The Power and Necessity of Evangelism | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr. | 27 MARCH 2025

Well, praise the Lord, everybody. This is the day the Lord has made. Hallelujah. And we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Wanna welcome everybody to our Bible immersion today. It's 12 noon. This is day 8 of this teaching. Glory to the name of God. Day 10 of our fast, which we will conclude on Saturday. Uh, it's been a great joy, uh, to go through these 12 days. Again, I believe God has heard our prayers. I believe God has met us in our teachings, in our 5 AM prayer. Glory to the name of God. I'm excited, glory to God, to experience already the manifestation of these promises connected to this fast, uh, just in taking deliberate action to the word I've been teaching. Um, just seeing results, man. Uh, it's just a lifestyle I live anyway, but just upping it another level this week has been phenomenal, uh, everywhere I go. So I hope it's been a blessing to you, and I pray that you hang in here. We got 2 more days, and even if you're just joining us, you still can fast with us. Uh, for those of you that are here today that don't know who I am, maybe you're passing this My name is Apostle Mike Woods. If you're uninitiated to that, listen, and I'm just somebody that love Jesus. Stay with us. Glory to God. I promise you, you'll be blessed today. Today is going to be wonderful. Want to say hello to everyone that is here. Glory to the name of God. Uh, God bless you, Stephanie. Always a great blessing, uh, to see you. God bless you, Sharia. Good, always good to see you, and a blessing to see you as well. Just thank God for everybody that's joined us. Please do like Stephanie and Sharia. Wherever you are. Speak below, like the video, and do me a kind favor, guys, and I need you to follow the instructions on the screen and please share this. Glory to the name of God. Uh, I'm telling you, it's a great blessing and a great, uh, honor to be a blessing to others. Glory to the name of God. When they need— glory to the name of God— are what you are disseminating, what you are sharing. Praise God. And so what a blessing to be able to share good news with other people. So please, guys, uh, be, be active, be engaged, and share. Let us know you're here below. Glory to God. We're streaming, uh, over 3 different plat— 4 different platforms, 3 Facebook pages, one— glory to the name of God um, YouTube channel. And so if you're here, say hello. Glory to the name of God. Uh, always— I see my wife. God bless you, love you, wife. Um, God bless you, Bruce. Good to see you today, sir. Glory to God. Again, guys, uh, do your good sharing today. Glory to God, because it's going to be some great teaching and you don't want to miss this. You know, we're learning how to keep our responsibility in being evangelists and being people that share our faith, uh, with others. Amen. Glory to God. Now again, people will stream, uh, scroll past this because, you know, at the end of the day, you know, folks just really don't want this responsibility, uh, but the devil is a liar. We, we win. Glory to the name of God. So today, and then we're gonna, we're gonna pray really quick. Glory to God. Hallelujah! We're going to pray really quick. Shamandi oso tabaya. Hallelujah! And get into this. We're going to talk today about the Jesus style of evangelism. And what I really want to share with you today are some tools for the supernatural. And I believe that the tools for the supernatural in evangelism is the power gifts that are available to every believer. Matter of fact, before we pray, I want you to rub your belly and say, in the name of Jesus, because the Holy Spirit lives in me, say, I have access to the power gifts. I say, as a matter of fact, I have access to all 9 gifts of the Spirit, but in particular I recognize today that I have access to the power gifts. So you shouldn't be a powerless believer, all right? And if you do operate in the power of the Holy Ghost, glory to God, you can call him Holy Spirit, you can call him Holy Ghost, whatever you want to call him, he's still God in you. Glory to God. You can say the Holy Spirit, or you can just— if affectionately say Holy Spirit, however y'all like to say it, whatever, whatever floats your boat. It doesn't even matter how you say it if you ain't tapping into him and utilizing what he's given you. You know, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we get caught up in lingo and terminology sometimes and we don't even assess the power. So yeah, I, I hear you saying Holy Spirit and using that vernacular. But the reality is the Bible often calls him the Holy Spirit. He is a person. He's not an it. He's not tongues. He's not gifts. Are y'all here? Glory to God. He's not fire. He is a person, and he's the person of God that lives in you. So however you identify, glory to God, I want you to tap the power hear me, glory to Jesus, that's in you. Hallelujah, hallelujah, glory to God. So let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for this day you've made, and I'm rejoicing and I'm glad in it. Glory to God. I thank you for the time that I've had with you all day, even from early when I was over at the church praying. And Father, I just give you praise for your goodness and your mercy. Thank you for supernatural visitations. That bring breakthrough. Thank you for supernatural provision that open doors and make ways for us. Thank you for the power, God, that we have acknowledged that's in us, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Glory to the name of God that's down on the inside of us. And Father, I pray today that as we study how you reach people, glory to God, I decree and declare that we will never be the same, that our vantage point of what you've given us, oh my God, in usage, glory to God, will be totally different than it has been before. And we praise you for it now in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah. Oh boy, I love him. I love him. He's a good God. He's a mighty God. Glory to God. He's an amazing God. And beside him