We'd like to welcome you again to Rise and Shine with Tony and Melissa Hurst. We're really excited about the teaching that we've been doing and we're going to follow along that same vein today. So we encourage you to, if you have your Bibles, get in and sit down and let's look into God's Word together. Because I believe that we have some things that so many times we're looking for answers and a lot of times we're looking for solutions and we don't realize that and we're trying to look for those externally and not realizing that a lot of times that our answer is within us.
We already have all that we need to overcome anything and everything that this world would try to bring against us. So let's look into God's Word and let's just discover some of these things and help to build these truths in us so that we can live an overcoming life every day. Please connect with the Rise and Shine by visiting our Facebook page at facebook.com slash a Rise and Shine TV show or emailing us at a Rise and Shine TV at gmail.com. We look forward to connecting with you.
Welcome again. If you have your Bibles sit down and let's look into God's Word. We're going to be talking again about some of the long the same lines that we've been talking about. There's so much in God's Word that it has to say about us as believers and about who we are in Christ.
And you don't hear a lot of this teaching to be honest with you. Not saying that it's not out there and that it's not being taught. But I think it's really some of the most important teaching that there is because so many times as Christians as we said in the introduction that we're going around looking for answers. We're all times searching for someone to pray for us and there's nothing wrong with looking for somebody to agree with you in prayer or to help you to pray or anything like that.
But sometimes we do all of these external things. Overlooking the most important part is the fact that every born again believer has the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit living inside them. And he's there for one purpose and one purpose only and that's to assist us in anything and everything that we would ever need in life. He has all the answers.
He has all the ability. He has all the power. And he has been made 100% available to us. And so that's what we want to focus on because I don't believe it's God's will in these last days for the church or the body of Christ to be weak, to be helpless, to be overcome, to be fearful.
And so we're going to be running and sticking its head in the sand so to speak, but that we have that power and that strength that he wants us to have and to live an overcoming life. So we're going to look at Acts 11 verse 21 and we've been talking along this line about whether or not the church is going to be powerful or pitiful. And we say the church we're not just talking about something out here that you can't grasp. You can't see when you can't really put your arms around.
But when we talk about the church we're talking about local churches. We're talking about individuals that make up the local church. We're talking about members of the body of Christ. We're talking about born again believers.
That's what we're talking about. And so God wants us to live a powerful life. He doesn't want us always looking for the answer. He doesn't want us always looking for someone to help us or assist us and pray for us.
But he wants us to have the answers for someone. He wants us to be the answer to someone else's prayer, to be the one that's praying for someone else that's in need or to be the one that's helping someone else. And that's where God wants us to be. So you read Acts 11 and 21 for us.
Are the King James to begin with? And the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Let's go back and read 20 as well, can we? And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch's bake and to the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus.
And the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned into the Lord. Now this is an interesting scripture here. This is after the persecution came on the church primarily at the hand of Saul who eventually became Paul. And they were driven out of Jerusalem because they had gotten comfortable and they were not fulfilling the call because it had been years and years since Jesus had stood on the Mount of Olive and told them to go into the whole world preaches gospel.
He said, all the world is not just Jerusalem. It's not just America or Judea. It's not even that. It's the whole world.
He wanted this good news to go to every nation, to every ethnic group. There is on the planet. It's what his goal was. And so they had not done that.
So now persecution has come and has forced them to do what got it already called them to do. And still, many of them were still sticking to. And I'm sure it's so hard because for generations and generations, you have to think of the mindset that they would have had that it was, they were not to affiliate with anybody that was non-Jewish. If you were a Gentile, so to speak, that means you were of another nationality and God had a covenant with Israel up into that time and to Israel only.
And so, I mean, they had a lot to overcome. This has been ingrained into them for thousands of generations. So now all of a sudden, God says, Jesus Christ, He says, go into all the world, preach this gospel to every nation. Well, it took a supernatural event in the life of Peter and He still argued with it.
