2012 Best Church Service Two 0401: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 These utterance gifts. What does it say in Revelation about the testimony of Jesus? The proof of Jesus, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Wow. And see, this is what I’m telling you: when the church comes together, the Holy Ghost wants to do things, but to do that we got to have understanding and we got to be serious about it, because we’re the ones that He’s going to use.

▶ 0:39 And that’s why I told you at 90% of the time, maybe less, when I walk into a spirit-filled church, they had a purpose to meet with God, the Holy Ghost to come, and you could feel the presence of God. Every once in a while in other churches they would get the presence of God, because God just comes sovereignly and in spite of themselves, but in the spirit-filled churches they pursued the Holy Ghost, they pursued the presence of Jesus, and God would come. See, they would pray, they would worship, and, and God would come.

▶ 1:15 I remember visiting my parents in Alabama, and I usually went to a country church, and one summer when I was there I went to a country church. It was a Methodist church, and I walked in and you could feel the power of His presence just when I walked in. And they were worshiping, this whole congregation was just in unity, worshiping, praising God, and the Bible says He inhabits what? The praises of His people. They knew that when that guy preached the message, it was alive. I mean, that, that message was alive, and these are country bumpkins.

▶ 1:56 And the thing that I noticed, that the power of His presence was there, there to heal. How many of you know in Luke it says the power of His presence was there to heal? And I go, wow. I came back and I talked to the leaderships of our group, and I go, it’s, it’s strange to me that we have all this teaching and no performance, and I walk into this country bumpkin church and they have the performance without the teaching. Are you there? How many you know knowledge puffs up. Knowledge can make you proud, and you can think you possess because you have knowledge, and you don’t, because you have knowledge. You possess because you have it, and these people had it.

▶ 2:50 I was in a Baptist church outside Mexico City. When I go to third world countries, I preach in all kinds of denominations, and also, uh, here. And I walk into this Baptist church on the outskirts of Mexico City, and they started that service and they didn’t waste any time.

▶ 3:11 Bam, right in. They, they sang “Majesty.” That, that time Baptists didn’t sing choruses, they only sing hymns, but not this guy, this church sing “Majesty,” and they went down on their knees, and the presence of God just flooded that place. I was over in Ghana, and also there I speak in all kinds of denominations. I go into another Baptist church, and when I got done, I scratched my head, you know, I said, you know, you guys, you got Baptist on the outside of your church and there’s nothing Baptist about you. The presence of God was in the worship. When they gave announcements, the power of God was there. They were so sincere and so genuine that everything they did, the presence of God just flooded that place. Are you with me?

▶ 4:14 Hallelujah. See, it’s not the name on the outside, it’s what you are on the inside. And I’m sharing these things with you. When I went to [unclear], to Brazil, the capital of Brazil, there was a church there that was a spirit-filled church, and they were really messed up in their doctrine. I mean, ridiculous doctrine. And I spent two weeks there preaching three times a day, straightening out their doctrine. And you know, when we got, they got it, they got it, they would look at me and say, “Man, you’re a young man, and yet you, you know this Bible.” Well, yeah. I, I spent time, I got serious with the Bible, and I could speak by prophecy, I could speak by revelation, and I could speak by doctrine. I had an advantage. I didn’t have to know everything when I got up there.

▶ 5:17 Are you, are you there? I was getting truth while they were getting truth. That’s the utterance of revelation. God takes the cover off while you’re talking. Oh man, that’s good, huh? You see, and I could speak by prophecy, so I didn’t have to have a lot of notes and stuff, because I had all these sources that the Spirit could use me in. Are you there? Because I had understanding and because I pursued them. Are you there, church? That church grew, as I told you before, in the year 2000 they had 1,300 churches. They just took off once they got understanding. They just took, took off. Hallelujah. This are just a few examples I could give you. A lot of examples here in America and everywhere else, when people seek Him, they find Him, and when they find Him, He expresses Himself, and He knows, God knows no denominational, He doesn’t have any.

▶ 6:28 Now we’re going to hit the woman thing again. All right. “Let your women, your wives, keep silent in the churches, for it’s not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.” Now, the law does not say women to be silent. The law says women should be under the rulership of their husband. Nowhere in the Bible will you find the Bible saying women, when they come to the house of God, the temple of God, the church of God, that they got to be silent. But you will find that they are not to usurp authority over their husband. “If they will learn anything, let them ask their” what? Husband.

