The Resolve of a Spirit-Filled Teacher

Dr. Eric Mason: Stand with me. Ephesians 5:15–20, in this brief time, and I'll be out of your way. I'll read it from the ESV version:

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery [or dissipation], but be filled [somebody say "be filled"] with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I would like to talk about, from this text this morning, "The Resolve of a Spirit-filled Teacher."

Father, again, Your power is necessary—oil from heaven is necessary—and You have to be present in order for this to work. So God, would You move and give us clarity as You take us and shape us and continue Your great work?

I'm praying for Your great work in the lives of these great women of God, who are here waiting for You and continuing to wait to see You continue to work through their lives and ministries. Lord God, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O God, our Strength and our Redeemer, in whom we trust.

In Jesus' mighty name we pray. And everybody who agrees with that said, "Amen." You may be seated.

It's interesting that we live in a world that is sort of two-sided in many ways. We live in a world where people aren't sure of anything, and on the other side of it, if they're sure about anything, they're sure about the wrong things. In a reality, we're going to continue to see the pervasive nature of the brokenness of man's (sort of) attempts to make sense of God's world, because they're only being engaged by natural revelation—in other words, what they can see.

But for the believer, we are influenced by special revelation. Somebody say "special revelation." Special revelation is different than natural revelation. Natural revelation is something that you can come upon just by looking outside, based on Romans 1. You can look outside and make deductions based on senses and science.

However, special revelation encompasses the seen and unseen. So the Bible teacher must encompass the comprehensive depth of everything that God provides to reveal Himself. The more you walk with God, the more resolves you come to, the more your values are shaped.

Ezekiel said in Ezekiel 36:25–27 that when you trust Jesus as Savior, God will give you a new heart. In the Hebrew mindset, giving you a new heart means a change of value system, a change of affections, and your will being taken out of bondage—a change of mind.

You begin to have values that are transformed and renewed; you have the capacity for that. Those values are values that come from heaven. However, there have to be affections that actually like the mindset or value system that God has given you.

Before Christ, you weren't able to choose; now in Christ you are able to choose right from wrong. What happens is, is in order for your will to be practically walked-out well and for your affections to be properly nurtured, you have to have your mind changed, have your value system usurped with a brand-spanking new value system from the living God.

So we come to the book of Ephesians, which is the theologue book of the New Testament. We have the gospel globetrotter himself, Paul, communicating some powerful information to help us to recognize and understand some deep things.

One of the things that I like about Paul's writing is his theology comes out with intimacy. In his theology coming out with intimacy, he's challenging a church whose natural tendency is to have theological astuteness without practical or effectual desires for the living God, as we see in Revelation 2:1–7.

Here in Ephesians 1, we see him laying out the godhead, and he shows the fact that God the Father, He is the One that chooses us, the Son saves us and the Spirit seals us. In other words, the Father selects, the Son saves, and the Spirit seals. I'm so happy about that!

Then the rest of the chapter lays out that fact that He wants them to have their minds shaped and illumined to have the mystery of this reality practically and continuously unveiled to them.

Then chapter 2, in the first part, he tells them, "You were dead in [your] trespasses and sins" (v. 1). All of us were jacked up to work from the floor up, not looking for God. God wasn't lost, we were—and He had to come get us. Then in the latter part of the chapter he says, "By grace were you saved by faith. It's not that of works. It's the gift of God, that no one can 'big' themselves up and boast."

They can't stick out their chest; they can't say they did anything, because it takes God to come to God. Amen, somebody?

So then, in chapter 3, he begins to get fly with it. You know what I'm saying? He gets real, real fly with it. He begins to get excited about the unveiling of the mystery of the Church. He begins to talk about that, the Church—men and women—were anointed and brought into existence by the death of Christ in order to proclaim the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers that are seen and unseen. That's a powerful, powerful moment!

Now, Paul was a worshiper. In other words, he wasn't somebody that could hear some weighty truth and just sit down and act like nothing was happening. So in the latter part of the chapter, in about verse 20, he takes a praise break. I believe, as he's under the unction of the Holy Spirit, my man takes a praise break. And he begins to dance in the Spirit, like David did, because he was extremely excited.

How do I know he danced? Because he says something parenthetically, between that. He says, "Now to Him . . ." He says, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think," (not "can" or "may," but what you actually ask or think) "according to the power at work within us." So he has a doxology there.

He begins to praise God for all of His work in the gospel. So in chapters 1–3, we see orthodoxy, but then he transitions in chapters 4–6 to go through "orthopraxy." In other words, in chapters 1–3 he does doctrine; in chapters 4–6 he does duty.

