In other words, the atmosphere, and the way it was expressed, overwhelmed what was on his life temporarily, because as soon as we left and stayed away for a while, then he would go back to his normal state, negative and pessimistic see. How many have been in an atmosphere where it's controlled, there's a strong control presence? Some people - I haven't been into a home like this, not in Bay City, not for a long time been in a home like this, where there's a strong control. Boy, you feel like [inhales sharply] I'm going to break something for sure! You've got to watch your feet in case you trip or get something dirty. You feel it. What are you feeling? You're feeling a strong, dominant control spirit in there, and you're feeling this pressure to comply, so you do what they want you to do. That's a prevailing spiritual atmosphere, see, so people do carry it, and it can fill their home.
Ever been into a home where there's a great sense of tension in the home? You go into it, and everyone's trying to be nice, but you can feel the tension. But what are you feeling? You're feeling the prevailing spiritual atmosphere. How many have been in an environment where it's incredibly confused? The Bible talks about in Acts I think, 29, it says the whole city was filled with confusion. What's going on? Confusion, no one can make decisions, so it's an atmosphere of confusion, and it can get over people, and gets over a whole city. An atmosphere of distrust; that's a shocking one, because you can't build relationships in an atmosphere of distrust.
Now what is this thing, this atmosphere? Obviously it's spiritual, it's felt in your spirit, but it's made up of something someone's putting out there, and if they're putting it out, you could put something out that's different, and we're called to do that. So we have to learn how to build and develop a strong spiritual atmosphere around our own life, and become aware of what's around us, so we can change it. Isn't that right? Now of course you see the spiritual atmosphere you get in a church. You get a lot of broken relationships in a church, and get conflict and backbiting, and talking, very soon it's an unhealthy atmosphere, and people are not attracted. Even though God wanted to add them in, they will stay away until this issue is addressed. It's why unity is so crucial, because the mission cannot be accomplished without the church maintaining a unity of heart, vision, and focus, and one heart, one mind, one spirit. Getting the idea now?
Alright, now of course there's other kinds of atmospheres too. There's an atmosphere of excitement - oh yes! Excitement! I love Anna's full of excitement. Everyone around her is too, see? She's built that into the youth. Do you love it? She's excited. You see it in her eyes, and she carries it around everywhere she goes. I like that. Why not? I'd rather have an atmosphere of excitement about something. You go into places, you go into it just before a show. Sometimes the atmosphere of excitement - everyone's in anticipation, and you can feel it literally, and you get excited too. Well either that, or you resist it, you overcome the excitement with your passivity.
Okay, enthusiasm. Enthusiasm creates an atmosphere. You get an atmosphere of confidence. You know a person is - have you ever heard this term; they exude confidence? Well how can you feel confidence? What is it that's happening? What are they doing, that's causing a flow out of them, that you would feel when you're with them, this is a confident person? There's something going on inside them, that is being communicated. They don't go around sort of "I'm confident." That's exactly what they don't say. In fact, if someone says that, probably they're not confident, but you can feel it. It fills the atmosphere around. A confident person, the atmosphere around them is filled with confidence. They just exude confidence. Ever had a guy come to the door to to sell you something? Oh, they're full of confidence in their product. If they weren't, they'd never sell it. It's interesting, they have to build an atmosphere of confidence to overcome your resistance initially, so you find a salesman who's a good salesman will have this hugely confident attitude, confident in the product, very confident in what it is, and what it can do, and why you need it, and this is going to be wonderful! Your life will be so much better because of it.