It's Spiritual...

[0:00] So I do have a word today, and I'll be taking Scripture beginning in 1 Timothy 3. As you turn there, you know, in the original text, there weren't chapters and verses, and occasionally, sometimes, a new chapter starts, and it's still in the same context as the chapter before.

[0:27] So I just want to point that out, because we will be reading 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, which is the last verse in chapter 3, but then we're going to also read chapter 4, verse 1. When you have it, say amen.

[0:44] We always want to keep the word of God at our fingertips and within reach. So we have a phone, so it could be on your app, but we encourage you to bring your Bible to church. We don't have screens, and so it's good to see the word, not just hear it directly from a preacher, but it's good to have it in your hands.

[1:00] Amen? So 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, and then chapter 4, verse 1. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.

[1:11] God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

[1:24] And I don't want to confuse you very much right now, but I want to try to point out a couple things in this first scripture that we've read. When it says God, we know God is a spirit, but it says he was manifest in flesh.

[1:40] So we're talking about spirit, flesh, justified in the spirit, we're talking about spirit again. Seen of angels, that's a spiritual thing. Preached unto the Gentiles, flesh, thing, natural thing, right?

[1:53] Believed on in the world, natural thing. Received up into glory, spiritual thing again. Okay, so we're spiritual and natural, right? And now verse 1, chapter 4, verse 1.

[2:06] Now the spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

[2:20] And I want to put extra emphasis and highlight in your Bible there. Now the spirit speaketh expressly. The spirit speaketh expressly.

[2:32] And I want to just deliver a short word to you tonight from the thought it's spiritual. Amen. It's spiritual. Would you pray with me? Lord Jesus, I pray, God, that everyone today would have spiritual ears to hear and spiritual eyes to see, God, what your word would have for us today, God, and that we would be able to apply your word to our lives, God, and that we thank you, Lord Jesus, for your word.

[2:59] God, I pray that there be an anointing in this house today as I deliver your word, Jesus, that it would anoint each one and rest upon us today, God. It would deliver us from things, God, that would give us new perspective and direction in life and change our minds in favor of you, Lord.

[3:15] In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You may be seated. So there are a lot of things going on all around us all the time that we cannot see with our natural eyes of flesh or hear with our natural eyes of our ears of flesh.

[3:34] Our scope of awareness is limited to what our natural senses would allow for us to experience. But there are two sides to the same one coin.

[3:48] There is a natural and there is a spiritual. And like that coin, they are not separable. And where one side goes, the other is there. And there is a spiritual realm that is far greater in size, deeper in depth, and greater in complexity than anything that we can see or understand in the natural.

[4:11] And it's mostly obscure to us. And we are born of flesh, you know, and we have to be born again.

[4:22] Jesus said that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. But although you may have been born again of the spirit, the spiritual still remains, I would say, mostly obscure to us.

[4:35] We are far more familiar in the natural. We most definitely have a far greater perspective of the physical than we do the spiritual.

[4:47] And it will always be my goal as a spiritual leader to not only become more aware and more sensitive spiritually in the spirit myself, but also to teach the disciples of Jesus Christ in Houston, California, to learn of the spirit, to see with your spiritual eyes, and to hear with your spiritual ears, and to seek after the spirit, and to walk after the spirit, and to live in the spirit, and allow the spirit to flourish in you.

[5:21] There is a spiritual realm also called heavenly places. With many scriptures, the Bible provides us a glimpse into the realm of the spiritual. Colossians 1 and verse 16, For by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him.

[5:49] And so this speaks to us about the creation of the spiritual entities and indicates to us that there is a realm of the invisible powers and authorities.

[6:02] And in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12, it says that, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness, and then high places.

[6:17] And again, this is another verse that reveals to us that there are invisible powers and authorities at different levels, and they seem to be organized with various responsibilities or different territories and responsibilities within those territories.

[6:36] And the fact that the scripture plainly says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against these invisible divisions of spiritual powers, it shows us that the battles and the dilemmas that we face in our lives are not just physical, but it involves a spiritual entity in heavenly places oftentimes.

