Breaking Intimidation

If you haven't walked in the fear of God, you can make the change today. Say this is my last time I get to speak with you. I'm getting on a plane tonight and heading to Australia. Your — Apostle Theo was so gracious to release me. I'll be speaking there to quite a number of people. And he just said, John, I really want you in front of those people. And so I just want to thank you again for your humility, your kindness, your love for Lisa and I. Oh, Theo and Bev, we love you guys so much. I called my wife last night at midnight, and I preached to her for a half an hour, everything he was preaching. I said, Lisa, I am so glad I came here. I came — God is ministering to me so much through Pastor Theo. I am just — I'm so stirred up. I was praying in tongues. I even said to Jacob this morning, I don't want to have breakfast too early. I want to pray more. I want to pray in tongues. I want to listen to the Holy Spirit. And I do that every morning on the tennis courts at five in the — or five to six in the morning at my house. But he — my heart's so stirred by your pastor. Pastor Jacob, that message that you just preached should be heard by every single Christian on the planet. Oh, my goodness. And I want to make a statement. I hope you heard what he said. Even when he heard the audible voice of God, he had to go to the person in authority in his life. You know, it's interesting.

I told you about how we have been able to give away over 73 million resources all over the world yesterday. I shared that with you. What I didn't share with you, that started in 2010. That in 2001, I tried to give 100,000 books to pastors in China, in the underground church, Bay to Satan and Heart Ablaze. And I spent two entire days writing to our partners what I believe is the best appeal letter that I had ever written in my life. We sent it out and hardly anybody responded. They already started printing the books. It almost broke our ministry. I then called and said, please don't print them. They said it's — they've already done it. And one of the printers in China loved it so much, he's willing to give his entire month's salary. I went back to Lisa. We both decided, let's just go for it. But boy, did God teach me a lesson. I didn't have that word. You know, Pastor Theo emphasizes over and over about hearing from God and then confirming it with those that God has put in your life, as Pastor Jacob said. I have a board that my board will fly in early to have dinner with my sons. And they'll say, we want to know what's really going on between John and Lisa. Not that anything was going wrong. They said, we just want to make sure we're not missing anything. Because we've given them open door to correct us. They actually said to Lisa and I one time, they said, we want you to sharpen up. We know you've got a strong marriage, we want to sharpen it up. And we don't want you to go to a marriage counselor for two days.

Here's the person we want you to go to. And I'm telling you, my wife says it all the time, John Bevere's my favorite husband. And I said, what do you mean by that? She said, John Bevere 2.0, the man after we met with the marriage counselor for two days. And I get it now. I wouldn't have happened had I not had a board who cared enough about me to get in my face. That's exactly what he's talking about. He's scared of his pastor, I know him. His name is Jim. And I'm telling you something, he should be. Because this man is the biggest loving man I've ever seen. But you do something, let me tell you, he's like the Apostle Paul. Do you want me to come with boldness, with correction, or do you want me to come as a gentle? You decide. Amen? Can you say amen to that? That's not my notes. I didn't plan on saying it, but I realized what I ministered on yesterday, it has to have a balance. You know, it's very hard for us to get up here and we've just got a few sessions to be able to preach the whole Bible. And I do realize there's always balances. And I want to make sure before I continue with what I was sharing yesterday, that I bring the balance. Can you say amen to that? Amen? Before I begin, I want to share something with you. Get your iPhones out, get your Androids out. Remember the app that I shared with you yesterday?

It's the number one app in the world. It's got 130 languages on it. YouTube's number six at 80 languages. It's had millions and millions of people download it. We had to make the decision. Are we going to give away everything that God has entrusted to us for the past 35 years? Are we going to give it away? And we decided to do it. God said, if you take care of my church, I'll take care of you. And so we have put over $20 million in this app. If you could put up the, here is the app. It's called Messenger X. It's on the Apple platform at the App Store. It's on Google Play if you've got an Android. Let me say this. I want to say this. It's absolutely free. Now, but I'm going to ask you something. You know, let me just take you back to my life before Messenger X. Here's a $20 million app that's paid for. It used to be when my friends had a birthday, I'd get them a shirt. The shirt was worn out after a year or two. I'd get them a dozen golf balls, they'd lose that in a month. I've never in my life been able to give my friends a $20 million gift. So all I ask that you do is you share it with everyone. We realize that, Messenger, we're called alongside you pastors to help you strengthen your church. We realize God has given us foundational messages that make the local church strong. I told my team a few years ago, God will only bless traveling ministries that bless the local New Testament church.

