You will become unrecognizable as you're led by the Holy Spirit. You can become the real deal. You can be transformed to be more and more like Jesus. Who you are now isn't who you have to remain. As you are led by the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit begins to manifest in your life. The favor of God follows you. Bondages are broken. Sin, that power over your life is broken. And you begin to walk as Jesus walked. Not only that, your life will begin to impact those around you in a very profound way. When you are led by the Holy Spirit, everything changes. You'll go to greater realms of glory. You'll walk in greater dimensions of power. You'll hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with greater levels of clarity, revelation will flow more freely. Everything about you will begin to change. You won't recognize yourself. I'm talking about true and lasting change. God can do it, but you must be led by the Holy Spirit.  Lead me Holy Spirit. You know, Jesus, he lived as a perfect reflection of the will of God. You and I walk in obedience to God. Yes, that's our goal. And sometimes if we're doing really well, we walk with the Lord even minute by minute. Some maybe in seasons of the stakes, in seasons of stubbornness, in seasons of distraction, they go a little by the wayside and perhaps they walk and step with God on a week by week basis. Sadly, some even on a month by month. But every so often you may find yourself walking minute by minute. Well, Jesus walked not just minute by minute, not just hour by hour, not just second by second. Jesus walked with God down to the very last millisecond. He is, he was, he walked as the perfect reflection of the will of God in the earth. In John chapter five, verse 19, the scripture declares, so Jesus explained, I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing, whatever the Father does, the Son also does. Like a reflection in the mirror, Jesus didn't miss a movement of the Father.   The Holy Spirit is the one who guides us. The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us. The Holy Spirit is the one who helps us day by day. And as we yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, as we yield to that process, we become transformed to be more and more like Jesus. That's my prayer. Lord, let my hands be your hands, heal through them, work through them.   Let me see everything as you see it.  Allow me to hear your voice.  Tell me where you want me to go. Let my being be your being. Let my heartbeat is one with yours. I wanna disappear in your will. I don't want them to see me when they look at me. I want them to see Jesus. John 3.30, I must decrease, but he must increase. How do you do that? It's by following the leading of the Holy Spirit because you cannot strive your way into being like Jesus. You can only surrender your way into being like Jesus. Let me say that again for those who may be struggling with the bondage of legalism. You cannot strive your way into being like Jesus. You can only surrender your way into being like Jesus. It is by the Spirit. Galatians chapter five, we'll read beginning at verse number 16. You know, those who are led by the Spirit don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. They don't walk in the flesh. So maybe the key is not necessarily in trying to perfect every little flaw, but instead walking in sync with the Holy Spirit. I'm not saying, for clarity's sake, I have to say this, I am not saying that we embrace that wrongdoing. I am not saying that God will wink at sin or overlook compromise. I'm simply saying that the way to overcome it may be different than you thought it was. Sure, you should exercise willpower. Sure, you should use practical tools like accountability with fellow believers. Sure, you should try and exercise your free will to make decisions that keep you from temptation. But do all of that while remembering that the power to live like Jesus comes ultimately from the Holy Spirit. He will help you as you go, but ultimately it's him. Let's actually read John chapter 14 verse nine before we go into Galatians five. John 14 nine says, this Jesus replied, have I been with you all this time Philip? And yet you still don't know who I am. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. So why are you asking me to show him to you? When you look at Jesus, you see that reflection. When you look at Jesus, you see the reflection of the Father. May it be said of us that when people look at us, they see the reflection of Jesus. How do we get there?  Galatians five, 16 and onward. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Stop there. This is something that requires your participation. This is what I mean when I say, flow with the Holy Spirit. This is what I mean when I say, surrender to the Holy Spirit. It's obeying the directions that come from the Holy Spirit. It's submitting your nature to the nature of the Holy Spirit. In order to fulfill the will of God, you have to obey the word of God. In order to become like Jesus, you have to obey Jesus. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Some might say that there's nothing that we can do to prevent the work of the Holy Spirit within us. That's not entirely true. Sure, ultimately he will accomplish his work because we've been redeemed. But as we exercise our free will, we yield to the process of what God is doing within us. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. So often we focus on the sin nature. And again, I wanna emphasize this because I don't want anyone to take my words out of context. You should do everything within your practical power to resist the flesh. You should do everything within your practical power to resist wrongdoing.  But remember that we should be more focused on living by the spirit than by not living in the flesh. Why? Because if you live by the spirit by default, you cancel out the work of the flesh. So what's the key? I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Let him do it. Obey, trust, yield, flow with him. Then what's the result? Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before that any, please hear this, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. So when someone lives that way, it's proof that the Holy Spirit is not working in them. But the Holy Spirit, by contrast. So that's what happens when you're not redeemed.  That's what happens when you're not truly born again. But the Holy Spirit, what happens when the Holy Spirit is working in us?  But the Holy Spirit produces, who produces the Holy Spirit? He produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Love, that's selflessness. Joy, that's contentment with the presence of God and the happiness that comes from that contentment with that which is eternal. And there is peace. This is peace within, peace with others, peace with God. Patience, this is the ability to endure with the right attitude. Not just endure, but endure with the right attitude. Kindness, this is in how you treat people. Goodness, this is moral excellence and upright character. Faithfulness, this is consistency. This is reliability. This is keeping your word. This is having the character upon which people can depend. Gentleness, this is humility. This is to see yourself in the proper perspective in comparison to who God is and self-control. That is mastery over self and cravings and desires. And when you live this way, now you begin to walk in favor. Now you begin to walk in power. Now you begin to walk in such a way that everything aligns right place, right time, right people, right conditions, right attitude down to the right weather.  