The Community Church: Sermons and teaching

Wonderful. Where we're going to begin is where we left off. We'll we'll jump back into one Corinthians to. And I just want to just share a few more, a few more things, and maybe maybe try and make it a little more practical in terms of how we can just be led by the Holy Spirit every every moment of the day, because that's that's the relationship he wants to have with us.

That's that's the work that Christ has has done for us. Colossians one says He's taken us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son and Romans 14 tells us that that kingdom is in the Holy Spirit. Yeah. So the the Kingdom is Kingdom of God is not a matter of of of eating or drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit And in the Holy Spirit is where Christians live.

It's it's it's your realm. It's your home, it's your it's your dwelling place. All the inheritance and all the blessings that we have in Christ in the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Spirit is not this place that occasionally we touch when, you know, when the band just managed to play the the music just right, to make the tingles work just the right way down your spine.

And oh, I mean, the Holy Spirit know in the Holy Spirit is what you were baptized into when you came to Christ. When you receive the Holy Spirit, it was a baptism of the Holy Spirit. The difference we talked earlier about the fact that for legal reasons, we don't leave people into the water when we baptize them, but for very important reasons.

People that Jesus, who's the baptized, are in the Holy Spirit. He has no such qualms. And when he baptize you in the Holy Spirit, he plunges you into the Holy Spirit and He leaves you there on a permanent basis. Okay. That's that's that's his intention for how we live. And one Corinthians two, ten and 10 to 12 says, The spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God for who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them.

In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Paul gives a little bit of an illustration here from our own experience. He says, Who knows the deep things within someone except the spirit within them. And that's kind of true, a human level, but it's not true to the same extent as it's true for the Holy Spirit.

And here's why. There's lots of things I forget. There's lots of things about me that actually my wife probably knows about me better than I do. In fact, it's becoming a more and more of a common occurrence. And I'm still blaming Long-Covid. But as someone said to me earlier, maybe it's just your age where I will go and say something to Ruth that I've just realized for the first time ever in my life.

Brand new information, fresh revelation, not kind of revelation of the word, but fresh revelation about myself. And I'll go and I'll say this. Don't you go. Yep. You've told me that several times already. She knows me better than I know myself. And so when it says that. But when Paul gives us the comparison that, you know, like the spirit within someone is that that's the the thing that truly knows their deepest self.

And then he says, that's like how the spirit knows the mind of God. It's minus all the bits that don't work very well for us humans. Okay, So there is nothing. And the spirit searches all things. He knows everything. So here's the thing that the one who knows the deepest things of God also knows absolutely everything about every situation you might ever find yourself in.

And he lives within you. So within you, there lives one who knows the deepest things of God and knows about every situation of life that you might find yourself in. I remember hearing Kerry Jones say many, many years ago about the gift of wisdom. He said, The only the only thing you need to move in the gift of wisdom is to believe that God has an opinion on everything.

Yeah, God has an opinion on everything. The Holy Spirit who lives in you knows God's opinion on everything. The Holy Spirit. Who's in you knows exactly what needs to happen at any moment. The Holy Spirit, who's within you understands exactly what's going on around you. He's never confused. He's never has to take a moment to collect his thoughts.

He knows and he lives within you. Within you. There is access to the deepest knowledge and truths of the universe and insight into every situation and every experience you may have. Now, that in itself is mind blowing. Said that. Amen.

But here's here's one of the things that Jesus says in John. I've not got these somewhere is somewhere in John 68. And I think it's what he's talking about, somewhere between John 42 and John 60, where he's talking to the disciples. He keeps talking to them about the comforter that's going to come. And he says He will take what is mine and make it known to you.

And that's how he will glorify Jesus so that the the Holy Spirit is in the world, and He is particularly in believers to take what is Christ's and make it known to us. It's a wonderful thing. Jesus also says that the Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance His words. Now there's a difference between helping you remember something or bringing to your remembrance and giving you brand new information.

Obviously, I'm not too good at knowing the difference between those two when it comes to a thought. I've had his his. Here's an amazing thing about the Holy Spirit in the Word.

If we if we read this regularly, we are giving the Holy Spirit a resource to make known to us the words of Christ. And we don't have to worry too much about using our natural mind to remember it. Now, if you have the kind of mind to memorize scripture, that's a wonderful thing. I was at Bible school with a young lady who was a walking concordance at the lecture, as could call out any they could quote any scripture and she would give them the reference.

