Hey, friends, good morning. Today begins day-one of our 21 days of praying and fasting together and I am really believe that God is going to do some great things over these next three weeks as we just create space in our lives for God to move. If you were not here last week, we said that our God is a filler, not a forcer that he that he comes upon us and He will fill our lives with good things when we make room or we create space for him. And, that is all that praying and fasting is, it is about getting rid of some of the junk and some of the clutter and some of the stuff in our lives to create some space and some opportunity for God to move, for God to come and fill us. And, I know that a lot of you, you are sitting here, you have never done anything like this before. It is scary. It is intimidating. Listen, I know you can do it. I believe in you one little next step, we are going to start this year by putting God first and when we seek God first, he will take care of the rest. 2013, let this be the greatest year of your life, and started by saying, God, it is all about you, you are the king, I will pursue you at the beginning of this year, create some space in your life, and watch what God will do the great things that he has in store for you.

Our theme verse for this fast again is Luke 11:13, If you then though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who asked him, for 21 days, we just want to pray Luke 11:13, we want to ask God to give us this Holy Spirit, to fill us with His Holy Spirit, to teach us about His Holy Spirit, to give us relationship with his Holy Spirit. And, if we put God first at the beginning of this year, he will take care of the rest. Okay. That is what we are going to do together. And, listen, I think this is important for you to hear. Prayer is not about God changing things, prayer is about God changing me. Okay. Prayer is not about getting God to change something in your life over the next three weeks. It is about asking God, to change you. And, if you pray and you go on this journey for the next three weeks, I promise you, God will change something in you, he will change something in your heart and in your life.

We started a series last week called chapter two, beginning a relationship with the Holy Spirit. And, we said for the next few weeks, we are going to talk about who is the Holy Spirit and what does he do in our lives and we are going to break down Acts chapter two together. And, last week, we started by saying, let us get rid of some of the misconceptions. And, I asked if you would just lay down all of your preconceived thoughts and opinions and experiences and things you have heard, or maybe have thought about the Holy Spirit, to lay all that down and just look at what the Bible has to say about who the Holy Spirit is and so in way of review, we started last week and we said the Holy Spirit is a gift. That is a gift that Jesus is literally excited to give us, that the Holy Spirit is God, that He has God the Holy Spirit that he is not second class or secondary to Jesus, but he literally is God, the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit wants to have a relationship with you, that he literally wants to come into your life and be your best friend. And, if you are going to have a relationship with somebody, you have to communicate together.

And, that is what we are going to talk about this morning. So, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Acts chapter two, and John chapter 16. Acts chapter two and John chapter 16, as you turn there, let me reset it for you Acts chapter two, this is the first time the Spirit of the Living God is released into our lives where he is brought in his fullness, the disciples are waiting in the upper room like Jesus told him to wait for the gift that he had for them so, that the spirit comes, he comes with power, he moves in a significant way, he comes upon the disciples, and you can imagine the commotion that this would have created among the crowd. I mean, the spirit comes with power, he moves in a mighty way. And, not only does he do that, but he empowers all of the disciples to now speak in other languages or to start preaching the gospel in different tongues or in different dialects. And, so, there is this massive commotion that is created, the disciples are speaking in tongues, preaching the gospel in a different language. How many of you know that language is not a barrier for the gospel of Jesus Christ? You know that right?

Nothing is a barrier for the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the incredible part about the Holy Spirit, he comes. And, just because you do not understand something, does not mean it is not from God. And, so, the people they are confused about what all is happening. And, so in Verse 14, this is what it says, pick it up with me there. Then Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice and address the crowd, fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you, listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk as you suppose, it is only nine in the morning. Okay. Peter stands up, the crowd is confused. They are looking at these guys speaking in different tongues, preaching the gospel in different languages, they do not understand it, they are confused. They think these guys are hammered and Peter stands up, no, it is nine in the morning. These guys are not drinking. This is the Spirit of the Living God come upon them to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ in power. And, he goes on to say, no, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel, in the last days, okay. In your Bible, circle the words last days, what are the last days.

The last days right now, we are living in the last days. The last days or the church age, it could be referred to or the church era, the last days are simply this. It is all the time from when Jesus Christ has been resurrected until he comes back again. Those are the last days, when Jesus Christ went to the cross was crucified, buried dead when He resurrected again, sending His Holy Spirit all the way until Jesus comes back at the Second Coming to make all things right, to set all things new. Those are the last days those are the church age or the church era. You see the church could not even exist when Jesus was on this earth. The church exists because the spirit of living God and you unites together with the Spirit of the Living God in me, that is the church. The church era could not even happen, when Jesus was on this earth. He had to go and send the spirit. So, the last days is from Jesus's resurrection till Jesus’s second coming. So, right now we are living in the last days or the church era, which means what Peter is about to say applies to you, okay.

