In the Bible there was twice when Jesus did a miracle catch meaning he released a word and it produced a supernatural catch of fish. The first time it happened was in Luke chapter 5 and the last time it happened was in John chapter 21. The first time it happened the instruction was this. Disciples were catching, we're trying to catch fish and disciples were not immatures. Like I'm not a fisherman so if you send me catching fish I won't catch nothing.
it's not because it was a bad night it's because I'm not a fisherman disciples were fishermen they were experts at this task and they could not catch fish the bible says and when they were cleansing their nets Jesus gives them a word and he says I want you to go back where you came from except this time I want you to do something differently I want you to launch into the deep and I believe the first key to supernatural momentum because there's something where we work we do our best those of you who went to college to become a pastor or you went to a university or you went to a seminary you have the degree and maybe you consider yourself a fisherman you are a professional in your job you have a degree to back it up and you're still paying for the loan that you went to get a degree for and maybe you you have experience in church ministry you've seen how it's done you know it you actually don't struggle with systems you we we can learn a lot of stuff from you on how to run the staff because we're still figuring stuff out and the systems are not the problem but you're noticing something in the ministry you're not catching anything maybe even there is a crowd but there is no army there is no supernatural there is no deliverance your nets are empty the altars are empty nobody's getting saved nobody's getting the side there is no stories of new life being birthed and chains being broken everything is 20 years outdated all the God's stories are they're very like five and ten years old nothing is fresh and God has a word for you God has a specific instruction for you. It's actually very simple but it's a secret and that is this, go deep personally. Not your church but you personally go deep. Develop depth. As you develop depth, the strategies that are correct start working because the secret of momentum in the ministry, we're not a social club, we're not a Boys and Girls Club.
We are dealing with the supernatural things. We are spiritual in nature as a ministry. We're trying to rescue people from darkness into light. We have an agenda of hell at our tail trying to stop what we're doing. So we're not just spreading cookies and recruiting people into a religion.
We're not just trying to run a YouTube channel or a Facebook channel. We're actually rescuing people from the gates of hell, from the power of hell into the power of light. Come on somebody. And because of that, Jesus says, I will build my church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
And so for Jesus to build it, that means I have to develop my own personal depth in my relationship with God. Amen. And so that was the first time that Jesus did this supernatural miracle is he told them to go deep. Now the last miracle and we're going to try to talk a little bit about that tomorrow.
In John 21 he didn't tell them to go deep. They were already deep. He told them to throw the nets on the other side.
That's doing something differently. Your relationship with God might not be the problem because there are people here today you fast so much, you pray so much, there is a depth, there's an anointing that's upon your life but the church is small but people aren't getting saved and sometimes the problem is not the depth sometimes the problem is the direction sometimes the problem is the nets have to go from one side to another there's something has to change in the structure in the system in a process in the way the church is done supernatural is not at war with the system for those of us who are in love with the holy ghost and power of god and we're like man i don't need system i just need god your body has 10 systems you the way your body works was made by God supernaturally yet it has 10 systems. God the creator, the sovereign God created a solar system. God is a systems God. The idea that revival will come in and break everything apart and explode everything now that's good for one weekend you can sustain that that has to be systems there has to be structures there has to be policies there has to be bylaws there has to be umbrellas there has to be teams there has to be small groups there has to be pastoring otherwise the explosion will hurt you not help you and it's just things have to change I remember one of the things that when the depth I felt like there was a depth that was handled in my personal life and I felt like okay you know what I am where I'm supposed to be and one of the most condemning or like criticizing comments I would get is when people would come to hungry Jenna they would say man with what's happening?
You guys should be having 5,000 people. Why is there a hundred people here? I don't know. And I'm like, man, we need to pray more.
