Set aside all distractions. It's important that you hear this. I wanna talk to you about the difference between the New Age movement, which is a false movement, and the move of the Holy Spirit. We need to be discerning in this hour, because there is a lot of corruption. There is a lot of confusion. There is much deception. We as believers have to be grounded in the Word, focused on Jesus, and walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. There are practices and beliefs that to you may seem harmless. They may seem innocent, but they can negatively affect your spiritual walk. They can cause your mind to be tormented. They can cause you to walk in confusion. And again, ultimately, these beliefs and practices can negatively affect your spiritual walk. Now my goal is not to make you paranoid. It's to prepare you. And so we're gonna address this from a very balanced approach.  Again, be prepared, not paranoid. Be vigilant, not paranoid. Be discerning, not paranoid. This should not be a fear-based approach that we take. Now we could go on listing hundreds of practices, hundreds of beliefs, and hundreds of manifestations of those practices and beliefs. But again, I just wanna cover this in a very, or with a bird's eye view so that you can be equipped with the tools that you need to discern these things for yourself with the help of the Holy Spirit. Now, first of all, what am I talking about? I'm talking about the New Age movement. And when I use the term New Age, there's actually even a lot of debate about what that even entails, what that means exactly. So this covers a wide variety of beliefs and practices, but ultimately it comes down to the belief in self, the worship of self, or the belief in the material world as the divine power. And again, even some in the New Age movement might disagree with the way that I'm defining it, but I think that ultimately one could argue that this is how it should be defined. We won't get into that. Let me just give you some quick examples. For example, things like healing crystals. Now, we understand that crystals naturally form, so crystals aren't evil unto themselves. Rather, it's the belief about the crystals and the practices with the crystals attached to those beliefs that ultimately make up the New Age practice of healing crystals. Now, this, of course, is a counterfeit because you'll notice that the enemy often tries to pervert the power of God, pervert the truth. That's what he does. He twists, he perverts, he corrupts, he deceives. And so whereas the New Age movement has healing crystals, we understand there's no healing in that. We believe in the healing power of the Holy Spirit. So a believer who's not discerning, and I don't say that as a criticism, we all need to grow in discernment. We could all be more discerning. So this by no means is condemnation to the believer who maybe is ignorant of those things. And I don't use ignorant as an insult. I'm saying that in the literal sense. In other words, some believers just don't know or they're new to the faith. And so they're not aware of the fact that it's not a matter of merging some old belief system and then trying to superimpose that on the scripture. No, when you follow Jesus, it's a whole new way of being. It's a whole new way of thinking. So it's not that we take hints of ideas from our old belief systems and then try to merge them with the scripture. It's not that we're adding Christianity or adding the Holy Spirit. Rather it's that that replaces everything. It becomes the new framework through which we judge all things. So again, this is an example and I'm not necessarily as I said at the top of the broadcast going to go into all of the specifics. Otherwise we could be talking for hours and then you would leave this broadcast not necessarily discerning but worried about every little thing.  Not just specifically, but in general. So again, it's healing crystals versus the power of the Holy Spirit. So one might say, well, what's the difference? Both result in miracles, both result in healing. Well, the difference is the source of that power. It's not the universe that heals. It's not the crystal that heals. It's not the material world that heals or the spiritual world in general that heals. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. And then we have another warping, which is meditation. Now meditation is a biblical concept. So don't get hung up on the terms and I think sometimes that's what we do when we're paranoid. We get hung up on the terms. So if I say that we ought to meditate, Christians get freaked out if they don't understand that that's actually a biblical term. Just read Psalm chapter one verses one through three. But you meditate on the word. So ungodly meditation says empty your mind. Godly meditation says fill your mind with the word. Meditation is simply repetition and thought.  Now again, ungodly meditation says empty your mind, think about nothing, want nothing, connect to the oneness that they claim is God. But again, this is meditation versus godly meditation or the counterfeit for prayer. And it's a demonic counterfeit for prayer. Another example would be yoga. Now, when I refer to yoga, I'm specifically talking about the principles that have become a religion unto themselves that one applies to try to gain spiritual growth apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. So I'm not talking about stretching. I'm not talking about poses. I'm talking about the belief system that tries to gain spiritual growth again outside of the work of the Holy Spirit. So the principles within that belief system are in some sense a warping of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And this of course is a perversion, astrology. This is to say that the stars and the planets determine the various outcomes in my life or can predict various outcomes or are significant for how I ought to live my life or how my life ought to be informed, I should say. But we don't go by stars and planets. We go by God's sovereignty, God's wisdom. And again, there are other forms of this, other forms of perversion like manifesting where you pull from the power of the universe and thought and cause things to come into existence and play out just as you wish. The Bible does talk about the fact that as a man thinks so easy, but this isn't necessarily the same thing as what you would see in the New Age movement. So again, there are similarities. There is a slight twisting and this is why it can be difficult to discern the differences between these or this is why it might be difficult for some to perceive that which is evil in these New Age practices. In other words, they may think it's harmless because it's so similar or it's so seemingly similar, I should say, to what the Holy Spirit is doing. So tarot card reading, this is, you know, of course, fate and prediction and fortune telling psychic power that these people use. But that's a perversion of prophetic gifting where you just simply hear from the Holy Spirit. Now you'll often find as it goes with any belief system that is demonic and man-made, that there is a great deal of complication that comes with these belief systems. That which is man-made or demonic or religious is always very complex, but that which is truly of the spirit of God is always very simple. I mean, you look at it in terms of healing. Where does the healing come from? God says healing power. What should we meditate on? God's word because we're connecting with God himself. Where do we gain our spiritual growth, our spiritual strength, our spiritual vitality from God himself, the power of the Holy Spirit? Where do we gain that wisdom and direction and guidance? Well, that comes from God himself, the genius mind that belongs to Father God and only Father God. And then tarot card, where do you gain this insight for your fate and for the