In the last days now, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will Jean dreams, even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesied. Peter stands up to address the crowd and basically talks about the commotion and he says, guys, these are the last days, the spirit has been released and then he uses the big word we are not sure about that we associate with the Holy Spirit prophecy. He says they will prophesy, what is prophecy, okay. Prophecy is not this mystical, magical thing. It is not fortune telling. It is not this mysterious thing. Prophecy is simply this. It is to hear from God and speak to people. That is it. It is all prophecy is, to prophesy means you hear from God and you speak to people, you hear what God wants to say and then you share what God wants to say, with the people around you.

That is all prophecy is. It is not fortune telling. It is not mystical. It is not this crazy mystery or magic. It is just hearing from God and speaking to people. It is literally as simple as that. And, so when Peter gets up and addresses this, he says in the last days, okay, are you living in the last days, raise your hand if you are living in last days, okay, so far this applies to you. Verse 18, even on my servants, are you a servant of Jesus, raise your hand if you are a servant of Jesus, okay, still applies to you. That is good news. Both men and women, are you a man or a woman, raise your hand. I hope you all raised your hand, that is what I am saying. I hope you all raise your hand still applies to you. I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy, which means you can prophesy, which means you can hear the voice of God in your life. It is what it means. Peter says in the last days, the church age, when the Spirit is here, the Spirit will come to those who are servants of Jesus, both men and women, which should be all of you, and they will be able to prophesy, hear the voice of God in their own life.

If you see, the Holy Spirit has come to be God's voice in your life. Acts chapter two, it literally changes everything. Up until Acts chapter two, not everybody had access to the voice of God in their life. I think sometimes we take for granted the fact that we can hear God's voice in our lives. Not everybody had access to it up until this point in time, you see, the spirit would descend he would come upon people, but then he would depart, he would go back to heaven. And, in fact, the primary way that God spoke in the Old Testament was through his prophets, the spirit would come, come upon a prophet, the prophet would prophesy, hear from God speak to people. That is how people heard the voice of God, but then the spirit would depart, he would go back to heaven. That is how most people heard the voice of God. But here in Acts, chapter two, everything changes because the spirit comes for you, so, you now can hear the voice of God in your life. Numbers 11:29 says, But Moses replied, are you jealous for my sake. I wish all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them. 

Acts chapter two is the answer of Moses’s prayer, the spirit is released. We are now servants, men and women, we can prophesy, hear God and speak to people which means you do not need somebody else to hear the voice of God for you. You can hear it for yourself. You do not need somebody else to get a word of God for you. You do not need to come to me or some hyper spiritual person in your life. You do not need to chase a prophet from church-to-church or town-to-town to co-hear the voice of God in your life. You do not need somebody else to get a word for you. You can just ask God Himself, He will speak to you. I mean, imagine if I came to you and said, hey, can you tell me what my wife wants to have for dinner tonight. You look at me and say, I do not know ask her, she is your wife, right? That is how a lot of us view God like, I got to go ask somebody what God wants to say to me about whether or not I should take this job. No, you do not just ask him.

The Spirit has come, so, that you can hear the voice of God in your life, the Spirit has come, so, you can get the word, okay. And, let me encourage you on this, do not chase the word, chase the spirit, and you will hear the word. Too many of us want to just chase the word, the thing God has to say chase the Spirit and you will hear the word. Now, flip over with me the John 16, and let us look at all this what Jesus has to say about it. Again, part of this whole series is just blowing up a lot of the myths that we have about the Holy Spirit and looking at it from the viewpoint of even Jesus's excitement about the Holy Spirit. John chapters 14 through 16, is basically it is the Last Supper, it is Jesus's end of his life. He is telling the disciples about all the big things that are on his heart. And, John 14 through 16, is basically Jesus's discourse on the Holy Spirit. And, he lays out all of the big things that are that he thinks are important about the Spirit of the Living gods.

Let me just read this to you, John 16, starting in Verse 5, Now I am going to Him who sent me, yet none of you asked me, where are you going. Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief, but I tell you the truth, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless, I go the counselor or the Holy Spirit will not come to you, but if I go I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. In regard to sin because men do not believe in me, in regard to righteousness because I am going to the Father where you can see me no longer, and in regard to judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned. I have much more to say to you more than you can now bear, but when he the spirit of truth comes He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you all that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

