Josh Brake: Hey, what's
going on, everybody?

Welcome back.

Um, I have a couple of updates.

Can't wait to share with you guys.

And, um, I'll start just with last night.

Um, I had a great time at
our Sunday night gathering.

I've shared many times about, um,
and last night there were, uh, 5

or so new guys, men in recovery.

And then there's a couple of others
that, um, That jumped on and and

or jumped on you know what I mean
came to Came to our gathering on

sunday nights, and it was great.

It was an awesome time I saw all these
new people and I thought you know what and

it's our last sunday night of the year Uh,
I said i'm just going to preach a familiar

message the gospel of the kingdom And I
shared about how the future rule and reign

of god is invading the present through the
person and work of jesus christ He is the

rightful king and how he didn't just Talk
about that and say the kingdom is here.

He also demonstrated it through
healing and deliverance.

I just shared some stories from scripture
we looked at Mark chapter 1 and then

we we looked at just some personal
stories of I shared some testimonies in

my own life of how I've seen God heal
people and And then we went for it.

And so one thing I'll just share with you
is As I'm preaching, you can kind of, I

can kind of feel faith rising in the room.

And I was, I was feeling
my faith rise in the room.

I was like, man, God is
going to do something.

I feel powerful.

I feel I feel power in this place.

And, uh, and, and so after I'm
done preaching, we invited the Holy

Spirit and we waited and I felt like,
Oh man, I want to take communion.

You know, I thought that maybe
it was, I guess it was the Lord.

And so I went and I got the elements
and I came back in, encouraged

everybody to stay in the posture.

I, I, I handed out the elements and
I said, let's take this together.

And I walked us through, um, the body
and the and receiving the body and the

blood as the The only like the center
of what we do it's christ and christ

crucified and that's what unlocks and
unleashes all the blessings of the Spirit

into the people of god and and so I just
Talked about that and we took communion

and it was powerful You felt that you
felt everything intensify in the room.

You felt faith grow and you felt Desire
for him grow and you felt his desire to

heal and to set free grow in the room
is just intensity The closest thing

to this was the blessing when I shared
a few weeks ago about my time at the

blessing With Sal and praying for people
for two or three hours after service

and just the power of the Lord there
to heal and this Was the closest thing

to that that we've had and and and so
Uh, invited the spirit after communion

and listen, I got pain in my elbow.

So I asked if anybody had pain in their
elbow and one guy said yes, and he said he

kind of felt like it was already healed.

We haven't even prayed yet, but one
thing I encouraged everybody to do is

if you want healing, uh, after, right
after communion, I said, if you want

healing, you want God to touch you ask.

Now he's here.

We just took communion and it's
by his stripes were healed.

And before we even prayed for
this man who had the elbow

pain, he said, he was already
testifying to no pain in his elbow.

Okay.

We still prayed for it.

Um, and it felt, you know, his
arm twitching underneath my hand

as I laid hands on his elbow.

And I asked him if he was
doing that and he said, no.

Um, we also ended up praying for
his knee and his, his neuropathy in

his foot and no feeling in his toes.

We prayed for those and his knee
was healed and his toes regained

their feeling in the moment.

And he was walking around and
he was like, I'm, I'm afraid.

I didn't really press in on what he meant
by that, but he's like, I'm, I'm afraid.

And I took it as he's afraid to really.

Receive the healing like what if
the pain comes back and I just, you

know, encourage them to receive it by
faith and perfect love cast out fear.

And, um, that was, that was powerful.

And then I looked over at a guy who had
admitted earlier that he had, and he has

a coal and a blood vessel in his brain
that's stopping it from being an aneurysm.

I forget the, I mean, I don't really
know the science behind all that, but.

But as I looked at him, I started feeling
pain in the left side of my head and

I asked him, Hey, is the pain here?

I pointed towards the left
side of my head and he said,

yeah, that's where the pain is.

And I said, okay, we're
going to pray for you.

And so we prayed and the
kingdom of God came upon him.

He was shaking and he was getting sweaty.

It was tearing up, teary eyed and crying.

And he said the pressure in his head
left when we were praying for him.

And he, the man, the spirit was on him.

