The Anointed, Part 2

And we will start the sermon right now. Look at my watch. Make sure we get this completed. This sermon is part two. I started it two weeks ago, and it's called The Anointed. The Anointed. And the sermon I gave two weeks ago, we went through the history of the anointing of not only the priesthood, but also of kings.

And we went through and looked at quite a few examples as we studied the Levitical priesthood. We talked about Leviticus 8, verse 1 through 12. We went into some of the history to make sure that we understood that there was this setting apart of those who are not only in service to God, but that you were actually called sanctified and set apart as a priesthood.

But we also understood by looking at it that the priesthood was a physical, more of a physical job as you went through there. And we also know that there was another priesthood mentioned in the Old Testament that we went through, which was the Melchizedek priesthood. And that was that is a spiritual type priesthood. So as many times in the Bible, there's a physical example and there's a spiritual example. Those are done hundreds of times in the scriptures.

And this is another one. And during that same thing, we saw, as we talked about oil, olive oil, which we read about, as we found that even the tent and all the articles that were used in the Holy of Holies and around all those tables of showbread and various things were all anointed with oil. We also looked and saw how the oil was made.

And we also saw that it had definitely an aroma to it and how it was used not only to symbolically anoint a person, as we know that the at the priesthood of the Levitical priesthood is they actually poured this oil on the priest's head and it ran down through his beard. And I still have those thoughts of looking at Courtney over there and thinking about that as I remember that sermon.

But it was not only symbolic in one way, but it also taught us who are reading it that there was a purpose for this anointing and that it was recognized by not only the children of Israel, but also by other nations as kings were actually anointed and they were set apart and it was something that was in front of everyone so that everyone could see. Very similar to the same anointing that we do today when someone asks to be anointed.

We usually go back in the back room, close the door, and I pull out the oil, anointing oil, and I pray over you and put oil on your forehead, which is done by Scripture that we'll look at a little bit today. But it is also a symbol because that oil doesn't heal you. My hands do not heal you, but that oil, as we found out last week or two weeks ago, the oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit, the actual power and energy of God.

And by doing that, we are recognizing to God that we recognize His power. But I want to go to something a little deeper today as we had looked at the past, and now I want to look at not only the future but the time we live now and why we are actually called the anointed of God. Not only a minister, which is my job, and when I said last time when I was made an elder, they laid hands upon me and put oil on my head, and I was anointed in oil. I was not an oil minister, but it was to recognize that I was set apart.

I was sanctified, and now it's my job to serve God not eight hours a day, but 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's what I do. That's why I don't, a lot of times, have an option if one of you calls and says you need something. It's my job to go do it as part of the priesthood. But there is something else that is just as important as my job of taking care of the Caribbean and also this church. It is to teach. It is to teach and instruct you in the ways of this book, because I am not the only one anointed in this room.

If you have his Holy Spirit, as the Scripture says, you are the anointed. You are training to be in the priesthood of Melchizedek. So whether you accept that or not, it is a mantle that you, upon baptism and hands being laid upon you, you have accepted.

So your life is not really your own. Romans 12 actually says you are a living sacrifice. So as Jesus Christ set the tone for this, and was actually a living sacrifice and died for all of us, so we now must live for him and become a sacrifice. The old man in us is dead, the old person, and now we are a new creation as the Scriptures say. I won't go through all those Scriptures.

But it's important because not only do I have a responsibility, but you also have a responsibility because you are anointed. Let's go there. Let's go to 1 John. Let's go to 1 John. 1 John 2 and verse 20. John is talking to the church. Very simple. Simply put here.

He actually talked about those of previous verses who went out from among them, who were once a part of the church, but they left. But he says in verse 20, but you have an anointing from the Holy One.

And you know all these things. What do you know? The truth. You know the truth.