There are three incredible things that Jesus says in this passage about what the Spirit will do in your life. And, as I was studying it this week, it is so rich that I had to break it into two messages. So, this is going to be part one, I am going to give you two things today that Jesus says about the Spirit. And, then we will have to do part two next week. So, you would not want to miss because I think the third thing that Jesus tells us in this passage is really the most rich thing in this whole thing. But here is what Jesus tells us about what the Spirit will do in our lives. He speaks, okay, number one, He speaks, the Holy Spirit speaks, For three years, the disciples followed around Jesus, Jesus was their teacher, he was their guide, he was their leader, wherever Jesus went, that is where they went, and they gave it all up to follow Jesus. And, here in John chapter 16, at the end of Jesus's life, in the Last Supper, Jesus looks at the disciples, and he says, guys, it is for your good that I go away. And, you can imagine the grief and the confusion and the heartache of the disciples. I mean, what do you mean, Jesus, it is for my good that you go away. I mean, Jesus, we have given it all up to follow you. We have been with you for three years. If you go what is left for us. What are we going to do.

I mean, Jesus, do not you remember that day on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, we left it all our boats, our nuts, our families, we have nothing to go back to Jesus. If you go what is left for us, how can it possibly be for our good that you go away. Well, look at Verse 13, he says, but when He the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth, He will not speak on his own, He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. Jesus looks at the disciples and He says, guys, it is for your good that I go away, because if I go, you will have the voice of God with you, wherever you go. If I go, the Spirit will come, and he will be the voice of God with you, wherever you go. You see, up until now, if the disciples want to hear the voice of God, they got to be physically present around Jesus. Jesus could only be in one place at one time when he walked on this earth, and he was the voice of God on the earth. And, so, if the disciples wanted to hear the voice of God, they had to be within physical earshot of Jesus Christ to hear the voice of God in their life.

Which means at the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter, James, and John go up with Jesus to the top of the mountain, the other nine disciples left at the bottom of the mountain, they do not hear the voice of God. They got to wait for Jesus to come back down and they got some press and on their heart, they want an answer from God, they got to wait for Jesus to come back to ask him, Jesus can only be at one place at one time. So, Jesus says, guys, if I go, I will give you the Spirit and when the Spirit comes, he will be within you and you will have access to the voice of God, wherever you go. Let me ask you this question. What do you think would be better, to have Jesus Christ physically standing next to you or the Spirit of God dwelling inside of you. What do you think would be better. Okay. And, I know lot of you have been and you are thinking about, you are thinking hard, what is the right answer. Jesus physically next to you or the Spirit of God inside of you. I think if we are honest, most of us would say, we want Jesus standing next to us, right.

I mean, we want to blow past the faith thing. I just want to look at Jesus, hi five Him, be buddies, bros, right. We want Jesus next to us. That would be awesome. I mean, you could just sit there and talk to Him and have a conversation and all that kind of stuff. That is incredible, the only problem with that is Jesus can only be in one place at one time. So, if Jesus is hanging out with me, he cannot be hanging out with you and when Jesus is hanging out with you, he cannot be hanging out with me. And, so, when Jesus goes home to your house, I am like, when it is my turn, I want Jesus to come to my house. And, so, we start fighting over Jesus because He can only be one place at one time. And, if Jesus was still on this earth, right, let us say he never went to heaven and sent the Spirit and he would be still on this earth, He would probably still live in Israel. That is logical, right. That is where he came. So, it is still probably the in Israel. And, so, let us say all of a sudden, you need the voice of God in your life. You need some wisdom on, should you take this job or should you not. Well, here is what you are going to have to do. You are going to have to book an appointment with Jesus, which Good luck on that because he will be booked out for like 500 years. Okay. So, even if you can get on his calendar, I do not know how that would work. But maybe you did. Let us say you did.

You have to jump on a plane, fly to Israel, walk into Jesus's little office, hey, Jesus, should I take this job, should I not take this job, he would tell you the voice of God, you would hear the answer and say, okay, thank you, Jesus, you get out, you get back into play, and you fly back over here. And you would have to repeat the cycle every time you wanted to hear the voice of God. You see, it is so much better for Jesus to go in the Spirit to come, because now no matter where you are in this earth, you have access to the voice of God in your life. Whether you are hurt or lonely or broken, no matter where you are geographically, all you have to do is talk and listen, because the spirit is there with you. And, there is some incredible things that Jesus tells us, the Spirit will tell us. He tells us the Spirit will tell us the truth. Spirit will tell you the truth, Verse 13. But, when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. Listen, this world is full of noise. This world is full of voices trying to convince you that their way is right that they know the truth, trying to get you to believe in what they think.

