You're listening to the Miracle Word Podcast. We believe that the Word of God gives you the power to experience never-ending increase in every area. If you're ready for revelation that will take you to the next level, you're in the right place. Here's your host, Evangelist, author, and founder of Miracle Word University, Ted Shuttlesworth, Jr.
Hi, what's up guys? It is your friend and trusted because I'm trustworthy podcast host. Ted Shuttlesworth back with you again. Another Monday, this one's a little late in coming, but I didn't miss my deadline.
It is still Monday and we got a new podcast episode for you. As you guys know, I never, ever, slash rarely ever do this. And that what I'm referring to is repurposing content for the podcast. And I like to make sure that whatever content I'm putting out for you guys is brand new.
I don't like to recycle content, although you should sometimes, especially if it's good. But today, I want to because last week, my father and I did a recording together that was literally, I believe, so powerful and so needed right now in this generation that I wanted to give it to you guys in podcast format. So today, we're gonna be dealing with this thought process of mistakes that young ministers must avoid. And keep in mind that if you're not a preacher, pastor, evangelist, whatever, if you're a Christian, you're still a minister.
God has a plan and a call on your life to do great things for his kingdom. So this podcast is very, very relevant and applicable for your life. So you need to stay tuned. But my father who has been in the miracle ministry for over 43 years and has seen so many wonderful things that God's used to do was kind enough to be with me on these last two weeks of Facebook live broadcasts.
But this one really stuck out. And I know it's gonna be a blessing to you guys. So stay tuned and I'll be back at the end to pray with you guys and give you a few more announcements as well. I love you guys so much.
Enjoy this and I'll see you in just a few minutes. And share the broadcast because this is going to be very, very important today. I really believe that somebody's gonna receive a word today by instruction, by wisdom. That's gonna save you years of hurt, years of pain, years of debt.
I really believe that. The God will spare you from trouble that you should have gone through. But by a word of instruction, a word of guidance from the Holy Ghost. You can miss out on the setbacks that the devil had planned for your ministry and planned for your life.
I remember hearing Bishop David Oedepo say one time, he said mistakes can be very costly. He said some mistakes you can easily recover from. Some mistakes take years to recover from and other mistakes you'll never recover from. So you have to be very mindful that your life is important.
Your calling is important. What you're doing for God is important and it's not to be taken lightly. So all of the impartation that you can get, you should get. I'm talking about good impartation.
All valuable impartation you can get, get your hands on, apply it, and know that God's using it to take you to a higher place. And I believe that that's what God is doing. As I was praying this morning, one of the things I really felt the Lord say is that I believe that March is going to be a month, that God's going to give us divine momentum in the Holy Ghost, that we're going to quickly, and with an expedited method, carry out what God's called us to do. Get ready, this is where I'm encouraging you.
Get ready for what God's called you to do to be quickly accomplished in the month of March. But things you thought were gonna take through half the year to get accomplished, God will carry it out for you and with you before this quarter comes to an end in Jesus' name. And so we're gonna pray for you before the end of this broadcast and ask God to give you expedited answers to your prayers and to quickly take you into a flow of momentum of the Holy Ghost that nothing can stop. Amen, that you can quickly do what God's called you to do and God will do it because God has an agenda to accomplish on this earth.
Time is short, Jesus is coming and there's work to be done. Amen. How come about momentum? The closer you get to the coming of Christ, it won't take as long for your seed to come back as a harvest for prayers to be answered.
There is a prophetic acceleration in this time that we're living. And I feel that I think in the month of March that we're gonna see a picking up of the pace, picking up with speed and sometimes to go faster, you gotta stand still and see the glory of the Lord. Amen. Because one thing from God can propel you way past, way past, where you would be if you're just trying to do it in your own strength and power.
Amen. Promotion does come from the Lord. I think that's obviously what David probably recognized when he said better is one day in your courts than a thousand miles away else. God can do more for you in one day than you can do for yourself or that other people can do for you in a thousand days.
So that's why it's important that what you do for the Lord must be directed by the Lord. Psalm 127, the Bible says, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. So obviously we wanna do only what God's asked and called us to do and not be busy doing things that we thought up on our own. That was my dad's favorite verse.
Psalm 127, except the Lord build the house. They labor in vain that build it. Amen. I can do all things through Christ.
Whew, Lord it had gone. Praise God. Strengthened to me. Amen.
And I'm getting stronger every day since I fell and smashed my knee. Oh boy. Day by day. Every day God does something for us.
Amen. This is great. I love Facebook. I believe it's in the book of Lamentations that says, his mercies are new every morning and his faithfulness is great.