there is no other. Glory to God. Hallelujah. We bless him, we honor his great name. He's powerful and mighty. Glory to God. Well, let's go to 1 Corinthians today. And again, today we're talking about the power gifts, the tools for supernatural evangelism. And I'm telling you, man, the reality is if you tap into this as a Spirit-filled person Man, you will have so many opportunities, hear me, to win people for God. You will have so many chances to get people into the kingdom because when you start operating in evangelism through this way, it moves you out of the equation totally. Glory to God. And it, it, you begin now to lead with the supernatural. Now we've been talking about this as we've been teaching this series. But now we're going to get into some practical things on how we actually make this work. Glory to God. So let's go to 2 Corinthians— praise God, 1 Corinthians, I'm sorry— uh, 12. And we're gonna look— bless the name of Jesus— at verses 9 and 10. Glory to God. Hallelujah! Stay with me today, stay with me today, it's gonna be good. We're gonna be witnesses. Hallelujah! We're gonna be witnesses. Glory to God. And, and I'm, and I'm re— I'm starting here in the middle here because, glory to God, the gifts I'm going to talk about today are here. We're not going to talk about the other 6, we're going to talk about these 3 in particular. So, uh, just to catch you up to where I'm gonna start reading, Paul starts this chapter saying, I'm now concerning spiritual gifts, I don't want you to be ignorant. So in other words, the word ignorant, ignosis, he's saying I don't want you to ignore this knowledge, I don't want you to ignore the existence of these entities in your life. Glory to God. So let's read verses 9 and 10 and we're going to get in here. Glory to God. The Bible says, to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, and to another the working of miracles. And I'm gonna stop there because we're gonna deal with those three. We're gonna deal with the gift of faith, we're gonna deal with the gift of healing, and we're gonna— oh my God— we're gonna deal with the gift of the working of miracles. Glory to God. So let me start here. I want you to understand, if you are a Spirit-filled believer, I need you to hear this principle. You need to realize that you have not been left without artillery. You have not been left without tools to assist you in carrying out the assignment of Jesus Christ to continue to be a witness in the earth. Did you hear— did you hear I just said that? See, he, when he left, he left the witness with us so that we could continue to advance the kingdom through our testimony and bring people through him. Because we will have access, because when he left, to a multiplicity of technology, a multiplicity of tools and people that wasn't here when he was here. So he left the witness in us so we can operate in the same style of evangelism and soul winning that he did. That wasn't a time that Jesus stepped out of the door that people didn't gravitate to him because of what he walked in. And one of the main things, glory to God, that he walked in was power gifts. He operated in these tools that, that defied, glory to the name of God, human reasoning. All right, so let's understand, let's get into this. Hallelujah! These tools of faith and healing and miracles, the working of miracles, gifts of healing, and the gift of faith. Glory to the name of God. So let's, let's look at these three. We're gonna— let's just get a working definition. So first The gift of faith is unshakable trust in the will of God, which means when you walk in this gift, you never doubt, you never fear, you never— we say, oh, Apostle, well, I'm human, so I'm gonna have some fear sometime. I'm gonna sometime not all the way believe. Yeah, well, that— if that happens, that means you're not assessing the Holy Spirit that lives in you and in alignment with him to operate in the gift of faith, to believe through anything. So you, you got to mature. We talked about maturity yesterday. You got to grow in the word through, through teaching, through the hearing of the word. Hear me, so that— oh boy, my God, today I feel like teaching this— so that no matter what comes up in your life your faith is not shaking. No matter what it looks like, you choose to trust and believe God. God bless you, Zion. Good to see you, daughter. Praise God. Listen, you, you, you gotta understand, and you know, I mean, we get a measure of faith when we get saved, but then the Bible tells us that our faith should go from faith to faith, which means that it should be constantly expanding It should be constantly growing. The Bible says faith come by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How can you hear without a preacher? How can he preach except he be sent? So here's the reality. You need to be sitting under sent ones who preach faith to you. Who cause your faith, huh, not just in knowledge but in action to grow so that you will operate in the realm of unshakable faith. Say that with me. Say, my faith— come on, you might as well confess it. Glory to God. Cannot be shaken. Say, no matter what comes against me or upon me, say, my faith cannot be shaken. Oh boy, oh boy! Hallelujah! Glory to God! Hallelujah! We give him praise. Okay, so, so, so that's the gift of faith. I'm a little excited because I'm, I'm excited to teach about this Jesus style of evangelism. See, because I want you to really see Jesus did this, man, right? So that means you ought to be doing it too, 'cause our goal on earth is to be like him. So we ought to be doing what he did. And I told you yesterday, whatever your purpose is on earth, whatever your assignment is in ministry, marketplace, or the municipality, which is government, glory to God, or community service, whatever your calling is, hallelujah, or the mill, whether you are manufacturer or where you create goods and services and send them to the marketplace, wherever you are located, your kingdom assignment in that realm of influence is to win souls. The bottom line is to get people to God. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Say that with me. Say the bottom line in all I do, is to get people to Jesus. I need you to grab that. I need you to understand it. I need you to receive it. The bottom line, no matter what you're doing, it should culminate with somebody coming to Jesus. Because when you leave this earth, your name is written in the Book of Life, and your deeds are also written in the Book of Life. Glory to God. And will it be able to be said that you turned the people that were assigned to your influence to righteousness, that you drew people to Jesus? Or did you just walk through this life as a lazy, slowful, laid-back Christian? Glory to God, that keeps your spirituality and your relationship with Jesus and the testimony of Jesus Christ in your life to yourself and your four and no more. Mm-hmm. All right, glory to God. I'm telling you, we need this teaching, man. We need to be reminded. So the gift of faith, the gift of healing— let's, let's get into this. Glory to God. So the gift of healing is miraculous Restoration of health and wholeness to those who are ill. So that means if you come in contact with someone with cancer, they miraculously become whole again. They miraculously get healed through the power that flows out of your life through these gifts. If you meet someone with a broken arm, a broken leg, glory to God, a dislocated shoulder, when you encounter them and you're operating in this gift, they are restored to health. That bone is coming all the way back together immediately, miraculously. Glory to God. The cancer dries up miraculously. I don't even care if it's a common cold, it disappears miraculously. All right, let me define so we can just get into this and teach it. Gifts of healing. Now, the working of miracles. The working of miracles is supernatural intervention that defies natural laws. So you meet people who may be having certain trouble in their life, but through the power of God, hear me, you allow the gift to flow through you and intervene that it defies the natural law or the natural circumstance that they're dealing with. You have the gift in you to shift that. Watch this. These gifts are available to use in your own life. And I would suggest, when you have situations that are naturally coming against you, I will suggest you begin to employ the gift of miracles and call these things forth because you have it in you because you have the Holy Spirit. When sickness rise in your own life, you need to trust God to make you whole. I've seen him do it in my life. I believe he'll continue to do it in my life. I've seen him do it in the life of so many others. Listen, this works. This is real. When it happens with us, it starts at home, then spreads abroad. See, your faith is stirred when you see these gifts working in your life. So you got to make it personal. Glory to God. So these things, glory to God, will come forth and God will be glorified. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Clark Bruce says he could testify too. I'm sure many of you can. You've seen the hand of God move, so why not share that good news and that power with someone else? See, these gifts are not just spiritual curiosities. Hear me. They are actually powerful tools that we can use to break down barriers that will bypass human reasoning. Hear me, oh my God, and it can reach directly to the heart of people. Do you realize that once someone encounters a miracle or encounters divine supernatural healing, or sees, glory to God, you operating in unshakable faith, at that very moment, they are experiencing the kingdom and the King because they're seeing something that goes beyond their intellectual capacity, that goes beyond their ability to analyze and create vantage points. So we got to become walking encounters, glory to God, so that people can see and testify to the goodness of God that flows through our life. Glory to God. And I believe that when all three of these gifts are in operation simultaneously, whatever is impossible, glory to God, becomes possible. I'm gonna say that one more time, glory to Jesus. I believe that whenever these gifts are operating simultaneously, that whatever at one time was impossible becomes possible. I believe, glory to God, if we operate effectively in these gifts, we can actually raise the dead. And listen, that's why, man, I'm, I'm, I'm constantly growing my faith, because in my life I, I've seen dead people raised. God spiritually, I've seen dead Oh, I've seen God raise them. But I wanna see the casket bearer get up out the casket and everybody in the funeral get saved because they got up. Are y'all hearing this? And every time I go to a funeral, go to bury somebody or go to a tent, I stop by the casket and I mumble a little prayer under my breath in faith, trusting God that he'll get 'em up. Listen, and you know, God has been putting on my heart that when I get calls that people die, as going for, instead of waiting till the funeral, show up at their house like he did. Glory to God. And raise them up. 'Cause watch this, we got power to work those miracles in us. See, I know we don't like this kind of talk because what we wanna do is have good church. We wanna bounce around and shout and dance, speak in tongues and worship and cry and roll on the floor. But the reality is none of that matters. And we do not learn how to assess the power of God. My God, today that operates on the inside of us. Glory to God. So I believe we can raise the dead. I believe that cancer should not be able to tarry in our presence. Oh, oh God, oh God, I believe it, man. I believe that our, our world will be different because Jesus lives if we tap into these tools. So I believe, and I pray you agree, that Jesus' style of ministry and evangelism is a good model for today. Oh God. See, Jesus never, and if you find it, Please show it to me. But if you study the gospels and you study the life of Jesus, you will see that Jesus never shared the gospel without demonstrating the supernatural. Oh God, have mercy. I'm gonna say that again. Jesus never shared the gospel