So now we get into the duty section, and we look at chapter 5 and we see something beautiful! We see Paul talking about the work of the Holy Spirit in the community of faith. As he's talking about this reality, we see some things that are precursors that I think are good principles—great principles—for teachers to have. There are several resolves, I would say, that Paul talks about.

Resolve number 1 for a teacher: You must resolve that you will live a life of spiritual discernment. Look at what he says: "Look carefully then how you walk." This is great right here, because when Paul says, "Look carefully," he's not talking about the type of look we were talking about earlier—a natural look.

He's talking about a perceptive look in which he's able to see beyond the natural. He's able to see beyond the things we're normally attracted to. Some of you, when you're attracted to someone, you're attracted to their appearance . . . and so you're like, "Wow! He's fine!" Right? [laughter]

Listen, this is just an illustration. But see, you can't let fine-ness get in the way of faithfulness. Oh, y'all aren't gonna talk back to me—it's okay. [laughter] In other words, when you live a life of perceptive looking, you don't let a six-pack get in the way of a soul. Okay. [laughter]

And so when Paul looks at this and he's helping us to be nurtured in deeper perception, he says, "Look, you're going to have to look carefully." The word "carefully" is interesting. "Carefully" means to look at something based on where it actually is, like we talked about in the Psalms last night.

So when you look at something carefully, here, Paul is calling the people to be vigilant and look at things accurately, not inaccurately. In other words, he wants them to look at things in the way they actually are, not in the way they want or perceive them to be. In other words, spiritual discernment.

In order to teach God's Word, in order to help people, there has to be deep levels of discernment that nurtures in the cores of your life, to help to you see beyond the natural. Now, he says to look carefully at one particular thing. It's interesting that he's not pushing this outwardly—he calls it inwardly.

Look at what he says: "Look carefully how you walk." "Walk" in the New Testament is a term of behavior. Now remember what we said in the beginning: You've got to have your mind changed. The gospel changes your mind; it changes your affections. but guess what it also changes? Your walk!

So when you're looking carefully about how you walk, you're basing it off of God's standards. That why in 2 Peter 1 it says add to your faith add moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control. Why in the world would he say moral excellence first? Because it's a commitment to a standard, and when he goes to knowledge, he's talking about biblical knowledge that informs the standard. Then self-control is the practice of your will being taken out of bondage, so you can walk in obedience. But it comes from, of course, introspection.

We see that Paul used this word "walk" several times in Ephesians 2:2, Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 4:1, Ephesians 4:17, Ephesians 5:2, Ephesians 5:8, and Ephesians 5:15, right here.

This is helpful, because now you see he wants them to have truth that impacts their practical behavior. Let's keep walking through this. He says, "Now, the way I want you to behave, I want you to behave in one particular way. I want you to walk—not as unwise"—in other words, "unwise" here means "lacking spiritual discernment."

All of us need to grow and develop in this area of having discernment about things, based on this reality. Now, how do you get spiritual discernment? Hebrews 5 lets us know greatly how you get spiritual discernment. You grow spiritually.

In other words, when you grow, you're able to tell good from evil. See, when you're young in the faith and you're young in the head, it's like my mama used to say. When I would say something stupid, my mama would say, "Baby—you just young in the head, baby." [laughter] Right?

And so what happens as you grow spiritually, is you don't make the same dumb mistakes anymore. Amen! Paul says, in walking in spiritual discernment, you walk as one not unwise but as wise. Somebody say "wise." "Wise" here is the Greek word sophia. Somebody say "sophia."

I love this word. It's a powerful word. It borrows its definitive points from the Old Testament—or Law, Prophets, and Writings. The word in the Old Testament for wisdom that's mostly used in Proverbs is another hokh word, remember like last night? Says, chokmah. Yeah—y'all got it! You all know a little bit of Hebrew now! Now you're dangerous!

But literally it means to apply what you know, skillfully. I love that! To apply what you know, skillfully. Now, this is important in the realm of spiritual discernment, because a teacher should be becoming more skillful and self-disciplined as they grow spiritually.

That's why Paul says, "Watch how you walk." Look carefully how you walk, not as stupid people, but as skillful, wise people who apply what they know. Some statistics say that most Christians only live ten percent of what they know. So if you don't know much already [laughter] and you're only living ten percent of that, you've got some catching up to do.

You've got to live a life of spiritual discernment.

