Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Phil McNeill: I'm sorry. To the day you die, you're gonna have to deal with denying yourself at times. You're gonna want to rise up, you're wanting to strike the Roman guard. You're gonna want to do what you want to do. But the real freedom and the real place is found in the lordship of Jesus Christ, where he takes you, where you do not want to go. And when you die, you come back with resurrection life, resurrection power, authority. I shall not.
[00:00:34] Thomas: Hello, and welcome to the well, an Elim Fellowship Leadership Podcast. My name is Thomas and I am excited that you are joining us today as we hear a powerful word from the president of Elim Fellowship himself, Pastor Phil McNeil. Today we are excited to bring you part one of two of Pastor Phil's message from night one of the 2025 Oasis Conference as he addresses the importance of clear cleaning out the prophetic wells in our lives.
I know that you will be impacted by what Pastor Phil has to say. So join us as we seek to open prophetic wells in our lives, in our churches and in the world today. Enjoy.
[00:01:11] Sheryl McNeill: Welcome to Oasis 2025.
It's so good to get together and to lift up the name of Jesus over every circumstance, isn't it?
Do you know, when we lift our eyes unto the hills, from whence comes our help, then we find ourselves, the things of this world will grow strangely dim.
And so I just want to encourage you that sometimes in ministry that's the only reprieve we get.
When we focus on the Lord and we focus on him and then the things of this world grow strangely dim.
We lock ourselves into the presence of God.
I hope that's what tonight is going to be for you.
Lock yourself in.
Sometimes youth groups have lock ins, right?
That's what we're going to do tonight. And every night when we lift our vision higher, we focus on the faithfulness of God and we fan into flame the gifts that are in us, the gift of God in each of us, because we have a great God.
And many of you who know my husband know that his favorite song is How Great Is Our God. He's often heard singing it coming into the building and singing it through his sermons.
And the musicians have to be at the ready.
So I have the honor and the privilege of introducing my husband, Elim Fellowship President, Reverend Phil McNeil.
So just give me a moment here.
After his 1987 graduation from Elim Bible College, Phil McNeil founded Highest Call, a traveling music and word ministry that ministered to 250 churches a year for five years.
And a lot of them were in this Elim network.
Phil and I have been married for 33 years.
And Phil bravely asked my father, Elim Fellowship President Emeritus, Reverend Bernard Evans, for my hand in marriage.
I'm blessed to have my parents here tonight. Would you please stand?
And we have pastored a local church here in the Rochester area for 31 years by the grace of God.
Nearly 31 years ago, Phil and I became parents.
And we have four beautiful daughters who have grown to be godly women, strong godly women.
And we have two of them here tonight. Would you stand?
These are our oldest two.
So Phil has been an Elim Fellowship elder for 21 years, the general secretary for 10 years, and in the past has. Has served as an area rep and a regional REP.
And in May 2024, Phil was appointed president of Elim Fellowship.
Congratulations on your first year, honey, and thank you all for praying for us.
Phil's prophetic gift has taken him into the nations and across the US to edify the body of Christ, including teaching his prophetic ministry course at Elim Bible College for nine years.
Phil holds a Master of Divinity from Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan College.
Please welcome Elim Fellowship President, Reverend Phil McNeill.
[00:05:44] Pastor Phil McNeill: I am a blessed man. Let me tell you. I was not smart enough to marry my wife. I am a total trophy of the grace of God and somebody who know me go, yeah, that's true. No argument about that, philosopher. Thank you, Sheryl. And good to see my daughters here. Good to see my. My friends here tonight. Many of you have known from over the years, you know, all those years in the road, even years ago, I got to stay in many of your homes and saw many of your churches, and I still see. And now I see your children up serving the Lord, which is just powerful to see. That was Mariah Peoples who led worship tonight. I remember the day she was born. And again, thanks to Legacy Church, tremendous worship time tonight. And I just really appreciate them coming down, bringing their whole team. That is not an easy thing to do, but I'm grateful for them and grateful for all of you to make the trip here to our time. Listen, Oasis is important, and I'll tell you why it's important. It's not just for you to come to Elim and take something back, but when people see you, they're encouraged.