You know, wanted to argue with it when God sent him down to the house of Cornelius who was a Gentile. But see, that was God's will all alone. And then even after that event took place, when he was called on the carpet, so to speak, at the church in Jerusalem, to the rest of the elders, the apostles and James the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, they even began to question him in not a good way about what he was doing doing this. Well, then he simply rehearsed what he'd taken place.
And he said, hey, he said, Holy Ghost, fellow, name, just like he did on us. And we heard them speak with other tongues. So who were we to withstand God? So when they saw the evidence of God's hand and God's will in this situation, no longer could they argue.
You know, and then God sent eventually converts, saw, and renamed him Paul and sends him to the Gentiles, you know, to preach that gospel. And it seems like that every time that he attempted to go into the synagogue and he wanted to argue with the Jews, the Jews would try to stone him. They would beat him. They would try to grant him out of town.
Everything imaginable. But when he went to the Gentiles, he didn't have that much of an opposition. You know, it was only when because God had called him to take this gospel to the Gentiles. And so we see here that when these were driven out of Jerusalem, not all of them, you know, some of them went into other areas, you know, around in the Jewish community.
But these here gave us a list of nationalities here that some actually stretched out and began to speak to the Gentiles and begin to read that 20th verse again. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. We see the Grecians were not Jews. Then it goes on and read that next verse.
This is really what we want to get at. And the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Now you see the way it's worded and the way it's the continuity of it. It didn't say that they turned to the Lord and then they believed, you know, and then the hand of the Lord was on them.
No, it said the first thing was what? The hand of the Lord was on these ones, these individuals that preached this gospel to the Gentile nation at that time. Okay, they began to preach to them. Okay.
And then it says a hand of the Lord was on them and what was next? A great number believed. See, they believed that when you look at the hand of the Lord, see, when you go back to the Old Testament and you study, you know, especially the prophets ministry and the Old Testament and you see the hand of the Lord. Anytime it talks about the hand of the Lord, what it's talking about is the person of the Holy Spirit and what he does in the life of a believer to assist him and enable him to do what God's holding to do.
So the hand of the Lord came of them as they preached that gospel. It wasn't just an intellectual discourse. It wasn't just a dry sermon, as we might say. There was something different about it.
The anointing was on it to the point where it preers pierced the hearts of the people. And I'm sure that there were probably signs and wonders that were being done at the same time. The Scripture doesn't necessarily give us that here, but it does say the hand of the Lord was on them. And it says, and there was many that believed, and because they believed, they turned to the Lord.
And so what we're bringing out here is the point of the necessity of having the hand of the Lord or the anointing or the moving of the Spirit in our lives to enable us to do what God's called us to do. And here it doesn't really even, I noticed it's interesting here. Now these men may have been, you know, or women could have been apostles, they could have been prophets, you know, or evangelists or whatever, but it doesn't give us any indication of that, does it? It just simply these went out and did that.
So I think it does that because so many times in our religious thinking, we think that the only ones that are supposed to do anything or have any kind of the kind of things. Or have any kind of a special call or be used by God in any way is the phyophobe ministry or the preacher, so to speak. But you know, this right here was not referring to that. And we also, you know, we did look back at one time about when Paul was converted.
And when Ananias came in and laid his hands on him, God used him, gave him a vision, sent him down to where Saul was at at that time, and he says, and he prays. And Ananias, it even clearly says that Ananias was a disciple. In other words, he was a layman. He was a simple follower.
He was just a simple follower of Christ. He was someone that attended the local church and probably served in that church and was serving the Lord to his best. But seeing those days, they thought differently. They had an understanding that the call of God on every individual's life is to take this gospel into all the world.
Now when you go back, even at the Book of Matthew or the Book of Mark where we see the great commission, you know, sometimes I think we get the idea that the only ones that were present was the Twelve Apostles. But even when you go into the Book of Acts, chapter 1, and it begins to talk about, you know, about what Jesus began to instruct them, about going to the upper room and staying there. So they'd be in dude with power. The Holy Ghost has come upon them and they spoke with other tongues.