Number 2, if you're going to have a godly resolve in the power of the Spirit as a teacher, resolve that you will maximize every season that the Lord gives you. Look at the text ladies, in Ephesians 5:16, "making the best use of the time." Not "a" time but "the" time. Look at it.

As Paul says that, he goes right next and says, "because the days are evil." It's interesting, "the best use of time" is one word in the original. Some of your translations translate it "redeemed." "Redeemed" means to buy back something.

Let me see if I can make it real real with you. Some of us were some wild people before we trusted Christ. I heard about one "amen," but that's okay. Thank you to the person that was real, to my right. I'm not even going to look at you. [laughter] But some of us were wild. We used time in futility. We were prideful, whoremongers, whilin' out, drunkards, acting a plumb nitwit.

But when Christ came and got you, time shifted. Even though time still existed, the way time was used changed drastically! Because when Christ changes you, it opens your eyes to things that you've never seen. The gospel just opens your eyes differently.

God says, "Now that you belong to Me, you need to be using time differently than you used to use it." That means that you don't need to see—no matter what season you're in, ladies—never see anything as mundane and useless. Some of you are in some seasons of life right now where you're frustrated about where you are.

Let me tell you something—God doesn't waste a moment! But we do. God is calling you in what you do as mundane. See, you've got to stop the comparison ministry. Some of you just compare everything. You base your value in Christ on how God is doing something in somebody else's life. If you're not in the season that they're in yet, you figure you're useless until you get there.

God is saying to you, "No! Every moment of your life, when you're in Me—I value you just as much as I value the person on the platform. I value you, even though you're not able to teach the Bible study publicly. You can bring some young ladies over to your house and fix some bacon and some biscuits, tell 'em to fold some clothes and ask them about the guy they're dating. And you can begin jammin' them up, mixin' some biscuits. Like, "That boy ain't no good. Look at how he's talkin' to you! Go get that Bible over there on the counter. Get my Bible, right there—come on over here. Now sit down on the school, finish foldin' them clothes—come here." [laughter]

Now, she's over there folding the clothes—and she breaks down. That's the cry when you know the Lord is moving—that cry—that one, right there.

There may be somebody in the church who is doing a great job and people are drawn to them. Don't worry about that! Pray for them and encourage them, but take the moments and opportunities to minister to people in the church that God draws to you. It may only be two, but you pour the depths of everything that the good Lord gives to you into their lives.

You may be changing diapers, you may be cleaning cupboards . . . I'm not reducing womanhood to that, but I'm just saying, you may be in a mundane space of frustration, but don't let that make you miss that God has something for you right now.

You may be an older sister and feel like you're useless. "There's no use for me." The devil is a liar! You are still useful! God will use you until . . . The Bible says that Paul was on his back porch . . . it does. What does it say in Acts 28? "Over here, chillin' on the back porch, makin' disciples, openin' up the parsonage, dropping weight on dudes, in chains." [laughter]

Paul wrote this while he was locked up! If Paul could write landmark letters in a dungeon, chained to a guard, what's your excuse? Listen! Redeem the time!

Jesus said in a parable, very convicting, in Luke 16, "The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light" (v. 8). In other words, the world maximizes the world for its benefit better than the people of God maximize His world for His benefit.

I look at all of the different things that people maximize and utilize . . . their sphere of influence to its edges. You can talk bad about Oprah or whoever, and we can name different people—P. Diddy and Steve Jobs and all of these different people that are doing things to maximize the edges of the world system (and I'm not doggin' 'em) for their ends, creating iTunes and creating TV companies and creating all these different things. And they maximize, and all we do is dog 'em.

Stop looking at them and begin saying, "God, how do You want to use me? How do want to You maximize life through me? How do You want to glorify Yourself through me? How do You want to lift Your name up through me?" Maximize it, ladies! Maximize every single crack and crevice that the King gives you!

God has given you more opportunity than you know, but you have to look carefully and perceptively and creatively at maximizing. Some of you have testimonies that you don't tell nobody about, but some of your ministry is in your testimony. God wants to use some of you in your brokenness that you went through to help you help somebody else through it. Maximize the times, for the days are evil.

Second Timothy 3 says it's only going to get worse! But as it gets worse, our witness should get better. So Paul tells us and calls us to redeem the times, buy back times. Reverse how time is used because the days are absolutely, unadulteratedly, evil.

So we don't look at any of our lives as mundane. We look at places and opportunities, by the greatness of God, to be able to maximize every single season that the Lord gives us. Utilize them and grab others to be a part of those times. Then if God has given you a lot, make sure you don't squander it.