without demonstrating the supernatural. Glory to God. This was the Jesus style of evangelism. This is how he got people in the kingdom. Listen, I'm gonna tell you something. It's not about winning arguments or persuading people with words. Yeah, it's about demonstrating the supernatural, about showing God's love to people so they could see power in tangible way. You know, I, I, I have seen Muslims converted. I've seen Jehovah's Witnesses converted. I've seen Hebrew Israelites converted, not because I want an argument, but because of prophetic utterance that saw into their life, because of the works of faith and the working of miracles. I remember praying once for Jehovah's Witness that God tapped me into what was going on in the lady's body. She showed up at my door to witness to me. I started prophesying to her about sickness. She didn't want to receive it then. Several weeks later, glory to God, I saw her standing outside of a store. I was going to the barber shop, and, uh, the testimony is, I've been questioning my faith ever since you spoke to me because, one, you knew what was going on in my body. Two, I got healed. And I said, you know what? It was Jesus that healed you. It was God. It was the truth that set you free. And I went on in and got my haircut. And she's in tears. Glory to God. I came out of the barbershop, got in my car. She was standing there. 2 more weeks later went by. I went back to the bar, that same barbershop. Going in the door, she was there. She said, I showed up today to let— and I'm talking to these ladies about what you did, 'cause I have given my heart to Jesus. I'm telling you, it works. It works. You gotta tap into who you really are and know your identity, because this is the Jesus style. See, Jesus, he didn't just talk about the love of God, he showed it. He didn't just explain salvation, he didn't just talk about faith, he demonstrated everything he said through supernatural power. And that's the model for today. Do you know the word of God says that the kingdom is not in great swelling words? Oh God, and our ability to pontificate and intellectualize and make great hermeneutical adjustments of the text. But the Bible says the kingdom is not meat and drink, but it's in love— is, oh my God, love, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost. It's in demonstration in another place, and power. Can you hear me today? So it's not so much what you say, it's what you do. Glory to God. Watch this. It wasn't— oh boy— the admirers of Jesus that changed the world. I believe we got a lot of people in church that really admire Jesus. Yeah, and that's a good thing. We, we admire him, so we worship him, we praise him, we preach, we teach, we, we do the churchy things that we're assigned to do. But watch this, it wasn't admirers that changed the world, it was the doers that turned their world upside down. It was the doers. Glory to God. Oh boy. That saw miracles, signs, and wonders follow them. It was the doers that cast out devils. It was the doers that took up systems. So the question is, question, are you an admirer or are you a doer? You know, I said it yesterday, if you're not fishing, you're not willing, really following. I'll say it again, if you're not fishing, you're not really following. Because Jesus says, I— he said, come follow me, that's to follow, and I'll make you fishers of men. None of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ are exempt from that summons. All right, so if you're not fishing, if you're not following Glory to God. You just really admire and you, you follow, you walking behind him admiring what he do. But the whole goal of following Jesus is to become like him and to become a fisherman of men. Are y'all here this afternoon? Yeah, I don't care how deep and wonderful you act and look at the church. Glory to God. And this is for the body of Christ universally. I'm really— I'm fed up to hear, uh, apostolically with business as usual. You know, I see these convocations, I see all these conferences, I see all these revivals and meetings. Okay, here's what I want to know: are people one? Are people in those meetings getting saved? I can— I already have the answer to that question. Most of the time, no. These are gatherings for church folk. So if you— if that's going to be your argument, we're just getting the body together, I get it, okay? Are you deploying people in these meetings to show up in the world and be a witness? I have to question that even with my own meetings. Everything has to be evangelistic. It has to have the idea of changing a life and introducing people to Jesus as Lord. Glory to God. I got to get out of here, man. I got to get out of here. Okay, okay, I'm gonna get through, I'm gonna get through. So as we look at evangelism, soul winning, and how it was done in the Bible, right, we actually need to ask ourselves for real, man, For real, are we following the Jesus style, or are we just doing what we want to do? Yeah, are we operating in power gifts of faith, healing, and miracles? Clover to God, are, are we relying on human reasoning, or are we relying on demonstrating the supernatural like Jesus did? So we should propose that question to ourselves. I mean, where is our homage to the word and what Jesus did? Or are we just doing what makes us more comfortable? I told you in the beginning, when you do things the Jesus way and you lead with the gift of faith, you— in a world where everybody doubts God where everybody is fearful of their jobs, they're fearful— glory to the name of God— of money problems, they're fearful of recession. You got to be a person that stands in unshakable faith. We're in a world, in a time where so many are dying of cancer and diseases Can we operate in a faith that says we're not going to accept that, that our bodies are cancer-free zones, our bodies are high blood pressure-free zones, our body is diabetic-free zone, every generational curse in our life has been broken because cursed is he that hangs upon a tree, and we are free because he died. Glory to God. And he bled, and