This message was shared by Apostle Kathryn Krick Lead Pastor/ Apostle of 5F Church in Los Angeles, CA on July 20, 2025. Below is a word for word transcription of the message as if Apostle Kathryn is writing this to you. To watch the full video, scroll to the bottom of this post. We pray this teaching blesses you and equips you to walk as a powerful vessel of God.   

Colossians 1:9 AMP

For this reason, since the day we heard about it, we have not stopped praying for you, asking [specifically] that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [with insight into His purposes], and in understanding [of spiritual things], so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord [displaying admirable character, moral courage and personal integrity], to [fully] please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing in the knowledge of God [with deeper faith, clearer insight and fervent love for His precepts]. 

Ephesians 1:15

Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you.

He is speaking this to the disciples, to the people in the church. The believers.

I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those He called; His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. 

Today I am going to be teaching on “Growing in the Knowledge of God”. We are seeing Paul, we are seeing Five-Fold ministers in the New Testament Church, praying for the believers and teaching this importance of them growing in the knowledge of God, for their insight to be more in the spiritual things, for their understanding to grow. This shows us the great importance of knowing God. Understanding the spiritual things. As the Scripture says, when you understand the spiritual things, when you have the knowledge of God, you’ll be able to then please God, you’ll be able to live morally upright and do what God is asking and be in His will.

What is the knowledge of God, first of all? Number one, it is God’s heart. First of all, knowing God Himself. We have to know God and then we will understand His kingdom. We will understand His ways. We will understand the spiritual things that come from Him. It is so important that you have a knowledge of God’s heart and that you keep this knowledge, you don’t forget it. The heart of God is full of love. No judgement. No condemnation. It says, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That means, He is not judging you for making a mistake. He has grace for you. He understands that we are in a spiritual war. So He is not looking for immediate perfection, when you become a believer. He knows. He understands. Jesus even came in the flesh as fully God, fully human. And He went through temptations, He went through feeling so hungry, He went through that discomfort and pain and suffering. In the garden of Gethsemane He prays to the father, “Take this cup from me, Lord”, even though Jesus knew that wasn’t God’s will. And so He says, “This is what I desire, I’m praying this, I’m asking this, BUT not my will be done. Let your will be done.” He understands our weaknesses, He understands temptations, He understands we are in a spiritual war. He is not judging you when you make a mistake, He is looking for repentance. Now there is the judgment of God that comes after we live our lives and die and then it says, words will be judged, the negative words we speak will be judged. But when we repent, He wipes them away. That judgment comes when there is not repentance. If we would live a life of repentance, if we would live a life of surrender and obedience, then God washed away all of our sins. All of your sins are washed away! All of them! But you have to live a life of repentance, a life of surrender. And then there is no judgment. For those who are IN Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation, the bible says. Not simply, there is no condemnation; there is no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus - for those who are living surrendered to God, for those who are living a life of continual repentance when that is needed.

This is the heart of God. HE IS FULL OF LOVE, HE IS FULL OF GRACE, HE IS FULL OF COMPASSION, HE IS FULL OF MERCY!! And He is a real person. He is not just this Lord, that is lording over you things, just because He wants to, just because He can. Everything that He asks you to do is for a purpose and is for your good. He does not have all of these rules that are with no purpose and that you just have to follow for no reason and it takes the fun out of life. That’s not God!! Every command He has for you is for your protection. It is a roadmap into receiving freedom and then maintaining the freedom and walking in abundant life.

God is amazing and magnificent! His love we can not even comprehend!! His love is so amazing and for every single person on this earth! HE IS NOTHING BUT GOOD!! Any evil that happens on this earth is not God. It’s the devil. God is nothing but good! His thoughts for you are nothing but good! His plans for you are nothing but good! When you make a mistake, His thoughts for you are nothing but good! For I know the plans I have for you. Not just for those who are perfect, that’s not even a thing. I know the plans I have for YOU, all of you, those of you who would follow me, God says. These plans are not to harm you, but to give you hope and a future, to prosper you.

This is the heart of God and this is the most important part of having the knowledge of God, of having the knowledge of God’s kingdom and spiritual things. Having this understanding of who God is and His heart. His heart for you, His heart for all people, His heart for your future, His heart for this world, His heart for the church. Part of the knowledge of God that is so important to have, is this love for His people. This great love for His people. This love that He has for His people equals freedom and healing. He loves His people so much that He never wants them to be in bondage from the devil even a day. He wants that bondage from the devil to be broken off of people’s lives. 

