Stay Plugged In

What Prime Time Means

• Pastor Greg opened by honoring "our mom and dad, our apostles," Apostles Tony & Cynthia Brazelton: "Without them we couldn't flow into what God has called us to flow into."
• Pastor Karen: "Some people may think, 'Prime time? I'm not in prime time.' Whatever day you are in is your prime time. It is not about a numerical age. It is about what God is getting out of you and what you are giving to other people."
• They shared one mic, "because we learned from the Marshalls last night."

• Prime time describes a peak period of activity, high visibility, or readiness for the main stage. "Just because you're in prime time, you can still be active."
• You are living in one of the most strategic seasons of your life. The enemy wants to convince God's people that because they have lived, served, and experienced enough, they can unplug from what God is doing and saying today. We can't unplug.
• Heaven has another message: God still has a purpose for your life. God still has a vision for your future. God still has generations that need to hear your voice.
• Many of them desperately need something that cannot be downloaded. "There's no app for presence. There's no app for you getting into somebody's faith."
• The people we influence need spiritual mothers and fathers: men and women who have walked through storms, survived disappointments, overcome battles, and still trust God.
• Your greatest ministry is not behind you. It may be sitting across the dinner table from you, standing beside you in church, or working next to you on the job. Apostle Tony told of a lady he used to sit beside in church: every time he sat next to her, his life changed. "That thing is on you."
• Word from the shower: "Tell the people to stay plugged into the Word." The Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path; its entrance gives light and understanding. A laptop does not work unplugged. Neither do we. "The word of His grace is able to build you up."

Stay Plugged In by Revelation

• Not just any revelation. Everyone has a "revelation" and wants to tell you what to do. The Word has to be final authority. When something "just ain't right," the Holy Spirit inside you will guide and lead you.
• "Information informs. Education develops. Experience teaches. But revelation will transform you."
• The greatest blindness in the body of Christ is not physical blindness but spiritual blindness.
• Some believers know Jesus as Savior but never discover who they are because of His finished work. God already finished the work; we need to line up with it.
• Revelation is God removing the veil from truths that were always there. When Jesus died, the veil was split so we could see God face to face for ourselves.

• It matters what you are looking at. Don't be consumed with the natural world, the media, the TV. Put your eyes on the Word.

• Whatever level you have reached in age or career, still hunger for understanding from God. "You can never say you've learned it all. God is always revealing Himself on a greater level. But are we listening? Are we hungering and thirsting after it, or are we just settling?"
• Never get comfortable in your walk with God.

The Package and the Hawaii House

The package on the sidewalk (Pastor Greg)

• Preparing for the cruise, an expensive signature-required package missed its delivery day, then failed to show the next day. Pastor Greg got dressed to go run errands, and the Lord said, "Stay right here. Don't go anywhere."
• He sat down, got in the Word, and checked the tracking: "Delivered." The driver never knocked, never rang the doorbell, never got a signature, and left the package on the sidewalk, not even where packages normally go.
• Pastor Karen: he was sitting in the chair where he should have seen the delivery and never saw it. "So you have to go beyond the natural. God is always speaking, but are we listening?"
• Keep your ears tuned to God. Don't get dull in your hearing because you are a certain age. Never stop asking God to reveal Himself. Never become so experienced that you stop being teachable. Never become so familiar with the Word that you stop expecting fresh revelation.
• Prime time is not maintenance mode. Not existing, not coasting. Prime time is being fruitful.
• Every generation needs someone who can say: "I've seen God move before. I've watched Him answer impossible prayers. I've survived what you're afraid of. I know He's faithful." That is revelation talking, and that is the people in this room.

The Hawaii house (Pastors Karen & Greg)

• Pastor Karen is from Southeast DC, not Hawaii. While stationed in Hawaii with three sons, God told them clearly to get out of the military, and to stay in Hawaii. Going home would have been comfortable, but "we knew that we knew that we knew" where God wanted them.
• Leaving military housing with no jobs, they toured a beautiful townhouse in Waipio Gentry. A leasing agent was taking names of interested renters, and the list was full. As they walked out, God spoke to Pastor Greg: "Where are you going? Turn around. Tell the man this is your house."
• Pastor Greg told the agent: "I don't have any money right now for a deposit, but I want to put my name on this list." The agent let him.
• The military needed a forwarding address to ship their household goods. They gave the townhouse address. Two weeks later the man called: "Come and get the key."
• They were not "Pastor Greg and Pastor Karen" then, just faithful members, and they told no one. An elder kept asking, "Greg, do you need anything?" The third time, Greg said, "Elder, we need some money for a deposit." The answer: "See me tomorrow." The envelope held more than they needed, and they tithed off of it.
• Through the transition, envelopes with their names showed up on their chairs at church; people knocked on the door with groceries, and not just any food, the food their sons liked. "When you open the refrigerator and all you see is ice cubes looking at you: God is our source."
• A plug that is not pushed all the way into the socket does not work the way it should. God wants you completely plugged in. No gaps in your plug with God.