And it was like the Holy Spirit flipped the switch and our ministry exploded. And I realized experientially right there how much Jesus loves his local church. And so this is a tool. We have pastors in America. The people get saved. And I'm talking about massive churches. They bring them in the room, get them filled with the Holy Spirit, and they said, take out your phones and download this app. OK, we have churches, I've been told, that are doing this. I've had pastors tell me themselves. So this is a gift, but I'm asking freely. You receive, freely give. OK, help people. Because Jesus said, make disciples of all nations. There are tons of courses on this app. As you speak English, there's over 40 courses. I've got five audiobooks. The Beta Satan audiobook is on this app for free. The publisher, when they saw we were giving everything away, they said, we're going to give you the audiobooks for free. And so now half a million people have read the Beta Satan. Beta Satan passed six million copies last September. But a half a million more now, 6.5 million, are because people have been listening to it on the app. So we want to give that to you as a gift. All right? Amen? Pass it along. I want to pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for so much, so much for what you gave us through Pastor

Jacob. Amazing. And now I'm asking that you would continue to speak to us this session and the next session and tonight's session. Lord, we just thank you that it's going from glory to glory and faith to faith. We give you all the glory, honor, and praise and thanksgiving. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. And everybody that agrees, shouts. Come on, give them a hand. Give them a hand. One more time. Amen? Amen, amen, amen. You can be seated. I want to kind of continue on with where I left off yesterday. Actually I've not preached on what I'm going to share with you about in eight years. So I, I, I, God very rarely says, I want you to do something. Very rarely. But yesterday I had to call our team, I had to say, hey, you've got to dig this, these scriptures up, this PowerPoint up, because I haven't done this for like eight years. I haven't preached this anywhere. And so, well actually I did do it during COVID in front of a camera. So maybe that's the last time I did it, it was 2020. I want to open up with Second Timothy. Second Timothy. Paul the Apostle is writing to his young, young son in the faith. And Timothy at this time is pastoring a church in Ephesus. And Paul says in Second Timothy chapter one, verse five, he says, when I call to remembrance, the genuine faith — everybody say genuine faith. Say it again.

Say it again. For there to be genuine faith means what? That means there is not genuine faith. First thing I want to point out, this is so important that you listen to this. We are not talking about a Charlotte that's in here. We're not talking about a fake. We're not talking about a phony. We are talking about one of the most godly men in the New Testament. In fact, let me show you something. Paul wrote to the entire church at Philippi and said this about Timothy. I have no one quite like Timothy. He is loyal and genuinely concerned for you. Most people around here are looking out for themselves, with little concern for the things of Jesus. But you know yourselves that Timothy is the real deal. So we are talking about one — I mean, isn't that something? This is in the eternal word of God. Paul bragging on this young man's character. So we are talking about somebody who's a minister who has impeccable character. I want to say this right up front. There are two extremes that I have observed in the church in traveling all over the world for 35 years. I've seen the church from a 36,000 view, and I see two extremes. Number one is people that pursue power and success to the neglect of character. The Bible says that we are to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. I see people that pursue spiritual gifts and only desire love. They got it backwards. They'll travel miles for a miracle service, but they won't deal with the anger, bitterness, or strife that's in their hearts. Good preaching, John.

Amen. Thank you. Okay. The other extreme. Everybody say, the other extreme. Our people that, listen to me, pursue character to the neglect of power. Both are extremes, and extremes aren't good. They will pursue character, character, character, but they won't deal with the fact that God wants us to walk in His power. If Timothy's leaning to either one of these, he's leaning to this one. He's pursuing character, and he is a godly man. But he's neglecting power, because look what Paul goes on to say. When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, now look at this, I remind you. What did I remind? I remind you to stir up — everybody say, stir up — the gift of God. Greek word is charisma. The gift of God which is in you. Okay, now let's deal with the word remind. Why does he say I remind you? Because in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 14, Paul said to Timothy, he wrote to him in that first letter, he said, do not neglect the gift that is in you. Everybody say neglect. Do you know what neglect means in the Greek? It means to disregard, it means to discount, it means to ignore, it means to underestimate, it means to overlook, it means to undervalue. Are you here? Do not neglect the gift. Remember the businessman yesterday, I said to him, you can do one of three things. You can use it only for yourself, you can use it to build the kingdom as God intended,

