Change thought patterns

Acts, Chapter 8. We are going to continue with the passage that we began to discuss last Sunday. There were so many things that were left unanswered that I really can't resist the idea of staying a little longer in that Chapter 8, which has so much very important material for our spiritual life.

Miguel, please, our walk with the Lord, a lot of teaching and very positive, very important that we cannot let go of. Sometimes in the desire to go fast we lose the opportunity to be edified by topics that are very important for our Christian walk and to know the word of the Lord.

I hope that you are taking these teachings and meditating on them in your own time as well, especially for new believers who are just learning about these very important issues and characters, interventions. There is no book, I believe, more important in Scripture than the Book of Acts, for many different reasons. So I encourage you to take this time of reflection very seriously and continue to reflect on your own time back home about these passages and engrave them on your heart.

Let's go quickly to Chapter 8 of Acts, verses 18 to 25, and I'm going to make a very brief summary to continue then. It says here that:

“…when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the imposition of the hands of the Apostles, he offered them money…”

Now, let me go back a little bit, since perhaps you weren't there last week or you don't remember who this Simon is. Go with me to verse 9 of that same Chapter, it says that when Philip, the evangelist, goes to Samaria, many people are converted and he says in verse 9 that:

“…there was a man named Simon, who used to practice magic in that city and had deceived the people of Samaria by posing as some great person, a great person, a great character. Everyone listened attentively to him, from the smallest to the greatest, saying "This is the great power of God", and they were attentive because with his magical arts, his tricks, put it there, his magical arts had deceived them for a long time. But when they believed Philip who announced the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, men and women were baptized..."

Notice something interesting here, these people were baptized as soon as they were converted. It's a challenge for many of us who sometimes think that people have to... and I think it's good, don't get me wrong, instruct them and I'm going to talk a little bit about that too, and sometimes it takes a long time before Baptized, you have to put them through fire and water to see if they are truly Christians and have truly converted.

Many times one sees in the book of Acts that people were converted and immediately put into the water. Now, I believe that the important thing in this case is sincerity of heart, conviction. Many times in our time there are people who come forward and make a profession of faith and do not understand what they are doing. And it's good that people have awareness and conviction and understanding and discernment about what they do when they give their lives to Jesus Christ.

But I believe that if a person is sincere, convinced, clear in his dedication to the Lord, I would say the same thing that Philip said to the eunuch, whom we will talk about perhaps a little later. Well, the eunuch said, “Here is water, what's to stop you from baptizing me? Amen, let's go forward. Get your hands on it,” in the Roberto Miranda translation. So we see here that many people converted and were immediately baptized, just in case, you don't know what is going to happen.

So many people were baptized says verse 13, “…. That Simon himself also believed…”

Underline the word 'believed' because I'm going to come back to that.

“…Simon himself also believed. And having been baptized, he was always with Philip and seeing the signs and great miracles that were done, he was speechless, he was stunned…”

So now we go to 18 where it says that: "... when Simon saw..." ─ remember what we said that the Samaritans had converted but had not yet received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and a commission of the Apostles came to Jerusalem, Peter and John , the dynamic duo, came to pray for these new believers.

By the way, a question here for those of us who are listening differently... notice how interesting that these believers and the evangelist, and perhaps other Christians who had come out of the persecution in Jerusalem, who were in Samaria, waited for the Apostles to come to lay hands on about the Samaritans.

Well, first we underline the fact that according to the disciples and the Apostles it was not enough simply for these people to convert to Jesus Christ, but they knew that these people needed as a seal, an imprimatur directly from God, which was that baptism of the Spirit. Holy.

And again, as a charismatic Pentecostal church that we are, we also believe, as I said last Sunday, that the believer, in addition to having Christ in his heart, needs to activate the presence of the Holy Spirit in his life. There is perhaps no word that can express what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is, without making it problematic.

But we are not going to discuss the complexities right now, it is important that we understand that as believers in Scripture and the written model is that this experience, just as we believe that water baptism is an experience secondary to conversion, does not save, but it is important, so we also believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an endowment of power, of capacity for service, for holiness, for activation of the gifts of God in the life of the believer, to live a truly supernatural life. And that requires a transaction, if you will, of faith in the life of that son or daughter of God.

