Persecution, Purity and Power — Shane Idleman

The title of the message is Persecution, Purity, and Power and we are doing a survey of the seven churches. And it's ironic here, Jesus would often say, and we'll probably see this again, he says, what the Spirit says to the churches, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

And it's interesting because we all have ears, but not everybody wants to hear. So he's giving a message to churches, to Christians, this is what the Spirit of God is saying to the churches. He who has the ears to hear, let him hear.

Basically, it's this, saying, Lord, I want to hear, I'm open, I'm teachable, speak to me. Be careful, though, if you pray that, because he will show you areas, he will speak to you, he will bring out things in your life that possibly he wants you to work on.

Maybe he wants to encourage, but let's even acknowledge that this morning, Lord, I want to hear you, I want, I'm open, I'm teachable, speak to me this morning. So Revelation 2 .8, and to the angel of the church in Smyrna.

Jesus’ Message to the Church in Smyrna

Now remember, God sent a messenger to each of these churches in Asia Minor, probably 700 miles above Israel, up in Asia Minor, north of Israel. This message, though, is to all the churches then, and we believe that this message still applies to the churches today.

And to the messenger, to the angel of the church in Smyrna, I write these things. These things says the first and the last. Remember, Jesus is speaking. Who was dead and came to life. I know your works, your tribulation, your poverty, but you are rich.

And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but they are of a synagogue of Satan. Boy, Jesus doesn't mince words, does he? He's not this, you know, just comfortable little things, it's right to the heart of the matter.

But it's interesting. Let's just break this apart a little bit. I am, he said, I am the first and the last, I was dead and I came to life. This is a wonderful reminder of the resurrection. We need to be reminded of that often.

Because that's actually, if you look at, because Christianity, you know, people think, well, it's do's and don'ts. Or it's the Bible, or really the heartbeat of Christianity. If that heartbeat is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Without that, we have nothing. Because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. He said he would rise again. He did the authority of scripture, overcoming hell, death and the grave. So it's the foundation, it's the heartbeat of Christianity.

And I just read this week, there's a headline on a news page online. It said, cremated remains unearthed in China for the Buddha. For Buddha's, basically, Buddha's remains. They think they found them, they were cremated many, many years ago.

And it reminded me that Jesus' body was never found. It was raised again on the third day. And the distinction from Buddha, from all the different religions. The distinction is God reaching down to man, Jesus rising again on the third day, the resurrection.

It's the heartbeat of the faith. So I thought it was interesting that he was saying, I was the one who was dead and I came to life again. Also, another interesting fact. Jesus says, I know your works.

What did he say to the church we talked about last week? I know your works. But this church is a praise report. This church, last week, was a rebuke. What's the difference? I know your works. He said the same thing.

But this church, their heart was right. It was works out of love for Christ. So let's talk about this for a minute. Impoverished. These people were impoverished financially. They were poor financially, but not spiritually.

Poverty, Wealth, and Spiritual Riches

He's praising them for this. They were poor financially, but not spiritually. And this might be a good reminder. Poverty is not a gauge for spirituality. There was a movement in church. That the poorer you were, the less you had, the more spiritual you were.

Remember, if you followed church history, you would know that. And then we came into an age, which I think we're still in to some degree, is the more you have, the more money, the more blessed you are, the more spiritual you are.

So we've went from the monks. Have you ever heard of monasteries? We've got one out on the east side, way out there, Valley Hermo, I believe it is. And there's monasteries where you just got rid of everything and you're so spiritual.

But then the more you have, see, God is blessing me. God is blessing me. God is blessing me. The problem is both of those have issues. Because we know that poverty does not equal spirituality. And we know that wealth is not necessarily a sign of God's blessing.

Or God would be very happy with Hollywood. Or San Francisco. Or New York. Or we know that it's not a blessing. Spiritual health is not always contingent upon our wealth. However, I will say this. Poverty tends to remove, when a person is happy with little, they tend to rely on God a lot more.

That God becomes their everything. God becomes their provision. Not Kaiser. He becomes their provision. Not Chevron. Not the charge cards. He's their provision. And we are blessed in this nation. Many things that we have now, they didn't have back then.

Health insurance? That's a pretty new concept. Everything I mentioned. Credit cards. New concepts. So there is something to being poor sometimes. God will use that to draw us closer to Him. Paul said, I know how to be thankful in all things.