There is a difference between weapons formed against you and weapons that prosper. He allows weapons to be formed against you to test your faith. And He brings you victory, as you stand firm and fight the good fight of faith. But He does not want weapons to ever prosper. So yes, He allows attacks of the enemy to happen, but it is all for your good. But He does not want any person to be in bondage from the devil. He allows anxious thoughts to come in your mind, but He does not want you to be bound with the spirit of anxiety. He allows attacks from the enemy of temptation to come, but He does not want you to be bound by addiction. He can allow the enemy to send dark thoughts to you, but He does not want you to be bound by depression or the spirit of death and suicide. He allows the enemy to bring attacks towards your health, but He does not want you to ever have a bondage from the enemy of sickness and pain. Do you understand the difference? 

When a person is in bondage from the devil, this is a 911 emergency, God sees it as. This person must be free! I used to be a lifeguard, that was my first job as a teen. And the Lord gave me this vision last night: When people are in bondage it is like they are struggling on the surface or about to drown, gasping for air in the water. And God chooses to use vessels to deliver and heal people. He chooses to put His power in them and use them to cast out demons and heal the sick. God has called us to heal the sick, to cast out the demons in addition to preaching that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That’s part of our great commission. He has commanded us to be lifeguards in the spiritual realm. He has commanded us to be ready to save somebody. It’s Jesus saving, but we’re a vessel He uses to save. But that is our job, TO BE AVAILABLE and be ready, be alert to see if someone is drowning with demonic oppression and sickness. And when we see them struggling, we are called to jump in that water and save them!!! We are called to cast the demons out, or we are called to point them to where God’s power is moving; point them to where they can be free.

What you have in the body of Christ today, is you have so many Christian leaders and so many believers who think it’s okay to do the chill lifeguard job only. I was a lifeguard and, praise God, I never had to get in the water. I never had to rescue somebody. But I was trained for it and I was ready for it and I knew that I signed up for this!!! And I was ready, I wasn’t going to hesitate if I had to go jump in the water. Even though it would be very uncomfortable and scary feeling. It is a lot of pressure and responsibility. 

The Lord was reminding me of lifeguarding, how chill the job was. In my hometown there is only a population of 1,200 people. There is not even cell phone service to this day. It was a town pool that wasn’t very busy. So my job was very chill and quite easy - just sit out in the sun and I didn’t really have to do much. “Walk, please!” “Use the ladder!” That was most of my job. It was chill. It was fun even. There was no uncomfortable parts, really. And the Lord was showing me yesterday, that is the life many Christians want. They want the chill lifeguard life. They don’t want to jump in the water and get uncomfortable - leading people to where God’s power is, speaking up that Revival is truly Now and that people could be set free if they would position themselves where God’s power is moving. Speaking this today leads to persecution in one way or another, because the enemy hates it more than anything for God’s people to be free. So when you speak up and you point people how to be free, the enemy is not going to like it. The enemy is going to want to silence you. The enemy is going to want to stop you from doing that again. In today’s time the enemy’s strategy, the way he tries to stop you, is usually through persecution. It is usually through the religious spirit, the same spirit coming through the Pharisees, accusing Jesus of being from the devil, of using demonic powers, of going against the word of God. That same spirit is at work today. That is the main spirit the devil uses, to try to keep people from being free, to try to keep revival from spreading. It is the fear and intimidation spirit that comes by being persecuted. 

There’s many believers, there’s many Christian leaders, who think it’s fine because they are doing their job as a lifeguard. They are preaching. They are doing a lot of good things. They are doing their job. But there’s people drowning! There’s people drowning and you are looking the other way! That’s horrible!! 

There’s many believers, there’s many Christian leaders, who think it’s okay to look the other way. They are missing the knowledge of God. They are missing the knowledge of God’s heart. 

