed up on the inside, get you empowered and get you living the good life which he prearranged for you to have. But it's always connected to a work of the Holy Spirit and his anointing, and so there's reasons why people aren't good drinkers. They have these hindrances to good drinking.

54:20 One reason that used to come up, especially amongst those with an experience in Christianity, is the whole decently and in order. Because you know, the Apostle Paul said let all things be done decently and in order. So they feel they can't have any and nobody should have any kind of response to the Holy Spirit if they do. That's all emotional sentimentality, worked up hype and emotions and there's no fruit to it, even though whoever touched Jesus, whoever he touched, they immediately had a response. They weren't just healed. You ever noticed nobody got healed passively and was like, oh, a cheerio, good Messiah, kind, thanks for that divine healing.

55:04 No, there was always like ahhh. They went walking and leaping and praising God. They cried out. The woman at the well, he told her all her business. You know how. You know the anointing. Listen, if I came and I just told you all your business, he'd be like Pastor, thanks, but keep that down. No, really. But there was so much anointing in Jesus' ministry that when he told that woman all her business, she was excited. He totally exposed her sin. She runs back into town and goes hey, come meet a man who told me everything I ever did. This guy's awesome. I've been married five times Now. I'm living with this guy.

55:44 He busted me on it. He's awesome. That's when the anointing is there. You're like, yeah, I got busted. Lord, do even more. Reveal all the secret parts of my heart to me and whoever else, it doesn't matter, lord, I'm securing you. Hallelujah, so decently and in order. To some people it means that they cannot have a response. And really what they're saying is controlled, decently, in order. It means the Holy Spirit can never interrupt, which should be his own service, where preacher has to get through all his points and hit every note and there can't even be a 30 second space for the Holy Spirit to move.

56:28 That's not decently and in order. Decently and in order is decently and in order with God's order. You picture the demoniac being set free. Right, his name was Legion. You know what a Legion is? It's a Roman garrison of three to 5,000 troops. That's a lot of demons that Legion had. And they were released into a herd of swine that went screeching and screaming and flying off of a hillside into the water. Imagine seeing that, hearing that the whole town was in an uproar.

57:08 You could hear that stampede. Does that look decently and in order to you? But it's decently and in order with Jesus' order, isn't it? What about when the paralytic couldn't get in? His friends couldn't bring him in because there was such a crowd around Jesus and the house he was ministering in that they then, spider-man, did up the side of the house, ripped open the roof just to get to Jesus, and the Bible says I can just see the smile on his face. It says and when he saw their faith? Not when he rebuked them for ripping that nice man's roof off when he saw their faith. Is that decently and in order? No, but it is with God, hallelujah.

57:51 So really, what we're talking about here is control. People want to stay in control. You're afraid I get that. This is also, by the way. I said this in the first service. I wondered if I'd say it in the second, because it's being videotaped and people can just take what you're saying, read into it in different ways. But I've just found, I've seen, because I was involved in New Age not very heavily, I would put myself at the level of a dabbler, but I was doing some enchantments, doing some weird nonsense, occultic and heavily demonic. I'm not downplaying it, but I've noticed people who come out of that world when they repent and they convert to Jesus, it's much easier for them to get in the spirit realm.

58:43 They're much more open to spiritual things and that fear of crossing over is taken away. Not suggesting you dabble, to open yourself up, but the Lord is calling you to cross over. He said how do I cross over? No, that switch is on the inside here. It's that switch that's going to lower the gate of your heart and the Lord can come fully in and you're hanging on. You want to be in control of your relationship with the Lord. Guess what?

59:23 It's not your relationship with the Lord, it's His relationship with you. He's come to you, he's reached out to you. We need to submit to the King. Hallelujah, I'm really just wanting to make you better receivers. This is a how to be a better drinker Sunday morning at City Light Church, because if you can get good at drinking, some of you will stop drinking. If you know what I mean. Hallelujah, you have to be a good drinker.

