Called to know the Lord in his sufferings

This is a night of what we call mixed feelings. That means conflicting feelings. On this night I have been, while I listen to the praises and the joy that is here, adoration I know that for people who come from a more liturgical tradition, it is the word that adheres to the formal calendar of the church, for example, the Coming from Catholic or Episcopal traditions like that, it may seem a little strange that on a Good Friday night there is so much joy and the manifestation of so much joy and applause, and upbeat music and all this, because we are used to Good Friday being a night when people don't go to any dance, at least people who are pious, and what's more, I don't think they even eat meat.

I've been so far removed from that tradition, haven't I? And even people fast and afflict themselves and all this in memory of Good Friday, which is the day we remember the extreme suffering of Jesus on the cross and his arrest and scourging and all the things that make up that passion that we call that, using that word of Jesus Christ, and I believe that there is definitely something very beautiful in that, let me tell you. I'm not going against it. I believe that there is a place for solemnity in the life of the people of God, there is a place to afflict the soul in a sense, not as a permanent state, but to remember how to remember, I believe that sometimes we evangelicals are a little superficial in that sense and we have also lost the blessing of going through those processes and rehearsing in our spirit what our salvation really cost and sometimes we tend to jump hastily to joy and celebration and we lose the benefit of going through a little through the process and remember the price our Lord Jesus Christ paid.

But I believe that we can also make the mistake of staying too long in that place of suffering and suffering and loving it so much for its product and what it has achieved, that we kind of freeze history and remain frozen in that moment of the cross and suffering and affliction and blood. And then we sort of forget that the Christian life, as a result of this process, is now a life of celebration and joy.

So we kind of have these two energies living, or trying to live within us. and it is good that we do not lose that tension many times, it is good that we live in the tension of crucifixion Friday, the Sabbath of the Lord being under the ground, or not under the ground, but in the sense, today we do Thus, he was in a cave, but he was locked up, and the Bible says that he descended into the deepest spiritual places.

There is a place for that and there is also a place for celebration and resurrection, and we have to keep these two things in tension throughout our Christian life and not forget one thing or the other. Without the cross, Christ would be a great Teacher and a great expositor of spiritual principles, but there would be no salvation. And without the resurrection, he would have been a great martyr, a spiritual genius, a person completely devoted to the welfare of humanity, but he would have been just another figure. Nor would there have been healing for humanity or the hope of our own resurrection, because he is the first, the firstborn from the dead. That means that we follow him, right?

So there is that tension and that dwelling between the pain and darkness of the crucifixion, of Good Friday, and the light, the victory, the evident joy of resurrection Sunday. And many times our lives move between those two extremes, right? And we too are called to, in a sense, carry out that same process in our lives as believers.

The Apostle Paul speaks of wanting to know the power of Jesus Christ and also says 'and to know him in his sufferings'. And we, brothers, are also called to know the Lord in his sufferings, but also in his victory, and our life, if the Holy Spirit is moving among us, will manifest these two dimensions: the cross, Friday, and also rising from the grave, on Sunday. And in the middle, sometimes the darkness of hell, the valley of the shadow of death, waiting for the resurrection, depending absolutely on God who is going to lift us up from our crises, from our sufferings and asking ourselves, 'Is it will you do on sunday? Will Easter Sunday come?

Because many of us went through and are going through and have gone through those processes, yes or no? Amen. And that is the mystery of the Christian life, and that is why on this night the two things are mixed: the mention of the cross is mixed, the mention of the suffering of our Lord is mixed, but there is also joy, and there is joy and there is celebration and there is exaltation and applause and rejoicing in what the Lord has achieved for us.

And I see that tension in Isaiah, Chapter 53. Perhaps the most mysterious and wonderful text there is in Scripture because it was written hundreds of years, hundreds of years before Christ appeared on earth and took accomplished his sacrifice on the cross. This is one of the texts that I believe that if one approaches that text, without prior prejudice or resistance to what it says and what the mystery that this text embodies and implies, I think it is very difficult not to leave a reading. of this text, be it an evangelical one, be it a Catholic one,... without saying, 'wow, this is mysterious', because there is too much parallel between what the prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years before the drama of the cross , of the crucifixion, establishes and what is given in effect, through the life of Jesus Christ.

