Resist the devil and he will flee from you

Last Sunday we began a journey through the 4th chapter of Luke. This chapter 4 of Luke serves to illustrate a life that exemplifies evangelism, an evangelistic lifestyle. What are the components, what are the elements that constitute an evangelistic lifestyle. That's what we've been talking about these Sundays, because again, we want our church to embrace an evangelistic lifestyle. And we are making a very long-term investment in reconstituting the neurology, if you will, of our church towards evangelism, that everything we do is oriented in that direction. On Friday, for example, we had that time of prayer and it is a way of seeking God's anointing to evangelize.

Sometimes people think that just one little thing around here, no, that's all. The casting of the seed is simply the culmination but around that there are many pieces. We have to learn to live as a church and as individuals, each one of us has to be an evangelist of the kingdom and Jesus is the model par excellence of what it is to live an evangelistic lifestyle.

Last Sunday we saw at the beginning of chapter 4 that the Lord was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert, coming from the Jordan, he was led by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by Satan. And there we saw, it's sort of ironic, that the Holy Spirit led the Lord into the desert to be tempted. The Bible says that God does not tempt anyone. So one wonders why then God commanded Jesus to be tempted? It would seem a contradiction. But it was because he was being brought into a confrontation, I think with himself. And Satan tempts us where we are.

The Bible says that when we are tempted, let's not say that God tempts us because God does not tempt anyone but that we are tempted by our own lusts. What the devil is looking for is what is in us, those areas of brokenness that are in our life, those are the devil's landing strips. And we all have them. And the Lord Jesus, not that he had corruption within him, but remember that he came to save humanity, and he also had to go through the cross. He knew all this.

And Satan tempted him in those areas, because he offered him the world without going to the cross. He told her, "The world is mine and I'll give it to you if you want it." And that would have been very tempting to the Lord. Wow, I can get rid of death, I can get rid of the cross, I can get rid of these years of ministry, everything, but I was offering him something false, because the moment he worshiped Satan, which was the price, he already lost faith. battle. And so over and over again, I can turn stones into bread, and the Lord was hungry and it would have been very tempting to take the bait but he didn't.

So we translate that into our lives and I was saying last Sunday that there are areas in our lives that also have to be touched and treated by God. And God sometimes takes us to those deserts in life to break us. Many times the sufferings, the sufferings, the times of tribulation are called by God so that we confront those areas, we resolve them, we define them once and for all.

And every Christian has to have those times of confrontation in his life, times to go to the desert to have an encounter with himself, to discover those areas that are in us that prevent us from entering the fullness of what God wants for our lives. And that we need to define those things, because many times we are limping with worldliness, with attachment to the world, to money, to things, and we do not define it. We come to church but we haven't defined ourselves and there has to be that moment of desert, of confrontation with the demonic. The demonic doesn't have to be something like that overtly hellish, it doesn't have to be a great impurity, it doesn't have to be a drug addiction, it can be an attitude, it can be an emotional affliction, all those things come from the same place, from hell. And we have to confront them and seek the power of God and resolve them so they don't make us always hobble and waver.

Then he says, after all the temptation was over, Satan withdrew from him for a while, because we always have to keep purifying ourselves, we will always have to keep perfecting ourselves and smoothing out the rough spots in our lives.

Then, we also saw that the Lord returned to his ministry in the power of the spirit to Galilee and taught in the synagogues, his fame spread and he was glorified by all. What happened? When he had that moment of encounter, of definition, then a great anointing of the Holy Spirit came over his life.

And when we define our life, when we determine, no, I'm not a person who just goes to church on Sundays, I'm not just a generic evangelical. When we finally define and surrender our life to the Lord, when we have that moment of crisis, then the spirit of God moves powerfully in us. Because the spirit is no longer contrite, the spirit is not diluted in us, the spirit then has an instrument in which it can move and we see the difference in our lives. We see an increased anointing, we see more effectiveness in evangelism, we see that we have grace with others, we see that we testify and people listen, that God begins to use us, that we begin to appreciate the word more, that prayer time is more nourished and more intense and deeper. Because? Because we have defined those areas.