And the other way round they would give the reference and she would just speak the. It was it was amazing. I don't know how I don't know how she did it. And I know that I could never do something like that. But what does the psalmist say? Psalm 119, Your word. I've hidden in my heart. Now, that even suggests to me that he's forgotten about it.

But he says your word. I've hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you, but this thing is living and active. Yeah, it's. It's not. It's not. It's not a reference book. It's something that's alive. And if we feed ourselves on this, the Holy Spirit comes and He brings the word to our room. Sometimes even without you realizing that you're quoting the Scripture because it brings glory to Christ, that He takes what is Christ and makes it known to us because saying.

But as soon as Paul says in the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. His next sentence is this What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. We have received the Holy Spirit, not the Spirit of this world. One of the things, one of the things to understand, the ways of the spirit is to understand that that everything is spiritual.

Everything is spiritual. He said, Look, you've not received the spirit of this world. You've received the spirit of God. There is a spirit in this world. This world is a spiritual place. And one of the things I think, again, one of the things that the enemy would like us to think is actually the realm of the spirit isn't really real.

It isn't really important. It doesn't really exist, but it does. And there is a spirit at work in this world, and I don't want to I don't want to scare you. But John calls it the spirit of Antichrist. All you know what? You know what Christ means. Anointing Antichrist means doing it without an anointing. Yeah, There is a way of the world that seeks to live without God, that seeks to live without the Spirit of God.

And it opens up a door for all kinds of spiritual forces. And we don't need to worry too much about what they are. But we do need to know that we live in a spiritual environment, that everything in this world has a spiritual quality to it, and that doesn't scare us at all. In fact, that actually helps us understand how we can be so effective in, in, in in the purposes of God and in advancing the kingdom, when naturally speaking, we're so weak because because, you know, naturally speaking, not many of us, there's not many of us that can achieve anything of any great worth.

There's there's a few there's a few amazing people around on that. But most of us, we're just kind of fed to middling somewhere in the it's like Paul says in one Corinthians, he says, you know, consider yourself who you were when you were when you when you came to Christ. Weren't many rich, weren't many noble. He said, God chose the things that are not.

And that's where most of us fit. Where most of us are in that category of the are not. But you know that that's actually more of a qualifier than a disqualifier because God wants us to do everything we do under the anointing of his spirit and because the because the place that things primarily happen is in the realm of the spirit.

When the spirit you have is the spirit of the living God, You're guaranteed to be on the winning side, aren't you? We've we've got the spirit without whom none of this would exist, because it was as the spirit moves that creation happens, that's the spirit who lives in us. It's the spirit that is from God. It's a very uneven contest in the realm of the Spirit.

And the only way that Christians find themselves on the back foot in the realm of the spirit is when they don't realize what they have. It's like that quote I gave you from a Baxter this morning said, basically, the devil wants you to ignore the Holy Spirit. The devil doesn't want you to develop your relationship with the Holy Spirit because He knows that if you do that, you are dynamite.

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the one who knows the deepest things of God and all the thoughts of God is the Spirit that we have received. One John 227 says, As for you, the anointing you receive from him remains in you and you do not need anyone to teach you. But but as his anointing teaches you about all things, and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit, just as it taught, you remain in him.

And here's the here's the amazing thing that he's saying about the anointing of the Spirit is that the Spirit can teach you all things, not just all things that we might consider spiritual, because he knows everything and he searches all things and he knows all things and he can teach you all things. And his But here's where John goes with this, he says, And ultimately what he's going to teach you is this to remain in Christ, to abide in Christ, to live with Christ.

You see, but the key to having all power and all ability and and and to and to be, you know, these spiritual giants. The key is to actually take life to its very simplest, which is of abiding in Christ of fellowship ing with Jesus. Jesus. Jesus says, I'm going to try and find this verse in John because I can never quote this correctly.

Yeah. John 14 verse 18 I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you yet a little while and the world will see me no more. But you will see me because I live. You also will live in in that day you will know that I am in my father, in you and me and I and you.

In that day you will know that I am in the father. And you in me and I in you. That's the work of the spirit. That's what the spirit comes to do. When Jesus says, In a little while, I'll come to you. He's not talking about his second coming. He's talking about Pentecost. Yeah. When the Holy Spirit was poured out, that was Jesus coming to us again.