Now, looking at this text with two thousand years of experience and reading the New Testament and reading what Jesus achieved on the cross written by different men from the Gospels and the texts of Paul, from Peter, from John, James, the writer of Hebrews, you realize that these people could not have conspired to write the New Testament in a way that would fit so well with what Isaiah states. They did not get together and say, 'Well, we already have Jesus, he is our patriarch and we are now going to write so that what Isaiah wrote fits into his life.'

It wasn't. They did not communicate with each other. These texts were written, from the New Testament, at different times. There was no email, there was no TV, there was no phone, these people couldn't communicate with each other, and yet their interpretation of the life of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus is like a realization of what the prophet Isaiah declares will achieve a being that is called, in theology 'the suffering servant', hundreds of years before. Isaiah himself did not know, I imagine, when he was writing that this was referring to a specific person who was to come. I'm sure he was just writing under the anointing of the Holy Ghost and put these things here, but he couldn't ever figure out how it was going to come about. Even the Pharisees and theologians of Judaism did not understand that this text applied to Jesus.

Now read verse 4 with me, this text came to me this morning like a poof, it was put into my mind, implanted there, and I said, that's what I have to do. signal before the people tonight.

Isaiah 53:4 says, “...certainly he carried... – remember, this is a Jew from centuries before Jesus, before anyone imagined the cross and that a man was going to be crucified, and that this man was going to be called the Son of God and that his death and his blood were going to... none of that, that does not exist in any of Hebrew theology and does not exist in any myth, although there are myths that admit the death of a hero, and all these things, but never in this specific way.

Then the prophet Isaiah says, “.... certainly he borne our diseases and suffered our pains, and we considered him scourged, wounded by God and dejected, but he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our sins, the punishment of our peace was upon him, and by his wounds we were healed...."

He says, all of us, the entire humanity, "... we went astray like sheep scattered everywhere, each one went his own way, but Jehovah laid on him the sin of all of us....”

Imagine that spiritual theological intuition of the prophet Isaiah, of the Father, Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, the God of humanity according to Jewish theology, carrying, picking up all the sins of all men, picking them up with a spiritual vacuum cleaner, men from the past, the present in which Isaiah writes and the future, picking up all the sins of each individual, making a terribly large mass, in spiritual terms itual, putting all that on the shoulders of a mysterious being.

Jehovah laid on him the sin of all. Say 'everyone'. That is your sin, mine, that of our children, our grandchildren, ancestors, the Aztecs, when they were in Tenochitlán, there in Mexico, and the Asians, in their areas over there, hundreds and hundreds of years, the Romans, all . The sin of all of us he carried. God, Jehovah, carried him. How did you upload it? He loaded it administratively, spiritually, mystically, don't ask me how that spiritual transaction came about, but God did. He made sure that all the sins of humanity were taken up, wrapped up, and thrown on him.

And from there it was going to determine what was going to happen with those sins later, according to what each one of us does with that divine transaction, that divine mystery.

“...Distressed and afflicted he did not open his mouth, like a lamb he was led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers he was silent and did not open his mouth. He was removed by prison and by judgment, and his generation who will count it, because there is none, because he was cut off from the land of the living and because of the rebellion of my people he was wounded and his grave was arranged with the wicked, more with the wicked. rich he was in his death although he never did evil nor was there deceit in his mouth....”

There is a mystery that would take us days to elucidate and disassemble into all the pieces that compose it. But what I see here in this passage briefly are three things: I see a price, I see a process, and I see a prize. Price, process and prize. And these three things are what Isaiah wants us to understand about the ministry of Jesus on the cross of Calvary.

What was going on there? What was happening? What was God accomplishing and fulfilling through this? What is the cross? What is the crucifixion? What reaches? Because it is necessary? What is your result? Judicially in the mind of God why was this necessary? Why was it necessary for Jesus, the Son of God, to die on the cross and shed his blood? So that?

We have to first understand the sin of mankind. We have to understand the mind of God, we have to understand the divine nature. We have to understand a law that God dictated when he created man and told him 'do not eat from that tree because the day you eat from it you will die'. And Adam and Eve were representatives in their loins, in their person, they had the authority as biological parents of those who were to come, they would delegate to all their descendants forever and ever the same germ, the same spiritual consequence, As parents many times we leave our children our temperament and our spiritual and biological inheritance, our characteristics.

When the man there, that prototypical man in Eden, violates the commandments of the Lord and breaks that essential obedience to the Father, an evil is unleashed on all humanity. The virus of sin will run and the consequences of sin will also run. Each one of us sins, offends God, violates God's laws in small and big ways, that is a consequence of the very world we inhabit. No one can not sin and therefore no one can not die forever unless something happens from outside that changes that course. And that was what happened.