And I encourage God's people to seek that experience. We try to facilitate it in many ways here as a Congregation, but it doesn't necessarily have to be just someone coming and laying hands on it, there are many different ways. It doesn't have to be in a formal Sunday service, where you can receive and have that encounter with God.

One of the things that we see in the book of Acts is that there is a diversity of experience.

Peter hadn't even finished the three points and his sermon poem when the Holy Spirit fell and baptized him and his family. So God is sovereign and we have to open up that way. But it is important to look for that.

Now, I've talked so much that I even forgot what I was going to say about it. But, the important thing is that Simón is there among that group of people, Simón believes…

Ah, yes, what I was going to say now I remembered. Don't tell me it's because I'm 55 years old because it happens to you too... what I wanted to highlight is the fact that Simon receives, believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, is baptized and yet there is still an additional experience in his life that he has to give yourself too There is a change in your life, there is also a transaction that has to take place in your life that is very interesting. Just as those disciples have to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Simon also has to experience, I would say, not a second conversion, but a transformation of his inner being.

Let's see why. And this is something that we also have to look for, just as we look for the baptism of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we too when we enter the ways of the Lord, I believe that this is simply the beginning of a long journey of experiences. And if we only remain in that... I even converted, received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, everything is fine and we stay there, we run the risk of stagnating and losing the opportunity to go much further as God wants us to go .

Why what happened? Look here, how interesting, that's why I couldn't ignore this passage like that. Say what:

"... when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the hands of the Apostles, he offered them money..."

By the way, there is a word, for example in English simony, and in Spanish it is simony, if I am not mistaken, it comes from this man, from Simon, and it is the idea of making a profit, taking advantage of the Gospel, using the Gospel to do money and to withdraw money.

So, Simon sees what is happening, he sees a hand is being imposed on the Samaritans. Now, this is interesting here too, notice why Simon knows that this is something miraculous? Something was happening, there was some demonstration. Because if it had been simply that they lay hands, and they go home as a ritual way of doing things. But evidently something was wrong with these Samaritans. It didn't exactly say they spoke in tongues, but maybe there were tears, maybe there was an emotional infusion of the spirit, maybe they were prophesying and giving glory to God. But there was something this man saw happen when the Apostles laid hands on them.

Now, another thing that we have to see here, is this too, think also about how the institutional identity of the church is developing at this time. That this is one of the themes of the book of Acts as well. We see that the church is like looking at the brain of a baby that is growing and becoming more complex, with the passing of the Chapters of this book.

I believe that we are seeing the formation of the theological, institutional identity of the church. These are precious passages because evidently these Apostles are laying hands on these people. Now, I believe that the ones who laid hands did not necessarily have to be Apostles. In the case of Saul, we will see later, that Ananias, a simple believer, is sent by God to lay hands on him and I believe that there we begin to see the development of this idea. Perhaps these believers thought that they had to be the Apostles, as happens many times, right? Only the pastor can pray for the sick, only the anointed, those who have a missionary position in the church, who have a missionary card can pray. for the sick or people who are depressed and visit people in the hospital.

Today, we know that there is such a thing as the priesthood of every believer, where you have all the authority of the Holy Spirit in your life. You can also pray but in this case the Apostles were praying for these people and something obviously happened. Simon had converted, he had believed and when he sees this happen, he wants to offer him money to give him the same power that they have.

He says, “…give me also this power so that whoever I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. Then Peter said to him, "Your money perishes with you because you have thought that the gift of God is obtained with money"..."

This Pedro was not easy. I don't know how many of us would dare to react like that in such a lively way. One of the things also about the book of Acts that always strikes me is that tone of seriousness that things sometimes have in the Gospel.

Today in our culture we have adopted, I understand well, a more relational tone and every day you see more and more in the evangelical world, in America, there is talk of this sympathetic image of the church that we have to present to win over the people. And sometimes that gets to the point that we sacrifice important points of church teaching and doctrine so as not to shock people when they come to church. We removed the cross from the front of the church because many people are offended by the cross. We remove the denominational name or rare names.

