Silence and Stillness: The Gateway to Divine Revelation with @DavidDigaHernandez

0:00 I'll say it like this. We have to leave pagan beliefs with the pagans. We have to leave the beliefs of the occult with witches and warlocks. We have to leave the beliefs of New Ageism with New Agers. What begins to happen sometimes, and it all comes out of pure motives, and that's why I want to deal gently with this, because I think all believers can agree we want to see victory. David Digger Hernandez, it's great to have you here on Charisma News to be able to talk about what God is doing in this upcoming year, 2024, what God's been speaking to you, and you have a vantage point about spiritual warfare that is really impactful, and so we're going to talk about this area in a little bit later, but welcome to the broadcast.

0:50 Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity. So, David, you've written a lot of books about spiritual warfare, and Glory Carriers is one of the ones that has stuck out to me as well. You are somebody that I look to and say, he hears the voice of God very well, and you're helping other people understand that. So one of the first things that I like to talk with you about is, how do you know whether what you're hearing is the voice of the Lord, or it's just your own thoughts? Because I know sometimes for me, it's like, I know the right things, but I'm not sure if this is me or this is God, and sometimes I feel like I just don't know how to distinguish between that. I know if I'm feeling that, then there's a lot of people that are probably feeling that as well.

1:38 Well, 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verses 16 and 17 make it clear that the word of God is the foundation for the voice of the Holy Spirit, for really the voice of God in the life of the believer. And the word of God is profitable for every good work, and that includes hearing the Holy Spirit. But something that we have to remember is that the moment that we are born again, we receive the Holy Spirit, Romans chapter 8, verse 9. And when we are born of the Spirit, we are born again with new senses. So, hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit is not a skill to be learned.

2:18 It's a sense to be sharpened. The difference being that if you imagine that it's a skill that you have to acquire, then you think that you have to work a certain amount of hours or contribute a certain amount of good works before God will reward you with his voice. But really, it's something that you're born with. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. And so the question isn't, can I hear the voice of God, or am I hearing the voice of God, or how do I hear the voice of God? The question is, am I a sheep? Do I belong to him? And if you belong to him, then the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, even now, the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. Even now, the Holy Spirit is instructing you. So it's not a matter of getting him to speak to you. It's a matter of being silent and still enough that you might hear the voice of the Holy Spirit clearly among the other voices.

3:08 The Satanic speaks, the secular speaks, the flesh speaks, or self speaks, and then the Spirit speaks. And so all of these voices are constantly coming at you, vying for your attention, trying to get you to focus on what it is that they're speaking to you. So the key is to cause the other voices to go silent. You do this, number one, through reading the Word of God. And reading the Word of God really becomes the foundation. It is the grounding. If we are not basing what we hear and know of the Lord on the Word of God, then we are left to very strange things. We're left to very unstable beliefs.

3:48 We're left to emotionalism and hype and fanaticism. When we are grounded on the Word, we're grounded on Christ himself through his Word. Then we are stable enough in the Spirit realm to hear God clearly in a practical way that can affect us in our everyday lives. So we must know the Word of God. If you're serious about hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, you'll get serious about knowing the Word of God. So that's number one. Number two, we have to practice silence and stillness. Now, silence is easy. Matthew chapter 6 verse 6, Jesus tells us that when you pray, go away to a quiet place. Go away privately. And your father who sees you praying privately will reward you. So there is this element to prayer that requires that we schedule it, that we have some seclusion to that schedule, and that we drown out all the other voices. That silence is practical.

4:38 Setting aside your cell phone, telling your loved ones you're not available for a certain amount of time. Making sure that things in your everyday life are contributing ultimately to the prioritization of prayer. And so once you've gone away to this place of prayer, and now you yourself are committed to that place of silence, that's where God will begin to speak to you. Now, this is what's interesting, is that many times when believers come into this place of silence, suddenly now they begin to hear what I call the inner chaos. That's the chatter of life, responsibilities, all of the different things that flow through their mind about what they have to do, or what they haven't done yet, or what's bothering them, or what's bothering them from their past, or their future, or even their present. And all of these things produce anxiety. All of these things produce the busyness of mind. And so believers will say things like, well, it's interesting, none of that chaos, none of that inner chatter, none of that noise was there until I began to pray, and then they want to blame the enemy for trying to distract them from prayer.