Maintain a Youthful Spirit and Mindset

• "I'm walking a little slow, but maintain a youthful spirit." Don't agree with the world that at a certain age you must feel a certain way. "I don't receive that." Look at the apostles: "They get younger and younger."
• A youthful spirit says there is still something God wants to show me. A youthful mindset says there is still something God wants to teach me. A youthful spirit says there are still people I can influence. A youthful mindset says there are still things I can build. "Somebody say, I'm a builder."

• Stay cheerful. Laugh. Laughter releases healing.
• The generation behind you may not do everything the way we did. That's okay. "Our assignment is not to make the next generation become us. Our assignment is to make sure they don't have to start from zero."
• Give them wisdom without demanding they duplicate our methods. Give them revelation without requiring them to reproduce our traditions. Give them the lessons of our journey so they can go farther than we went.
• Pastor Karen: keep it in the church too. Be open to new innovation and new ideas from people coming in. Not that you must change everything ("sometimes you get an upgrade on your phone and think, it was working fine"), but be open to change and new ways of doing things.
• Her story: in the Baptist church of her childhood you couldn't come without a slip, and women wore doilies on their heads. It took her a long time to wear jeans to church on a Sunday. Her mother once asked, "Did you go to church today?" A couple of years later Karen saw her mother at church in jeans and asked her the same question. "You can praise and worship Jesus in jeans, and so can I."
• A youthful spirit stays curious. One sign you are still plugged in is that you are willing to learn. Don't become so experienced you can't be taught. Don't stop asking questions.
• Don't become so familiar with church that you stop being amazed by God. A parking space: amazed. Something little: amazed. Something big: amazed. He is El Shaddai, El Elyon, the King of Glory.
• Walking with God doesn't close the book on learning; it opens a deeper chapter. The more you know Him, the more you realize there is more to uncover.
• The Lester Sumrall story: a denominational leader asked him, "Brother Sumrall, who is sending you around the world?" "My elder brother." "Be more specific." "Jesus is sending me around the world." Sumrall boarded a boat to China with no ticket and no money, ministered to people on board, and ended up with a first-class ticket and everything he needed, because he stayed open to God.
• "My experience tells me I need to buy a ticket." Not if God tells you that you don't. Your experience is not the end-all, be-all.
• You are a kingdom resource. You possess decades of lived wisdom that no algorithm can replicate. You know how to raise children, weather storms, bounce back from failure, and pray through until victory comes. Above all, you have learned how to trust God when everything says quit.

Refuse to Drift

• "It's not the time to coast."

• Picture the beach: someone is at the shore, and suddenly they are way out there and don't know how they got there. Don't get so relaxed that you allow the enemy to put you at ease; off guard is when he brings things your way. It's okay to be comfortable, but not so comfortable that you get complacent.

• We are not slipping away. We are occupying. We are possessing. We are taking charge. We are on the offense. Attentive, alert, ready.
• A soldier does not put on armor to say "I'm dressed." Armor is preparation for the battle. They go out knowing they are equipped and knowing victory is already theirs, not with "whatever happens, happens."
• Drifting is dangerous because you rarely notice it. No one wakes up and says, "I'm going to drift from God." Drifting happens little by little: prayers become optional, church becomes occasional, the Word becomes neglected, what was once your passion becomes routine. Until one day you look up and realize you are nowhere near where God wanted you to be.
• People need living proof, not just polished sermons. It is good to say the Word, but are you living it? Your children and grandchildren need to see consistency and perseverance. Your church needs to see stability.
• Can someone look at your life and say, "They've done it, they've experienced it, so why not me? Why can't I be next in line?"
• It is not about a title. Pastors, leaders, deacons, ministers: we are all children of God. The same faith Mom and Dad possess is the same faith you have to possess. Don't say "that's good for them, but I could never." Who says you can't?
• Stay relevant. Stay vital. Stay needed.

The dry cleaners (Pastor Greg, with Pastor Karen)

• Apostle Tony shared it at Pastor Demond and Portia's anniversary service: he went to the cleaners, it was about 100 degrees inside, he handed over his ticket, and the lady set it aside and served someone else. He didn't "kirk out." He stayed patient. It turned out the woman being served could not afford to pay for her dry cleaning, and God used him to pay for it.
• "If we stay in a posture, we can change lives. Stay ready and relevant, looking to be a blessing, and God will show up every time."
• Pastor Karen: the enemy wanted that moment to be an excuse to walk out. Instead it became an opportunity for God to get the glory, and for God to see the fruit in Pastor Tony. Some trees look good from afar; up close the fruit is shriveled, dry, and full of worms. What kind of fruit are you carrying that other people can eat from?