And he actually says that in verse 27 also. Let's go down. But the anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you. I've had actual people come to me and say, well then I don't accept you being my teacher since the Holy Spirit will teach me everything. I said, well good luck on that one because I've been in this for decades, and I still learn. As a matter of fact, on our drive tomorrow, Mary was talking about the sermons we will be listening to because there's anybody that says they know this book and they don't need to be taught anymore from it. Run! No people have spent 60-70 years. There's so much in here. It's a living word, and it empowers us. And so I learn. I will learn tomorrow. I will learn the next day. But it's my job also to dig deep and to help teach you as you go to another level in your spiritual life. That's what we're going to talk about today. But I wanted to bring up one instance. One incident. As a matter of fact, I haven't even told Mary about this from last weekend because it just dawned on me to bring this out. We have a responsibility to even those people who we run into that we meet. We have a responsibility by being the anointed to be able to share if someone asks, to be able to help someone if they need help. I get calls occasionally, usually once a week, from someone in this six and a half million people that are in South Florida asking for counseling or for help, that are not in this room, never been in this room. They just found the number and we always say if we can help, that's what we do. So I get some phone calls. And I have to rely on God's Holy Spirit because I don't know what they're going to ask. And neither do any of you. But you will be, as part of the Nokizadec priesthood, you'll be asked questions. That's why it's very important that we study the Bible. We study the scriptures daily, like the Bereans to prove if it's so, but so that we can help people. It's not about us having this amazing knowledge and how many scriptures we can pull off the top of our head and we can impress you with exegesis and isegesis and all the theological terms of this world. It is like Jesus Christ came. That's an interesting study sometimes. Just go through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and just look at the scriptures that he quoted. It makes an interesting study. Did he knock people out with his abundance of scriptures? No. When he said something, it was very important.

But he was teaching real life. Brethren, that's what this nation, that's what this world needs, is very grounded teaching from the scriptures. And sometimes it's just fundamentals. A lot of times it's fundamentals. Because I want you to think about, have you ever considered when Moses was called before that burning bush?

And out of the bush, God said, Moses, Moses! And he says, here I am. And then he didn't know who he was. And then he said, I need you to go do this. And he said, but who do I say that you are?

Do you think he had a great deal of theological training? No, he was a soldier. He was a general. And then he was a shepherd for 40 years out there following sheep around. And God called him, anointed him. And so it was very important that even Moses at the beginning didn't really know that much, but he was taught. He learned. And then he had to teach others. Matter of fact, do you remember what he said? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not me.

I can't speak well. I stutter. Some have actually thought that he stuttered and so forth. So forth. Find out later that wasn't the case. He could teach very well.

I checked into a hotel about a week ago, a week ago last night. And so I went in as an into the restaurant part. And it was a very small kind of place. And I noticed that there was a woman there that had been on the airplane with me. And she'd walked by me. I was, she went to the restaurant. I was in the back of the plane. She was towards the front. And then when I took a taxi over to the hotel, she was actually checking in in front of me and thinking anything about it. But then as I went down for dinner, I ran into her. She was maybe 30 years old, a professional woman. And so she happened to be sitting in the tables with her right beside me.

And so we strike up a bit of a conversation. She said, weren't you right behind? I said, yes. And so we start talking and she's talking about her job and why she's there and she's going to the grill the next day. And she's with friends and this is her second trip. And so then we start talking about world events as they have a TV television right up there. So you can't even hardly hear yourself think. And so we were talking about world events and she just asked a couple questions about the Middle East that she did not know. And it was something that I could, you know, answer and so forth. And of course, the conversation came to, well, what did you think of the election? And I said, well, it is what it is. And I didn't throw out like, well, God's in charge because it didn't seem appropriate at that time to do that. I wish I had God's in charge. He puts those in. Quote Daniel 2, quote Daniel 4. You know, it wasn't the time. That's why we have to know what we are doing and be able to, just like Christ did, knock the woman down in John 4th's American Woman at the Well with scripture. So she said, did you vote? And I said, no, I did not. And then she said, well, if you voted, who would you have voted for? And I said, well, I didn't vote and I wouldn't vote. She said, but if you were forced to vote, who would you have voted for? And I said, well, if I had my, if I was forced to, it wouldn't be either of the two. But if I had my choice of all those who were involved, if I was actually forced to, it would probably have been Dr. Ben Carson. And she looked at me and she said, you must be kidding. I said, no, I actually saw a movie called Gifted Hands, which is his story. I actually saw Mary got me a book by him even a year or so ago that I read and I respect him. I didn't say he's a Sabbath keeper or anything else like this, but, you know, his wisdom and so forth. And I didn't think any, really, I didn't think and I didn't think any much about it, but I said, why? And she goes, he's an idiot.