Amen. When you woke up this morning, you had new joy that comes in the morning, new mercies that come in the morning and his new faithfulness every single morning. That belongs to you. There's Pastor Ben Kroski from Holland.
Love you, Pastor Ben. And he's an Amsterdam. Love you guys. I wanna feed you to the guy I met at Rodney Hart Brown.
He is. Yeah. Hello brother. I remember you.
You're a good person. We love you. He's like an an anointed banana republic model. What does that mean?
Always dress very sharp. Amen. John, maybe you're good to see you. Love you.
Tony Lambert. Love you, buddy. So let's talk about some of these things. There's Pastor Tim Gibb just logged on from Sarnia, Ontario.
Bethel, Sarnia. Love you. When the Lord gives you instruction and you obey and a door has yet to open, do we be still in wait all the more? Here's the question.
What difference does it make? Which side of the harvest field you go into as long as you go in and get the harvest? Yeah. And I would also say, Ashley, when God gives you an instruction, there's always action attached to it.
So you keep doing what the Lord called you to do until the answer that he promised you comes to pass. What's the thing you always said before is that always go back to the last instruction God gave you. The last place that you obey God brings promotion. And the last place you disobeyed God.
If you don't go back and fix it, you'll never get past it. And it delays, if not prohibits, promotion. So it's important to obey the word of God. I mean, every time.
I do think this years ago, I heard that Paul Finkinbinder, a great minister in South America, they called him Hermano Pablo. He was on radio all over Central America, South America. He came to our Bible school and he preached a message. God has no green lights.
And he said, a lot of people are sitting around waiting to do the will of God, to look for doors, et cetera. But he said, God has no green lights. He already said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And here's what he said.
He said, when he was a young minister starting out in the 50s, he went to a village in Africa that had never heard the gospel. But Coca-Cola was already being sold in the village. He said, the executives in Atlanta didn't sit around and say, we want to take our product out. Eventually, we'll believe for an open door or whatever.
He said, they just go and do it. And he said, the church needs to have the same mentality. Instead of waiting around, you see the Macedonian vision that the Apostle Paul had is the extraordinary, but not the normal. You should just keep going and going.
And if you're not supposed to, God will put a check there and stop you. And a lot of people are waiting for a sign. And someone said, I put a fleece out before God. Stop fleecing God.
We are led by the spirit. We walk by faith, not by sight, not by the natural senses. And John 16, as many as are led and guided by that spirit. Bible says, how big when he the spirit of truth has come, he will lead, number one, and guide you into all truth.
So a lot of people, that inertia, the paralysis of analysis, my dad used to say, you're bound because you're waiting for a sign. We're waiting for a confirmation. You already have, and let me do it this way. You already have the word of God.
And Jesus said, go into all the world. Yes. And your aunt, Ellie, goes to Norm DeBois's church. Well, Norm didn't sit around and say, well, I wonder if I should win souls in Orlando.
They're at East Coast Believers Church. He just started doing the work. That's why I always like that kind of faith. You just do it.
And then when it was time to start another work, you don't sit around fast and pray and get the board to agree with you. You just do what you got to do. And one of the signs, I would say to younger ministers, that you can tell when God does it, is there'll be supernatural provision. Amen.
If he told you to do it. God pays for what he orders. That's it. So if you didn't catch that, put it in the comment section.
One of the signs that God is moving you to do something supernatural in your ministry, is that he provides the resources for you to do it. One of the signs that it's not God, is that everything that you're having to do to make that thing happen, has to come from your own resource, your own strength and your own provision. You shouldn't struggle. The Bible says, fight the good fight of faith, Paul told Timothy.
It's the one fight the devil can ever win. And it's the one fight as a believer, you always win. And so, you know, preacher said, I'm fighting tigers, I'm fighting lions. Well, stop it.
And just go along for the ride. Let God make a way for you. He said, my yoke's easy. Yes.
He was like, I remember one time a minister's wife came to see your mother, they went to high school together. And she said, brother Ted, I've heard, you know, you've had some difficulty. She said, it must be so hard for you to be in the ministry and do what you're doing. I looked at her and said, sister, it's never been easier.
Jesus said, my yoke's easy. My burden is light. That's right. And that's how you got to think.
Absolutely. If you're struggling, there's somewhere your flesh is overruling or overriding the spirit man. But once you are led by the spirit, yes, it's the easiest thing in the world. That's right.
And I want to stop right there because that's something that even right now we have popular people that are preaching and ministering. I literally saw it this morning, people that have the ear of this nation, that are teaching millennials and those that are around this nation around the world really, that sometimes God takes you down a few steps. And that that's God. And he'll make it hard sometimes.
But then he'll take you up some steps. Literally, this has just been preached. And it's being preached. This thought process is common.