He will come physically, globally at the end of time. But what he's talking about here isn't that isn't that second coming, that end of time peruse here what whatever however you want to term and he's talking about I'm going to come and be with you by the Holy Spirit. And when you have the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit resides in you and again, I've got to read it because I can I always trip over these words because it's just it's just so wonderful on that day.

In that day, you will know that I am in my father and you with me and I and you. It's a conundrum, isn't it? But John uses this this phrase to abide, to live, to dwell together, to signify this. Jesus says a little earlier than this, He says he says, I am the vine and you are the branches.

There's this idea that we're we're we're grafted into him. We share his life. And when we allow the Holy Spirit, when we cultivate our walk with the Holy Spirit, that brings us back to Jesus again and again and again. What was the phrase I read you this morning? I determined among you to be ignorant of everything except Jesus Christ.

Ignorance is it requires humility, doesn't it? I mean, I'm sure there are some people in the world who are naturally gifted with ignorance, but those but those of us that are intelligent like what I am, it requires a certain level of humility to embrace ignorance. But the simplicity is I'm not interested in anything except Jesus. That's what the Holy Spirit wants to.

He wants to bring you to that place. Because because the like I said this morning, the life in the flesh or the life in the spirit is is really is a binary. And God, in his grace, sometimes allows those of us that walk too much in the flesh to experience something of his spirit. But that's not the intention he has for how we live.

It's that we walk in the spirit all the time. What does it say in Romans in Rome and say, You look at this in Rome and say, First three for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh, could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

When you walk by the Spirit, Jesus says, you not only keep the law, but you fulfill the law without thinking about it. It's not through an act of what goes on in your mind. God illustrated this to me. This is just an illustration. This is not a guarantee that this will always work in every situation. But many years ago, when we first moved to Coventry, we were still part of Live in Rock Church and I used to travel across because I had an office that I used to travel quite regularly and I would go up and down the M6 motorway and the M6 no motorway is a wonderful, wonderful road because it's it's nearly always

empty. And although it's it's this been recorded, I have it on semi good authority that in the in there's there's two junctions in the M 69 and between those two junctions is the boundary between Warwickshire police and Leicestershire police. But the way the junctions work you can't do a complete turn round at one of them and it means that between those junctions, neither police forces monitor or patrol that road and that's a fairly well known piece of information locally which everyone takes to mean that there is no speed limit.

And one of the things I found is that I would often, as I was driving to the office, I would often just be speaking or pray or singing or praying in tongues. And one of the things I found is that when I was speaking in tongues, if I looked down at the speedometer on this big, wide empty road where there were no police, I was only doing 70.

I was of when I was walking by the spirit, I was I was fulfilling the law. Now, I'm not saying that if you prayed in tongues, you won't break the speed limit. Okay? I I'm not saying that it was it was just God allowing a simple person to understand something, an illustration. I wasn't consciously thinking how to obey the law.

I was just all I was conscious of was Jesus. And I found that when I was only conscious of Jesus, I fulfilled the law, obey the law. And if we want to live successful lives, keep your eye on the speed speedometer, please. And Ruth, on the way home, please. Oh, it's always it's always a great ride when my wife's driving and I did.

I don't know how she. I don't know how she does it, but we, we get places really quick. I don't know. It must be I think it must be a Philip anointing, you know, like, like when the Holy Spirit just took him from one place to another. I'm sure that's what's happening now. But here's the thing. When we're country, when we're being led by the spirit, when our consciousness is entirely on Christ, we actually don't need to worry about how we're walking.

We're going to be walking in the planning purposes of God. We've been walking in the ways of the Lord, and it's when we begin to worry about all those other things that we're taken away from that. But the Holy Spirit in his teaching you about all things will always bring you back to this abiding in Christ, living in Christ, having a Jesus consciousness, being ignorant of everything except Jesus Christ.

And for many of us with minds that like to think about things, that's a real discipline that we have to embrace. Speaking in tongues, by the way, is one of the most important tools we're given to do that, because there's a connection between your spirit in your mouth and your mind has to take a rest, has to take a break.

The next thing Paul tells us this In the second half of verse 12, he says, We have the spirit who is from God so that we might understand what God has freely given us. We're not when we allow the Holy Spirit to be the one that is leading us and guiding us, we come into a greater and greater understanding of our inheritance in Christ of the blessings that God has given us.