I said, really? A neurosurgeon that's an idiot. That's a new one on me. And she goes, yes, he's so stupid. She said, he's liable to be the secretary of education. So, well, I don't know any of that. I said, well, what's what's wrong with this? And she goes, he doesn't even believe in evolution. I said, what? He doesn't even believe in evolution. 99% of the people out here believe in evolution. And you want this idiot to be over education and he doesn't even understand that.

Now, you sometimes think, well, what are you going to do? What are you going to say? Right?

And she said, you sound like an intelligent man. You do not believe in evolution.

I said, positively, absolutely not. No.

I believe in intelligent design, creation. And she goes, I can't believe you.

So, well, I really can't believe you either. But that's how I feel. And she goes, I said, let me ask you a question. So, from where we were sitting, you could actually see the ocean.

I said, see, you tell me that your ancestors climbed out of that water as slime. And all these thousands or millions years later, we both sit here because we flew on an airplane through the air. And that's just evolution. And she said, I just don't know if I can even talk to you.

And which was getting okay with me. And she said, I just cannot believe that a man like you does not believe in evolution. And I said, well, I did not evolve from a monkey. Now, you may have, and your ancestors may have, but I didn't. But I will leave you with one question, and I'm going to my room. If you evolved from these monkeys, why are there still monkeys?

And I got up and left. This is the society we now live in. And this is a society that is coming down the road. These are the people who will be teaching you and your grandchildren.

And you can see that we will be the dinosaurs left on this earth because of what we believe. Because we actually believe that there is a book.

We actually believe that there is a God. And that's why I can actually see some of the things coming down the road that will not be easy on us if you believe. So I bring this story up because I want you to understand about your obligation to the priesthood, the Melchizedek priesthood that you are training for. Because that's what's going to happen. Because you see, the Levitical priesthood was a temporary priesthood. The Melchizedek priesthood is an eternal priesthood. And it's for those who will live forever as we will actually go into Hebrews. So I want to go into that and take you first.

I want you to think about, not only Genesis 14 verse 18, where it actually gives the example of Melchizedek there, Prince of Salem. But I want you to think of, and you might even do a study on it, how many times, even through Scripture, when it doesn't really make sense why it's there, we see the Melchizedek priesthood mentioned. From Psalm 110. Let's go to Psalm 110. Psalm 110 verse 4, which is a unique chapter, a unique psalm, because it starts out in verse 1, the Lord said to my Lord, which actually shows there's two Godbeams there.

And then it says in verse 4, the Lord is sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The number of Melchizedek is mentioned that had no beginning, no end. Eternal. We're going to follow. We have a beginning, but we will not have an end if we're part of this priesthood. I'd like you to go with me, if you will, to Hebrews 5.

And Chris, you were right. Either way, you said I was still going to ask you.

Hebrews 5. Verse 5, if this is Paul or this is someone, he's addressing the Hebrews, which were what? The Jews, right? That's pretty simple. And they believed in this Levitical priesthood.

They don't know the exact time of this, but it was actually before the temple was destroyed in 6970 AD by the Romans. So they still had this priesthood. They were still offering up animals, sacrifices, and so forth. And to the Jews, these Hebrews, that was everything. That's all they needed because they had a priest to do, offer up sacrifices for them. And so, a writer brings something else that there is a greater priesthood, which had to be, if this letter's written to them, it had to be a slap in their face because they were like, what? We've had this while God set this up with Aaron thousands of years ago, as we read about two weeks ago. And so you're saying, wait a minute, there's another priesthood better than this? And so in Hebrews 5 and verse 5, it says, So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but it was he who said to him, God the Father and Jesus Christ, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

As he also says in another place, you are a priest for whatever, forever, according to the order of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear, though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him called by God as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Not the Levitical priesthood, which had to be very hard for them because it was showing that you were going to have, there's a better priesthood now. There's a different priesthood, just like there is a new covenant formed. But let's go over to finish this in Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7 verse 11, as he was actually spending the time, and he describes earlier in chapter 7 about Melchizedek, king of Salem. And verse 3 it says, without father, without mother, without what? Genealogy. Having neither beginning days nor the end of life, but made like a son, remains a priest continually. Well, I don't know anybody who never had a father, who never had a mother, who lived forever, because you can actually read this in quite a few commentaries. They're thinking they don't know who this guy was when he came as Melchizedek, was Jesus Christ. He's eternal. The great I AM.