It's good to see us all together as the family of God. And so thank you for making the effort to come. And I know God's grace will be upon us all in this time.
As I was thinking about tonight and sharing tonight, opening prophetic wells, you must be prophetic with your soul.
Your soul has to be guarded and kept.
Believe God, have faith and open. In order to open up prophetic wells, you must keep your soul clear.
And so tonight, even at the end of our time, we're going to have a time of communion as the body of Elim, fellowship. But not just for us, as a body, for you individually, that you would come before the Lord. And even as I'm speaking, if things come up, if things that you know, your soul just needs to be changed. Beloved, I wish above all things that your soul prosper.
Because we can teach a lot of things and we can give you a lot of systems and a lot of leadership training. And all those things are good and we do them. And I believe in him. That's why I went and got a master's degree. All the training is good, but at the end of the day, what it always comes down to is where is your soul with God.
And for wells to be opened up, your soul has to stay open, your soul has to stay clear. You can make no provision for the flesh.
There is no compromise with your soul. There is no compromise to be had with your will. It must be crucified, or all forms of leadership. And leadership teaching must be based on the foundational reality of the cross of Jesus Christ. And this is part of Elim's DNA.
Now, at one point I think we got to the point where it's like, my cross is bigger than your cross, my cross is bigger than yours.
But we cannot deny the truth of dealing with our soul, that the wells might be opened up. Dead flesh stinks and flesh contaminates dead flesh, contaminates everything around it.
And so you cannot play with your soul. The soul is limitless, limited, unlimited. It's infinite. It wants what it wants and it wants what it wants now.
But the great thing is we have a God who's able to help us with our soul. If we come and we say, God, heal me, help me clear my well, let the prophetic voice of the Lord flow out of me as you work in my soil. I was talking to the new missions director, the Bowden's, and they were talking about their like first season when they were in Niger and the nationals there crucified a cow for a meal and they brought the cow and they put it in the freezer, but the freezer wasn't working and the temperature of the house was 120 degrees. And that's kind of normal. From what I understand.
And by the next day, the smell of that carcass was all over the house because the freezer didn't work. And they said they couldn't get the stench out for days at a time because of the decay of the flesh.
You must crucify your flesh.
It's not about you, but about all the people that you lead.
You cannot indulge your soulless nature.
You must crucify. There is no middle ground.
But he says, I have come that you might have life and life to the full when you let your soul take over. You don't even like yourself.
But God has found a way to help you.
Sometimes you get into storms, like Paul on the boat to Rome in Acts.
It wasn't even his fault. He told them not to sail.
They sailed anyhow.
The sailors there tried to jump ship to save themselves, but they forgot about the fact that there was 276 other people on board.
Because when the soul takes over.
Paul could have been angry because he said, don't sail. You get into situations sometimes that cause you problems that you didn't even do.
But you got to come to God on that and find grace and help in your time of need. Amen.
It says on the storm, they tied the rudder in the storm to hold the rudder steady.
And you know, in James, it talks about the tongue being like a rudder. And it says it can set things on fire. It can be used of the enemy. And when the storm comes and your soul will. Wants to rise up and you just want to go like this, you've got to tie that rudder to the lordship of Jesus Christ and tell your soul, I will not, as it were, nourish anything that will destroy others, destroy the people on the boat, hinder me, hinder my life. It smells, it's decay. I want life and a living well within me.
I want you to know I've never experienced these things.
My soul is perfect. Amen. But one of the things Elim has taught me and part of our DNA is that we crucify our flesh.
And as a result of that, God brings resurrection, life and power.
You must not allow your soul to be bitter at God, life or people.
You must let the. If you're going to have a prophetic flow in your life and a prophetic well, you have to be. Let it go.
Let it go.
I want you, as we go through this sermon, I'm not trying to be demonstrative, but I want the Holy Spirit to help you as he has helped me many times to crucify my soul, to crucify my flesh that what comes out of me is a spring of living water. The crucified life. I really enjoyed Andre as speaker last year because when he spoke, he spoke to the culture of Elim.
I heard it, and we resonated with it.
Our culture is this kind of life that we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. It's not about us. It's about something bigger than us. And we lay our lives down and we guard our tongue, and we watch what we say because we understand there are other people around us who can be affected by our lack of control and letting our flesh just have its way.