And it's demonic. It is not of God. Because it gets people in the mindset that you need to expect to struggle. And here's the problem.
Is that when you're going through a struggle, you now don't know whether it's an attack from the enemy against your ministry of your life. Thank you, John. Or if it's God that's trying to bring you back into humility or whatever those people think that God does by knocking you down a few pegs. And so we've got a whole generation of ministers that if they face something, they're unsure what to do.
How do I address this? Do I stand against it in faith? Because it's an attack against my ministry? Or do I accept it with humility?
Because it's God knocking me down a few rums on the ladder. God's, and let me be very emphatic about this, God's desire for you and your ministry is that you never stop increasing until Jesus comes back. And I want to read a verse of scripture to back up what I'm talking about. Now while you're doing that, do you remember that guy years ago, Bobby McFerrin?
Yes. I heard his song and I thought it was a gospel song. Don't worry, be happy. Yeah.
So I went to church and I was trying to teach the people. And I got the funniest stairs, but I like the song. Don't worry, be happy. And there's too much worry in the body of Christ.
That's right. And we need, and he's going to read this verse, but we need to have the understanding that struggle is not a part of the message of Jesus Christ. Someone said, well, he'll do better once he gets his cross. Well, first of all, a cross is something you willfully take up.
That's right. And then secondly, and I really believe this, a lack of understanding of how faith works. Absolutely is messing up younger Christians and even older Christians. Darryl thinks that's worth two smiles and a nice set of teeth.
Amen, Darryl. I'm telling you, it's so demonic that that thought process is being pushed into the body of Christ, because it's not only does it contradict the word of God. You know, people take Jesus statements that he made about being persecuted for the faith. And they turn those statements into suffering from things that Jesus already redeemed us from.
That's it. You can't take the context of scripture. It's called proper, hermeneutical study. It means that you rightly divide the word of God.
You can't take scriptures out of context. Which means it can be wrongly divided. Absolutely. And people are doing it.
And they'll take things that Jesus said about persecution for standing with Christ or preaching the gospel. And they'll read those verses and see that means that sickness will come upon us. See, that means that poverty will overtake us from time to time. But that's not what Jesus was talking about.
You know, Reggie Scarborough, before you read that, he was talking to me yesterday, but he said, this beat up mentality. In other words, God beats you up to fix you up. Is unscriptural. It's not scriptural.
And I said, Brother Reggie, I couldn't agree with you more. And unfortunately, he was telling me, I don't know who it was, but a major national minister wanted to come preach for him. And he said, 500 copies of a book to his church. And when Brother Scarborough looked at, he said, I don't believe none of this.
So he called the guy. And he said, you said this, this, and this. And the guy said, I don't believe that. In other words, I don't know if he had a ghost writer or what happened.
But unfortunately, and I know you're going to address this, but some of the younger leaders and ministers have this. God beats you up to fix you up mentality. It's an extreme form of Calvinism is what it is. You know what I mean by that?
Yeah, I know exactly what you're doing. He lives down the street, Ben Calvin. Yeah, it's ridiculous. Let me read you a verse of scripture from Proverbs 4 and verse 18.
And this needs to be in your spirit for the rest of your life. The Bible says, the path of the righteous. Somebody in the comments write, that's me. Yes.
That's me. The path of the righteous. So what follows in this verse describes what the path of your life should look like for the rest of your life. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
The path of the righteous is like the first light of dawn. Amen, Terry. That shines brighter and brighter and brighter. And listen to me, 2019 is going to be brighter than 2018.
2020 will be brighter if Jesus Terry is than 2019. March is going to be brighter than February was. April will be brighter than March was. We don't go backward.
We move forward. We don't decrease. We increase. And the Bible is very clear.
I mean, I can take you for scripture description. I say a 119. Put these references in the comment section for people that don't believe like this. I say 119.
If you're willing and obedient, you'll eat the good of the land. Didn't say you'll struggle. I've heard people actually say, well, you can do all the Lord tells you to do. And you'll still face troubles and trials.
And you'll still go through issues. And you'll still be defeated. You can do a listen. You can obey all the instructions God ever gives you.
But that doesn't mean you'll have the victory all the time. That's not what the Bible teaches. If you're willing and obedient, you'll eat the good of the land. Job 3611, if they'll only obey and serve me, they'll spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures.
Deuteronomy 28.1, if you'll be faithful to observe and obey all that I command you this day, then I'll set you on high above all the nations of the world. You'll lend to many nations. You will not borrow. The obedience that you have for the covenant of this mighty word, John 14.21, you've heard me quote many times.
