Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Phil: Cannot play with your soul. You cannot play with offense. It will poison you and dead bones and dead smelling carcass will be around you and you will defile many. The Bible says you have to deal with your flesh.
[00:00:26] 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 receive the second part of Pastor Phil McNeil's Word from Night One of the 2025 Oasis Conference. In our last episode, Pastor Phil reminded each of us to let go of the offenses, bitterness, or need for control that will clog up our wells. If you haven't had a chance to hear this episode, I highly encourage that you pause and go listen to it before we continue here today, Pastor Phil will finish his message with a call for each of us to live the crucified life, showing that this is the only way for us to unclog the wells of our lives.
I promise you will be blessed by what you hear today.
So join us as we seek to open prophetic wells in our lives, in our churches and in the world today. Enjoy.
[00:01:21] Phil: I think that was a lot of what my dad had.
My dad was Pentecostal with a capital P.
[00:01:28] : Prophesy.
Whew. My dad, when he prophesied, you know, many times, even as a kid, sometimes I'd be embarrassed he'd prophesy so loud. But there were times as a kid because of the anointing, I'd begin to weep in the presence of God.
I had an anointing of God, but that came from living a life free of offense.
And I want your well to be open sometimes in life because of others. You have to trust God sometimes in life with your children.
How many of you got children that sometimes you have to hold on to that verse. There was a time you told them what to do, you dressed them, they did what you told them. But now someone else will dress them and lead them. And you've got to trust them and to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes with your health, control is a total illusion.
Sometimes with your age, you get to a point. I watch my 94 year old mother. I'm going to visit her on Monday in Ireland.
She's getting to a place and she does not want to trust anyone to take care of her but herself.
There's coming a day where she's going to have to trust others to take care of her and clothe her. All of us go through things in life where we have to trust the Lord. There's no avoidant right now there's someone here, I believe God is saying to you, you're trying to control it, but you gotta understand, it's a new day for you to be dressed and give control to the lordship of Jesus Christ and let others even take care of you.
It's hard.
We want to be in control.
My mom, one time when they came together, she had fallen on the floor and she was sick with COVID And the paramedics came to get her, and she's laying on the floor and she says, oh, no, sometimes I just like to sleep on the floor.
No, I'm fine. Yeah, just give me a little minute.
[00:03:30] Phil: You know, I'll wake up here and.
[00:03:32] : I'll get up in a minute. She could hardly move, but she didn't want to go to the hospital.
My mom has a blanket that's embroidered and it says, aunt, there's always a place for the righteous.
She drives me nuts when we go to a parking lot and I can't find a spot and I'm getting frustrated. She'll say, phil, there's always a spot for the righteous.
[00:04:00] Phil: And I'm going, God's got bigger problems than me getting a parking spot.
[00:04:03] : Mom, do you know? Every time, to my consternation, we get a front row parking spot and she goes, see?
[00:04:12] Phil: Philip, if you would just listen to me. Now let me tell you a few.
[00:04:15] : Other things about your life you need to listen to.
She's an Irish mother, let me tell you. And she's a good one. She's a godly woman.
Sometimes in life, because of others, you have to trust God.
You know, we don't like the verse yet. It was the Lord's will to crush him. It pleased the Lord to crush, crush him.
Serving God can be a fight of your life. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had to wrestle with his human soul.
For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself. Lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons.
My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked for him. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.
You've always got to remember, though Hebrews, God is not unjust, he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him. As you have labored and helped his people and continue to help them. God sets the example for us. Of embracing the cross because he is omnipotent, initiated. He knew he would face his cross and yet he came. One morning I was out for a walk and I was talking to the Lord about something. Unlike you, I was being a little selfish about something.
And we were in a debate about something and selflessness. God can bless because he pours fire on the sacrifice.
When you deny yourself. He can move, but selfishness pours water on the altar.
There is no fire, no blessing. The Holy Spirit has a way of dealing with us that deals with our self preserving natures. Scientists tell us that we survive as a species because of our animal nature, which is self preserving. Natural selection says that strong animals will choose strong animals to strengthen the species. They say the animal self preservation strengthens the entire species and gives them longevity of life. Some believe that man is inherently good, but I am not convinced. I think we are inherently selfish and only God, the Holy Spirit can deal with that. When he begins to speak to me.
[00:06:30] Phil: I'm able to move out of myself.