Well, Jesus tells us it is the Spirit who will tell us the truth. That the Spirit will cut through all of the clutter and all of the noise that, the Bible tells us that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. It is the Spirit who tells us the truth and it is the Spirit who ultimately leads us into a life of freedom, to tell you the truth. One of the reasons that I love preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ is because the Spirit of Truth moves when the Word of God is taught in faith. Who cares what I have to say for the 35 minutes that I am up here, man, I have nothing good to say, what I get excited about is when I speak the Word of God and faith, the Spirit of Truth takes it and He turns it and He gives you what you need to hear. And, what I love is these are true stories, okay. This kind of stuff really happens and it happens regularly. I will be up here and we will do a 35-minute message on serving or being involved in ministry. Okay. Just get involved in ministry volunteering at church serving using the things that God has put in you right 35-minute message on serving the ministry and after service, somebody Come walking up and down tears in their eyes and they look at me and say, John, I was just so moved in service today and I know what I need to do.

God spoke to me, I know, I need to go and forgive that person in my life. And, I look back at him and say, forgive that person. So, we talked about serving in ministry said, no, no, no, John, they said, you went into that whole, that whole point about forgiveness and letting go of unforgiveness and bitterness and the baggage and the things that we hold on to and people have heard us, but we need to go and have the courage to go and forgive them. And, you talked all about that, John, that was right to me. And, I heard that and I looked back at the person said, listen, I did not say the word forgiveness, not one time and the whole message. Serious. But, what happened, I spoke the word of God and faith in the Spirit of Truth took it and He turned it and He spoke to that person exactly what they needed to hear in their life. It is what the Spirit does. He tells you the truth you need to hear. That is why when you come to church, who cares who is up here, it has no bearing who is up here, because the Spirit of Truth will take the Word of God.

And, he will give you exactly what you need to hear come with a faith and an expectancy because the Spirit of Truth will tell you the truth. And, not only does he tell you the truth, Jesus says, I will tell you about the future. Verse 13, but when He the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you in all truth. He will not speak on his own, He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will tell you about things that have yet to come. They will prepare you for your future, equip you for your future, give you revelation about things that you need to know about things that are going to happen in your future, wisdom you need for your future. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will give it to you. The Holy Spirit, He says will also continue Jesus's teaching. John 14:26, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. The Holy Spirit continues Jesus's teaching. He does not come with his own teaching, He comes to continue on that which Jesus started. That is why the Holy Spirit is voice will never contradict the Word of God.

Because he is not coming to bring a new teaching or his own teaching. He is coming to continue Jesus's teaching and remind you everything Jesus has said. And, Jesus tells us he will also tell us wisdom. Luke 12:11 and 12, When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time, what you should say. The Holy Spirit will give you wisdom on what to say and how to respond in situations. You see the Holy Spirit is the voice of God in your life. He is constantly talking. Are you listening. And, a lot of us this is what we say, well, I cannot hear the voice of God. God does not speak to me, I do not know what the voice of God sounds like. Well, Jesus just said he does. In John 16, Jesus says, The Spirit speaks and you can hear his voice, which means we got to choose to tune in. And, here is what we cannot do, okay. This is one thing we do sometimes, all of a sudden we say, okay, well, Holy Spirit. John just told me that you speak and you want to say something to me. So, what is it that you want to say Holy Spirit.

I am listening. Go ahead, speak now. Hello, hello. Anything you want to say I am listening. I am open. Okay. That is not how it works. Imagine if I did that to my wife. Okay. Imagine if I walked into the kitchen and Colleen is in the kitchen and I said, hey, Col, somebody told me there is something you want to tell me. So, go ahead, hey, hello. Say what you want to say, I got a lot of things to do. I am busy. If you want to talk speak now woman or forever hold your Bs, how you think that is going to work out. Probably not going to be married all that long, right. It that is not how it works. It is called a relationship. You got to prioritize. You got to spend time. That is how we hear the voice of God. Acts 13:1 and 2 , it says, in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said. All they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the very thing we are going to do for these 21 days together, the Holy Spirit said, to the Holy Spirit speaks, and what you want me to give you right now is the formula. John give me the A plus B equals C on how to hear the voice of goodness, and there is no formula.

All I know is this. If you seek the Holy Spirit, you will hear his voice. That is all I can tell you, if you seek His voice or you seek Him, you will hear his voice. That is all these guys did. They prayed and fast. They created margin in their lives for the voice of God to speak. They had an expectation and He showed up and He spoke to them. God speaks through the Holy Spirit. We just have to choose to tune in. And, a lot of us will say, well, what does the voice of God sound like. Listen, it sounds just like his word. God's voice sounds just like his word. You want to know what God's voice sounds like, read his word. His Word will teach you what his voice sounds like. Have you ever read a letter from somebody who knew really well, and as you read it, you laughed because you could literally hear him saying everything that they wrote down. Why? Because we write like we speak. Well, God writes, like he speaks. So, the Word of God will teach you what the voice of God sounds like.