A lot of times I think we get the idea even there that it was only the Twelve. Well, if it was only the Twelve, how did 120 show up? Word got out somehow, didn't it? So you see, so what we do a lot of times is we impose things on scripture that's really not in there.
You know, and we assume in our thinking because we don't really pay attention to the way things are worded a lot of times, and we don't really study things out. We just kind of casually surface read it, and we get the idea that well, that was only the Twelve Apostles that it was talking to, but it wasn't. See, there was a potential there of being over 500 if you read other letters from the church that Paul wrote that Jesus appeared to quite a few people. So potentially they could have been a whole lot of people and had up a room.
But then not all of them showed up, but the Bible is very, very clear when it says 120, about 120 showed up. So we know that his commission was not just my plume, his commission wasn't just to the Twelve. It was to the whole church. So it's the whole church's responsibility to take this gospel to all the world.
See, and if God has called us to take this gospel, to preach this gospel to every creature into the entire world, then it's everybody's responsibility to be a part of that whole procedure, and to be a part of that, and expect God to use you to supernaturally minister to people, and lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ, and expect the hand of the Lord to be on you to enable you to do such a thing. And to expect God to use you with signs, miracles, and wonders. Because when we look again, we look again at Mark 16 in one of the great commissions. You know, Jesus said, going to all the world, preach the gospel, and He said, these signs are following them to believe.
The fifth thing He said was what? And they, believers, He didn't say apostles, prophets, pastors, and teachers, yes they will, and probably will more than the individual, but it says, and they, believers, shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So see, it is a will of God for every believer to expect God to use them to minister to people around them, whether it be fellow Christians or whether it be those in the world. And guys, I found out that the Lord can heal the sinner quicker than He can sometimes the saints, because the saints get so complicated.
They get so mixed up and they're thinking and they get into doubt and unbelief, and sometimes it's hard to get them in a place where they can receive, but they lost. They don't know God anyway. And God will sometimes, I mean, just surprise you and just heal somebody. You wouldn't have thought that He would heal for a second, but when you lay hands on them, He said they shall recover.
And in that context of that Mark 16, He's actually talking about, that's the great commission. He said, as you go forth and you preach the Word, claim this gospel. He said, you will of hands on the sick and they shall recover. And we shouldn't be surprised about that, because He sent the 12 out and commissioned them to do the same thing.
Then He sent the 7 out and commissioned them to do the same thing. So why in the world when He sent everybody out, He wouldn't commission everybody, listen, and empower them to do it. Because it says in one of the gospels, it says that, I think it's in the book of Matthew, it's going to be the book of Mark, but He says, and He gave them to them power, the cast out devils, and to heal the sick. And see, so if He did it for them, then you have to assume that that same authority, that same ability has been given to every believer to do what God has called us to do.
See, I'm convinced that the church is in the message in right now, and in the spiritual condition that it's in right now, simply because we as individuals have failed to do it. We've not shown up. And primarily the reason is, and I hate to say this, it's because these things are not being taught like they should be taught. Every believer should know who they are in Christ.
They should know that they're a new creature. They should fully understand what's been made available to them because of who they are now. But see, these things aren't taught a lot of times. A lot of times we've said before that we're religiously brainwashed instead of New Testament taught.
God won't say this to be taught from God's Word. That's why Melissa and I have committed ourselves to the Word of God, and we are determined to teach God's Word as a Spirit leads into access. And I believe that we're teaching this not because it's just a good topic that we thought sounded good. Because it would be a nice thing to teach.
I believe that we are doing this by the direction of the Holy Spirit who is being totally directed by Jesus ahead of the church. Because I believe that He's called us to prepare people for an end time move of the Spirit of God so that return of Jesus can come. That's what we're doing. That's why we're even doing this.
See, there's a purpose behind this. We have to get help others in the 5-fold minister. We have to help others get the church ready so we can do the work that God's called us to do so that Jesus can come back. We think that He's just going to come back whenever He makes up His mind.