[6:57] And I'm thankful for every faithful one God, one God, apostolic Jesus name, born again believer that has ever lived or frequented the city of Houston since its beginning in 1907.

[7:15] And we know Sister Dorothy from the series church. And there's probably others that we're not aware of. And I'm thankful for that, their light and their witness that's been here in the city.

[7:26] But today we're officially a United Pentecostal church that is in operation for the first time in this city. And I compare it in my mind, I think of it like it's D-Day in World War II.

[7:41] And in spite, heavy resistance, upon heavy fire, we have landed on the beach. And we have established a beachhead in this city, in the spirit.

[7:53] And we are here to liberate this city from the hands of the enemy of God. We are, we're going to fight a spiritual fight. It's going to be the spiritual darkness that we fight against. And we're going to establish the kingdom of God in the city.

[8:06] Amen. And so the prophet Elisha comes to mind. A story found in 2 Kings chapter 6. You can read the story of a time when the king of Syria was to come against Israel.

[8:22] And, but he was struggling because there was a man of God in Israel's camp named Elisha. That was one that knew how to operate in the spirit.

[8:33] And he was able to foresee everything that the king of Syria was doing. would try to do and try to come against Israel with. And, and Elisha knew that and understood that, yes, there's a physical battle that's going on, but there's also a spiritual realm.

[8:49] And if I can fight in the spiritual, I can have an advantage. And that's what he was doing. Every time the king of Syria would make a plan of, of attack, it would be foiled because Elisha would, in the spirit, gain this knowledge and relay that information to the king of Syria.

[9:07] And they would avoid a trap or whatnot. And so it came to be that the king of Syria found out what was going on, that there was a man of God foreseeing his every move.

[9:18] And so he decided that he should kill Elisha. And so that he could have better success in the fight against Israel. And ultimately the Syrian army was able to surround the city that Elisha was staying in.

[9:32] And they came by night and surrounded the city. And when one of Elisha's servants came out of his place that next morning, he looked around and saw the whole city was surrounded with the Syrian army, horsemen and chariots.

[9:48] And so he, in a panic, he cried out to Elisha, how are we going to make it out of this? What, what, how are we going to handle this? And Elisha told him to fear not because that there was more that was with them than that were against them.

[10:04] And then Elisha prayed in the spirit that, and asked God to open his servant's spiritual eyes so he could see in the spirit. And God opened his spiritual eyes and, and the servant, and all of a sudden the young man could see that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha.

[10:25] And what the king of Syria didn't know and what the young servant of Elisha didn't know is the same thing that a lot of us, uh, seemingly don't understand or know.

[10:36] And that is that there is a spiritual reality that's coexisting with the physical one. And it's my prayer for us today that God would open our spiritual eyes and allow us to see that what you may have thought was a hopeless situation in the natural is actually going to be a great victory in the spirit.

[10:58] Amen. And it's spiritual. The attack that seems to come in the natural, its origin is actually in the spirit. It is actually the results of what is happening in the spiritual.

[11:12] And we need to learn how to fight spiritually. If you can't figure out how to, how to see and fight in the spirit, it's going to seem hopeless. But I'm trying to tell you, fear not.

[11:22] There are more with us than with them. And if you could see it in the spirit, then you would have confidence in your Lord and Savior. Amen. And that we know we could get through these things. And the prophet Daniel, in Daniel chapter 10, you can read a story in which Daniel was praying and then started fasting, asking God to show up for his situation that he was in.

[11:45] And it was 21 days later that an angel appeared unto Daniel and strengthened him in his weakness. And the angel told Daniel that since the very first day that he began to pray and fast, God had heard him and sent that angel to him.

[12:02] But it took that angel 21 days to get to Daniel because that angel said he was being blocked in battle with an evil spirit that ruled Persia. And for 21 days, that angel battled that evil spirit trying to get to Daniel until Michael, the archangel of the Lord came and helped that angel defeat that evil spirit.

[12:22] God had heard and responded on day one of his prayers and fastings. But the answer didn't come for 21 days because of the spiritual warfare that was going on in the spiritual realm on behalf of Daniel.