future and for direction for your everyday life? Well, not that, of course, first the word, the more sure word of prophecy, but then also gifts of prophecy that are led by the Holy Spirit himself. So again, I could go on and on, we can go hours covering this, but I don't think that's necessary. Rather, I wanna give you biblical principles, tools that you can put in your pocket and those tools can really become the lenses through which you see all things. And as long as you're looking through the lens of scripture, you're gonna be able to discern for yourself what these things actually are or what spirit they are of. So we can go on to many more. Ultimately, the New Age movement is about the worship of man. Now again, even those in the New Age movement will argue, they say, oh, he's ignorant. Oh, he needs to study more. Oh, he doesn't understand what the belief system actually says. But again, I think that it could be made, the argument could be made, that ultimately it's the worship of self. Ultimately, it's the claim, I am God. Ultimately, it's the claim that man is God, that you are God. And we understand that there is only one God. There is only one God and you are not him and I am not him. God is God, we are not. And that's the whole basis of salvation. We're not the whole basis, but I think it's an important truth in regards to what we believe about salvation. That we are helpless to save ourselves. But apart from him, we've fallen into sin and a sin nature. Yes, we were created in his image, but we are not the light. We are reflections of his light when we live according to how he calls us to live. So again, ultimately, it's man worship. It's the worship of creation over worship of the Creator.  And it says, look to self, look within.  I'm talking about the Holy Spirit within you. When I say the gifts of God are already in you, the spiritual gifts are already in you, I'm not saying they're in you, in and of yourself. I'm saying they're in the person of the Holy Spirit. So we look not to ourselves, not to our inner man, but to our innermost being being the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, we look to God who lives within us. So that subtle distinction is often why people have trouble discerning the difference between these two different sources of power. So number one, the Holy Spirit points to Jesus himself over man. The Holy Spirit does not point to man. The Holy Spirit does not point to the material world. The Holy Spirit does not point to creation. The Holy Spirit ultimately points to Jesus himself. And I'm wording it that way with great intention. And I'm gonna explain that in just a moment because there's a great deception even over this because there are some who will claim, well, yes, we're looking to Jesus. Yes, we see Jesus as God, but then there's a subtle way that they twist that, that not many people catch. I'm gonna expose that here this evening. Let's go to John chapter 16. I'm gonna read verses 13 through 15 to serve as the base for this particular point. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. Verse 14, he will bring me glory. This is Jesus speaking, by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine. This is why I said the Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me. So ultimately, the person of the Holy Spirit points to Jesus, not man.  Simple words, look to Jesus. I want you to write that boldly and publicly. Look to Jesus. Why? Because we don't rely upon self. We don't have power within us apart from God. I heard a great example of how this might be demonstrated. I can't say it encapsulates all of the truths wholly, but it serves as a great marker, if you will, for our reference of thought.  Together you make 10. So it's not necessarily that we have value in and of ourselves, or that we have power in and of ourselves, or that we have reflection of light in and of ourselves. It's rather our position in God, our connection to God, that gives us any joy or peace or power. Jesus said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. Apart from me, you can't do anything. So Jesus himself is the source, and many are trying to build what God told them to crucify. So the New Age movement is about building self, receiving of self, the reinforcing of self, even though they might talk about things like ego death. Ultimately that's not what it is. Matthew 16, verses 24 through 26 say this, then Jesus said to his disciples, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way. Take up your cross and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it, but if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worse more than your soul? Now here again is where I said that you have to be aware of these subtle deceptions. So Jesus here is basically very clearly telling us, you have to give up your life. You have to let go of self, not to discover your oneness with creation, not to discover your oneness with some great consciousness. No, rather to abandon self is to embrace Jesus himself. Now here's why I word it that way, because some in the New Age movement will talk about things like Christ consciousness and say that he was a great example of someone who reached enlightenment but really is paving the way for the rest of us outside of himself in some way. Ultimately, of course, they believe when everything's connected, but they'll say things like, oh yeah, Jesus is a great example. Oh yes, Christ consciousness. Oh yes, he ascended to enlightenment, but this is why that subtle distinction has to be noted. We are not saying that Christ shows us a way or that Christ teaches us how to be.  So it's not in being like Jesus that we find what they would call enlightenment, but it is in Jesus himself. He is the substance. He's not just an example. He's the substance itself of life and truth. We don't just look to Christ for the way. He didn't just show the way or show the way to enlightenment. We look to Jesus himself. He doesn't just show the way, he is the way. He doesn't just point to the truth, he is the truth. It's not about who we are, it's about who he is and how who he is can transform who we are. So again, he's not just a great example of reaching oneness with the universe. He's not just a great example of reaching oneness with this consciousness. That's what the New Age movement might label him as. And again, some might argue that that's not exactly how they word it, but if we're comparing it with scripture, we can see the deception and of course, we know that scripture has ultimate authority. So I'm gonna go with what the scripture has to say on these matters, not with someone in a false or demonic movement has to say. So when it comes to Jesus, we're not just saying, and again, this is that subtle distinction, we're not just saying he is a way or that he points the way. We are saying he himself is the way. He's not an example, he is the truth. He doesn't just point to enlightenment, he is truth itself. So again, we are not light in and of ourselves. We are reflections of his light and he is the light. Number two, the Holy Spirit declares the truth about Jesus. Now here I wanna balance this. Because I find that when you operate in fear, you excuse your own discomfort as discernment. Discomfort is not discernment. Write that in the comment section. Discomfort is not discernment. You know, we in the church really need a grasp on what it means to be discerning. I often watch videos that my friends post or sometimes I'll quietly tune into a live stream of a fellow believer who I enjoy listening to. And sometimes I'll see the comments and people will write things like, I have a really strong feeling of discernment here. Or they'll say things like, you have to use discernment with this guy. And I'm thinking news flash, you have to use discernment with everybody. But the way they use the term discernment