but the other guys who see a greater breakthrough in salvation of people don't even pray one-fourth of that and i'm like what's the problem and sometimes the problem is not with your depth sometimes the problem is that you're fishing on the side that where there is no fish you just need to throw the net on the other side i remember taking classes and how to break 200 in the church and i'm thinking listening to that and i was like that's so not spiritual i was like i don't need this i just the only thing i need is the anointing more anointing more anointing and and then i humbled myself because it takes humility to realize that sometimes the depth is not the only thing that can give you a miracle catch sometimes there's a system that you're missing a mindset that you need to embrace and remember taking the classes some guy in Canada and pretty much he was saying that the reason why churches don't break 200 the big problem is the pastor I was like this is definitely not from God and he says if you control everything if you initiate everything if you know everything if you attend everything you're the problem he says if you are the guy you're the belly button everything is through you by you and for you nothing happens without your permission nothing happens without your approval it's like mom and pop shop like you know how to do everything and so and this and this guy who's literally was pretty much teaching and i felt like god was breaking the wineskins in my own heart that the issue sometimes why people don't get saved by growth doesn't happen people don't get empowered it's not necessarily spiritual it could be structural and so this is gonna be the challenge part over the next few days is to try to cater to two of these parts because there are some of you here today you have really amazing systems but there's no life there and there are some people here today you have amazing life so much life that is becoming weird There's a difference between being wild and being weird. Wild is when people get saved. Wild is when people get delivered. Weird is when nobody wants to come because they're like you know this is just I mean that's amazing but this is just weird. Our desire is not to create a charismatic experience where people think it's weird but we do want to keep a little bit of spice of wildness.
Come on somebody. Amen. so let me touch since we're going to talk about little systems throughout the next few days let me touch just briefly on the depth and then we're going to prepare to to pray for people who might need deliverance or who might need help in the area of their spiritual growth the depth Jesus says to the disciples in gospel of Luke chapter 5 he says this and verse 4 but he he he had stopped speaking he said to Simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. God wants us personally to grow more than our ministry grows. If our ministry outgrows us, we are in trouble. If we outgrow our ministry, we are safe.
Most of us want to see growth in our ministry and that is healthy, that is good because every living thing grows. If your baby wouldn't grow you would be concerned. So for those people who are like, no I don't want growth, I just want Jesus, smell coffee. Growth is healthy, growth is normal.
But if we are healthy, things grow but where God wants us first and foremost as ministers as as brothers and sisters but before God we are the priests we are the with the men and the women of God God wants us personally all of us to lunge into the deep to launch into the deep personally and to launch into the deep privately. To launch into the deep in our secret place. To launch into the deep with our prayer life. To launch into the deep with our fasting life. To launch into the deep with our financial sacrifice life.
To launch into the deep with our sowing, meaning what we're watching, what we are listening, that we launch into the deep. Sometimes the reason that there is no momentum. See momentum, I was reflecting this week as I was praying for all of us who will be be here and I was remembering how difficult it was in the beginning for our ministry not having momentum another word for not having revival I'm going to use the word momentum interchangeably with revival it's that it's the it factor the it factor is like you don't know what it is you just know when you have it and you know when you and when you know when you don't And everybody in the church knows it and you know it and you hate it and sometimes there's nothing it seems like there's nothing I can do. It's that when the atmosphere or things just shift in the ministry and the wind instead of blowing in your face and you're you know one person came in and three left.
you cast out you know one demon and it's just like it seems like now you got those demons attacking you it just seems like it's just causing more trouble and more suffering and more pain and there's just more pressure then you get sick and you're like man why am i even doing all of this and stuff so do i am i even called to do of this and it seems like I was toiling all night and I caught nothing and that grind that difficulty that it's very challenging to be without momentum at the age of 16 is when my uncle who is my pastor put me to be a youth pastor I was called people say you know I got called by God first I got called by my pastor and then later on God called me and from 16 till about 27 about 10 years it was a grind it was it was challenging i mean we had less youth than half of this sanctuary side over here coming for about 10 years and bryson can testify because Bryson was here from the beginning Bryson got saved at the age of 13 him and Brittany uh were the only faithful ones that that sticked around and I think there's a special medal for them in heaven uh not only they've seen the cultural problems in our church family issues I mean it was just you know when the church is small there's a lot of drama a lot of pastors like oh our people are gossipers no it's just you're under 200 the moment you go over 200 no more drama it's just it's a miracle how it just disappears and so but all of those challenges were there everybody bickering jealousy and all of this stuff and we were just a youth group I had no theological education I did not go to a bible college to know how to lead a youth group that's my size that they're my age it was extremely difficult and it's not that the passion was lacking it's not the lack of illustration or lack of creativity and for some people like they are bivocational I was fortunate to be full-time in the ministry and for those of you who think that that's going to be better it's only better when the church is growing the moment the church is not growing you feel guilty you feel like you took everybody's tithe and drain them down the toilet and people on Sunday look at you and they're like you're responsible for why there's no revival we pay you you and if you feel that you carry that pressure that most people don't realize that you have and you know but when the momentum shifts when there comes a momentum when there comes a wind that hits in your back instead of in your face For us, there was many, many things that are behind the scenes that happened. But I will just highlight one. For me personally, there had to come a point where I want to see change went from I want to, to I can't. can't live without it from God I desire to see breakthrough at hungry gen to God I am desperate and if you don't do it I don't want to live not in a suicidal sense but when that desperation hits hot in your heart one of my idols was money and it wasn't because I had a lot of it it's because I didn't have a lot and I was attached to it and I felt like God was waiting to break that thing to take me deeper see deeper is not always more prayer deeper is not always your understanding theologically what others don't or you can say something from the Old Testament and New Testament and phrase it in such a way that everybody says wow that's deep that's not what depth is Deep is not being insightful or you can phrase your quotes that can fit into a Twitter tweet. That's not the depth.