I remember how difficult the name of the Lion of Judah was when God placed it in my heart, because of course it shocked. Lion of Judah, what is that? Is it a zoo or what? And sometimes they say Lion of Judas, and Judas Iscariot or which Judas? So, but God put that in my heart. The truth is that the Bible has many things that are strange, with the counterculture, they are different and if we begin to sanitize or do a cultural hygiene of the hallmarks of the Gospel, listen to me, we will stay as Hare Krishna or I don't know what, but we will lose …

I think there is a point at which one has to say, no, this is… let them come to us, not us to them. May they convert to you and not you to them. Go? It is not that we are going to do the mysterious Gospel simply to make life difficult for people, so that they enter. No. But I think we also have to take into account that in the Gospel sometimes you have to be clear about things. I have seen that when the Holy Spirit stirs, brothers, and when a person has that filling of the Holy Spirit, he is not necessarily interested in being nice. It's good to be nice, of course, but sometimes the things of God are matters of life and death and you have to be clear, and sometimes there is confrontation that is necessary.

Now, I'm not telling you that for a license to be bloody with people, I know that many say, ah, amen, I knew that I was right. Also not? but there are times when one has to clarify certain things to people. The Gospel is holiness and people cannot just do what they want. The Gospel is serious.

A lot of people get into the Gospel, that's why Simon fascinated me, and I said, wow, it would be a great injustice if I didn't talk about this character. I find it fascinating. Simon is one of the most complex characters and I think he tells us a lot about the believer's journey in the Gospel.

So, Pedro confronts him. I see here as a confrontation of cultures and mentalities. I'll tell you why in this case. And Peter says, lightning strikes you:

“…that you think that I am going to give for money, am I going to give the gifts of God that can be bought for money? You do not have your share or luck in this matter because your heart is not right before God. Repent, then, of this, your wickedness, and pray to God and perhaps the thought of your heart will be forgiven you because in the gall of bitterness and in a prison of wickedness I see that you are..."

I think this man was already lying on the ground shaking and almost had a heart attack.

"... Responding then, Simon, the magician, said, Pray for me to the Lord so that none of this that you have said comes upon me..."

How beautiful is humility. He dropped his guard. Wise man, if he was not humble at least he was wise.

"... And they, having testified and spoken the word of God, returned to Jerusalem and in many towns of the Samaritans announced the Gospel..."

What do I see here, brothers? Again, notice why Simon is important to me? Because I see here the need to disciple people, when they enter the ways of the Lord. The need to show them that things in the Kingdom of God are not done as they are done in the world where they come from. When a person believes in Christ Jesus as Lord and savior and accepts Jesus, I believe that immediately, or even before, there is a clash of powers, a clash of mentalities, a clash of cultures, a clash of paradigms or models of thought. . The world sees things in a very different way than the Kingdom of God sees them.

That is why the Bible speaks of "do not conform to this culture but transform yourselves through the renewal of your mind, of your understanding..."

Metanoia, change of mind, change of way of thinking. When a person passes through the invisible curtain of the Gospel and receives Christ as Lord and savior, he must immediately understand that he is entering a totally different universe from the one he occupied before. There are things that seemed fair to that person before and are not necessarily fair to God. There are things that seemed ethical to that person and now they will have to see them in a different way. There are liberties that that person allowed himself that now cannot be allowed. There are reasonings that before this person participated in them and now they have to change. You have to take a number of things, tools, resources, ways of thinking and computing life and now when you pass through that atrium of the Gospel there is a number... a transformation race begins in your life, change of mind, change of ways to think and to see life.

And unfortunately I believe that the church of Jesus Christ does not do the work that it should do to make each person who enters the Gospel aware of that. And I believe that more than ever in this time in history in which the world has become so secularized, in which human reason has taken so much control of culture and of the human being, today more than ever the Gospel is against culture. , the Gospel is scandalous, to use a biblical word, it is the scandal of the cross of Jesus Christ.

