Is That God Speaking… or Something Else?

This week, Pastor Ken explores the spiritual gift of Distinguishing Between Spirits—the ability to recognize whether something is from the Holy Spirit, an unholy spirit, or the human spirit. We’ll unpack why this gift is essential, how to test the spirits, and how to live with spiritual discernment.

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Transcript

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- Hey, this is Phil Kal, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- Uh, I'm gonna, gonna sit today at a small knee injury over the weekend, but I'm fine. Let's just dive right in. We are in the, uh, new Testament book of First Corinthians, and if you've been with us for a few weeks, you know, we've learned that this church in Corinth was, was a mess. They were divided over all sorts of things. They were divided over leadership. They're divided over sexual morality. Uh, and one of the key divisive issues that we learned about actually had to do with their worship services, with, with this moment that we have here. They were having problems and we learned that there was an abuse of spiritual gifts that were happening in the church. And this idea of spiritual gifts, if you're new to the Bible, just seems strange. And I get that. And if you're not new to the Bible, oftentimes spiritual gifts can be misunderstood and then of course overlooked in turn. But Paul, who, uh, planted this church in Corinth, he pastored this church in Corinth from afar. He's writing a letter to them and he's eager, he's telling 'em to eagerly desire these spiritual gifts, even though there's a, there's abuses that are happening of them, you need to eagerly desire them in your life. And, and the reason why Paul says is because they're for the common good. These spiritual gifts, they lift others up, they bless other people. And so spiritual gifts, the definition of 'em is this. Any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit used to bless others and build up others in the church. So I'm gonna read you, uh, one Corinthians 12, verse seven. Uh, what we're talking about here today. It says this, now to each one, the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good to one there is given through the spirit a message of wisdom to another, a message of knowledge by means of the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one spirit to another miraculous powers and to another prophecy. And here's what we're gonna be talking about today, says to another distinguishing between spirits to another, speaking in different kinds of tongues and to still another, the interpretation of tongues. All of these are the work of one and the same spirit. And he distributes them to each one just as he determines. So today we're gonna be talking about again, distinguishing between spirits. And the first thing that really I have to talk about is this word spirits, because it's a little bit of spooky to some people. Woo. Spirits, right? Um, we're, we're comfortable with things that can be verified and tested by the scientific method, right? It can be verified by our five senses. And one of the lasting effects of the enlightenment and modernity is that only that which can be verified right by the scientific method can be trusted. And even though western culture has moved on from these previous iterations of worldviews writ large, there still lingers the skepticism of the unseen. Yet, regardless of your faith background or lack of faith background, we know intuitively that just because you cannot see something, that doesn't mean it's not real. Unseen realities are the things that shape our world, right? Gravity, wind, right, magnetic fields. We can't see those things. But no one's gonna deny that they're not real. And you might argue, well, yes, they're real because we know how to measure them. We can measure them so they, so we can know that they're real. But those things were real before we could measure them. Right before the apple fell in the dude's head, we knew gra gravity still existed, right? And so, and our ability to understand something is not what moves it from unreal to real. And again, we get this, it's the unseen concepts that shape our lives as well. Love and joy and truth and time, right? These are unseen things, but we know that they are real. And so we have to understand firstly that there are these limits to our physical perception, right? Secondly, we need to understand, and we do understand that there's this universal desire for something more than the material world. Throughout all history, all culture across all time, humans have long for something more than the material world. And the Bible says that that's just a default operating system of humanity, right? Ecclesiastes three says, God has placed eternity into the hearts of man. So firstly, we need to understand there's limits to our physical perception. Secondly, there's this universal desire for something more than the material world. But thirdly, and if you're a Christian, this is sort of our authority. The Bible just tells us that the spiritual world is real, right? In the very first book, first sentence, we learn this, it says in the beginning, there's God and he's spirit, right? God is spirit. In the beginning, before anything was created, in the beginning, God created the heavens and earth, which means that the spiritual preexists, the material and the fundamental, you know, reality of life is actually not what can be verified by the scientific method. But there's something before, there's