5:34 But it's not that that inner chaos suddenly showed up when you decided to pray. It's that that inner chaos was revealed when you went to pray. That inner chaos is your inner dialogue 24-7. You're just never silent enough to actually hear what's going on within yourself. And only when you commit to that place of prayer where you're silent, do you now begin to hear what's happening inside of you. Well, no wonder many believers are walking around with depression, and anxiety, and confusion, and distraction, and worldliness, because of all that turmoil inside. So number one, silence and stillness, silence, the second point I'm making, silence and stillness. Silence is the setting aside of outer distraction, but stillness is the quieting of the soul.

6:14 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. When we learn to focus on Jesus in prayer, that is when that inner chaos begins to become dealt with. You ever notice that you can sing and dance and jump up and down in church and there's no issue? You can even to some extent study the word of God and there's no issue. You can participate in ministry and there's no issue. You can participate in the feeding of the homeless and there's no issue. You can do good works and there is no issue. But the moment you go to pray, the flesh starts to squirm. Why? Jesus said the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. It's that weakness in the flesh that pulls you from the places of prayer. Why?

6:56 Because prayer is the death of the flesh. And only when we come to that place of prayer where our eyes and our attention is focused on Jesus, can we begin to see the weakening, the dwindling effect of the flesh's influence. And now that begins to become weaker and the spirit gains more influence in your life. That's through silence and stillness. And this, of course, clears the way of all that inner chaos. And of course, you're able now to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with greater clarity. The third thing that we need to do to be able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with greater measures of clarity is live righteously. The steps of the righteous, the Scripture says, are ordered by the Lord. So if you lack righteousness, you'll probably lack direction. Because why is the Holy Spirit going to tell you step three if you have yet to obey step one?

7:40 Why is the Holy Spirit going to give you the Rhema word if you haven't obeyed the written word? Why is the Holy Spirit going to give you a specific instruction if you haven't acted on His general commands in Scripture? So, number one, know the word. Number two, practice silence and stillness. And number three, walk in obedience. You do those three practical things and the voices of secularism, the voices of the satanic, the voices of the sinful are going to begin to grow silent and the voice of the Spirit will begin to speak. And you will hear with clarity if you simply do those basic practices. That is very well put. And I love how you described about this inner chaos because I think that's one of the things where a lot of people don't hear teaching about that and how there is this inner chaos in there and we're trying to just rebuke that. But I love how you said that's one of the first times that we actually are still enough for those things to actually come up.

8:38 But that's what's always going on. And yeah, that does make so much sense why there is anxiety and depression in the body of Christ because we're not practicing the presence of God like we should be. You know, what are some of the things that, what are some of the practical things that have helped you deal with these inner chaos things? I know I heard one teacher, I think it was Graham Cook said the Holy Spirit wants to go with you to deal with some of those things and then bring back your attention. What are some of the practical things that we can do? Because there's not as much teaching about this whole inner chaos thing than there should be.

9:18 Well, James chapter four, verse seven tells us that if we submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee. That submission to God is ultimately what leads to being able to work through these different areas of the flesh that are ultimately distracting us from the things of God. So practically that looks like living right. Practically that looks like saying yes to the Holy Spirit and no to the flesh. Practically that looks like implementing a discipline of daily prayer. And these are things often that we don't want to hear because that requires some action on our part. Remember this, when it comes to the realm of the spirit or spiritual acts, the Holy Spirit will give you the desire.

10:02 You must implement the decision and the discipline. So he gives you the desires. He gives you the willingness. But if we are not acting on the desires that the Holy Spirit gives to us, we can't expect that anything will come about as a result of the influence of his power in our lives. And so we as believers have to respond. Psalm 80, 18 says, quicken us and we will call unto thee. That is the quickening of the Holy Spirit. He quickens us, gives us the desire, gives us the strength, gives us a new nature, and we must choose to act upon that new nature. So people want hands laid upon them and to have discipline imparted. Discipline is not something that can be imparted.

10:42 I can't lay hands on you and make you pray more. I can't lay hands on you and make you read the word. I can't lay hands on you and make you choose to obey God. We have to act based upon what the Spirit is telling us to do. We have to act based upon the desires that the Holy Spirit is giving to us. And as we begin to do this, we will see a breaking of those strongholds in our lives. We will see the diminishing of the work of the enemy in our lives and we'll begin to actually see a fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit begin to develop. And that really again comes down to what we call the spiritual basics. What people don't want to hear about the spiritual basics because the spiritual basics to many sadly are boring.

