Alright, title of this message this morning is Mana, which is the Hawaiian word for power.
Now I'm going to start off by saying this, look down at Acts chapter 8 and we're going
to start off in verse number 4.
There's a group of Hawaiian language activists and Hawaiian religious zealots who believe
in the traditions of the original religion of Hawaii that think that Hawaiian language
is a spiritual language that has power behind it.
And this is not unique to Hawaii, obviously the Jewish people think the same thing.
Do you know of the group of people that call themselves the sacred namers, right?
They think that if you do not pronounce the Lord Jesus Christ's name in Hebrew, which
is Yeshua, that you are wrong, you're not right with God, that you're incorrect and
you're saying a wrong name and that is bad.
They would say that the name of Jesus is a bad name to refer our Lord and Savior to.
And that's blasphemy because the Bible teaches us that there is none other name given among
men whereby we must be saved.
It's the name of Jesus Christ that we as English speakers put our faith in to be saved.
Now that's not to say if you're a Hebrew or Israeli speaker you can't use the name
Yeshua, but if anyone ever tells you in life that you have to speak my language to understand
something, they know nothing about the things of God.
Because the Bible teaches us that God has created all languages of the earth.
Remember the Tower of Babel, how he went around and confounded the language, that was the
act of God.
That was a miraculous act from God because the people were not spreading around and becoming
separate nations.
So with that being said, think about another group of English speakers who refer to God
only as Jehovah.
If you don't refer to God as Jehovah, you're not worshiping the right God.
And they're known as the Jehovah's Witnesses.
So obviously they're incorrect in their logic.
But what I'm trying to get us to understand is in our Hawaiian language, there are people
that think that Hawaiian language is spiritual, that you are not able to understand the things
of God unless you know the Hawaiian language.
Well here's the unfortunate thing, Hawaii was a dying language up until the late 70s.
So if God wanted to preserve the Hawaiian language, he would.
And as a matter of fact, the mere fact that we even have Hawaiian language today was because
the missionaries saw it as important to bring the Hawaiian people the word of God in their
language and writ down the words of God in Hawaiian.
If we pre-contact Hawaii, people didn't write down their words.
So if you think about it, if it had not been for the efforts of Christians to help Hawaiian
people to understand, to preserve their language through writing, it could have been that the
Hawaiian language disappeared off the face of the planet.
Nevertheless, what people did in the past was wrong to try to make Hawaiian people not
speak English.
That was incorrect, that was wrong, that's not of God.
That's a Babylonian New World Order system to try to indoctrinate people and try to force
people to learn your language.
But we're seeing the same thing occur today that some people, Christians, Hawaiian Christians
are saying if you don't understand things in a Hawaiian perspective, then you're not
right with God.
You don't understand the true things of God.
You need to learn Hawaiian first to know these things.
What's the title of this message?
Mana.
If you grew up here in Hawaii, you know what the word mana means, it just simply means
power.
But there are people who try to over spiritualize this word.
Now we preached last week about the concepts of authority and higher powers.
This has to do part of that word as well, mana, because someone who is higher in authority
has more power than someone else.
But nevertheless, if you look around at the general consensus of the Hawaiian language
community or at least people who are following the traditions of the elders of old ancient
Hawaii, if you look at the definition of this word, this is something you're going to see.
It basically teaches that a native Hawaiian culture, the sacred term mana, not just the
term, not just the word, the sacred term mana is known as a spiritual energy of power and
strength.
So pause.
I've preached the message before on Ikaika, right, which is the Hawaiian word for strength.
There is a difference between strength and power.
Any fitness coach knows this.
Anyone who does any type of, you know, physical fitness understands that back lat muscles
and biceps are your strength muscles and triceps and chest muscles are your muscles that push
to have power.
Football players are known to have lots of power because they push a lot and rock climbers
are known to be very strong people because they're holding on to their own weight.
So strength and power are separate, but they already failed in their understanding of this
term mana power.