Jesus said it this way, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father. And then I will love him and I will manifest myself to him. You can't have Jesus manifest himself to you.
And you still be in destruction and in loss by missing the victory. When Jesus manifests himself to you, he manifests victory every time. Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 1557, inspired by the Holy Ghost. Thanks be unto God who always gives us the victory through Jesus Christ, power, Lord.
He always gives us what? The victory. So if there's a point in your life or ministry where you don't have the victory in a certain area, it is never because God slated you for decrease or slated you for problems. It is never God's design to make your path darker.
It's always God's design to take you into brighter days. We go from grace unto grace, from victory unto victory, from faith unto faith. It means that we don't go backwards. We move forward by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Whether some are all used to teach us young guys, faith always goes forward. Always goes forward, always gives us the victory. Thanks be unto God. Thanks be unto God.
I will always. Always. So here's the real truth. In other words, don't plan for defeat.
Don't plan for defeat. Don't let your ministry be one that listens to the voices. This is why, and I'm sure you could speak about this. I think one of the biggest mistakes of young ministers in this generation is that they listen to the wrong voices and they'll just listen to stuff because it's trendy or they listen to stuff because it's popular.
And think, well, because he has a big church, what he's saying must be right. Just because you have a big church doesn't mean that the doctrine you're preaching is correct. You have to make sure that what somebody's saying lines up with the word of God. And you've got to make sure that what you hear is building your faith and putting you in position to overcome because it is truth that sets you free.
You know, here's a revelation of what's in a person's heart. Have you ever heard him talk about, well, we're gonna have a soft launch and then we'll have the hard launch for the church later. Look that is if it doesn't work on the soft launch, then maybe it'll work on the hard launch and as a guy explained this to young preachers, I thought this guy is a nut. If God told you to do something, just do it.
Do it. Not a soft launch and a hard launch. Just do it. The blessing will come on it.
Increase will begin to work because you see the kingdom of God is based on increase. And as you said, I see a lot of younger ministers, least younger than me, that are on today. Let me just say this, if God before you, there's nobody's gonna be against you. Who can be against you?
And even the devil himself cannot stop what God's gonna do through your life. You should lift your hands right now as a believer, as a man or a woman of God, and begin to thank God that no weapon formed against you shall prosper. Amen. Every tongue that rises against you, thou shalt condemn, that's you, that's me.
We speak up and we let the devil know. And this is a key, I believe, especially in the area what you're dealing with. And that is to keep a good attitude. You have to fill your spirit, your heart, with the word of God that literally, your thinking is then renewed by the word.
And you begin to think there's nothing that can happen to me that God can't do something about it. Oh, hallelujah. So cool, Ramachiah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Glory to God, I felt that myself.
Glory to God. You know, it's interesting, you've got to be very guarded about what you allow into your spirit. Oh, Kenny. You know, people say, have you heard this guy preach?
No, I haven't. How can you have never heard him preach? You've never heard him preach one message? No, he's one of those popular speakers of our generation.
I've never heard him. Because I've heard clips of what he believes or what he teaches, and it doesn't line up at all with what I believe. You know what I used to do? Preachers just say, we'd love to have you.
Stand as a take, this is years ago, so we can see what your preaching's like. And you know what I always answer to? Send me one of your tapes, make sure that I'm working with somebody that is preaching, right? That's right.
They never had me come in and I knew right then I wouldn't be going in. That's right. But it's a two-way street. We must have unity.
And the only way you can have unity is if you believe the word of God. Amen. And there'll be disagreements. Sure.
You know, he has this shirt, I have this shirt. I like this, he likes that. That doesn't mean that we're not in unity. It just means everybody has personal preferences.
Same thing with the gospel. I said this the other day, I was with Bishop Thomas, and we were talking, I said, there's too many specialists in the body of Christ. I'm a prosperity preacher. I'm a healing preacher.
Paul said, I declare unto you the whole council of God. Amen. The whole council of God. Amen.
So my encouragement would be in this area of what you're doing today, study to show yourself approved, you dealt with that already. But learn how to declare all of God's word. Amen. And don't just be a specialist.
I don't think that you could, I mean, I could be wrong on this. I've read the Bible. I spend time often reading it. I don't think you could find in the Bible an example of a man of God or a minister of God, older New Testament, that only focused on one area of what God does only.
You look at the prophets. They had deliverance in their ministries. They had healing in their ministries. They preached repentance in their ministries.
You go into the New Testament to the apostles, the disciples, they saw healing. They saw salvation. They saw baptism of the Holy Spirit. They saw deliverance.
They preached repentance. I don't think you can find an example of somebody in the Bible. And if I'm wrong, let me know. But I don't think I've ever found an example of a minister in the Bible, older New Testament.