You're not constantly trying to force things nor are you trying to fight things away. You're not trying to make things happen and you're not trying to prevent things.  You're walking in obedience and God begins to direct you and God begins to bring the right things along and the right people along and the right connections. And please hear me when I say this, the right disconnections. But it all flows from this place that that peace, that fruit of the Spirit that begins to develop in you as a work, not of your own works, but as a work of the Holy Spirit. Who produces the fruit, the Holy Spirit? Scripture says that clearly it couldn't be more clear. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there. Since we are, so now speaking to believers, since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. This means that that fruit, the nature of Christ, that submission to God's will has to affect every area of your life. Let it affect your parenting. Let it affect your marriage. Let it affect the way you do your job. I'm just gonna talk about this for a second. I might get in trouble, but this needs to be said. It's the truth. We have a problem in our culture today. People are just lazy. And you see it in the way that people attack the idea of a job or working too hard. Now, I'm all for rest. That's a biblical principle. But we have to have balance. And there's this attitude that many, some Christians even have, that a job is beneath them and that they should be celebrated for doing what the Scripture requires of them. Because the Scripture talks about being diligent and working and so if you don't work, you don't eat is what the Bible says. But we have this culture that more and more is beginning to disdain work. And they're confusing responsibility that can add pressure with torture that causes trauma. And those aren't the same things. So we as believers, not only must be led by the Spirit in our parenting, in our marriage and in everything that we do, we should be led by the Spirit in the way we do our jobs. Because the Scripture says, you do everything as unto the Lord.  I know I'm touching on something here. These corporations have enough money and they're not paying me what I'm worth anyway. And I'm thinking, you agreed to work there for that rate. You took the job. You accepted it. Why? Because you needed it. And so this idea that we just kind of do things half heartedly and we commit time theft and resource theft simply because we think the big bad guys upstairs in the boardroom don't deserve it are all, that's just not godly. And I know it's counter-cultural to say that. I know I can get in trouble for saying that. I know that will upset some people because it's been pushed and it's propaganda is what it is. And it's trying to change the mindset of a generation. That's not the whole topic of this message, but that's one thing we certainly should be led by the spirit in the way we do our jobs. The way we work. Why? Because it's a reflection of your character. How you work in that job says more about you than it does about the people in charge. Now I'm not talking about enduring actual abuse or corruption. Just leave if that's the case and trust that the Lord will provide. But you know, we so often complain about these things and then we go on reflecting fleshly nature and we feel justified in it because the ego is so inflated. We think it's beneath us. That's one area. Many people are not led by the Holy Spirit. Be led by the Holy Spirit in the way that you take care of the temple that he's given to you, your physical body. What? No ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and ye are not your own. You've been bought with a price. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. How are you treating the Holy Spirit's temple? How are you treating that physical being which hosts the manifested presence of the Holy Spirit? The indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost in your being? How are you being led in what you watch? How are you being led in what you listen to? How are you being led in your conversations? How are you being led in discerning false teachings? How are you being led in the discipline of your day-to-day activity? How are you being led in how you budget your time? How are you being led in how you budget your finances? How are you being led in how you serve at church? How are you being led in how you interact with individuals? Are you reflecting that kindness? Is the fruit of the Spirit showing? We are to be led of the Holy Spirit in all our ways, in all aspects of our lives. To be led by the Spirit is to become more like Jesus and for your Spirit to take control and have, I think a better way to word it is, for your Spirit to have more influence in your life. Romans chapter eight, I'm gonna read verses five and onward. Those who are dominated by the sinful nature, think about sinful things, did you hear that? You wanna know one of the signs that you're not being led by the Spirit? All your thoughts are sinful. Thoughts of bitterness, thoughts of entitlement, thoughts of lust, thoughts of negativity, thoughts that are deceptive, thoughts that are perverse. Those who are dominated by the sinful nature, think about sinful things. A great test to see if you're led by the Spirit of the flesh. Just monitor your thoughts, observe your thoughts. What is going through your mind constantly? But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit, watch this now, those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit, think about things that please the Spirit. Okay, what is that? That's the word, that's what is lovely, that's what is true, that's what is pure, that's what is noble, that's what is heavenly, otherworldly. Now I'm not saying that you can't interact with this world or even enjoy some of the things that God put in this world. I'm not talking about being so disconnected from this world that you're disconnected from the reality of this world. After all, God created this world and gave it to us. So to pretend like we should deny the existence of the material realities, that's just to live in an unrealistic way. We, as believers, do, however, have to stay focused on the things of God. What dominates your thoughts? This is a great indication of whether or not you're led by the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. So the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. That is such a key. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all. You know that saying, oh, we're all God's children. We all belong to him. Here the Bible says just the opposite. If you don't have the Holy Spirit and you haven't received Christ, you don't belong to God. Not in the way that you are adopted into his family. Verse 10, in Christ lives within you.  The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. What a powerful thought right there. We can just expound on that all day. And just as God raised Christ, Jesus from the dead, he will give, watch this now. Listen to the language being used here. He will give life to what? To your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. That means your physical body, the flesh, as we call the physical body. Remember by the way, side note, sometimes the word flesh is referring to sin nature. Other times the word flesh is referring just to the physical body. Here it's talking about the mortal body, the flesh as in the body, the physical being, which is not entirely sinful. It can be used for sin or for holiness, but that depends upon how you exercise your will. Therefore, so we receive power in our mortal bodies. That means the Holy Spirit works in us even now. And he's helping you to overcome cravings and lust and those old habits of the flesh. Therefore dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. What a liberating thought. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live for all who are led by the Spirit. Our children of God. So how do we have that? Well, far too many Christians are led by their emotions thinking that they're led by the Spirit.  But this is where pride can really prevent us from making progress. Write this in the comments, pride prevents progress. Why? Because pride will never allow you to admit the areas where you need to grow. So let me just say it to you bluntly. You need to become more like Jesus in one area or another. So do I. I'll put myself right there in there with you. We all need to be more like Jesus. All of us have something that needs to change. And day by day, we better reflect that glorious image. But if we are to be led by the Holy Spirit, we have to know His voice. We have to know His voice. And therefore we cannot be so easily swept up by emotionalism. I need to tell you this. And again, please don't allow the flesh, that ego, to cause this defense mechanism to kick in. Of course I'm led by the Spirit. I'm never led by my emotions. None of us get it right all the time. Even some of the most gifted prophetic people I know who are so accurate, it's scary, are fallible. They miss it. Even those who know the word with great precision in one area or another can miss it. And so all of us have to have the humility to admit that we too can at times mistake our emotions for the voice of the Holy Spirit. And we do it more often than we realize. We judge from the exterior. We judge based on personality. We judge based on our preferences. Or we judge based on how we feel. Or what mood we're in. You have to know His voice. How do you know His voice? I'll give you three practical keys for knowing His voice. Remember first that in first Samuel chapter three, when Samuel was called by God, he didn't yet first recognize the voice of God. God was speaking to him. He didn't know it was God. He thought it was his mentor Eli. And so it's possible to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit without recognizing that it's him. In fact, many times we do this in hindsight where we will remember a moment and say, oh my goodness, that was the Holy Spirit speaking to me. Where it will remember a moment and say, oh my goodness, he was talking to me then. I just didn't notice it. And often we recognize in hindsight how often the Holy Spirit tried to get our attention but we were going so fast. We were so distracted. We were so consumed by what we desired that we just moved along, totally ignoring the Holy Spirit, leaving him off to the side and just moving in the flesh. So it's possible that you hear him and not recognize him. Really, there are only three voices that will speak to you. The voice of the Spirit, the voice of the Satanic and the voice of the secular. And I would say maybe there's a fourth, the voice of self, but self can be wrapped up there in the same category as the secular. Self and secular, they don't necessarily contradict the word of God, they contradict the nature of God, which is more subtle. The Satanic contradicts the word of God, but the Spirit aligns with both the nature and the word of God. And so you have these voices constantly speaking to you. Maybe in this world today you are confused. So many messages coming at you from so many different directions and there are all these different ideas being thrown at you and you're on social media, there's a hundred different preachers and a hundred different opinions on any given topic. And there are political opinions, there are social opinions, there are spiritual opinions, there are moral opinions, there are theological opinions, there are your family's opinions. And then there's what's coming through the airwaves on television, through music, through TV shows, through movies and all of these systems and all of these voices are speaking all at once, shouting over one another. In that chaos, sometimes it's difficult to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit to be led by him. So how do you know his voice, recognize his voice, hear his voice amidst the crowd? Well, hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit is not a skill to be acquired. It's not a skill that you can just be taught. You can receive teachings on hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. That's not what I'm saying, but I'm saying it's more nuanced than that. It's not a skill in that I can give you a list of things that will help you to recognize the voice in the sense that I can describe its qualities. Like for example, let me tell you what I mean. Let's say I'm in a room with about 30 people and we're all talking at once. Now you and I meet together pretty much every week. So let's say your job is to pick my voice out of a crowd of 30 people. And if we're all talking at once, you could possibly, if you tune in often enough, you can possibly hear my voice in the midst of that 30 people. And you would say, that one sounds like David over there. That sounds like him. But if you were to just describe my voice to one of your friends who doesn't watch me and then they have to pick me out of that crowd, they wouldn't fare so well.  Let's put them in that room with 30 people. Everyone's talking at once because you know their voice, you'd be able to tell immediately. However, if you explained the quality of their voice, the sound of their voice, the tone of their voice to some stranger and then told them they had to pick them out of that crowd, it would be near impossible for them to do that on description alone. And that's what I mean when I say it's not a skill to be sharpened. I can't just tell you, oh, it's voice sounds like many waters or it's a still small voice or it's very authoritative but loving. And all of those things are true. But even given those descriptions, you wouldn't be armed with exactly what you need. And if I did that, then now I just systemized it.  So it's not a skill to be acquired. It's a sense to be sharpened. How do you explain hearing to a man born deaf or sight to a man born blind? You can't do it. Even if you did, it would be inadequate to explain an entire sense that's missing. So when you were born, you were born with hearing. You were born with sight. You were born with senses. No one had to teach you to see, but you did have to learn to observe. No one had to teach you to hear, but they did have to teach you to listen. And so it's something that you as a born again believer already have that ability to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. You were born again with spiritual senses. And those senses now begin to become sharpened. How? Silence and stillness. Matthew 6, 6, Jesus tells us that when we pray, we need to go pray quietly, privately, where no one else can hear us or see us. There's something to seclusion and prayer. There's something to removing distraction. There's something about going before the Lord when no one else is around, about carving a time out of your day where nothing else matters. And in so doing, you begin to silence the other voices. You silence those distractions. And then there's this inner peace that comes when you begin to worship the Lord, when you begin to read the word. There's this inner peace that comes, it's inner calm now, to where silence is the putting away of outer distraction, stillness becomes the quieting of the soul. And now the secular voices are not speaking. You've worshiped the Lord. You've gone into a place where you're now totally focused on him. And the voice of Satan has been silenced. The voice of the flesh becomes still in prayer. The voice of the flesh becomes quiet when you read the word. The voice of the flesh goes mute when you seek Jesus, when you worship. So now all the voices that were speaking when you go to pray privately, worship, read the word, they begin to go silent.  