Paul said, I know how to be thankful when I'm abased and when I'm abound. And when I have much and when I have little. And that's why I also believe, personal thought here, that God sometimes will bring people through seasons.

Have you ever been there? Seasons of poverty. And seasons of abundance. Seasons of lack. And seasons of almost too much sometimes. To see how we handle those things. And it's through the difficult times often, especially financially, that God will speak to us.

God blesses. And I also believe on the poverty side, but on this side, I believe that God does bless. It's clear throughout scripture that God will often bless His people with things. And maybe more to give away more.

It's often not to hoard more, is it? God gives a person, in the Old Testament, sheep, cows, goats, to be a blessing to others. And in the New Testament, same thing, to be a blessing to others. So I just see it in the church sometimes.

We judge people. You know, if they're poor and they're going through a financial struggle, they must have sin in their life. Boy, oh boy, I wonder what that is. I'm going to play detective this week. See if I can find out.

There must be something bad in their life to be almost homeless and losing things. Or is it a season? Is it a season for that person? Is it a season for us to reach out? And to test our own hearts? So you see this area of poverty throughout scripture, throughout some of our lives.

Some of us have been blessed, though, where we haven't had to experience this. However, poverty can be the result of sin and bad choices. I've got to make that clear, too. That's why you can see it's like a teetering.

Have your kids ever made those teeter-totters? And when they hop off, this side springs up. And when they sit down, this side. And this issue of money, it's kind of like a teeter-totter. Because you can make statements that a person might say, Yeah, you're right, Pastor Shane.

I don't have any sin in my life. The devil is a liar. He's taking everything I've got. No, you just gamble. You don't give. You don't work hard. You don't work at all, actually. See, that's wrong, too.

The devil's coming after my finances. No, you just spend a lot more than you earn. That's not the devil. That's in here. So we have to be careful in this area. And I believe I've seen this, too. The majority of people that are hurting financially, not all of them, of poverty, many times they don't give back to God.

They don't give. They're not givers. They tend to hoard. I can't give to God because I don't have much. But often the reason they don't have much is because they don't have a giving heart. Now, this isn't a church that we press people on offerings.

We pass around the plate. But it's a biblical principle that if I ignored it all the time I think I would be doing people damage and doing harm, that God blesses those who bless others. Paul says the Lord loves a cheerful heart, those who give back.

And one thing about giving, it shows that it's not idolatry. The best way to get rid of the idol of finances and money and looking to that is to give some of it away. You get some, you give some away.

You get some, you don't have me in this area, devil. And I used to, you know, before I became really on fire for God, when I was in my 20s, made a lot of money and I couldn't, it was so hard to give because I need this.

I need that new Dodge truck with the V10 out in the garage and that I never drive. I'll get a different car so I can keep that in the garage and keep it nice for when I need it. I can't dare, what about if I need this?

And then when God changed my heart then obviously you realize how foolish these things are. So just keep that in mind. I don't know where a person is and I know where people are that I know personally that are struggling financially.

And it's just a season for the church to come alongside help or others to come alongside help. But I know others who are in this area of financial poverty because of financial irresponsibility. They are irresponsible in this area.

So Shane, what's the answer then? Take it to the Lord. He will show you. If you are, what we said here earlier Lord I want to hear, I'm open I'm teachable, speak to me. He will show you in this area. And then he talks about a synagogue of Satan.

False Believers, Blasphemy, and Spiritual Discernment

Anybody curious what that is? Well a synagogue is a gathering of people. It's a group of people. So there is a group of people who are saying that they were Jews but were not. Now we can take this a little step further and look at Romans 2 29.

Paul said but he who is a Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart. So he probably wasn't talking about what we think the Jewish people, the Jewish nation, Israelites he was saying there's a synagogue, there's an assembly of false believers in your midst.

And they are blaspheming the name of God and I know who they are. So Jesus is telling him don't worry, I know who they are. I don't know if things irritate you but there's something that irritates me quite a bit.

And it's false professors of faith who come in and they mingle in whether it's here or other churches and they go unnoticed. And they can bring this heretical doctrine. You can tell the fruit's not there.

Look at some of these guys on TV I can't even watch. I mean some are legitimate. You get Charles Stanley's on there, Dr. David Jeremiah, I think John MacArthur's still on. There's some good teachers on TV, don't get me wrong.