There is testimony after testimony of impartation here, we have heard some today. Praise God! We hear these testimonies of people who haven’t even been in seminary - Sara you shared one yesterday. She just shared yesterday, a friend called her, she was led by the Lord to pray for her and she heard the friend had to pull over, she was driving, and started coughing up. She was being delivered. There’s these testimonies of impartation here and these people who have received impartation, a lot of them have not even gone to seminary. Most of them are not ministers. What I am saying is, do you know how easy and simple it would be for church leaders around the world to receive impartation? If God can just pour it out so easily! You don’t need all these things to receive impartation, you just need to have that heart that will go and rescue someone when they need rescuing! Not caring what people think! Dying to your ego! That is all God is looking for - a pure heart that’s surrendered to Him, that will care more about what God thinks about them than anything else. Not caring what people think, not caring what people will say, not caring about connections you’ll lose, doors that will shut in your face now, because these people don’t agree with you, because these people are religious. And I see people here receiving impartation so easily. It’s grieving, that pastors and other believers wouldn’t just humble themselves and simply receive so that they can rescue the people in their churches. Or to not even receive impartation but just to speak up and say, “You need rescuing? Jesus can deliver you! I’ve heard testimonies of many people being delivered here at this church.”  If we could actually act like a united body that we were intended to! And I can go on and on about this, but I already did a few weeks ago in the message “Prophetic word for those called to ministry”. But it is for everybody, not just leaders. Go watch that message from a few weeks ago.

The heart of God is to rescue His people because He loves His people so much. The anointing is here. We do not have to keep praying for revival. We do not have to keep praying for the anointing to come. It has come. It is here on this earth now. God has released it in the body of Christ! Not just here at 5F Church. This anointing is to be shared and passed, but people have to have the heart to rescue people and to free people, not caring what people will think! They have to humble themselves and be pure in order to receive it. I can’t just go to every church building and say, “I release the anointing here. May the pastor now walk in this anointing.” It’s up to the pastor, the minister. God only releases it when your heart can simply be humble and pure and surrendered to Him. It is not hard to do that. But you have to do that. That’s the requirement. 

This is the heart of God, that people would be free and healed. This is just as important as salvation. This is part of salvation. Salvation. Freedom. Healing. Being freed from the enemy’s grip. They are all in one! The preaching of the gospel, preaching the word. That’s why Jesus says with the great commission, “Preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand; heal the sick; cast out demons”. All together! He doesn’t say, “Mostly preach, sometimes cast out demons”, or, “Some of you, just deliverance ministries will cast out demons”. He doesn’t say that. He puts it all there together. And there is a verse in the gospels where it says, Jesus went from town to town preaching and, A N D, casting out demons. THAT was the ministry of Jesus! This is the heart of God! Many people are missing this knowledge of God. Many people are doing things that they have learned. They have learned wrong doctrine. They have learned wrong, religious doctrine. 

Galatians 4:8-9, 12

But at that time, when you did not know [the true] God, and were unacquainted with Him, you [Gentiles] were slaves to those [pagan] things, which by [their very] nature were not and could not be Gods at all. Now however, since you have come to know [the true] God [through personal experience], or rather to be known by God, how is it that you are turning back again to the weak and worthless elemental principles [of religions and philosophies], to which you want to be enslaved all over again? Believers, I beg of you, become as I am, [free from the bondage of Jewish ritualism and ordinances], 

In today’s time, free from the bondage of religious doctrine, that’s been fed to you. This old wine religious garbage, that is not pleasing to God, that keeps you going around in circles of sin - because religion is bondage; these religious rituals and performing your way to please God, to try to please God.

For I have become as you are, [a Gentile]. You did me no wrong [when I first came to you; do not do it now].

You find so many believers, so many Christian leaders; they are looking at what the majority is doing. The majority is not casting out demons and walking in the anointing. But there’s many people that are famous. There are many people who have tons of followers. There are many people that have so much success in the Christian world and they are not doing these things. Many people are not humbling themselves to receive this greater knowledge of God’s heart. And they are continuing in this wrong religious doctrine. They are praying hours on end. They think that they are really being a great Christian. But in fact, in reality, they are missing God’s heart. In reality, they are not rescuing God’s people. They are preaching nice words while people are drowning in bondage. And they are smiling pretty. They are preaching with passion. But God’s people are drowning and they can’t even hear.

John 15:12

This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.