My father had a saying.
I refuse to be offended.
My parents were Irish immigrants.
We immigrated to Canada when I was four or five years old. I think I was four years old when they immigrated. And I watched my dad over the years, and he really. He really lived that. I refused to be offended.
Some of it was a gift, and sometimes I just wanted him to be offended. Could you be offended a little bit, please?
How he lived his life. He was free.
I remember hearing from a pastor when I was on the road years ago. He went to Carlton Spencer as a Bible school student with a list of complaints about the school. And he was telling me about these complaints and went into Carlton's office and Carlton kneeled down in front of him and said, will you pray for me?
Will you pray for God's help?
That's our heritage didn't compromise. What Carleton was doing was not. Carleton was going to give in. He humbled himself.
We can hold things, we can hold defenses. They seem so important to us. But when you look at it in the light of time and eternity, why are you holding on to this?
I stood at Eva Butler's grave out here not too long ago.
I'm a little morbid.
I go out there. Costa Daer's there.
All these Elim people are there. You know, Carlton's there.
Fort Manning, all these people, Ford Manning, kept the security at night. All these Elim people. And some of them, I just stand there and I say, God, what they had in you, I want. Many of them denied themselves, took up their cross and followed Jesus.
I think of Eva Butler as I stood before her little monument.
It's not even demonstrative.
She was divorced, I believe. A single mother.
Not her fault. Her husband was unfaithful and pastors to church. You think about this in the 60s. It was a different time. But Carl Spencer endorsed her as a missionary and sent her to the field.
Her husband left her and he just disappeared. They had been a part of Elim, he'd been a Elim student, my understanding is. And he kind of just disappeared. And years later she had him looked up and she found him years later out in California. She went out there, her husband's present wife was dying and even nursed her and assisted her in her final months.
Then her ex husband asked her to marry him again and she came back here from California and all of a sudden then he changed his mind and married someone else. She did not let offense hinder her life.
That's when Eva with all that, after she went and worked as a maid cleaning toilets in a hotel and doing maid service, that's when Eva was so devastated. But the next chapter of her life took her to the Maasai where according to Eva, were the best years of her life. Sent to Africa, worked with Maasai warriors, lived in what I would call a freight container. She used a metal thing, she cut windows in it and she lived in it. And she gave her life. She did not let any offense hold her back and she didn't let the judgmental spirit of others who would judge her in those days for something that really wasn't her fault. It was her husband who was unfaithful, not her.
So she didn't let anything hinder her. Things that she could have said to God, why did you let this happen?
But instead of that, she modeled a crucified life. Nevertheless, I live and the grace and the strength of God lives in me.
Come on, what's your story? What have you been through? How have you been harmed? How has someone affected your life? What storm have you been in? Don't let it make you bitter. Go to the Lord and pull from within the the grace of God. I can tell you right now, in my life there's been two times where I could have been bitter. But the Holy Spirit met me and delivered me.
I can't even take credit for it.
One time was in a dream.
And in the dream the man a man prayed over, I don't have time to go into it, but a man that was an area pastor, prayed over me and he said, why do you kick against the goads?
And I woke up and I was free because I was wrestling with God, with people that had left my church. And God blessed them and God blessed us. It was the will and the purpose of God. But I was allowing bitterness into my spirit towards these people. And God came to me and met me in that dream and set me free and Then I saw him a week later at a wedding, and I had to come to terms with it again. But I didn't let the house become polluted. It's been swept out. It's been cleaned. And I got on my knees and I said, God, release me from any bitterness or resentment towards these people.
God can help you if you're going to be prophetic and live with the voice of God in your life, like Eva Butler did. My God, she had a prophetic well in her for the kingdom, and no offense, held her back.
See, offenses stop up the prophetic well in your life.
Life is unfair to us all. But embrace the cross. Trust God.
We see in the life of Peter how God restored Peter. Peter denied the Lord three times. And we read in John 21, when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord. He said, you know that I love you. Feed my lambs.
Again, Jesus said, simon, son of John, do you love me? He answered, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, take care of my sheep.