or you can just sit on it, neglect it, and not use it. So there's a misconception in the church. Can I blast this misconception clear out of the building so you never deal with this again? You ready for the misconception? People think if I'm godly, if I'm Christ-like, if I walk in holiness, and you know I preach holiness. That's my life message is the fear of the Lord and holiness. But people think if I'm godly, if I walk in holiness, the necessary power will automatically be there to flourish in the area of life that I'm called to. No, that is error. Because let me say this, if godliness automatically stirs up the gift of God in you, Timothy would have had it stirred up to the maximum potential. But Paul has the right to him in the first letter and say you're neglecting it, then he has the right in the second letter right in the beginning says, hey, I'm going to remind you what I wrote to you about a few months ago, stir it up. So listen, you better get this out of your mind. People think all I got to do is be Christ-like godly. You got to pursue Christ-like and godliness. But that doesn't stir up the gift. Good preaching, John, amen. So let's look at verse six again. I remind you, to stir up the gift, everybody say the gift. For those of you that weren't here yesterday, the gift is the Greek word charisma, alright? Let me take you to 1 Peter 4.10, I brought everybody there yesterday, just for those who weren't here, Peter says as each one has received a gift, OK, that gift is God's ability that he places on your life. For somebody it might be giving, for somebody it might be hospitality, for somebody it might be, you know, taking tumors out of people, for somebody it might be painting these gorgeous pictures. I mean, there are thousands of gifts, just like there are many members in my body and

all each member has a different function, there are so many gifts that God, it's God's ability that he places on people's life that are supernatural. Sometimes they appear natural, but they're supernatural. Sometimes they're really supernatural. Like this man who led praise and worship for A.A. Allen, well actually he didn't lead praise and worship, he was his piano player. I know the man personally, he said, John, before I was born, when my mom was pregnant, an angel came to the house, said this son will play the piano. He said when I was two or three years old, he said I sat down and started playing the piano perfectly. And my mom and dad were like, oh my goodness, OK? That's a gift. Are you following me? As each one is received a gift, now notice it says each one, not each pastor, not each worship leader. If you're born again, you are filled with the Spirit of God, you have a supernatural gift or a couple gifts in your life, those are God's gifts on your life that gives you Ability to fulfill what you're created to do. Oh, happy as the man and woman that walks in those gifts. Miserable as the man or woman who tries to operate in somebody else's gift. As each one has received a gift, minister to one another as good stewards. We steward that ability of God. And He doesn't micromanage us. He expects us to do exactly what you said, Pastor Jacob, obey. As good stewards of the manifold grace of God. So now let's go back to 1 Timothy 1 verse 5. Now that we're all on the same page, I kind of brought everybody a little bit to speed from who was not here yesterday. Therefore I remind you, now watch this, to stir up. Everybody say stir up.

You know that Greek word there for stir up? It actually means to agitate it, to kindle it, to bring it into a, fan it into a full flame. In other words, let me make it simple. You have to do something. You have to engage it. It just doesn't happen. So here, here is the bottom line. The gift of God in your life doesn't work automatically. You can have the gift of God in your life and it be dormant and inoperative because of you not engaging it. Oh, that's an oucher and amen. So that leads us to two important questions. Everybody say two important questions. Number one, what causes the gift of God in our life to go dormant? Number two, how do we engage it? How do we stir it up? Don't you think those are two good questions? Alright, so let's talk about question one. What causes the gift of God in my life to go dormant? Well Paul answers it in the next verse. He says therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you. Now look at the next verse. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, everybody say fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. Now look at the word fear. The word fear is the Greek word Delia which literally means this, timidity. A better translation is timidity. So what Paul is saying to Timothy is this. The gift in you is not operating because you've got a spirit of timidity.

Let me take it one step further. Let me give you another way of saying it. Timothy, the gift of God is not working in you because you have a spirit of intimidation. Now we can understand intimidation. Remember the servant yesterday said who maintained Larry? His one talent, I knew you to be a hard man and I was afraid. I was intimidated. Notice how serious this is. You remember the judgment on that servant? Good preaching John, amen. Are you still with me? So what is a spirit of intimidation? It literally is a spirit. It's not a mental weakness. It is a spirit. And you don't deal with spirits on a mental level. You deal with them on a spiritual level. What is the object of intimidation? It is to restrain you from action. It is to coerce or force you into submission. Intimidated believers relinquish their authority in the spirit by default. Consequently, their gift, God's ability in them, it lies asleep and inactive. Though it's present, it doesn't operate. Back in 1990, I fought this spirit for seven years and when God got me free from it, I said I'm gonna write a book about it and I'm gonna expose it and I'm gonna get, I'm gonna see people free from it all over the world. That's why I'm so glad the Holy Spirit told me to preach to you about this. But back in 1990, we, our pastor had launched us, we had birthed Messenger International and I'm traveling to churches and we go to this church in the central part of the United States and a revival breaks out.