11:22 They're not as exciting as saying well, it's something you have to break in your family bloodline. It's not as exciting as saying well perhaps there's some hidden object in your home. And to some degree I think that believers sadly are satiating a hunger that they have for darkness. They can't watch scary movies anymore. So what we do in the body of Christ is we create our own version of Dungeons and Dragons and call it a spiritual warfare. And then now we're interested in the demonic. We're interested in the power of the enemy. We're interested in blaming demons when what we should be doing is living a life unto the Spirit for the life of the believer is one of victory and choosing to implement these very practical spiritual disciplines and then seeing those things begin to bear fruit in our lives. That's why the scripture tells us, Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 and 23 about the fruit of the Spirit, which is the character and the nature of Christ. As we abide in the Spirit we begin to see that nature develop within us. And so we as believers have to implement those practical things.

12:14 How do you pray more? Well you have to choose to pray more. How do you pray daily? You have to choose to pray daily. How do you read the word of God more often? You have to choose to read the word of God more often. These are things you have to implement. And then here's the thing is believers get discouraged. They say well it didn't work. It's not helping. I'm not seeing really anything in my life that's transforming as about as a result of what's happening in my spiritual discipline. This is why you have to practice faithfulness. Galatians chapter 6 verse 9 makes it very clear that as we practice that which we are supposed to practice that eventually we will reap the harvest. We will gain what we are supposed to gain from that.

12:54 But it's not going to happen if you just say well you know I want to do it once and then like a magic trick I want everything in my life to be transformed. Now we understand that I'm not by any means downplaying the fact that the Holy Spirit can do a miracle like he did in the life of Saul turning him into Paul and various other key figures in the scripture that experience the life transforming power of the Holy Spirit in an instant that bore immediate results. That of course can happen. But in a more practical sense all of us have experienced that regeneration when we were born again and received Christ and now it's up for up to us to choose to walk in the Spirit is what Galatians 5 says. Let the Holy Spirit guide your life. It's something you have to choose to do. And as you do that daily consistently you're going to begin to experience that freedom that comes from walking in the Spirit. So you want to see that fruit begin to bear out.

13:42 You want to see God begin to do this work and you are going to have to implement those daily spiritual disciplines and from there you'll begin to see transformation. Is there room for spiritual warfare? Absolutely. Does the enemy attack us? Absolutely. Are there demonic strongholds we need to break? Of course. Do Christians sometimes need deliverance different from exorcism? Absolutely, positively yes to all these things. But 99% of your spiritual problems will be solved if you simply implemented the basics. And again, believers don't want to do that because then they have to bear the responsibility for that. That's so good. David we're going to talk about spiritual warfare in just a second and kind of as a transition here. I was in YWAM for eight years and we always had a week about spiritual warfare. And one of my favorite teachers that we had come in to talk about this, he said something that has always stuck with me and I think you just kind of echoed it in a lot of different ways there.

14:40 But basically it's, I'd rather deal with a demon any day because it has to come, you know, come under the submission of the name of Jesus. But your flesh, you have to deal with that by yourself and through discipline. And so even though it was spiritual warfare week, we ended up spending more time about spiritual disciplines and focusing on that. But I do want to talk about some of those other things that you talked about, you know, deliverance. And I know you have written several books about spiritual warfare and that's one of the things that God's really calling you into to focus on right now. And you got to publish one of the books with us, 25 Truths about Demons and Spiritual Warfare.

15:20 What are some of the misconceptions that people have about spiritual warfare that you like to address? Oh, boy. Yeah, I mean, that's been a major part of the ministry that God's given me in terms of teaching on spiritual warfare is dealing with a lot of these misconceptions. I'll say it like this. We have to leave pagan beliefs with the pagans. We have to leave the beliefs of the occult with witches and warlocks. We have to leave the beliefs of New Ageism with New Agers. What begins to happen sometimes, and it all comes out of pure motives. And that's why I want to deal gently with this because I think all believers can agree we want to see victory. Second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 17 tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

16:10 John chapter 8 verse 36, if the sun sets you free, you'll be free indeed. So we have to start from this point. The life of the believer is one of victory. The life of the believer is one of peace, not necessarily perfect existence to where you're not dealing with any trials or tragedies or circumstances. That all on the exterior, yes, can be happening. Just ask Paul the apostle. He was shipwrecked three times. He was whipped. He was beaten. He was imprisoned. He was rejected. He was lied about. He was ridiculed. Did he think he was under some curse? No, he called himself blessed even in the midst of those difficult trials. It's that inner victory that we're talking about. So we start here.