Jesus laid down His life for His friends. He laid down His literal, physical life. But He is asking you, He is asking us to also lay down our lives. Not to make ourselves killed as a sacrifice, no! Jesus already did that. But the bible says, “You cannot be my disciple, unless you pick up your cross and leave everything to follow me.” So He is calling all of you to lay down your life for your friends; to lay down your life for the strangers; for people that are really God’s children, that He loves so much, that are drowning - to lay down your life, like a lifeguard would lay down their life for a stranger drowning in the pool! It is worth the persecution! That’s laying down your life! “I am going to be used as a vessel of God right now to deliver this person”, whether it’s casting the demon out, after you received anointing, or leading them to where God’s power is moving and pointing them to where they can receive freedom. You are laying down your life! You know there is a cost to that!

When I was training to be a lifeguard and I took the test, I had to go to the bottom of a 12 foot pool and grab a brick and bring it up and swim with it on my back. That was really difficult. That was very uncomfortable. And if I had to save somebody, I would be risking my own life, putting that person first. This is what God has called us to do - not be comfortable Christians who don’t have any persecution!

Romans 8:18 TPT

I am convinced that any suffering we endure is less than nothing compared to the magnitude of glory that is about to be unveiled within us.

And this is my message. I pray that people watching online and people here, who are like the comfortable Christian out there, that are not laying down their lives for God’s people; I pray that God would open up your eyes and give you more knowledge of this, of God’s heart, and also this spiritual knowledge of this Scripture. Persecution is not fun! Persecution stinks! I’ll tell you that! It’s suffering! It’s part of the suffering we are called to on this earth! But I’m telling you, this suffering we endure is less than nothing compared to the magnitude of glory that is about to be unveiled within us!!! The magnitude of glory, of revival spreading, of lives saved and moved into real surrender to Jesus, of lives healed and delivered and transformed! I’m telling you, I have been through a lot of persecution, but this glory that I am experiencing and even more that will come, the glory of God I get to see in my life, the fruits for His glory, is FAR GREATER! It surpasses the suffering I’ve had to endure, the suffering of persecution. It’s a life of so much greater joy! Greater glory! And most importantly, it’s the only life where you will actually please God! Stop fooling yourself by being a comfortable Christian, doing your religious rituals. Stop fooling yourself. You are not pleasing God. Get to know God’s heart! Grow in the knowledge of God’s heart for His people! Know what really matters to God! He has appointed you to be a lifeguard in the spiritual realm. Jump in the pool! Jump in the water! And rescue His people! You’re not here to get a tan and look good!!!

In the message today, God wants you to know the importance of growing in the knowledge of God. What I have been sharing with you is that there are Christians, that have been Christians for a long time that are even successful Christians, influencers, Christian leaders, who are so limited in their knowledge of God. They have limited knowledge of God’s heart. And you see how dangerous this is, how detrimental this is, when you simply don’t have the knowledge of God’s heart, what really matters to Him. He doesn’t care about your religious rituals. He doesn’t care how many hours you are praying and reading the bible and the things you are preaching, if you are not rescuing His people who are in bondage, leading them to be free!

How to have the knowledge of God? How to grow in the knowledge of God? Well, the bible is so clear about this.

Matthew 3:10

The disciples came to Him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.”

V.13

Though seeing, they do not see, though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, “You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused, they hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them.” But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

He is saying, “Blessed are you, your eyes see.” He is saying, “Other people do not see, because their hearts have become calloused.” 

How do hearts become calloused? - By one's choice!!! By one’s choice to not humble themselves. Simple. That’s it.

Pharaoh. Pharaoh was given many opportunities. Many opportunities to humble himself, to humble his heart and be obedient to God. God gave him chance after chance after chance. That wasn’t just for anything. That wasn’t just for God to show His wonders, doing all of the signs and wonders in Egypt, the amount of them. God was continually giving Pharaoh free will, a choice. Speaking, revealing to him, showing him, revealing himself. Giving him an opportunity to have understanding of God - that He was real, that He was all powerful, that He was the only God and that the other Gods were rubbish, and that he should obey Him. God kept showing Himself. He kept bringing different destructions upon the land. It wasn’t all at once. Pharaoh just kept choosing to keep the pride. His son did not have to die. All of the firstborns did not have to die. But Pharaoh chose that. He chose for his heart to become calloused. 