But some of these guys I'm like, oh did he just say that? Is he really? I mean is that an $8 ,000 suit? And the watch and the rings and it's just this flamboyancy. You know you send in that $100 seed gift I bet by next week that thousand will be returned.

And if you send it today, I'm going to kiss this book. And I'm going to sign this book for you that abundance just roll in like Malachi. I will pour out the windows of heaven and you will have and they just sell thousands of things.

And so Jesus is saying, I know I see these types of people. But it's also, I think we need to be careful in this area of blasphemy. Blasphemy. What is that? To blasphemy God is to speak with contempt about him or to be defiantly irreverent toward him.

To disregard him. He is beneath our consideration. That's blasphemous. And I'm concerned for our nation right now as well that God is beneath our consideration. We don't care what he says about morality unless it lines up with what I want to do when I want to do it, to who I want to do it to.

Then that's a God I can believe in. But other than that he's an inconvenience. What about agnostics or atheists who say, there's no God? They don't even consider him. Can you imagine living your entire life never considering God?

That's just what weak people believe. That's a form of blasphemy. And blasphemy we read about in the New Testament of the Holy Spirit. I know there's different arguments on this but I'll just lay out both.

The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is number one is to attribute God's work to the work of Satan. That's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. For example, if the Holy Spirit were to move in a powerful way and this church would just be hit with the power of God and people would be healed.

I couldn't even get through a sermon. I couldn't even finish because I'm just broken and weeping. And God's hitting this group. There would be people who would leave and they would mock that. That's emotionalism.

I don't know what happened to Pastor Shane. What happened to Pastor Shane is he experienced God at a deep revival type level. But they attribute those works of the Holy Spirit to Satan. Now we have to be careful right?

We don't just allow crazy things to go on. You use discernment. But if a true and I've noticed when a true work of God hits, when a true work of God hits a person, a place, or thing those who are not close to God, those who don't want to get emotional experience of God often refer to that as Satan.

Satanic. That's the work of the devil. Now this is even in my notes. I hope this is beneficial because this is going to be a long rabbit trail maybe. I just thought of this. Every single every single revival book I read I can go back to probably the 1700's I think it was in Wells.

People like Hal Harris, Griffin Jones, Daniel Rowlands. Now we just we love them. We read their volumes. It's called the Calvinistic Methodist Fathers of Wells. These two big volumes. And talk about God moving.

I mean just, and not weirdness, just going into a town and people begin to weep before even getting to church. Bars are closed down. God's moving. But in every single case I read there were those in established churches that were against these people.

That's of Satan. That's of the devil. Then you go into the first great awakening. George Whitefield was having trouble with what was happening at his services. These people are, I don't know what to do.

I don't remember, it was actually a woman who gave him advice and she said, George, five minutes with God, with God like that is going to do more than a year's worth of your sermons. So George Whitefield caught criticism.

John Wesley caught criticism because of God moving powerfully. You get into the second great awakening. Charles Finney, he's called a heretic to many people who don't agree with those types of revival things.

And even Azusa Street. I don't know, I wasn't there. 1904, 1905 in LA you have the Welsh revivals of 1950s. You have Duncan Campbell on some islands. And just huge moves of God. You always had those coming against it that were in biblically sound strong churches.

And there are some today it's interesting, that would call what I'm talking about heretical or they would mock it from churches close to here in LA. They would mock it. But yet they quote George Whitefield in their sermon.

They'll quote Jonathan Edwards in their sermon. But had they lived when that revival broke out in Massachusetts under Jonathan Edwards they would have called him a heretic. Or they would have said the devil is moving.

But see now they quote him. See there's always always attributing the works here's why, because they themselves have not experienced revival of the heart. They are hard, they are rigid and they are arrogant.

So when God breaks a church breaks a group of people, you know what revival is? God reviving his people and when it hits it's like Christmas times ten. It's just people are just broken before God and people do get upset because they're not comfortable with that.

So it's interesting, any book I read, people now they say oh man that was great. But back then if they lived in that time they would attribute often the works of God to the works of Satan. I mean I remember I spoke somewhere and it was about 300 men, 320 men and 150 I think I mentioned like half of the whole thing was was at the altar and down the sides and it was like an hour.

