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If you are in a relationship with someone and your heart is disturbed
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and you keep saying, ‘I’m not sure’,
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I would suggest to you, he is not ‘the one’ - she is not ‘the one’.
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Right now, I want to give you an opportunity to ask any questions.
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If you have a question to ask, just indicate by raising your hand.
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I would like to know - when we have many gifts and talents,
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how can we know what our specific purpose is?
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Ok. So for you, brother, let’s be personal. What is the talent you are talking about?
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Music.
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Ok. Music - it’s a good example.
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We know from the Bible that music is a gift from God.
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But look at society today.
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A lot of people are using the gift they receive from God to glorify the devil.
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Brother, if God has gifted you in the area of music - wonderful!
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Make music for the glory of God, not to celebrate the world,
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not to celebrate money, lust or all these foolish and futile things. For God!
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If you use your gift for the glory of God, He will continue to increase it.
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And He will not take you to a place that your character is not enough to maintain.
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Because many people today - they can reach somewhere with gift
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but they quickly fall because they lack character.
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If you are gifted
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and you realise you are not at the place you expect to be with the gift you have,
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perhaps God is preserving you for you to work on your character.
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Gift begins; character finishes.
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So, thank you brother. God bless you! It’s a good question.
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Good afternoon. My name is Dayron.
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As a young man who grew up under the mentorship of Prophet T.B. Joshua
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can you give us some examples of how to have a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit,
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to reach the level that God moved in The SCOAN?
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OK! It’s a good question.
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I said something yesterday, that my journey is different to yours.
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And faith is not based on imitation.
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It’s based on the Word of God in our hearts and the conviction that comes from that.
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So, I can mention to you today some specific things that I did.
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But I am not you and you are not me.
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You need to know, through God’s Word, what He wants you to do in your situation,
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based in your calling in life.
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But I can give you some principles
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that can help everyone, irrespective of what God wants you to do.
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I will give you one.
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When you wake up in the morning, the first person you should greet is God.
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Many of us today, when we wake up in the morning, the first thing we greet is our phone.
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If you can begin your day on your knees in prayer,
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you start the day on the right foundation.
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Prophet T.B. Joshua lived a life of prayer.
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We are not talking about prayer on Sundays or when it’s time for service.
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He lived a life of prayer on a daily basis.
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He said, “I took care of the depth of my relationship with God
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and Jesus took care of the breadth of my success.”
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So, people of God, there is no special formula when it comes to spiritual growth.
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If you want to build your relationship with God, you must be prepared to give quality time.
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It’s a sacrificial lifestyle.
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Because to give that time,
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there are some other areas of your life you are going to have to sacrifice.
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But I tell you - whatever you lose for God’s sake,
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you will gain a thousand-fold.
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So, thank you, brother. I have just given you one but it’s something for you to feed on.
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Ok, let’s hear from our brother here.
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My name is Diolio and I’m 24.
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My question is - what advice would you give to yourself,
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with your experiences in the Lord, if you were 24 years old.
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I’m still a young man; I’m not that old!
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I’m 35 years old.
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So, I consider myself a youth still.
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We have so many influences surrounding us.
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But the best influence is the Holy Spirit.
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If there is anything I would have done differently,
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it would be to spend even more time pursuing my relationship with God -
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even more time in prayer, even more time in the Word,
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even more time in God’s presence because these are things that are priceless.
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If something is priceless, you should be ready to pay any price for it.
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Jesus said, ‘If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.’
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Pay any price to pursue your relationship with Christ.
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Ok, we want to hear from a sister. Thank you, sister.
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Blessings. My name is Yunet.
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How can I remain in the love and fear of God?
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Because it has been very difficult for me.
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So, let’s ask you, sister. If you examine yourself, what are the things that are
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affecting your love for God or your fear of God.
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Just mention any of those things.
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Lust and anger.
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So, yesterday, by God’s grace, I prayed for people for deliverance.
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Deliverance means uprooting anything spiritual
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that is pushing you to do something contrary to your will.
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Now you are delivered, you have the choice to say yes or no.
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Don’t be too fast to clap.
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Because the deliverance will not remove temptation.
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If anything, the deliverance will increase temptation.
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Because the devil does not want you to be free.
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That’s why you must be serious in your relationship with God to maintain what you receive.