shows me that they believe that discernment is a negative thing. In other words, use discernment or be critical of this one. Or use discernment, avoid this one. And then what happens is highly critical people all find each other and they become validated in each other's criticisms. What do I mean by that? They'll say things like, you know, I had a feeling about this guy and I stopped watching him. Or I had a feeling about that woman and I stopped watching that woman. And now that I see that you're criticizing them too, that shows me I was right. And so it's confirmation bias with a bunch of people who are coming together being highly critical and validating each other in their own criticism. But that's not discernment, it's just criticism. That's discomfort. And rather than admit that maybe they weren't hearing the Holy Spirit, which is very difficult to admit, they just double down and say, no, I had a bad feeling and therefore it must be true that they were not of God. So that's operating out of fear. I know that that's not always what we should be doing. I myself, I'll just throw myself out there. I myself have watched certain ministers and because of the way they presented themselves or because of something that they said that I disagreed with, or maybe their personality or their tone or a certain inflection or maybe just the way they look, we judge by these things, whether we admit it or not, we judge by these things. And in those instances, I would say, oh, I don't know, something, something doesn't sit right here. And I thought I was being discerning. And then once I got to know the individual, once I got to take a closer look at their doctrines, once I got to see what they were actually saying, not just what I perceived that they were saying, I would say, oh my goodness, I had it wrong. That wasn't the Holy Spirit. That was just me being uncomfortable with something that's very different than I'm used to. Now I say that because I wanna balance this point. Well, we should be aware, hyper aware and hyper discerning and very, very, very careful about where we receive truth from. We also have to make sure that we're using the proper measurement of discernment. For example, there are many believers who minor on majors and major on minors. They'll dismiss a believer because, oh, they believe this particular thing about tongues or they believe this about the gifts of the Holy Spirit or that's what they believe about tithing or that's what they believe about the last days or that's what they believe about church structure. And so what ends up happening is we begin to major on minors and because somebody is different than us or sees things differently than us or interprets the scripture differently than us on some of the side issues, we in our ego become so worked up that we feel validated in dismissing them and saying it's discernment. We have to be humble and we have to realize that our discernment has to come from the Holy Spirit not from our own discomfort and the Holy Spirit is never gonna contradict the word. So granted, within the body of Christ there are a variety of different beliefs but then there are some non-negotiables, for example, that Jesus came to earth in bodily form, that Jesus is God, that Jesus rose again from the dead in bodily form, that Jesus lived the sinless life, that the word of God is the inspired or that the Bible is the inspired word of God, that salvation is by grace through faith. These are what you would call fundamentals of the faith and if there's an agreement on these particular issues then there shouldn't be anything that disrupts the unity between believers. But again, we in our ego want everyone to agree with us on everything. Look, I'm friends with some believers who are Calvinists, I'm not a Calvinist, but I have friends who are Calvinists. We have people here on staff who don't believe in the slaying power of the Holy Spirit when you see the people fall over. Now, I believe I have a biblical construct to defend that, but I'm not gonna dismiss them or fire them or disconnect from them just because they don't believe that. It's not a salvation issue. There are some believers who I'm friends with, very close with, who don't believe in the gift of speaking in tongues or that it's for today or they don't believe in the gift of healing operating today. Now, we disagree on these things but we agree on the fundamentals. Now, why am I saying this? Because we have to learn what discernment is.  Discernment is not you looking at something going, well, I've never seen that method before so I have an issue with it. Now, granted, some people can be foolish and there are certainly foolish, fleshly displays even in the midst of a move of the Holy Spirit and this is why I often say, don't add with your flesh to what the Holy Spirit is doing in his power. For example, if the Holy Spirit's moving and it can be emotional sometimes in his presence, sometimes there are people who will just get hyper emotional because they're so caught up in the moment and the Holy Spirit took them here and they took it the rest of the way and they began to act in the flesh. So they add to with their flesh what the Holy Spirit is doing in his power and so that can happen at times but that doesn't mean that the person is demonic or evil. For example, there were people for years who had a discomfort with the way that I use social media to reach people. This was, my goodness, like we're going, I wanna say 2006, 2007 that we started using live streams in social media. We were live streaming before live streaming was a thing. We didn't have very many viewers because nobody was watching live stream because it wasn't a thing but we started doing that and there were some who were very uncomfortable with it and would come to me later and say, hey, I wanna apologize. I thought I was being discerning. I was just uncomfortable with your method or personality conflicts.  Some people who have strange looking hair or they have a different sounding voice or maybe they have a threatening demeanor because they're really tall and there's a certain bone structure to their face. I mean, I'm telling you, these are things that often cause us to have discomfort and we don't even realize it but if we're always gonna retreat to this idea that, oh, it's the discernment of the Holy Spirit and I'm definitely right, well then that's just ego and you gotta be careful with that because you can be wrong sometimes. It's not right just because you believe it's right. So I'm gonna give you some scripture here. This is important but I want it to give you that thought of what discernment is not. Discernment is not just discomfort. Now, granted, and I wanna make sure I'm being clear here so you don't hear what I'm not saying, when something is demonic, when something is not of God, it will make you uncomfortable but that doesn't mean that every time you're uncomfortable it's not of God. I'll give you one more example and then I got two very important portions of scripture to read here. My brother-in-law founded a band. It was a hardcore band. For those of you who don't remember hardcore, it was very, how shall I say, it was very intense music. Now, if you were to ask me if I like hardcore music, it's just not my preference that you're not gonna ever catch me pulling up in my vehicle listening to hardcore music with the drums and the guitar. I can appreciate it. I'm sure it takes skill to play any kind of music and I can appreciate that there's a whole subculture who enjoys that kind of music. So I went to go support my brother-in-law who by the way, it was a Christian band who by the way would evangelize at their concerts. So he begins this concert and I watched as he preached the gospel. I'm talking repent of your sins. Only Jesus can save you. Put your faith in him. He died on the cross. He presented