But with that being said, it goes on to say it's possible for mana to be present in objects
and people.
For people, it's possible to gain or lose mana through the different decisions they
make.
In Hawaii, there are certain locations that are considered strong in mana.
Some of those sites are Hayakala, Volcano on Maui, Molokai, and different battle sites
across the island, such as the Battle of Nuuanu, the Battle of Mokuhai, and so on and so forth.
There's different places in which battles occurred in ancient Hawaii that they contribute
to mana.
Now, I don't know if you heard or were listening when I explained that they associated to people
places and things.
This sounds a lot like Star Wars and the Force.
That there's an energy that flows through the universe that goes through in and out
of people that is just a source that we as people can tap into.
For crying out loud, to say that a rock has power is ridiculous.
To say that a tree, to say that a building, to say that something that is an inanimate
object, plastic, has power is ridiculous.
Now I'm not going to say, let's say a television, which is made out of plastic and glass, can't
produce authority or can't produce influence, but I'm saying the actual material itself
doesn't have power.
But ancient Hawaiians and people who are from the Hawaiian religion don't think this.
They think that there is mana power flowing through the universe in and out and through
around everything.
And through the decisions you make in your life, you can gain or lose mana.
Now, is that a biblical concept?
Did that come from the Bible?
Or did that come from a paganistic understanding?
Think about the Chinese culture that thinks about chi, right?
That inside of man and inside of the universe, you can harness chi and you can distribute
it in ways to have amazing feats and so on and so forth.
Now, I had us look at Acts chapter 8 for a reason.
There's a character in the Bible, his name is Simon the sorcerer.
I'm not going to sit here and we'll stand here and tell you that there's not people
who have not tapped into a source of power, but is that power of God and is that power
legitimate?
Look, the Bible teaches that there are prince of powers of the air against the rulers of
the darkness of this world.
There is a false power out there.
There's a false antichrist that is going to come one day and there are many antichrists,
people who would put themselves in the place of Christ and people who would go around professing
that they have power.
And Simon the sorcerer was one example of that.
Look down at Acts chapter 8 verse 4, it reads, Therefore, they that were scattered abroad
went everywhere, preaching the word of God.
I'm going to pause there really quick.
That's where the power really lies.
That's where real power comes from, the preaching of the word of God.
Let's keep going.
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them.
And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and
seeing the miracles which he did.
For unclean spirits crying with loud voices came out of many that were possessed with
them, and many that were taken with palsies and that were lame were healed.
And there was great joy in that city.
Pause.
Now notice there's a miraculous event that occurred.
Demons were taking out of people.
People are hearing the word of God and getting saved.
So like I said, there is a false power that's out there.
But there is a real power that is also here.
And these are things of the preaching of the cross.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved, it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.
So we understand that we have ability as Christians to harness real power.
But I'll go into that in just a moment.
Notice what it says in verse nine.
But there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the same city used
sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one
to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great
what power of God.
And to him they had regard because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.
But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the
name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women.
So pause again.
This person, Simon the sorcerer, went around bewitching the people using sorcery, having
a form of magic, a form of miraculous event, you know, and it's interesting to me because
we as Christians believe in miracles.
What is a miracle?
A miracle is something that transcends physics, logics and human understanding.
Something that doesn't make sense, but happened.
And look, I believe to this day that miracles happen.
I believe that from the top of my head to the bottom of my foot.
We see in the Bible that miracles occur.
So why would we not then think the God that created the universe can choose to disregard
the rules of physics that he made to show his power, to show who he is to us?
And that's not to say other people throughout time and histories, sorcerers, witches, necromancers
and people in the past have found a way to figure out a false power or a way to think
about a magician.
Obviously they're not a real, they're not transcending physics.
They're not, they're not like doing actual real miracle.
They're tricking people.
And that's what I believe Simon the sorcerer was.
He was someone around bewitching the people and tricking them to make them think that
he was some great one when he wasn't.