something deeper. The New Testament doubles down on the same idea. Paul, again, writing to this church in Corinth. But in the second letter, not in the first letter, he says, so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen for what is seen is temporary. But what is unseen is eternal. It came before. So don't let this word spirits, you know, spook you out. The spiritual world is just a part of the fabric of our reality, even if it goes unnoticed by us. So here's the thing. When we hear the word spirituality or when someone identifies as a spiritual person, we immediately think that that is a good thing, right? That spirit equals good. But that's not true because not all spirits are good. So that's where this gift of distinguishing between spirits is so important because there really are three different spirits. There's a Holy Spirit, there's unholy spirits, and there is the human spirit. And to know which spirit is an operation at any given time, during any conversation that might, you might have during your own thought process, you can understand how incredibly useful that will be. So this definition of the gift of distinguishing between spirits is as follows. It's the ability to recognize the influence of the Holy Spirit, an unholy spirit or the human spirit. So let's talk about the Holy Spirit. When you talk about the Holy Spirit, the first thing that you have to talk about is that the Holy Spirit is God. Christian theology states that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. And so a summation of this could be stated simply as this, that God eternally exists in three persons, father, son, and Holy Spirit. And each person is fully God. Get your calculators out. Okay? But there's only one God. Uh, this is the most beautiful aspect, but also the most mysterious aspect of God's nature. Last Saturday, I was putting my daughter Harper, she's seventh to bed, and she said, dad, at church tomorrow, are we gonna learn about God? Are we gonna learn about Jesus again? And I'm like, oh, I failed . I'm like, sweetie, we've talked about this. I'm like, whenever we talk about Jesus, we're talking about God because Jesus is God. Take no dad. That doesn't make any sense. Jesus was a baby. God isn't a baby. I'm like, touche. So, so just quickly, let's talk about the nature of God. And to start by talking about the nature of God. I just wanna put you in the right head space.'cause you have to be in the right head space. We're gonna talk about the nature of God. So I'm gonna ask you this question. I want you to come up with maybe three things for you. Okay? What is your nature? What's your nature? It's hard, right? Some of you probably didn't come up with one thing. We barely know ourselves. Our nature to us is mysterious. And so when we think about God, it's bound to be mysterious. And that's not just, that's not a cop out, it's just reality. We have a gender. God doesn't we have parents, God doesn't. We were created, God wasn't. He is holy other. He is qualitatively different than we are again, Harper. Last month she came home with a book from the library about reptiles, and she has to read it to me so we can see her comprehension and see how she's doing. And so she's telling me all about the lifespan of geckos and information about snakes and iguanas. And here's the thing. All of these different reptiles, again, they are subject to the scientific method, right? We can perform a cadaver on these things. And as human beings, which are the pinnacles of intelligence within God's created order, we can speak int intelligibly about these things, right? Maybe authoritatively, some people might even be able to speak exhaustively about reptiles, but reptiles can't do that about us. A group of iguanas can get together and wax eloquent about the human nature, right? We understand how silly that would be, right? They're of a lower created order and their capacity is limited. And so in a similar way, God is qualitatively different than you and of a higher order. And some might say, well, unless God makes perfect sense to me, and every question that I have about God could be answered in a way that is satisfactory to me, I will not believe. And it's like, fair. I understand that that was me for much of my adult life. I get it. But I also realize that that position is categorically doomed to fail because you're approaching God in the same way that you might approach a reptile. And here's the thing. God is not of a lower order than you. He's not on the same level as you. He is exponentially higher than you. And so you're in trouble. Like, what do we do then? Here's the thing. And this is a wonderful thing. We might, we might not be able to speak exhaustively about God, but we can speak accurately about God. And the reason why is only because he's revealed himself to us. He's told us who he is, both in His Son and in his word. And how has God revealed himself to us as Trinity, as Father, son, and Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit as he has is God has always existed, but in a special and unique way. He pours himself out into the believers' heart when we confess that Jesus is our Lord. Ephesians one 13 says this, when you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. And so when we're talking about the Holy Spirit, of course this is a good thing. We wanna be Holy Spirit led. We wanna be Holy Spirit filled. And the Holy Spirit has many wonderful functions in the life of a believer, convicts us of sin. That's a good thing. Guides us, teaches us, empowers us, produces Christ-like character