he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of the peace in our body was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're healed, we're healed. Healing and deliverance is the children's bread. So can we operate in that realm and pass that on to others that need it? Hallelujah. God wants to give these miracles to people that don't know him. Oh, wait a minute, maybe you thought the gifts was reserved just for people at the church. No ma'am, no sir, quite the contrary. You've been given these tools to operate in the earth once again like Jesus did. See, the demonstration of the supernatural, it's not just some methodology, you know, it's the manifestation of God's presence. So when you start operating in gift of healing, working the miracles— so, and watch this, working the miracles is just that. Again, you're defying natural law. So you get involved in a situation and you work it in faith, you work it in power and authority. How do you work it? You start speaking the word concerning that need, and your unshakable faith believes what you say. So if it's a sickness, you know the word says you can lay hands on the sick and they recover. The word told you that because you out there, you— these signs shall follow them that believe. You wanted the signs, you lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So you believe that, so you, you lay hands, you work that miracle, and you say, in the name of Jesus, God, your word says I can lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So I decree and declare that my hands are like your hands, and this person is healed now in the name of Jesus. And you release it, and you release angels at your charge to enforce the covenant of the word because angels hearken to the voice of the word. So God, even as I lay hands according to your word, I release angels, ministering spirits to bring to pass this miracle, this healing that needs to happen for this person now in Jesus' name. Now watch this, if it's not something tangible, where they got a broke arm. 'Cause listen, I've seen God do it, man. I ripped casts off before. Glory to God. God told me to pray. I prayed in faith. The person had just got the cast on. I ripped it off. They ran around the church. I've did that several times. I've snatched people out of wheelchairs because God said it. I've taken walkers and threw them across the sanctuary. Glory to God. I've taken canes from people and they never needed them again because I trusted— not me, I trusted God. I trusted his way. Watch this. And those people ended up saved or in a deeper walk with God. I've laid hands on people and they couldn't see and they saw. Listen, this stuff works, man. It works because person, again, they experience the presence. See, and what that does, hear me, it bypasses— my God, today it bypasses reasoning and discussions about Omundi Osaya. I need you to understand it. This works if you work it. You got to work it. You got to use these tools. You, you got to decide that the way Jesus did things are important and that you're valuable to the kingdom. And you are. You are a life jacket to somebody drowning. You got to find them. See, what God says is never— here we go— is never constrained to human ability or human intellect. It's always above. The scripture says seek those things that are above. Glory to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah! Oh my God. So God wants us to not just be spiritually curious about these gifts. These are tools. If I, if I needed to nail something in the wall so I can hang a picture and I got a hammer, all right, but I put the hammer down and decide I'm gonna beat this nail in the wall with my hand. It's going to be harder, it's going to be ineffective, and I'm going to mess up something. Are y'all hearing this? But I got a tool that makes putting that nail in the wall easy. It's called a hammer. Why would you make your job harder by laying aside these power tools? Again, like the gift of faith. Oh my God, like the gift of faith, like the gift of healing. Oh my God, here, like the gift of working of miracles. Why would you make this harder than it needs to be when you've been given tools that you could use to bring people to God? Oh yeah, glory to God. I just want to know, I just want to know why. There's no logical reason why you would do something like that, because God is giving you what you need that pertains to life and godliness, right? Hallelujah, we give him praise. Hallelujah. We thank him because these gifts, and I'm closing with this, their purpose, family, is to confirm the word of God. Because remember, it's not the admirers that change the world, it's the doers. Remember I said that earlier? Because when the doers are doing it, they're confirming the word. Let's just read a few scriptures that indicate that. Mark 16:17-20. And I'm reading from the ESV, the English Standard Version. It says, and these signs shall accompany those who believe: in my name they cast out devils, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. Sound like that's confirming the word to me. If you believe, that's all signs of following. Or John 14:12. Say it with me. Say, say, say, power and tools confirm the word. So we got to decide we're going to operate in this and make up our mind that we understand these tools are not just for— hallelujah— people who have a title in front of their name. Now, it's a shame that most people who have a title in front of their name have no power. That's a shame. And they are not concerned enough to tell you you need to operate in the power you've been given. Or you got people with the title in front of your name that operate in power and are so insecure that they will not tell you you need power because they don't— they want to be the only one with power in the room. Oh, the devil is a liar. I don't want to be the only one with power. I want every believer— and I'm letting the cat out of the bag, glory to God. Every believer has a right to confirm the word through this power and bring people to Jesus. Glory to God. Hallelujah. We thank you, Father. Husha. Go to John 