I just spent an hour down here praying with the guys and a couple of the older gentlemen you know like later that's just emotionalism. I mean that's really men all tatted up out of prison crying at the altar wanting to go home and be better fathers, that's better that's emotionalism?

We got to watch that? What are we allowing shame? I don't know but this is called God. This is called God because see when an earthquake shakes your home you're going to run outside, right? There's a fire kids, there's a fire in the house, let's get outside.

So when you experience God, how is that any different? Tell the blind man to be quiet who cried out Jesus oh son of David would you heal my eyes? Yes you're healed. Now be quiet. Don't get carried away.

Or the demoniac who was freed of a legion worth of demons. You just sit down sir. Quiet. Jesus is here. Be quiet. No, no, no, no, no. Don't get excited. That's not correct. See it's okay to get excited about all other things.

The reason often is God has not penetrated their heart to such a degree that they cannot rejoice in that same experience because they themselves have not or are not experiencing it. So I often say I'm not a fan of just experience but when you experience the birth of a child you get excited.

When you experience the new birth you will get excited. When you experience God, God gave us those emotions. Thank God. Thank God for that. That's just emotional worship. Well what other kind of worship is there?

Boring worship? What's the other? What is that? That's just emotional worship, Shane. Because people will critique this kind of worship that you're hearing this morning and groups that play this. That's just emotional worship.

Okay, what's the opposite to that? Dead, dying worship where we just stand and sing a few hymns and sit down. And I'm all for hymns. To me it doesn't matter what it is. The heart is engaged. So I told you that would be a long rabbit trail.

But that's one aspect of blaspheming the Holy Spirit is attributing to God's work to the work of Satan. And this is a big passion for me because I see it a lot. Any church that is alive, alive and on fire for God, worship, any time you get somebody who's not feeling that they might know their Bible.

They might have sound doctrine but they walk in and they're like, oh that's just too emotional. That's just, that's not of God. These people are lunatics. They're out of their mind. Wait a minute, we're fasting, we're praying, we're loving our spouse, we're loving our kids, we're changing.

Our hearts are changing, we're becoming united, we want more of God. That's not of the devil, sir. You might have the wrong spirit in you yourself. Or blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is failing to heed his convictions.

Remember Jesus said all sins will be forgiven. Every sin will be forgiven except blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. So if the Holy Spirit, because his work is to convict and draw men to Christ, and if we reject that, if a person rejects that, that sin cannot be forgiven.

Once you leave this planet, once you die and you've rejected, you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, there's no way that there can be forgiveness for that sin. And I should throw this in here as well. Synagogue of Satan, how do you know?

Well, 2 Corinthians tells us that they are false apostles, false teachers, deceitful workers. They transform themselves into apostles of Christ. So what a false leader, a false teacher, or a false believer will do is they'll tell you all the right things.

They transform themselves. Hey, amen, brother. Can I pray with you? You know what? I'm out of cash this week. Can I borrow a thousand dollars? Oh, it's quite out of you're really out of cash, aren't you?

Or they'll come in saying all the right things, but they're deceitful workers. Have you ever met somebody like, something just doesn't feel right. It doesn't line up with Scripture. It doesn't line up with the truth.

They're deceitful. They're not telling the truth, and that's how you spot a false prophet in the Synagogue of Satan. Verse 10, do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. How would you like Jesus to tell you that?

No, no, no. Change that. Let's change that. Enjoy all the blessings that you are about to receive. That's what we would want to hear. But he says, do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer.

Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested. And you will have tribulation ten days. Now, I don't want to get into a lot of this. Is that really ten days? Is it symbolizing something?

We just, at this point, don't know exactly what that ten days refers to, but there will be a period, I believe that the readers knew at this time, there will be a period of tribulation to come upon these believers.

And they will be thrown into prison, and they will be tested. Be faithful until the end, Jesus says, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Prophetic Encouragement and the Gifts of the Spirit

He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. Now, there's a lot here. We could talk about the crown of life for a while, or we could talk about different things. But let me just pull a few things from here.

Verse 10. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. And he tells them what is going to happen. And Jesus actually offers a prophetic word as a word of comfort. Uh-oh, there's a controversial topic again.

Did he just say what I thought he said? A prophetic word? Well, the Bible, Paul says some he's given the gift to speak into people's lives and tell them something that will edify and encourage or maybe rebuke.