16:52 The life of the believer is one of victory. If you are in bondage, you are not living the Christian life. Now, here's what people hear when I say that. David, are you saying I'm not a Christian if I struggle spiritually? That's not what I said. I said, if you are in bondage, spiritual bondage, you are not living the Christian life. Why? Because that is not the standard to which we must aspire. Now, that's not a statement of condemnation. That's a statement of hopefulness. Why? Because this means that you don't have to settle for spiritual bondage. This is the lie that many believers have bought into. They accept spiritual defeat as if it's a part of the Christian experience.

17:34 And we even hide behind our bondage while using spiritual sounding excuses like, well, the enemy's only beating me up so badly because he knows how much of a threat I am. Bullies don't beat up people they think are threats. They beat up people who don't know how to fight back. And the scripture tells us very clearly that if you submit to God, resist the devil, the devil flees, he doesn't fight. So, again, I'm not saying the believer won't struggle. I'm not saying the believer won't be attacked spiritually. I'm saying living in the place of defeat is a problem. It's not what God called you to do. Now, getting back to the point I was making just a few moments ago, we need to leave paganism with pagans. Because what happens is, especially if somebody is born again and they're saved, let's say, from New Ageism or they're saved from paganism or they're saved from the occult.

18:22 What we attempt to do in that case is we take the belief systems of those demonic doctrines and we, instead of leaving them behind and saying, well, they need to stay there and be considered the lies that they are, we take from those belief systems, call it spiritual intel, reverse engineer the teachings of the occult and then call it deliverance doctrine. Here's the thing. We do not need to supplement the teachings of the word of God inspired by the precious Holy Spirit with the teachings of paganism. We do not need to supplement the precious word of God with the teachings of the occult. And when you have that mixture, that's where you have confusion. And then you get believers to approach spiritual warfare as if it's transactional like they teach in the occult, as if it's some legal process like they teach in the occult, as if it's something where they have to go through some minute details. I mean, what if I don't have a membership to ancestry.com and I'm not able to research all of the sins of my grandfathers and great grandparents and then the generations before them? How then do I destroy what some would call this legal right?

19:32 And I understand about family bloodlines and I am not saying, and this I have to be clear on because there's a lot of nuance to what I'm saying. I'm not saying that demons don't strategize against believers generationally. They absolutely strategize against believers generationally. But I would rather call this generational consequence. Why? Because the word curse implies that I can't be free unless I solve or unlock some demonic mystery hidden in ancient times past. As if God is looking over from the balconies of heaven with his arms folded saying, I would set you free, but you didn't name that sin that your great great grandmother committed and therefore my Holy Spirit is powerless to work in your life. That doesn't line up at all with the teachings of scripture. That lines up with the teachings of the occult with paganism. And again, we have this mixture and that's why believers are stuck in bondage. And I know what I'm saying is not popular and it may not be trendy, but it is the truth.

20:24 And I know this because I used to try to defend those worldviews and teach them as if they were biblical until I began to study for myself to say, I'm going to study the scripture so that I can have a robust defense of these doctrines that I support. And as I began to study the scripture looking for that robust defense, I began to find that a lot of these things were based on proof text, using scripture out of context, and a misapplication of some of the truths that are actually given to us in scripture. And again, let me say this for clarity sake. I'm not saying that demons do not strategize generationally against us. I know I said that already, but with things like this, you have to be careful because if people hear what you're not saying, they tune out what you are saying. I'm saying that as those demons strategize against generationally, they only have as much power as your decision will give them. I have a scripture here I wrote down. Ezekiel chapter 18 verses 20 to 25 really makes it clear that God does not punish us for the sins of our fathers and mothers. And you may be able to reference something from the Old Testament where it says that, you know, it'll be visited upon generations or I will punish the sons and the daughters, but this has to do with God dealing with the nation of Israel whenever they would fall into idolatry. He would cause one of the surrounding pagan nations to overtake them and keep them subjected under slavery. And in so doing, that would naturally affect the generations, but those were consequences of the choices that the parents made not in the spiritual realm, but manifesting in the natural. Secondly, that's not a demonic curse, that's a curse from God.