And I mean it was a move of God. They were supposed to do only four days of services, ended up going 21 services. The church, every single one of those services was packed out with people standing all along the back walls. They were driving as far as 90 miles away. There were so many people, I mean God was moving. People were getting healed. I mean diseases, incurable diseases getting healed. There was a new age witch. I didn't even know it. She was like on the third row. Somebody brought her and next thing I know, she's on the ground foaming at the mouth. She got delivered and she supported our ministry. for 20 years. I mean, it was a move of God. And because there were so many people, the worship team and the singers had to stay on the platform. There was no place for them to go. And so we were in this, we were in the second week of the meetings. And I usually, you know, when there's not a big platform exists, I go down and I'll walk around. I like to be around the people, right? So I'm down there walking around and there's like 22 singers and musicians on the platform. All of a sudden, without even premeditating it, I find myself spinning around and pointing at them. And I said, there's sin on this platform.

And if you don't repent, God's gonna expose you. And my head went, what did you just say? But my heart was like, it's okay, it's okay. I feel the witness of the spirit of heaven. It's okay, okay? So third week of the meetings. I'm down on the floor again, real prophetic message. All of a sudden, I find myself again, spinning around going, there's sin on this platform. If you don't repent, God's gonna expose you and you're gonna be removed. Oh, whoa, it just happened again. So I remember, come to the service the next night. One of the elders walks into the pastor's office. We always join hands and agreed in prayer like we did, you know, this afternoon. And right before we're ready to pray, the elder walks in and he said, pastor, the praise and worship's a little depressed tonight. Now, I'm clueless, Pastor Theo, I am clueless. And I look at the elder, Jacob, and I said, why are they depressed? And they go, well, sir, they think you're being too hard on them publicly. They think if there's sin on the platform, you should pull the person aside and talk to them privately. I didn't realize it. That statement came from two people on the platform that I'll tell you about in a moment. See, spirits are like surfers.

They need a wave. Okay? And the wave is words. What I didn't realize is that elder carried from those two people an intimidating spirit. And all of a sudden, I go inside, John, why do you have to turn around and say there's sin on the platform? I mean, why don't you just stick to the message? Why don't you just preach the gospel? Suppose there isn't any sin on the platform. Everybody out there is thinking, who is it and what did they do? I said, what if there is sin on the platform and they repent privately? Then nobody's gonna ever know who it is and they're all gonna look at everybody else that's not in sin and think, I wonder if it was you. You're gonna create more problems in this church than any of the good that God's done. I can't believe you've done it. And it's all going through my mind like rapid fire. And it gets interrupted by the pastor saying, well, let's go out and pray. Or let's pray and let's go out. So we pray, we walk out. And I walk out that night. You know, it was like God met us every night. It was like miracles would start happening

before I even got up and prayed. During the worship, I walk out and it's like, so dry. It's like, God, where's your presence? So I'm like, okay, it's fine, he'll show up. So the pastor introduces me, Pastor Theo. And I walk up to the platform or up to the pulpit and there's no unction. Now, when you're a preacher who relies on the Holy Spirit and there's no unction, you are like a goose lost in the snowstorm. I'm like, there's no unction. And I'm like, so I said, open your Bibles to the book of Psalms. And I just had read a Psalm and I thought I'll just, maybe it'll come as a... And I start speaking the Psalm and I'm hearing thoughts in my head like, where are you going with this? You don't know what you're talking about. And it's like, I can't preach. And I'm like, I wanna leave. And I remember I ended the service, I used the shortest message I preached, all 21. I ended it in 30 minutes, it was a little less. It was the worst service I'd ever had. Well. When my wife fell asleep, that was a lot worse. But this one was almost in that category. And I remember I left, I didn't say anything, I just left.

I went back to the place I was staying. I was mad at God. I'm mad at God. Okay, this is my immaturity. I was like, God, you call me to preach, you don't even show up. I was like, I'm mad at God. I'm mad at God. I'm mad at God. I'm mad at God. I'd just go into bed. I'm mad at God. I'm mad at God. I will talk about this in the morning. I'm mad at God. I'm mad at God. That's literally my attitude. I'm mad at God. Seriously, I did. I'm mad at God. I know you've never done that either, you two men, but boy, I, I, I, so the next morning I'm mad at God. I wake up and I feel like there's a sack of sand laying on top of me. I feel so heavy. I can barely get out of the bed. So I tried, I thought, oh man, maybe I should just, you know, pray. And I tried praying. It was like, ugh. Then I said, maybe I should dance. And so I, I tried singing and dancing, and it's like dancing through liquid lead.