What I'm talking about, about depth is that when you lose you, because when you are on the shore, you are in control because. you're actually holding on to the ground when you go into the depth few things happen is you actually lose control to some degree you surrender to the wave you surrender to the water and if you don't have a boat or you don't have anything you can actually drown and die depth is scary and the shore is safe we like to criticize sometimes and say oh don't stay in the shallow actually shallow is safe you shallow is not risky shallow doesn't get you criticized shallow that people don't think of you as crazy people don't talk about you when you're in the shallow because you're balanced because you're calculated and because you're wise you don't see the supernatural but you also don't see the attacks you also don't see the craziness you're not labeled as the weirdo you're not labeled as the demon church the only thing they talk about is demons you're not labeled with all of the weird stuff because when you're shallow you didn't control When you're shallow, you're safe. When you're shallow, you're balanced.
When you're shallow, you're wise. When you're shallow, you're calculated. But sometimes when you're there and you're cleaning the nets and you realize the nets are not supposed to be cleaned, they they're supposed to be full.
Church is not just for the Christians. Church is for the lost people. Church is for the signs and wonders.
Church is to be an army, not just an audience. It's supposed to be a place that is full. and God begins to challenge you and says I want you to go into the deep and the deep means you begin to risk, you begin to sacrifice, you begin to lay your safety, you begin to lay sometimes your plans, your retirement plan, your I'm gonna build this house. is what this money will go for my my weekends or my mornings or my my dates you begin to lay them aside and begin to put them before god i remember where when me and my wife it was 2014 was we were worshiping that image just surfaced in my mind i remember as i met renee He flew all the way from Guatemala. Guatemala right?
And I was as we were worshipping I was remembering when we flew to Ukraine and for those of you like well no big deal you're from Ukraine. I didn't visit Ukraine for about 15 or something years but we flew to Ukraine me and my wife and brought a financial sacrifice. just so that a pastor can pray for us we felt led it wasn't he didn't tell us to do that it wasn't you know uh give a ten thousand dollars so you can get a breakthrough in the church it was just a sheer obedience of God saying I want you to go into the deep and the depth at that time simply meant go into the unknown go to where it's scary go to where it's not wise because the moment you begin to even rationalize it is like this is crazy but what about you what about your future but what about your house but you were saving that money but what are you trying to bribe and buy a blessing i mean isn't that a grace of god isn't god just wants to grow the church you'll grow it you don't have to do anything all of these thoughts begin to penetrate the stinking thinking mindset because the thing about it is that shallow is safe And as you begin to go into the depth the idea the romantic idea of being deep goes out of the window For those of you who think that being deep is just soaking your carpet with tears Sometimes it is but sometimes one thing the depth always will will do this to every person.
There's a cost to being deep depth is always measured by the amount of the sacrifice it takes you and for some people it's prayer it's gonna it's it's prayer is what's deep why because you honestly running a business you have children you just don't have time for it and to make time to spend three hours or an hour with God it's a huge sacrifice for you to give money to give a car it's piece of cake it comes naturally but the idea to carve time to spend with the Holy Ghost it comes so difficultly and that is your depth because you are safe right here with just praying the Lord is my shepherd or the Lord's prayer just very quickly drive through and then you're simply just going on your merry way for some people the depth the sacrifice is the fasting because you love food and while the church is not growing the belly is you would write that alone you There's growth happening just in the wrong places. And so the idea of fasting is huge for some people. The idea of extended fasting like gives people a heart attack. what you want me to fast 21 days i'm gonna die no if you keep eating like you're eating you're gonna die you're not gonna die from fasting i'm not talking about generally over healthy people i'm not talking about right now over every single case and i remember for one for me and my wife when we went to Ukraine and that was our depth is sacrifice and as we gave that he prayed for us we received impartation but to be honest with you I didn't feel anything in fact I had this I'm thinking if I'm gonna sow this much money which was all the money that we had I was really hoping at least I'll fall under the power I was sitting on the chair I didn't fall I didn't feel anything but I believed that I received. Let me say it again.