When the disciples came back from casting out demons for the very first time, one of the first things that Jesus says, is, “Father, I praise you for hiding these things”, the spiritual things we keep hearing about in these Scriptures, “from those who are wise and proud and ONLY revealing it to the humble and childlike.” The word is very clear: The pure in heart shall see God. The pure in heart shall gain understanding, shall have more of the knowledge of God, shall know God more, shall understand Him and His ways. It’s very simple. And to be pure is a choice. It’s not about luck. It’s not that some people are born with it, some people are not. To be pure in heart is a choice everyone can make! Everyone can make! And God is so good to pursue people and reveal Himself, to lead them into repentance if they would only choose. Everyone can choose this. Everyone can choose to receive the knowledge of the spiritual things that it talks about in this Scripture, the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.

That’s how you will gain knowledge and that’s how you will keep on gaining more and more knowledge. The message today, the message God has for you, is that He wants you to keep on growing in knowledge every day, to never become stagnant, but to keep growing, because that is how you will be able to stay in His will and He will be able to use you even more powerfully with every day - when you become more spiritual! It’s how you become more like Christ, by your eyes opening up more to who He is. Because when you can see who He is, then you can imitate that. When you see who He is, when you see His heart, then you know what you are supposed to be like on this earth. What Jesus is really like! That He really is THIS GOOD, full of love. The more your spiritual eyes open up, the more you’ll be able to love people better. You’ll see them how God sees them. The more your spiritual eyes will open up, the more your faith will grow; the more you will not give into temptation to complain and to step out of God’s will, when things don’t come in your timing. Because your eyes have opened up to REALLY UNDERSTAND just how good God is, just how faithful He is, just how perfect His ways are, just how perfect His timing is, just how much He is in control, how big He is - the more your spiritual eyes open up. So for your spiritual eyes to open up more and more, is the most important thing! It’s how you are able to see God’s love more and how then you’ll be able to love Him back the best, and how you’ll be able to be a vessel of Him the best and be in His will and be victorious over the devil. The more your eyes open up to who God is and how big He is, you’ll see how tiny the devil is! And he’ll never get to you again! He’ll never bother you again! The taller you’ll stand with godly confidence, the better you’ll walk in your authority; the more snakes and scorpions you’ll trample on!!! 

To grow in this knowledge always, you have to stay pure in heart. You have to keep humbling yourself. When you start to feel thoughts of entitlement to come in, thoughts of jealousy to come in, thoughts of impatience to come in, that’s like a 911 alert! It should be like fire alarms going off! Like, “Oh! No! I’m not going backwards! I need to keep moving forward! God has opened up my eyes to who He is. That He is worthy of my surrender - that I don’t deserve anything. So why am I feeling entitled? Why am I feeling jealous? GET OUT OF HERE, these lies!! Why am I feeling impatient? God’s timing is perfect! The reason the promise hasn’t come to pass yet, is because it would crush me if it came now! It wouldn’t last if it came now! When it comes, it is God’s perfect timing and it will be protected and I will enjoy it the most. It will be the most beautiful when it comes in God’s timing. Why am I impatient?”

That brings me to the next important thing of not only do we need to keep moving forward but we need to make sure you’re not going backward. You need to make sure you’re not losing the knowledge you gained. Have you ever tried to think back ten years ago and it’s kind of freaky because you can’t remember certain things? You remember being somewhere but you don’t remember who you were with. I did that the other day. I’m like, wow! Because it’s not important to remember. Our mind can’t store all that, all of that information. We weren’t built to store every single little detail for our whole lives. What we do remember, is what we value, what memories are important to us. When God opens up your eyes, you have to choose to keep that memory. You have to choose to keep that knowledge that you didn’t once have but then you did receive one day. You have to choose to keep meditating on it. You have to choose to keep on remembering, oh yes, I used to be in darkness in this area. I used to not know spiritually things in this area but then God opened up my eyes. I used to be lukewarm. I used to not really understand how worthy God was but then God opened up my eyes to see how worthy He is of my surrender and that nothing matters but obeying Him. There was a day that my eyes opened up. You have to remember that day. You have to renew your mind to that specific knowledge that God gave you on those life changing days that changed everything or else you can go backwards. It could be a memory that is lost, that knowledge you have received. 