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So, let’s talk about lust.
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Many people today blame the devil for entering the doors they leave open to him.
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You are one that opened the door to him and you are surprised when he enters and strikes.
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You are tempting the devil to tempt you.
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‘God, deliver me from the spirit of lust’ - but check your phone.
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Many of the pictures on your phone, if you ask me to check it -
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you would want to delete them.
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So, what I am saying to my sister is that if you identify the areas of your life
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that are affecting your relationship with God,
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identifying those areas must now bring you to a place of deeper commitment to God
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to overcome those temptations.
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If we examine ourselves sincerely,
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the cause of our inconsistent relationship with God
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is not too far from ourselves.
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So, the answer is in your hands.
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If you take the message you have received in this conference,
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you are equipped to maintain a fear of God.
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Thank you.
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My name is Mario and I’m 27.
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I have two questions that are related.
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First, there is a common trend of thinking that to be successful, you must get married at any cost.
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However, we have seen in your own life that there was a process
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and with God at the centre, at the right time, He brought the right person.
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What should be our focus as young people with God at the centre of our lives,
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to have the conviction it’s the right person coming with the right motives?
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Secondly, how can we know if our calling does not include marriage?
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Ok. Thank you for the question.
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So, first of all, let me say to everyone - this is my wife.
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I can give advice on this issue from practical experience now.
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I came to a point where I said to myself, ‘If I don’t get married, I’m content.’
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And when I arrived at a place of contentment,
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the issue of marriage no longer became a burden.
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And when it no longer became a burden, God gave me my wife from Heaven.
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Why am I saying this?
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If you seek marriage before God,
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you may enter a marriage that will affect your relationship with God.
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So, the issue of marriage is more about maturity.
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If you are mature spiritually
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and God’s appointed time comes for you to get married,
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there will be heart agreement in line with the pursuit of purpose.
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Look, when we talk of heart agreement,
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you don’t need anyone else to confirm to you; you know!
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If you are in a relationship with someone and your heart is disturbed
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and you keep saying, ‘I’m not sure’,
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I would suggest to you, he is not ‘the one’ - she is not ‘the one’.
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God speaks to our hearts.
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He will not lead you to a relationship that is going to affect your life negatively.
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So, if you are in the right place with God,
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and God’s time comes for you to get married,
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the Spirit of God will bear witness with your spirit.
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I will quickly share a short story.
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When God put it in my heart to speak to Allison,
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within three minutes, I went from saying the feelings that were in my heart
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to saying, ‘Will you marry me?’
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Three minutes!
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Now, I want to stress that I’m not saying my case will be the same for all of you.
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What I am saying is that when God speaks to your heart, you will know.
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So, your concern should be to be in the right place with God.
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When you are in the right place with God
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and His time comes for you to get married, it will happen spontaneously.
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And based on our brother’s question, if it’s not the will of God for you to get married,
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you will continue your journey with contentment, not burdened.
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So, that is my advice concerning that.
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Nowadays, many in the church have idolised family above God
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and give family the greatest attention in their lives.
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But the Bible says those who are willing to follow Jesus
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must be ready to sacrifice family, business, marital time.
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So, without removing the value of family,
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to bring the move of God we desire in Cuba
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and prioritise our relationship with God,
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to what extent should we be prepared to make such sacrifices?
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So, let me take you to the Book of Mark 3 from verse 31.
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“Jesus’ mother and brothers came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him.
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And a multitude was sitting around Him;
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and they said to Him, ‘Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You.’
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But He answered them, saying, ‘Who is My mother, or My brothers?’
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And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said,
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‘Here are My mother and My brothers!
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For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother’.”
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Now, Jesus is not saying here that He is denying His biological family.
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We know the role that Jesus’ mother played in His ministry and later on, His brothers as well.
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So, this Scripture is not saying, ‘I don’t have mother, brother or family.’ No!
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What Jesus is saying here is that the Spirit is thicker than the blood.
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Jesus was there on an assignment from God, teaching the people.
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That spiritual assignment was more important at that moment
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than the pressure of His mother and brothers wanting to see Him.
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So, the issue of managing your family, your human responsibilities -
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you must do so, it is good, there is nothing wrong with that -
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but not at the price of your spiritual life.