21:52 And who among us can break a curse from God if God put it there? I mean, so we don't have to worry necessarily about that, especially if we're born again, for Jesus broke the curse of the law. Now, I understand about family bloodlines, but there's something else we need to consider. Yes, you may have some issue with your family bloodline, but I promise you, no matter what your family bloodline is, there is more power in the blood of Jesus. So it all comes down to what I would call fighting strongholds. Spiritual warfare, summarized, is simply the fight to believe God's truth over the enemy's lies. Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verses four and five tells us, we use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.

22:34 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. We can break this down. You have weapons are not carnal. This means that this is not battled by physical means, by any means. The enemy does not fret when we raise our voices or shout at him or scream at him. You can't fight the darkness by punching the darkness. You fight the darkness by turning on the light. Then the scripture says mighty through God. This means literally effective for the cause of God. This is effective unto the purposes of God. To the pulling down of strongholds, I like the language here, because what the Greek is implying is the utter destruction and removal of a barrier in that when the stronghold is removed, such as is being described in the scripture here, there's not one stone left upon the other to where when you're overtaking the enemy's ground and you're stepping into new territory, you don't even have to worry about getting a pebble in your shoe because there's absolutely nothing left of the stronghold, completely obliterated, casting down imaginations.

23:36 These are reasonings, deceptive paradigms, mindsets. Now, in the context of what we just reference there, Paul the apostle is basically defending his apostolic authority against pretenders who were saying that Paul the apostle wasn't who he said he was. And so in his defense, he likens their deceptive reasonings and lies to strongholds, which is where we get this analogy from. For every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, this is the truth about God or the truth that helps you to know God, and that's still debated among some scholarship. Bringing into captivity every thought. I love this because we can now take captivity of the thought. We can now take the thought captive once the stronghold is taken down. What is a stronghold?

24:20 It's a thought pattern. So it would look something like this. A lie doesn't become deception until you believe it. So John, if I sit here and tell you that I'm wearing a red shirt right now, that's a lie. But because you can see plainly the truth, you don't believe the lie that I'm communicating to you. Instead, you say, no, David, you're wearing a blue shirt. Well, so that lie didn't become deception, did it? So a lie doesn't become deception until it's believed. If I lied to you and you don't believe me, I lied to you, but I didn't deceive you. So once we embrace a lie of the enemy, this leads to deception. That deception produces thought patterns and feelings that ultimately produce actions. Those actions become cycles and habits.

25:02 Those habits and cycles are what we refer to as spiritual bondage. The problem is many believers try to address the symptom, not the source. The result instead of the root. They try to address the action or they try to address the feeling rather than getting to the root of the lie that they're believing. For instance, many Christians believe that they have to accept just some form of spiritual bondage in their life, and that's just the normal part of the Christian life. Well, if you grant that premise, then from the very get-go, the enemy has you bound. And again, people might be confused because they say, well, I live clean, I live right, I'm in the Word, yet I still struggle or I still have tragedy or why are my finances in order or why are my loved ones not serving the Lord or why am I still sick? And this is to confuse a trial for a bondage or a curse. When the book of James tells us to rejoice in those trials because those trials are the purification of our faith, the strengthening of our faith. This is not to say that we pray for trials or that we pray that we're not blessed because many times that's just the ebb and flow of the Christian life. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.

26:04 That's part of life. You're going to experience ups and downs. But the believer looks at these trials and sees them as opportunities for growth. And thus, even in the midst of struggle, they are victorious. So never mind with these exterior circumstances. Spiritual warfare is that fight to believe God's truth over the enemy's lies and that battle, that to claim that belief in the truth of the Word of God. To choose, no, I am not going to believe what the enemy says even though I feel this way. I'm not going to believe what the enemy says even though this is going on in my life. Consider the power of the endorsement. If an unknown political figure is endorsed by a well known established political figure, that can help to win them an election. If a new clothing company is endorsed by some famous athlete, that can skyrocket sales. Same is true for an unknown author and a best selling author. If that best selling author endorses an unknown author, that can cause them to become a best seller. That's the power of an endorsement. And so what the enemy tries to do is use our circumstances to endorse his lies. So when he lies to you and says, I have you, you're bound, the curse wasn't broken when you were born again. Well, he's going to point to your circumstances. He'll say, see, look, your finances aren't good. Look, you're sick. Look, your family doesn't serve the Lord.