And now all that's left is the voice of the Holy Spirit. So you need to know the practice of silence and stillness. You need to be in the word in John 15, one through eight. Jesus talks about the fact that he's the true grapevine and that we bear fruit as we abide in him. Well, how do we abide in him? We abide in his word. Look at John 15, seven, but if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask me for anything you want and it will be granted. That's how you abide.  So when you read your Bible, you're not just reading a book, you are fellowshipping with a person, please hear me.  You are abiding when that word is becoming a part of you. Even if you don't see it working, even if it doesn't seem like it's transforming anything, even if it doesn't seem like it's causing any change in you, doesn't matter. Something is happening when you're in the word and you're just abiding, abiding, abiding. And then you obey.  Why is the Holy Spirit gonna give you step two if you haven't obeyed step one? This is why obedience is important when it comes to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. You wanna be led by the Holy Spirit, you have to know his voice. How do you know his voice? Practice silence and stillness. Get in the word, know the word and obey the clear instructions of Scripture. Also, make his joy your priority. You wanna be led by the Holy Spirit, make his joy your priority. Obey immediately. Write this in the comment section. This might sting a little. Delay is disobedience. Delay is disobedience. When you talk about sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit, it's not just about how clearly you can hear him. It's about how responsive you are when he speaks. Let's say you have a sensitive tooth and you're drinking a glass of ice water. The moment that that ice cold water hits the sensitive part of your tooth, there's a reaction. Why?  Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is reactive. Where the moment he has grieved, there's repentance. The moment he is grieved, there's repentance. The moment he speaks, there's obedience.  He says give, you give. He says pray, you pray. He says stop, you stop. He says connect, you connect. He says disconnect, you disconnect. He speaks, you move. You need to practice responsiveness to the Holy Spirit. Don't delay because the more you practice delay, the longer that delay becomes when he speaks. And you have to be willing to make sacrifices. Listen, and you know, on somewhat of a side note here, I hesitate to use the word sacrifice because technically anything that we give to God, he returns to us and then more so, or replaces it with something so much better. So I wouldn't even necessarily call it sacrifice, but we'll use the term because it's the one people are most familiar with and I think it conveys the message I'm trying to communicate. So I'm going to use the word sacrifice which I'm trying to communicate. Namely that there are times when you're going to feel inconvenienced. There are times when you're going to feel like you're losing something. There are times when your heart will ache for what God does not want you to have. There are times that your heart will ache for what God does want you to have. And these are the things that we must go through as the Lord prunes us and processes us. He is the potter, we are the clay. We mold as he moves. We have to be willing to make like Abraham giving up Isaac. You know sometimes God will bless you just to test you to see if what you have is more important to you now than himself. Luke chapter 22 verses 39 and onward. Then accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. There he told them, pray that you will not give in to temptation. He walked away about a stone's throw and now down and prayed. Now this is Jesus in the garden knowing the suffering before him, knowing the pain he would endure, knowing the torture he would undergo. Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine. Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. You've heard it said that you know it's God or you know it's the Holy Spirit when you feel perfect peace. Peace is not always a feeling. It's a knowing. It's a certainty. Just because you have peace doesn't mean you won't know pain. Do you think Jesus lacked peace when he was crucified? No, why? Because peace is a fruit of the Spirit. But was Jesus in agony? Absolutely he was. Being led by the Holy Spirit isn't always going to feel good. Being led by the Holy Spirit isn't always going to mean that you enjoy what you're walking through. Sometimes it will require that you pray as Jesus prayed. Not my will. Your will be done. There are areas in our hearts that we don't want anyone to see and we don't want to give to anybody. There are things in our lives that are unyielded to the work of the Holy Spirit. And we fight God and there's great stubbornness. Scripture often referred to the disobedient as stiff-necked people. Just won't budge. But these areas that we cling to, these things that we try to keep away from the influence of the Holy Spirit, they are destroying the peace. They are destroying that joy. And maybe the Lord is asking you to sacrifice and you're just holding on. And maybe the Lord is telling you to take a step and you're just hesitating. And maybe the Lord is asking you to clean something up and you won't clean it up. Maybe the Lord is calling you to hire commitment and you're just keeping your commitment at the level that's currently. What happened to the surrendered life? Why don't we hear anymore about the death of self? Life yielded unto God. A life poured out like a drink offering. But every drop to where we say, Lord, spend me for your glory. And we resist. And we bargain. And we plead. And we try to negotiate. And God says, just trust me. Just give it to me. You'll find that when you finally let go, please hear me, people of God.  You'll find that when you finally step out in faith, God will meet you there. He's going to meet you there. Nevertheless, not my will. Your will be done. I surrender all. Say that to the Lord right now. I surrender all. In fact, type that in the comments. I surrender all. Father, by your Holy Spirit, teach us to yield. Speak to us clearly, Lord, about those areas in our lives that are not yielded to you. Speak to us clearly, Lord. Show us what's next. Now don't rush this. Even as I'm praying, there's the temptation. The flesh is being drawn away to other things. Entertainment, distracting videos. Focus on what the Lord is doing here. Say no to the flesh. God's doing the work here. I want you to pause for a moment and just yield. When was the last time you just stopped to actively listen for instructions from the Holy Spirit? So Lord, we surrender. Give it to you, Jesus. He's speaking to you now. He's speaking concerning those areas. Give it to him. Lord, I thank you that your power is moving. I thank you that you're bringing deliverance and healing. Let them sense the warmth of your presence even now in the mighty name of Jesus. Touch their lives in a fresh way. In Jesus' name. Listen. If you think others need to hear this message, please share this. Please leave a like because that will help to spread the message all around the world. And let's you and I stay connected. I truly believe that God brought you here for a reason. Let's stay connected. Make sure that you subscribe to this channel and click the bell so that you don't miss a thing.  Be led of the Holy Spirit in your giving now. Don't fight him. Flow with him. Do what he tells you to do. You can give a single gift by going to davidhernandezministries.com slash donate or become a monthly ministry supporter by going to davidhernandezministries.com slash partner, whatever you do, just obey the Holy Spirit and give what he tells you to give. And as I said, that's how you can pay it forward. That's how you can help this content reach more people. Help us continue to produce it and host events around the world that Jesus may be glorified. Thank you and until next time, remember nothing is impossible with God.