And so this was, as he was laying this out for them, that makes a very good argument here. He comes down to verse 11. He said, therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not according to the order of Aaron. For the priesthood, being changed of necessity, there is also a change of the law, for whom these things were spoken belongs to another tribe from which no man has officiated at the altar. It means priests were not allowed from the tribe of Judah. That's where Jesus Christ came from. He's only the Levitical, from Levi. And now there's another priesthood. We follow the order of Jesus Christ, not because he was a Jew, but because we are born of the same spirit.

That's where this anointing comes in. That's why it's so important. As you look at this oil, and as we looked at last time, we went into quite a few examples of why this oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit, and how we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and how this same Holy Spirit is the actual power and energy that will teach us. John 14 says, and it will teach you all things. All things you need to know about this. That's why it's so powerful.

Let's go down to verse 14. For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood. And it is yet far more evident if in the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest who has come not according to the law of fleshly commandments, but according to the power of endless life, eternal life. For he testifies you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. For on the other hand, there is an anole of the former commandment because of the weakness and unprofitable it is. For the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as he was not made a priest without an oath, for they have become priests without an oath, which he with an oath by him has said to him, the Lord has sworn and he will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. You see, this priesthood is talking about a spiritual priesthood, not a physical priesthood. We don't take animals and go out and sacrifice them. I don't think any of you do. I haven't seen Bruce. He's got a grill, but I don't think he sets up. I think he eats. I don't think he does any of that or any of us.

But what do you do as part of this priesthood, as part of this anointing, because you are filled with the Holy Spirit, which this oil is symbolic of. And he actually calls us what?

Vessels. He calls your body a vessel. And he actually says, the vessel's not worth much.

But it is when you have the Holy Spirit, when you possess the Holy Spirit, you become holy.

And very important.

But as it said here, what are some of the responsibilities of the priesthood of Melchizedek? Because it's mentioned time and time and time and time again when you go and look at it. It's very important. Otherwise, God wouldn't have put it in there. And he puts it in there for us.

And sometimes we've had this mentality of, okay, what's the membership to do?

We pair of tithes and we pray. Pay and pray. No.

Sorry, that's not going to get it done.

We have a responsibility to learn because of what our destiny is. Because of this priesthood we are training for.

And I always said to myself, five years ago, if I knew I was going to get into the ministry, I would have studied a lot more.

So I wouldn't have had to struggle with those three and a half years of classes of theological training I had to take. And, wow! Well, today, it's your responsibility. Because some people go, well, I really don't get a chance to read the Bible much.

That's part of your responsibility for the priesthood.

This Melchizedek priesthood is not just for you, but how you can help other people.

Can you do it? Is it a part of it? Is it a part of what we do?

Let's go back to Hebrews 2. Let's read Hebrews.

Hebrews 2 in verse 11.

Said, For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which this reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

We're all one because of the Holy Spirit.

Right? Remember Jesus Christ told the Father last night before he was killed, you and I are one and I want them to be one as we are one.

Because he knew the gift of the Holy Spirit would be given on Pentecost 50 days later.

How do you feel? You feel equipped? You feel anointed?

What do you do with this vessel? This body? Is there a purpose for you getting up every morning? Every day? Well, yeah, I got to go get a job. I got to go work. I got to do this. I got to do that. Right? I have to eat. I have to do these things. Right? Isn't there more to it? When you realize that this is what you're called to be and to do, and that Christ died so that we could not only be forgiven of our sins and he could be that continual high priest for us, but that we would receive the Holy Spirit. Did God just give it to us just so we could play with it? Did he give us the Holy Spirit just so? Oh, here, see if you can use it. Because the instructions are constantly about what? Setting your mind on the things above rather than the things of this earth. Because that's the pool for us. That's the hard part. It's not getting caught up in this stuff here. And realizing that all this is temporary, but that we, just like Jesus Christ, didn't really sweat a lot of this stuff because he knew. This ministry is three and a half years of my life.

But this is going to be done for eternity.

And sometimes we can become very short-sighted. To me, that's what's exciting about this Melchizedek priesthood. Right? That there is a purpose being worked out down here on planet earth, and it's having to do with us. If you're a vessel, you're a vessel, and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, which hopefully many of you are. When you're baptized, you become a clean vessel.

All the sins are wiped away.

But then God grants you the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's a gift. You can't earn it. And He then gives you this Holy Spirit by laying on of hands.