And if it gets bad enough, eventually He'll come. No, He will come. He said, when this gospel is preached to all nations, then the end will come. See Him?
That's why He's waiting on those that are out there that He has predestined that He is. And He knows beforehand that they will accept Him as their Lord and Savior. He's waiting to reach those. And He can only reach those by us.
He didn't sit angel down. He sat Philip and stayed the preach to the Ethiopian Eunuch. I believe it was. He didn't sit there.
He said Philip down there and used Him to bring that man in. Then that man carried the gospel, that good news back to the nation. And you know that that spread throughout that nation. See, that's what God does.
He uses us. He said, well, Philip was an evangelist. When that happened, he wasn't called an evangelist. He was a helper.
He was called to help delegate the waiting on of the saints to serve the saints. That's what He was. What did you say? Well, if you think about it, when He gave that commission, He didn't say, wait.
Well, like in the upper room, He said, wait. But when He ascended, He didn't say, you know, like, just watch, just sit and watch. And when I get ready, I want to do all of this. He did say, go.
He said, go. So that means you need to be doing something. Well, sometimes we're wanting God to move in our lives, but we're not going. You know, a parked car doesn't need any gasoline.
It doesn't need spark plugs. It doesn't need whatever the stuff is now, the electronic condition and all that stuff that starts. It doesn't need because it's parked. It's only when you begin to decide that you're going to move forward.
So then when you begin to do the things to move forward, then the gas is there. The ignition is there and the power is there for that thing to take off. And so sometimes, you know, like we said before, you know, sometimes I think we're waiting on God to get ready to do something that He's already told us that we're supposed to do. And He can't move.
Now listen, He can't move until we do. See, a lot of people don't understand that. They think that God can do anything and everything He wants to do anytime and every time He wants to, and they don't understand. If that was true, the world would not be in the mess that it's in.
I mean, it's His will to save all the lost, but all the lost don't get saved. And there's reasons why they don't. And it's because primarily people don't preach the gospel like they should. And it's not that when you preach the gospel, you got to have an anointing on it.
It has to be different. You know what I'm saying? You have to. It takes the Spirit of God involved with you to convict the hearts of people.
If not, all you're doing is intellectually educating people about what's right and wrong. And in this nation, very few people in this nation really have never heard of Jesus Christ and who He claims to be. But the problem is they don't see Him with any power because they don't see any power or supernatural ability in the lives of those that supposedly follow Him. See, I believe God wants to raise up of people in these last days of people that not only believe in Him, but are in dude with power and supernatural ability to do the work that He's called us to do.
And just like these here that it spoke of in this 11th chapter of Book of Acts, they went out and they preached and the hand of the Lord was with them. And that hand of the Lord being on them calls the results to take place. See, we work, we work, we're told, we're told with little or no fruit. And even the fruit that we get does not remain.
Only because we are not doing it by the power of the Spirit of God. He's the only one that can enable us and equip us to produce the fruit of God. To produce the fruit. So He uses us to produce the fruit.
He produces the fruit. We can't even take credit for it. We are as willing vessels that will allow Him to flow through us and touch the lives of other people. But see, it's His power and it's His anointing and His ability.
That's why He gets all the glory, He gets all the honor and He gets all the praise because you can't do it. Right. Well, that takes a lot of pressure off of the people too, off of us, you know, to be able to think that it's not our ability. It's not our education.
It's not even our experience. It's the Word of God and it's His Spirit that enables that fruit, like you said, to come to pass. It takes the pressure off. You can just share and just believe God to do what He's supposed to do, what you can't do.
That's right. You just be a willing vessel and you just be quick to respond to the nudge of the Spirit when He says, talk to this person. You know, you just drop up a conversation. You don't always have to start off spiritual.
You just blow them out of the waters. It can be just a natural, everyday conversation that all of a sudden begins to turn before you know it. I don't know how many times I've had it happen. I just start talking to somebody and somehow, someway, I don't even know how I got there.