And like in the times, I would say, of the Greeks and the Romans when it was also a pagan culture and tremendously rational and humanistic, today also, people are going to enter the Gospel with a damaged mind, a corrupted mind, a twisted mind as the Apostle Paul speaks in the book of Romans, I think it is Chapter 2, how they did not take God into account to give him the glory he deserved, and turned him into an object of idolatrous worship, changing his shape, in the form of animals and reptiles, and engaged in practices unclean and abhorrent to God, says that God gave them over to a reprobate mind. That means, a failed mind, a damaged mind, to do things that are not convenient.

The mind of the man without God, the mind of the secular man, the mind of the man who has not been touched by the presence of the Holy Spirit, is a mind that is like a computer that has a virus. A computer can have a virus and still do several things well, the problem is that you don't know when it's going to come out as a scribble, a lot of strange things. You can't trust her. It does great things, but it also does terrible things, and you can't be trusted.

And the same happens with modern man, without God, man can send people to the moon, he can send people to the depths of the sea, he can explore the minuscule nature of matter, but he can also decide terrible things, like killing millions of lives. in the womb of a woman because that is her territory and she has the right to do what she wants because that is her lot, her yard, and therefore she can do…. Failed reasoning.

So, that failed reasoning leads to that person who says, I can get rid of that life without any recrimination of my conscience, but fight for a dolphin that dies there on a beach or a whale and spend 10 million dollars to save that whale, because you have to save the whales.

So, it's a failed mind, a failed mind, a mind that computes in a weird and confusing way. So, when that person comes to the Gospel, you have to start dressing and undressing, you have to start developing a new way of seeing life. And that's you and it's me because even when you say, well, I've never been a scientist, a secularist, a rationalist, a humanist, a communist, none of those things, one of the left, but there are other things in your life , there is sensuality, there is selfishness in all of us, there are different things, bad ways of treating people, manipulation, materialism, love of money, a lot of things, rebellion against God, grudges we have, hunger for power and dominance, rancor , a number of things that we have, that we bring that baggage to the pure world of the Gospel and God says, you know what? You can move into my kingdom, but now you have to start a transformation process in your life. Change in your life, and you and I are going to walk this path together and it's going to take a lifetime but I'm going to change your mind and stick my fingers, as it were, over and over again in your brain full of cobwebs and I am going to remove them one by one until I leave you with the mind of my Son Jesus Christ.

Indeed, because the Bible says that we have the mind of Christ, but I think we have it as a declaration from God, but then we have to make that mind of Christ real and effective in our lives, learn to think like Christ, learn to feel like Christ, learn to hate what Christ hates, and love what Christ loves, speak as Christ speaks, treat people as Christ treats them, sacrifice ourselves for others as Christ sacrificed himself for others.

There is a change of mind. Now, you say, where does Pastor Miranda get all that? Simon the magician A great injustice has been done to Simon, the magician, and that is to say that he did not truly convert. In fact, there are legends in the ancient texts that Simon the magician created a whole false religion after there and that he opposed the Apostles. None of this has a biblical basis or apparently a basis in history, but some believers believed it was necessary to create all this. Because the truth is that he is a magician, imagine, just for that reason he was a bit sinister being, right? And it's hard to believe that this man and because of his behavior, what does one do? No, this man was obviously not a believer, he was a fake, what he wanted was to get money.

And I insist, brothers, that is why the church of Jesus Christ has to change its thought patterns too, to a certain extent, because interestingly we also have worldly patterns of what holiness and conversion are, etc. We say that if a person converts, well, there are people who believe that well, now, he is a paragon of virtues, he should already do certain things, think in a certain way, etc.

I believe that poor Simon has been done an injustice, because evidently the problem with Simon was that he converted, because look, it says there:

“…. He believed, Simon himself also believed..."