But understand this, I mean, I know that when I go around preaching the gospel, right?
And you've maybe heard this.
I know I've heard this.
You come across that atheist, right?
Or that person who is an agnostic or doesn't believe in the things of God or the Bible
and you're, you're attempting to give them the gospel and then they go, well, you know
what?
If God spoke from heaven right now in an audible voice, told me to believe in him, I would
do it.
You know what's stupid about that claim and statement is that how are you, the clague
and the say to the Potter, why is that made me thus?
How dare you think that you are going to control and manipulate the creator of the universe
to bend to your will.
Think about how dumb that really is.
How stupid that is.
I will not believe I will not accept.
I will not have my faith in Jesus till he meets my needs.
You are a fool.
You are stupid.
The Bible clearly teaches he that cometh to God must believe that he is and he is a rewarder
that diligently seek him.
If you seek, you will find, if you knock, it will be opened.
If you ask, it will be given unto you.
But if you think you're going to go out of your way to force, demand God to bend to your
will, you're dumb.
You're an idiot.
And you know what?
I don't say that lightly, but at the end of the day, father, forgive them.
They know not what they do, but I hope that the Lord will humble that person so that they
come crawling to him and ask to be saved.
But that's what I'm trying to get at.
There are Christians today that think they can harness the power of God.
I don't stand here saying that I can just lay my hands on someone and say, demons, get
out of this man and they're going to do what I say.
You know, the Bible makes very clear that the apostles, the followers of the Lord Jesus
Christ were given special ability, special power that was for them, not for us, for them.
Now if it was obvious that you, me and other Christians can cast out demons, heal the blind
and do these miraculous things, then it wouldn't be considered a special gift now, would it?
So I do believe that the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
And if we want our aunties, uncles, loved ones to be healed from a sickness or an ailment,
we should pray.
We have access to the Father.
Through our words, we can ask God to heal people, to cast demons out of people, to help
the blind, the lame and whoever.
But we can't demand God just listen to us.
God, cast the demon out of this guy and do what I say.
Even us as Christians, how dare you think you can harness and control the things of
God.
The miracles in the Bible seem so obvious or they seem so frequent because every time
you turn a page, it seems like a miracle is happening.
But you got to remember that the Bible was written over the course of, you know, four
thousand years.
And there's a lot of moments in time where miracles weren't happening.
Miraculous events didn't happen.
Because if miraculous events were happening all the time, it wouldn't be that amazing
if someone who is blind could see.
It wouldn't be that amazing to see a demon get cast out of someone unless it didn't happen
all the time.
So what we're talking about is manna, a false version of manna.
People who think that they can control and bend the will of God to them.
Simon the sorcerer at this time was not saved.
But let's see what happens to him.
Look down at your Bible, if you would, at verse nine.
No, you know what?
Look at verse 12.
But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the
name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
Then Simon himself believed also.
What does it take to be saved?
Does it take repenting of your sins to be saved?
Does not take you repenting of your sins to be saved?
Does it take you changing a new leaf?
Does it take you going to church?
What does it take to be saved?
What must I do to be saved?
They said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou might be saved, thou shalt be saved.
And Simon the sorcerer believed.
And that's what the Holy Ghost, men of God speaking as they're moved by the Holy Ghost
has said that Simon believed.
And it says, let's go on and read.
Then Simon himself believed also and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip
and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.
Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of
God that they sent, then Peter and John, who when they were come down, prayed for them
that they might receive the Holy Ghost.
For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the
Lord Jesus.
I'm going to pause there in that parentheses really quick.
Notice something.
I was reading this this morning just to keep on my notes and to keep fresh in my mind this
sermon.
You know what's so amazing about that?
Notice it says, for as yet he was not fallen upon none of them.
So it just called the Holy Ghost a he.
It called him a person.
The person of the Holy Ghost had not fallen upon the people yet.
And I just thought that was an amazing proof of the doctrine of the Trinity once again.
For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the
Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, then lay they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost.