14:12. Let me read. He said, truly, truly, I say to you, whosoever believes in me will also— watch this— do the works I do. So he said, if you believe, you're gonna do what I do. And then Greater works than these he will do because I am going to my Father. So Jesus said, I'm getting out of here, you're gonna still be here, you're gonna do what I do and more because I am going to be in you through the power of the Holy Spirit and you're gonna do the works I did. Well, what did Jesus do? He walked on water, he raised the dead, he healed the sick, He turned water into wine. He spoke to trees and they live. He spoke to trees and they die. He was the living water. Glory to God. And guess what? He turned many to him while he was here through demonstration and power. I'm telling you, signs confirm the word. Let me keep reading. Let me keep reading. Acts 1. Hallelujah. Let's look at verse— oh my God, Acts 1:1. Let's look at that, Acts 1:1. Glory to God, hallelujah. He says, in the first book of Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until that day he was taken up, after he had been given commands through the Holy Spirit. Stay with me. Glory to God. To the apostles whom he had chose, he presented himself alive to them. Watch this. After his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them 40 days and speaking about the kingdom. Glory to God. So 40 days of infallible proof. Woo, my God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me, John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Now watch this. So the Holy— we're getting ready to get to the last couple of verses I'm gonna read, which is gonna show us again how signs follow the word. But what precedes that is receiving the baptism in the Holy Ghost, and it's important. Notice he told these people, which were about 500 to go and wait. Hallelujah! Only 120 went, which means 380 people thought there was something better to do than wait on God. And this is the problem in the church. You got so many people who have decided, I got better things to do than spend all my time in church, in prayer, on a fast, seeking God, worshiping. When really what you need is to receive the power of the Holy Ghost. Now watch this, verse 6. So when they had come together, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? And he said to them, that's not for you to know. The times and season of the Father has fixed by his own authority. But watch this, verse 8. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Back to the original conversation, get to Jerusalem and wait So you can receive power, so you can be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. The word is right. Gifts confirm the word of God. It confirmed that Jesus is Lord. I got to get out of here, man. Romans 12. I just want to show you real quick Romans 12, verses 3 through 8. I'm just reading. He said, for by grace given to me, I say to everyone among you to not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Verse 4, for as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we through many are one body. Say, we're one body. We're synergized around Jesus Christ in his mind, and individually members of one another. I don't have time to teach this, but I'm gonna read. Having gifts— watch this— that differ according to the grace given to us— watch this, here's the point— let us use them. If prophecy, in proportion to our faith. If service, in our serving. The one who teaches, in his teaching. The one who exhorts, in his exhortation. The one who contributes, in generosity. The one who leads, with zeal and the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Watch this, man. He says, let love be genuine. Oh God, I can get into that, but I'm not. Point is, every gifted person is called to operate in your gift, in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in love, in love for people that don't have it. And love people, for people that need what you carry. I'm telling you, we— there's a dying world out here that's on its way to hell and enjoying the trip. And you got demonic doctrines, doctrines of devils, that's teaching stuff like hell ain't real, the devil is a lie, like eternity is not real, that the grave is the end of it all. And I'm telling you now, it's not. Glory to God. And we ought to thank God for the love that he's shown us and for the revelation that he's given us that we're living now to live again. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I'm gonna say that again. I'm living to live again. Something happens after this life. And we are the light bearers, and it's through the power tools of Jesus that none would perish but all would come to repentance. Glory to God. One last scripture I want to show you, Hebrews 2. The Bible says, verse 3, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? So how can we escape hell? How can we escape the punishment of damnation and shame? Which, by the way, God doesn't impose upon you. It has been enlarged and it continues to enlarge. It's a prepared place for people who choose to reject him. So you have a choice to receive him or reject him. So how we can escape such a great salvation? It was first declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard. But here's verse 4: While God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles— here it is— and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. What's his will? His will is that none should perish and that all should come to repentance. That's ultimately his will. His will is that people will be saved. People will be filled with the Holy Spirit, people will have relationship with him. It is his will that none should perish, but all again should come to repentance. How do you do that? For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son. Whosoever believe on me shall not perish, but have everlasting life. But if you don't believe, you're going to be condemned. So he gives gifts to witness to the fact that what we preach, what we teach, is truth. Glory to God. And you know, I was talking to somebody one day on a golf course, and