And you know what? It's very easy, isn't it? If you look at things with the natural mind, it's very easy to see all the need and to see all the lack and to see all the things you don't have. I read a quote from Elizabeth Elliott a few months ago. I'm probably going to slightly misquote it. You remember Elizabeth Elliott.

Jim and Elizabeth Elliott were Jim Elliott was was was martyred as a missionary in South America. And then Elizabeth, his wife, continued the ministry. He wrote the great book, Is It Through the Gates of Splendor? I think. Anyway. But anyway, she this quote was this quote said this. She said, God has promised to supply all my need. So if I don't have it, I don't need it.

So that's a spiritual mind. The natural mind looks around and says, there's a whole lot of stuff. I haven't got the spiritual mind that is entirely ignorant of everything except Christ, so that Jesus has promised to give me all that I need. If I can see something I don't have, it means I don't need it because his word is truer than my perception of my circumstance.

I have to remind myself of stuff like this all the time. I'm very much on a learning curve with this stuff. Ephesians one I'm going to read you verse three, verse seven and eight Blessed is the garden Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ, in Him. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding.

He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Every spiritual resource you could possibly need is already yours in Christ. And in His wisdom, he has lavishly and richly poured that into us. And yet often we still think, Oh, I don't have this and I don't have that and I need this and I need that. But the word tells me I already have everything I need.

I'm part of the work of the Holy Spirit is He comes and teaches us how to walk in that reality. It's not about it's about our perspective. It's not about stuff. It's about how we view things. It's about it's about how we understand the world that we're in. That wherever you find yourself, you have all the resources that you need.

How many times have we been in situations where we think, Oh, if only this, then I could do that, That that's often my first reaction to something. Oh, if only if only this were the. Here's one of the things that for a few years now that God has helped me see that we that we work as a principal in the church in Coventry.

And I'm sure that you do here as well. But it says in Acts two that there were no needy among them. So I'm going back to Jeff's Baptist Tree appeal now. Why was there no media among them? Because God had already given them everything they needed because it said that those that have property were selling it and coming and lending it the apostles feet.

So within the church there was all the resource they needed. And so, so my attitude to finance since the church finances, that is that we shouldn't be any needy among us. And in order to meet that needs we actually already have what we need. It's very simple. It's it's very simple. It's already there. So when we discover a need, I'm not worried when you suddenly discover someone in a in a in a in a financial situation where they need some help, I'm not I'm not worried because I know that God has already met that need.

But it's his intention that within within the church there are no need because the the the the supply that is necessary is already present. And that that just makes it so much simpler how you make decisions and how you that's also what Paul says. You go in and instruct those that are rich in the world to be generous.

Some sometimes people need a little bit of encouragement, but but I'm not saying it in one very practical way, but it's true in every way that all the resource we need, we already have whatever situation you're facing, wherever you find yourself. It's like Peter and John at the beautiful gate and the guy's begging, he says, You know, I want I want some money.

He says, We don't have what you're asking for, but we do have what you need in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And they saw a need and they thought, we have we've already got the supply. You know, they didn't stop and pray. There wasn't even a little bit of well, let's we'll just lay hands on you.

Start just stop pouring in tongues and hope that hope that some faith kind of got stirred up and and oh, they just he says, Here, take my hand. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up. They were completely confident. They already had everything they needed for that situation because they were men whom the Holy Spirit had made real to them their inheritance in Christ, the Holy Spirit teaches us spiritual realities.

Look at the where this goes next. This is why we speak not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities. With Spirit taught words, the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned through the Spirit.

Okay, The key the key word in here, I think, is the word accept. What's the key to understanding the ways of the spirit? The first thing to do is to accept that the spirit knows better than us that we are, that we are perfectly ready to appear foolish. Some of us have had plenty of practice of that in our lives, but we're ready to appear foolish because we know that that is almost a necessary step to receiving the true wisdom and to understanding the ways of the spirit.

We said earlier that wisdom, the crucifixion, is the beginning of wisdom. No one but God would think that that was the way to save the world. No one but God would think that that was the way to reconcile all things with himself who caused the death of Christ as a stumbling block to Jews of Jews and foolishness to Greeks.