And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles hands, the Holy Ghost was
given, he offered them money.
We're going to pause really quick.
So get the scene.
The people of Samaria get saved.
Simon the sorcerer gets saved.
Someone that you would look at and think is past redemption, past salvation, got saved.
He wasn't unsavable.
He was not a reprobate.
He was a sorcerer.
And look, don't get me wrong, sorcery, witchcraft, that's a horrible sin to be involved in.
There are people who today right now practice necromancy and witchcraft and all these things,
but they can be saved.
If Simon the sorcerer can be saved, so can others.
And it talks about the people of Samaria getting saved and they sent them John and Peter because
the Holy Ghost had not come upon them yet.
So John and Peter lay their hands on these believers and they receive the Holy Ghost.
So the apostles were given this special power ability to when they lay hands on someone,
those people will receive, they'll be full of the Holy Ghost.
There is a difference between the teaching of indwelling of the Holy Ghost and being
full of the Holy Ghost.
That's another message for another time.
The Bible clearly teaches that when you believe, the Holy Ghost dwells inside of you.
But to be full of the Holy Ghost means prayer and fasting and things like that.
And Peter and John were able to put their hands on people and pray that God would be
willing to fill them with the Holy Ghost.
So Simon the sorcerer, you got to remember, just came out of witchcraft and necromancy
and sorcery and sees this miraculous event occur.
And he's intrigued.
He wants to be able to do this.
Let's go on to see what it says.
Who when they were come down, verse 15, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy
Ghost.
For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the
Lord Jesus.
And laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost.
And when Simon saw that through the lying on the apostles hands, the Holy Ghost was
given, he offered them money saying, give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay
hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
But Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee because thou has thought that the
gift of God may be purchased with money.
Thou has neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of
God.
Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart
may be forgiven thee.
For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.
Then answered Simon and said, pray to the Lord for me that none of these things which
ye have spoken come upon me.
So when Simon the sorcerer asks for this ability, mind you, it could be misconstrued that what
he's asking is a bad thing because it is true.
How dare you think that you can harness the power of God through money.
God owns the universe.
God owns the cattle on a thousand hails.
The earth is his footstool.
And you think you're going to bribe God with money to access his ability?
That is sin.
That is ridiculous.
But that doesn't mean that he didn't mean it in a good way.
Obviously he wanted power.
He wanted manna to be able to bestow on people for good.
To give them the Holy Ghost.
To have real power that is accessed only through God.
So you can sympathize for someone like Simon the sorcerer because he came out of witchcraft,
he was misconstrued in his thinking, but he when corrected on the subject of your heart
is incorrect on this, got right and asked that God would have mercy on him.
And I believe he did.
It doesn't say if God did or didn't, maybe God judged him and came down on him as like
a ton of bricks.
But I would believe if his heart got right, that God would.
His mercies are new every day.
And you know, he's quick to mercy and slow to wrath.
But nevertheless, he does mean business when he means business.
So we get it, David.
There are people in the Bible and people today who claim to have power.
And not only do they claim to have miraculous power and power that is.
That can transcend physics and things like that, but they think their language has power.
Now it is true that there is power in language, but it's not through any one specific language.
Where does power come from?
It comes from the word of God.
And we'll get into that in just a moment.
But I'm going to keep reading to you.
The concepts of Hawaiian theology behind this word mana.
It goes on to read.
The native Hawaiian concept of power doesn't mean you need to have material possessions.
Mana is described as a life energy that flows through all living things in humans and may
be gained or lost with everything you do.
Living through pono, which just means good, pono is a very broad term, but it just means
good.
Simple work, good relations, and the service you lend to your community can allow you to
gather mana.
Traditionally, individuals gathered mana through birth or warfare to have mana is to have influence
and gain authority because like we preached last week, right?
Fathers have power over their children.
Mothers have power over their children.
Buses have powers over their employees.
That is mana, that is power, that is ability that's bestowed them by God because God has
created the authority structure.