All of a sudden, what's not good about the things of the Lord, you know? And then all of a sudden we begin to answer questions for them. And we don't even know where answering them. Because we're just simply sharing what comes up out of our heart and out of our spirit as we're just talking.
And later they'll say, my gosh, you know, that's exactly what I've been thinking about. You know, and you begin to minister to people. You know, when you walk away, you're just kind of befuzzled going like, I don't know how that happened. Or how we even got there.
It's just an morning. And this should become flowing with the anointing and our lives should be just as common and just as everyday to us as breathing. Because that's just who we are. We are men and women born to the Spirit.
We have the Spirit of God resigning in us. And we're open and we're free to Him and to His Word. And we just allow Him to flow through our lives. And He just becomes such an intricate part of our lives that it's just we don't even think nothing about it.
We don't have to struggle with it. Like you said, we don't have the responsibility. Our responsibility is to live our life. And trust Him that He's going to lead us and be where He wants us to be when He needs us.
And we'll have enough sense when He nudges our heart that He'll open the door and we'll just step in. And let Him do what only He can do. See, and to me, I'm going to be honest with you, there is absolutely nothing on the planet that satisfies that fulfills. That I don't know, just gives you joy.
Then that right there. There's nothing. There's nothing else on the planet. Because I don't know how many times that happened to me.
It's just like, my gosh, I mean, it's the greatest thing ever. Because see, you're the conduit that He's flowing through. And that power doesn't just flow through that conduit without affecting you. See, it blesses you.
See, it touches you. It takes you to another level. Because after you get used once or twice, you begin to get confident in His ability and His willingness to use you. And so God begins to use you.
And then you are able to touch people's lives. And so we're going to probably carry on with this. We're going to do others. I mean, we did get one red, didn't we?
Which is a good thing. We did get one. But we're really excited about this. We really are.
Because we're just excited because I know that this is something that is on the heart of the Lord right now. And I know without any doubt at all that we are in the last moments of this age. It's coming to a climax soon. And this thing's about to be over.
But we have to do what He's called us to do. We can't, I mean, cause things are bad in society and in the world. But they're not going to get any better. Now, you don't have to be controlled by it.
You can walk above it. And you can have the victory despite what's going on around you and walk in the fullness of God and in His blessing. You know, despite what's going on. But you know, you have to do the right things to do it.
And if you're out there today and you've never made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, that's where it all begins. You know, if you've never made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life and I believe that today He's calling those that there are multitudes out there. They have laid their relationship with Him to the side and got caught up in other things. Not necessarily great and horrible, sinful things.
You simply could be just busyness or it could be something sinful. But I believe God's calling you back because this is the time that you've got to come back to Him. It's not a time to stay at a distance from Him because the timing is not the 80s anymore or the 90s. We're in a place right now where this end of this age is coming.
And so it's critical that you hear this invitation and come to Him. So if you're out there and you've never made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life or if you've walked away from Him, we want to pray this prayer with you and for you. Okay, so say this with me. Say, Heavenly Father, I take Jesus today as my Lord and as my Savior.
Sin, you are not my Master. Satan, you are not my God. Jesus Christ is my Lord. I choose to follow Him from this day forward with all of my heart.
And Heavenly Father, I thank You for accepting me and receiving me into your family and filling me with the fullness of your Spirit. Now, if you prayed that prayer and you meant it from your heart, there's a change in your life whether you even realize it or not. And that doesn't necessarily mean that there's going to be an emotion. There's not going to necessarily even be any kind of, you know, certain spectacular.
But God has done a work in your life. Let somebody know. Let us know. Confess Him before me so that He won't be ashamed of you before His Father and His angels.
God bless you until we see you again. Please connect with the Rise and Shine by visiting our Facebook page at facebook.com slash a Rise and Shine TV show or emailing us at a RiseAndShine TV at gmail.com. We look forward to connecting with you.