God has given you a lot, and "to whom much is given, of him much is required." Praise God for you, but don't let yourself squander the season because you have much. Be a good steward of all the great things God has given you!

Last point, and I'm outta your way. Number 3: Resolve that the Lord will be the strongest influence in your life. Look at what Paul says: "Therefore do not be foolish, but understand [comprehend] what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17)

As he begins to help them to develop a resolve, one of the great things that you see in this resolve is that a maturing teacher—a maturing believer—is always trying to be on the pulse of what God is up to for their life. And that's not merely for their life, but for the lives of those around them.

God has called you not to be a puddle but to be a pipeline. And as He's called you to be a pipeline, He wants you to be a conduit for His blessing. So you want to have a sense in which you know what the will of God is.

I was reading Joshua, and Joshua had some people come to him from Gibeon. They didn't want the children of Israel to destroy them, so they came up them with all these gifts and trinkets. Joshua asked them, "Where are you from?" And they said, "We're from a faraway land."

Then they said, "Make a covenant with us." They didn't want to get killed; they knew the Lord was coming through there like a hurricane, so they said, "We're from somewhere else. We don't even know about this land. We just heard what the good Lord is doing through y'all!"

The Israelites were so mesmerized by the trinkets. The text says something that always challenges my heart. It says, they "did not ask counsel from the LORD" (Josh. 9:14). You've got to recognize something, that in every season you've got to make sure that you seek the counsel of the Lord so that you can know what His actual will is in this particular situation. That you're not just being merely creative and winging it, because, "Many are the plans of a man's heart, but the Lord orders his steps," (Prov. 16:9 paraphrased). So God wants to order your steps in showing you what His will is. Which we'll see how that's done, because we'll see how the Spirit does that in a second. He sets it up by saying, "Don't be foolish."

Foolish means to not seek God but just see an opportunity and want to jump on it. But every opportunity isn't a God-opportunity. He says, "Understand what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:17). That means that you're able to discern—not looking on the outward, but inward—what God's will is, based on biblical standards. Are you still trekkin' with me?

Now check out what he says next. It just sort of seems out of place here: "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). Let's lay this out a bit. The word for being filled with the Spirit is pleroo, which could be translated in several ways.

It could say "be being filled by means of the Spirit." "Be being filled" means that a filling of the Spirit isn't something that happens at one point in time. Because if you look at the book of Acts, you see that Paul and Peter were filled with the Spirit on two different occasions.

When you look in Acts 2, you see Peter being filled with the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, but then in chapter 4, Scripture says that Peter, when he got before the leaders of Judah, he got filled again with the Spirit at that particular moment.

You see, Paul got filled with the Spirit in Acts 9, but when he looked at the person who kept talking from this demon, Scripture says at that moment he was filled with the Spirit and began to speak to the spirit that was in that person. In other words, "be being filled with the Spirit" means that you live a lifestyle of filling, that God has to fill you over and over and over again.

What does that mean? It means, "Listen"—Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, takes control of you. If we would allow ourselves to be filled with the Spirit (because it's in a passive—you don't fill yourself with the Spirit; the Spirit fills you), there's an atmosphere (we'll see in a second) that you can create that is a conduit for the Spirit filling you over and over and over again.

Paul says, "Be being filled by means of the Spirit." Now, this is interesting. The Spirit is the means (listen!) by which you're filled. He's not actually who you're filled with. Y'all are looking at me funny! In Ephesians 3:19, Paul says a prayer. He says, that you may "know the love of Christ . . . [and] be filled with all the fullness of God." So the Spirit is the means by which you're not only filled with the Spirit, but you're filled with the triune God.

You're under the control, when you're filled with the Spirit by means of the Spirit, you're filled with God the Father who seeks you out, the Son who saves you, and the Spirit who seals you. You get under the control of the Godhead. It's just like in Colossians 1, where the Bible says the fullness of Deity was pleased to dwell in Jesus in bodily form.

So the presence of Jesus Christ gives the grace and the power. We're not Jesus Christs, we're not little deities. However, we need the control of the Spirit in our life and in our ministry to help this thing go forward, or nothing—absolutely—will happen.

Now watch what Paul says. He says, "Be being filled with the Spirit," and as he talks about being filled with the Spirit . . . pleroo has two or three ideas of what this looks like. Number 1, domination. Somebody say, "domination." Being filled with the Spirit means that the Spirit dominates your life.