in us, teaches us how to pray. We know that the Holy Spirit is the one who gives the spiritual gifts to the church. But if you can narrow it down what the Holy Spirit does, the distinguishing mark of the Holy Spirit is that he glorifies Jesus. He shines a floodlight on Jesus. He exalts Jesus. So when it comes to distinguishing between spirits, the first and best question that you can ask is, does this glorify Jesus? If the answer is no, you're dealing with one of the two other spirits, either an unholy spirit or the human spirit. So let's talk about unholy spirits. The Bible calls them demonic or false spirits. The Bible speaks of a chief demon named Satan, and also lesser evil spirits known as demons. And the distinguishing mark of demonic spirit is a destructive influence over God's creation, particularly of human beings, as they're made in the image of God. And the primary tactic for this demonic destruction in our life is deception. John 8 44. This is how Jesus described Satan. He says, there's no truth in him when he lies, he speaks his native language for he is a liar. And the father of lies. When I was in junior high, when I was in high school, I took French every, every semester. Uh, I even dated a, a girl in high school who is from Quebec. And the only thing that I remember to say in French is, how can I or can I have a hamburger? That's all I remember from French class, like six years of French. That's all I remember. Now, part of the reason I don't remember anything is because my then girlfriend did all my homework for me, which seemed like a great idea at the time, but in retrospect wasn't great. But French is really difficult for me. English is automatic. I write in English, right? I think in English, I speak English. You know, I dream in English. It's automatic. Satan's automatic language is deception. That's what it is. And the purpose of that deception is to turn you away from God. It's to turn you away from God's purposes for your life. Again, referring to Satan. Jesus says this, the thief, Satan, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. And then he juxtaposes himself. This is what Jesus comes, he says, but I have come that you, that they may have life and have us to its full. God desires his heart for you is an abundant life in him. God's heart for you is to know real joy in your life, to have real peace in your life, to enjoy freedom in your life. Ultimately, his heart for you is to know him through Christ. But unholy spirit's desire to destroy all that God has for you through deception, now primarily, primarily comes, uh, through the form of doubt and fear, guilt, confusion, pride, and even sickness. You know, when we think of demonic, uh, deception, uh, we generally think of it at this individual level. And that's fair, you know, throughout scripture. That's kind of how we see it most often in the Bible. Um, right from the get go. Genesis three, we see this ancient serpent, right? Satan, uh, deceiving eve into distrusting God. We see in King Saul's life, he had an evil spirit that was tormenting him, resulting in fear and paranoia towards, uh, David. We see in Mark five, uh, this man who is demonized. He's under the influence of a Holy Spirit who self mutilates. We see, uh, in Luke 13, there's a woman who's crippled, bent over for 18 years because of demonic activity in her life. So yes, unholy spirits, they work at an individual level, but they also work at a much more extended level as well. And so I wanna quickly head to the Book of Revelation'cause it's useful in understanding the havoc wreaking, um, capabilities of unholy spirits. Now, stay with me. If you've never really been to Revelation before, um, it can be a challenging book to read'cause it's highly symbolic if you don't have a guide. But it is a beautiful book and it really lets us know, um, what's happening in the spiritual realm. So earlier I talked about, uh, God is Trinity father's son, holy Spirit. Well, revelation describes this counterfeit vision to the biblical God, and it is unholy spirit's taking on an unholy trinity. And so the first person in the unholy Trinity is Satan himself. And we learn that he is an ancient serpent or a dragon. This is what it says in, in Revelations 12, the great dragon was hurled down that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan. And here's what it is. He, uh, who leads the whole world astray, not just at an individual level, but Satan leads the whole world astray was like, well, how does he do that? In Revelations 13, the next chapter over, we see how there's two additional beasts that are named. The first beast is from the sea. And he's gnarly looking. He's got like 10 horns and seven heads, and we learn that he is empowered by Satan. And this, this first beast represents nations, and it represents governments that are opposed to God. Now, immediately, it referred to the Roman Empire as Satan was influencing the Roman Empire to kill and persecute Christians under both Nero and domination at the time. But it continues to represent any nation who's opposed to God, his ways, and his people. So that's the first beast. Then there's a second beast, and that's kind of the beast I wanna talk about for, for the conversation at hand. This imagery for the beast is much more gentle. It's lamb like, don't let it fool you because it looks like a lamb, but it speaks like a dragon. And the second beast animates the first beast. The second beast is the spirit of the first beast, and its goal is to deceive people into false worship. And so the second beast represents