Proverbs 2:1-5 

My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, So that your ear is attentive to [skillful and godly] wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding [seeking it conscientiously and striving for it eagerly]; Yes, if you cry out for insight, And lift up your voice for understanding; If you seek skillful and godly wisdom as you would silver And search for her as you would hidden treasures; Then you will understand the [reverent] fear of the Lord [that is, worshiping Him and regarding Him as truly awesome] And discover the knowledge of God. 

You have to be searching after this wisdom. According to this word, your ear has to be attentive to skillful and Godly wisdom. You have to seek this understanding conscientiously and strive for it eagerly. You need to seek this wisdom and treasure it as silver. 

Colossians 3:8-10 

But now rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene (abusive, filthy, vulgar) language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new [spiritual] self who is being continually renewed in true knowledge in the image of Him who created the new self. 

You have to continually renew your mind to put on the new spiritual self. When you become a born again believer, when you first become a believer, you have a new self, the new self. You’re a new creation but that’s day one of your spiritual eyes opening up and the knowledge of God coming in you. Just day one. It’s a journey each day of seeking God. When you seek God with all your heart, then you will find Him. As you keep seeking God, you find more of Him. As you keep seeking God, your knowledge of God and the kingdom of God and the spiritual things, His ways, it increases. It keeps on increasing. You’re stepping into your new self each day, more and more. You have to keep renewing your mind according to this scripture. According to this scripture, it says PUT ON THE NEW SELF. 

I’m telling you, when years pass, you really have to make the discipline to put on your new spiritual self, the aspect of your new spiritual self that you got on day one or year one. When your eyes first open up to how God is worthy of your surrender and all you want to do is please Him, that is in your mind so sharp, the fire in your heart EVERY day, at first. But then as time passes, you are going to have to make the choice to put on AGAIN your new spiritual self because it’s a life of mountains and valleys. I’ve seen this pattern in my life. I’ve seen on mountains I have just this overwhelming fire for Jesus. It’s just this fire to please Him. It’s so sharp in my mind. I’ve found in valleys that I have to make the intention to put on my new self. On mountaintops, everything is easy, everything is exciting. In valleys, things feel dry. They naturally feel dry. Wilderness if dry. As you put on your new self. You will drink from the well that never runs dry. It’s the natural feeling. It's kind of like when you step outside and it’s SO HOT and you’re like uhhh, as opposed to a beautiful, normal LA day, of like low 70’s. It’s like, in the valleys, you have to make an extra intention to put on your new self or else you’ll go backwards. 

I remember the four and a half years of serving God, when I started walking in my calling and I started the church, four and a half years before revival broke out and I’m holding on to this promise that revival is going to break out. I was having this expectancy it was going to break out every week for years and the church got smaller and smaller with each year through those years. I remember there were many times thoughts would come to my mind, condemning thoughts, maybe I’m doing something wrong, maybe that’s why it’s not happening. I don’t know, I hope I’m pleasing God but I’m not sure completely because we’re getting smaller, maybe I’m doing something wrong. Really, condemnation would be there. I had been free of those voices of condemnation in the past, I had been free years before but as time passed and I was deep in that wilderness, the enemy came. For a time he will come. 

The Bible says Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. It says the Holy Spirit led him there. In a time of vulnerability, in a time of weakness, the devil came because he knew his chances were better in the weak times, in the weakness. Jesus overcame and He defeated the enemy, He passed the tests and then the Bible says the devil left him for a time. 

The devil will come from time to time. I had been free of the voice of condemnation, that was what I dealt with the most before I was surrendered to God, before I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and then surrendered to God. I had been free of that completely but then a few years passed and the church was getting smaller and smaller and smaller and the enemy came and I would hear those voices. Then revival broke out and God fulfilled the promise. It was a mountaintop. It really spoke, I felt God’s love so much. I felt God’s love SO MUCH when the promise was fulfilled. It was like God was speaking to me, you are faithful and I can trust you with this. It was like God was speaking to me that I have been pleasing Him. It was so easy to feel God’s love and NO condemnation on that mountaintop. 