And, we learn to become accustom to the voice of God, what it sounds like, we learn to become familiar with his voice over time. One of the things we have invited you to do on this fast is to text into that number with your cell phone. So, you can get encouragement every day as we go through this fast and the reason we did that is because we are attached to our cell phones. Anybody want to give an Amen to that. Amen. A couple of you just raised up your cell phones, as I said that right. We are attached to our cell phones. This week, I did some research and said the average person checks their cell phone more than 150 times a day, a day. Okay. I read that I thought I do not know if that is true and the more I thought about it, I thought it is actually probably higher than that, right? Man, we are attached to our cell phones. Sometimes I will go out on a date with Colleen and we will sit there and I will have my phone and she would be like, hey, like really. Like you got to check your phone right now. Like, look at be that important they want to date you got to be looking at your phone. We are attached my phones.

We want to know what is going on Facebook. What is happening on Twitter. What is going on in the blogosphere. What is the newest news. What is the latest thing on Google. What is the newest sports score. Somebody might have called me. Somebody might have left me a voicemail. Somebody might have texted me, I am going to have an email, it is really important, it is urgent that I need to read. Right now we are attached to our phones worldwide web, internet, blogosphere, you name it. I do not know all the right words, word, but we are attached to our phones. And, you will even see it people are in conversation with people in their life. They are not looking at them in the face or looking at their phone doing their little things, going, aha, aha, 150 times a day, we are checking our phone to see what everybody else has to say. And, if we check our phones 150 times a day to see what the people in our lives have to say. Should not we be checking in with the Holy Spirit that same amount. If we are constantly checking in on the phone, should not we be about every 15 minutes, hey, Holy Spirit, anything you want to tell me. Hey, Holy Spirit, what is on your mind.

Hey, Holy Spirit, what is on your heart. Hey, Holy Spirit anything happened in the last 15 minutes, I need to learn from. Hey Holy Spirit, anything about to happen in the next 15 minutes, I need wisdom from. Hey Holy Spirit, I would love to hear what is on your mind. What is the information you want to release that you want to communicate. Do you have any updates, you want to push to me Holy Spirit. If we check our phones that much man, we should be checking in with the spirit of living God. Listen, I do not really care what some kid from high school has to say on Facebook. Okay. I do care what is on the heart of the Holy Spirit and what he wants to whisper to me, He speaks. And, so, my hope for you in the next 21 days, as you get those texts as they come in, it will remind you to just say, hey, Holy Spirit, anything you want to say Jesus says, you speak to me, I want to hear your voice. Go ahead and speak Holy Spirit, from listening to what you want to say, okay. He speaks, let us listen. And, the second thing is this, he guides, okay. 

He guides, Verses 12 and 13. I have much more to say to you more than you can now bear. But when he the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, He will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come. Jesus says the Holy Spirit is your great guide, that he is your counselor, that he is your leader. This is basically what Jesus says in those two verses. The Holy Spirit will tell you what you need to know and when you need to know, that is what it says. Holy Spirit will tell you what you need to know and when you need to know, he says he is a great guide. A great guide does not get ahead of you or lag behind you, a great guide stays-by-step with you. They are right there with you, one next step at a time, which is our whole church vision. We exist now people take their next steps on their spiritual journey, which means you got to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Because I do not know what your next step is. I cannot tell you what your next step is. But the Holy Spirit, He knows exactly what it is. He is our guide, one step at a time, he will tell you what you need to know and when you need to know it. He will tell you the what, okay.

Isaiah 30:21, Whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice behind you saying this is the way walk in it. That is what it says. Holy Spirit will tell you what you need to know I will give you wisdom. He will tell you whether or not you should take that job. He will tell you whether or not you should marry that person. He will tell you whether or not your kids should be on that ball team or go to that school. He will tell you whether or not you should buy that thing. He will give you wisdom for every situation you are in life. He will tell you what you need to know, whether you need to turn right or left. And, what I love about the Holy Spirit is when he tells us to turn right and we choose to turn left anyways. He does not sit there and say recalculating. Recalculating, John, I told you to turn right, you turned left, recalculating. I am not sure now what to do or which way to go. Listen, there is been lots of times the Spirit is telling me to turn right, but I chose to turn left anyways. He does not say recalculating, he waits for me to reengage him. And, then I say Holy Spirit help. He is not lost. He says, okay, let us turn back to the right. And, the Bible says he will use it for my good. 