And so then, what do you do with it? Because I remember the first time after I was baptized almost 40 years ago, and I sinned deliberately, and it really bothered me.

So I want to just try not to do that again. But then, it happens to all of us that pretty soon you get back into living life. And we sometimes forget that not only was this baptism and Holy Spirit given for your salvation and for eternal life, it's given for God's purpose of training us.

We heard about that at the, hopefully, at the Feast of Tabernacles, where it says, we will be teachers, but we talked about last time, we will be kings and priests. Ruling! Priest of the Melchizedek priesthood is going to go on forever. We will rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years, as Revelation says.

What about us? Perhaps you have thought about it, but I thought about it this week.

I thought about my vessel, his body, and that I am full of the Holy Spirit.

As Stephen was described in the book of Acts, as he was a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit. Can God say that about us? Yes. But you know, something happens a lot of times that we start putting stuff in this temple.

That's not holy, because we are holy. And we put stuff, we watch stuff, we listen to stuff that's not holy. And what does it do? The more we put, the more it forces out the Holy Spirit.

And it isn't like this vessel is overflowing with the Holy Spirit. The problem is that it's being forced out. It is being quenched because of the unholy things we put in our minds, in our body.

And you do it long enough, as I've seen people. And the next thing you know, your vessel is going to be full of stuff, but it's not the Holy Spirit.

Very, very important for us to make sure that we keep it that way. And that we control ourselves in certain areas that we know we struggle with.

Are we perfect? Absolutely not.

Even if we're baptized, we have certain areas and we're cleansed. We all have stuff, those strongholds, as the scriptures talk about, those strongholds that we hold inside. That's hard for us to break down those strongholds. But you see, that's part of the priesthood.

And so we try to get rid of these things. If we use this Holy Spirit, it becomes easier and easier to do.

Because as the Holy Spirit is filled, this vessel, you will find that it is easier.

It is easier once you have the Holy Spirit, once you use it, and you let it control your life, and you become more full.

You will see that if they're small things, they're easier to work out of your life, right? They're easier to get out of your life. This Holy Spirit, this very essence, this very essence of God is in us.

You got something for me?

Brethren, I gave this little demonstration because I want us to see. We need to see this vessel. We need to see our body as a vessel of the Holy Spirit. That's what makes us precious. I can go to 1 Corinthians. I had three or four places I can take you that shows that's when we become holy, because we have the Holy Spirit. But it's given to us because of the priesthood. Of the priesthood. It is something that we want to be like this, where we are pulling things out because there's so much of the Holy Spirit in us that it's forcing us to want to take the fowl, the profane things, out of our life. And just like the Holy Spirit, it will float them to the top as long as we have that mindset that we want to learn more. We want to be that walking, talking billboard, that example of what Jesus Christ was all about in our little area of the world.

Do we really want to do that? Is that really, really important to us? See, we don't want to be like this to where we have so much junk, so much garbage, so much profane and foul things that it takes up all the vessel. And there's very little Holy Spirit. There's very little of God's power in our lives. We wonder why God doesn't answer prayer. He doesn't answer prayer. And he's got someone over here that's praying. He's got somebody over here praying. And there's so little of the Holy Spirit, and yet this one.

I have a young man I'm having to work with now. I couldn't get a hold of him this week.

But he's a young man. He actually has spoken a few times in church. And he had a Facebook account.

And it's become like this.

Oh, half the stuff on his Facebook was uplifting and somewhat inspiring, and the other half was foul, profane, and garbage. And he doesn't see it, obviously. So, see, I have to work with him. I'm not going to just like, well, you sinner. No, he needs to see. I want him to see. I want him to see this. I was going to send him an email, but some of the words that were on some of the things were so profane, I did not want it tied to my name.

So I wanted to call him and say, you know, I haven't said these words in 30, 40 years. Have you ever heard a minister say, because I'm going to say them?

And he'll say no. And I said, well, why would you? Why would this come? We're all part of that priesthood, and you stand up and represent God in front of the church, in front of the world.

See, brethren, that's why it's so important. Is he a good guy? Yes. He still could be working. Yes. But we have to catch ourselves. We have to realize that at a sermon like this, it is for our benefit. I'm not here to go, oh, look at you. I need more of you, brethren, to look like this, not this. No. But we do need to examine ourselves, not just in the spring holy days, but realize we're examining ourselves to become better priests.