God passed a law and from then on God had to solve his own dilemma. Humanity has sinned and I don't want to kill them, I don't want them to die eternally, I love this creature. And then God devises a solution and that is that his justice be satisfied. There has to be death through someone who pays the price, someone who is big enough, pure enough, almighty enough that his life has such a great price, so infinite that it is capable of covering all the sins of all humanity, let there be no deficit.

And the only being that could achieve that was a divine being and that is the Son of God. And God then does it, this is all a judicial process, makes him enter into human form, makes him incarnate as a man, acquire human nature, live as a man, live perfectly because if he sins, then his death is no longer a judicial death. satisfactory, it is already another sinner dying as he has to die. Christ could not sin, he had to live a pure life and then go up to the cross and symbolically, judicially shed blood.

He didn't need to shed more than a drop of blood and that was enough. Recently some lawyers, I am not going to go into much detail for privacy reasons, it is interesting how lawyers think and how judges think. The lawyers asked trying to defend a person, a sentence of one year and one day. Why one day? Because that day he put the person in a judicial category that was advantageous to him. That day, 24 hours a day, he released a series of legal consequences that were very important.

Someone who doesn't know about laws can say, 'oh, what a pedant, a year and a day.' That day was very important because in the judicial world what counts are precedents, symbols, things like that.

Then, the Lord only needed to shed a drop of blood and die and that was all that was judicially necessary for God's justice to be satisfied. And that drop of blood spilled by a perfect man who was also a perfect God, through his humanity the Lord can connect with our humanity and represent us and heal us. And by his divinity he has enough power and enough courage to pay the price for all of us. You understand?

That was God working out. That is why I say that there is a process in all of this. And all of that is being resolved there on the cross. And that's why when we read it says, 'he took our diseases...'

There is a process and there is a price too, the price is that he had to pay for us and the price was tremendous suffering for the Lord . The price was him in his body to carry our diseases. That is why we pray for healing, because the Bible judicially says that on the cross he also dragged our diseases. Because? Because diseases are a consequence of sin.

If man had not sinned there would be no disease and no death on earth. So, by dying for us, the Lord also judicially bears our illnesses. He also says, ".... bear our pains..."

Do you know that the price was that the Lord, don't ask me how, there on the cross he suffered all the pain of humanity as only God could do it? His shoulders had to be infinitely powerful. The frame of his emotions had to be so big that he could withstand the pain of humanity. The Lord carried our physical illnesses, our emotional pains, he was scourged for our..... We deserved to be scourged, he was scourged for us. He was wounded by God, notice that, the Father himself wounded him. God smote his Son. God put his Son in agony so that we would not be hurt. That was the price and the process there together. He was dejected, he felt at that moment a maximum depression.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

That process and that price, wounded by our rebellions. You know that your rebellions of the 21st century, and what that cost you, the Lord took in the first century, the expense, the price of your rebellions, your sins. He was crushed, his body was crushed for your sins.

And he says, “...the chastisement of our peace was upon him...”

Do you know that Christ suffered tremendous agony so that you and I could have peace? And peace within us, and peace with God, and peace with one another. All these things, the Lord, his punishment reached our peace.

It says, “.....before we were God's enemies and now we are God's friends because of his punishment. And by his sores we were healed....”

Look, he says we were healed, we were healed, we were saved, and all this process is there. I see something, on the one hand we. There are two approaches here; we, the benefits we receive, what we caused the Lord to have to suffer. On the other hand there is the focus on him, what he is suffering and what he is achieving through his suffering.

He says, “...we all stray like sheep...”

That's a big deal. You know, my brother, my sister, that until you recognize that, the Gospel begins when each one of us recognizes that 'look, I am a sinner and I deserve death and no matter how good I am, more honest, more hardworking, more philanthropic, more generous, more of a good father, more of a good husband, that does nothing to me. I am a sinner.

The Bible says "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...."

That is necessary. there is a passage in Scripture, in the Book of Acts, we don't have time to elaborate on it, when the eunuch who comes from Ethiopia is reading the book of Isaiah, he is reading precisely that, “...we all go astray like sheep, each turned to his own way...”