the gospel like pure and simple Bible, straight Bible gospel. People went to the altar, got saved. Guys, demons manifested in those clubs, in those concert venues where kids were getting delivered from demonic possession, full-on possession, full-on exorcisms happening as they're praying. And you got to imagine this. They're in a secular venue and people are just watching all of this happen. Just they were getting angry with them. They would cuss them out and try to kick them out but they didn't care. They were bold in their faith, in their stance and people would get saved. And I'll never forget there was a group of people who were saved. The Holy Spirit moved. Here's some people who came into the faith now. And as they're leaving the venue, there's a lady that's telling everybody outside, I don't know, something doesn't sit right in my spirit. And she began to say the Holy Spirit was grieved. Now I sat through that concert, way in the back with some earplugs and I watched what happened. Sure, of course, the venue wasn't a godly one but they took the gospel into that place. The music was very harsh, the lights very dim but the gospel was preached, people were saved. And there was lasting fruit from those gospel presentations where people would actually, there was a change in lifestyle. They repented of their sins. But this woman was, she could not get over the sound of the music. She could not get over the fact that the lights were dim. And because of that, she in the self righteous point of view began to affirm her own discomfort by blaming it on the Holy Spirit. I just, this just doesn't sit right. And she would, she said, the Holy Spirit is grieved. And I'm sitting there, I go, no he's not. I didn't sense anything that would grieve him. And it wasn't just because it was my brother-in-law. I would have told him if that was the case. But that's an example of somebody using their own personal discomfort to say, well, you know, it's the sermon. Now why am I giving you this? Because we have to be balanced in our approach. We have to be balanced in our approach. We cannot criticize somebody as operating in another spirit just because they use a different method. We cannot criticize somebody who operates in a different, we can't criticize somebody saying that they operate in a different spirit just because they believe a little differently than we do. For example, I've seen people accuse those who believe in healing, that's a different spirit. Those who believe in the gift of tongues, oh, that's a different spirit. Those who believe in deliverance, people will look at that and say, oh, that's a different spirit, why? Because they're uncomfortable with something that's a little different than they're used to, or even that is a little different than what they believe. So what is the key then to true discernment? Remember, this is number two, the Holy Spirit declares the truth about Jesus. That's the core message. First Corinthians chapter 12, I'm gonna read verses one through six. First Corinthians chapter 12, verses one through six. Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the spirit gives us, talking about the spiritual gifts, I don't want you to misunderstand this. There's a lot here. Let's break down some of the historical background or the cultural background, I should say, and then we'll continue on to verse two. There was a saying that went to live like a Corinthian. It was like the ancient world's equivalent of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I don't believe that for a second because what happens in Vegas is revealed in heaven, but here they have this saying to live like a Corinthian. What did it mean to live like a Corinthian?  So that culture, the Corinthian culture was, was infected by demonic belief. People moved in demonic power, psychics and healers and fortune tellers and you name it, there was, and we're all sorts of demonic manifestations of power there. So when Paul is writing to the Corinthians, he's writing to former pagans, former pagans who knew what it was to operate in supernatural power, though it was not the power of the Holy Spirit. So if there is a text that we should look to for helping us discern between the move of the Holy Spirit and this demonic new age movement, it's right here. So he's saying, I don't want you to misunderstand this. You gotta get this right. In other words, he doesn't want them confusing this power, the power of the spiritual gifts, the power of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't want them to confuse this with that former power in which they operated, which was demonic power. So here's what he says, verse two. You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. So he's not hesitant here, but he's laying down some groundwork. He's saying, look, this is how you used to be. This is the power you used to function in. I don't want you to misunderstand this. I don't want you to be confused on this. So, and what's the response? Here's the solution, verse three. So I want you to know that no one speaking by the spirit of God will curse Jesus. Very simple solution he has here. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. Now, just as a side point here, I want you to notice that this is alluding to the Trinity, spirit, Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But what's key here is he says, look, I don't want you to be confused. I don't want you to get this mixed up with your former way of living. So here's how you discern it. Here's how you can tell if it's godly power and how you can tell if it's demonic power. I want you to know that no one speaking by the spirit of God will curse Jesus. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now here, he's not talking about the phonetic pronunciation of the phrase Jesus is Lord. Pagans can say the phrase Jesus is Lord. And yes, even demon-possessed people can say the phrase Jesus is Lord. Contrary to popular belief. There are wicked people who can say Jesus is Lord. There are even people stuck in the New Age movement who can say Jesus is Lord. So he's not talking about the phonetic pronunciation. He's not talking about actually saying those words. Not like a password where, hey, Jesus is Lord. And if you say Jesus is Lord, that you can therefore get away with whatever you want. That's not what the Bible is saying. That's not what Paul is writing. Rather, he's talking about the message that goes along with that power. He's talking about the source of that power. How do you discern it? It's what they do with Jesus. It's are they speaking of the true Jesus? So you don't judge the message necessarily by the methods. You judge the methods by the message they're speaking. Granted, and this needs to be made clear. There are people who can move in the power of the Holy Spirit, true power, who can preach a true gospel and still use foolish methods. Okay, I'll use myself as an example so that we can just be clear on what I'm talking about here. For example, when I first discovered that when I would lay hands on people that sometimes they would feel like this jolt go through, I can't explain that. I have a blog on it online kind of giving my view on it. There's a biblical structure to why I believe that. You can't find it in anyone chapter and verse, but that doesn't mean you can't find it in principle in the whole of Scripture. And I think that needs to be noted. But when I first figured this out, like I remember laying hands on people and it wasn't like I would say this is what's gonna happen or here's what you can expect. I just noticed it started happening and I think it was an overflow of what I was experiencing in my own time of prayer. But I became so fascinated with that that I would make the meeting about that. And the Lord had to correct me in that it's not about that. And it became just kind of a display