1:00:05 Listen, some of you won't receive because you're harsh, you're critical, you're judgmental. Somebody's getting touched by the Lord in the service and your first thought is what manner? What manner of spirituality is this? You need to not just read the Bible. You need to read the Bible Like pause and imagine how it actually went down On the day of Pentecost and no movie can cover it accurately. We got the Passion of the Christ and we were like all finally the crucifixion covered accurately, Because before the Passion of the Christ it showed like three little whip marks, one drop of blood, like a tear drop tattoo, but in blood and they never really write.

1:00:55 That's what made the Passion. It was like no, he's really. He got medical experts to recreate the crucifixion but nobody has done the day of Pentecost how it should be done, the Bible way. They always make it all clinical and sterile and basically they castrate the day of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost, imagine, right there in the Middle East, hot, sticky. They've been waiting. We know they've been waiting at least 10 days, because Jesus was taken up 40 days after His resurrection and the day of Pentecost is 50 days after Passover. So somewhere they were waiting around a week, 120 of them in an upper room, mashed in there, pretty good, shvitzing, hot, waiting, not really knowing remember, not really knowing what they're waiting for.

1:01:49 They understood God and God, but the concept of the Holy Spirit living in them, that was too mind blowing. They couldn't wrap their brain around that. They couldn't wrap their brain that this would forever end the old covenant and launch the new covenant of His grace and that would be the day that the church was birthed. And then, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind. I love the Amplified Bible because it says a violent, a violent tempest blast. We want a sterile, clinical church. No, he'll sometimes break the door down and come in violently and flex a violent tempest blast, cloven tongues like as a fire appeared on each one of them.

1:02:31 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit of God and began to speak in other tongues, in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave the mutterance. And then and they definitely don't show this in the Jesus movies they were so overwhelmed. This is in the Bible, in Acts, chapter two. They were so overwhelmed. No one even had a discussion, nobody even said you know, we should take this good news and let's go outside and share with the Lord. No, they would just ran out of there. You know why? Because they got touched by the Lord. Today, getting touched by the Lord, is this controlled Hallelujah? Oh, he really touched me.

1:03:12 Oh, that was nice, that was a nice service. You know, I've really I don't want nice when I've been touched. Guess what? You can't even say what's happening. Day of Pentecost, god fills mankind for the first time. That's like Run right out the room, 120 of them now going around Jerusalem and something about them warranted the Jerusalem people saying they are drunk. Why would the Jerusalemites say they're drunk?

1:03:52 120 of them freshly filled with the Holy Spirit, called drunk. That's in your Bible. And to anyone who was raising an eyebrow, as you heard laughter earlier, this is especially for you. What kind of a church is this? And people laughing, some people crying, some Clutching their pearls? You know what you always hear in the Spirit. Once they do that, they always say I've never seen this and I've never seen this. So every way that God can move you've already seen. So if it's outside of, you've never seen this.

1:04:34 It never crosses their mind that maybe this is the Lord and it's different than how I have seen him my whole life. Oh, what they really say. Oh, this doesn't fit into my grid of preconceived ideas and notions. The only way that God's allowed to move. So they get out of the upper room and they're all called drunk. This isn't the. You know who was in that group? Because it specifically names her and I'm so glad Mary, the physical mother of Jesus. I love that she was a part of that group. I just picture her. Jesus was 33. So she was anywhere from 45 to 53. Imagine her getting filled with the Holy Spirit.

1:05:17 She was the chosen vessel to give birth to Jesus, but still totally human and totally not a virgin after she gave birth to Jesus. Just throwing that out again. There's something about the gift of offense that moves in this ministry time In this ministry time. Why is that so hard? For people will fight you on no, she is the virgin Mary. No, she was. We all agree she was when she gave birth. But why does she? You know? You know why I don't like that? Because somewhere in there, no, she stayed a virgin. Is that, like sex within the confines of marriage will defile you?