▶ 7:18 See, it’s not women in general, it’s the husband-wife relationship that Paul stress back in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, just a few chapters back, that the husband is directly under Christ and the woman is under her husband, and the woman cannot follow her husband if her husband isn’t following Christ. The only thing that gives us authority to say, “Come on, woman, let’s do it this way,” is we’re doing it His way. We can’t, well, “Submit, woman, the Bible says submit.” Now, submit, no, will you, hon, follow me as I follow Christ? See, I have a responsibility to be under the authority of Christ, and if I’m not following Christ, she’s got no reason to follow me. That’s Bible. And people take this and tell women to sit down and shut up, and I’m going to show you that it’s not true, that this isn’t what Paul is saying at all.

▶ 8:23 All right, in 1 Timothy 2:12 he says, “I permit not a woman to teach,” a wife again, “nor to usurp authority,” see, dominate the man. How many know women can be dominators? Yeah. “You don’t do it my way, you ain’t getting any tonight.” That’s control. “You don’t do it my way, then nuts on you.” And they’ll yak at you for two hours, yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak, till they just wear you out. And Paul is saying that is wrong. And boy, they’re good at crying. “You’re not going to get me that Thunderbird car.” I mean, they’re good at manipulation, and Paul says it’s wrong, and when men give into the manipulation, they are wrong, because they should be following Christ. Can I hear an amen? A lot of you women have a big grin out there like, “I’m guilty.”

▶ 9:48 See, but to be in silence, and you know there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of expressions of this. Some people say, well, historically the church had the women sitting on one side and husbands sitting on the other, and so, you know, if the woman didn’t understand something, she would yell over at the husband, “What the world is he talking about, Ned?” I mean, no, that’s not keeping the service decently in order, but I can’t really find that in my research.

▶ 10:13 I don’t care if she’s sitting by him. I mean, Becky can try to control my life just two inches away. She doesn’t need a 20 feet. And women like to show they’re more spiritually superior. No, it’s true, it’s true, especially if the man works all day, you know, he works 12 hours a day and he comes home and she’s in prayer meetings during the day and women’s meetings over here, and that man, and the boy, the husband comes in and, “Oh, man, you carnal guy.” And Paul is saying this should not be. That’s what he’s saying. And women should not be doing anything in the church to show that they’re a usurp authority over the man or acting like they know more than the husband and so forth. Paul is saying this is the kind of order you need in the church. And you know, if you got something against your husband or you disagree with him, then talk to him at home. Don’t use the church to speak out your hobby horse belief or whatever.

▶ 11:42 I’ve heard women in prayer meetings telegraph everything about their husband. “Oh, my husband, well, you know, he’s lazy, and you know he a paying the bills.” And so the rest of us, in the next time we seen that man, we, “Oh, jeez.” It’s true. Am I right, Barnes? Yeah. And I would get up and I’d say, “Listen, prayer time isn’t a time to telegraph everybody’s problems.” Can I hear an amen? And all that does is turn the man off.

▶ 12:27 Anyway, now more proof. Anna, a prophetess, was of great age in Luke 2:36, and departed not from the temple. Departed not from what? Where the people gathered to worship and pray and serve the Lord. She departed not from the temple, and she was a what? Prophet. She [unclear] prophesying. How do you prophesy silently? I haven’t figured that one out yet. [unclear]. You see, it’s not in the Scriptures I’m showing you. It’s not in the Scriptures, folks. She was a prophetess, she was in the temple, she served God with fastings and prayer night and day. That’s more than most of us men do. We can’t even get in one day a year of a little long night-and-day prayer, praying every day, good Lord. And she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Jesus to all of them.

▶ 13:25 How you know there’s nothing wrong with that? When you prophesy about Jesus, Jesus Christ, it’s good. You prophesy about the cross, you prophesy about the gospel, the word of God, it’s good. No one was shutting her up, and this is a Jewish woman. Are you there? So don’t give me this stuff about Jews not letting women talk. She’s talking.