When the Lord meets in the desert, he leaves there, enters fully into his ministry, and the power of God begins to manifest in his life. And we need the power of the Holy Spirit in order to be powerful.

He said here, in order to be effective evangelists we need the power of God in our lives and his supernatural anointing. Without that divine power we cannot succeed in doing the works of God. The biblical pattern is that we receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit so that we can go to the nations and preach the Gospel. Signs follow those who evangelize. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are to do the evangelistic work.

When the Lord begins to proclaim the Kingdom of God, the anointing of God begins to manifest through him, the gifts begin to flow. When a church begins to move in evangelism and in bringing souls and seeking the power of God, that power of God validates and supports the work that they are doing.

Many times the reason why the power of God is not manifested in our church is because we have gotten into the program. We begin to put the emphasis on other things, we begin to put the emphasis on the people, on the comfort of the people, on what will they say if we do this, if we do that, instead of saying, okay, Lord, what is your will? What do you want us to do?

When you are thinking about what God wants you to do and you put everything on the Lord's table, then the power of God begins to flow into your life. It is very important that we are a detached church. Do not get attached to anything, brother, I have learned that for a church to grow it cannot be attached to anything. Sometimes we get attached to reputation, name, comfort, routine, program, and these are times that if we want the power of God to flow in our church, I think we are going to have to make sacrifices.

And maybe I say this and you don't know what I'm saying, and you're going to say amen hastily. It is more expensive than you think. You have to be careful when you say, Lord, your will be done in my life, because it can be very expensive. But in this way, great blessings from God can also come through that crucifixion.

Every power, every deliverance, every resurrection, requires a crucifixion first. And if God tells you, get on the cross and you don't get on it, be careful, because then the power of God will not flow over your life as you want it to flow. That's free. Say, ouch, that hurt me.

Now we see from verses 16 to verse 30, we see another phase in the life of the Lord. The Lord says that he arrived in Nazareth and on the Sabbath day he entered the synagogue, according to his custom. How interesting. Don't you find that intriguing? The fact that the Lord had the habit of going to the synagogue on Saturday. What does that mean? we have to have the habit of going to the house of the Lord because there are encounters with God there sometimes. Not sometimes, should always be.

Don't lose the habit of coming to God's house even if it's snowing or whatever, come to church. The Bible says that we should not stop assembling as some have out of habit. There are people who have the habit of not going to church. Get in the habit of going to church. That matters. Ah, I can't worship God eating my corn flakes in front of the television, watching the evangelist. No, there is something special when you get upset and come to the house of God. There God can touch you, there God can speak to you, there God can do something in your life.

He used to go to the synagogue and when he gets there he prophesies. They invited him to open the book of the law and he stood in front of the congregation and took the book of Isaiah 61 and said about himself: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because how much I have anointed myself to give good news to the parents."

He appropriated a prophecy that had been given centuries ago and he said, implicitly, he told people, that's me. The Lord has anointed me to break chains, to set captives free, to give sight to the blind, to free those who are oppressed by the devil, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He endorses the messianic prophecy where it was prophesied that the Messiah would function in the anointing of the Holy Spirit, performing miracles of liberation, healing, and social justice.

By declaring God's call for our lives and for our church, prophesy that God has called me. God has called you to break chains, to preach about these things as I am doing in these sermons, and by orienting in a sustained, continuous way, our efforts in the direction of evangelism and rescuing souls for Christ, we too will go learning to be an evangelistic church. And God will continue to pour out his power on us.

You know that many times you have to declare things with your mouth, you have to declare them publicly, you have to say, God has anointed me, God has called me, God has spread his voice, we are going to do this, we are going there, we are going to do the other, because if you don't declare it, if you don't say it, it doesn't happen many times. The Lord publicly said, no, I am the Messiah. That word from Isaiah applies to my life.

You know, when you declare things, you commit to them. You have already said something and you already have to continue in that direction if you are going to be consistent. And that's why you hear me continually declaring these things. For how many years have we been saying, God has a purpose for this church, God has a prophetic call, God has a specific purpose for this congregation. I sometimes look at sermons I wrote decades ago and I say the same thing. I have been announcing that, because I believe in declaring the things of God.