[00:06:32] : Because of his love.
That changes my heart.
[00:06:35] Phil: The heart is deceitful above all things. When I hear a young person say, I'm following my heart, I say, oh.
[00:06:40] : Goodness, I know you.
[00:06:42] Phil: Yeah, but you do the same thing and you're not young. Come on, you can't let your heart govern your emotions.
The heart wants what the heart wants.
Cheryl saw me and the heart wanted what the heart wanted.
[00:06:54] : You know what I'm saying?
[00:06:59] Phil: But God showed true selflessness and true.
[00:07:03] : Love in that he sent his son.
That's what our faith is all about. God sent his son.
This is love. Not that we love God, but He loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made perfect in us. A few years ago, you gotta remember now, God sent His son.
A few years ago, one of my daughters, Rebecca, was going on a missions trip. We went up to Canada. She was flying out of Toronto and I remember her going to Mexico for a month. And she got through. There was a big glass wall and you could see them go through customs.
[00:07:42] Phil: And there's my little Rebecca.
And the suitcase, this big suitcase. She could hardly carry it.
[00:07:47] : And she's heading down there. But I had to release her to entrust her to God.
[00:07:52] Phil: My daughter Becca.
[00:07:55] : She was going down to be with the Snyders in Mexico. I'd been there myself. I knew it was Safe. I'd flown there a couple times, ministered down there, done some different things down there. But when I sent Maya Becca as an adult girl, it really hit me a little hard to have to trust the Lord. Think of how God felt when he sent his son.
You know how much you love your children. There's not much you wouldn't do for him.
God sent that which was most dear to him. His child, his Becca.
He loved us that much. Greater love is known this. And he lay down his life for his friends.
[00:08:32] Phil: I want to talk to you about.
[00:08:34] : Something here, and I want you to get a picture of.
[00:08:36] Phil: If you feel life has been hard.
[00:08:37] : On you, and it may have been, don't let bitterness get on your soul, because life is unfair.
We live in a fallen world, but don't get mad at God. Get mad at the fact that in the Garden of Eden they fell. And just as sin entered the world through Adam, and we're all Adam, grace and truth came through one man, Jesus Christ.
[00:08:57] Phil: Amen. And so when you get mad at God for a fallen world, don't get mad at God, get mad at Adam, get mad at yourself. Because in you is the same nature of Adam who only redeemed by the saving work and the salvation of Jesus Christ.
[00:09:10] : Amen.
And so Scripture teaches clearly that there was a fall.
[00:09:17] Phil: When it says, for God so loved.
[00:09:19] : The world that he gave his only son, you got to remember, he's omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. He's omnipotent. He's all power. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. He's omniscient. He's all knowing. He's time out of time. He's. He knows that before the foundation of the world, he was there.
[00:09:39] Phil: He knew that when he sent his.
[00:09:42] : Son, what exactly was gonna happen to him? And yet he did it.
You and I, we get into ministry. If we knew what sometimes was gonna happen, we wouldn't do it.
[00:09:50] Phil: Amen.
But he knew and he still did it. Get that into your spirit. For God so loved the world that even knew. He knew that he was gonna be.
[00:10:01] : The government would kill him.
[00:10:03] Phil: He knew believers would persecute him. He came to his own and his own received him not. He knew close friends would betray him. He knew he would suffer great pain. No matter what you feel was unfair, unjust. God loved us enough that he sent his son, knowing what he would face if I knew that my Rebecca was going to face any harm in Mexico on that mission trips, there is no.
[00:10:27] : Way I would have sent her.
That's the bigness of the love of.
[00:10:33] Phil: God, that he endured his cross and came knowing ahead of time what he would suffer.
[00:10:42] : Would you do that?
Not sure I would.
[00:10:46] Phil: So when you want to get offended about life and how things surprised you or something happened to you, or the church didn't treat you right, or. Or their neighbor didn't treat you right, or your spouse didn't treat you right, or your child didn't treat you right, I understand those things are real. But weeping remains for the night. Joy comes in the morning. Do not let the sun go down in your wrath, lest you give the enemy a foothold.
You cannot play with your soul. You cannot play with a fence. It will poison you and dead bones and dead smelling carcass will be around you and you will defile many. The Bible says you have to deal with your flesh.
And I'm telling you, I am no saint.
[00:11:31] : He knew he was sending him to a cruel world.