It's kind of like I wouldn't do it that way. And I don't know about you, but I still don't really understand all that's going on on the cross. I'm in wonder of it. I'm deeply appreciative of it, but I don't understand it all. But I have one thing I do is I accept it. I accept that this was God's wisdom and in the key to understanding the ways of the Spirit is to accept that he knows better than I do.

I'm going to read you that verse from the J.P. Phillips translation. I'm I use the J.P. Phillips translation quite a lot lately. I was in I thought I was the I thought I was being unique and unusual and go back to that one. And then I was in a meeting a couple of weeks ago and and two of the oh, yes, I have the J.P. Phillips with me as well.

I thought, Wow, we have to find a new trendy, old school, trendy, you know, bring back. Bring it back. But but, but is in many ways it's a great translation. He says this. He says it's these things we talk about not using expressions of human intellect, but those which the Holy Spirit teaches us, explaining spiritual things to those who are spiritual.

So things that the Holy Spirit teaches us. And when the Holy Spirit teaches you, you then have an ability not only to understand, but also to explain to others the ways of the spirit. But it has to come with this, this humility of saying, I'm going to submit to your ways and to your ways of doing things. And when I do that, I begin to understand the ways of the spirit.

And as we grow spiritually, we realize that these things start to become less foolish because we begin we we have this new kind of way of approach of thinking and we're getting closer and closer to the goal of this passage that we have the mind of Christ. As a believer, your mind should be wired entirely different to an unbeliever.

I would literally mean if you took a brain scan, although I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. But what I mean is that is that our reaction to the things of this world should be entirely different. I think there are some things in this world that actually we really need to break our the worldly patterns of thinking.

Let me give you an example. Politics, okay? I'm interested in politics. Quite enjoy digging into that kind of stuff for quite enjoy reading about it. But when I approach my engagement with politics, I do it as a citizen not of the United Kingdom, but as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. And whilst I believe that God called some people into the realm of politics, and for those people, therefore they may well need to join a political party, I don't think Christians should feel comfortable with having a strong political, political allegiance because one of the things you find is that they they change what they stand for on such a regular basis.

You know, so so kind of like saying, well, I am I am a Labor supporter, I am a conservative supporter or whatever it might be. I think that's actually thinking in the world's way. And I think that the spiritual mind says I have a certain amount of power as a citizen of this country and I'm going to use it in the way that I best think extends the purposes of God.

And so if someone is saying something that I think aligns more closely with the values of the kingdom, then they will have my support. But if they start doing something else, they won't have it anymore. I'm not on I'm not held by that. So it's a very, very simple thing, you know, kind of perhaps touches us all the time in terms of thinking.

Actually, I don't need to be. In fact, I mustn't be conformed into the ways of this world. I need to have a different way of thinking. Do you ever find it refreshing when you speak to someone and and and they say something and you think, Wow, you really think differently about this to how I do? And often I'm then challenged because I realize I'm probably thinking with a natural mind.

And they've just brought some sort of spiritual light and revelation into this course as we explain spiritual things to those that are spiritual. But the insights we have hang around with people who know the ways of the spirit, who live that different kind of lifestyle, the people who, if you look at them through naturalize, seem a little bit odd and maybe a bit foolish.

They're probably the ones that you want to be spending time with because they're discovering something of the ways of the spirit and they living in spiritual realities. The word that's used it here, I think, Oh, here we go In the next first verse 15. So in the version I've got here, which is the DNI view, it says The person with the spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, but where it says the person with the spirit, the Greek word there is pneumatic boss, which means a spiritual one or a spiritual thing.

And this is the wonderful thing. As we've gone through this passage, we're now talking about people who are identified by their affinity to the Holy Spirit, spiritual people, spiritual people, people whose lives have become so connected with the Holy Spirit. But just like you can bear Jesus, you know, he's not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. He's very happy that we're known as Christians.

The Holy Spirit wants you to be known as Pneumatic Boss spirituals. Those who live and walk by the spirit. And here's something. This is quite countercultural, and this is the kind of the last point I want to make, really. Before it'd be great to just spend some time waiting on God together and, praying for people. It says that the the spiritual person judges all things.

And, you know, sadly, this is one of the things that you hear so much in Christian circles even, Oh, don't judge. Jesus said, don't judge. No, Jesus said, don't judge unless you're willing to be judged. That's what he said here. We told the spiritual person, judges all things, It's good to judge. In fact, it's essential if you want to be a spiritual person, to make a judgment about all things the.