And sometimes we don't fulfill everything we promised and what we said, but enough is done. And each time you give a prophecy it is like a wave turn. How many turns does one have to give to pick up speed to then release the wave, and it also has to be many times to say things several times.

When Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream, Pharaoh had two dreams, one about fat cows and one about lean cows, so to speak, and Joseph said, the fact that you had the dream twice means that God is committed to what he is saying and that he is going to do it. He's saying it twice so it's known that he's engaged.

Many times you have to declare what you have done in your life and what God wants to do in your life many times until it becomes flesh of your flesh, blood of your blood. It is necessary to declare the things of God. You have to talk sometimes even if you don't believe it, say it anyway, God has healed me, God has set me free, God is going to provide, God is going to open doors for me, God is going to provide me with that job, God is going to bring my son to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, God is going to break my chains, God has done it, even if you say it, even if you don't see it, because God calls things that are not what they are. Sometimes we also have to call things that are not what they are and believe them.

I am struck by the fact that the Lord announces. Implicitly I am the Messiah and God has anointed me to do this, and to do that. It is a statement. And so the church has to be saying, we are called to do something. We have to be aware of the anointing of God that already rests on us and declare it. As servants of God we also have the anointing of the Holy Spirit to announce the Gospel, to break chains, to free the captives. You have that anointing. Say it and believe it and act like you already have it and move on to what God has already done. That anointing is already within you to a certain extent, it only remains for you to move by faith in it and to declare it by faith.

The Apostle Paul tells Timothy, "I urge you to fan into fire the gift of God that is in you." How do you learn to be an evangelist? evangelizing. How do you learn to console souls and advise souls? Advising them and calling them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Exercise the anointing that is within you by faith and God will do the rest. Don't waste opportunities to declare the Gospel even if you don't feel empowered to do so.

The Lord does something else that is also interesting. Notice that it says, “today this scripture has been fulfilled in your sight – meaning, today this has become a reality in my person – And it says that everyone gave a good witness to it, so far everything is going very well, everyone is happy with him. How nice! And they are amazed at the gracious words that came out of his mouth.

But then notice in verse 23 he told them: “You will surely tell me this saying, doctor, heal yourself, of so many things that we have heard that have been done in Capernaum, here in your land too.”

It's interesting, when you try to do God's will, critics come. When you go out of the ordinary, many people will not like you and people will complain about your life. Anyone who tries to do something in life is going to have people who criticize him and who is going to have people who are not going to be happy with him and they are going to always find a little hair in the sancocho.

So he confronts them and speaks to them and says, speaking of the widow that Elijah fed for a time, he says, “But Elijah was not sent to any of them but to a widowed woman in Zarephath of Sidon, – an impious, a pagan, a who was not a member of the kingdom of Israel. –And many lepers were in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha but none of them was cleansed except Naaman, the Syrian – that is, a man who was not a member of the family of Israel. – He says that when he heard these things he changed, the air changed. Everyone in the synagogue, those who were saying how good, full of grace, we are happy with you, when the Lord pokes them in the wound he says that "they were filled with anger and getting up they threw him out of the city, they took him to the top of the mount to throw him off the cliff.”

That is, they were outraged by what he was telling them. Bad start for a ministry right? People want to take it to the top of the Prudential Center and throw it out the last window. But I see something here, it says that “Jesus also confronts – he knows that the Gospel is not just telling people, God loves you, you are good, and God is here to serve you and to give you money and to give you a good wife and to give you children. well behaved and give you the car that you want, there are many people that this is the Gospel they want to preach, only the good things. But you also have to confront, you have to preach the word of God without ambiguity.

I see the example of Jesus, we cannot dilute and water down the Gospel just to win people. The preaching of the Gospel has to be authentic, biblically preached, not watering down the claims of the Gospel just to get people into church. The Gospel can not only be good and beautiful and easy things, the Gospel has a price, there is a cost too, you have to go through the narrow door, he says, you have to humble yourself.