of power for the sake of display, not for impartation, not to see people set free, not for people to have an encounter with God. Those are all good reasons, but I just wanted to see it happen. So for the sake of it, the manifestation itself. And I've seen, as I've been in church pretty much my whole life, I've seen very foolish displays that people in the flesh used to add to what the Holy Spirit is doing. Now, does that mean that the person is false? Does that mean that the movement is false? Not necessarily all the time, but you have to look at what is the message of that movement. What are they doing with Jesus? So what I'm talking about here is balance. Not so paranoid that you dismiss everyone who might be a little foolish, who might be a little different than you're used to, any one of those things, and not be so relaxed with our discernment that we just take anything and everything. Look at the teachings, look at the doctrines. Do they contradict this overall message of Jesus being Lord? Do they contradict something fundamental in the faith? And that is true discernment. Discernment comes by the word through the Holy Spirit. Not your emotions, not the way you perceive things, not the way you feel about something in the moment, not because something's a little bit different, but it comes by the word of God through the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance what the scripture says. And so we have to be mature in our approach to these things. So when we're talking about the New Age movement, you gotta be discerning, not critical, not paranoid, but discerning, comparing it to the scripture. First John 4, one through three, another important portion of scripture here. Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the Spirit they have comes from God. Four, there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God. If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the Spirit of the antichrist which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. So it's possible that you get maybe a zealous minister who preaches the true gospel, serves the true Lord, is a born-again Spirit-filled believer who may be a little foolish in their presentation. God will correct that. But that's different than a false prophet who's coming in an entirely different Spirit and we gotta be gracious in our discernment. We have to be very by the book biblical but also very gracious in how we apply these things. It's a balancing act and the Holy Spirit will help us do it. So again, that's number two. The Holy Spirit declares the truth about Jesus. What is the message they're preaching? Are they preaching Jesus? Are they aligning themselves with the fundamentals of the faith? And then from there you discern, not criticism, not personal discomfort but actual discernment from the scripture. So am I excusing foolish behavior? Am I telling you to let your guard down? No, I'm simply saying when you do discern use the scripture by the Holy Spirit and this way you avoid the extremes of dismissing maybe or being, how shall I say this? Yeah, of dismissing a move of the Holy Spirit because it's a little different than you're used to and of also just embracing anything and everything, balance and all things. Number three, the Holy Spirit points to Jesus over power. Now this is so important. So number one, just to help differentiate these two, the Holy Spirit points to Jesus himself over man. So the Holy Spirit doesn't point to you as the source, points to Jesus as the source and Jesus himself, not Jesus showing away but Jesus as the only way. And then number two, we saw that the Holy Spirit clears the truth about Jesus. Look at the message. Guys, this isn't me, this is Bible I'm giving you. True discernment is based upon scripture and the scripture tells us their message and their belief and their teaching about Jesus himself is what is the basis of discernment, is the basis of discernment. Number three, the Holy Spirit points to Jesus over power. Now you'll notice with the New Age movement there's demonstration of power but no Jesus. And I fear that we are welcoming charismatic witchcraft into our churches. If there's no mention of Jesus, that is a major red flag. A major, and I'm not saying they have to say Jesus, every 100 words, they have to use the word Jesus. I'm talking about the overall message that they declare. Is it Jesus centered? Because I've been in services where there's incredible gifts of prophecy or incredible gifts of healing or incredible moves of deliverance or even other forms of miracles that cannot be explained yet there's no mention of Jesus. Acts 1-8 tells us the purpose of power but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Why were we given power to preach Jesus? What is the purpose of prophecy to point to Jesus? What is the purpose of the gift of healing to point to Jesus? What is the purpose of deliverance ministry to point to Jesus? What is the purpose of any manifestation of God's power ultimately to point to Jesus? Now 1 Corinthians chapter two verses four and five tells us, and my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied on the power of the Holy Spirit. So there we see the Holy Spirit's power backing that message. I did this so you would not trust in human wisdom but in the power of God. So there again, we see this pairing of the Holy Spirit's power for the purpose of the message declaration. Power is a means to an end. It's not the purpose itself. Now let's balance this again because often those who are highly critical of moves of the Holy Spirit will label any mention of power, any mention of healing, any demonstration of power as focusing on the power. That's not necessarily the case though it can happen. Just because you pray for the sick or because you demonstrate power, you believe in the power of the Holy Spirit or even pray for a move of power, that doesn't mean you are focused solely on power because that often is a manifestation of moves of God wherein you are seeking Jesus himself. But we can become distracted when we shift our view from knowing Jesus to just looking to his hand.  The new age movement gains ground whenever we are trained to look to power instead of the person. The new age movement can only gain ground, it can only pervert biblical teachings, it can only infiltrate the church if we're not Jesus focused. The moment you bring it back to Jesus that message doesn't stand a chance at overtaking things. The moment you bring it back to Jesus himself that's the protection against things like the new age movement. By the way, this can apply to more than just the new age movement. This can apply to any demonic or ungodly belief system.  You fix your eyes on him because if it becomes about deliverance and not the deliverer, healing and not the healer, power and not the person, you're in danger. You are distracted and you need to get back to looking to Jesus himself. Power is not the goal, it is a means to an end. It's to proclaim the message, it's to spread the kingdom power and it's to spread the kingdom of God. But it in and of itself is not the goal. The goal is Jesus. The goal is connection with him, knowing him, loving him, being like him. So to recap, the Holy Spirit points to Jesus himself over man, not Jesus as someone who points the way but Jesus who is the way. That subtle distinction is often used to pervert the truth. The Holy Spirit declares the truth about Jesus. Now I have to be very careful here. Let me say this again, just to make sure we're clear. I am not excusing foolish behavior, nor am I saying that we should be relaxed in our openness to receiving things from the new age movement. Rather what I'm saying is use true discernment and true discernment is not just your discomfort. So we mustn't be so emotional and immature about our approach to it that we're labeling men and women of God as false simply because they're operating in a different method. That's phariseic, that's religious. But at the same time, we shouldn't be so open to everything that we lack true discernment which is to look at the primary message of what's being declared because the Holy Spirit declares the truth about Jesus. And again, for reference on that, look at 1 Corinthians 12, 1 through 6 and 1 John 4, 1 through 3. Finally, the Holy Spirit points to Jesus over power. If power itself is the sole focus, you're in danger.   