That is the Holy Spirit. He will tell you what you need to know and here is what I love, when you need to know it. Look at Verse 12, I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. Jesus looks at the disciples, He says, guys, there is so much I want to tell you, but you cannot handle it. If I told you everything I wanted to tell you to be totally overwhelmed, you would quit, you would give up. You cannot handle all the good stuff that I want to tell you. So, it is good for me to go. Because if I go, the Spirit will come, He will tell you what you need to know and exactly when you need to know it. See, there is things God wants to tell you, you are just not ready for it. If he told you that right now, it would overwhelm you, it would sink you, you just cannot handle some of the things that God wants to say to you imagine this. Imagine if 10 years ago, God told you everything you needed to know about what is happening in your life right now. Imagine that 10 years ago, God told you would not be happening right now. Some of you be like, oh, I am not living in Texas, right? See.

Some of you would be like, no, I am having that job. No, no, my life is not looking like that. No, I am not having that many kids. I mean, whatever it is, right. I mean, whatever it is that the Holy Spirit needed to tell you 10 years ago, it would have overwhelmed you, you could have given up, you would have quit. Listen, there is things that you need to know a year from now that the Holy Spirit cannot tell you today, because if he did, you could not handle it. He would overwhelm you. Think about my kids, right. My kids are five and three. There is a lot of good things I need to tell my kids about marriage, about driving, and about work. If I told my kids those things now it just would not work. Imagine if I said, hey, Trey, when you get married someday and your wife asks you if this outfit looks good on me, the answer is always, yes. No matter what. It is always, yes. Right. He needs to know that but he does not need to know it today. Totally irrelevant in his life. So, it is God's grace, that He gives us the Holy Spirit. It is his grace that he says I will tell you what, when you need to know it.

Galatians 5:25, Since we live by the Spirit. Let us keep in step with the Spirit. In other words, Jesus says, The Spirit is your great guide, one step at a time, if you follow Him, you live a great life. And, there is a reason God does not tell us his whole will for our whole life. We would not know. What is your whole will for my life, God tell me the whole thing beginning. The reason he tells us what we need to know, when we need to know it, is because if he told you his whole will for your whole life, you would stop seeking Him. You would have all the answers. You just go live your life. So, God intentionally puts us in a position where we have to seek him on a daily basis. Listen, God is more interested on whether or not you are going to be obedient to listen to what he wants to tell you today, then what you want to know for 10 years from now. It is like Abraham, he says, Abraham, get up and go to a place I will show you. If I am Abraham, I am going to say, well, where are we going. Just get up and go, Abraham. Well, how do I know when I get there. Just get up and go, Abraham. What it look like when I get there, get up and go, Abraham.

He will tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it. Which means if you are here, and you have been asking God to speak to you about something, and he is been silent, it is probably because you are not ready to hear what he wants to tell you. He has not gone silent, he has not stopped speaking, he has not shut down, you are just probably not ready for what he wants to tell you about that situation or that scenario. So, it is his grace that he has not revealed it to you yet. He puts us in a position where we have to trust and depend on him day-by-day. That is what it means to walk with the spirit. While back, Colleen and I got to go to Africa, we always wanted to go to Africa and so we are so excited. And, one of the things that we got to do while we were in Africa is, we went on an eco Safari, which basically is this, they take you out to this lodge in the middle of the African wilderness, in the middle of nowhere, and you get to the lodge. And, when you are there, the lodge is really nice and you can hang out there and you might see a zebra or two come running by, but if you want to go out into the wilderness, you got to go with a guide. You are not allowed to go by yourself. It is too dangerous.

And, so Colleen and I are all excited, we get our guide and basically you jump in the back of a Land Cruiser and the guide is driving and so we start heading out and you are going down these dirt trails and you are in the middle of nowhere Africa, okay, you are out there and all sudden we are driving along. We are in the back of Land Cruiser and guide he slams on the brakes, and he looks back at Colleen and I, and whispers he goes, look over there and you see it. And, I look. No, I do not see anything. He says look, it is right there. Do not you see it. And I look again and I look at Colleen, do you see it, she says no. Did you see it, no I do not know, I do not see it. Look right there, do not you see it. And, I am a hunter, I should be able to see these things. And, I am like, dude, I find it. I do not see it. What are we looking at. He goes, there is two cheetahs right there in the grass. Do not you see him. And, as soon as he said it, boom, I saw, him. Oh, my goodness, that is incredible. Two cheetahs right there, we would have never seen him if he had pointed him out. We keep going, we are driving down the road a little while later, he stops again real abruptly and he looks off to the right side this time. 