What we mean here is that the Spirit isn't the "punk" of the Trinity. Now why do I say that? Because some people, if you watch certain programs, think that they can tell the Holy Ghost what to do. "Holy Ghost, come over here, heal this person. Holy Spirit, come here and do this, that, and the third."

The Holy Spirit is God! He is Lord! Ask Ananias and Sapphira. Peter said, "You ain't lied to me. You can lie to me all you want. You lied to the Ghost!" And Ananias and Sapphira went to sleep.

Paul, in Acts 16, said the Spirit stopped them from going to Asia. And so the Holy Spirit is Lord. The Lordship of Jesus Christ is mediated through the Lordship of the Spirit in your life, by telling you what to do.

Have you ever had the Holy Ghost lead you to do something, and you start moving away from doing it, and you just felt this uneasiness in you—that you should have listened to—but you kept going the other direction because you were not looking carefully, you were looking with your physical eyes, not your spiritual eyes? You went on ahead and did it, and you got the tore-up ministry in your heart, where the Holy Ghost is boxing you. And then you finally went the way that the Holy Ghost told you to, and when you finally went the way that the Holy Ghost told you to, then you were like, "I'm so glad for the peace of God that passes all understanding, because I went the right direction this time!"

This is how you know that you're being led by the Holy Spirit. If it's something, in principle, that's in the Bible that you're not violating by moving that direction, and if it's something weird outside of you, that you wouldn't think to do yourself, you're being led by the Spirit. [laughter] How do you know you're being Holy Spirit led? If you would have thought of it, you would think, I can't do that! That's the Holy Spirit! That's Him!

He's always going to tell you something that makes your flesh feel uncomfortable. Heh heh. Always. He loves fleshly discomfort—He smiles at that. He's like, "Good! That means death is taking place, mortification is taking place." So we see here, the Spirit does domination.

Secondly, this idea of pleroo or this idea of what God does through the Spirit, is not only that, but it's pressure. Somebody say, "Pressure." The word was pleroo used by sailors who would put up their sails and would depend on rua pneuma to blow them (wind) to blow them in the direction they were supposed to go.

They knew that they couldn't go anywhere on their ship unless they put their sail up. This euphemistically points to being a believer, where you have to learn how to put your sail up. And when the Spirit calls you to put your sail up, you can't direct the wind where you want it to go.

The Holy Ghost puts pressure on the sail of your soul to sail you places that you would never go. In other words, He will take you where "no man has boldly gone before." [laughter] That's the power of the Spirit!

He will lead you, relationally, to people you would have never discipled. Let me tell you something . . . some people you're going to disciple are people you never wanted to disciple, because they get on your nerves! [laughter] And guess what? Discipleship isn't just for the person He sails you to. He's discipling you through you staying there and discipling them.

And so, He'll sail you in different places as you put your sail up and give you the opportunity to be worked on and have surgery done on you as He does surgery on the person that you are called to minister to. So He'll sail you to different opportunities. That's what the filling of the Spirit does. He just moves and pushes you.

I remember, I told the Lord, when I got called to ministry, what I wasn't going to do! [laughter] I said, "God, now, let's just put some parameters around this calling thing, 'kay? [laughter] I'm not going to be a senior pastor of a church—that's number one. I've seen what they go through! Number two, I don't want to plant a church. Number three, I don't want to plant in the inner city or go to the inner city and do any type of ministry there."

"I grew up there, we grew up and got our education to get out. Boom! Last, but not least, God, when I get married, I'm not washing any more dishes." [laughter] "Now, God, whatever You want to do outside of that, do Your thing."

And I can see God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit giggling on the throne. They said, "He doesn't know what we predestined for him, does he?" [laughter] And God had to break my hands open so that I would put up my sail, so that He could sail me toward the place where He had called for me.

And many of you need God to break your hands in some areas, but I would suggest you don't have to do that. Just do like this, aight. Just go ahead and open up your hands and let Him sail you where He wants you to go.

Last but not least, we see that this idea of the filling of the Spirit points to domination. We see it points to pressure. But Number 3, it also points to permeation. Somebody say "permeation." Yeah, this is the one right here. Permeation points to the Spirit getting into every area of your life.

Remember last night we talked about opening different doors in your life. Well, the more doors in your life that you open, the more things in your life the Spirit can fill. So, permeation, if I can illustrate that . . . you know, today, now, I like Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice, non-concentrated, you know, I like that. We can afford it; it's expensive, like seven dollars, but I like it now, you know, like fresh-squeezed limeade and all that—I'm addicted to those things.