the ideas, the laws, the worldviews, the philosophies, uh, of nations that enforce loyalty to anything other than God. So let's give an example of this. And, and there's lots that I could choose from, but I thought this one is, is one that everyone would understand and it touches everybody. And maybe, um, as soon as I say be, oh, I've heard that before. It's called I inclusivism. I inclusivism is the primary mindset of the Western world towards God. So it's the position that all roads lead to God. You've heard that before all roads lead to God, and that all religions, all worldviews are equal paths to God. The problem with that from a Christian's perspective is that it opposes the gospel and it leads people away from Jesus. Because if all roads are equal path, if it pass, if all roads lead to the same place, then Jesus has who becomes unnecessary. You can, you can get to heaven, you can get to God from some other way other than Jesus. And so if it's the Holy Spirit's role to make much of Jesus and to exalt Jesus, right? The unholy spirit's role is to make less of Jesus, to make him seem unimportant, unnecessary. The Bible tells us that no one comes to the Father except through Him. No one. That Jesus alone is the way, the truth and the life that Jesus alone connects mankind to God. And if you don't repent of your sin, if you don't put your faith in Jesus, then you will not be saved. So you see how the second beast in Revelation is still at work even today in really inconspicuous ways that to say unholy spirits can wreak havoc at any level of human activity. Lastly, let's talk quickly about the human spirit as well. Because most often in life, we're not dealing with issues of the Holy Spirit. We're not dealing with issues of unholy spirits. We're primarily dealing with the human spirit. And the human spirit is a part of us that is capable of relating to God. And so John four tells us that we worship God in spirit. Romans eight says that when God speaks to us, it's spirit to spirit, and the human spirit is not neutral. Okay? The human spirit is not Switzerland, okay? It can come into agreement with the Holy Spirit. Uh, it can be influenced by unholy spirits, and it could be swayed by our own desires as well, because not all evil in our life is caused by an unholy spirit. When you consider the overall witness of the New Testament, the emphasis isn't on fighting demons, right? And blaming them for a bad behavior. That's not the overall witness. The emphasis instead to choose to live lives of righteousness empowered by God's spirit. That's the overall witness. And the Corinthian church is a case study in this. The church was suffering from disunity, but Paul doesn't rebuke a spirit of dissension. That's not what he does. He says, you guys are being crazy, like come into agreement with one another is an issue of the human spirit. The the church was divided with sexual immorality. But again, Paul doesn't rebuke a spirit of lust in them. Now, he just says, run from it. Get a grip, guys, make a choice and pursue sexual purity. It was an issue of the human spirit. And the witness of the New Testament is to accept responsibility. It's to accept, uh, accept responsibility and not blame some external spirit that you need to chew to live a life of holiness and righteousness and faithfulness. But again, it's not a workspace religion. The good news is God has given us himself a helper, the Holy Spirit that empowers us to live this life of faithfulness and righteousness. So those are the three spirits at work. And the gift of distinguishing spirits is this intuitive ability to recognize the influence of a Holy Spirit, the unholy spirits or the human spirit. And oftentimes it's super easy to tell which spirit is at work. There's no gift that's necessary, right? When you watch a baptism, right? You see, oh, that's the Holy Spirit at work in that, that person's life. If you've ever seen a person who's demonized, you know, it's like, that ain't good. That's something different. That's not God, that's not human, that's unhealthy. You can see it, and you could see the human spirit in spades. You wanna see it right now. Open up Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. Look in the comments section. You'll see it there instantly. It's there in spades. So sometimes it's easy, other times it's really unclear. And a supernatural gift is needed to discern what is happening in the spiritual realm. Act 16 is a wonderful example of that. Let me read it to you. It says this, once we were going to a place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us shouting like, listen to what she says. She goes, these men are servants of the most high God who are telling you the way to be saved, which is good. It was true. She kept this up for many days. And finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. At that moment, spirit left her. Now, just because someone is annoying you doesn't mean that they're possessed by a naval spirit. , Okay? Otherwise, everyone in Costco would need an exorcism, right? , that's not, that's not the moral of the story. See, this girl was saying the right thing, but Paul could tell something else was animating those words. Um, the gift of distinguishing between spirits is a capacity to know what's what's happening in the spiritual realm. And this is what I love. This is what's so important about this because the gift of distinguishing between spirits, it's the gift of reality. That's what it is. This is the gift of reality. I like to say this is a gift of knowing what's what. Okay? If