▶ 13:54 Then you got Exodus 20 and Judges 44, Miriam and Deborah were prophets. [unclear] was a prophetess in 2 Kings 22:14. Acts 21:17, “Your sons and your daughters shall” what? Prophesy. Acts 219, Stephen had four virgin daughters which did what? Prophesy.

▶ 14:15 Genesis 3:16, “Your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you.” That’s what the law says, that the woman works with that husband. She doesn’t drive him nuts, and she doesn’t try to be the kingpin of the home and all that. In fact, a good woman knows how to make her man look good, ‘cause a lot of us men, we miss the mark, we need to be made look good. Yeah, we need help. We don’t follow Christ like we’re supposed to. Second, 1 Corinthians 11:3, “the head of the man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man.” He’s just keeping the continuity of the Scriptures, that’s all. Can I hear an amen? So now you women don’t have any excuse. Now you can pray and you can sing, you know, you can open your mouth and edify the body of Christ. Can I hear an amen? Hallelujah.

▶ 15:17 The results and accomplishments. Okay, “unbelievers and unlearned come in,” when you’re gathered together, “they are convinced and judged of all, their heart secrets are made plain,” revealed, “and so falling down on their face, they worship God and report that God is in you of a truth.” You see, this happens not because we got eloquent speakers, not because we got great musicians. This happens because the Holy Ghost is involved.

▶ 15:46 And the Holy Ghost, Jesus said, knows how to convict the person of sin, knows how to convict the person of righteousness, knows how to convict a person of the judgment to come, and knows how to show them things to come and knows how to show them the word of God. And when a spirit does things and they get understanding, they change their heart and they worship and say, “God’s in your midst.” And how, you know, that’s a better testimony than we saying God’s in our midst, when the unbeliever and the unlearned can come in and touch God and hear His word, and the Holy Ghost can change them. Not some church program, not divorce recovery, the Holy Ghost changes them. Are you there?

▶ 16:38 But see, we got the Holy Ghost and these manifestations just pushed right out of the church, and so church services in America don’t have a lot of power in them, in a large percentage of the churches. 1 Corinthians 14:3 and verse 26, all attending are built up, encouraged, and comforted. All learn and understand what the Spirit is saying to the text, not what the preacher is saying. How many you know the Holy Ghost knows how to enlighten you to some part of the message or some part of a prophecy, and another guy gets something enlightened from a different part of the same message? Yes. See, that’s the Holy Ghost moving. And we’re leaning on teachers and, and good speakers today, when we should be what? Pursuing the manifestations of the Spirit that comes from the whole body of Christ. Hallelujah.

▶ 17:44 1 Corinthians 14:22, “Tongues are for a sign to unbelievers,” and, as I said earlier, so are miracles. You get into this thing, you get into the power of His presence, and it’s amazing what God can do without theatrics, without emotional nonsense. He can just do things. When I was in Africa especially, people would get healed. I mean, tremendous things, just during the service, without any camera and the guy, [unclear], “Man, in the name of Jesus!” You know, when we don’t have the power, we fake it. And these people would get healed, just tremendous things would happen in the church service. I told you I doubted it at first. I challenged it. I was an unbeliever. I’m Americanized, it ain’t done that way. God just comes and touches people. I didn’t get to pray for them. My, the Holy Ghost just did it. People come up for salvation, people come up with it’s just amazing. And I’m not talking about one service, I’m talking about steadily, service after service in different churches, God just moved. Why? Because they were pursuing God. Hallelujah.

▶ 19:23 Wouldn’t we like to be a church like that? Yes. Okay, there’s the utterance gifts, prophecy in tongues, done one at the most three, all right, and, uh, all of us can sing, all of us can pray, all of us can sing and give a song, but it’s got to encourage, it’s got to comfort, it’s got to construct the person’s life, not destruct. You know, in my young believer days I heard the prophecy of [unclear] so many times. You know, he named his child [unclear] because the glory was departed from Israel. Well, that’s really edifying. I mean, that really makes you want to come to church, you know what I mean? I couldn’t wait to get to the next service. “Glory is not here, God’s not around.” Hallelujah. Boy, I go, you know, and I had to wait through all this stuff, I go, what’s going on? You see, because we didn’t have understanding, we had a heart but not according to knowledge, and we created a lot of problems while we also had a lot of results. But we can have both worlds, can’t we, church? Yes, we can have both worlds.