Without conviction of sin and repentance there can be no salvation. If the church does not preach repentance and does not define what sin is, it is not legitimately preaching the Gospel. Yes or no? You have to let people know, there is a difference between a life lived according to God's will and a life lived outside of God's will. Today what we are doing is broadening the will of God so that everyone can fit into it. And it is quite the opposite. People have to lose weight to be able to get into the will of God.

There is a difference. We want to spread the Gospel so that people enter. No, what you have to do is reduce people to enter the Gospel. The difference is important. We have to tell him, there has to be repentance, there has to be a change in lifestyle, you have to break those ties that are holding you back. You have to die to live. And it becomes important, as we see here, to confront sin and spiritual pride.

The Jews thought they were the big deal. Nobody like them. And they were full of spiritual arrogance, and the Lord told them, no, that has to die. God is no respecter of persons. God seeks the humble, the simple and that is why he sought Naaman or at least wanted to give an example that not only the Jews were going to be in the Kingdom of God. Naaman was a gentile, the widow of Zarephath was a gentile too.

And where the people who recognize their need are, that's where God moves. If there are proud and self-sufficient people, the power of God cannot be moved. And we have to help them to discover their condition and seek repentance. Now when we preach about sin we have to speak about sin, yes, with love and humility, acknowledging that we ourselves are in our own personal struggle and that there is hope for the sinner.

Never preach sin with a whip in hand. No, always have oil on hand as well to anoint the back when you lash it with God's truth. Always have wine to calm the pain of repentant people and remember that you yourself are also a sinner. We have to preach sin in humility, in simplicity of heart, recognizing that we first need God's grace. Amen.

The church has to be both seeking holiness but also knowing that it must be done with love, with humility, with mercy, with compassion. God is faithful to forgive if there is repentance. God never rejects the sinner, and as a loving Father he always wants to see the return of the prodigal son and receive him without recrimination when he returns home.

The church of Christ has to be a church that preaches holiness and mercy at the same time, hope for the sinner, both at the same time. Now from verses 31 to verse 37 there is another phase of the evangelistic life of Jesus. We have seen a confrontation with himself, with temptation, with the evil that was not in him, but the evil that threatened him. There was a filling of the Holy Spirit, there was a prophesying and declaring God's will for his life, there was a confrontation with people about their need for repentance and God's forgiveness.

And now in verses 31 to 37, we see that the Lord arrived in another synagogue on another Saturday and again, as was his custom, he went to church, and there is a man who is demon-possessed, "who exclaimed with a loud voice saying, 'Leave us, what do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?"

In the same synagogue there was a demon possessed person. How many know that sometimes in the church there are people who need deliverance? Sometimes it's the deacons, but it's not like that, if those deacons catch me they throw me out of the church. But it can be anyone, he knows that sometimes there are people who need liberation. But many times the devil is moving, sometimes we are afflicted, there are times when the enemy is moving, even in the church. And when the power of God is present, the demons get upset and manifest themselves.

And the Lord was prepared for that manifestation in the synagogue. I say that evangelism always implies a continuous confrontation with evil, with the powers of Satan, as we see in the account of the Gadarene demoniac, which we explained earlier about it, where the Lord moved, the demons bothered him and began to manifest themselves. .

When we evangelize we have to guard against the inevitable attacks and spiritual confrontations that will come. That comes with the territory. If you're living an evangelistic life, the demons are going to rage around you, you know? If the anointing of God is in your life, there will be persecutions, there will be attacks against that person who is standing up and entering into his call.

I have seen brothers from the congregation who begin to consecrate themselves, they begin to seek God, they begin to pray, to fast and the enemy also begins to attack them and many times they allow themselves to be dominated and defeated and you see that little by little They are losing their enthusiasm and when they come to see that initial anointing dissipated, because they were not able to resist.

The Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. When you are looking for God in your life and the attacks come, don't quit, as they say in good Spanish, don't give up as the Mexicans say, don't run away from the devil, don't turn your back on Satan. What do you have to do? stand firm

The word says, when the bad day comes, it says that we have to stop, resist until the bad day leaves and having finished everything, stand firm. Sometimes we enter the bad day, sometimes the enemy comes like a strong wind over our life, times of sickness come, times of marital problems come, times of affliction come, times of depression come, times of illness of some kind come, times of financial scarcity are coming. That is the bad day. And forget, if you are going to be on earth, anticipate that there are going to be a few bad days in your life and the longer you live, the more number of bad days you will be able to say that there were in your life, because it is a time of affliction It's testing time. And that is the devil wanting to do harm in your life.

Or many times the Lord wanting to test you and confront you and purify you. And we have to ask the Lord for discernment, which is which. But when the day is bad and it's the enemy that is wreaking havoc in your life, don't run away, don't say, well, I already tried this evangelical thing and it didn't go well for me so I'm going back to the world. No. stand firm in the Lord. Say, I am going to fight this battle, I am going to win, I am going to stand firm. And devil, you're going to have to run, you're going to have to leave the field because I'm not going to leave it so one of us has to do it, and it's going to be you. Stand firm, hold fast, pray, fast, pass that storm, close the windows of your house as you do when hurricanes come. People look for a plywood sheet and nail the windows so that the wind does not destroy them. And when the hurricane passed, they open the windows again, pick up what needs to be picked up, and go on with their lives.

This is what must be done in the Christian life. If you want to be a long-term Christian, when the bad day comes, when the enemy comes, when the manifestations of the devil come in your productive life, stand your ground and hopefully you have the weapons you need. If you have the anointing of God you will have the weapons. When the bad day comes, a time to pray, a time to fast, a time to seek the face of God, a time to find two or three brothers and tie yourself to them so that the wind does not carry them away and wait for the Lord to respond. God will always answer.

The Bible says that God will never test us beyond what we can resist. Remember that. No matter how difficult the devil's attack on your life is, it will never be strong enough to destroy or defeat you, unless you don't let yourself be defeated. But if you say, no, I am not going to let myself be defeated, Satan's attacks will not be able to have victory over your life. Remember that if you are going to live in the Gospel, if you are going to evangelize, if you are going to be used by God, you are going to have to live the life of a warrior, a soldier, and you are going to have to have the sword in your hand. You have to provide yourself with the whole armor of God, says the word, because we do not have a fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, dark forces that govern this world.

We have to have the armor of God, the sword of the word. We have to have the shield of faith. We have to have the boots of the Gospel, we have to have the helmet of justice or something nice like that. You have to have to have the armor of God. If you want to live a productive, powerful, used, anointed, Holy Spirit filled, fruitful life, you better have a good sword in your hand because there are going to be times when the devil is going to get mad at you because you're rescuing souls. you are stealing souls

Never look for fruitfulness without the anointing, the two things go together. Write that down. So, the Lord was prepared, when this demon came, the Lord told him, "Shut up and come out of him," he says that then the demon knocking him down in the midst of them came out of him and did him no harm.

How cute, right? How many of you want that anointing of God in your life to head off demons, to defeat the enemy, to snatch souls from Jesus Christ? Receive that anointing right now, fill yourself with that authority in the name of Jesus. Say, I have authority over Satan. Don't be a watered down Christian, be a Holy Spirit filled Christian.

I have authority. God has given us authority. The same authority that was in Christ is in you. There is a price to pay. You have to be a prepared vessel for God's anointing to manifest in our lives. The Lord was prepared and destroyed the work of the enemy in the life of this man. Spiritual warfare comes with evangelism. That is inevitable and you have to prepare and you have to be ready for battle.

Then we see a curious incident and the Lord goes to visit Simon's house, one of his followers and Simon's mother-in-law had a great fever and they prayed for her. I don't know if Simón was the one who asked him to pray for his mother-in-law, but the fact is that it seems that he was a good man, he loved his mother-in-law. And the Lord was consistent with him and healed the mother-in-law. We have to pray for our mothers-in-law, we have to pray for our fathers-in-law. I have spoken of the love of God that must be in us. Meche looks at me, I must say that my in-laws are the best people in the history of mankind, people that I admire. Don't think the pastor is talking about his own autobiographical life. Just a cheap gag that I couldn't resist using.