you want a really, you know, easy definition, what is this? It's the gift of knowing what is what. And so this is so crucial for understanding issues of sin and addiction, of sickness, and even mental health within the church. It's no use to prescribe an Advil to somebody if there's something more devious happening. Likewise, you don't wanna blame Satan when someone's just sort of dumb, right? You don't wanna do that. You wanna understand the root what is actually going on. You know, it's common for people unknowingly or or knowingly to misattribute things to the Holy Spirit. They're actually sourced from the human spirit. And we will dress up our own preferences, our own desires with religious pretext. It's the God told me to attitude. I remember when I was a young adult, um, and I'm not a young adult anymore, because if I told you how I hurt my knee, you'd realize that's an old man injury. But when I was a young adult, I had, uh, someone come up to me and say, God told me that I was gonna marry you. And I said, well, that's crazy'cause God told me you're insane . And so you just run outta there and it's like God told me to, right? It's like, no, no, that's you. Um, other times we attribute things to unholy spirits that are actually sourced from the Holy Spirit, or sorry, from the human spirit. And so we attribute work to Satan, which actually it's a work from you. You know, the devil doesn't make you watch pornography. The devil doesn't make you emotionally or physically cheat on your spouse, right? The devil doesn't make you, um, yell at your kids. The devil doesn't make you, uh, key, your ex-boyfriend's car. The devil doesn't make you use your roommate's. You know, Netflix credentials when they've moved out three years ago, right? That's you, that's all you, the devil contempt you. But the devil does not control you. That's you. So Paul tells us that not everybody has the gift of distinguishing, uh, distinguishing between spirits, but he does command us to eagerly desire this gift in our own life. And so, in prayer, I wanna implore you, encourage you, ask God for this gift. Imagine being able to decide what's what, to be able know what's really going on in your marriage, in that conflict with your boss or a friend. What's going on in your kids' life at school. Imagine being able to sit across from a friend and they're telling you their story, and you could be able to see what's real, what's really going on. Imagine what a blessing that would be. And then in gentleness and love, be able to bring someone into reality. Man, that what, what a wonderful thing. So though, although not everybody permanently has this gift to be able to intuitively decide and discern the different, uh, spirits that are working in any given situation, we are again commanded in scripture to test the spirits. Every believer has a certain capacity to know the origin of a spirit. Uh, first John, chapter four is a wonderful place to go to learn more about this. And so, we'll, we'll touch on it briefly. This is what John says. He says, do not believe every spirit, because not every spirit is a good spirit. Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. It's like, well, how do you do that? How do you test the spirits? I wanna give you three tests, three ways that you are gonna be able to tell where the spirit is sourced from. And when the Bible talks about testing spirits, it's talking about that animating unseen force that drives ideas or events or interactions that you have. Now, most often, it's referred to discerning what's happening with the teaching about God. So let's say you're a Gen Z and you're getting most of your teaching off of TikTok. Listen, it's not all bad, but some of it is bad. And so you're gonna have to be able to discern the spirits. You have to test what's going on there, okay? You have to, it's a, it's a sort of chew the meat spit of the bones type idea. But this also is useful when discerning our own thoughts, our own interaction with others, or maybe what's behind a new law or a new bill, or maybe an idea that you hear online or in school. This is what it means when we're talking about testing the spirits. So the first test, most important test the Jesus test, the Jesus test. John continues in, in one. John four says this, this is how you recognize the spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist does a particular teaching confess that Jesus has come, he's both fully human, fully divine, that he died, that he rose again, that he ascended to heaven, is given all authority. And that one day he'll come back to judge living in a dead if no red flag, red flag. Many religions deny the divinity of Jesus Judaism, Jehovah's witness Mormonism Islam, atheism, they deny who Jesus is. Uh, many religions deny the humanity of Jesus, new ageism, Hinduism. And so the question that you have to ask is, does this exalt Jesus? Because a spirit from God exalts Jesus, a false spirit distorts who Jesus is. That's the first test, the Jesus test. The second test is the Bible test. Second Timothy says this, all scripture is God breathed all of it. And it's useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness so that the servant of God, you, the you may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So all scripture, every book, every chapter, every paragraph, every sentence, every letter Paul tells us in Galatians one, eight, that even if an angel were to come and teach something different than this, then that wouldn't be a spirit from God. So it's the Bible test. The questions asked is, does this