See, I don't have a problem with that when people are filled with the Spirit of God, and God puts something on somebody's heart, and they go and they tell them something that helps them or rebukes them in love, because it's a genuine word from the Lord.

There's nothing wrong with that. It's in the Bible. It's in the New Testament. You have to actually... Let's see if I have some scissors. You have to go... If you don't believe that anymore, you have to go to Corinthians and cut out a whole chapter.

It doesn't apply anymore. Now, we have to be careful. But there are people that will speak into your life something that God has put on their heart that you're not going to find in John or Matthew. You'll find the truth there.

And it doesn't go against the truth. It actually helps in a certain area. I'll just give you an example I've given many times before, but many years ago, I think 14, 15 years ago, me and Morgan were at an event, and this guy called me out of 300 people or 250, I don't remember what it was.

Nope, he didn't say anything else. And he began to tell me things that me and Morgan prayed about that week. That God's calling you. It's not arrogance. It's boldness. God is giving you boldness. And you're to proclaim and like, wow.

So that helped. Okay, I can read the Bible. I know boldness is good, but is it in me? Lord, what's going on here? Help me process this. I'm reading another book by Leonard Ravenhill's son, David Ravenhill.

I've got some copies out there. He talks about another guy who was given a word from the Lord. And I'm careful on this, right? Because I know this side. A word from the Lord every week. And you can get really weird with this.

And people go to church to hear from, can I get a word from the Lord every week? No, just read the Bible. Hear what Jesus is saying to you. If God needs to speak to you a year. He gave Abraham one word that lasted 10 years.

Go to a land that I will show you. So you don't have to get these things every week. But I'm open, but cautious. If God wants to, you know, I've had a couple people now confirm, a half dozen, can confirm the Wednesday night study.

Because I've been praying for that a lot longer than you think. Probably for six months. Lord, you've got to show me this. And people are just out of the blue. And I run into people and what, are you going to start a and just, so you can call it coincidence?

I maybe call God helping me, because I see in scripture, a Wednesday night service would be good. I'm convinced in scripture it's good. I know it's your heart, but is it your will? Show me. Do you ever fight against the flesh?

And is that the God voice? Or is that just a good thing? Because I don't want to do a good thing if it's not a God thing. So anyway, I'm reading this book, and I've heard things like this many times before.

But this guy who David Ravenhill knew, man of character, would never weird or anything. They were actually having a dinner for a missionary, a girl who was a missionary. And she's about ready to go out into the mission field, and this guy was praying for the dinner.

And God put something in his heart, and he's like, there's no way I'm saying this. Nope, nope, nope. This isn't you. This isn't you. Because the Lord was impressing on him to say I also hate mommies and daddies.

See, that doesn't line up with scripture, right? It's just, we're not going to go there. It's the wrong voice. So he's ignoring it, and he said, you know what, for what it's ever worth, he said that, he said, the Lord wants to say to you, he also hates mommies and daddies.

And the girl lost it. Because she was abused by her uncles. And they would say, let's play mommies and daddies. She was set free. She was completely set free from an abuse that she's been carrying for 20 years.

See, that's how God works. When a church is open and teachable. When they're open to the things of God. Not weird. Lord, do you want to speak to, can you imagine that type of gifting on a person who is solid?

They could speak life into people. And actually, a form of preaching, some preaching is prophetic in that element. There are teachers, and there are preachers, where God will go deeper into the heart, and he will convict and draw and speak these kinds of things.

I can give you a list of many other examples of this, where God would speak through others. Can you imagine hearing that? But we, that's what this guy did, he didn't initially say something. And I've noticed with God, if it's on your heart, if it's on your heart, and you just keep knocking.

Nope, nope, nope, nope. God will keep just lovingly knocking. Answer the door. Nope. I don't know if this is of God, but, and here you go. Now, in this church, I've been in churches where this is more common, but in this church, sad to say, this isn't very common.

We don't have this happening very often, that I'm aware of. But we don't also disrupt services. We'd have, it usually would probably look like somebody in the prayer room over there, praying with people, or I've been seeing this person for the last couple weeks, and I just, I feel God wants me to talk to them.

And I remember one lady, she doesn't attend here anymore, it was in Lancaster, this person used to play for the Dallas Cowboys, didn't play very long there, he's a friend of mine, and got injured, I believe.