Understand Our Authority as Believers

• We stay plugged in all the way by understanding who we are and whose we are. "I've got a supernatural identity." You are a son or daughter of the King. You have authority.
• "The church's greatest issue isn't a lack of authority but a failure to exercise it."
• God didn't carry you through life's triumphs and trials so you could step back from your spiritual duty. He preserved you because your experience has developed your authority.
• When something breaks down in your house, don't lose it. Their HVAC went out a couple of months ago with a $12,000 estimate; "long story short, God provided." Don't trip out when things confront you. Know you have authority. God is already working on your case. Agree with God's Word.
• The enemy is not intimidated by your age. He is intimidated by people who know who they are and refuse to surrender the ground God has given them.
• There comes a season when God expects us to stop talking about His promises and start walking in them. "Don't talk about it, be about it."
• Our authority is not based on emotions, feelings, or how long we've been saved. It is based on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. "I overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony."

• The haunted firehouse: God supernaturally graced Pastor Greg into the Hawaii fire department ("you weren't local, you weren't getting in"), and they assigned him to a firehouse everyone called haunted. "Something was going on in that place." His answer: "I don't care how haunted it is. The Lord is on my side. I've got God with me. Whatever happens, it ain't gonna touch me."
• Jesus didn't promise authority; He imparted authority. Authority is not something we are trying to obtain. It is something we have already received.

• Authority flows through everything you do: through your prayers, your worship, your words, and His presence.
• Don't let age convince you to step down. "I'm going to step up. I'm in an elevated position. Up, up, up."
• Don't let a new generation persuade you to stay silent. Your assignment in this dispensation is to remain fully active.

The Declarations and the Close

Closing (Pastor Greg)

• Your voice, wisdom, and prayers are still vital to the body of Christ, to your natural family, and to every person you come in contact with.
• Don't let familiarity cause you to unplug or step back. "They've got it, they're all right"? If the Holy Ghost prompts you to pray for somebody, go and pray for them.
• The theater story: their church meets in a cinema. A woman walking toward the theater was visibly struggling in her body. The Lord said, "Go pray for her." He asked, "Ma'am, can I pray for you?" Her companion was not excited; she was: "Yes, please." Her whole countenance changed. "If you get an inkling of a prompting, even miniscule: should I pray? Yes. Pray."
• Stay prayerful, stay teachable, and fully engaged.
• They knew Cornelius by name in heaven (Acts 10) because he was a giver, generous, and blessed the people of God. Does heaven know who you are? Our lives should be fruitful.
• Closing prayer: signs, wonders, and miracles; new vision, new elevation, new vistas, new horizons. Declare it: "Open doors in abundance are mine."

Key Quotes

Themes

Nuggets

• "There's no app for presence." Your faith cannot be downloaded.
• A laptop does not run unplugged. Neither do you.
• Check the tracking, but obey the "stay right here."
• Put the new address on the military forms before the key comes.
• Tithe off the envelope.
• Laughter releases healing.
• Get on the boat without the ticket when God is the one sending you.
• Armor is for battle, not for show.
• Don't "kirk out" in the dry cleaners; somebody's bill is about to get paid.
• The firehouse was haunted; the fireman was not afraid.
• Heaven knew Cornelius by name. Be known for generosity.

How This Applies to Us

• Redefine prime time. Write the definition down: peak activity, high visibility, readiness for the main stage. Then name the one assignment you have been treating as finished that God has not.
• Plug all the way in. Set a daily, non-optional Word time, and close the gaps: the days you skip are the loose plug.
• Ask for revelation, not just information. Before you read, pray Proverbs 14:6: "I hunger for understanding." Expect God to remove a veil.
• Obey the "stay right here." When a prompting interrupts your list, sit down. The package is on the sidewalk.
• Hand the next generation a head start. Pick one person younger than you and give them a lesson from your journey this week, without requiring your method.
• Stay curious and amazed. Ask a question you have been too experienced to ask. Thank God out loud for something small.
• Run the drift audit monthly. Prayer: optional or daily? Church: occasional or consistent? Word: neglected or fed? Passion: routine or alive?
• Check the fruit up close. Ask one person who sees you under pressure what they have watched you do when disappointment came.
• Exercise your authority. When something breaks, speak the Word first and panic never. "God is already working on my case."
• Answer every prompting to pray. Even the miniscule ones. Especially for the people you assume are all right.
• Say the declarations daily until every assignment God has entrusted to you is fulfilled.