The Bible does not qualify that, he also believed with the rest of them who believed. he believed. He was baptized, he was stunned by the things that were seen, but what was Simon's problem? Simon's problem is that there had not been a process of internal conversion, transformation of his mind, and unfortunately I do not see anywhere that they took him and gave him the 4 discipleship courses of the Lion of Judah. So what's up? This man converts, he gets involved at once... because look, what happens is that Simon believes in Jesus Christ but his way of thinking continues to be the same as that of a businessman, an entrepreneur, a showman, a manipulator who is used to getting away with yours. what does he do? When converted, where is the power? with the Apostles. And what does a skilled and wise businessman and agent do in managing people? Mess with those in power. So, he sticks to the Apostles, he goes with them wherever, he wants to be where things are moving, right? and is trying to learn. Because? Because a magician says, there is always a trick. Something must be doing these people, they are putting a pill in without realizing it, an injection or whatever, but something is happening here. he is computing the Christian experience from his way of thinking. He has spent a lifetime fooling people, devising tricks behind the scenes. He believes that everything is solved with money, he is used to exerting influence.

So, of course, when he sees this happening, he is thinking like a magician, like a person who does tricks, like a person who believes that everything can be bought with money. Perhaps he bought some tricks from other magicians to teach him and he would then continue his repertoire. So, naturally I could almost say “innocently”, put quotation marks around that word, he goes to Pedro and says, hey, I can pay you to teach me how to do that. And you asked the wrong person. Pedro barks at him and says, go to hell, how dare you think that the things of God can be bought with money. You see?

So, I would say that the problem was not Simón, I think Simón believed, but he needed a change of mind, a change of culture. But I think that poor Simon would have needed someone to tell him, look, that's not the case, go to the Lion of Judah discipleship course number 1 so that they teach you about how things are handled in the Kingdom of God . It is not for money, it is for humility, it is for the sovereignty of God, it is for asking the Lord, it is for serving others, etc., etc. It is for love. It's not about the subject. The world does it that way but in the Gospel it is not done that way.

So, my point is, brothers, that the church of Jesus Christ when a person is converted and you, if you have recently entered the ways of the Lord, I encourage you, I urge you to find out how to better know the word of God, to know more , how things are done in the Kingdom of God. Don't just come to church, cross yourself and go home. Ok, the pastor did what he had to do, I already sang and I already put a coin there in the basket and I'm going home. No, the Gospel is terribly melee, internal struggle, it is sacrifice, it is God, he takes his sword and cuts you into twenty thousand pieces and makes you again. He puts you through the trapiche like a piece of cane, he grinds you, and then he remakes you. You are a clay vessel that God does not like how it is, and he undoes it like the potter or the clay and reforms it as he wants.

The Gospel is tremendously dynamic, my brothers. I believe that when a man or woman of God understands that, their life changes completely. Because most of us are used to thinking that the Gospel is just this, sitting down, coming to church, sitting there on Sundays, listening, tithing. Everything is external, artificial, religious, but when you turn on the light bulb and you understand what to look at, when you enter the Gospel you enter the most dangerous zone in the universe. God is going to take it and possibly kill it and redo it, you know? God is sinister. And we have to be willing to enter that risky area of the Christian life.

If you're not hurting and bleeding in the Gospel, you're in the wrong place, you know? Because the Gospel is tremendously hand to hand, God fights with man, the woman to form her, work her, remove everything that is not of God and leave what is of him, what is of his kingdom.

You have to come to the Gospel thinking, Lord, I am a clumsy, stupid child, and now I need you to teach me how to do things, because many people come to the Gospel and immediately want to get involved, to be made to do something, to lead, to sing, they are cunning. He sees some of them, his eyes pop out, they want to change, they want to change things, that things be done the way they want, to get involved once and for all. That is not like that. The Gospel is very different, it is a very, very different process. And there are changes that have to take place in your life, in your marriage, your emotional life, your past hurts, your past distortions, your appetites, your ties, your depressions and anxieties and worries and obsessions, resentments, things.

Your mind is a swarm of evil. I don't want to depress you, but that's the… glory to God because that's just a diagnosis and immediately God tells you, but you know what? There is a cure for you. There is hope for you.

I think we should understand that. I believe that there is no more beautiful position for a human being to recognize, I need God to change me and transform me, because that is the moment that God is waiting to come with all his resources and start working in your life and transform you. and take you where he wants to take you. But you have to understand that, that in the Gospel you cannot live as you live in the world.