ed the payment from the buyer. That's correct. And then that money is put in an escrow account in the accounting department in the town. And then I guess the other question I am gonna ask before I call on the two people who have their hands up, the punch list that was created back in 2019 with by Jason Skeels, do you have any idea what the value of the work was at the time? And if you don't, that's fine, Chris, and we can see if somebody else does. I don't know and I don't know if there was a value put on that punch list, but I can find out. Okay. All right, so Janet, you're the only one with your hand up at the moment. Thank you, Doug, your questions for my questions, I'm wondering what document or when the planning board approved the 130,000 surety, was it just a vote? Was it a document? Was it part of a permit? Like what's, was it an order? Like what, so I guess we don't have that paperwork now, but like what was, what did the planning board do and how do we know they did it? And then also, does anyone have a punch list? Okay, Ms. Krueger. Yeah, I'll take, oops, I'll take a shot at that. I was just rifling through my folder. And of course, I can't find that one piece. It's minutes from that planning board meeting when that was approved. And I think the planner working on it was Nils Lacour, who's no longer with us. We had gotten that in a meeting a few years ago from Ms. Brestrup, so it's in the records. I have it and Doug, you had it because that's the one I brought over that we sent over to Felicity and I just can't get my hands on it, but it's from minutes of the planning board meeting. In terms of the value for the punch list, we don't have that. And what we met with DPW with Tafino in the fall of last year, and there was a negotiation going on about what was gonna stay on the punch list or not. So we're really in limbo because we don't know what the town has agreed to accept from Tafino for that punch list. So we're kind of in the dark about the value. Okay. All right, Mr. DeNel. Yeah, just to clarify. So that was approved by the board on February 7th, 2001. And it's from the minutes of February 7th, 2001 for the approval of 120, basically $10,000 per lot, and it doesn't give a lot of detail, but it's $10,000 per lot and $130,000 total. And would that, the topic that the board was discussing at that meeting, was it approval of a subdivision plan? You were releasing lots. You, I shouldn't say you, the board, excuse me. The board was released. The board was releasing lots. We are institutional. Okay. Yeah, so the, I can read it. The board received a request from Tafino Sissietz, Inc. for the release of lots eight, 20, and 23 at the Meadow subdivision. Mr. LaCour explained that the developer needs to provide surety for the remainder of the work to be completed. Estimates for the amount needed were provided by Tafino Associates in the Town Engineer. Ms. Ellen Stutzman, Representative Tafino Associates said that their estimate was probably higher than the Town Engineers because they included some extras. Frankly, what caught our ear having listened to the meeting several, about a month ago was this was almost identical language that we heard at that meeting. And when Tafino was asking to release lots for Amherst Hills. And it just, it really struck us in that moment, which was why we acted when we did. Unfortunately, you didn't receive a letter from Attorney Hardy at that meeting when you released those lots to Amherst Hills. But we were just struck by that. And here we are 18 years later still trying to get our roads approved. Just actually still trying to get a punch list that both the town and Tafino agree on so that we can estimate the cost and then schedule the roads to be fixed so that then they can go to town council and go through that process to be approved. So we recognize that this is not gonna be a quick process but it hasn't moved at all in 15 years. Okay, thank you. I'm gonna, I'm finally, Mr. Parker, I see your hand and I'm very interested in what you have to say. So this situation is regrettable and it is in some ways significantly different than the Amherst Hills situation. And I think that some history, it bears, it would be useful to recount some history. The last lot was sold in the early 2000s and Doug Cole who was the owner of Tafino along with Gloria McPherson who was a staff person for Tafino completed the road unlike Amherst Hills where the road was never completed. This road was in fact completed and there was a punch list that Jason's skills gave to Tafino and Tafino addressed all but three items on that punch list. Doug Cole and some of which was some pretty significant repairs to the road. The crossing of the brook at the beginning of crossbrook had to be repaired, the guardrail had to be repaired.  I was not involved in that at the time, I worked for Cole Construction but I was not an employee of Tafino and I only knew it by the fact that it was happening out of the same, in the same office. I don't know, I can't speak to why the ball was dropped because none of the people who dropped the ball are around anymore. Doug Cole died in 2010 after the financial crisis of 2008. I didn't learn about this. When Doug Cole died in 2010, I stepped in to try to clear up the unfinished business that Doug had going which was significant, not just in Amherst but in other towns as well. And I've been doing nothing but trying to finish the projects or do what I can to, that Doug was a much beloved developer and had really good intentions and clearly there was a lack of follow-through in some areas. So I didn't learn about this problem until I wanna say 2013, 2014 maybe, it came to my attention. I met out there with Jason, he told me the three items that were the remaining punch list items. I presented them to the owner, to the Doug's heirs. Other priorities, there were other crises, other priorities happened and the work never got addressed. I know that there were, I remember clearly what those three items were. And there were also some missing items on the as-built drawings that Jason wanted which is another task that has to be completed in order for the DPW to feel comfortable in taking the road. So time passed, the road, the completed road is approaching it's the end of its service life. I mean, the service life of a road is 20 years.  I live in Amherst Woods, old farm road has been repaid twice during the time that this road has existed and old farm road has deteriorated twice. So I met in the fall with Connie and Doug and some other homeowners. And I agreed that we would, that I was knee deep in trying to get Amherst Hills roads completed and get the punch lists established.  