[12:37] And you may have been praying and fasting. And it seems like it's been in vain. But just hold on today because just keep your spiritual disciplines going.

[12:48] Just keep praying. Just keep fasting. And help is on the way. Amen. There's a spiritual warfare taking place on your behalf. Spiritual warfare in the heavenly realm affects earthly events.

[13:01] There are dramatic interactions between angels and demons. And there are influences of those battles manifested in the things that we experience in the natural.

[13:12] We can find another situation that's yet to unfold. A future spiritual battle that's coming. In the book of Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12 verse 7 through 9.

[13:26] And there was war in heaven. And there was war in heaven. And the dragon and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought in his angels. And prevailed not.

[13:37] Neither was their place found anymore in heaven. And the great dragon. And the great dragon was cast out. That old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth.

[13:49] And his angels were cast out with him. Talk about a spiritual battle. There's coming this day in the future when the devil and all his demons are going to finally be cast out of the heavenly places for the last time and expelled to the earth.

[14:06] And that's not going to be a good time for the earth. The Bible says there's going to be great tribulation on the earth as a result. Because the fallout of these spiritual battles are felt in the natural.

[14:18] That's what I'm trying to say. The things that you see in the world and what the world's going through are ripple effects from battles that take place in the spirit. It's spiritual.

[14:29] It's in the world government. It's in politics. It's in false religions. It's everywhere all around us. It's not just physical. It's spiritual. It's vitally important that we become more aware of and more sensitive to the spirit.

[14:47] As believers, as having truth, having the spirit of God in us, it's vitally important that we become more aware and more sensitive to the spirit.

[14:57] Seven times in the gospel, Jesus said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. He's talking about spiritual ears to hear. Okay. And seven times also in the book of Revelation, John said, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit has sayeth to the church.

[15:14] And we need to understand that even right now in 2025, the spirit is speaking expressly. But like in the opening scripture, we read also, it provides us a caution that in the latter times, in the latter times, there will be those that leave the faith because they listen to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

[15:38] Departing from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. We're not talking about teachings of men, false teachings.

[15:52] That's not what we're talking about. This scripture is teaching us that there are seducing spirits, doctrines of devils. It's spiritual. It's there's a spiritual warfare and it's real.

[16:04] And it's a dangerous thing if you are in battle and you don't even know you're in battle. Imagine being walking through a war zone, unaware that you're even in a war zone, oblivious to the target that's on your back.

[16:20] It's a dangerous thing to be blind and deaf in a fight. Amen. Amen. And more than we know, more than we understand, more than we can comprehend what goes on in the natural, it is a result of what's going on in the spiritual.

[16:33] Don't be spiritually blind to the fight that's going on. There are battles being waged all the time over our soul. Seducing spirits that are attached to worldly things.

[16:45] Social media. The devil seduces 24 hours a day on social media. False religions, entertainments, popular culture, everything worldly. They're all conceived by seducing spirits and doctrines of devils with the intent to take ownership of your soul.

[17:03] See, our soul is our life. We are a living soul. What I'm trying to do is just get us focused on the spiritual side of us because we're so constantly focused on the naturalist.

[17:18] What we live in and we need to understand the spiritual. Okay? Because the kingdom of God is spiritual. Okay? In Genesis chapter 2 verse 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.

[17:35] Our soul is our life. We are a living soul. When God made Adam and Eve, he blew his breath into their nostrils. The spirit is the same word, pneuma.

[17:46] And they animated and got up and became living souls. Job 33 and 4. Job confirms. He said, the spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath giveth me life.

[17:58] The breath of God, the spirit of God gave us our life and caused us to become a living soul. When we die, our physical, natural bodies, they deteriorate. They go back to the dust.

[18:09] Right? And it was formed out of that breath of God. The spirit of God returns to God who gave it. It's in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 7.

[18:21] Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was. And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. As a living soul, we have a physical body and a spiritual body. Paul taught it in Corinthians chapter 15 verse 44.