Judgment we're using is the is the anointing that the prophet Isaiah spoke about Jesus in Isaiah 11. He says the spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, and He will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what his eye sees, what He sees with His eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears, but with right judgment, with righteousness.

He will judge the needy with justice. He will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and the breath of his lips will slay the wicked. It's a bit gruesome at the end that, isn't it? But this is. This is how Jesus, Jesus judged all things Jesus knew what was going on in every situation because of the anointing that He had.

And that's the same anointing that God wants you to have. Let me read you what it says. This, that the spiritual person is judged by no one. That doesn't mean that we're unaccountable. Let me read you this translation. This is verse 15 in the Moffatt translation of the Bible. It says this The spiritual person can read the meaning of everything, and yet no one can read what he is.

I like that the spiritual person can read the meaning of everything, and yet no one could read what he is. That's how he translates, but is judged by no one. What he's you saying is this is that is that when we walk in the anointing of the spirit, we can have an insight into the true nature of everything around us.

And yet at the same time, the world has no idea who we are because the world does not recognize the Spirit of God. The world does not receive the Spirit of God. The world may well think you look like a fool. Hallelujah. So the next time you're in a situation where you think, I don't know what's going on, or your spiritual spidey senses start tingling, anyone that's into Marvel, you think I don't know what's going on, but something's up.

That's probably the Holy Spirit saying to you, I know what's going on. I want to give you insight. I want to show you you have all that you need for this situation that you're in. You have all that you need to be the answer to what's going on here. You have all that you need to discern what's happening and to be able to pray and see something happen and to see where did we begin This morning, the power of God released into wherever you are.

And just like I said earlier, that the the only the only thing necessary to move in the gift of wisdom is to believe that God has an opinion on everything. The only thing needed to know what to do in any situation is to believe that the spirit who is in you knows all things. And then we get to this, this, this goal here.

It says this, but we have the mind of Christ. Having the mind of Christ means that your first thought is probably a God thought. The number of times, particularly, like I said recently, we've been we've been working in helping people grow in the prophetic but the number of times. But when you are listening to God or waiting on God for something, that the first thing that comes to mind is God is extremely high.

And I think sometimes sometimes we go, Oh Lord, I just want to put out a fleece, just just to test this, or I want to or maybe, you know, if I can I can I can get my my connect group in. What's up? Let's just see what every let's see the collective wisdom of the group. Let's just send this message.

You know, there's nothing wrong with that stuff. But as long as as long as when you discover that when you when you've taken that extra time, when you've gone and taken three days of prayer and fasting, and when you've asked every spiritual person, you know their opinion on it and it all points you back to the very first thought that the Holy Spirit gave you, as long as you acknowledge that, that it's fine to do all that other stuff.

And this isn't a license to kind of just be kind of, you know, shooting from the hip all the time. And that's why I said when we have the mind of Christ that your first thought is probably a God thought, we have all kinds of we have all kinds of ways of weighing and measuring. And this this is a big one.

And having this hidden in your heart is really important. But if this is the goal of the Spirit's work in our life, that we have the mind of Christ, then we shouldn't see it as something so distant and unobtainable when we know that we have already received all that we need. But we have received the spirit without measure, without qualification, without expiry date, because we have a well that springs up to eternal life within us.

If we live a life that continually causes us to be filled with the spirit. And there's lots of ways of doing that. A number of them are listed in the Ephesians five and it's stuff we do all the time. So and music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks in every situation, submitting to one another out of reference to Christ is says, you know, so actually just in having healthy spiritual relationships, in continually turning our attention to the Lord and having a thankful heart in praising God at all times, we are full of the Spirit.

So if we're full of the Spirit and the work of the Spirit is to bring us to having the mind of Christ, we shouldn't be there going, Oh, well, yeah, but you know, I'm I'm not sure. I don't know. I mean, maybe in ten years time, maybe when I'm a bit older, maybe when I've done this, maybe I'll believe that I can think the way that Jesus thinks.

No, This is the work of the Spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit is seeking to do in us. And my prayer. One of my prayers for you right now is that you discover in the next few days the Holy Spirit this wonderful thing. Holy Spirit is a great teacher. And and and he he he loves to meet us where we're at and to teach us in the situations we're in.