You get to Jesus, you're safe. So I can point to you a thousand different things. Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, or I could simply say cling to Jesus. And in clinging to Jesus, you'll have the discernment you need to avoid everything that's ungodly. When you open these doors, you become vulnerable to attack. And maybe you've opened these things in ignorance, maybe you've practiced these things because you thought, oh, well, I thought I just added Jesus or added the Holy Spirit's power to a former belief system, that's just not the case. It is an entirely different framework. This is why I've been very vocal about some of the harmful teachings in the area of deliverance where we're taking from the New Age, things like soul ties, things like what is normally understood to be a generational curse. And we bring these teachings from witchcraft in the New Age and we try to force them into biblical doctrines. Now you have mixture. But maybe in our ignorance, we embrace certain things. I'm here to say God is a God of mercy and we make mistakes, but that doesn't mean we don't need to repent. You absolutely have to repent. Turn from these things. Just say, Jesus, Lord, forgive me. And you may say, well, it has a demon enter me. Look, if your spirit filled, it hasn't entered you, but it may have greater influence in terms of its attacks like deception and torment and so forth. It's very simple. Resist the devil and he will flee. There's no incantation to pray. There's no ritual you have to undergo. It's very simple. Just say, Lord, forgive me. I'm turning from that now. Turn to Jesus and don't let the enemy try to fill your mind with fear. Here's what the Bible says in Luke chapter 11 verses 9 through 13. And so I tell you, keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives. Everyone who seeks finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be open.  Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not. So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Just ask him, Lord, let the Holy Spirit have influence in my life. Help me to be discerning. Help me to be more informed. Help me, Lord, to walk in your ways and not in the ways of the world, not in the ways of demonic belief systems or worldly belief systems. Stay grounded. Stay grounded in Jesus. And I promise you, you'll walk in freedom. So Father, I pray for your people. First Lord, I pray for those who participated in New Age practices without even realizing it. I come against every attack of the enemy and I command every lying spirit to be silent. Fill your people with godly sorrow and repentance. Help them, Lord, to face forward, to put those things aside, to forget about what is behind and press on toward the goal. Thank you, Lord, that you forgive them, you restore them and you liberate them. Simply and instantly, we thank you, Father. And now I pray, Lord, you would give us discernment by your word. Help us not to use our emotions or intellect alone in discerning these things. Remind us of your word. Make us people of your word, I pray. We might be grounded. In Jesus' name, we pray. I want you to say it as you believe it's saying. He wants to fill you with peace. Just receive it. There is now therefore no condemnation. No condemnation. Get it right and move on. Well, if you enjoyed that message and you think others need to hear it, don't forget to leave a like on this video. Helps to spread the message everywhere. And if you haven't done so already, make sure you are subscribed to our channel. I believe over 50% of you who watch us have yet to subscribe. So subscribe if you wanna receive more content like what you just heard. And I wanna give you an opportunity to join hands with our ministry and its mission around the world. The vision of our ministry is quite simple. We wanna spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit through events and media. We are laser focused on hosting events around the world where people are saved, healed, delivered and empowered. And we are laser focused on using media to spread the teachings of scripture, teachings of salvation that people might be set free by the truth. So you can help us in our endeavors. We release the media, we do the live streams, we have the Holy Spirit School, all that media is free. Freely we receive, so freely we give. The events that we do around the world, the encounter services, free. We don't charge a registration fee. Freely we receive, so freely we give. So how do we do that? How do we keep it going? We keep it going through the provision that God gives us and God chooses to use you. The people of God. The ministry is supported by free will offerings from those who receive from the ministry. So if you've been blessed, maybe your life has been impacted. 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If it turns out that, yes, international travel did continue while domestic travel did not, then the question is, why was it done on purpose in order to infect the West, in order to infect other countries? I doubt that. It does not help China to have the U.S. infected. I know that sounds weird, but it does not help China to have the U.S. infected. It does not have China to have its customers infected. China relies on exports. It relies on people buying its products. It relies on people bringing manufacturing capital to China and investing in China. China is still not a wealthy enough country to go on its own. It's still not a wealthy enough country to see the rest of the world destroyed and right to the rescue. It cannot do a Marshall plan for the rest of the world. It is, it just doesn't make any sense for China to, you know, export a virus unless it's a grand scheme of somehow taking over the West. But how, how will they even do that? They don't have the resources for it. They don't have the military for it.  So it just doesn't make any sense. Now, you know, is it right to think of China as a rational calculation? Yes, I think so. They're not fanatics in the sense of Muslim fanatics are willing to commit suicide. They let's assume they want world domination, you know, infecting the rest of the world with a virus does not lead them to closer to world domination. And indeed, it won't and you'll see, you know, I don't think even the Chinese would be that deluded. Now, I guess it's possible, but I think it's unlikely. So the question is, why would they do that? And again, I think it's much more likely, much, much more likely to be absolute incompetence, right? They drove it.  So I think that China clearly covered this up. Then the other thing that's riling people up right now is that China is providing, you know, has a whole propaganda machine, just like the Russians do, just like the Iranians do, but the Russian, the Chinese are, I think, particularly good at it, on Twitter, on elsewhere, basically ramping up fake news and false stories in order to incite Americans. And part of that false information is conspiracy theories, including conspiracy theory that has really upended the life of this woman who serves in the US military, who the Chinese, an official in the Chinese foreign minister has actually accused her of being the agent that brought coronavirus into China, and they're actually accusing America of starting the coronavirus in a sense, an act of war against China. So there's a whole conspiracy theory that the coronavirus is a virus created by the American military and experimented on in the Chinese and it was brought into China by the Americans. And an official in the foreign minister, ministry of China, actually has been, I guess, tweeting about this. So, and by the way, their American conspiracy theory notes, there are plenty of those who have caught on to this. And I think they actually, I think the conspiracy theory that America did it, and this particular woman did it, started in the US and then picked up by the Chinese and reinforced by the Chinese. But I think the origin is some conspiracy theory website nut case here in the US, starting it, and then the Chinese reinforcing it.  