And maybe you are 30 in the Gospel and maybe today you need to listen, I have to surrender to the Lord. We changed 'Have your way in me' to 'Do what you want from me'. And that's real, when we come we have to sign a blank note to the Lord and God is going to say, you know what? I don't like that way of you. I don't like this, I don't like that, and God is going to forge an entire treatment plan just for you. You will go through painful experiences. It will take you where you do not want to go, as the Lord Jesus Christ told Peter.

"Pedro, Pedro, when you were young you dressed and gird yourself as you wanted, but when you are old, someone else will dress you and take you where you do not want to go."

I think that this is a perfect image of what the life of discipleship is, the life of Christian formation. It's a process where God gives you things you don't want and doesn't give you things you want. It takes you to places that takes you kicking and protesting, and it takes you out of others where you would give your life to stay a little longer, literally. Where God becomes the sovereign of your life, the mental, emotional, spiritual surgeon who enters any region of your being that he wants and does things there that only he knows why he does them.

And when we enter the Gospel we have to understand that, because otherwise we stay like Simon. The church of Jesus Christ is full, including ministers and ministries that leave people in simony, even with money, power, manipulation, control. All these things, which are things of the world, we have imported into the church, and there are many people who go to church so that God blesses them, to have a better, newer car, a bigger house, a pretty wife, or whatever, and because they have told him that they do that there. Witchcraft! They come to church for Santeria and witchcraft. The church has become a place of witchcraft, magic and Santeria, where if people give money to God, they insert a lever, like in one of those casinos, and 4 lemons come out and then a quantity of money comes out and you can take them home. And we participate in that magic, brothers, when people have to be told, no, come to Christ and perhaps you will lose your house, your health and your car and then you will be saved and you will discover eternal life, and you will be truly happy.

The way of seeing things is different, brothers, very different. And the church has to help people understand that. The Kingdom of God is not like the kingdom of the world. And there is no more beautiful place for a son, a daughter of God than when we submit to God's operating table. We let our guard down and our hands down, and we say, ok, Lord, do what you want. Impose on my life. And the rest of my days I will live letting you come and go when you want. You are the engineer of my life. You are the divine architect, you are the sovereign. And I believe that what you do by definition is good, although it doesn't seem that way to me.

I want to believe that Simon repented and became a great evangelist and perhaps a teacher. Because with those magician skills that he had, I think he would have been a great evangelist, you know? I persist in believing that Simon was saved, he took his lesson, they don't tell us what happened. I want to be optimistic. I think there was a healthy regret there, at the moment he realized, this is different.

Go? What happens, brothers, is that we are used to a static Gospel. Ok, this thing he did is outrageous. Pablo rebuked him, that means that this man is useless, we are going to discard him. No. We have to see the Gospel in a way… in the Gospel people, while God is treating them, do horrible things, we do horrible and scandalous things. The Gospel is dynamic, the Gospel is process.

In the case of Ananias and Sapphira, I personally, personally believe that Ananias and Sapphira were saved. God when he killed them, did not condemn them but disciplined them. Tremendous discipline, it killed them, but a discipline from God. Because I believe that in the Gospel things are not black or white, they are sometimes gray. There are complexities that we do not understand and a person can be saved and love God terribly and also make serious mistakes in what God is discipling and preparing. Look at Peter, look at David, look at Paul, look at the great heroes of the faith.

So, we have to understand that we are entering a dynamic, explosive world, substances are created and destroyed, new and different ones emerge. That is your life. God is working with you. You are Simon, the magician. I am Simon, the magician. And we are learning, we will make serious mistakes along the way, but we will have a merciful God who will tell us, don't worry, you are still in formation. Keep going, I am with you until Christ is formed in you, until the image of Jesus is actualized in your life.