They only focused on one aspect of the things of God. And look at your great preachers that I come up under. Let's just some of them are all Brother Shambok or Roberts. These are the men when I was young coming up.
They preached it all. Brother Summeral might preach on prophecy. He might preach on deliverance. Now, there are certain areas that God uses a minister.
Brother Summeral was mightily used of God to cast out demons. Brother Shambok preached by the gift of faith. Oral Roberts had a great understanding. Jesus appeared to him in Phillips, Oklahoma, the school there in Enid.
And he was fasting in praying. And he got a revelation of Christ the healer. Tia Lausborn, God gave him a vision. He saw Bible in the casket, God let him choose.
If you'll preach the word, you'll have a long life. And he did. I've heard him tell the story. But there may be an area that the Holy Spirit will use you in the Spirit.
Now, John chapter two, the Bible says many believed on his name when they saw the miracles which he did. So I've always emphasized healing because I want to get a lot of people saved. A lot of people saved. So someone says, well, Brother Ted specializes in healing.
No, I specialize in soul winning. And I just found through the years, if you want to get a lot of people saved, having the blind seed, the deaf ear, the crowd comes out, the local area, and the people hear the gospel. And since the last six weeks, we have just about over 400 souls saved. Hans has told me when Elizabeth said he was with me.
Most of the people he saw saved in Goedys Church, they were from the town over 100 plus in Margate. We had strong older calls, but Saturday and Sunday were the biggest. And Bishop told me, say, well, this people, we don't know who they are. And so hundreds were being born again.
But after the operation of miracles, young preachers, whoever you may be, you must remember and never forget it, that God will give you a word and you have to be faithful with that word. And that comes to the area of integrity. That's exactly right. Absolutely.
So if there's an area of your ministry that doesn't seem to be working. I mean, you feel like you're struggling all the time. For example, let's say that you have a great revelation on soul winning and you're seeing people saved all the time, but you just can't seem to break through in the area of seeing people healed from sickness or disease. It means, not that God has not called you to heal the sick or to have that kind of ministry.
It only means that you don't have sufficient truth in that area in your spirit to operate at that level of manifestation. For the Bible says in John 832 that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. There has to be the area of a revelation of God's word in an area before your faith can work in that area. Faith is not general.
Faith is specific to subject matter. That's why the Bible shows us that there are people who had faith to be saved, but they didn't have faith to receive the Holy Ghost. They had faith to be saved, but no faith to be healed because faith is compartmentalized by topical study. So my father has always preached that what you want to see take place in your life and ministry, then begin to preach it because you get what you preach.
Faith, Romans 10 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So if you want to see that, preach to yourself first, meaning, I remember we used in your younger years of ministry, I was just a little boy. But we had those conversion vans driving all around the country to these meetings, but almost always you'd have a cassette tape on of somebody preaching or teaching something. Yeah, and I never played secular country, whatever.
I always had, in those days cassette tape, before you were born in 8 tracks, I used to play the whole trip, somebody preaching somebody singing the gospel, filling my spirit up every single day. I probably carried 50 to 60 tapes of Brother Shambox preaching. There was a zip case and you couldn't zip it and then I had places like that. Oh, those cassettes.
Yeah, inside. And I had A. Allen, I had, or Roberts, I had Brother Hagen. I just constantly fed my spirit with the Word of God as a younger minister.
It's important that you feed your spirit with the Word of God. Absolutely. You know, one of the things you can speak about this, I think one of the things that young ministers struggle with, especially in this generation where so many things are pulling at your time, pulling at your attention, you know, really there's a lot of time-wasters in our generation. In this generation, more than any other that's ever existed are things to pull your time and waste your time.
But one of the things I think a lot of ministers are tempted to fall into is spiritual laziness, spiritual laziness, meaning that they allow things to pull them out of time so they don't pray. They don't study the Word. They don't try to receive impartation as you did through listening to preaching and teaching, to build their faith. They allow themselves to get sucked into other things in this generation because there are so many things to be sucked into.
And here's the thing. They've designed these things with the psychological background to know how to feed you what you like and how to make sure that you're just getting into a circle of content so that you never get out. You say, oh, I like that. I want to watch that.
I want to hear this. I want to do this. They've learned how to put your mind almost on cruise control to keep selecting another thing. And before you know it, three hours has passed.
Netflix has auto play. YouTube has a recommended for you section. And these things are actually designed to keep you in a content loop so that you never leave their website, that you never leave their product. And it's easier than ever.
You know, back in the day, you could just lay the newspaper down. But now they're just feeding you up more content. Watch this next. Watch this next.