But back in the day, when the house was a little tight (I know some of y'all won't know what I'm talking about, but some of you all will) Kool-Aid was the ministry of the house. [laughter] Now I don't know if any of guys remember, but I was a Kool-Aid connoisseur, you know what I'm saying?

When you make Kool-Aid, you get a clear alabaster and put water in that mug and just fill it up, and then you take (my favorite was red Kool-Aid) the package, zip the top off, and take a sniff. I'd let it hit my head a little bit, and "Wow!" Then I would dump the powder into the jug, and the jug would turn from a clear color and it would be saturated with red, everywhere.

Because, now that the Kool-Aid has gotten down into the water, it now permeates every single area of that alabaster. That's what the work of the Spirit does, when He permeates every single area of your life. He comes in, and He pours Himself into you. As He's pouring Himself into you, He begins to get into every area and crack and crevice of your life.

But you can't leave the Kool-Aid there, family. You've gotta put some sugar in it! [laughter] Now, putting sugar in Kool-Aid is an art! You never put sugar in cold water—never. You heat up the Kool-Aid to put the sugar inside of it, so that it won't be gritty and grimy and just settle into one place.

What you do was you heat up the Kool-Aid, so that the sugar can get into the molecular structure of the water and the Kool-Aid. It grabs the Kool-Aid, and it grabs the water molecules and the sugar just goes like this and gets all together with thing, and man! It's a blessed mix!

Why was it a blessed mix? Because heat was applied to it, and once heat is applied to it the sugar was able to dissolve smoothly into the mixture. All I'm trying to tell you right now is there are some ways in which the Spirit wants to work and fill your life. But it's not going to happen until your life is heated up! He wants to heat up your life! [applause]

How do we get filled with the Spirit? Then I promise, I'm outta your way. [laughter] Right here, this is weird! He says, "Addressing," or "Exhorting" (Colossians 3 says "teaching"—this is where we get the teaching component). "Teaching one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

How do you get filled with the Spirit, as a teacher? Worship. Worship! Teachers worship, and the worship teaches. That's what the text is teaching us, that is creating an atmosphere in your life of Holy Spirit movement through worship. I like the fact that this points to being in community.

It points to the fact that teachers don't only need to be in the gathering when they are teaching. Oh, y'all are quiet on that part. It means that you have to be somewhere where everybody else is getting in with the Lord, and what happens in that open, gaping opportunity is the Spirit—at some point—fills you and takes absolute control to dominate, to permeate, and to put pressure on you, to send you where you're supposed to go.

That means that we, as teachers, have to be worshipers. We have to have music that points us there, that points us to the Deity of Christ, that points us to the gospel of God, that points us to the attributes. And in that atmosphere and in that movement, that's where the resolve takes place, that's where the depth takes place, that's where the strength takes place, that's where the passion for God takes place, that's where the change takes place. It's not just for our charismatic brothers and sisters, it's for every one of us to open our mouths and give God the fruit of our lips! [applause]

One last illustration, and I'm out the way. I went to Houston, Texas, and you know, I'm an East Coast boy at heart; I'm from Washington, D.C. When I went to Houston, we were driving in Houston; me and my wife were going on 45. And I saw these, like, things out there, these oil things, and they were going like this . . .

I was like, "What is this right here? I've only seen this on cartoons." [laughter] But I saw the things just going like this. I said, "What is that doing?" The guy said, "Oh, that's real simple. It's bowing." I said, "What do you mean, 'It's bowing'?"

He said, "The oil is under there, but it keeps on bowing because that invokes the pressure of the oil—the richness of that crude oil—to come up. It doesn't stop bowing until the oil comes up. And so, all it does is it keeps going up and down, up and down, until the oil comes up."

Some of you as teachers need to learn how to get on your knees. And one of the things you need to learn how to do is bow up and down in worship to the living God. He may not come when you want Him, but He'll come right on time. The Holy Ghost can't ignore the power of a worshiper. And at some point in time, during the enjoyment as you admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, all of a sudden an eruption in the Spirit will take place, and there will be transformation like you've never, ever, ever seen before!

Some of y'all ain't got it yet, but some of you all need to get in the position. I wish I had about two or three women that were filled with the Spirit and committed to the filling of the Spirit and would get on their feet and say, "God, I want everything You have for me! I want You to dominate me, I want You to permeate me, I want You to put pressure on me. God, I want to bow before You. I want to worship before You! I want to live before You, and I'm waiting for the oil to come!"