I'm not going to go too much into that because I already touched that last week.
I think we get the understanding of authority, but that's important in light of this subject
because it is true, I believe, that all good gifts come from above, from the father of
whom there is no variableness or wantedness.
I'm probably misquoting that, but basically anything that is given you like authority
is from God.
It's not necessarily that if you get a promotion, you get a raise, you get bestowed a spouse
or something that you have power over or ability over, that I believe that came from God.
Now it is true there are some people who force their positions and force their scenarios.
The Bible does say you set up kings but not by me, meaning that it is true that man can
make their own plans.
But especially as Christians, saved people, if you get bestowed more authority, more power,
I do believe that came from God.
And with that being said, there's more to it than that because remember it flows through
everything.
It's in the animals, it's in the trees, it's in the rock, it's in you, it's in me, and
we can control and harness this power.
But let's go on to read.
The two paths to mana were through the gods Ku and Lono.
Hawaiians often refer to this as Ikihaku or the search for mana or the search of the source.
Ku being the Hawaiian god of war offers mana through violence.
This is how Kamehameha the Great gained his mana according to the legend.
Lono is the Hawaiian god of peace and fertility and offers mana through sexual relationship.
And mind you, that's another discussion for another time that I'm not going to go into
in this service because there are people who believe that the action between husband and
wife that's ordained through God through marriage, there's power in that action, there's power
in it.
And this is why in our world today there are so many people fornicating and committing
adultery because they think that that is some sort of way to tap into mana, the secrets
of the universe, and so on and so forth.
And Hawaiians believe that.
And not just Hawaiians, but lots of people groups believe this.
In Hawaiian language, right, as you learn and you know, mind you, I don't know if you've
noticed by now, I've preached a couple sermons on a couple different Hawaiian words.
I have a personal goal to bring back Hawaiian language in a good way like the missionaries
did because the missionaries understood that you can hear the word of God in your language.
Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost, there are people from all around the world that
heard the word of God in their language.
And I'm sick and tired of hearing people say that when you translate from one language
into another that you lose something in meaning.
And that's ridiculous.
Obviously these are coming from people who don't speak any second, third, or fourth language
and have no idea what they're talking about.
They're speaking through ignorance.
And Hawaiian language is beautiful.
In my opinion, I believe, and I'm sure you guys and growing up here and hearing the Hawaiian
language, it's a beautiful language and I love it.
But the thing is we need to use it in the right way.
Like the missionaries understood that we need to give them the word of God in their language
and discard the bad teachings, theologies, philosophies that come with it.
So think about words that I'm going to slowly distribute throughout our services and times
together.
I'd like to one day have a Hawaiian language service where we have, you know, preaching
and singing of hymns and reading of the Bible in Hawaiian.
I'm trying to achieve that, but we're not necessarily there yet.
We're not, I'm not fluent in Hawaiian and fluency is another discussion in and of itself.
But to preach the word of God takes a level of some sophistication in any language.
But there are words in Hawaiian language that have a lot of similarities.
I mean, think about the word for soul, right?
Uhane, and then think about the word for man, kane, right?
You can kind of see a similarity, but there are words that are referenced to power that
we use from time to time as Hawaiians and don't realize that there are similarities
behind the word for power and that word.
For instance, think about the word of mana'o, right?
Raise your hand if you know what mana'o means.
Okay, it just means thoughts, your thinking, you know, your thought life.
But notice the word, right, M-A-N-A, okina'o.
So mana'o is the first part of that, okina'o is in reference to where we get our sense
of consciousness, our free will, our decision making, mana'o, your thoughts, which is given
to us by God.
God gave us free will.
This is how we're different than animals and the trees and the rocks.
We can consciously choose to serve this day whom we will and the Bible says choose you
this day whom you'll serve.
So our mana'o, our thoughts should be towards the things of God and we should always in
our life have him on the forefront of our thoughts because you want mana', you want
him to be in your mana'o, in your thoughts.