So I've been trying to deal with that problem. And I said to them that I needed to get one thing done at a time. And I would certainly, I'm very interested, Tafino is very interested in finishing the work. But the question of whether or not the road, the punch list should contain, should include the deterioration of the road is another question altogether. I met with the DPW, I discussed it in broad terms with both Jason skills and with Gilbert mooring. And we agreed that we were revisited this year and discuss whether or not the DPW was comfortable accepting the road and a less than pristine, brand new condition. Because otherwise we're probably talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of, it could very well be hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work. Admittedly, I have not, I also commissioned a lawyer to start drawing up the deeds to transfer the ownership of the open space and the right of way to the town. And I have not followed up in any more concrete way since then. I have discussed it with Jason in broad strokes but it's very hard to get at this moment, it's very difficult to get the turnaround time for any information on DPW is very long. After the last meeting about Amherst Hills, it took me four weeks to get somebody just to mark sidewalk repairs in Amherst Hills which is one of the punch list items. So I think it's a capacity issue as much as anything else. I intend, Tafino intends to follow up and to do our part in doing what we need to do in order to get the roads accepted by the town. We have said that to the owners. We said it sincerely. I can only apologize for the length of time it's taking. I am sympathetic to their frustration. Tafino doesn't have a staff. I want to just Chris conflated Tafino and coal construction, separate owners, once they were owned by the same people but they're no longer owned by the same people. I worked for coal construction and I managed Tafino's properties and I'm trying to, one by one, I'm trying to tick them off and clear up the unfinished business of Tafino. I'm committed to finishing the work and I'm committed to finishing the work in collaboration with the homeowners. I had hoped that we would get to a point where we would all come together and make a collective request to take the roads. And I think that a useful meeting, a useful revisiting of this issue would be for us to reconvene with the planning board and have Gilford and Jason here so that we can talk publicly and they can commit publicly to what they've committed to, I think to me privately, that they're willing to accept the road in a less than pristine condition. The road will, there are some components of the road which will need to be repaired. But I think that this discussion needs to happen with DPW in the room so that we can all share the same set of understandings and we can all understand what the commitments are. I've had some meetings, the owners have had some meetings. We may have heard slightly different things. I think we should all share the same set of information. That's what would make me happy. All right. Ted, do you have the punch list that was created that had only three items remaining to be completed so that- I don't have it with me. I don't have it now. I can dig it up. Okay, I think- It was three items, there was a- If you would send that to Chris and identify the three items that you agree were remaining to be done and were never completed. I think that would be a good place for us to start. And I do understand that the road's been in service for a number of years that if in fact, DeFino had gone ahead and finished the punch list and maybe a year or two later the town had accepted the roads. The road, the town would have been maintaining these roads for a decade or something. So I think that's a- It sounds like accepting the roads in less than pristine condition might be a reasonable thing for the town to do from my perspective. I don't know how others feel about it. So, Ms. Krueger, you are muted. Out of practice. I just wanted to say the pristine condition is not the agenda of the homeowners per se. That's the negotiation between DeFino and the town. And the town has also been very slow and seeming non-responsive at different times. And I have a lot of loyalty to the town of Amherst and to my former colleagues in the planning department. So, these things do happen. We'd be happy to have the town take it with less than pristine. Either DeFino owns it or the town owns it. We will never be the owners. And at this point, we just want to see movement and we can't seem to move that negotiation, that discussion off the dime. And this has been just the last three years trying to really activate it. And I know that Mr. Parker has good intentions and he'd like to take things one at a time. The Amherst hill's out of the way and then the meadows. But it's just picking so long we've lost patience. All right, thank you. Chris, based on what you've heard tonight, do you think you could connect with Jason and Guilford and at least get their perspective on this? Sure, yes, I can try to do that. And do you think it would be useful to have them in a meeting in a board meeting here or maybe you can talk with them about that? And we can put together the agenda as we think makes sense. Right, it'll probably take a while and some talking to figure out what needs to be done and how the planning board can be useful in this situation. That took a long time in the Amherst hill situation too. The planning board doesn't really have the power to order to do anything to the town to do anything, but you can be a forum, a place where people can come and talk about this and try to figure out what to do about it. So that's what I would say. Yeah, I see, let's see, Ms. Hardy. Mr. Chairman, I would just observe that the status, the status right now is that the planning board directed Tofino to do something with respect to the surety that it has not done, okay? And that was in anticipation of work that needs some last minute work, there were whatever was on this punch list that was gonna get done. And then we could be in a position where the roads could be accepted. I don't think the planning board doesn't have any jurisdiction or any role to play the do, okay? And so it's really the board's role to make sure that the subdivision is completed in a manner that was consistent with what the planning board required whenever it was that it required it some 20 years ago. So, again, my suggestion about this is that the current status is that we are waiting for a list of things that need to be done in order for the roads to be in a place or in a condition where we can present them to the town council for acceptance as public ways. And what we're looking for is a hearing or a meeting within the next 30 days or so where we can establish what that is and move forward. Thank you. Thank you.  