It is the passage that the eunuch read in Isaiah when Philip is sent by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel to him. And the Bible says that beginning with that passage, Philip explained to him everything that had happened with Jesus and the Gospel explained it to him from there.

Why the Holy Spirit enlightened the eunuch to read, one of the first Gentiles. That eunuch left for Ethiopia and in fact, historically the Ethiopians have been a race that has been very much in contact with the Gospel and with Judaism. There is a mystery there. This man was a high official, and we imagine that he returned to his country carrying the Gospel.

But interestingly, look where Philip's exposition begins, one of the first expositions of the Gospel to a man is with that passage. Because? Because that is where the Gospel begins, it is when I recognize that I, personally, there is a drama, there is a controversy between God and me and only Christ can resolve it. And I have to admit that I am a sinner. I have to admit that no matter how hard I try, I cannot justify myself before God. I have to humble myself before God. I have to ask God for forgiveness. I have to admit that if it were not for Christ, I would be a poor devil destined for hell.

That is where salvation begins and if there is a person here tonight who has not yet understood that in their heart, I beg you to force yourself to go through that recognition process. I have sinned against God, I have offended God. If I do not have Christ, I am in deficit with God and only through Christ can I pay that deficit and receive salvation and reconciliation with God. Because we all go astray.

But nevertheless, the Lord charged him with that sin and that is what we celebrate tonight: all of that, his anguish, his affliction, the fact that he did not open his mouth, was meekly borne . You know, the Lord once said when he was there he said, I could send legions of angels to come and save me from this crucifixion, but he didn't. They gave him vinegar, a mixture that is believed to be a type of drug given to the crucified to lessen their suffering a little. Even that cruel Roman empire that subjected people to crucifixion had a little mercy and administered a mixture of herbs that drugged them a little and lessened their pain a little. And do you know what Jesus Christ did? He didn't want to take it. Because? Because he knew that he had to pay every penny. He had to feel the pain fully, he had to suffer it all. He absolutely had to get through this moment without any help of any kind. He couldn't protest, he couldn't complain, he had to recognize that what he was suffering was absolutely fair, necessary and effective. And there could be no interventions of any kind to interfere with that. That is why he did not open his mouth, he was meek, he allowed himself to be whipped, he allowed himself to be put on the cross, he carried it. He did everything they asked him to do because it was necessary to fulfill all the law.

And all this describes it: his mouth was not opened, his generation was taken away by judgment, who will count it. You see the price there and see the process. That is what we recognize in a night like this: the price and who it was that took him to the cross. It was us, we were that race that turned away, that rebelled, that hurt God. It is us, when we sin, when we do the things we know we shouldn't do. When our humanity and our sins drag us to do things, we are there exemplifying this passage. That is why when I do something that is not according to God's will I have to remember, ah, I understand why Christ had to go through what happened.

He was covering that moment now, when I'm doing something contrary to the will of God, a drop of blood so to speak from Jesus, comes and falls on that moment and covers it, if I'm in Christ and prevents me from having to go to hell because he is already administratively there, there is a vast reserve of grace that is always falling, splashing moments, actions, circumstances, individuals, every time there is an infraction of the law and a person is administratively under the sacrifice of Christ, a drop of Jesus' blood is released to cover that moment, as long as we remain united to what Christ did on the cross.

Price, judicial process, but also a product, a prize, there is a prize for us and a prize for him. The prize for us is salvation, eternal life, reconciliation with God, access to the Father, access to the throne of grace, there is no more condemnation.

The writer of Hebrews says that we confidently approach the throne of grace by that wide and clear path that Christ opened through his cross. That is the prize, the prize is that you now do not have to approach the Father with fear, with nausea of terror and uncertainty, we do not have to be there begging, pleading in a cheap sense to God. No, we can come with humility, with meekness, but we can come with full confidence to the throne of grace, and we know that we are covered with the blood of Jesus. We can celebrate, we can rejoice, we can praise, we can ask the Lord for good things, we can expect blessings for the future, we can learn from God, we can kiss his name and expect blessings, healings, miracles and that his gifts will flow in our lives. We can expect all these things because he gave himself on the cross of Calvary.

There's a prize for us and guess what? An award for him too. With this we finish. Look at verse 10 in the second part of that verse it says, “...when he has laid down his life as an atonement....”

Remember, this is being written by Isaiah, a man centuries before Christ, a prophet before all that is given. He also knew that something was going to happen to that suffering being.