I think probably this is one of the reasons why this person used to try to go out and play golf with me all the time. This person doesn't go out anymore because They were so convicted— hear me— at a conversation we had. This person is a part of some faith that teaches, okay, you could have multiple wives, you can have concubines, um, it, it— and they believe in God, and they believe that you can get to God without acknowledging Jesus. That it's the ancestors is what they said that fuels spiritual insight and gift. So they— so as I begin to prophesy to them about their life, about things they were dealing with, they, they were trying to convince me— and y'all know that that wasn't going to happen, right— that the ancestors were speaking to me. Are you hearing this? And I told them, I speak to you by relationship with Jesus Christ and by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Respectfully, my ancestors are dead. I don't operate in necromancy. I cannot speak to the dead. I'm not a dead whisperer. I hear from God. And I continued to correct him. But you know, the more I corrected him and gave him the love of God, the humble Ori God. And when we got through that round, he said, you've given me so much to digest. He said, you've challenged everything I've learned, and nobody from the church is— what he said is— never talked to me the way you talk to me. He says, as a matter of fact, most church people, including preachers, they just give up and stop sharing with me. He said, but you've given me a lot to eat, a lot to think about. Recently, same gentleman, he said to me, he says, I have to choose to follow the God you follow. He said, because there's no power. See, and here's the catch. In what you— in what I'm doing. And that does my heart good because guess what? I had already been seeing the changes in him, in how he talked on social media, in his conversations with me. And that golf round, I used it to give him signs for the Holy Spirit to witness, not to debate. Because guess what? I'm not going to debate with you something I know to be true. It's no debate. I know this. I don't know it because of what I read. I know it because of what I have experienced. And that's what becoming a walking encounter looks like. Are y'all here? That's what you got to become, man. If you're watching on Facebook, hit that like button, hit that share button. Somebody needs— a believer needs to hear this teaching today. A tongue-talking, Holy Ghost-filled believer needs to hear this because they thought their prophecy was limited to church. They thought their gifts were limited to what they do with church people. No ma'am, no sir. We have a— watch this— dare I say, a higher call. I believe the church needs to be a training ground, a kingdom university, so when we come together We deploy people in the world to change the world. It should operate as a training ground and an evangelistic field so that when people come in that's not born again, they can find Jesus. So we have to present our presentation in such a way where the supernatural is available. What good is all the supernatural stuff that go on in church if it doesn't culminate with heaven rejoicing at the coming of one. God help us. Let's pray. Father, we praise you. We thank you, God, huh, for your style of evangelism. Mm-hmm. Father, we We repent as your church for the times where we have not utilized these gifts to bring people to you. And so, Father, I'm praying for every believer under the sound of my voice that's filled with your spirit, that you will stir fire in them and that you will stir these power gifts. The gift of faith, which is unshakable belief. In your ability, God. Total reliance in what you could do that cannot be shaken. I pray, God, for the gift of healing to operate in every person under the sound of my voice, that they'll go to doctors' offices and pray for people who are sick, that they'll use their discernment and pray for people with terminal illnesses. They'll even just randomly visit oncology offices sit in the lobby and pray for cancer patients. Thank you for a boldness, God. Hallelujah! To go into the world, to randomly go to children's hospitals and, and visit hospital rooms and lay hands on children so that they can be healed. Glory to God! And that many will come to God because we operate in these courageous ways. Just like you did. Give us your style of soul winning. Let that supernatural flood our soul and then overflow into others. I pray for the working of miracles. I pray we'll lay hands on autistic people and instantly they'll be made whole. Crippled people, blind people, deaf people, I release it upon these now. In the name of Jesus. Oh my God, that we'll work miracles even in the life of homeless people. That even as we help take care of their needs, we'll minister to them power and authority, and their life will change and their mindset will shift. I praise you for it. People don't want this part of the church because it's not pretty, God. But this is the work you've called us to, to make our world better. So I pray today that those under the sound of my voice will show up in the world with authority, with power, with anointing, and that life as we know it won't be the same because we go in the vineyard and work and what's right. Yeah. You'll pay. We praise you for God, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I pray today, yeah, that this message has been a blessing to you. I pray that you've received what thus saith the Lord. Glory to God. I pray, glory to God, Hallelujah! That you've made up your mind that you're gonna walk this out with him. Glory to God! And you're going to be the person that operates in the supernatural. You're going to become a walking encounter so that when people encounter you, they encounter him. Glory to God. We love him, we love him, we love him. I hear that, Father. Listen, anytime God talks to me about a seed, that means he has a future on his mind. I've been challenging you guys to give every time we teach. Uh, only a few have responded, and even if you have or have not