The third time, he said to him, simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, do you love me? He said, lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Many believe this is just a mirror of him denying Christ three times. That's actually redemption, that he said, I will feed your sheep. God was redeeming and restoring him.
Jesus said, female sheep, Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger. Now this, this is life in God. And he's prophesying to Peter what's going to happen in his life.
Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted.
But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.
This is life in God.
This is the crucified life.
This is the prophetic life.
Prophecy is not just us, say the Lord, it's all going to be great. Prophecy is, take up your cross and follow Jesus.
You will go where you do not want to go.
It is church tradition that Peter here was crucified upside down for his faith.
He is listed first among the apostles due to that he was a significant leader among the apostles.
It is believed that his wife traveled with him and ministered by his side.
She is believed to have been a powerful witness to the Gospel. There's a verse in First Corinthians 9:5 that talks about his wife going with Them and that other apostles like Peter. Their wife's provision was given as she traveled with them. So she traveled with him. It's found in First Corinthians 9. We don't have time tonight, but you can look for it. She must have been a powerful as a minister because church tradition is that Peter watched as she was crucified for her faith. He encouraged his wife by saying, as she was crucified, remember the Lord, the world was not worthy of them.
You want to open up prophetic wells. It's not all fun and games. You will go where you do not want to go. Things will happen to you that you don't want to happen. You will be led by another, and you live a life somewhere. When I read this account of these people and the kingdom of God that was in their heart is more prophetic than someone saying to you, thus saith the Lord, you're going to be great. And I'm all for saying, thus sayeth the Lord, you're going to be great.
They lived a prophetic life that carried a cross.
And even his wife came with him.
Every now and then when Sheryl is going through something or upset with me, I say to her, remember the Lord, Sheryl.
And then a shoe comes across the room.
She goes, remember this. I'm told that is not my wife. It's just a joke.
Church tradition again is that Peter was crucified also for his faith. When it came time for him to be crucified, he reportedly pled that he was not worthy to be crucified like the Lord, but rather should be crucified upside down. Around 67 to 68 A.D. which tradition says he was, his death was ordered by Nero, emperor of Rome.
It is believed that Nero lit Rome on fire in his desire to build more, he had to burn the old. The Romans were devastated because their culture, in a sense, went down with the city. All their temple shrines and household idols were burned up. People were homeless, helpless and hopeless. Many had been killed in the fires. Their bitterness was so severe that Nero realized even though he started the fire, a storm that he started it affected Peter's life.
The bitterness was so severe that Nero realized he had to redirect their resentment and hostility.
The chosen scapegoat was the Christians, who were already hated by because of their relationship with the Jews. Nero spread the word that the Christians had started the fires. Thus, in all of this, Peter writes the following text to the Christians spread around the Roman emperor. Now I want you to get this picture. Here's Peter. He's about to be crucified. Nero has burnt the city. He's blaming the Christians. And he writes to the Christians in his letter. He says, get them and get them good. Stand up for yourself.
No.
First Peter 3, 8. Finally all of you. Be like minded. Be sympathetic. Love one another.
Be compassionate and humble. This is the crucified life.
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. You want a prophetic well in your life?
Keep your well clear.
And when ministry, it's almost impossible, isn't it?
Why can't everybody be perfect like you and me?
Because you've never hurt anyone. You've never done anything wrong. You've never needed forgiveness.
Have you ever done something stupid you didn't even know you were doing? Stupid?
Of course you have. And if you haven't, your spouse will tell you real quick. Have a little meeting afterwards.
On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit blessing. For whoever would love life and see good deeds must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good. They must seek peace and pursue it.
The tongue.
This. This is what we are. We're not the only ones. Oh, Elim's the only one who lives a crucified life. That's not what I mean. But this has been our DNA. This is our culture.
That as Elim, we understand. It's not about me, Jesus. And all this is for you, who is going to harm you. If you're eager to do good, but even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Remember, they're about to be. They're being persecuted for something they didn't even do.
Do not fear their threats. Do not be frightened. But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
But do this with gentleness and respect. Keeping a clear conscience. So listen to these words. This is called take up your cross.