I believed that I received and God saw my hunger. Six months later is when Wednesday night which with the youth services shift started to take place it happened with now my cousin Lewis was now married to my cousin I remember when he got saved and after that something just it just changed where We couldn't break through 50 kids for 10 years. Now there were 60. Now there were 70. And people were getting saved every single week. I was so scared that it will stop.
I was so scared that it will stop. But see, as long as you maintain that which God tells you to do, God will continue to do what He wants to do. God is interested in bringing revival. Come on, somebody. I remember when the Lord start calling into the depth of prayer because after a while whatever is weird, wild, crazy, risky, if you do it long enough it becomes your second nature.
Today to be extravagantly generous, to give a car, it doesn't even take a second thought. Me and my wife just look at each other, we squeeze the hand and it's gone. and it doesn't even hurt anymore because it hurts so much for years and that muscle is developed. I remember when it was a few years ago the area for me that was scary is fasting.
Now people sometimes associate you know people will watch my videos and they're like well Vlad fast a lot because and everything and I did shorter fasts anything that was longer than a few days I had this in my mind this fear that some of you have that I'm gonna die and the reason why that happened is because before I got married We were fasting 21 days and on 16th or 17th day I fainted in the shower. Now it wasn't God's fault, it wasn't fasting's fault. I turned the shower so hot and I stood there for 10 minutes. So now I use that as an excuse that long fasting killed me and I don't want to fast for long.
But I weighed also 130 pounds which I don't do that anymore. I got more, I'm packing now. So I got, I got more resources, I got more fuel now for fasting.
Pastor Ilya though, he's like a fasting machine. 21 days is like almost it seemed like every other month he was doing 21 days and I stopped believing that he does 21 days because his face doesn't change. Like he fasts 40 days, 21 days, he's the same.
He's like Jesus yesterday, today and forever the same. It's the same always. Maybe slightly like something shrinks if he shaves. If he doesn't shave like looks like he's the same. I was like that's not possible.
You can't be fasting. I'm like three days and I'm like. And some of you saw the video when I was on the 40th day people were texting my wife asking if I'm a if I have cancer because I looked literally like just as nothing was there.
A few years ago I remember there was another level in our ministry that God wanted to take us and and every time God wants to release a supernatural miracle catch, a miracle momentum, He will ask you for something. It will be different in every season but one thing will be common. It will be something that in that season costs you.
we as a church um we declared a 21 day fast and this time i decided i'm like you know what i'm gonna do it and i'm really be honest i was more motivated by ilia i'm like if he can do it i can do it and so and we were at the pastor David Diga Hernandez's conference in California and Pastor Benny was speaking on Saturday night and I spoke on Saturday morning and it was already six day I think six day of fasting and I have this fear of an extended fasting we're on a six day and you know the idea of even going 21 days I'm like there's just no way I can make it God give me strength God give me strength the presence of God was really powerful and sometimes God will speak to you when you're in his presence I remember I got on my knees and just just really just a tangible awareness of God's presence and I hear this thing from from the Holy Spirit inside of my spirit not in my head but inside of my spirit that Jesus was 30 before he launched his ministry he fasted 40 days you're more than 30 you already launched your ministry and you didn't do it the Jesus way I'm giving you grace 40 days and I didn't even have time to be scared. I didn't even have time to process all of that and I remember I just because you know God sometimes bribes us like that in his presence like he pretty much downloads anything and you believe in it because his presence is there like yes God I'm gonna die for you. They're like what did I just say?
