Now we tend to think of that as just at a church service. Oh well, we'll come in and say: thank you Jesus, and honour Jesus. No - this is how you live in the flow of the spirit. See, Paul and Silas were beaten up. Now they could have said: oh, it's not fair. These Romans, you know, they're persecuting us, and the devils out to get us. They didn't say that, they just praised the Lord, and there was an earthquake, and the whole prison opened up, and there was some family got saved.
New Zealand has got a real issue, in the DNA, of being negative and critical. You've got to decide: that's over for me, and if people around me are negative, goodbye. Goodbye! I just want to elevate my life. I don't want to go down into the sinkhole of your negativity, and unbelief, and complaining.
I want to stay in a positive place, where I'm enjoying the presence of God, and I'm highly energised, because I have a mission to fulfil. You hang around too many negative people, and they will de-energise you in pursuing God, and fulfilling what God called you to do with your life. It's absolutely certain.
There's an example of it in the Bible, in Numbers 13, where two to three million people lost their way, because 10 people gave a negative/critical report. It's written for our learning. So there's two things - you just do those two things - to help you a lot.
I'll give you two more things, here's the next one, the third one: learn to tune into the voice of the Holy Spirit, and listen to Him, and do what He says. Learn to tune in to the Holy Ghost. Why? Because in Galatians 5:6 it says: He who supplies the Holy Ghost and works - there it is, that word again - energises the miraculous or supernatural.
How does he do it? By working hard to be a goody Christian; or by the hearing of faith? It's the hearing of faith. So every time you tune in to listen to the Holy Spirit, and start to do what He's telling you, and start to act out on what He's saying, energy comes into your life. You become energised.
It says: he who ministers the spirit to you, and energises miracles to happen, how does He do it? Does He do it because you just came to church? No. It says: it's by the hearing of faith; so when I've stirred my spirit up, I must practise constantly, and just in a moment, just turn in and say: God, just speak to me. Holy Ghost, just talk with me. Talk with me Holy Spirit, speak to me; and so you could just, from one minute, you could just stop; begin to show gratitude and praise: I want to just thank you, you're a wonderful God. I thank you for your presence here with me Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord, you're in me. I just honour you and welcome you Lord. I open my heart. Now Lord, begin to just speak to me, encourage me, show me some things I need to do.
Now I can immediately start to access the presence of God; but if I let negativity get around me, it shuts all of that down. The miraculous flows when you hear the voice of God; so if you want a greater level of the life of the spirit, you've got to activate your spirit, maintain an attitude of gratitude and praise; and learn to listen for the small impressions of the Holy Spirit, and act on them, and you'll start to get in a river of life. You just get it in flow, and the more you act on it, the more you get and the flow starts to increase and to grow.
Here's the last one that we need to do. Probably there's more, but this is one I felt the Lord put in my heart. You need to learn to give voice to God's word. Now this is something that's incredibly missing among so many believers.