Keeping a clear conscience. That those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. And for it is better if it is God's will to suffer for doing good, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. To bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive by the Spirit. If you want your spirit to be prophetic and alive and free and flowing with clean water, then you embrace this kind of life.
And you don't have the strength to do it, then it works. But if you look to the Lord and he can help you. I told you the two times in my life where I was really wrestling with bitterness. It was the Holy Spirit in a dream that set me free. Both times.
One time I was struggling with something and I was pouring out my complaint to God, and I was talking about these brothers and what they were doing and all this stuff. And then all of a sudden, the Lord says to me, so clearly, so precisely with divine surgery, he says, hey, Phil, you're not my only son.
Oh, wait. Wait a minute here. Lord, I rebuke that in Jesus name. Right there.
I am. It's all about me. I am your only son, God.
I have others, and it's not always about you.
And in one millisecond he spoke, it cut off the flesh, healed it. And I started to laugh. And I was free.
I was free.
Some other leaders came to me and wanted me to pick up the offense and join them in the offense. And I said, I will not have nothing of that.
I'm not going to tell you that I'm a holy person.
I'm not going to tell you it was me that did it. I'm telling you. You're not my only son, Phil McNeil.
See, I was the youngest. I was the baby.
So you know, when you're the youngest and the baby in an Irish family, you are the only son. Can we say amen?
Remember what Peter said here? Peter is exhorting the believers in Rome. He's denied the Lord. The Lord has restored him. Feed my sheep.
And he says these verses again. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger and dressed yourself, you went where you want. You have no control in the crucified life.
You're out of control.
And it's the only way to be.
It's the only way to be. You can't control people. You can't control things that happen. You can't control offense. You just got to move beyond offense and trust the Lord.
There's a day you went, oh, you hit me. I'll hit you twice. No, that's not who you are anymore.
And went where you want. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. I don't want to go to the cross.
I don't want to deal with my. I want to be the only son.
But if you allow the Lord, and even tonight, as the spirit of God, I believe, is descending on your Head and your heart with tongues of fire. As I'm speaking, I know that God is speaking to you. And we're going to have a time of communion and I want you to be free.
You got elders that don't like you. Well, that's in the scripture somewhere. I'm sure you got people that don't like you. Well, how could they not like you? You're so likable.
That's the way it is. But you've got to guard your tongue. And you've got to behave the way God's called you to behave. And you've got to let go and let the Holy Spirit lead you to a place where you do not want to go.
I want to be in control. I want my. But he said to Peter, no, there's coming a day when you are out of control, buddy. And so what happens to Peter is he's crucified and he's says to his wife, remember the Lord, the world was not worthy of them.
I want to be that. I'm not that.
But God's graced me at times to be that.
And I believe he can make you a prophetic person that understands the move of God and the move of spirit in your heart and in your life to be free.
Peter did not say, crucify Nero.
That is what he might have wanted to do years before. That is where he wanted to go. He had to release his life to God. His life was not his own. You cannot control anything. You have to release it all to God. All of us face something in our life where you have to trust God. Hang on to the cross, stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.
Jesus was led to the cross. He did not want to go.
He had to trust the Father. You see the anguish. She was human. 100% God, 100% man. You saw the fight. He understands our flesh. He understands how we don't want to embrace the cross. It's real, and I'm sorry. To the day you die. You're going to have to deal with denying yourself at times. You're going to want to rise up. You're going to strike the Roman guard. You're going to want to do what you want to do. But the real freedom and the real place is found in the lordship of Jesus Christ, where he takes you where you do not want to go. And when you die, you come back with resurrection, life, resurrection, power, authority. I shall not be offended.
[00:31:29] Thomas: Thank you for tuning in to today's episode. Of the well, an Elim Fellowship Leadership Podcast. I pray that you are blessed and encouraged by this time. If you would like to hear the rest of today's message, be sure to tune in next time. You will be blessed. If you would like to hear more content just like this, be sure to give this podcast a like and a follow. Wherever you get your podcasts and share this podcast with your friends, we will have more exciting content from Oasis and beyond dropping very soon and you don't want to miss it. We are excited about what God is doing here at Elim and we would love for you to come along for the ride.
So until next time, my name is Thomas and from all of us here at Elim, God bless.