We understand that, you know, people are in different situations, but today I need every person under the sound of my voice. The ways to give are scrolling at the bottom of this screen right now. I need you to get seed in the ground. Here's what I heard God say: I need you to make a sacrifice today. I'm not telling you what it is, but God said— I heard him speak in my left ear while I was praying— to challenge you. Please listen to me, please be obedient, to make a sacrifice today. We're not begging, glory to God, but we're obeying. And whenever again I talk to you about seed, God has a future on his mind. So I need you. I'm gonna sow. I want you to sow. Glory to God. I need every person— yes, you too— please be obedient in this moment and get seed in the ground. It's not— this is not about anything but getting money to you. There's some things you need God to do, and God says he needs you to continue to sacrifice. Stay in that circle of supernatural provision. So right now, in this moment, you need a breakthrough in some things, and some of you are not seeing some things move. It's because you become slowful in your giving, but you gotta align your giving and your praying with action as well. Glory to God. And you have to always be sure to be obedient when the call of God comes for you to give. So Father, I thank you right now for every gift, every giver. Thank you for people that are enjoying this word. You said if we communicate spiritual things, the people that hear it should communicate natural things. And Father, I pray that they will just obey today. Glory to God. And trust you and give and make sacrifices. And I pray as a result, whatever need we have as a church, as a ministry it will be met over and abundantly. I declare to be done. I declare to be so in Jesus' name. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, thank you, God, they are the sons of God. So lead your people. May they be sensitive to you in their giving. In Jesus' name, amen. Hallelujah. I love you guys. Y'all be blessed today. Listen, I missed some of you, uh, this morning in prayer at 5. So we— again, once again, when you don't— if you wake up at 5 and prayer is not going on and I'm not leading it, it doesn't mean for you not to pray. So last night I had another one of those nights where I didn't sleep. I— matter of fact, I laid down at probably about 3 AM because, again, a lot on my mind, a lot on my heart, a lot of praying through the night. Glory to God. So I didn't get up at 5. So I'm just transparently telling you that. But I told you before If I am not present, please go ahead and pray. I will be in prayer in the morning at 5. Please join us. Glory to God. That's the plan. Glory to God. To be up and to be available at 5 to lead you guys in prayer as we move quickly. Glory to God. To the end of our fast. So I want to challenge you guys, uh, don't be discouraged when you don't see me. Pray. Glory to God. I want to challenge you to get up in the morning and join us. Glory to the name of God. Uh, we're gonna— we're continuing to pray for supernatural soul-winning, breakthrough, and deliverance. Glory to the name of God. For our community, for our city, for our state, our nation, and our world. So join us. Glory to the name of God. Prayer— if you've joined us on any of these, they have been a blessing. Listen, if you're not fasting with us, the fast ends on the 29th. Glory to God! When we come off at 3 PM on the 29th, but you still can join us today. Glory to God! And you can fast with us. Glory to the name of God! I promise you, uh, you'll be glad that you did. Hallelujah! And just close it out with us. Go to rhodachurch.com fast25. Glory to God and praise God. Download the fast guide so you can join us and fast with us. Amen. Glory to God. We give God glory, we give God honor, we give him praise, we exalt him, we bless him. Glory to the name of God. He's a good God. He's a mighty God. One last announcement and we getting out of here, man. Glory to God. Now we are embarking upon our Family and Friends Day at Rhoda Church, and I'm excited about it on Sunday. Listen, I need you guys to make sure we pack the house and have SRO, standing room only. Glory to God. So let's start inviting your family, inviting your friends, please go to my Facebook page or the church's Facebook page and share the flyer. Glory to God. And invite people, inbox them, tag them in it, uh, send out texts, pick up the phone and call and tell people to join us on Sunday. It's going to be a great outing. We're gonna have a good time in the Lord. The word is going to come forth. We're going to worship. Glory to God. We believe God's going to pour out his Spirit in a strong way. Glory to God! And I want you to be in the house. So I want you that's watching that hasn't been to Rhoda Church, I'm extending an opportunity for you now to be my very special guest on Sunday at our Family and Friends Day. Those of you who are in our church, please make sure you get the word out. If you need flyers, you need to stop by the church and get flyers. We have tons of them at church. Take them and share them, put them on cars, do whatever you need to do to make sure that we are getting this word out. I love— I plan on later this evening and tomorrow, good, just going randomly, going into stores as the Spirit of God lead me, handing out flyers and talking to people, ministering to them and getting them to come to church. On a few occasions I've gone and met people, Lord led me to pray with them, prophesy to them, pray for sickness. I paid for people's items in stores. So I'm gonna be doing some of that today and tomorrow. Listen, I want you to get involved with this process and let's get our building full to capacity and beyond on Sunday. I met with the fire inspector this morning, glory to God. So I want to make sure that we are maximizing, glory to God, the number of people we can have in that square footage. Amen. So let's make it happen. We love you guys. Y'all be blessed, man. Y'all have a super day, and I will see you in the morning at 5:00 AM. Y'all be blessed.