Let us thank God for our mother-in-law and our father-in-law. Amen. Noble and good people that God uses greatly in our lives. The fact is that Simon's mother-in-law is sick, they beg Jesus to heal her and the Lord heals her. What tip can we get from that verse?

I say here that evangelism offers opportunities that are going to come into our lives, because perhaps what the Lord was going there was to have a cup of tea or a little coffee or something, and he finds that Pedro's mother-in-law has a fever. Wow, an opportunity to declare the power of God, to do something special.

We have to take advantage of the daily opportunities that arise to do God's work. There in the factory comes a lady who doesn't know the Lord and starts talking to you while they are there doing their work and tells you, "Look, my husband is beating me, he is abusing me." Hey, when it's lunch time, not during work, but at lunch time pick her up, sit with her and say, “You know I want to pray for you that the Lord will either enlighten him or remove him, but do something in your husband's life." Pray with God's anointing. Use that moment.

Someone tells you, I'm sick, I need something, don't tell them, I'm going to pray for you. Put your hand up right now and say, "I'm going to pray for you now, come on, let's pray for a moment." Sometimes brothers tell me, "Pastor, pray for such and such," I have developed the habit that when I can I tell him, "Let's pray right now," because I don't know if I'm going to remember after I leave. I don't know if I'm going to have a chance because right now I'm going to take you here and we're going to pray for you right now, brother. Let's unite in faith.

Use the moments, the opportunities that God provides in your life. When one is a natural evangelist, one is continually looking for opportunities, which can arise sometimes with our own people, our own family can sometimes need a moment, a touch from God. When we are in social situations people are looking to you to see what you are going to do and you have to be ready to take advantage of any opportunity. And any chance can just mean you show up and you're there just saying, Sir, and your radar is moving 360 degrees like satellites in space looking for a wave to catch it.

Look for opportunities. Sometimes just your presence in a place can break a chain or can come down. I don't want to reveal too much, but for example, yesterday I went to visit relatives in Providence and there was part of the family that I didn't know and they are not people that I know are evangelicals, and they were in another part of the house where we were celebrating the birthday of my brother, Gilio, and I felt the Lord go where they were. I could have been with the people that I felt comfortable with, but as a pastor I know that me getting out of my area and going to where they were and having a conversation with them, was my way of saying, Know what? The pastors don't always walk around holier than everyone and sanctimonious and apart from the wicked. No, you have to be a likable presence. And the fact that I simply go and talk and make myself present already lowers resistance, and people understand, wow, this person is like us.

And we have to be natural, anything you do can make a difference in a person's life. No, there are times when people are there… we are like… people think we walk on water and they don't know all the secrets we have and all the things in our house. Ask the wife and you will see if she walks on the water and not. and you have to show people that you are made of flesh and blood like anyone else and that people don't have to be afraid of you because you are evangelical and those things let people's guard down.

So take advantage of the opportunities. We have to be alert to discern in the normality of our life opportunities that God is opening for us to bring a soul to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, or to do his work when he is calling us. If we live an evangelistic lifestyle we will be able to discern those moments when God is calling us to be an instrument.

Ask the Lord to open your eyes, to open your understanding so that you can discern those opportunities, because God is always looking for an instrument to make his grace flow in an everyday moment. If you live an evangelistic lifestyle you will be able to discern those moments and be God's instrument for that moment. It is very important.

So in verses 40 and 41 we see Jesus' reputation begin to grow. It says that “when the sun was going down, all those who were sick with various diseases…” This is one of the most beautiful and abundant passages of the healing power of Jesus Christ in the entire Bible. And one of the things that I see here is that everyone who came forward for healing was healed. The Lord never despises a soul that is seeking a provision from him and there is power enough in him to heal all the people who have…

God does not have a quota. It is a mystery, why some are healed and why others are not, I cannot tell you, but what I see in the scripture is that God wants to heal and that if not... I don't know the answer but you don't worry about the mystery deal with what you see is real and that God heals if you get close to him. Focus on that, don't look for the cat's three legs. You need healing, ask the Lord for healing.