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It’s a matter of understanding your priorities.
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How can you be an effective father, mother, brother or sister that shows love
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and helps your family if you are not in the right place with God?
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The greatest way you can help your family is to take care of your relationship with God.
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Because the overflow of your relationship with God will bless those around you.
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So, if you are now experiencing spiritual stagnancy because you are giving
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too much time, attention, focus, interest to your family - check yourself.
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Family is very important.
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But when you stand before Jesus on the last day,
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your wife will not be there.
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Your father will not be there; your mother will not be there.
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It’s you and Jesus.
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Thank you.
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Blessings. My name is Carla; I’m 23.
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If you have the desire to serve God full-time, when do you know it’s the right time?
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How do I know the thoughts in favour of this are not just my own thoughts
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and the thoughts against it are not attacks from the enemy
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but it’s actually God telling me He wants me to do this, that this is the right time?
-
The work of God is not a matter of human qualifications.
-
When Jesus commissioned Peter in John 21,
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He didn’t ask him if he was a qualified Bible teacher or gifted speaker.
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He asked him the question, ‘Do you love Me?’
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It is our love for Christ that is the basis of effective ministry.
-
If you take care of your relationship with God and He has called you to ministry,
-
events will unfold beyond your control that will push you to your calling.
-
It will not be a question of ‘I’m not sure, is it my thought or is it God’s thought?’
-
It will be a sign beyond human comprehension.
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So, what should concern you is - my love for Jesus.
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That is the most important thing.
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To do great things for Jesus, you must have great love for Jesus.
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Thank you.
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So, my brother, go ahead.
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My name is Fernando and I’m 18.
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My question is what can we young people do for the fire of God
-
and the desire to serve Him to not be quenched in our lives?
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So, let me ask you brother. What do you think quenches the fire of God?
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Sin.
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Ok, you have given the answer.
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No one here is perfect.
-
All of us make mistakes.
-
But there is a difference between making a mistake in the pursuit of purpose
-
and committing sin in the pursuit of self-satisfaction.
-
What is the evidence the Holy Spirit is dominating our heart?
-
It is when we do the wrong thing and we are convicted of sin.
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‘God, I am sorry! I don’t want to do anything to break my relationship with You.’
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You run to God in repentance - He restores you, and the fire is not quenched.
-
But check yourself.
-
If you do the wrong thing and your first response
-
is to make excuses, to justify yourself,
-
it shows the Spirit of God is not dominating your heart.
-
The Holy Spirit prompts our conscience to repentance.
-
But if you internally justify your wrong, you remove the need for repentance.
-
At that moment, the fire is quenched.
-
Because the Spirit of God cannot share a heart dominated by sin.
-
I can just give you a very simple example.
-
Many of us here come to an event like this
-
and say, ‘Holy Spirit fire, fall on me!’
-
But we are still harbouring unforgiveness towards someone.
-
The Holy Spirit cannot share a heart with unforgiveness.
-
Because, in the case of offence, it is because someone has done something wrong to you,
-
it’s easy for you to feel justified in refusing to forgive.
-
You may feel justified before man, but before God you have no right to hold offence.
-
Because Jesus died on the Cross and said, ‘Father, forgive them.’
-
If He did not withhold forgiveness from us,
-
who are we to withhold forgiveness from someone?
-
I am just giving you one example of things that can quench the fire of the Holy Spirit.
-
A heart full of offence.
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So, thank you for the question, brother.
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Good afternoon. Blessings, church! My name is Gema. I am from Mayabeque.
-
This is my question.
-
You have been talking a lot about character, God’s Word and communion with our Father.
-
How can we know in our lives if we have the calling or gift to manifest the glory of God
-
to deliver and change lives at the same level we saw you doing among us yesterday?
-
God’s Word reflects His character.
-
When it comes to character, there are no shortcuts.
-
This life is a marathon, not a sprint.
-
I will quote Prophet T.B. Joshua. He said, “We must value processing more than result.”
-
Processing builds character.
-
Rather than focusing on the fire, focus on the oil.
-
The fire is gift; the oil is character.
-
So, give more attention to the oil,
-
which has to do with your relationship with God.
-
Because it’s not just about getting somewhere or achieving something.
-
It’s about maintaining it to the end.
-
The evidence of genuineness is consistency.