Then I thought, well, I'll read the Bible. I read the Bible. It's like you could light a match on it. It's like, what is going on? So I found a field. This, I went out in the country, I found a field and I prayed for three hours. And I remember I prayed so loud I almost lost my voice. And I thought, oh boy, God's going to show up tonight. He's going to show the devil tonight, right? So I come out, we pray, we go back out, and I walk up to the pulpit, I get introduced. And again, I feel, I sense no presence. And the pastor's getting ready to introduce me, and I was like, God, no, don't let him introduce me. I don't want anybody else supposed to preach. He introduces me, I walk up, and I start preaching again. First of all, there's no unction. And I go to another psalm or something like that, right? And I make a statement, and I hear this, that makes no sense, what did you just say? Then I make another statement, and I heard his voice, why don't you get a real job? Then I heard, you're leaving your wife and children, you're not helping anybody. While I'm trying to preach. And finally, seven minutes into it, I said, I yelled out, stop! I woke the church up, right? And I said, something's wrong, and I don't know what it is. And I said, it's wrong since last night, I have no idea, if you know how to pray, stand up and pray. Well, the church responded, they erupted, right? And I'm walking back and forth, and I'm down on the floor, I'm walking back and forth, and within two minutes, I hear the voice of the Lord for the first time. And he said, you're intimidated by the people on the platform behind you.

And because of it, the gift of God in your life has gone dormant. He said, listen, break their intimidation and preach what I'm giving you. And in the next three minutes, he literally walked me through the Bible and gave me an entire book in three minutes. I get up on that platform, and I preach like a wild man. At the end of the service, I said, if you're intimidated, get down here, we're going to break it, and 75% of the 700 people come running forward, right? It was the most powerful service we had. Now, two months later, I'm back home, the pastor calls me, he said, John, he said, the bass player was going out and getting drunk, stone drunk, every night, after the meetings. He said, it got exposed, we confront him, he left the church. He said, one of the singers was sleeping with a girl, she came under such conviction, she came and confessed it. We approached him, he admitted it, we are restoring him. He said, but that's not the bad one. My worship leader was sleeping with a man, here she's married, she's sleeping with a guy and living with him, and he said, we confronted her, they left the church. It was the worship leader and one other that sent the message to me. He said, but John, can I tell you? Our worship has never been so good in this church. The intimidation was broke, and the will of God was accomplished, and the gift of God flourished. Now, would you like to see this in Scripture? Half of you. How about the other half? Would you like to see this in Scripture? All right, if you go to 1 Kings chapter 17, don't turn there, I'll just tell you what's going on. You got Elijah. Everybody like Elijah?

I love Elijah. So here's Elijah, right? He's a prophet to Israel. And you know, Israel's in idolatry. They are in great, great sin. They got a king whose name is Ahab, and he's married to this woman named Jezi. And she's a daughter of a king of another nation, and she brings in Baal worship and Astaroth worship in this country like crazy. So Elijah looks at the king at one point and says, hey, there's not gonna be any rain until I talk again, to speak to you again. And the nation goes through a three and a half year drought. And Elijah's fed by a little widow woman, or first of all, by the book of Cherith, then a little widow woman. And then the word of the Lord comes to him, and he says, go back and confront the king. So Elijah comes back, and he says to King Ahab, gather all of Israel on Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel. Get all the false prophets of Baal and Astaroth, who are on Jezebel's payroll, and get them to come up. So there's 850 false prophets. Elijah looks at him and says, hey. He looks at Israel and says to Israel, hey, how long are you going to be halted between two decisions? If the Lord has God served him, if Baal has God served him. So he said, let's find out who's God. So he said, all right, Baal prophets, go ahead. Do your sacrifice. Let's let Baal answer. They do it. He's mocking them. He's like, oh, you're heroes.

Your God's on the toilet, or maybe he's away on vacation. So they're like cutting themselves, they're doing all this stuff, right? So now we get towards the late afternoon, and Elijah says, step aside boys, we're going to show you what Jehovah's going to do. So Elijah sets up the altar, right, puts the sacrifice on the altar. Then he takes all this water and pours it on the sacrifice, and he said, let the God who answers by fire be the God. When God answers by fire, all of Israel sees that the Lord is God, and Elijah looks at Israel and says, take those 850 prophets down to the river and execute every one of them. They go down and execute every one of them. Then he looks at Ahab. He says, Ahab, Mr. King, you better get in your chariot, because I hear the sound of the abundance of rain. He goes up and prays, now listen to this, rain comes, the hand of God comes on Elijah, and he outruns the king's chariot, okay? That's all one day of ministry. That is a really good day of ministry, okay? Wouldn't you say, come on, talk to me, right? But now, before the day's even up, Ahab comes and tells Jezi what he did to all her prophets, and Jezebel sends a message to Elijah, just like those people on the platform to me. And she said, may the gods do to me and more so, by this time tomorrow, if I don't make your life by one of those prophets. In other words, I'm gonna kill you, boy. Now what happens when she does this? This woman's got a massive spirit of intimidation. And with her words comes a massive spirit of intimidation. How does Elijah handle it? When he hears her words, he runs for his life. He runs through the entire nation of Israel, goes to Beersheba in the south, leaves his servant in Beersheba, goes another day further south, into the desert, sits under a broom