And they've learned how to pull you out of your everyday life and put you into their product. So more than ever, it's easy to be have your time wasted by things that have no eternal value. But what would you say? There's a lot of people that spiritual laziness is something that's a problem.
Well, let me come at that this way. Years ago, I used to go to Brother Higgins meetings if I had free time. And there was a precious brother out in New York, Manuate New York, Clinton Udderbach. And he told me, when I was young, I went to A.
Allen's meetings at St. Nicholas Arena in New York City. And he said, I got born again and I got to stay. But he said, you know, I'm dealing with what Ted just said here.
My son said, Brother Udderbach said this to me. He said, I learned, I learned to guard the anointing in my life. And Brother Higgins called him up in this meeting and he just started saying, playing piano. I will trust in the Lord.
Someone said, what's that going to do with spiritual laziness? Hold on. I will trust in the Lord. And I see he began to sing that.
The Lord said this to me. He said, you feel the anointing coming out of Brother Udderbach singing and piano playing. I said, I sure do. The Lord said that's because he gives himself to me every day.
And my presence is with him. When your spiritual lazy, or you're lazy and you're not pressing in. I don't know how to say it the best, but let me use it that way. Then that keeps you from the greater anointing.
And it keeps you as a vessel from carrying the mighty presence of God. Oh, now Brother Udderbach's in heaven now and so is Brother Higgins. But I can still sing with my hand raised to heaven. I will trust in the Lord.
But, and my wife will tell you your mother, and you probably know this, every day I'm pressing in. Every day I'm pressing in. Which means that even after four decades of doing this, you can't give up and you can't let up. I've seen older ministers mess up.
You know what I believe it is? I think they feel like they've arrived. They've done it for so long. And they get slack.
Yes. And they get spiritually lazy. Yes. And so you got to press in.
Press in. Yes. Press in. Because there is a devil that is out to keep you from being effective.
That's right. In the anointing. God bless you Charlie. You know, you've done this for years.
One of the things that I tell people, I feel like it's so important. If you don't set or schedule time with the Lord, you'll never have it. Because you used to preach this about, you know, people say, I'll pray when I wake up tomorrow morning. Then they get up and there's higher.
They hit the snooze button seven times. I'll pray when I get my lunch break at work. I'll pray when I get home from work. I'll pray right before bed.
But when they get under the covers and get real cozy, I'll do it in the morning when I wake up. And if you don't schedule time with the Lord, you will never have it. Because there'll always be something you know as well as how you do. Free time is a thing of the past.
Almost nobody has free time anymore. It's that there's always something there to fill up your free time. And I find it interesting because even in the New Testament, they were doing this in the early church. In Acts chapter three, the Bible says Peter and John were going to the temple at the hour of prayer, which was the ninth hour or three o'clock in the afternoon.
One of the things that sticks out to me there is that the early church had a scheduled hour of prayer that they got involved with on a daily basis. That they didn't skip. It wasn't do it whenever you have free time. It wasn't, you know, whenever you feel the Lord leading you.
No, we're meeting together for a scheduled hour of prayer on a daily basis. I've heard ministers say this, you know, I was listening to Bishop Wydepo during fasting in prayer. He said, if you're fasting, if you're fasting food and you're not praying at least an hour a day, you might as well go ahead and eat something because you're not pressing into the things of God. And fasting by itself does nothing for you.
Prayerful fasting. It's just a hunger strike. It's just all it is as a diet. It's starvation.
But when you couple it with prayer, it becomes a supernatural force that takes you into what God has planned for your life. And so I would say it's a good bar to set in your life to say, I'm going to give God an hour of my day in the morning to pray and to get into his presence. And listen, if you don't, if you've never prayed for an extended period of time like that, it's like we heard that minister say on TV, God doesn't want us praying for long periods of time. Prayer should be quick.
Or the young guy from the bar east. No, no, no, this was this was a guy, an American famous famous preacher. He said, God doesn't, you know, long prayer is a sign of unbelief. God doesn't want.
I said, I wish somebody would have told Jesus that for in Luke six, we went into the mountains and prayed through the night. I think we all agree that there's a lot of preachers on television that they would be better being butchers or Christian. As God knows, they haven't even preached the first message yet. But you know, extended prayer, it's all through the Bible.
It's all through the New Testament. And if you've never prayed for an extended period of time, we've put together a tool to help you for free. And we've put together 100 prayer points that you can use that are based on the scriptures, that you can take into your prayer time and literally pray according to the Word of God, Kingdom prayers that will keep you on track with what God desires. If you'd like to get them for free, you can download our app for your phone or tablet.