But another word we can think about is mana'o'io, which is the word for belief or faith.
What did you look at that?
The word for belief or faith has a part of it that has to do with power, mana'o'io, because
once again, remember what it means to believe, you're trusting in something, right?
You have faith, you have trust in, fill in the blank.
We trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are putting our free will towards him and not
something else.
But think about, and I guess, well, does anyone know the word for fingers in Hawaii?
I don't know if you remember the kid song growing up, you do all the body parts, but
your fingers is called mana, mana, mana, lima.
So obviously you can see how like mana, mana, lima, lima is also the word for five.
It's also the word for your arm.
You could say like ku'e ku'e lima is your elbow is to bend the bending of your arm.
Mana, mana, lima is your fingers.
And it's interesting how your fingers has a point of power behind them like, or the
word power is in reference to your fingers.
Because I think about the Bible passage that says in Psalms 144 verse one, blessed be the
Lord my strength, which teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight.
We grab things like that's an amazing ability that we have as people.
Our fingers having an opposable thumb is unique to us.
Yes, I know monkeys have an opposable thumb, but they also don't have much mana'o now,
do they?
They don't have mana'o in the Lord Jesus Christ.
They are animals.
We are not animals.
We are special.
We have power in our fingers.
We have power in our thoughts, we have power to trust in something.
And the Bible makes very clear that remember all power is from God.
You and I are only breathing and existing today because God has decided in his foreknowledge
that he wants to make you, that he wants you to be alive and born.
And you got to remember that the Bible says that he made us for his pleasure.
And it should make you happy to know that we, the created beings of God, bring him pleasure.
We should realize how blessed that is.
I was talking about one day preaching a sermon on the subject of, we're tools if you really
think about it.
Because back to what we were talking about earlier with miracles and miraculous events,
Moses parting the Red Sea, David making all these feats, and all the miracles that we
see in the Bible was God allowing a man to be used by him to get an amazing event to
happen.
And what a blessing it is to be used by the creator of the universe.
Now what I want to go into is not just the concepts of what manna is, where power derives
from or where it comes from, but how can we use this power?
Because like I said earlier, right?
We can't just act like force God.
But I'm going to part the Red Sea, make it happen.
You are dumb to think you can force God, his hand.
You know what?
This sodomite was being an idiot.
God rained fire on him.
Just rain on him, fire from hell, from ribs.
Look that the sodomite, the child of the devil will reap what they sow.
They will see hell.
But it's not up to us today to fight the physical battles of God today anymore.
Now how do we tap into or harness this energy, this power that God has given us?
It's through the preaching of the cross, the preaching of the Bible.
For crying out loud, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost, who is God, moved them to say the words of God.
And if you want to have power in your life, you need to learn to put in your heart and
mind the things and words of God.
Turn if you would to Acts chapter 13.
We can see the Apostle Paul giving us an example of this.
I know we just saw John and Peter bestowing the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands.
And that was an amazing thing that only the Apostles could do.
But look at what the Apostle Paul says in Acts chapter 13 verse 1.
Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas
and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius and Cyrene and Manan, which had been brought
up with Herod the tetrarch and Saul.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas
and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
So the Holy Ghost is saying separate me Barnabas and Saul.
Lay your hands on them.
Give them the power of the Holy Ghost.
Why?
Because of the work that they are called to do.
Look at verse 3.
And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia, and from them sailed
to Cyprus.
And when they were at Salmus, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.
And they had also John to their minister.
And when they had gone through the aisle unto Pathros, they found a certain sorcerer, a
false prophet, a Jew whose name was Barjesus.
Pause.
Oh, would you look at that?
There's another sorcerer in the scene.
Verse 7, which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who
called for Barnabas and Saul in desire to hear the word of God.
But Elimus, the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation, would stood them, seeking
to turn away the deputy from the faith.
Then Saul, who is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said,
O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness,
wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing
the sun for a season.