align with the word of God? Because a spirit from God aligns with the word of God. A false spirit twists God's word. So we got the Jesus test, the Bible test. And lastly, the fruit test. Jesus says this, watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they're ferocious wolves by their fruit, you'll recognize them. A spirit from God produces godly character, right? We know this in Galatians that the fruit of the spirit is love. It's joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. A fruit of a false spirit produces con, uh, confusion and division and sin. So the question to ask is, well, what fruit does this produce?'cause a spirit from God produces godly virtue. A false spirit produces ungodly virtue to close. Today, I want to, I want you to internalize this. It's been a lot of teaching. Um, but I want you to internalize this for yourself. And the question that I wanted to ask you is simply this. What spirits are you allowing to shape your life? What spirits are you allowing to shape your life? What unseen forces are influencing you in your words and your thoughts, your outlook, your decisions? What voices are loudest in your life? Who are you letting in to speak into your life? What's the greatest influence on your decision making? Is it Jesus or is it something else? Is there a pattern of sin or apathy in your life that you're, that you're turning a blind eye to? Are you knowingly or unknowingly living with bitterness or unforgiveness that you're not dealing with? Is there a lie from the enemy that you believe about yourself? Are you facing a situation right now with fear instead of faith? What are you filling your time with? What are you filling your mind with? How often are you in God's word? How often are you on your knees in prayer? What spirits are you allowing to shape your life? I wanna end by reading one more passage again from one John four. That's so beautiful, so helpful, so wonderful. And I really want you to remember this as you leave today. And it says this, the one who is in you is greater than the one who's in the world. He who is in you. The Holy Spirit is greater than any other force on the planet that could try to derail or destroy your life. And he lives within you and he loves you, and he wants to guide you and protect you. He wants to empower you. He wants to teach you how to pray. And that spirit who is in you, is greater than the enemy of your soul who wants to kill all that God has in your life. He who is in you is greater than your own human spirit that can be swayed by sinful desires. He's greater than all of that. And so you have a decision because the overall witness of the New Testament is that you would make a decision to live a life and choose righteousness and faithfulness, empowered by God's spirit. That's your choice. So allow the Holy Spirit to shape your life. Everything, every aspect, nothing off the table, your family, your mind, your emotions, your decisions, your relationships, your money, your sex life, everything. Let's pray. God, I thank you for the clarity of your word that unveils to us reality at its steepest level. Lord, we recognize that we are frail and that we are weak, and that there are spirits other than the Holy Spirit that can dominate our life. And Lord, this is just a moment where we confess that we are sorry, but also a moment where we invite the Holy Spirit to fill us in a fresh way. Lord, would you fill us again? Would you pour your yourself into our heart, the love of God into our heart, that we would know what's really real? Lord, for those who are facing an issue and they're filled with fear in their life, God, I pray that you would show them that you are with them, that you would influence that thinking, God, for those who are believing a lie about themselves or their family or their future, Lord, they're being influenced by the evil one. God, I pray that you would break through for all those who desire to walk in truth in reality, that the Holy Spirit would come and unveil what is real, that they're loved, that you have a hope and a future for them. That all those who give their life to Jesus and live their life to Jesus with will have abundant life in him. So God, I pray that we would be a church that knows what is what Lord, in our own lives, within the church and beyond God, I pray that we would eagerly desire this gift so that we can understand reality in its clearest way. So we thank you for this gift. We thank you that you are with our church. We thank you that you have not left us on our own, and we thank you that he who is in us, the Holy Spirit is greater than any other spirit, including our own. We pray this in your name, amen. Amen. If you're here today and as we talk about the Holy Spirit and we talk about Jesus and you're like, what's that? I want that. We would love to help you make that decision and take that next step, uh, on the screen or in the seat back is, uh, a QR code you can scan to take a next step in that. We're also gonna have some people who would love to pray with you and hear your story if you're up for that. Um, additionally, we've been asking you each week to fill out a spiritual gift, gift assessment. If you haven't done that, I wanted you to do that. You know, take these with a grain of salt. They're very helpful. They point us in the right direction. But if your results come back as a prophet, don't put that on your Instagram bio, okay. Immediately. But it does point you in the right direction. Thank you so much for being a church on this spring forward Sunday. We'll see you next week.