If you're an Android user, go to the Google Play Store. If you're an Apple user at the App Store and search Miracle Word. And inside that app, there's a place right on the bar that says prayer points. You click on it, pop some right up on your screen, and you can use that as a tool to begin to pray the Word of God.
But you know, David Wilkerson did this years ago, but he talked about something called tithing your time. Tithing your time to God. And he did that. A tithe of your day, if you get it down to exact measure, is two hours and 24 minutes.
That's the exact tithe of a 24 hour day. What can you do for two hours and 24 minutes throughout your day that you can give to God? One of them is you can give an hour to prayer. You could give an hour to listening to preaching and teaching.
We make that easy. We've given you Miracle Word radio that never stops. Put it on your car. You can put it on.
It's also in the app. You can put it on at your house. I got it the other day on my... is it Alexa?
Alexa. You just tell Alexa. I said Miracle Word radio, please. That's right.
And next thing I know my son's preaching in the dining room. We give you podcasts, broadcasts like this. You can watch on Archive or Watch Live. There's all kinds of things you can do to get the Word of God preached and taught to you.
You could give that to God for an hour and be imparted to from teaching and preaching on YouTube or whatever. But then you could take another 30 minutes and read the mighty Word of God. If you just did those three things every day, I promise you that you would go to the next level in your own spiritual life for God by praying an hour, listening to preaching, teaching for an hour, reading the Word of God for half an hour, doing it at your own ratio. But watch and see as you put those three seeds into your spirit, God would take you to the next level just by tithing your time to the kingdom of God.
When you do, that sounds like you're getting very works mentality minded about it. You're getting very... sounds to me like your faith without works is dead. It's Baptist.
It's funny to me. That's a joke by the way. It's funny to me how everybody does this in every other area of their life except their spiritual life. People know there has to be routine and discipline for their work.
There has to be routine and discipline for their physical body. They go to the gym. People will stand an hour on a treadmill. You know, they'll lift weights.
It's funny how in business people will network for an hour. They'll read business books from Barnes & Noble to figure out how to be an entrepreneur for an hour. But when it comes to their spiritual life, oh no, we're just going to let God do what he wants to do. There needs to be a disciplined routine that keeps you in the power of God on a daily basis so that God can use you at a greater level.
Have you seen on an iPhone? It came up the other day telling me how much screen time. Screen time I had for the weekend was one hour and four minutes and I apologized to God. An hour and four minutes.
That's a good one. Is it? I felt convicted. If that's convicting, then I need to get on my knees at this very moment and begin to repent unto the Lord.
Screen time against you now. That's funny. You've seen this. I'm sure spiritual laziness.
What did you do to combat that even in the earlier years of your ministry? When you start having demon-possessed people come in the meetings, you begin to find out really quick whether God sent you or you just went and you begin to press him. They brought an insane woman in our meeting in Akron, Ohio. Frank Neemus watching it was his father in our brother, Crystal Police Church.
This girl was chained and shackled. They brought her from the mental institution. She broke those chains and picked up one of the women in the church and threw about five rows back. I saw that and I said to the husband, I'll catch the devil out of her, but I want you to give me three days to prepare myself.
I learned that from Brother Sumrall. When that girl in the Philippines was demon-possessed, they put on the national radio across the Philippines. Brother Sumrall heard it and he said, Lord, I want to cast the devil out of that girl. The Lord led him to fast.
So I did the same and prayed. And on the end of the third day they brought her back and the demons knew I'd been in the presence of God. And of course I never would say it, but I'm just saying they could tell it because they started speaking out of her. We're not coming out.
Well, three days before they weren't talking like that. And then they said, we know you're a man of God and they kept on going and going. And I took my Bible and I laid it on the girl's head. And when I did, the demons started screaming, it's burning.
It's burning. That's correct. It's Clarita. Not Clarita.
It's Clarita. Villanueva was the unprostitute in Manila. But the demons came out of her. Now you say, what did I do?
I believe that when you are confronted with the reality of the supernatural realm, you begin to have the understanding. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And if you don't have that urgency, well understanding and urgency, then you'll never be successful in any ministry, whether you're in a ministry gift or a believer. The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but we do wrestle.
Yes. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. And then there's four classifications of evil that Paul in Ephesians 6 taught us that we deal with. You will deal with one of those levels at some point in your Christian experience.
So you have to stay filled with the Holy Ghost, filled up with the Word, and available. Amen. And if you're spiritually lazy, then you come off the lines. That's right.
The front lines of evangelism, of ministry. But if you have a heart to do something for God, I believe you'll press in even more. I believe that. So I hope that answers your question, son.