[00:11:34] Phil: He would face a cruel death, but he loved us that much. Some of us have been victims in life. Many of us have been blessed in life.
[00:11:41] : But some have been victims of this fallen world.
[00:11:44] Phil: God knew what he was sending his son to. That's how much he loved us. We were unaware victims. God was a knowing victim, but he loved us that much. When you give that revelation into your spirit of the selflessness of God, that He could have. He left his home in heaven for us, knowing what he was coming to. Some of us got into ministry and we had no idea.
And if we did, there's some things we probably wouldn't have done.
[00:12:11] : Amen.
But God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, he bore our sin.
Injustice, innocence treated wrongly, lies, unbelievable physical pain.
But you cannot hear me say this argument of the love of God despite any injustice. You see, it has to come to you by the love of the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal it to you. Like me, you have to go for a walk with God.
And I can't tell you when I went for that walk, I was not in a good place.
But God showed me. It was just before Christmas and I was about to do a Christmas Eve message and he said, phil, you didn't know what you were going to get into. But I did and I sent my son. So what are you going to say to me right now, Phil?
He's like an Irish mother sometimes. God, I'm just telling you right now.
What are you going to tell me, Phil? What's your offense?
Huh?
He forgave us for all that happened to him in this world. And that was so unfair, so unjust.
And we are the ones to blame for this mess we're in.
We have to understand the injustices are not from God.
When God does not understand, you could say, well, God doesn't understand that I was innocent and vulnerable. He sent his only son as a baby and knew that he would face what he would face. But he loved us that much to redeem us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son not bunch his only.
I know people who have only one child and all my four daughters said, why couldn't we have been one child?
[00:14:09] Phil: Why couldn't we have been an only child?
[00:14:13] : Think about that his only son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
To be prophetic and open up the wells. We must understand that God knew ahead of time when what he was going to face when he sent his son and he sent him. What honor in that decision. You and I face stuff that sometimes I think if we'd have known we were going to face it, we would not. But this is the great thing. There's no temptation that seized you except what is common to man.
[00:14:45] Phil: And when he provides that, he provides an escape. Come on. You don't have to live there. You can escape. You can come to God and meet with him and meet with His Holy Spirit. And as we come to communion tonight, we understand the fact of the price he paid. How can we hold on to any bitterness or resentment? And why would we want to when the truth of the matter is you cannot have fresh water and salt water dwelling together. There has to be fresh and a fresh stream. And whether you realize it or not, if you don't purify your well, you will not be a fresh stream.
And what you are, you will impart to others and. And you will defile others and you will destroy the work of God.
And 276 people were on that boat. And those sailors in the midst of the storm wanted to jump off. They tied the rudder, they tied the tongue as we talk in James. And they got to the other side of the storm and at the end of it they were all safe. And it says not a hair on their head was hindered. I wish I'd have been on that boat.
[00:15:58] : Oh, laugh. Laugh about it. Go ahead.
I have a convertible. I love my convertible.
Hallelujah.
For some reason, hair does not get in my eyes. I don't know.
I always think of The Book of Acts. Oh, I got five minutes. If I. I always think of the Book of Acts where the church was fighting over meat sacrificed to idols.
Paul writes and says, don't destroy the work of God over meat sacrificed to idols.
Paul always had in his mind a crucified life because he treasured the. The work of God.
Your church needs you to be crucified.
People around you need to be crucified. See you crucified.
How can you model it? If you don't model it, how are they going to model it?
I'm not condemning you tonight. I be the chief sinner and I.
[00:17:03] Phil: Don'T care what you've done. I always love the fact that Paul.
[00:17:06] : I don't love it, but that Paul was at the murdering of Stephen and.
[00:17:09] Phil: Yet God used the Apostle Paul to.
[00:17:11] : Take the gospel to the whole world.
[00:17:13] Phil: I don't care where you've been and what you've done and what you said and what you shouldn't have said. I'm telling you right now, it's a new day for you right now.
And God wants to give you a prophetic release and the move of the Holy Spirit that when we take communion tonight and then when we have this altar call, that there will be a grace to let it go.
[00:17:32] : Go home and love your elders.
Go home and love the building. You're mad at God about your building. You want a different building.
[00:17:38] Phil: You have a building.
[00:17:43] : Patience is a virtue.
Be patient, in the right time, you'll.