[18:34] He said, there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. A physical body that houses our soul for the natural realm. A spiritual body that houses our soul for the spiritual realm.

[18:46] And when we are born, we're born with a mortal physical body that can and will experience physical death. But we also are a soul with the spirit that is eternal.

[18:58] Okay? And when we experience salvation and we are water baptized in the name of Jesus, it is our natural body being baptized in water. And when we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, it is our spiritual body that receives the spiritual baptism.

[19:14] There's a physical baptism for the physical body and there's a spiritual baptism for the spiritual body. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27. And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

[19:27] See, our natural body, our natural life ends when your natural body dies. And when it does, your spiritual body will ultimately return to God. And the Bible says that we're going to face a judgment.

[19:39] And no wonder Jesus warned us in Matthew 10, 28, said, And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body and hell.

[19:52] And the apostle Paul prayed for the Thessalonian church in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.

[20:06] And I pray, God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what I'm trying to do is get you to realize that what we spend 99% of our time on, 99% of our efforts, 99% of our focus is on half of who we are and what we are.

[20:29] And it's not even the half that's going to take us to heaven. And I'm guilty of this. And we have to realize it's spiritual.

[20:39] So, John chapter 6, verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth. This is Jesus speaking. It is the spirit that quickeneth.

[20:51] The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Jesus says, ultimately, the flesh of our natural body that we invest 99% of our time resources into, it's going to profit us nothing.

[21:09] I mean, who takes something valuable and invests it into something that you're guaranteed up front is not going to give you a profit. I mean, I would not take my retirement money and put it into a mutual fund that I was told up front, this is never going to give you any return.

[21:24] Right? We wouldn't do that. Who would do that? So, what am I talking about? The most valuable thing that we have in the natural really is our time.

[21:36] And our investment is what we spend that time on. And we can't continue to spend the majority of our time on the natural that will profit us nothing. Jesus said the words that he speaks is spirit and they are life.

[21:54] The word of God is profitable. And the word of God is spirit. Okay? And Hebrews 4 and 12. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearts.

[22:14] The word of God is a sword sharp enough to separate soul and spirit. And the word of God is a sword sharp enough to separate soul and spirit and joints and marrow. Soul and spirit being the spiritual part of us, joints and marrow representing the fleshly part of us because there's a difference between the spiritual body and the fleshly body.

[22:29] And so we need to grasp this, that the word of God is spirit and life. And it is the word of God that's needed to be invested in.

[22:41] And as we do that, it helps us learn and discern the natural and the spiritual. This is a spiritual book. The words in here are spiritual.

[22:52] Amen. And so John chapter 3 verse 6, that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of spirit is spirit. It's not hard for us to understand that. It's not hard for us to understand what is born of flesh is flesh.

[23:06] We all know how that works. We understand the birth processes and the natural. Jesus is trying to give us a contrast between the physical and the spiritual. And he's emphasizing the spiritual birth through the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

[23:19] Just like when we're born in the natural, our spiritual body has to be taken care of. We have to provide nourishment so that it grows healthy. You know, Taylor didn't just bring Miles home from the hospital and put him in a side room somewhere.

[23:40] And then check on him once a week on Sundays for a couple hours. That's not how you take care of a natural body. Our spiritual bodies need nourishment to grow healthy just the same.

[23:52] We can't just put our spiritual body to the side all week long and then just nourish it for a couple hours on Sunday. Okay? We need to strengthen our spiritual disciplines.

[24:05] Praying, fasting, reading the word. Jesus said the words I speak unto you, they're spirit and they're life. We know that because, we know that there's spirit and life because nothing would exist if it wasn't true because he spoke it all into existence with his word.

[24:22] And so when you look at the tabernacle of Moses, and I'm actually, I want to walk the tabernacle of Moses with you real quick. I'm going to start from back here. It's just going to work better for me.

[24:34] Okay. Everybody familiar with the tabernacle of Moses? Pastor Hanks taught this to us a long time ago. Let's probably do again, right? It's hard to teach very deeply without an understanding of the tabernacle of Moses.