And not to mention too, is that I would say if you coupled with that, would you say one of the reasons that people many times don't pursue that is because they don't have an eternal mindset. They're too focused on what's happening now in the natural. They don't recognize that there are people who need what they have, that there's something God's called them to do. And so if they just allow themselves to go into a zombified mode, where they're just going through life, work home, chores, family, TV, and they don't understand there's a greater purpose for my life, then I need to be used by God.
If they don't do that, they'll not value the fuel they need to get it done. Yeah, and you got to remember the Apostle Paul taught that we're to die daily. And as long as you're alive under the world and the things of your flesh, you can't be used of God. That's right.
But if you'll die out to your flesh, die out to the desires of the flesh, I call it a kingdom mentality. Amen. The only reason I'm alive is to work for Christ. Amen.
When I stop working for Him, He'll probably call me home. I intend to be the oldest preacher you ever met, because I don't intend to ever stop working for God. Amen. But every day, I have to.
Now here's where you can pray this prayer. Lord, not my will. Yes. But your will be done.
The will of God working through us on the earth. You young preachers be encouraged. Yes. God wants to use you more than you want to be used.
That's right. That's what I found out. And then He'll always open doors. Yes.
And those doors. Paul said there was open unto me an effectual door at Pentecost. But the devil tried to resist Him. That's how you know you're in the will of God.
That's right. And so these four classifications of evil and Ephesians 6 is a part of why we need to die out to our flesh. Because if you're a dead man, the devil can't find you. That's right.
The only way he can locate you is by how you talk. If you're speaking the word of God, then he doesn't know where you're at or who you are. Or is the Bible? Yes.
It's said by Paul in Colossians, I believe chapter 3 and verse 3. I am dead. And my life is hid with Christ and God. With Christ and God.
Christ and God. Paul wrote to Timothy. And I'd like you to comment on this too. In 2 Timothy chapter 2.
Now this would be a great place to look because see Paul and older minister who actually is coming to the very end of his ministry. Scholars tell us 2 Timothy is the last book Paul wrote in his ministry. And so he writes this final letter to Timothy and he says in verse 20, now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some of them for honorable use and some for dishonorable.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. Verse 22, now here's the instruction of how to be gold and silver and not wood and clay. Flea youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to everyone.
The Lord is the teach, patiently and during evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. Verse 26, that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. I thought that's interesting that it was to be, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies that breed quarrels.
There's a lot of drama that can suck people in and get involved with, people have beef with people. I know people won't even talk to people and they're both holy, those filled Christians and they're both ministers. I know all kinds of situations like that. But the Bible says here, there are things that can keep you back from being gold and being silver, meaning that God wants to, this is interesting, God wants to use some people but can't.
It's not that God doesn't want to use you, he wants to use some. Or they're not receiving the instruction, but he can't. Now Paul, in 2 Timothy, my son brought this up, in the 13th verse of the last chapter, Paul said the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when you come bring it with you and the books, but especially the parchments. What you have there is the mantle, you have the logos, the books, parchments was the revelations that Paul was getting from God, that's the Rima.
Three things that this young minister had access to, his name was Carpus, was he had access to the mantle, he had access to the logos and he had access to the Rima. It's important, every believer, especially young ministers to have a Paul in your life. Now if you read on, the Bible says that in this book they separated the sheep from the goats. And when you read this second, the pistol of Timothy, there were 12 reprobates like Alexander the Copersmith, 15 that passed and then the Bible says, five Asians that turned away from the gospel.
Departures speak of the past, that was Demas. And Luke was not alone, but the Bible says he was present as a scribe. Mark represented the future, which is up for grabs. Paul gave Mark a second chance.
Now here's what I want to say to you that are watching this right now, you have access to the mantle, we call that the mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. You have access to the logos, the written word of God, I hold it in my hand. I read it every day, I study it. And then Rima, a special word that God has for you.
And if you're not pressing in, if you're spiritually lazy as we dealt with a moment ago, you're going to miss your Rima word. But once you get that, oh, Hallelujah. Amen. I tell you qualifications are met by the area of the Rima word.
And these that became reprobates and there is a list of 12 of them. And then later the Bible speaks of these that were from Asia that turned away from the gospel. Yes. What would have happened if those men had received the gospel, then I tell you China would be on fire for God today.
Well, that is how critical your young preachers need to see yourself. That's it. And change entire continents and entire continents can be changed. Now, there was a man by the name of, I forget his name right now, but he led D.L.
Moody to the Lord. D.L. Moody led Billy Sunday to the Lord. Billy Sunday led Mordecai Ham to the Lord and Mordecai Ham led Billy Graham to the Lord.
Your preaching has the potential to change the world. Amen. I'm sure D.L. Moody didn't know that someday a man in his lineage, if you will, in the flow would be raised up to change our known world.