Thank you. I would recommend that we put this on the planning board, the agenda, not maybe, obviously not into next week or in two weeks, but maybe sometime in July, just to get, hopefully that meeting will take place or just to gather information. One question I had after reading the packet was that the question of like, where are we as a planning board? And so I don't have the answer to that, it's legally. And so my question is, are there possible planning board actions under the state subdivision law, under our bylaw or on regulations or a permit that we have issued? And so, I mean, that could be, that requires looking at documents and perhaps the town attorney, town council could do that and advise us if there's any hooks or handles to hold on to, but I don't, I feel like I'm just right now floating, I don't know where I am legally in terms of the board and I don't know what the documentation is. And so that I need to sort of, I need that information. I think we need that information as a board. So I would recommend putting it on the agenda on a date certain with enough time for people, given people are busy, and then also get some more information about documents and where we are and if the planning board has a role or what we could do. So where are we legally? Thank you. I will note that it's just about 10 o'clock. Maria. I just want to say really quickly that I'm just looking out for the planning board members and unfortunately a lot of the new ones aren't here, but I have to say at Amherst Hills hearings were the most unpleasant planning work experiences that I have in my history of being on the planning board because it was very contentious. It felt very much like a lot of attorneys, sort of barfing. I just want to warn you, I don't know what's going to happen, but I just want to warn you that those hearings were the most unpleasant experiences that I've ever been through here. So not to say don't do that. I'm just saying if you can arrange it in some way where there's a real clear path forward, that was a really, you know, having, I don't know, it was like 50 some neighbors take their turn yelling at us. That was really unpleasant. So I'm just putting that out there. I don't know, Jack, if you remember that, I really hope you guys don't go through what we went through. Thank you. Chris? I just wanted to say two things. We can put this on the agenda for July 20th. That is the meeting that you're going to hold in July. You're only having one meeting in July. Yeah. The other thing I wanted to say is this is a little different from Amherst Hills in many ways, but one of the ways it's different is that the planning board actually had some what should I say, some mechanisms, some tool to use in the past in Amherst Hills. And the tool that was used was to request that the building commissioner not issue building permits for the lots that were, that had been just recently released, but hadn't been built on. And the planning board doesn't have that kind of tool in this case. There may be some tool that I'm not aware of and we can investigate that, but I'm just putting that forward because even though we had that tool, it took a long time to get there. It took like a year of meetings with everyone to get to the point of being able to do that. So it's not going to be simple, but we'll try. We'll do something and we'll talk about it again on July 20th. Yeah. I mean, it sounds to me like we potentially could facilitate something, but we're not really in a position to force something to happen. At least that's my relatively uninformed opinion. All right, Ms. Krueger. I just want to say we are not Amherst Hills. We have followed that closely and I sympathize with Ms. Chau's concerns. We're trying to be cooperative, but we would like the town to help resolve this, whether there's actual mechanisms or not, I think bringing DPW in to get the punch list established with Mr. Parker would really help. And I really believe that could happen in a much more timely way. So that's our first ask, but we don't want to escalate and we're not planning to take that tax. So Ms. Chau, I think you can be assured, at least at this point, that's not our route. Thank you. And Mr. Parker, you're the next hand. I just want to say that we're committed to collaborating with the owners of In The Meadows to get this done in a much less contentious way. Just FYI, I went in September of 2019 to the folks in Amherst Hills and explained to them where we were and what our intentions were. And their response was to come to you and start that process. And it was so full of vitriol that it made no sense for me to come to a meeting and speak civilly like I am trying to do tonight with these folks because the folks in Amherst Meadows, In The Meadows, I have been much more collaborative and much more respectful and much more willing to have a conversation about it. And I appreciate that on everyone's part and I look forward to getting it resolved. Thank you. Jack? Yeah, I just want to say the lesson that we learned from Amherst Hills was a very good presentation by Jason Skeels, the town engineer with regard to how pavement when it goes, it goes rapidly. And so there is a time element to this. And I encourage the town to acknowledge that it needs to get solved or it's going to get a lot more expensive for everybody. Thank you, Jack. We'll miss both you and Maria on board. Okay, I see Chris walking away. Oh, she's back, good. I wanted to make sure that I put this on the agenda for July 20th. Okay, so we don't really need a motion this evening to continue anything. And I think we've discussed this enough. We, you know, Chris, if you can follow up with the DPW and we figure out whether we need to have them in a meeting or if you can do your magic without the board present, I think that would be great. And Mr. Parker, I think you were gonna send the last punch list you had that listed or at least identified the three items that were remaining to be completed at one point in time. If you can send that to Chris, that would be great. I will do that. All right, thanks all. And thanks for staying for a relatively late hour at this point. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, board members. We really appreciate your time and thank you, Ted, for attending. Okay, so the time is 10.06. Chris, the next item on our agenda is planning board fees. And I saw that you sent a letter or a proposal to us for how to collect those at least as a trial, I believe. Yes, and may I speak about that? Yes, you may. Nate and I have had several conversations about this and I've talked to Pam and I've talked to the building commissioner. And I think in the end what we're deciding is that something different from what was in the memo and something more akin to what Doug proposed at the last meeting where we discussed this, Doug had made a motion to charge $500 for each applicant to pay for the legal ad. And at that time I thought, oh, $500 is really high. So after talking about it with Nate and the building commissioner and Pam, I think we've landed on $300 as a flat fee. And the reason that we're doing this instead of what we had proposed in the memo is that what was proposed in the memo actually takes a fair amount of staff time to organize and keep on track with and it also will require us to kind of follow up with applicants if they don't pay the legal ad and we have to kind of keep bugging them or not giving them their decision or not hold a public hearing or some action that we have to take. So it's gonna be a constant aggravation. So we think that the potentially more fair but also easier method to deal with this would be to charge $300. And that's gonna be four times what we are currently charging as I said in the memo, the average legal ad cost is around $400 to $500. It's really actually more between 500 and 600 is what we're finding out now. And so 300 seems like a reasonable cost to have the applicant pay roughly half and have the town pay roughly half and not to have to have staff trying to keep track of all of this and chase applicants who may not be paying it. So I think what we'd like is a vote of the mining board