tree, and he prays that he might die. Okay, whoa, whoa, he's confused, he's depressed, he's lost his vision. Come on, he's hopeless. So many people fight confusion. They fight depression. They fight hopelessness. And you know what the problem is? They're dealing with the fruit, not the root. You can pick the fruit of hope, hopelessness, confusion, depression, loss of vision off the tree, go to all the counselors, get them to pull it off the tree, and it's gonna grow right back if you don't deal with the root. The root was intimidating spirit. So here he is under this broom tree, and he goes to sleep. And an angel comes. And an angel from the Lord says, hey, get up and eat this cake. It's manna, probably, I would imagine. And the angel says, because the journey is too great for you. You need this strength. So Elijah eats the cake, and he falls back asleep. Do you see how depressed this guy is? He just saw an angel, and he's so depressed, he goes back to sleep. Now when I fought this intimidating spirit for seven years, I was in nations, I was in cities, where I'm dealing with this spirit, and I have no idea what I'm spirit. But you know, I'm sitting in the hotel room. I'm confused. I'm depressed. I remember, I never fought depression before I was saved. Never. I didn't fight depression until I got saved and went in the ministry. And I remember, there were times, I'd just stare at the wall for like 20 minutes, and

I'd shake myself and say, and I'd look at the wall, and I'd go, why are you in the ministry? Why are you leaving your wife and children? Get a real job. And I'd shake myself. You can't relate to what I'm talking about. Let me tell you what happens. You open up the refrigerator, you close it. Go take a nap. Open up the refrigerator. Everything's still there that was there an hour ago. You close it. You go watch some television. You go open it up, close it. Everything's still there. You go watch social media. You're confused. You're depressed. You're hopeless. And you're not addressing the spirit. This went on for me for seven years. I'm like, God, I was a happy guy before I got saved. I actually was happy. Then one day, God opened my eyes to what it was, and I said, oh boy, you're in for it. So the angel wakes him up again, says, come on, eat another cake, because you've got a long journey. So Elijah eats those cakes, and he runs 40 days and 40 nights on the strength of that food nonstop. I'd like to have protein bars like that. He gets all the way to Horeb, the mountain of God, where Jacob was just talking about, right? And look what happens here. He gets to this mountain and

we read in verse 7, He went into the cave, spent the night in that place at Horeb, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him. Now stop right there. Stop. Stop. Look up there. He's not heard the voice of God for over 40 days. Now I'm gonna be, I'm gonna tell you this. I know this from experience and I know it from the word. When you're under intimidating spirit, the heavens above you are like brass. You don't hear God. I remember I used, when I was fighting this thing for seven years, I, when I get in this place, I'd say, God, I'm sorry. What have I done? What have I, how have I sinned? And I would confess everything sin I could think of. I would even confess sins I didn't do in case I might have thought about it. And yet nothing. The heavens are brass. It reminds me of Brother Hagen when he had one of his 11 visions of Jesus. Jesus appears to him and Jesus is teaching Brother Hagen. He literally appears. The Spirit of God caused Jesus to appear before Brother Hagen. And Jesus is teaching him and all of a sudden this demon comes in and he said it was slimy, it was green, it was about this tall, and the demons going, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it was like a mute button went on Jesus. And Brother Hagen can see Jesus is still speaking, but he can't hear a word he's saying. And Brother Hagen said, Jesus, Jesus, please, that demon, I can't hear what you're saying. Please get rid of that demon. And, and, and, and Jesus just keeps talking as if he doesn't even know what Brother Hagen's saying. And Brother Hagen's like, Jesus, please, I'm missing what you're saying. And the Holy Spirit speaks to Brother Hagen and says, you're the one with the authority. You command that demon to leave in Jesus' name. So Brother Hagen said, I command you in Jesus' name, go. And all of a sudden he goes and it's like the mute button went off and he heard Jesus talking again. That's what happens. You feel like, you know, this is what the enemy wants. He wants you to think God's mad at you. That's why he's not talking to you. No! It's because you are tolerating what you've been set free from. And this is what Paul's talking about with Timothy. So Elijah's not heard the Word of the Lord for 40 days. Oh my gosh.

