Speaker: Mikhail

• God's word and Scripture. "No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation" (2 Pet 1:19–21). The word of God is what comes from God's mouth to you personally, and Scripture confirms that God spoke. Taking any promise from the Bible "for yourself" is like a first-grader reading a college textbook. Christ knocks to "sup" with a person one on one (Rev 3:20).

• Covet to prophesy and "store up the word", which dissolves into faith and feeds others.

• "Groanings which cannot be uttered" (Rom 8:26) are help for someone who doesn't yet know what to pray for, not baptism in the Spirit. At their baptism in the Spirit the apostles received power to be witnesses (Acts 1:8).

• Power comes after the word. God wants to pour out grace more than we do, but first the word must take shape, otherwise the "rain" will only grow weeds. Speaking revelations without power is like leaving the trench for an attack without protection: Satan will knock you down at once. That is why Christ told His disciples to "tarry".

• The time of waiting is "O wretched man that I am" (Rom 7:24), when God withdraws. Everyone goes through it before rising to new life.

• The Holy Spirit and God's abode. The Holy Spirit comes to us while we are still sinners, "like an embassy", teaching us and preparing the body. The Father and the Son come and make their abode only in a prepared body (John 14:23), free of idols (2 Cor 6:16). Immersion in the Spirit is when "we are no more", not just the gift of tongues.

• Tongues edify, but they are not power. Many Pentecostals pray in tongues for decades without change, and some repeat the phrases of well-known preachers. "When that which is perfect is come", tongues will cease (1 Cor 13:8–10) and love will remain, the sum of all perfections.

• "Cast up the highway; gather out the stones" (Isa 62:10): God sends rain when the soil is ready. Grace received without readiness becomes judgment.

• The human spirit came from God and remembers heavenly things. Through the word it comes alive, starts "crying with hunger" and groans for the redemption of the body.

• How we listen. Personal: on long truck runs he used to pray and listen to sermons on the road, but God told him that was not time given to Him. Being late to the online meeting, using the phone during the service, chatting right before it — that's Martha. Prepare in advance (Eccl 5:1) and bring to the meeting at least one word God gave you: even one word is "a two-edged sword".

• He admits he was afraid the church would fall apart until God showed him that on this path you can't avoid "bankruptcy"; Christ went through it too. He keeps some revelations to himself until power comes.

• "I will stand upon my watch" (Hab 2:1). Bless Edik and Viktor and everyone the enemy is attacking through their health.