And my prayer is that for all of us, in the next few days, we have at least one experience where we're confronted with something and we have a thought that is a God thought. But very quickly we discover we're right. That was God's thought. That was a God thought, not just me and it and you know, it'll come into your head the same way that your other thoughts do have.

You know, if you have a notice that that when God that when God speaks to you, it sounds like you wouldn't it be so much easier if you sounded like James Earl Jones every time he spoke to you? But he sounds like you because you have the mind of Christ. And when your life is led by the anointing of the Spirit and when you're full of the spirit, the mind finds it actually fits where it's supposed to fit.

Romans eight talks about the mind controlled by the flesh and the mind controlled by the spirit or the mind set in the flesh and the mind set on the spirit, The mind, the spirit and the flesh are all good things that God has given you. But there is a hierarchy to their authority. It should be the spirit at the top, which then controls the mind.

And the mind is supposed to control the flesh. Yeah, that's how it went. If you get that out of order, all kinds of things go wrong and a lot of us live with it out of order a lot of the time. And we know that by experience. But none of them are. None of them are bad in themselves.

They're all that God is. If you didn't have any flesh, you wouldn't have any agency in this world. We live in it. We live in a flesh and blood world. But if the spirit is controlling my mind, if my mind is set on the spirit, then actually my mind is that and able to control my flesh, control my physicality and all of that then could be used to the glory of God.

I read to this to you this morning. I just want to finish with this Romans ten, verse 6 to 8. The righteousness that is by faith says, Do not say in your heart who will ascend to heaven, That is to bring Christ down or who will descend into the deep, that is to bring Christ up from the dead.

But what does it say? The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. Here's the thing Jesus is not a long way away from you. Yes, He's on a throne and hasn't. But by his spirit, he lives in you. He's not still in the grave. He's risen. And the power of his resurrection has been unleashed in the earth, through you and through me.

And if he's not all the way up there and he's not all the way down there, but he's right here, that we can have a confidence that his word is in our mouth and on our heart. This is a quote from Deuteronomy 30. The original quote was about keeping the law if it was possible for old covenant people to have a confidence that the word of God was in their heart and in their mouth, how much more so for those who live.

And I led by the Holy Spirit. But we have Paul says, we have the mind of Christ. And here's the thing. He was saying that to a bunch of people. We've got a lot of stuff wrong. So I've kind of painted this as a as if you like, a process and an and a progression towards something. Paul's actually saying you already have this.

Why? Because you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing with Christ Jesus in the heavenly process. You already have the mind of Christ. The question is, how do we then best direct our lives to live in that reality? And I am utterly convinced. Like I said, I said this when I talked about this little bit of prophecy group that we've got, and when we sat last week and listened to so many testimonies of how people were hearing from God and finding opportunity to talk to people and to share the gospel and to and there were, I think, 11 of us in that room.

And I just thought if, if, if the whole church could be like this, and then if every church in the city could be like this, and if we could be like this for more than a week, two, you know, God's kingdom would come because there is there is nothing there is there isn't a plan B and this isn't plan B.

We're waiting for some great Plan A, This is this is the way that God believes he will reach the world through men and women who are led by the Holy Spirit, who embrace the ways of the Holy Spirit. And the more they embrace the ways of the Holy Spirit, the more they live the ways of the Holy Spirit and stop thinking and behaving like the world does and find that they become a demonstration, a living demonstration of the power of the Spirit.

Because if the Holy Spirit is there, He brings the power. He brings the power of the resurrection with Him. So I'd like us just to take some time and give the Holy Spirit some room and some space. I wonder. I know we prayed at the end of the meeting this morning and I encourage you if there was something specific that you were laying a hold of God for or something, that in anything that I'd said, particularly thought, Lord, I want to see that happen.

I particularly like to pray for you. If there's a specific thing that you're asking God for. And I also think that the Holy Spirit quite likely would like to speak to us through some of you this evening as well, through prophetic word or through tug, an interpretation or whatever it might be, because this is the we're in the classroom of the Holy Spirit, and he's he's a much better teacher than I am.

And so we we want to just give some time and space to him. So I wonder, can we just squeeze, just stand to our feet and then just begin to pray in the spirit together. Just see how he begins to lead us.