Finally, he's gonna hear the Word of the Lord. The Word of the Lord came to him, put that scripture back up, and behold, the Word of the Lord came to him and he said, what are you doing here, Elijah? What? Is God schizophrenic? I asked the question. Come on, where I come from, it's rude now. Is God schizophrenic? No, we know he's not schizophrenic. What in the world? He sends an angel. He says you got a long journey. He makes the journey and then God says, what are you doing here? He's not schizophrenic. Here's what a lot of people don't understand. When you give up, because of intimidation especially, God will often send you to a place where he can minister to you. But that's not necessarily what he wanted. Because you know what God's saying to Elijah? What are you doing here? You confronted the king, you confronted the false prophets, you confronted the whole nation, but you ran from that woman, the ringleader of the whole thing. So what does Elijah do? He does the stop story. So he said, oh, I've been very zealous for the Lord, God of hosts, but the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant and turned down your altars. And killed your prophets with the sword and I alone am left. This is the sob story, okay? So you know what? God completely, totally ignores the sob story. Always remember that. He will not listen to sob stories. He listens to faith. Good preaching John, amen. So God completely ignores the sob story. Next verse says, he said, God says, go out, stand in the mountain before the Lord. After an earthquake, there's a fire, but the Lord wasn't in the fire. After the fire, there was a still small voice. So it was, here's the voice of the Lord, second time he's heard in 40 days. So it was, when Elijah heard God's voice, his still small voice, he wrapped his face in the mantle, went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, what are you doing here Elijah? I can't, second time. So here comes the sob story, oh Lord, I've been very doubtless from the Lord God, oh my goodness, they've torn down your altars, they've broken your covenant, and I alone am left. Okay. Okay.

So God completely ignores the sob story. Again. He completely ignores it, and look what happens. Then the Lord said to him, go return your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, anoint Hazel as king over Syria. Also, you shall anoint Jehu, son of Nimshah, as king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Seraphat, of Abel Meholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. I am replacing you. When you give up because of intimidation, and God sees you're determined, he'll often say, okay, I'll get somebody else to do what I need you to do. Look what he goes on and says. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazel, Jehu will kill, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. If you look at Elisha's life from there on out, he goes and finds this kid named Elisha. He doesn't even anoint Hazel and Jehu. He doesn't even anoint him. He finds Elisha, throws his mantle on him, trains this guy up for four more years, and then he's taken. Now, I love Elijah, but I'm telling you, I had to address this one day. God, you said I'm replacing you. Go read it in the Amplified.

I mean, it really brings it out. So here's Elijah. Everything's gotta be put on hold as far as Jezebel goes, so she starts flourishing again. Four years later, Elisha replace Elijah. Let me tell you about Elisha. He's bold. You don't mess with Elisha. Some kids called him baldy one day. They wish they never did. Them other bears came and took them out. You didn't mess with Elisha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what happened? Elisha had to go anoint Jehu. He had to go anoint Jezebel. And you know what the Bible says? Jehu got rid of all, because Baal worship flourished. Jehu got rid of it all, and it took Elisha to take care of the spirit of it. Jehu took care of the natural of it. I could go on and on and on. Moses was intimidated by his own wife. She was so upset when he saw her circumcised the foreskin of their firstborn son. So she said, ain't no way you're doing that to Gershom, my secondborn. And she's cried, she's screamed. She threw the hissy fit.

She said, see if you ever get a meal out of me. See if you ever get a woman's love out of me. You do that to my son again. Moses says, forget it. I gotta call my life. I gotta go to Egypt. And God met him the first night and says, I'm here to kill you. You choose me or your wife. He's intimidated by his own wife. How do you engage the gift of God? I can't believe I'm running out of time. How do you engage the gift of God? Okay, spirit of love, spirit of power, spirit of sound mind, right? What does that all come down to? A spirit of boldness. Love produces boldness. In this, we might have boldness, right? Remember 1 John? What does the sound mind do? It gives you the mind of Christ, gives you boldness, right? Spirit of power, you know. Look at David. David is a young boy. He comes, he's like 16, 17. He comes to the battle of the Philistines because his dad sent him. He leaves the meat and cheese with the supply keeper,