1:05:57 That's the message that no, she had to have stayed a virgin. First of all, the Bible says Jesus had brothers and sisters. All right, and God is not so cruel to put Joseph with Mary and just have him watch for the next 50, 60 years. Whatever you have to do, jesus had brothers, jesus had sisters, and I don't like the message that she had to know no, because we don't worship Mary. We venerate her and in order to venerate her properly, she had to have stayed a virgin. No, after Jesus was born, it specifically says he did not know her until they were wed.

1:06:38 And then, after they were wed, he got out his Bluetooth and put the sweet jams on the Sonos. I just he got that first century Barry Manilow out. He was like you are the only one for me, my baby. I love you today.

1:07:24 What's my point? My point is that Mary was in that crowd, mary, the mother of Jesus, with the 120 in the middle of Jerusalem and everybody saying you're all a drunk. Why were they saying you're drunk? Why, why, why? Everybody will then say, oh, it's because they were speaking in other languages. Have you heard that? Why have you heard why they're drunk? Why, you know what I'm talking about? Right Acts, chapter two. They go out. Why do you think they were called drunk? Say it loud.

1:08:05 They believe they were mad? Yes, no, I speak British. I know what you meant when you said I didn't think they were angry, they were mad. They were mad. They thought they were crazy. Why do they think they were crazy? Yeah, listen, usually you'll hear it's because they were all speaking in other languages. But we live in Queens 161 nations in Queens. You go down Steinway, you're going to hear other languages. You never think what a bunch of drunken fools walking around Steinway, all speaking in another language. That means there was something about their behavior. They had just come out of literally the first church service ever that's when the church was birthed on the day of Pentecost the first church service ever.

1:08:54 They come out. Everybody says you are all out of your mind and drunk. Why, there was something about their demeanor. There was something about them. They had a total loss of inhibition, they had a joy, they had an exuberance. Yes, I believe there was laughter there. Yes, like how drunken people laugh. Yes, they were laughing with joy, unspeakable and full of glory, hallelujah. And Peter then, with the cherry on top, gets up and says this is a good time for a sermon, since they're asking why we're all drunk. He starts off by saying friends, hebrews, countrymen, lend me your ears, these men are not drunk, as you suppose.

1:09:40 He didn't just say they're not drunk. He said they're not drunk like you think, but they are drunk Just on the divine new wine, the good stuff. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. We're going to surround you with the same thing. Hallelujah, hallelujah, we're going to surrender control. Lord can do whatever he wants to do. Hallelujah. You know again, my job is to make you good receivers, but what people love is to do lists.

1:10:30 Did you know? And we're going to get this into Galatians? The apostle Paul calls the system of the law that. He calls it the elementary principles. If you look in the Greek what elementary principles is? It's a term, it's a long, multi-syllabic Greek word which, if I don't have my notes, I'm going to mispronounce, and it means listen, I got the definition still memorized. It means the ABCs of the universe. He's saying that the law is what people are most familiar with. It's how we were raised. It's what we innately know as human beings.

1:11:10 Do good, get good, do bad, get bad. It's what makes sense to us. It's the ABCs of the universe. It's what man always gravitates to. So what makes sense to us is a bunch of rules and regulations. Christianity comes in and says, yes, there are rules and we will have them in writing, but the Holy Spirit will live in your heart and he will cause you to walk in the written statutes. He will cause you from the inside out. That now causes people's mind to go untilled, because what they really want is rules and regulations, but God has called them to a heart relationship, hallelujah. And so when it comes to receiving the anointing, I'm not going to tap into that sick desire for it to do list.

1:11:55 It's a sick desire. That's why so many churches this morning, the pastor has structured the whole thing to be around. Wait. Your breakthrough is coming, but first you need the eighth key. See, you only got seven keys because you only made it to the first seven Sundays. I'm going to finish my eight week series on the eight keys, the eight keys that will bring you to the 10 doors. What's behind the 10 doors? The 12 different highways to greater increase in abundance and prosperity in God. And you're just to do to do no, this is to receive to receive. You know people like rules. We learned that in 2020, didn't we People love people, love what I, what I knew that already.