And he was going through some marriage trials, tough guy, like 6 '3", tough guy. And she went, and God was speaking to her in all service, I don't remember, maybe you can tell me later, for the second service, but she went and said something to him.

And he just was on his knees, or got in a seat, and just began weeping. Because God used her to go and speak to him. But see, you can have this get carried away though, right? I mean, you could just, oh, the Lord's saying, you need to sell your car and give it to me.

You know, I think God wants you to move. No, no, if it's not already, but when God's really moving in a person or a people, that's why I'm not worried about these types of things that are biblical. Paul said that God has given these gifts to what?

To edify the church. To build the church up. So when somebody, and I remember she walked right over during worship, and that guy just lost it. And it was exactly, I think it had to do with, I don't want to get into details, but his marriage was not going in a good direction, he was about ready to make a huge mistake.

And God used her to go over and warn him and speak. She didn't even know who he was. I think she asked me too. She goes, do you mind if I go over and tell him? I go, what are you going to tell him? Please.

Because I knew him, and I knew where it was going. And for God to tell her who doesn't know him to go and tell him. But you see, you see things like that in a healthy, vibrant church that's growing for the Lord.

You see things that where God will work in this area. You know, it's interesting too, I thought of this church, Church Smyrna. Last week we talked about Ephesus. This church, Smyrna, is only 35 miles above it.

Persecution as a Sign of Spiritual Life

Why is there going to be tremendous persecution here but not here? That's like saying these churches are fine here, but 30 miles from here, Santa Clarita, Valencia, you're going to experience extreme persecution.

The devil's going to throw you into prison and he's going to test you. Well, here's why I believe dead orthodox, dead teaching, dead services, and dead worship lacks spiritual life. So this church we talked about in Ephesus that was dead, right?

I know your works, but you're dead. You're going through the motions. Dead churches do not stir up spiritual conflicts. They're dead spiritually. I want to be careful here, but let me hear my heart. For example, a church close to us, I'll just leave it like that, there's little persecution.

There's little emails going out. There's little calling them heretical. There's no persecution because the enemy likes churches that are not fighting his kingdom. So if a church is dead, Ephesus, you're dead.

You're just going through the motions. But 30 miles away, here's a church that's on fire for the Lord, loves God, doing things for him. He said, watch out, persecution's coming to you. I believe that's why.

It doesn't say that in the Bible, but we can speculate why there's persecution. I mean, we're not talking 300 miles away. We're talking one church is being persecuted, one will not, and that's why there was not much persecution in Ephesus because dead orthodox, dead teaching, dead preaching, dead services, dead worship lack spiritual life.

You get that, right? If there's just death in the sermon, if there's just death in the worship, if there's just death with the people, there's no spiritual life because you're not leaving here going, like John Wesley said, give me a hundred men.

I don't care if they're laity or clergy, but as long as they hate sin and love God, we will storm the gates of hell. See, that's going to cause a little upheaval. That's going to cause the devil knows the name of those people.

That's going to cause warfare. That's going to cause testing. That's going to cause persecution. But if we just leave here in a dead church and a dead service, what's for lunch? We're not going to witness to the waitress.

We're not going to witness to anybody. Actually, I won't even talk about Jesus Christ until next Sunday. Devil doesn't care. There's no persecution. You're on his side being lulled to sleep. So those, be careful because those who are the most passionate for God are often on the devil's hit list.

There's a target. And I don't like getting the emails. People say, brother, we're in the Netherlands. Listen to you. You've got a big target on your head. Thank you very much. I know. But same with you.

When you go out, but that doesn't really worry me because greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. Now, we're cautious, right? We're not, take heed, lest you fall. We're not prideful in that, but we're like, I know who's got my back as long as I stay abiding in him, anchored to the vine.

He's my front guard. He's my rear guard. He puts that hedge of protection that we all pray about, right? Don't put a hedge. Put a concrete barrier that can withstand a nuclear blast. That's who's got us if we stay within that protection.

But you walk outside that protection and you become easy, an easy target for the enemy. That's how it works. So that's why I believe there's persecution just 30 minutes away. Well, they walked, right?

So it wasn't 30 minutes away. Horseback. 35 miles away. The calling of God and his anointing are a magnet for spiritual trouble. Okay? The calling of God on your life and his anointing. I should clarify what these, because these terms can get a little weird too, I guess.