Then I’ve seen in a different kind of wilderness in my life after that, in a different kind of waiting on a promise that you believe would come sooner, I would see the devil try to come back in that same scheme and God opened up my eyes the importance of putting on your new self. There’s going to be times on the mountaintops you won’t feel any condemnation or whatever thing you used to struggle with. You won’t feel it at all. Your eyes are so open to God’s love and His truth and His ways, so open! But then in the valley, there will be a temptation. The enemy will try to come back in those old ways. It’s not as natural to feel God’s love in the valley but the love is the same regardless. It taught me, when I came to that mountaintop of the promise being fulfilled, it taught me a lesson for the future, God was so proud of you then! God was so proud of you in the valley but you weren’t having these external blessings that showed God’s proud of you. But, it wasn’t a sign that you were doing anything wrong because you were in the wilderness! This is God’s love, He’s proud of you but you have to take the action of putting on your new self, of reminding yourself of the knowledge of God, of His ways, of the spiritual realm, how the enemy works, how the enemy attacks in a wilderness. When you haven’t gotten a promise and when it hasn't come to pass yet for many years, the devil is going to try to attack. The devil is going to try to tempt you with impatience, tempt you to complain, tempt you with condemnation, thinking you’re doing something wrong. The devil is going to try to tempt you and make you think that life’s not that great. He’s going to try to distract you away from seeing how blessed you are right now, to have Jesus in your life, to have freedom that you once didn’t have, and all the other different blessings God’s given you, provision, family, friends. 

This is God's message for you today. He doesn’t want you to go backwards. He wants you to continually grow in the knowledge of God but you have to do that work to renew your mind, continually renew your mind with what God has shown you. 

2 Peter 1:19 

Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts.

One of the areas of knowledge of God when it talks about the knowledge of God, is talking about His heart. It’s also talking about His ways, His spiritual principles. He doesn’t just move and do His work on the earth haphazardly, chaotically, just randomly. He is truly a God of order and He is a God of principles. He moves in a certain way, in certain ways. A big part of this understanding is the new wine. When we talk about new wine, it’s talking about God’s ways, God's principles, the secrets of the kingdom. When Jesus is talking about the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom, it’s talking about His ways and His principles. To summarize some of His main ways and principles of moving on this earth, one of them is that He chooses to use vessels to move in power, to put His power in and He moves through them like we see with Peter, like we see through Paul, like we see through all the Apostles.  

Another one of His principles, He has a principle of equipping His believers and that is, for every believer to be planted in one church that God has called them to, that IS anointed, that carries truly God's power and the secrets of the kingdom, the keys of the kingdom. That’s God's way and principle of equipping His believers, is by believers coming to the church, being true disciples, and receiving the teachings, equipping through the teachings of anointed servants of God. 

There’s other principles about sowing and reaping. There’s principles about the power of making sacrifice and what that leads to, the reaping that leads to. I have many teachings of this. I teach about these principles in depth in my book, Unlock Your Deliverance and also my YouTube playlist, How to Receive and Maintain Complete Deliverance. This is part of the knowledge of God that’s so important, is understanding God’s ways because that’s how you access abundant life and that’s how you can be a vessel of God truly, carrying His power and walking in His will. 

One of His principles of how He equips the body is through the five-fold ministry, apostles prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers according to Ephesians 4. This scripture I just read about valuing this word coming from the prophets, this is so important to gaining this knowledge and to keeping this knowledge. This is the humble heart that helps you to gain more knowledge. This is how you have a humble heart, one of the ways you access this knowledge, one of the ways you humble yourself to receive this knowledge is by valuing the words of God, the Rhema, present tense word of God spoken through true anointed servants of God, your leader at the church. When you come to church, you hear the word and you VALUE it as the word of God. You take it to heart. You make it priority. You are a true disciple who studies that word, who meditates on it, and who listens to it again and who truly applies it in their life. That’s one of the big ways that you’ll continually grow in the knowledge of God. 

There are some of you today, you need this reminder. There are some of you, uhh I’m having these attacks, it’s just a matter of renewing your mind to remember the knowledge God has given you. Don’t go back to listening to the voice of condemnation, you already know the truth. If you have made a mistake, renew your truth with this word, that a righteous man or woman falls down seven times and rises again. 

If you’re feeling bad, maybe you don't feel as naturally on fire for God in some seasons, maybe you’re in a valley season or something, renew your mind that faith without works is dead. Faith is not about your feelings but it’s about action. It doesn’t matter how you feel, God is not looking at your feelings, He’s looking at your actions. Remember what you’ve learned! Value it and you will keep growing and growing and growing in the knowledge of God.