It says here that "putting his hands on each one of them healed them and demons came out crying out but he rebuked them and did not let them speak." They came sick with various diseases and he laid his hands on each one of them and healed them. There was a waste of healing power. The Lord's reputation begins to grow, people flock to him. As the Lord uses his gifts, the gifts flow with greater intensity.

What began as a small drop of water becomes a little stream and then a flow of healing power and the Lord's reputation increases as he uses his power. At first it's there in the synagogue, around here, something else around there, there was a setback when they wanted to throw him off a cliff, but he didn't get discouraged, he kept using his gift. And that is what we have to do every day, while we proclaim that evangelistic call from the Lord, you just keep moving. Do what comes to hand each day. Don't worry about the end result, the important thing is that when a church begins to move in the evangelistic lifestyle, the gifts begin to move and flow and the anointing of God increases.

How do gifts develop? Developing them. How does the anointing of God grow in our lives? It is us using that anointing more every day. But brothers, it is important that we use the gifts of God. Don't worry about the start being a bit weak. I do not intend to get discouraged, I do not intend to leave what I have already declared and I believe that as I flow the Lord will carry out the work in our life as a church, we will continue crying out, seeking the power and anointing of God in our lives .

Starting an evangelistic lifestyle is a matter of faith, we jump in and God provides the direction and power. As we use the gifts, those gifts begin to increase and manifest more clearly in our lives. If God has called you to do something in your life and if you feel that God has anointed you for something, start walking by faith. Don't be discouraged because the first time you prayed for someone with a cold they got pneumonia and died. You keep praying, grab another one, maybe 5 or 6 will die, but if the seventh one dies it will be resurrected. God is going to heal him.

You have to start walking by faith and the river begins to open up before you. Give the Lord a round of applause. You have to move no matter what difficulties may arise. As the Lord moved, the gifts of the Holy Spirit began to flow into his life.

The last part, we have seen then, confrontation in the desert, consecration, definition, basic defeat of the devil, power of God that begins to flow as the Lord has defeated the enemy, declaration by faith of what God has called him to do and Being, attacking and criticizing when he preaches the truth of God, which has to be preached for the wicked to be converted, confrontation with the demons that come when you try to live an evangelistic life and bear fruit for the Lord, discernment of opportunities daily activities and taking advantage of every opportunity that comes to hand to be used by God in evangelism.

Then you will see a greater flow of God's power in your life. You will see that as you use the gifts, the gifts begin to manifest more and more, their effectiveness grows, your authority grows, the more you fast, seek the consecration of God, use the gifts, God will anoint you more, In that there are going to be moments of trial, difficulty, you cross the windstorm, keep going, God begins to honor. And finally here in the last 3 verses I see something interesting here. And it is that there is a sense of urgency in the Lord for the proclamation of the Gospel.

The Lord says in verse 43, "It is necessary that I also go to other cities to announce the Gospel of the Kingdom of God because for this I have been sent." Let's all read that verse, brothers.

"But he told them, it is necessary that I also go to other cities to announce the Gospel of the Kingdom of God because for this I have been sent." Amen.

He had a sense of urgency. You know as I was reading that verse right now, God spoke to me. Interesting. Notice that the people wanted him to stay there with them because they were receiving the grace of the Lord, and the Lord said, no, I have to go to other places too.

You know that many times we believe that God has called us only to minister to Hispanics and we can have something additional in English. But I feel at this time in our life and in my own life that God is now calling us, as I have always believed, to go beyond and we are going to have to experience a change of identity as a church. It is necessary that we go to other ethnicities, to other groups, to other languages and the Lord, I am going to do so prophetically, the Lord is now unleashing his call to other places, to other cities, to other ethnicities.

If you want to remain with a Hispanic identity only and if you believe that what God has given us is only for us, abandon that sense of ownership, this is for the entire Kingdom of God, this is for other cities, for other nations for other cultures, for other peoples. And God is telling you, look, leave the comfort. Whatever price we have to pay for the power of the call of Jesus Christ to manifest in our life, we have to give it and we have to say, Lord, if you want it, that's how it will be.