1:12:37 What I didn't know was how some people, if properly lied to and then properly empowered people in our own church who are sweet and loving the Lord, overnight were turned into Zivanti coming Zuzi city light. You must ver in the mask and see Zivanti Dine, papita bitta. That happened.

1:13:19 Look at the uncomfortable laughter. No, I don't want to pretend like that didn't happen. That happened because they're trying to do something else again and that won't happen again. I actually I'm not going to memory hold this. I actually lived through what appeared to be normal, healthy, well adjusted people Get terrified. Terrified of what we knew was a virus where 99% of the people survived. But fine, you're terrified. The media is nonstop pushing it. So you got terrified, fine. But then you heard if there's someone not wearing a mask, tell them, report them, dude, point the grandma killers out and all of a sudden, a bunch of what's were seemingly sweet, harmless people got empowered to be little eight offs.

1:14:23 Look if you got duped, by the way. Look now. Now here we are, and some people can chuckle about it, but here we are, over halfway done with 2023. And at least now we can say you know, that was crazy, wasn't it? I mean, they try to do what's never been done in all of human history, which is mitigating an airborne respiratory virus with little cloth, surgical masks and telling you to stay six feet apart. Well, people died, pastor, I know people died.

1:15:03 People died. What they should have been told is not to wear a mask that's going to do you no good and stay six feet apart. What those people who died should have been told was hey, get to the gym, lose some weight, stir up your immune system, go get some vitamin D, go get some sunlight. In fact, we were told the exact opposite Stay indoors, stay away from sunlight. Can't work out. Go order grub hub, get fat, get even weaker but wear a surgical mask, because that's what's going to help you. And then, oh, but people died. Yeah, oh, but people died. Yeah, a little derailment.

1:15:53 Somehow we went from the anointing to an Adolf impersonation. But let's, let's, let's bask in this, because it's a very real world issue right now, and let's just come to terms with some things. Yeah, that we as humans are, this is a fact. We're easily programmable. It's not me, yeah, you maybe a little not as easy, but there's people who know how to program you. By the way, your phone knows you better than you know you. All I had to do when we've got that new house was to.

1:16:35 All I had to do was look at two, not even three, two places that sell furniture. My whole Instagram changed. Every ad changed. All of a sudden, I'm buying things I didn't even know I needed, because my phone now knew me. It knew, it knew the moving things that I needed better than me. And that phone studies you. It knows you. It knows if you've been good, it knows if you've been naughty, it knows what you like, it knows what will trigger you. It wants to keep you triggered, because that's how it keeps you, a consumer and a customer plugged in. Can you believe it? Doing this now? And we are easily programmable as people and we need to stay rooted and worded in God's word and his truth and not allow media hype, media manipulation, along with politicians from all sides of the spectrum with their fake smiles looking at you, lying to you.

1:17:32 Fly above that thunderstorm, come up hither, come up higher, come up where it's 2020 vision from heaven, with Jesus and his word, and make a decision. I will not be made a fool again. Amen, amen, hallelujah. Yes, he is, yes, he is. Thank you, lord. Lord, you are good. You are an ever flowing fountain of goodness. We receive from you. Worship team. Come on up, thank you, lord. Go ahead right now.

1:18:13 Just begin to drink. Begin to drink. You're not pouring out, you're letting him pour in. Receive in Jesus' name. Receive. The Bible says there is a stream. There is a stream that makes glad the city of God. The old King James says there is a river, the streams where off shall make glad the city of our God. Hallelujah, there is a river. The streams where off shall make glad the city of our God.

1:18:55 Do you know who the city of our God is? Who is Jerusalem? It's you, you are Jerusalem. You are Zion and the river of God is Jerusalem, and the river is the Holy Ghost. And the Bible says there is a river. The streams where off shall make glad the city of our God. May your heart be filled with gladness, the devil's plans rendered useless and broken over. You Be blessed.

1:20:01 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. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.