And as a consequence, they're trying to shape public opinion, not just in the United States, but primarily, I would say, in the rest of the world. They want to make sure that the rest of the world views China as the victim, and views China as the savior, as the savior. China is going to come up with the best treatment. China is going to come up with a vaccine, which they might. China is is is dealt with us well. China had few deaths. Look at the United States. Look what a mess they've made. Look what a disaster it's over there. Look at Italy, look at Europe, look at the European Union. Look at what a mess it all is. Hey, people, you should follow the Chinese way. So it's a propaganda part of the Chinese propaganda to try to convince the world that of the two models, the model of, you know, democracy, voting, representational government, and authoritarianism, that authoritarianism is the winning strategy.  It's partially to justify to their own people. And partially this is how they gain allies. They gain allies and influence around the world by promoting authoritarianism around the world. So and and of course, America plays really well into this because the United States has fumbled as completely, you know, messed up its response to coronavirus. And as a, you know, the reaction to that is, whoa, the Americans can't do it. The Chinese did a better job. I mean, it's not clear that the Chinese did a better job partially because we don't know how many people actually died in China or actually had the virus in China because of misinformation. But that's the story that the world is hearing. And that's a story I think a lot of people are integrating the same thing. Same thing happened during the financial crisis. And I'll talk about this. I think the beginning of the shift in China towards even greater authoritarianism and towards viewing themselves as a clear alternative model to the United States. I think all of that started in the financial crisis. The financial crisis where, which originated in the United States was caused by the United States, caused by a financial, you know, financial markets seemingly, but really regulations and controls of the federal government, but was viewed by the world as a failure of the United States. And more broadly, the financial crisis was viewed as finding it as a failure of capitalism. And China said, oh, we don't want that. If that's what capitalism is, that's a failure. And of course, remember what the response was of the Bush administration. We're going to have to abandon capitalism in order to save it. We're going to have to bail out the banks in order, you know, to save capitalism. We're going to have to pump huge amounts of money into the economy to save capitalism. We're going to have to do all these anti-capitalist things in order to save capitalism. So it's not like there's a defender of capitalism out there. To counter the story coming out of China, which is, look, capitalism failed. What you should really adopt is our system, our program. We're much more stable. We don't have all this nonsense. Now, of course, that's not really even the right story, even for China, because China went through a devastating time during the financial crisis. But it never, it won't admit it in it, because it's authoritarian, can frame the story the way they want to frame the story. So China is covering up. China is providing false information, fake news, conspiracy theories. Some of it is just a knee-jerk reaction to Trump, who complimented China early on, then turned against China, then was involved in conspiracy theories about China, then now is saying maybe there isn't a China trade deal, and his people are saying maybe there is a China trade deal, and nobody knows if there's a China trade deal. So part of this is you've got this guy in a White House that this is the way he operates. Let's play the same game. But part of it is just the nature of authoritarianism. What is authoritarianism? What authoritarian regimes have to do in order to survive? What are they skilled at doing in order to survive? Well, the skill that coverups, typically covering up their failures, because they don't want their own people to know about their failures. They're very, very skilled at false information, at fake news, as pretending they're very, very skilled with conspiracy theories, because nothing they do can be bad. Nothing bad that happens can be their fault. So they have to create an enemy, and in China the enemy is periodically the Japanese, and often it's the Americans, and sometimes it's the Muslims in Western China, but there has to be some external force to justify whatever failures happen. It can't be the fault of the central government. The central government is infallible. If it's fallible, then maybe we should replace it. And finally, they're very good at censoring opposition voices. Whether those opposition voices are talking about representational government, or whether they're talking about freedom of speech, or whether they're talking about, hey, there's a virus here, and you're not handling it like the doctor in the heroic doctor Wuhan, who got his wrist slapped for speaking out about the virus, and ended up dying from the virus. And then the numerous other people who are suspected of having just disappeared, who spoke up against the regime in the context of the virus. But this is the nature of authoritarianism. There's nothing different about China than any other authoritarian regime. This is how they function, and this is how they must function, otherwise they will not survive. They cannot exist. In the light of the truth, authoritarianism crumbles, authoritarianism melts, it disappears. Authoritarianism is only built, can only build, can only survive, on a foundation of lies, and deceptions, and misinformation, and cover-ups, and conspiracy theories, and censorship. And that's why they do it. They do it because it's the only mechanism by which they can survive, and they have, they place no value on individual life, or on individual rights, and so on. Now what makes the China case so sad is that there was a real opportunity for this to go in a different path. And I've said this before, but there was a period in China in the, I think late 1990s, mid to late 1990s, and into 2000s, and really probably until about 2009, 2010, when China seemed to be on the path, not only for massive economic liberalization, which they actually did, and opening up the economy and providing kind of a freedom, economic freedom, that to some extent we don't even have here. But it seemed like they were also opening up to more freedom of speech, more internal debate, more acceptance of opposition ideas, of opposing ideas, more openness to bringing in, for example, speakers to speak about capitalism in Ayn Rand, and actually party officials going to those speeches as they determined, and others I know in kind of the free market movement, who were regular speakers in China in those days. And I'd say that continued probably really, I think looking back, it probably started changing in after the financial crisis, and it certainly started changing with Xi coming to