Because we need to go to other cities. People were looking for him and stopped him so that he would not leave them, but he told them, it is necessary that I also announce the Gospel of the Kingdom of God in other cities, because for this I have been sent.

Brothers, I believe that right now God is speaking to me. I don't know what it means, and don't worry, this is within the will of the Lord but we are not called only to Boston or only to Latinos. This is much bigger and we can't let anything stop us, brothers. We have to go where the Lord leads us. If the cloud lifts we have to go where the cloud takes us.

And just in case you are thinking that I have some idea in my mind, none of that, in terms of me leaving or whatever, no, but I do know that God has called me to announce the Gospel in other places and in other ways and has called León de Judá also to be a missionary church in many other places and in many other fields. And there is a price to pay for that, there is a price to pay. Don't think that just doing ordinary things. You have to live sacrificially, where the cloud takes you go there. Be careful that if the cloud left and you stay in the place where you are because it is comfortable and it is beautiful and it is good. If the cloud leaves, go after it.

If the column of fire moved, follow the column of fire. Woe to us if we stay because the place is beautiful and the column has already moved elsewhere. There I connect what happened with the Gadarene who said, Lord, I want to go with you because I want to feel safe. And the Lord said, no, no, go to your family and preach the Gospel to them and tell them what God has done for you. It is a life of sacrifice, it is a life of mission.

We have to have a missionary spirit, a sense of urgency. That is why God has called us. God has called you to be an instrument in God's hands, to preach the Gospel. Whatever the cost, whatever you have to give up, give it all up to the Lord, no matter what it is. Take a moment in your spirit now, lower your head or raise your eyes to heaven, say, Lord, wherever you take me, I have been called to announce the Gospel, to proclaim the good news. You have called me, you have saved me to be an instrument in your hand. I don't want to live comfortably, I don't want to live like a normal, ordinary person, I want to be your servant, your servant. I want to be used by you, I am desperate to be used by you.

What you want from me, that's what I'm going to do, Lord. I give you everything. Surrender everything to the Lord, surrender everything, surrender what you love most to the Lord so that God can use you. As long as you have something you love more than God's will in your life, God will not be able to do everything he wants to do in your life.

We adore you Lord, we bless you Father. If you are willing to receive this call from God, if you are willing to pay the price, stand up right now, tell him, Lord, I understand what they are saying to me, I understand what Pastor Miranda has said, and I say amen. Use me for your glory Lord. Use me for your purpose. I consecrate myself to you. I do not want to be a half-hearted, lukewarm evangelical, I want to be a man, a woman who lives and vibrates for you, Lord.

If anyone wants to receive Christ as their savior, I invite you to come forward here as well. If God is calling you to consecrate your life to the Lord, this space is also open right now. Come forward here and we will pray for you. Thank you Lord, we adore you.

Father, to you glory and honor. Thank you Jesus. We consecrate ourselves to you, Lord, we surrender to you. Thank my Lord. Mighty God, we consecrate ourselves to you, Lord. I bless you my sister. God has a purpose for your life and to the extent that you surrender that life to the Lord, God is doing the work. When you return home, return with a sense of commitment. Look for a good church, serve the Lord, adopt an identity as a believer, as a follower of Jesus Christ.

If there is someone else who wants to receive the Lord or wants to take a step to consecrate his life, I invite him to come here and declare that intention. We praise you. We bless you, Lord, thank you for your word, Father. I pray for this life, we consecrate it to you, Lord. Invite Christ to come in there. Tell him, Lord, I receive you in my being.

If someone is doing it in your seat, say, Lord Jesus, I invite you to take possession of my life. I surrender to you And look for an opportunity to publicly testify to what you have done. Commit to walk like a believer. Thank you Lord, we praise you, Lord. Enter this message in the depths of our hearts. Do your work in us, Father. We give you our life, Father. Unleash your gifts, Lord, in us. Give us power over evil. Help us to go to that desert place to purify ourselves once and for all, Lord, and enter a new level of power and authority. Seizing opportunities, taking souls from Satan, resisting evil until it flees from us. We give you everything we have. We give you this church, we give you its program, we give you its government, everything, Lord, use it for your glory. In the name of Jesus.