Welcome to God's workshop. Glory to the name of Jesus. We are going to lower our heads for a moment, brothers, and we want to take advantage of this moment to give an opportunity to anyone who is here today, if you are visiting us this morning and you feel the touch of God in your life through music that has been played, the choirs that we have sung, the word that has been announced, or simply the sweet presence of God and the Holy Spirit in your heart while you have been in this holy place, dedicated to adoration and praise to the Lord, and you feel that you want to start that same path that Simon started to discover new and different things, and you want to entrust yourself to that merciful and gracious God, who says, you know what? Come with me and let's work together. I am going to take you by the hand and I am going to take you through a process and there is no possible failure, because I am not going to let you fail.

So if you feel a call from God this morning to put your hand in the hand of Jesus, I invite you to consider that and if God has touched your life and you want to raise your hand right now where you are, I would like to pray for welcome you to God's workshop, welcome to the company of people in formation, saints who are in the process of being conformed to the image of Christ Jesus.

There are two hands going up there. Someone else who wants to put their hand in the hand of the merciful discipler who is Christ Jesus. Another hand there goes up. Someone else? It is beautiful to enter that magical zone of the Gospel. God bless you, here on my left too. It is an area where there is no loss, you know? It is an area, as I said, dangerous, but it is also an area of errant knights and dragons that we defeat with the power of God's magic sword. There is no failure in the Kingdom of God if we stick to the Lord.

And I invite you, I want to invite you not to lose that opportunity. I want to invite you to come here. Could you spend a moment, and someone accompany those brothers? Someone to accompany my brothers and sisters, and come, we want to pray for you this morning, and deliver you to the mercies of God, a loving and gracious God. Thank God that God is more merciful than Peter, you know? God loves you and has good purposes for your life and he will not be scandalized if you occasionally make a mistake, sin against him. He's going to tell you, ok, we're going to start over, we're going to play the record again from the beginning and we're going to move on. God calls you. God is calling you and you have said yes, and the Lord says, if I knock on the door and you open the door, I am going to enter, says the Lord, it is not maybe between possibly. No, he says, I'll go in.

If you have opened your door to the Lord of your life, the Lord right now, believe him, he is already inside of you, he is sitting on the throne of your life and he is already beginning to pull power lines through all the parts of your being and he will send transformative messages and impulses to your brain, to your heart, to your body, to your emotions, to all parts of your being. He's going to start transforming and recalibrating your life, because that's what he does. He specializes in it.

And do not enter the Gospel simply to warm a bench, enter the Gospel so that God can transform you, change you and make you new or new, a creature that shines like angels shine. So say yes to the Lord, say yes, Lord. Come into my life. You are my Lord and my king, my owner, you will control my life. I give you permission. Do what you want with my life. You are my God, my savior, my sins forgiven by you on the cross of Calvary.

Thank you for being my God and my Lord. I receive you and give myself to you this morning, Lord Jesus. Hallelujah! I bless you. Father, I bless my brothers and sisters in the name of Jesus this morning. I declare upon them grace upon grace. They are precious before you, every one of them, Lord. They are princes and princesses who are worth the blood of the Son of God, and I bless them in the name of Jesus and with your sword, Lord, I cut the devil's grip on their lives.

Satan, we inform you, these creatures belong to the Christ who bought them with his blood. And all accusations are neutralized, all charges are dismissed from their lives and we declare, Lord, new territory that opens before them, adventures that they will live with you, Father, blessings that they will experience on this new and fascinating path, which is the way of the Gospel. Change their minds, Lord, change their hearts, Father. We seal it and bind them to your mercy and your faithfulness, Father, and we say that nothing will snatch them out of your hand, Lord, because they will be more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. We bless their lives. Thank you, Father, thank you, thank you, Lord, thank you because you have done it with me, thank you because you will do it with many more and thank you because this is real, Lord, it is real. We bless their lives and declare the anointing of your spirit upon them.

Remember, brethren, you are now entering into an adventure with the Holy Spirit as well. I want to ask you, say the following with me, repeat this with me: Holy Spirit, I invite you to enter my life, take control of me and baptize me, fill me with your presence. Tell him, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Pour out your anointing on my life. I believe that you are real, spirit of God, baptize me with your fire, baptize me with your fire. Thank you Lord, thank you in Jesus name.