power. But it really started changing about four years ago, when a campaign to try to silence opposition views started, and really, you know, it's gotten worse and worse and worse every single year. The police state aspect of the authoritarian nature of the Chinese regime just became worse and worse and worse over the last four or five years. And today, opposition voices are muted. They're afraid or they're in prison. But there's very little opposition within China that's vocal. I know the people that are opposed, so they're there. They haven't gone anywhere. They are muted. They are not allowed to speak. And of course, the Chinese people have not stood up to the authorities. They've not rebelled, have not done a second Tiananmen Square, and we'll get to Tiananmen Square in a minute, because they bought into the story. And the story has been that the Chinese authorities have told them. The story has been, look, China's a big country, lots of different people. It's a crazy place. The only way we can get economic success, the only way you, the people, can become rich is if we stay authoritarian. It's if we control things. So give us, leave us the control. Let us remain the sole rulers. And what we promise you is that you will get rich. You will become middle class. You will gain wealth. You will gain a better life. And that's the devil's bargain. Take our money or take the money that you are producing, right? And leave us alone, right? And you know, I think to a large extent that works. I remember as far back as 2000, I think it was four, first time I was in China. I was speaking to an engineer in China. And I said, yeah, it was 2004 because I was, it was probably October because I was going back or maybe September because I was going back to vote in the US election. So I remember that. So I said, don't you want more of a voice in politics? Don't you want a more representative government? And he said, why do I care? He said, as long as I can get richer every year, as long as my standard of living goes up, as long as my quality of life goes up, what do I need to vote for? And that's a bargain. I think a lot of people, particularly coming out of severe oppression of communism and the Mao, it's a bargain a lot of people would take. I want to be richer every year. I want to be economically freer every year. I want to be able to pursue my economic freedom. I want to be able to make a lot of money. I want to be able to buy the stuff I want. I want to be able to travel around the world. I don't care about voting. I don't really care that much about even expressing my opinions about politics. And in no, and from 2004 on, my general sense was, and this is the sense people in China told me, is you could speak your mind. As long as you didn't directly criticize the Communist Party, you could speak your mind of particular issues. I mean, different provinces were a little different. But generally, there, and I spoke about this, remember, both my books say in Chinese, Free Market Revolution, was published in Chinese. Equal is unfair, that book back there, was published in Chinese. All of Ayn Rand's books were published in Chinese. And the only one that they hesitated about was capitalism, not an idea, because there was something in it critical of Mao. So as long as you didn't criticize the Chinese party, you were pretty much left alone. And under those circumstances, the people left a party alone. The problem is that that, I think, is starting to break down. There is no question that there was a lot of anger in Wuhan, Wuhan, sorry Wuhan, over the government's response to COVID. A lot of people have died. And the way they were treated, they were not happy with. I'm sure there is a lot of angst within China about the horrible, horrible economic conditions that are in China today. People's quality of life, standard of living, are really threatened. Economic production is down, GDP is down, imports are down, because consumption is down, because people either don't have money or don't want to spend money because they rather save it because of an uncertain future. Fewer jobs, massive job destruction in China because of coronavirus. And because, by the way, not only coronavirus in China, and this is my idea about why would they want to export this? Because by exporting this, they shut down the U.S. economy. By shutting down the U.S. economy, they've shut down and destroyed millions of jobs in China. Because we're not buying their stuff. So it makes no sense for them to export this virus and cause themselves economic harm. And you don't have to be, you know, super knowledgeable in economics to realize that that's going to happen and the Chinese know enough to know that that's exactly what's going to happen. So the Chinese are suffering significantly economically. Now they started economically slowing down before the coronavirus because of the consequences of all the stuff they did coming out of the financial crisis. They did a stimulus package that makes ours look tame and small in comparison. Stimulus packages suppress economic growth long-term. They suppress investment. They distort investment. They keep bad companies alive and restrict or, you know, make it very difficult for the kind of creative destruction where bad companies go out of business, good companies coming to existence, that that process happens. So I'd say over the last 10 years, the Chinese economy has not been doing as well as the Chinese pretend. Not enough people have come out of poverty. Not enough people have become rich. Well, many have. And I think China has grown more and more and more afraid. You see so many of our leaders and so many of the commentators and so many of the people I see on TV think that China is this confident giant that is assured of its own capabilities and is engaged in the world from a position of self-esteem. I think it's exact other way around. I think China is deeply, and the Chinese Communist Party is deeply afraid of its own people. I think it's deeply afraid of a revolution. They're deeply afraid of losing power. And they come at the world from a position of massive insecurity. So yes, they're aggressive, but they're aggressive, you know, from a position of weakness, not a position of strength. China is not strong in any dimension. It's not strong militarily. It's not strong economically. It couldn't survive economically without the rest of the world having a robust economy and buying their products. Because they don't have freedom with China. And even economic freedom that they had that produced the wealth that got them to where they are today that has also been in decline over the last couple of years. More and more central planning. More and more control from the top. More and more Xi dominating decision-making. And as a consequence, China, I think, is losing ground. Is weak. Is afraid. Is insecure. And more than anything, it is afraid of its own people. It's not afraid of the United States. Nobody is afraid of the United States. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual, would be any man or woman who is willing to think. Meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, wins, or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism, and impotence, and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist. Using the super chat, and I noticed yesterday when I appealed for support for the show, many of you stepped forward and actually supported the show for the first time, so I'll do it again. Maybe we'll get some more today. If you like what you're hearing, if you appreciate what I'm doing, then I appreciate your support. Those of you who don't yet support the show, please take this opportunity, go to Iranbrookshow.com slash support, or go to subscribestar.com, Iranbrookshow, and make kind of a monthly contribution to keep this going. I'm not sure when the next...