And immediately there fell on him a midst and a darkness.
And he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.
So this guy thought he was going to stop Paul and his work because the Holy Ghost was just
put on Paul and Barnabas.
And he thought he was going to be like, no, no, no, you're not going to preach the gospel
here.
You're not going to do these things.
And Paul decided to make the guy blind.
Now like I said, I, you, and today's Christians don't have this ability.
But Paul did.
Remember what the demon said when other people are trying to do these exorcists.
They say, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?
Who are you to think that you can harness the things of God?
But he preached to them these things.
He spake the word boldly.
It says in Acts chapter four, verse 31, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken
where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And they spake the word of God with what boldness.
When we preach the word of God, we don't need to be, you know, being soft spoken about it.
We need to be bold when we preach the word of God.
When we speak the things of God, when we're out preaching the gospel, you don't need to
be apologetic and sorrowful and like thinking you're doing something wrong by giving someone
the gospel.
Be bold.
Now I'm not saying be arrogant.
There's a difference between being bold and being arrogant.
When you knock on someone's door and they're just like, you're ruining my day.
I'm in the middle of the video game.
I'm cooking dinner or whatever.
You don't need to be like, Oh, I'm sorry.
No worries.
It's just like, Hey, right on by and move on.
But you know, I understand that the first time soul winning, when we go out, it's nerve
racking.
Why?
Because we're acting as representatives of God on earth, preaching in the word of God.
I was really nervous for the first 20 some times I went soul winning.
I'm shaking as I'm giving them passages.
I'm following my verses.
I'm quivering to explain to them something.
I'm fearful of opposition of like, well, what about this?
And what about that?
Thinking I'm not going to be able to navigate my Bible.
But remember Jesus Christ, after the sermon on the Mount, one of the most famous sermons
of Jesus Christ himself, Matthew chapter five, six, and seven, the variant turn, if you would
actually to Matthew chapter seven, look what it says in Matthew chapter seven, the very
last thought in Matthew.
I love this passage in verse 28.
I'll let you get there.
Matthew chapter seven, verse 28.
It reads and it came 28 and it came to pass when Jesus had ended these things, he had
just preached for three chapters long.
The sermon on the Mount, the people were astonished at his doctrine for he taught them as one
having authority and not as the scribes.
You don't need to, when you go up to someone's door, try to sophisticated yourself through
the argument.
Try to logic your way through the thing.
Try to prove yourself through a miracle.
The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are
saved, it is the power of God.
The words of God, you have authority, you have mana from God through your preaching
to the loss.
And this is what I want you guys to understand.
Mana is not what Hawaiian theologians think or Hawaiian religious zealots think.
Mana is a Christian concept that came from the Bible that is accessed only by keakua
or God.
And we can get that through the preaching of the words of God.
Acts chapter nine, verse 27 says, but Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and
declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him
and how that he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
This is the conversion of Paul the apostle who was on the road to Damascus.
Jesus Christ came to him in a vision and says, why do you kick against the pricks?
Later on goes and gets saved and then people are debating whether or not Paul is really
what he says he is.
Why?
Because he was hauling men and women out into the churches, into jail like we just read
in Acts chapter eight.
But nevertheless, I mean, could you imagine today some guy, a police officer, a religious
figure is literally imprisoning people for believing on Jesus.
Could you imagine then you hear tomorrow on Facebook or on whatever social media that
that guy is now preaching that same Christ that he crucified or that he was persecuting.
You would challenge, you would debate it as well.
But the authority, the leaders of the church of that day said, no, he was preaching with
boldness to things of God.
It's a, it's, it's a fact that he is what he says he is and he believes what he says
he believes.
Turn if you would to Ephesians chapter six.
What are we talking about?
Power.
There's a false power out there.
People who use magic, witchcraft, all these things, and don't get me wrong, don't sit
here and think that people don't have ability, supernatural things that are unexplainable
that happened today.
I don't doubt that now for one second.