What did I just promise? And I remember I get up and I'm like I'm just literally presence of God is just so low over me and I tell my wife I'm like babe I'm gonna go for 40. He says 40 what? And I said you know I'm going for 40 and she she's like you sure but my eyes were like blazing with fire she's like okay and honestly it was the grace of God there was something else released I felt even in my ministry in the VSM that started to shift the depth is not the amount of prayer it's not the amount of fasting all of those things a lot of times are an expression it's not the amount of money that we give it's not the amount of suffering that we we endure it's that in that season whatever he says we do what it does is it humbles us what it does because when you go deep you go low it strips us of that but I want to challenge every pastor in here these three things they have to be dear to your heart prayer fasting and sacrifice prayer helps you to defeat pride fasting helps you to defeat lust and sacrifice helps you to defeat greed the reason why people don't pray is not because they're busy it's because they're proud it's because they're not willing to get down and they still can do things without God people sometimes say things like well you know you don't understand Vlad I have children and maybe I don't understand that part but I do understand when one of your child gets in trouble you will pray when priorities change something happens passion rises up again and God wants to kindle inside of us a desire today God wants to weapon your appetite that you go deep for those of you who have systems for those of you you have a degree you have an education you have a you went to a seminary and maybe you're looking at yourself like Peter and you're like man I'm a fisherman this supposed to work it works for other churches it works for other people and you may say but you know what I pray I fast but I want to ask you a question are you going deep or you found your comfortable level where you can still keep a control maybe you waste deep but you're still in control go as far as he tells you to go until you realize God I am no longer in the safe ground. I am now in the ground of the supernatural.
I am now in the place where I trust in you to move. God I believe in your supernatural shift that will happen in my life and in my ministry. God wants to create a shift in our ministry but he first will create a shift by drawing us deep. The ministry is supposed to be built. The foundation of our ministry is not education.
The foundation of our ministry is our intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Education is good but the Bible says disciple the Pharisees looked at disciples and they said they knew that they were not educated. Nothing against education I just enrolled into Bible seminary myself.
We need to have education but it's not our foundation. Our foundation is they've been with Jesus. Every pastor either lives in a secret place or in a secret sin but you can't live in simultaneously in both. Every one of us has to develop a secret place with God.
Achan was a man who was fighting and was winning supernaturally in the city of Jericho. God supernaturally brought the walls but something that Achan did is he took of the forbidden things and he put it inside of his tent and he hid them in his tent. At the same city where Achan took the forbidden there was a woman named Rahab, she was a prostitute but she took something that was forbidden in her city, the spies and she hid him as well. Both people were hiding and if you moments because Rahab hid the spies her life was changed in few moments because Achan he hid the forbidden his life was also changed my question to you as a pastor my question to me as a leader today what am I hiding because in next five years my public life will be determined by what's in my tent today what you don't see what you don't see what that person doesn't see every person is hiding something and whatever you are hiding right now now will determine where you're going to be in five years it will determine where your public ministry will be in next 10 years because whatever is done in private will be rewarded publicly private sins create public scandals but private relationship with God creates supernatural success where you cannot take credit for it where you cannot applaud yourself for it but you like Peter come to Jesus and Jesus I'm a sinner depart from me because this miracle catch has nothing to do with my fish skills.
I'm a fisherman but this God, it was not the work of my fishing abilities. Paul is telling in Corinthians and he's saying that Jesus Christ is the foundation but be careful how you're building and then he uses a few different actually six different materials he says some build with gold silver precious stones and some build with wood hay and straw a little contrast gold silver and precious stones are all found underground wood hay and straw is found on the ground Gold, silver and precious stones are always in small quantities. Wood, hay and straw is always in large quantities. Gold, silver and precious stones are expensive and for those of you who are married to a wife that likes a bling and bling you know it's expensive.
The tiny little thing is like $10,000. But piece of plywood, a piece of 2x4 is not. It's cheap.
there's one difference between the gold silver precious stones and the wood hay and straw put gold silver precious stones through fire and they become more expensive put wood hay and straw through fire and they're just ashes anytime our ministries are built only on publicity or what God does through us instead of what he does in us. All it takes is a fire and all of that is gone. All it takes is persecution. All it takes is somebody leave the church.
All it takes is one bad news article. all it takes is one scandal all it takes is one problem and you simply lost your way but the moment you grounded underground it might not be big but it's genuine it might not be large in people's eyes but it's priceless because you're paying a price to maintain that relationship with God my friend you will go through fire you will go through flood but you will not drown and you will not be burned because you're burning you're burning we're burning come on somebody you I want to challenge you. Come on, touch your neighbor and say, develop depth. Touch your other neighbor and say, go deeper. Go deeper.