It says, “...when he has exposed his life in atonement for sin, he will see lineage, he will live for long days and the will of Jehovah will be in his prosperous hand...” < p>Look, sometimes prophets prophesy and don't know the full consequences of what they are saying. He just says, "...he will live for long days..." Guess what? That's an understatement. That's the understatement of the ages, "... he will live for long days..." Christ lives for all eternity.

The Bible says in Philippians, Chapter 2, that because Christ became a sufferer and a slave and gave his life, it says, “...for which reason God gave him a name that is above all names for that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth...."

That is, God exalted him to the utmost, he He rose again, that death, that price, that suffering, all that judicial aspect, all that suffering was for the Scripture to be fulfilled, but when the Scripture was fulfilled, when Christ said, "it is finished..." the process of suffering is no longer the servant, now you are my beloved Son, now I raise you up again, I give you back your glory, all your divinity without any kind of ambivalence, or ambiguities, or complexities and I put you back in your throne where you have to be.

“... he will live for long days, the will of Jehovah will prosper in his hand, he will see lineage...”

Listen to me, what lineage does Jesus have? Billions and billions of souls redeemed and saved by his shed blood on the cross. He who never married, who never had children has spiritual children for all ages, a humanity saved by his blood on the cross.

“... he will see lineage, he will live for long days, the will of Jehovah will prosper in his hand...”

Brothers, the Bible says that one day the whole authority in this land that is now so resisted, will be delivered into the hands of Jesus Christ. Those who do not want to accept it are going to be destroyed and completely separated and removed from the human economy and only those who bend their knee before Christ Jesus and recognize his lordship will remain. And all authority will be handed over to him so that there is no longer any resistance to God's will here on earth. Even the devil and his angels will be bound and thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone. There will be no resistance to God's will anymore. And the will of God will be prospered in his hands through him, and then the Son will take that authority that is given to him without question of any kind and hands it over to the Father. That's what the word says.

One day that administrative transaction will also take place, and the will of the Father then, on this earth will have no resistance of any kind, it will be perfectly channeled in the seas, in the air, in the trees, in the fish, in quadrupeds and in humanity, in the planets, in the galaxies, in the atom, in the cosmos, and the micro and macro cosmos, everything, the will of the Lord will run perfectly because Christ did the work on the cross of Calvary.

The Bible says that he will see the fruit of the affliction of his soul and be satisfied. Glory to the Lord. Can you imagine when the Lord looks even now, in this imperfection called the church, and on a night like this, he sees men and women and young people like those who are here, the elderly, people of all cultures, ethnic groups , the colors, the genders, all of that, gathered here, worshiping the name of the Lord and he looks down from his throne like this on earth and sees the Lion of Judah congregation and says, 'wow, it was worth it, it was worth it, it was worth it. worth my sacrifice'.

He will see the fruit of the affliction of his soul and he will be satisfied, but more than that, one day he will see all of humanity redeemed, singing the song of the saved and he will say 'it was worth it, it was worth it. grief'. And you will see a recreated humanity, a new nature, new paths, new atoms that will compose a matter totally redeemed from its enmity right now and its humiliation, a healed nature, rivers that will not have contamination, birds that will sing with languages that we will never be able to imagine. your notes, we are healed of all our distortions, deformations, sins, ties.

Brothers, and the Lord will look at all that and say, 'It was worth it.' The Lord wants tonight that each one of us that is here be sure that we are within that plan. I want to ask that the musicians come through here. The Lord wants that each one of those who are here, you and I, have no doubt about what I have declared tonight and what the word of God has declared applies to your life because you have recognized your sin, you have recognized your part in this process, you have tied your life and your destiny and the process of your life to the cosmic drama of Jesus and his cross and that you can now say, 'I bind myself, I unite, I do not put barriers between the drama of that suffering servant and my own drama, his career and my career, his destiny and my destiny, his price and my benefit. And for you to say, 'OK, I'm going to write my name on that contract that God has described in the Book of Isaiah, and I put my will, my heart and my destiny, I tie it to that drama that the prophet Isaiah describes.’

If you haven't done that, why not do it tonight. I want to make sure. I am going to comb this church right now with a very fine comb, we are going to pass it here, up there too, so that we make sure that no one is left without having entered into this wonderful process that the prophet Isaiah describes. If you haven't, why don't you do it tonight, why don't you receive what I've been declaring here. Why don't you say, I understand the process, I understand the price and I understand the prize? And I join that, and I say, yes Lord, I think this applies to me and I put my name and I say amen and I raise my hand and I walk out of this night with my name written inside that drama.