And, he goes, do you see that right there. And, I am like, see what you know, that did not work the last time. Do I see what and he goes right there. I said, I just see a tree that is blown down. He said no. He said a big elephant came in and broke that tree and a half with its tusks to bring it down, so, the little baby elephants could eat the leaves on the top of the tree. That is fast, that is cool, man. That is fascinating, right. So, we keep going around these mud trails just bouncing around in the middle north. We have now been driving for probably five hours. At one point Colleen leans over to me and she goes, do you know where we are. I said, no, do you, she said, no. She said how will we get out of here. I said, I do not know, it is good thing we have the guide, right. He knows where he is going. And, he knew where to go to find the hippos and the buffaloes and the giraffes and the elephants. One point he pulls the truck around the corner, and he just stops and we just stop there. He does not say anything. We just stop and Colleen and I are sitting there and like a little bit of silence. She leans over to me, she goes, why are we stopped. I said, I do not know. Do you know, she said, I do not know either. I said, but there is got to be a reason. Few minutes later, a whole herd of animals come walking right in front of the truck, he knew exactly where to go to find those animals.

Another time, we stopped and Colleen and I got out of the truck and we started walking away from the truck just kind of walking and talking and all of a sudden, he yells out to me and he goes John, he goes, please do not go any further, there has been a leopard that is been spotted right in that area where you are. And, I kid you not I look down and there is a fresh leopard track right in front of Colleen’s foot. And, so, we started backing up very slow. Back to the truck, this guide was incredible. He showed me things I would have never seen on my own. He knew exactly where we were going and he protected us from danger. Do you understand that is the Holy Spirit in your life. He will show you things you would never see by yourself. He knows exactly where it is that you need to go in this life, and he will protect you from danger. It is the Holy Spirit who whispers to you and says, I would not say that if I was you. She is not going to handle that very well, right now. I would not say that, if I was you, what do you do.

Say it anyways. And, what do you think after that, I should not have said that is the Holy Spirit. He is trying to help you, protect you from that danger that you just walked into, right. It is the Holy Spirit who says hey, let us change the channel, this is not good. It is the Holy Spirit who whispers and says, hey, let us get out of this conversation. This is not beneficial, this is not building us up, let us move on. It is the Holy Spirit who makes a verse jump off the page that changes your life. It is the Holy Spirit who puts it on your heart to randomly call your mom or your friend or that person in your life. He said, I do not know. I just felt like I needed to call you and you call them and on the other line, they say, man, that is exactly what I needed to hear today. Thank you. That is the Holy Spirit being your guide. It is the Holy Spirit who puts it in your heart that says, hey, we need to spend more time with your kids. Let us take your kids out on a date or go do something fun. They are craving some time for you. That is the Holy Spirit. It will show you things you cannot see by yourself. He will know exactly where to go. He protects you from danger.

And, listen, I am convinced so many of us live these really boring lives, really boring lives because we want to be our own guide. Listen, we are bad guides. A lot of us just hang out at the lodge and say it is comfortable and convenient here. And, yeah, you may see a zebra run by and only God story every few months, but we do not go and live the adventure God has called us to live. Read the book of Acts, these guys lived a life of purpose and adventure, it was exciting, it was passionate, it was powerful. Why. Because they let the Spirit be their guide. It is totally okay to have a 10-year plan for your life. That is awesome. So, long as you are willing to let the Spirit be your guide. What if tomorrow the Spirit came to you and said, hey, I want you to sell everything and go and be a missionary. Would you do that. What if the Spirit came to you and said, hey, I want you to take that job in another state. I know you have to move away from family but there is something I want to do in your life. Will you take that job. Or if the Holy Spirit asks you tomorrow to just walk across the room and forgive that person you have been holding on unforgiveness towards or love that unlovable person will you do it.

Spirit is your guide. And, what I love about Jesus, is he wants you to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. He is excited about it for the disciples. He is passionate about us hearing his voice. And, so, this week, as I was working on this message, I got right to this point and I thought, what is the application for you. I am big on application, you know that, I have always been giving you an application. I do not want us to just have all these theories and information in our head. I want to give you an application to be a doer of the word, I thought what is the application and I could not come up with one. And, I was wrestling and also in a sense this from God, here is why there is no application for this, is because this, I am not trying to ask you to do something. I am trying to introduce you to someone very different things. I am not trying to get you to go and do something after this message. I am trying to introduce you to the Holy Spirit. Because all I want to do is set up that first appointment because I feel like if you could meet him, he will be your best friend and he will change your life. It is not about doing something.

It is about knowing someone. Let me close with this story. Okay. You do not know this, but Colleen and I were set up on a blind date by her dad. Okay. That is how I met Colleen, we were literally set up on a blind date by her dad. And, the best part about that is every time we get in a fight, I just remind her that handpicked me. Wins every argument. There is nothing, go ahead, call your dad, he picked me. Okay. So, I am at Colleen’s dad long before I met Colleen and the first day I met Colleen’s dad, his name is Tim. We met and we hit it off. And, he went home that night. True story, he said at the dinner table and he looked at Colleen and her family and he said, hey, I met your husband today. True, and she said no, she is you know, she did not believe so whatever dad. No, I met your husband today. So, months go by and I know Tim, I have never met Colleen and then at some point, Tim basically says to me says hey, he says I would love to introduce you to my daughter, would you be willing to take her out on a blind date.