A few years ago, I was flying to Ukraine and somebody bought me a ticket, international ticket that forever changed my life. It was a first class. ticket for those of you who never flew first class this is not to brag somebody bought that ticket but um it forever changed my life we were fasting at the time it was like about uh i think 20th day or something of fasting and my wife was sitting next to me and they were bringing these like ceramic silverware ceramic plates and silverware coffee everything So we're fast, I'm fasting, my wife she's uh she was feasting.
It has a bed, it has a bed there. I'm thinking all my life I flew on 56th row by the bathroom and three crying children. I did not know that in the same airplane with the same pilot you can have heaven on earth. Do you know the difference between the first class and the 56th row by the bathroom?
There's just only one difference. It has nothing to do with the color of your skin. It has nothing to do with your race.
It has nothing to do with your gender. There's just one difference. It's the price the person is willing to pay. Life on this side of eternity, we're all going to the same destination, but different.
of us are in a different depth and that is only determined not by God by the price you and I are willing to pay. He paid for us to be on the plane. You pay to be on the type of a seat on that plane.
You can live a shallow or you can live in the depth. The question is not today I'm going to go write a check and empty my bank account. The deal today is not I'm going to go fast 40 days. The deal today is this, what does he tell you to do? are you living a life of prayer are you living a life of fasting are you living a life of sacrifice and then there are moments as we're living that life that he touches a particular area of our life that it has to go on the altar and this is where he's he's not asking you to lose because he's worthy of everything you're afraid of losing he's inviting you to the depth where he says i'm afraid lord because i'm going to lose control he says that's exactly where the water is going to hold you You're leaving the safety because you're stepping into the supernatural.
You're stepping into the shift. Amen. As we come ready for prayer right now in Judges chapter 16. In verse 21 it says, then Philistines took him and put his eyes And brought him down to Gaza.
And they bound him with bronze feathers. And he became a grinder in the prison. However, the word that I want to prepare us for the prayer right now is that Samson had the anointing. He had the relationship, not sure how deep the relationship was, but there was an anointing functioning in his life.
He was compromising, he was sinning, and because of that the Bible says that Philistines eventually captured him. And few things happened to Samson. One is he was bound, he was blind, and he was bald.
He was bald and then he was busy grinding, meaning He was busy going in circles. So he was bound. He was blind. He had no hair. He was bald.
And he was busy. All while he is doing this blind, bound, bald, and busy. God still had a plan for his life. God still had a purpose for his life and God still had that point where he will destroy the Philistines princes and maybe you're here today and you've been fishing all night and you feel like you cut nothing but I'm gonna ask you right now the Lord is calling you to go deep Lord is calling you to stir yourself up you might say but Vlad I don't feel like praying desire for prayer comes from praying Remember that desire to fast comes from fasting. Desire to give comes from giving.
You don't get the desire and then do it. You do it and then the desire catches up because there's a flesh that will always fight so you just gotta do it and when you do it the desire kicks in. oh but i'm distracted but you know i know my pastor but i just cannot break through just linger a little bit longer but maybe you found yourself today going in circles and you feel like you're just grinding you're just grinding you're just grinding and the ministry is not going forward and maybe you feel like on a treadmill you're sweating but you're not moving anywhere god wants to touch you you but maybe you feel like you lost vision you become blind it's not that the ministry doesn't have anything going it's that everything you dreamed of you already saw and it's very difficult to have a passion without vision and vision I'm not talking about going on the board and writing where do we want to be 5,000 years from now and you erased it from the board and you forgot what you put on the board not that kind of vision that's a man-made vision I'm talking about vision where you become pregnant with it and you are conscious of it. You're feeding it and it feeds you.