Let's put our heads down for a moment. I want to invite you tonight to join the drama that the prophet Isaiah elaborates. Perhaps you had not understood it well before and you were half there, but tonight you are going to want to affirm it, if you have not done it before, and perhaps you never have, you have been resisting because you did not understand exactly what God expected and why he did it and what he wanted to achieve, but tonight you have understood it and you want to get into it. Whatever your situation, your condition, I want to give you an opportunity tonight to enter fully.

I want to give you a chance, young person, whoever it is. I hope everyone is paying attention to me right now. This is a very important moment and I really want you to pay attention. This is very serious. If you have not given your life and you have not acknowledged the seriousness of what we are elaborating here, I want to ask you to really take a step of faith and unite yourself to this drama that has been presented here.

I want you to take a step of faith tonight, if you have not done so before, and that we pray with you and that we all pray to unite in this situation that the prophet Isaiah describes here. If there is someone tonight who feels that they want to take that step of faith and that they need to take it, I want you to raise your hand in prayer for you. Amen.

That young lady back there, too.

Yes, that's fine. No, raise your hand. That's beautiful, that's beautiful.

Here's a hand going up too. Back there is another hand going up. I don't know if it's up too, raise your hand, here, this man, this young man here too. Glory to the Lord.

Anyone else? Raise your hand without fear. Remember, it is important that we enter into these dramas and that we remember the importance of them. Let's not underestimate the importance of these things. Raising your hand may seem strange and inconsequential, but it is very important in spiritual terms.

And don't worry, little by little God will lead your life towards a full understanding of what this means, but I invite you to do it tonight. Do not worry, it is not with León de Judá that you are making the commitment, remember that, it is with the Gospel that has been preached, wherever you come from, that is important. There is a difference between this church and the drama of Christ. You are joining the drama of Christ. That difference is very important.

Anyone else who wants to join their life to the drama of Jesus and the process of Jesus? I bless you, my sister, there too. That's okay, don't be afraid, there's no shame in it. Oh, Lord God save us from being afraid. Amen. Glory to God. Look how beautiful this young lady is right here singing and you want to make sure you confirm that in your life. That's beautiful, that's beautiful.

I want you to take another step of faith. Come forward here, those hands that have been raised. Brothers, come with someone, someone accompany you. Come this way, someone who is close to them who is from the Lion of Judah, come to them. Come here for a moment.

Come this way brother, come here. Don't be afraid and have someone come with them from the church and accompany them and pray with them as a sign of solidarity, solidarity with these brothers, telling them we accompany you and we bless you.

Come over here and have someone be next to these people to pray for them tonight. If there is anyone else who wants to take that step of faith, come this way, it is never excessive to take this step, I think.

It's never too much to acknowledge our unity with the drama of Jesus Christ and his crucifixion. There's something always very beneficial when we declare that. So, just come forward.

Come over here and worship the Lord and declare your affiliation with what Christ has done.

I'm so glad to see this young lady right here who's coming forward. I'm glad.

I'm glad she did that and I bless you in Jesus' name, child. For the Lord your hand that was raised is very important as well. Glory to God.

We adore you, Lord, we bless you.

I'm so glad to see these young children coming forward as well, it's very powerful, very important, very important.

Glory to the Lord. Thank you father, we adore you. Surrender your life to the Lord and say 'Lord, I recognize that I have strayed like a lost sheep. I have strayed. I have contributed to your crucifixion. You died for me, you died to cover my sins, my offenses, my excesses, my slips, my failures. You did that for me and I caused it because if I hadn't, you wouldn't have had to do what you did.

I recognize this. You understand? There in your heart say, 'Lord, I recognize that I offended you even though I had not done it, I had not been born when you died on the cross, but you knew that I was going to do it, but now tonight, I recognize that you blood covers me, your sacrifice justifies me, heals me, blesses me, my sins are forgiven, my life is changed. The devil can't keep accusing me. The sins that I have committed in the past from now on no longer count in your relationship with me, and no demon can come to tell me, 'look, you stole, you killed, you adulterated, you did something wrong,' no longer It matters now as you recognize that Christ died for you and brought healing and forgiveness into your life.