I'm not saying they're getting it from a right source.
I believe there is a devil and there are fallen angels and people use that to their advantage
to take advantage of people.
The children of the devil are trying to deceive people.
The children of God are trying to get people saved, but not only that, we have ability
to get this power through the word of God.
But notice if you would at Ephesians chapter six verse 12, it reads, for we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against what powers against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore having your loins girt about with
truth, and having the breast prayed of light righteousness, and your feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace.
Above all, take the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts
of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching
thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
And now watch the apostle Paul's prayer, this man who spoke boldly, this man who had done
so much for the Lord Jesus Christ, who helped turn the word upside down, who started all
these churches, who penned down some 15 books of the New Testament, listen what he's asking
for.
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may, what, open my mouth boldly
to make known the mysteries of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds that
therein I may speak, what, boldly as I ought to speak.
Boldness is a sign of true Holy Spirit filled people.
If you're not speaking boldly, if you're not speaking with authority, you're not full of
the Holy Ghost.
You're not full of the Holy Spirit.
I'm not saying you're not indwelled with the Holy Ghost.
I'm not saying you're not saved.
I'm saying if you want to be used as a soldier, which we just went through the armor of God,
you must open your mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
And if you don't, you will not be used.
The Bible talks a lot about God seeking for a man and he found none.
Why?
Because in man, in our heart, in my heart, in your heart, in all of our hearts are wickedness.
We can choose to follow the old man and deny, not deny ourselves and go after a dumb, sinful
past.
But God wants us to be denying ourselves in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
So when you go around and you memorize the Bible and you read your Bible and you sing
to yourself songs, actually turn if you would, to Psalms 119 and you sing to yourself Psalms
hymns and spiritual songs and making a melody in your heart, you will be filled with the
Holy Ghost.
And you will be able to open your mouth boldly.
Psalms 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, right?
Turn if you would to 105.
This is a concept of how memorizing the Bible will help you to gain this mana, gain this
power.
105, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
I have sworn and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.
I am afflicted very much.
Quicken me, O Lord, according unto thy word, except I beseech thee the freewill offering
of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments.
My soul is continually in my hand, yet do I not forget thy law.
The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I erred not from thy precepts.
Thy testimonies have I taken as in heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my
heart.
I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end.
Such a beautiful passage, such a beautiful part of the Bible that we can look to and
realize that like, if we let the word of God guide us into our lives as a lamp unto our
feet and a light unto our path, then we can know that we have ability to be doing the
things that are pleasing to God, but we must take heed lest we fall.
And any one moment, I, you, any one of us can choose to not pray, to not sing songs,
spiritual songs, to not gird our loins with truth, to not put on the breast prayed of
righteousness, to not put on the helmet of salvation, to not yield the sword of the Spirit,
to not hold the shield of faith, to not shut our feet with the preparations of the Gospel.
We can choose to not open our mouths boldly, but if you collectively understand to do all
these things, right?
We have preachers, teachers, and evangelists for the perfecting of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body, that we can all come into the unity
together serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when we get these things together, if I'm weak and I ask someone for help with through
prayer, I would hope that they'd get the same.
They're weak.
They need prayer.
We come together.
When two or three are gathered in His name, there is He in the midst of them.
We need to remember that to make real change here in Oahu, on these islands, through the
work of God, we must be bold.
We must have power, real power.
Let's take back this word mana.
Let's take back the Hawaiian language and show people what it really is about.
Power is not in the Hebrew language.
Power is not in the Hawaiian language.
Power is in the word of God.
Let's us make sure to memorize, meditate, read the word of God, be filled with the Holy
Ghost, and let's go out, preach boldly the things of God.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day.
Thank you so much for allowing me this time to preach.
Please help us to always remember to be filled with mana, to be filled with your word, to
be filled with power, to do great work for you.
Help us to be guided to those who want to hear your message and to get more people to
join this family.
In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen.
Thank you.