It gives you passion. It gives you discipline. It gives you sense of direction. It is a dangerous place to be in success because success can help. you feel like you have arrived and give you a destination disease and it's possible to go in circles not because you're bound not because you're grinding but because you just have no more vision I remember this happened when we reached two services before even we launched the third service that was my state one of the reasons I was not excited about church anymore I was doing church I love the church but I wasn't excited partially it's because it's been my dream to see this sanctuary filled and on Sunday it was filled twice I mean forgive me for dreaming too small but I'm a little kid from Ukraine I was afraid to stand in front of people this is a big deal and I felt like I had nothing else for the future until we get a new building then I'm gonna ask God for a new dream and I remember it was a three-day fast and it was right here I felt like the Holy Spirit you he touched me in a fresh way like he did before we had the sanctuary filled and i saw a number a thousand i wasn't thinking about a thousand people and it's like almost this like pregnancy spiritual pregnancy please understand what i mean by that i don't mean like physical but spiritual pregnancy i became a possessor of the thing it arrested me after that i was excited for the future of the church i was burning with the future of the church to the point that i stopped traveling i said i don't want to travel why because i'm excited for where god is going to go excited for third service.
I will be excited for the fourth service if that's what's going to be the need. Why? Because when you have a vision you get passion and when you get a vision you get discipline.
And some people they're grinding because they're just busy, busy, busy but some people are blind. They just don't have a vision and it's not your fault but God wants to plant a vision inside of your spirit this week. Come on somebody.
But there are people here today and You are bald meaning your devotional life got shaved off so did the anointing and you honestly feel like there is no more power in the ministry. I want to remind you if you take practical steps to draw near to God the Bible says however the hair started to grow you will notice you will get your passion back you will get your desire for God back you will get your fire back it will not be It will be as slow as the growth of your hair, but it will be sure. And in a few months, if you do small little disciplines of waking up earlier and praying, or staying up later and praying, and if you begin to fast, and you begin to put some money aside and give to the ministry, missions or so and you begin to watch watch what you watch instead of Netflix you begin to feed yourself with spiritual things you will begin to notice that the hair will begin to grow your passion for God and the anointing will begin to increase in your life and listen your hair will grow back your first love for God will come back your love for Jesus will come back your love for the church will come back your love for the ministry will come back your desire will come back your hair will grow back come on about.
There's one more thing not only he was bald not only he was busy grinding and not only he was blind but this is the part that now we're coming into is that he was bound. He was bound because whatever he flirted with when he was strong to manage took hold of him. That's one thing about us as leaders is we are a lot of times too self-confident dealing with sin we can counsel somebody else we can tell somebody else of how dangerous it is but we all could sometimes allow little pet sins in our life and maybe it's not an open door from the occult through the legal right but perhaps it was just playing with Delilah long and saying you know what I got this I'm managing this I'm managing anger I'm managing depression I got the pills for it I'm managing this pornography it's not like as it used to be like my wife knows it my therapist knows it and so because I'm managing it see God didn't call you to manage it he calls you to master it he calls you to defeat it he calls you to be free from it he says separate yourself from those things God didn't call you to with Delilah he called you to defeat Philistines and Samson was successful at managing Delilah he was successful at managing prostitutes he was successful at sleeping and not losing it still until one day he did not even know He found himself bound. But the good news today is that you don't have to lose your ministry.
You can lose your bondage. You don't have to lose your anointing. You can lose that hurt. You can lose that thing that brought that oppression in your life. You can lose that.
that nightmare. You can lose that spiritual spouse. You can lose that sexual dreams.
You can lose those perversive and perverted thoughts that bombard your mind and you're undressing every woman that walks into the church or every man that walks into the church. You can be free from the homosexual tendencies. You can be free from the lesbian attractions and some of you are like man this is pastors why are you talking about those things? I cannot tell you how many we see this on the news all over the place now. Pastors are human.
and we need God the same way as our people do and maybe you're bound today God wants to set you free God wants to if you're hungry and you're desperate and you're willing to repent from whatever you need to repent and say God deliver me he will meet you at the point of need if you feel blind and you feel like I feel in the fog I'm living out of the reality of my ministry I don't have anything new I'm just asking everybody what everybody wants to do and I feel like I'm a leader but in reality I'm not a leader I'm following what everybody is doing God wants to give you vision again if you lost your anointing if you feel like you lost that edge that you had when you started that sharpness that boldness however the bible says his hair started to grow do the first things that you to do. Pray like you used to pray. It doesn't matter that you don't feel it.
Still do it. You will get your hair back. You will get your edge back.
You will find that lost axe that fell into the river. You will recover that which you lost. But if you are here right now and you feel like you're just grinding.
You feel like you're just going in circles. You're just going. It's the same thing and the same thing. I want to encourage you today to get in the presence of God and go deep. Do something that you've never done in pursuit of God and you will see God will spark something and get you.