You are now under a different administration. The devil cannot accuse you. The spiritual prosecutor of humanity cannot come before the throne of God and say, 'he has sinned, you have to condemn him', because there is a defender who says, 'yes, but I paid the price for his sin with my blood, so that he is justified, she is justified, she is healed.'

You can ask for healing, you can ask for happiness, you can ask for forgiveness, you can ask for joy, you can ask for peace, you can expect blessing, you can expect a bright future, you can expect my spirit, says God, to dwell in his or her heart, because we are already well, we are reconciled.

That is what you are experiencing in your life right now.

God is touching you. God bless you. God is doing something beautiful in your life. He is entering into your heart and he is blessing you in very beautiful ways and you're going to grow up to be powerful men and women of God because he is with you and he is blessing you right now. Hallelujah!

Thank the Lord for what he has done, and tell him, 'Lord Jesus, I receive you in my heart.' Tell him, 'Lord Jesus, I receive you in my heart and I recognize that you are God and I recognize that you are Lord of my life and that you are also the savior of my soul. And I recognize that I have sinned against you and that I have offended you and I have broken your laws but today I recognize that you have forgiven me and you have healed me and you have canceled my debt with your blood on the cross and I thank you and invite you to enter my heart.'

Invite Christ into your heart. Say, 'Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus', tell him 'and come in with your Holy Spirit, come in with your Holy Spirit'. Ask the Holy Spirit to come into your life right now.

And I'm going to ask those who are praying there. Lay your hands on those lives and say 'I declare upon you the Holy Spirit'. Say that, 'I declare upon you the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Say it, 'I declare the filling of the Holy Spirit', say it. 'I declare the infilling of the Holy Spirit in you.' Say 'I declare the baptism of the Holy Spirit'.

And those who have accepted Christ, say 'I receive the Holy Spirit.' Say that, 'I receive the Holy Ghost. Say with me, 'I receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Say it like this, 'I receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost in me now.' Say it like this. 'I receive the Holy Spirit within me.'

And say to the Holy Spirit 'Fill me, Holy Spirit, fill me Holy Spirit, baptize me Holy Spirit,' because he comes in to baptize you now too, he comes in to occupy you and he comes in to baptize you. Receive the Holy Spirit too. Hallelujah!

Receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I declare the filling of the Holy Spirit within you. And receive it, receive it, receive the baptism, the filling of the Holy Ghost. It's moving inside of you, Hallelujah! He is baptizing you with fire from the spirit of God. Praise the Lord now. Glorify the Lord.

Tell him, 'thank you, Lord, I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you.

Stand up, brothers. Declare the filling of the Holy Spirit on these brothers. Glory to the name of the Lord. Declare the filling of the Holy Spirit upon them. Oh, in the name of Jesus Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Glory to the name of Jesus. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. You have authority to do it, you have authority. Praise the Lord. Glorify the Lord. Hallelujah!

You are a son of God, a daughter of God. You have the spirit of God within you now. Use that spirit and glorify the name of Jesus. Glory to the name of Christ. Hallelujah! Fire of the spirit, baptism of the spirit, filling of the Holy Spirit on the people of God.

Oh, we declare it in Jesus' name. Anoint, Lord, anoint with your spirit, anoint with your spirit, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, thank you, thank you, Jesus. Praise the Lord, tell him, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free. Declare it with your mouth tonight. You are free in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah! Thank you Lord Jesus, we adore you, we bless you.

You are free, you are free. Walk as a free person filled with the Holy Spirit. Walk like a person in authority tonight. The Holy Spirit is coming into your life and heals you, says the Lord, frees you, gives you a new heart, a new mind, gives you joy in your soul to praise the Lord and serve Him. Hallelujah!

I so declare in the name of Jesus. The past is no longer important in their lives. You are free in the name of Jesus. Praised be the name of the Lord. We declare anointing of God in this place. Let the spirit run within you too, praise and glorify the Lord. We are free because of his cross, we are free because of his sacrifice, we are free because of the price he paid. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! There is freedom in the people of God.

There is healing, there is hope, there is joy, there is life, there is triumph, there is victory, because Christ won that victory on the cross of Calvary for us. Hallelujah! Praise the name, praise the name, praise the name of Jesus. Glorified be he who lives and reigns forever. To him glory and honor.

Holy is the name of the Lord. Holy is the name of the Lord. People, fill yourself with the power of God, fill yourself with the grace of God tonight. Glory to the name of Jesus. Give the Lord a big round of applause. Holy is the name of the Lord. Hallelujah!