You know, and the correct word in the actual Greek was not priestess. It was actually priest. There were female priests and male priests. So I'm looking at the priesthood of Melchizedek before me today. If that's not what you want to be, is it's not the responsibility that you want to carry. You're probably in the wrong place. And I'm not here to run people out of the church. I'm here to keep you in and to want you to stay. But you've got to come to the realization that this life is not play. You've been called for a purpose. There's six and a half million people here, and we have 40. That's quite a setting apart. That's quite a sanctification. That's quite a bit of separation from the rest of the world.

And if we truly realize that this is the power of God in us, we would accomplish things that we would not believe was even possible five years ago.

It's what we need to do. It needs to be a part of us.

As I wrap this up today, I want you to think about the oil being physical, but His Holy Spirit is all about the spiritual.

And this is what runs us. This is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. The anointings, all these things were put forward all through the scriptures so that we could have a visual. And God realizes that most of we puny humans need something visual so we can understand the spiritual.

That's the whole purpose of a parable. And who gave more parables than anybody else in scripture? But Jesus Christ. Why? Because He was a great teacher. The greatest teacher ever. That's your example. That's my example to help other people. We need to be able to teach. We need to put it in terms so that we can use the Holy Spirit to teach people not only spiritual aspects of this life, but also physical so we can help them. So we can view it that way. In Acts 9 and verse 15, Paul is actually called there. He called him out of the world, and he's actually, they use the word, chosen vessel. And we all know the story of how God blinded him, right? And he couldn't see, and then the guy called Ananias to go over there and get him. Oh, no, I don't, man, he's an evil man.

But he said, no, go to Him because He is my chosen vessel.

Brethren, I look out and I see God's chosen vessels, and it is a privilege for me to see all these chosen vessels. Special vessels. I don't want to see harm come to any of them.

Two scriptures and we will end. I'd like you to go with me to John 16 as we talk about this.

I must thank Humberto Mahika for putting me onto this and for helping me to dig deeper. This work, knowing about this. In John 16, verse 13, talking about the Holy Spirit and it uses the masculine instead of the neuter here, as it calls He, because in a lot of respects that was right, just like a car. You may say, oh, she's my beauty for the car. It's not she, but here they used He. But it says, however, in verse 13, when He or it comes, the Spirit of truth has come. It will guide you into all truth, for it will not speak of its own authority, but whatever it hears, it will speak, and it will tell you things to come. It will glorify me, for it will take of what is mine and declare it to you. Isn't that awesome? He's actually saying here in these words, He's going to take what is Christ, that power. We look at the miracles that's done in the Scriptures and go, that can't be us, or why aren't they doing that today? Brethren, He's saying this very same thing, that yes, the Melchizedek priesthood is going to have that same power that He had when He walked on this earth. You have it. Are you prepared to use it?

Do you want to use it? And will it glorify God instead of you? That's the key.

Verse 14, it will glorify Me, for it will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of Mine and what? Declare it to you. God gave Him power over the entire universe. And what is He saying here? With the Holy Spirit, I've given you that same power. How did Peter walk on water? How were people raised from the dead? How was this whole earth created? It's by the power of the Holy Spirit.

How's your vessel? Hopefully you will have a new, a new and fresh thought, because this has also helped me so much, realizing that, wait a minute, I don't need to think that. I don't need to click onto that link.

I don't need to see that Google story or the one that's going below it that wants to attract my attention. I don't need to hear those words coming out of that song. I need to fill the vessel.

Make sure I keep the junk out. So I'll close with one more scripture, and I actually read this from the New Living Translation. If you will join me, 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7.

New Living Translation says, we now have this light shining in our hearts. Where's that light shining from? It's not because there's darkness. It's because you are the light of the world, and this is light. His Spirit is light. It is power. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.

No, this is a glass vessel, glass jar, but at that time they had clay, and clay was so fragile. You drop it, it just breaks into a hundred pieces. Back at that time, they would actually glue.

If it had a crack, they would just glue it together and try to fake it over so you would know, until you actually put something in it. Brethren, we're not here to fake. We don't need our vessels to be cracked. We don't need our vessels to be so fragile, because what they contain is the most valuable thing in the entire universe, God's Holy Spirit. Let's feed it. Let's empower this vessel, because we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God and not ourselves.

Welcome to the priesthood.