to support our proposal to charge $300 for the legal ads and see how that works going forward. And if you need a memo about that, I'd be happy to write one, but maybe you can just make a motion and vote for that vote to support that move. Okay, thank you. Board, any comments? I mean, I can go right into a motion that we support the staff's recommendation too. I don't know, it's not like we approve it, right? Or we're just on board with you, right? We're not really doing a legal vote for this. You have to vote for application fees. So if we decide to increase the application fee for site plan reviews and different things like that, you have to vote for that. So I would say, yes, this is a good thing to do as an actual vote that you are voting to increase the fee for legal ads for planning board applications to $300. So we are setting the fee. That's the verb I think makes sense. That's right, yep. So, okay, so I'll take a pass at the motion. I'm not seeing anyone. Oh, Janet, do you wanna say something? So it sounds like this is kind of a compromise between the town heavily subsidizing applications to subsidizing less. So we're gonna lose less money but not burden applicants with the full cost or the staff. So it's sort of like a middle ground that you've reached for. That's a good way to describe it, yes. The town will still be paying part of, okay, it's like half the ad, okay. But this steps us up closer to covering costs. And it might be easier to get to 500 from 300 rather than from 50 or wherever we are now. Jack. Yeah, I guess I wouldn't move that. We accept the proposal as stated by Chris for increasing the fees. All right, thank you, Jack. I'll go ahead and second that. Board members, any more votes or any more discussion at this late hour? And I only see one attendee, Ms. Mara Kean. Do you want to make any public comment? Raise your hand if you do. And I do not see her hand raised. No, okay, we'll go ahead and vote on that. Legal fees being set at $300. Maria. Approve. And Jack. Approve. And Janet. Approve. And I'm going to prove as well. All right, Chris. Thank you. All right, all right, the time is 10-11. Chris, do you have any old business topics not reasonably anticipated 48 hours in advance? No, no old business. Any new business, not anticipated. New business just as to announce that we will not have a July 6th meeting and we will go to July 20th, but we will have a June 29th meeting. Right. We just continued something to that date. All right. Form A, A&R, subdivision applications, any of those? No. No. And ZBA applications. No, nothing new. We did add maybe two meetings ago, there were a couple of ZBA applications we were interested in seeing. There were, and they were supposed to come up on June 9th, which was just a couple of days today. Today is the 15th, so it would have been last Thursday. And I did send a memo to Maureen Pollock to ask her if those hearings were continued, if the planning board could hear a presentation. And I didn't hear back from Maureen, so I will get back in touch with Maureen and ask her if those hearings were continued. Okay. Upcoming SPP, SPR, and SUB applications. No, nothing. Nope. All right. Committee and liaison reports. And we'll start with Jack, PBBC. Yeah, so an email was forwarded to you and that was from the annual meeting which was sparsely attended, strangely enough. But I think that's the artifact of ongoing Zoom meetings for this particular group. But I have expressed my interest to continuing as an alternate commission because I can't be a full commissioner because I'm not going to be on the planning board, but I will, if I'm an alternate commission, I'll be able to serve on the executive committee moving forward, but someone from the planning board will have to be the regular commissioner. So it's kind of an odd situation, but that person appointed by the planning board won't have to do a lot of heavy lifting as I'll be more active as the alternate commissioner. So just some clarification there, assuming that I get appointed as alternate commissioner. And who appoints you as an alternate? I think town council. Okay. Yeah. All right. So Chris, will we be selecting new representation to committees probably toward the end of the summer? It depends on what you wanna do. You'll have your new members as of July 20th. So you could conceivably have an election and reorganization on July 20th if you want to. Right.  And August you have a few, you have, at least you have three meetings scheduled in August. I don't think you'll hold all of them, but. Yeah. And I would add that like half the executive committee seem to be alternate commissioners, including the director of planning in Belcher town and then some other former planning board members, I guess. But so it's not an unusual sort of thing. Okay. Thank you. Yep. So Andrew is away, so we won't hear about CPAC. Tom's away, we won't hear about DRV. Janet, any motion on the solar biola? Yes, the committee is meeting for the first time next week. All right. And those are publicly noticed meetings and I assume that public can attend. I believe, I think, well, I think Stephanie Chickarello is in charge and I'm sure Chris is nodding yes. And I do believe they're all gonna be public and posted and hopefully get a group involved. Okay. Jack is in the group too. What's that? Jack is in the group too. Oh yeah. Okay. All right. And then CRC, anything you wanna say, Chris? Yes, the CRC will be discussing Article 14 and its potential for being extended as a permanent measure for certain types of uses. So we're gonna be talking to them about that at their next meeting, which is what is today? I think it's June 23rd. Yes, June 23rd, we're gonna be talking to the CRC about Article 14. And would this be the time to at least put in the record the two new members coming for Planning Board? Yes, of course. I'm sorry for not thinking about that. Yes, we're happy to have two new members that have been appointed. They were just appointed on Monday. Bruce Coldham is a former Planning Board member. He's an architect and he's been around town and doing things with the town for a long time. He's currently a member of the Local Historic District Commission and he is very interesting and active. And I think you'll enjoy working with him. And the other person is Karen Winter. I don't know a lot about Karen but she's also a member of the Local Historic District Commission. And I think she lives in the neighborhood west of Kendrick Park. She was involved with the planning of the playground at Kendrick Park, not as part of the working group but she often spoke up at meetings and she was very interested in that. So I think she's really interested in planning and you'll meet her. Those of you who haven't met her yet, I'll meet her on the 20th. Okay, thank you. Report of the chair, I have no report. Report of staff, Chris? I don't think I have a report. What time is it? It's 10, 18, no, I don't know. What is it? It's 10, 18 and it's time to adjourn. Okay. All right, in that case, it's 10, 18 and let's adjourn. Thank you. Thank you all for... Well, it's Jack's last meeting so I'd like to thank him for his many years of service. Goodbye everyone. You know, I won't be gone, obviously I'm on some other things. So yeah, I appreciate it. We'll miss your sunflower, Jack. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I have some new ones. I have a new crop this year. So I will see if I can approve on the photo. So.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. All right, goodnight everyone. Bye. Bye. Bye. Oh, I should probably stop.