[00:17:47] Phil: Have a big building.
[00:17:49] : That's for somebody. Take it by faith.
As I close out, I just want to give one verse. This was a real revelation to me one time.
It's First Corinthians, 11, 23, 24.
This is our heritage, this is our DNA. This is our culture.
People from Elim go to places that don't understand this crucified life.
I'm telling you, I have people that I know that go to different churches and different fellowships, and they might have different strengths than us, some that are better.
But one of the things they're amazed at, that people who come through Elim and are a part of Elim, then they walk into a church, they understand that taking up their cross, denying themselves, they understand servanthood, of laying their life down.
This is our DNA. This is what we are. This is something that we bring.
[00:18:42] Phil: It's not anything other churches don't have. I don't mean it that way, but this is our culture. And I'm going to tell you right now, humility will save you.
It will save you.
[00:18:59] : But this verse, for I received from the Lord, but I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
[00:19:13] Phil: I want you to see something here that hit me, and I'm just a little simple, but it hit me hard. On the night he was betrayed, he took bread.
[00:19:23] : He didn't take it four months later.
[00:19:28] Phil: On the night he was betrayed, he took bread.
Listen, you can't let your life and.
[00:19:36] : Attitude, if you're going to have prophetic wells, be any different.
There's only one way to deal with the soul, and it's not hold on to it and stroke it.
It's, you know, and just sit there and enjoy the misery of it. There's only one way to deal with the soul, and that's crucify it.
[00:19:56] Phil: You have to kill your flesh.
[00:19:58] : You can't live with it, because the.
[00:20:00] Phil: Problem is you don't even realize how much your life is being impacted and how much you're impacting lives around you.
[00:20:06] : Because you will not deal with the.
[00:20:07] Phil: Fact that Scripture says, on the night he was betrayed, he took three weeks and got miserable and did all sorts of crazy things and let that thing fester. Let that. Let that flesh stink a little more. No, there's only one answer. On the night he was betrayed, immediately.
[00:20:22] : It says, he took bread and broke it.
[00:20:25] Phil: Betrayed by his closest.
[00:20:33] : He gave thanks.
Scripture says, I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever served me must follow me. And where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
[00:20:57] Phil: Listen to what Jesus says.
[00:20:59] : So now my heart is troubled.
If you think I'm judging you because you've indulged the flesh. I am the king.
I know what it's like to let something ruminate.
Why do you think I can preach on it?
I've been delivered by the grace of God, not my strength.
But I believe the same grace that's here for me is here for you.
He says, now my heart is troubled. The crucifixion hurts.
And what shall I say?
[00:21:31] Phil: Father, save me from this hour.
But then he comes to his senses and he says, no, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father Glorify. Your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and will glorify it again. How did God glorify Himself? He was crucified on a cross. He laid down his life. Glory does not come from exalting the flesh. Glory comes from crucifying the flesh.
That's how you're glorified.
[00:22:01] : The crowd that was there heard it and said it had thundered.
Others said an angel had spoken to him.
The answer to betrayal is love and forgiveness.
Jesus knew that Judas could do nothing to him unless the Lord allowed it.
Jesus put his faith in God to bring him through.
On the night he was betrayed, he took bread and broke it. Get that into you.
Get that into your spirit right now.
God of all the universe, who could have called 10,000 angels on the night he was betrayed. He took bread and broke it.
He died to self.
Peter trusted the Lord.
There's going to come a day, Peter, very truly, I say to 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. Go.
If you feel that you're called to a higher place of ministry, whatever that means, that's a higher place of ministry.
Not a title, not a position.
A total surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ that he takes you where he wants to take you. You are not your own.
I know this is tough word, but you know what?
You cannot live any other way than this.
You're going to be like that freezer with a dead cow in it.
When we signed up for this, we didn't know what was ahead. But God knew what was ahead when he sent his son.
[00:23:50] : He sent his only son released so that you and I could know forgiveness.
[00:23:59] Thomas: Thank you for listening to today's episode of the well An Elim Fellowship Leadership Podcast. I pray that you were blessed and encouraged by this time. If you'd like to hear more content just like this, be sure to give this podcast a like and a follow. Wherever you get your podcast and share this podcast with your friends, we 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 and your friends to come along on this ride.
So until next time, my name is Thomas, and from all of us here at Elim, God bless.