You could tell visibly that it
was, that he was on him and.

And then we prayed for
others with joints and stuff.

Sal had a word about joint pain
and we prayed for maybe a couple

of others, um, for that as well.

You just felt that God
was in the room praying.

Uh, God was, you know,
moving in power in the room.

Um, Sal had a word for somebody in
the room and I won't go into all

the story cause it's, it's hers
to share, but it's for a woman

that we ended up staying later.

Um, it was a powerful time
of just inner healing and her

experiencing the tenderness and the
love and care of the bridegroom.

That is Jesus.

Um, and, uh, one of the things I mentioned
earlier in the night was that, um, when,

when we are praying for one person, You
can by faith reach out and grab what's

being prayed over for that person and you
can just I want that I want That for me

And you can receive it even if it's not
being directly prayed over you That's the

power of the ministry of the holy spirit.

And and so as we're praying for this
woman at the end I'm, I begin to say

something about jesus wanting to reach
to the darkest parts of our hearts.

He wants to cut open He wants to do
surgery and go to the areas of our

hearts that we're hiding from him, that
we're afraid of, that we need to let

him into those areas of our hearts.

That's where he wants to
bring healing and freedom.

And as I'm as I'm saying that over her
and to her, Sal, I won't go into his whole

story, but Sal receives that for himself
and actually gets delivered of stuff

he'd been struggling with for three days.

And after, after everybody left,
he comes to me in like tears,

just telling me how relieved and
happy, relieved and happy he felt.

I was like, wow, man, it's amazing.

When you're ministering.

In partnership with the spirit, he can
touch more people at once than I can.

He can minister to more
people at once than I can.

And, um, that's the
beautiful thing about it.

So, um, that was amazing.

Really, really powerful time last night.

And, uh, just another testament
to what God's doing in and through

this church plant and through
just the disciples of this church.

So, um, the other thing that I wanted
to share with you guys, uh, is more

of like what I'm, what I'm learning
in this season as a church planter.

I don't think it's just stuff
to learn as a church planter.

I think we can learn these
things as disciples of Jesus.

So I wanted to share them.

I didn't really.

Pay attention in church yesterday.

Sorry, Chris, if you're listening, my bad.

Um, I just, my mind was
full of these lessons.

I feel like I was learning.

So I wanted to write them down and I
wrote down like seven or eight, some

are short, some are long, but I wanted
to share a few of them with you.

Um, I'm learning to redefine coincidences.

Um, what I previously would have
labeled as a coincidence I'm now

looking at as a divine appointment
or as the spirit's leading.

I can't tell you how many times
I've been in a conversation with

somebody and they've said something.

And then I leave, I go to a
completely different place with a

completely different group of people
who don't even know the previous

person that I was talking to.

And they say the same stuff.

I normally would have been
like, oh, that's weird.

The other person said the same
exact thing, so that's weird.

But now I'm learning to be like, oh,
Lord is saying something to me here.

What do I need to pay attention to?

And I'm growing in this sensitivity,
this expectation that God's gonna want,

God's gonna speak to me at any moment.

And I need to be aware.

And my spiritual senses need to be
trained to discern those things.

And coincidences, sure,
I'm sure they happen.

Um, I'm learning more and
more that they, they're rare.

And it's more as a Christian, as
a follower of Jesus, it's more

likely God is trying to grab your
attention and say something to you.

Um, and it's just, it's, it can be
so familiar, which is the second

thing I've been learning that, um,
the Spirit's voice is very familiar.

Sometimes you can just miss
it because it sounds like you.

It sounds like a thought
that you would normally have.

This is Monday, December 16th yesterday
before church I was spending time with

the Lord and I wasn't even asking him
to speak to me about the day I just was

trying to focus on him and read and just
be in his presence and and I just had

this thought go To Vistaridge today and
I almost ignored it because I'm like,

ah, I know my plan was to go to Farmer's
Branch I'm not gonna go to Vistaridge

for these reasons whatever and I just was
but I was like, why would I think that?

Why would I think that that's so
random and the randomness of it

While I'm focusing on Jesus made
me think that might be the Lord.