[24:50] You understand the tabernacle of Moses, you can teach deep. A little deeper, okay? So, what's the first furniture piece that we come to? It's what? Somebody help me.

[25:01] It's the brazen altars where sacrifice takes place. Would you consider that fleshly or spiritual? There's probably spiritual application to that, but in the tabernacle of Moses, that's a fleshly thing.

[25:16] We're killing flesh, right? And the next thing, what are we doing? Lever of washing. We're cleansing flesh, right? So, and then what happens?

[25:27] We go through past the five pillars and to the holy place. And then what do we have? Over here to the right. And remember, it's a pattern after a cross, right? So, you have the center.

[25:38] You got in line. And then to the right inside, you have the table of showbread, which represents what? The word of God, right? Twelve loaves for the twelve tribes.

[25:49] And it's made fresh and consumed daily. Over to the left, you have the golden menorah, the seven golden candlesticks with the oil. That's replenished daily. And that's the light.

[26:00] That provides the light for the priest to do his work. And that represents what? The Holy Ghost. And then here, before you enter the Holy of Holies, you have the altar of incense, right?

[26:12] Where there's prayer in the spirit. And so, what does this, what are these things represent? Out there was flesh, right? Natural. And here, it's all spiritual, okay?

[26:25] And so, I find it interesting, too, that on the sink, because it's a cross, right? The layout is a cross. So, these two pieces of furniture are on the same plane. In a sense.

[26:37] And what are they? It's the word of God. And it's the spirit of God. And they're the same. Because the word is spirit and life. And so, when you look at that tabernacle, and you realize what's going on there, everything in the outer court had to do with the natural blood sacrifice, washing, cleansing.

[26:57] The next room, the holy place, everything had to do with the spiritual. The table of showbread. The word of God, which we know is spirit. The golden candlesticks, which provided the light.

[27:08] The Holy Ghost, spirit. The altar of incense, praying in the spirit. And then the next room, the holy of holies, that was the presence of God. Amen. So, let's stand. So, what can we take from that tonight?

[27:22] What can we leave here with? We need to exercise and strengthen the spirit to be more aware spiritually. We need to draw on some key elements out of that.

[27:33] The brazen altar, we need to be quit to repent. And live a repented life every day. Every day. Every day. Every minute. The laver of Washington, we need to be clean, holy, and pure in our lifestyle.

[27:47] Every day. Every minute. Every time we're faced with an option of a worldly thing that's probably put there by seducing spirits and doctrines of the devil. We need to reject that.

[27:57] And we need to choose God. Amen. And the golden candlesticks, we need to have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And keep that fire burning inside us.

[28:08] Don't let the oil burn out. Keep it renewed daily. Find a place to pray. Try to pray in the spirit. The table of showbread made fresh daily. We need to consume the word of God daily.

[28:20] Amen. This is the bread of life. We need to consume it daily. The altar of incense, we need to pray through it into the spirit daily. Amen. This is how we need to nourish and strengthen ourselves spiritually, our spiritual bodies.

[28:34] How is this church going to be built in this city? What are we going to build this church on? It's going to have to be spiritual things, spiritual disciplines. How are you going to get through the things that you're facing that's going on in your life right now?

[28:50] There's a great chance that it's not just a fleshly thing. It's not just a natural thing that we're dealing with. There's spiritual implications. And we need to know that. And we need to be aware of that. And we need to be aware of our human spirit and how it communes with the Holy Spirit in us.

[29:05] And so we need to know how to fight spiritually. And how are we going to get through these things? How are we going to accomplish what God wants us to accomplish? How are we going to face these things on an ongoing basis?

[29:18] The Bible says, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. Amen. We have to gain spiritual strength and awareness. So what I want us to do today is let's just close out this service today with some prayer and maybe find a place to pray, someone to pray with.

[29:36] And let's ask God to help us get some spiritual nourishing today and to understand the implications of the spirit on the natural. We can't be just focused on our day-to-day lives just in the flesh.

[29:49] We need to consider what's going on in the spirit and how we can help ourselves. Come on, let's pray today.