So, he says I love my daughter. So, she is incredible. She is amazing. Tim loves his daughter, he loves Colleen. And, he painted this incredible picture of who she is and how beautiful she is, and who she was as a person and her character and all this stuff. And, he is telling me all about to and he says would you be willing to just take her out on a blind date and after that description I was like, and I would love to. Okay. So, I have never met Colleen and I show up and knock on the door and Tim opens the door and there he is. And, we walk into the house and all he does is introduced me to Colleen, he says Colleen, this is John. John, this is Colleen and he introduced us. And, that was it. He did not have to give me an application. He did not say when you get out to the car, open the door and make sure that you open the door for her. He did not say when you get to the restaurant, open the door again and pull out the chair where she can sit and he did not say when you are at dinner, ask her questions about herself and look her in the eyes. Do not talk about yourself. You get to know her and you pay for the bill when it is done. He did not have to give me any application. All he needed to do was set up the first date, the first point of connection because he knew how incredible his daughter was and he knew I would just fall in love with her.

So, I take Colleen out on this first day, eight hour blinding. Eight hour blind date, I did not want to get away. I sat at dinner with this woman and looked at her and I was fascinated by her. I asked her every question I could think of, all I wanted to do is get to know her. I fell in love with her that first night that I even met her and nobody had to tell me what to do and how to treat her. And, from that moment forward, all I wanted to do was be with her. I wanted to get done with school, so, I could go and pick her up. I wanted her to get off work. So, we could go and hang out together, we would talk on the phone when we were together. I mean, it was it all I needed to do is meet her one time and everything took over from there the relationship created itself because I fell in love with her. That is what I am trying to do with you and the Holy Spirit. I am trying to get you to do something, I am trying to introduce you to someone that will change your life. And, in a way that is beyond the religious baggage that a lot of us have sure I have got the Holy Spirit, I am a Christian, I know that I am not questioning that. 

I am trying to say the Spirit of the Living God wants to be your best friend. And, if you meet him, he will change your life. And, so, I am just trying to set up the first date. It is all we are trying to do in this series. And, so, my hope for the next 21 days as we pray, and fast together is that you just ask him to speak to you. I do not know if you have ever even done that. Have you ever even just said Holy Spirit, I would like to hear your voice in my life. Ask Him. And then for 21 days, just find a little bit of time, get rid of something in your life to focus on God and watch what he will do. So, Lord Jesus, we just celebrate today the truth that it was better for you to go away, because you gave us the greatest gift of all the Spirit of the Living God inside of us. Thank you that we have access to your voice wherever we go, that you speak to us and you want to be the great guide to lead us on the greatest adventure of our life.

Lord I pray that we would tune in and hear your voice this week, and give us the ability to cut through all the distractions and all the nonsense to hear that which you want to speak to us, just help us have the faith to believe that. In fact, let me encourage you right now in your own way. Maybe just ask the Holy Spirit, say Holy Spirit, I do not know about all this stuff. But if you speak I could sure use your wisdom in my life. Would you speak to me this week and watch what he will do. My sense is that there is some of you that are here today, and you have never met Jesus Christ, and we are talking about stuff who is the Holy Spirit and it is just simply this Jesus came to die on the cross, to set you free to pay for all of your sins and the baggage and the shame and the brokenness, to give you a new life in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who comes, who regenerates us, and recreates us and makes us a new creation and fresh and whole.

And, if you are here today, and you do not know that you have ever had a relationship with Jesus, to receive the Spirit of the Living God inside you, today is your day to just say, Jesus, I accept your forgiveness for my sins. I give you my old life and I take on a new life in you, I will follow you, you be my guide, and I invite your Holy Spirit into my life to change me. And, you have got a whole brand new life. That is what Acts chapter two is all about. If you are here today, and you need prayer for anything, we are going to have people up here to pray for you. Maybe you need prayer, you want to meet Jesus. Maybe you need prayer for healing in your body. Maybe you need prayer for anything, come up and let these people pray for you. If you are new to Valley Creek, I would love to invite you over here to guest central, some of our leaders will be in there. I will be in there. We just want to introduce ourselves to you and tell you that we are glad that you are here. But listen, 21 days, let us put God first at the beginning of this year, even if it is 15 minutes a day. The Holy Spirit has some great things he wants to say to you.

He is your great guide. I love you. And, may you have a great week going with a great guide this week. Blessings.