comes out to the battle scene. He finds all the soldiers in a strange new position hiding behind rocks. And it just so happened, Goliath the giant is out there and David looks at all the soldiers cowering for 40 days. And he looks at the giant, looks at them, and he says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Now, brother who's intimidated tries to intimidate little brother. He said, I know the pride that's in your heart. Wait a minute, who's got pride? Go back one chapter. God said, I've rejected that older brother. There's only one reason God rejects pride. Very thing he's got in him, he accuses David of him. David breaks that pride or that statement of intimidation by his older brother. He says, hey, you all hid behind these rocks. Isn't there a cause for me being here? In other words, you wouldn't do it. So God had to find somebody that would. So he goes to the king. King's intimidated. Oh gosh, don't do the piano. He doesn't break the king's intimidation because he's an authority. He appeals to him as a father. King listens to him, goes after the giant. Giant tries to intimidate him. He says, I'll make your flesh.

I'm gonna bury it. I'm gonna give it to the birds. I'm gonna cut your head off. And he fulfilled. Intimidation causes the gift of God in your life to go dormant. Boldness, spirit of love, spirit of sound, mind, spirit of power stirs it up. I only have a few more minutes. Please stop the piano. Please, I beg of you, please. If you're in here and you say I'm intimidated and I recognize it now. I've been dealing with confusion, hopelessness and depression. I'm intimidated and I want this thing broken off my life. I'm ready to break it. I want you to stand up quick. Stand up, I wanna pray for you. Aye, aye, aye. Okay. What do I do? Oh gosh. Okay. Yikes. Okay. Look at me. You know what the devil is afraid of? Authority. He's afraid of faith that produces authority. I remember when there was a snake on our front porch in Florida. There are poisonous snakes. I had four little boys and I remember I said one of my friends had come over and that thing went right into a bush at my front front door and I said to my wife's friend I said watch that bush. I went and got a spade. That snake came out after me and I remember I went wham, wham, wham, wham. And I remember when I was done I was shaking like a leaf. But I didn't go little snake would you please leave my yard. Please don't kill my kids. I got angry. Some of you need to get angry. You need to realize, listen, listen, you're

not, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're not angry at any flesh and blood. That's not who you're fighting. It's the spirit of intimidation. I'm gonna lead you in a prayer and let me tell you something. Listen to me carefully. If you pray quietly, I remember this witch, she'd been dedicated to Satan and her mother's womb. She came over to our house. She was in our youth group and she had just started coming and I remember she came over to our house and Lisa and I put our hands on her and we commanded and let me tell you something. We looked at her and said we command you in Jesus name come out of her. And that woman got free and she was in our youth group for a long time, right? And she looked at us later and she said you know what? I went to church after church after church. Elders put oil, their hands on me with oil and they said we command you Satan to come out and she said I heard the demons inside of me laughing at him. She said you and your wife spoke with authority. Authority can be soft like Pastor Theo or it can be strong like JB. That's me. It's not so much the vocal, it's what you believe. And I love how Pastor Theo is quiet and bold. But you've got to be bold. And some of you, you got to say I've had it. You understand what I'm saying? That's why you're standing. So you ready? I'm gonna lead you in a prayer, okay? And we're gonna we're gonna repent to God and then we're gonna go after the devil and then after that I want us to shout. Because listen to me. When did the walls come down? After. The walls came down after they shouted. This is not a religious exercise. We're gonna shout and those walls of intimidation are gonna fall. You got it? All right, so put up your hands. You can put up your hands and we talk to God but when we talk to the devil I want your fingers pointed under, under, down the floor. Got it? Put up your hands. Say Father in Jesus name. I come before you. Thank you for exposing the Spirit by your word. I have tolerated this spirit in my life but today it all ends. I ask that you would back me up with your grace because I'm going after the devil. Now point your fingers to the floor. You spirit of intimidation. I have tolerated you long enough. I bind you. I break the words that you've spoken over me. My righteousness is of the Lord. I give you no place in my life, in my house, in my office but I command you to go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go.

Now shout. Come on. Shout. Shout. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Stop. I want to help all you not some of you. It's pretty good for the some of you that open your mouth but I've never seen anybody shout with their lips like this. It takes really rapid breath coming through your vocal cords and a really loud shout. This is not a religious thing. I'm telling you I want to see these walls come down. I'm speaking to you right from under the anointing and I'm telling you when you shout the walls are coming down. So you ready? One. Two. Three. Shout. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's it. That's it. That's it. Yes! Woo! Yes! Yeah! Shout! Shout! Now give God praise! Give Him praise! Come on, give Him praise! Come on, give God praise! I'm so glad I'm getting on a plane. Hey! Hey! You're free! You're free! You're free! You're free! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! You're free!