He might be trying to
talk to me about this.

So I went and it was an amazing
Sunday morning at Vistarich.

I have more people on my list of
potential launch team members because I

didn't even know they were on the list.

Or should be on the list, but
apparently they should be on the list.

And so I added them to my
running list of people to pray

about joining the launch team.

Um, I got confirmation
about potential location.

Um, Sal and I have been praying
specifically about a specific city

in Dallas and if you want to know
more And you wanna hear what we're

praying about in the specific
location, you need to reach out.

I'm not just gonna say it
and give it to you that easy.

You have to reach out to me,
email me back at this newsletter.

Uh, text me if you have my number.

If you don't, um, it's
2 1 4 7 6 9 5 2 2 8.

There you go.

You have it.

It's out there.

2 1 4 7 6 9 5 2 2 8.

Text me if you were
like, hey, I'm curious.

Where are you guys thinking?

I'll let you know We'll have to set
up a phone call or something But that

that came more confirmation of that
came yesterday when I went to Bista

Ridge It was so good of the Lord, but I
almost missed it because his voice is so

familiar So pay attention to those random
thoughts you have pay attention to the

random quote unquote coincidences These
are always the spirit leads and guides.

Um, the last one was man I really
as a church planter in this process

have wanted to rush the process I've
wanted to be somewhere i'm not I

wanted to have more clarity on things
that I don't and I want them now

You know, I want them right today.

I want all the answers and that's just
not realistic And I don't think that's

realistic in our discipleship to jesus
I don't think we can expect us to be

somewhere today that god's trying to form
us into five years from now And I think

he has a very intentional process and
all of that He's trying to work it all

out and and we need to trust his timing.

I need to trust his timing The
answers to some questions that

That were asked in August.

My answers to those questions Would
be completely different now in

December and more accurate and better
and and that's a good thing, right?

So just I think what I'm learning
is to go at the pace of the Spirit.

Don't go quicker.

Don't go slower Go at his pace.

Sometimes he speeds up.

We got to speed up Sometimes he slows
down and we got to slow down But most

of the time I feel like he goes at a
steady pace and he has wanted to grow

us form our hearts Transform us into
the image of Jesus And that takes time.

So relax.

If you're freaking out over
there about I'm not further

along than I should have been.

The gospel of Jesus is a powerful
transformative message and it is

from the inside out transforming us
and cultivating in us the image of

Jesus Christ, the Holy one of God.

That's a big deal and that's a big
undertaking that only the spirit can do.

So just give him space, let him work,
um, and trust that there will be fruit.

Man, this is, this is good news.

This is why Jesus says, come to me for
my burden is light and my yoke is easy.

Because it's not up to you.

You becoming more like him is
more on him than it's on you.

So just let him do it.

Um, I'm learning to let him do it.

I'm learning to let
him change me, form me.

I'm learning to let him determine
the culture of this church

that we're trying to plant.

I'm letting him determine
the vision, the mission.

I don't want to write anything down and
settle on anything unless it's from him.

And that's hard for me.

I want to figure it out right now
because people are asking questions.

People have questions about
what this is going to look like,

who's going to be doing what.

And I'm just over here like, man, I just
want to go at the pace of the Holy Spirit.

And if he hasn't told me something,
I'm not going to make something up.

So let's do that with discipleship.

If he hasn't told you to
go somewhere, don't go yet.

If he hasn't told you to say
something, don't say it yet.

Um, just be sensitive to his leading, let
him lead and guide and be the shepherd.

and just be that sheep that's following
behind him slowly, but not too slow

that you lose sight of him and not
too quick that you run into him.

Just right at that perfect pace
where you can hear his voice,

you can see his presence and
you just know where he's going.

Um, so would we all just walk at the
pace of the spirit today and this week?

Um, that's all I have.

Uh, again, if you want to know more
about, Hey, what we're thinking

about planting, reach out to me, um,
with my phone number two one four

seven six nine five two two eight.

Text me.

We'll set up a phone call,
um, or email, email me back.

Um, and I'd love to, love
to chat more about where we

feel like God is leading us.

Um, love you guys and have a
very, very Merry Christmas.