27:18 And if you're not careful, you can allow him to use those circumstances to endorse that lie that you're defeated. Or to endorse using your emotions to where you feel down one day. Or you feel like quitting. Or you feel like you're not enough. And then the enemy takes those feelings and says, see, God has rejected you. And because we feel and we see in the natural, ultimately we say, okay, I grant the premise, you have the victory. And the enemy has no victory. Now, there's a popular saying that says the enemy doesn't own anything. This isn't true. You can reference Romans chapter 8 verse 9 that tells us that if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not born again, you don't belong to God at all. Think about what Jesus told the Pharisees, I think, was in Matthew or John chapter 8 verse 44 where he tells them that you belong to your father, the devil, because you're all liars. In the book of Acts where the Bible talks about having been rescued from the enemy himself and being under his rulership. So yeah, the enemy does own the unbeliever, but he does not own or possess or have power over the believer themselves. And that is the lie he tells them. I have a right. I have the power. I have the influence. And this is why Christians get stuck in perpetual bondage. They go from deliverance to deliverance instead of from glory to glory, because though they may experience some encounter with the Holy Spirit's power, though they may experience some relief for a week or two, ultimately, at the very source, they believe that the enemy has some right in their life.

28:42 Wow. David, you've broken that down quite extensively, and I really appreciate all the verses that you've given us to... I want to encourage everybody to go look those verses up for yourself, because what David is saying, he's making a great case and a great... I don't know what the opposite of a stronghold is, but I guess a righteous stronghold as opposed to an unrighteous demonic stronghold, because if we have a stronghold, we've got that place that we can go to, that we can, you know, I think David says in the Psalms, the Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, and my strength, in whom I will trust.

29:22 Psalm 18, verse 2, you know, that fortress as opposed to a stronghold. So use those verses that David just gave and to help build that fortress that the Lord is allowing you to find your solace in. You know, David, we've talked a bit about the disciplines and the things that we need to do as believers and, you know, not get caught up in the cessation or the sensationalism or cessationist. That's a different story. We're not going to go there in this conversation. That's a different stronghold, very much. But one of the things that, you know, we're heading into the year 2024. This is at the beginning of the year is when people, they're going to get fit, they're going to eat right, they're going to do all these good things, they're going to start reading their Bible more, you know, they're going to start doing all these things.

30:12 What is God saying to you about the year 2024 and what we have in front of us? And I know you've given some practical tips and practical advice about what Christians should be doing in 2024. Well, in that teaching I gave, and I'm just going to be very honest with you, I gave practical, basic spiritual disciplines that we should be practicing every single year. And so some might criticize and say, well, why does this only apply to 2024? I didn't say it only applied to 2024. I said we should definitely do this in 2024. And some might say we should do it all the time. I say, I agree, all the time, even in 2024. But, you know, it comes back down to those spiritual basics. Read the Word every day.

30:54 I'm going to say this. Read the Word and pray every day. Just try this challenge. I have very rarely, I can't say I've ever met a believer who was bound internally. Again, when we confuse external circumstances for bondage, that's when we can begin to grant the premise that we're bound. I'm talking about joy in the midst of tragedy. Love in the midst of opposition. Peace in the midst of chaos. When we have that internal grounding, that's when we walk in victory. No matter what happens around us, there's victory and life flowing within us. But if you will commit yourself, I'll just say these two things, I guess, for 2024, to reading the Scripture every day.

31:38 To committing to prayer every single day. You do those two things, and that's going to solve a bulk of your problems. Think about the fact that if you go and see your primary care physician, and you tell your doctor, listen, I have aches, I have pains, I don't feel right, something is off. The doctor is going to ask you a few things. What are your sleep patterns like? Are you drinking plenty of water? What's your diet like these days? Are you exercising? Usually, they'll go through those four basic questions because they want to get a baseline for your general health.

32:18 And by doing those few things, sleep, sleeping correctly, not just sporadically, drinking plenty of water, eating correctly, exercising regularly, just by doing those basic things, you're going to solve or prevent a lot of physical problems. And so it's the same in the Spirit. You pray and read the word daily. And I mean, not just like where Jesus said where people babble or they just kind of go through the motions of it. Not praying and reading because you're trying to check it off some list of obligations that you have to do in order to earn God's favor. No, you already have God's favor. That's why you can pray in the first place. But going to it, praying and reading every day, committing to that, do it for one year.

33:00 And if you're not completely transformed, then let God be true and every man a liar. Just like when my wife likes this documentary where these people try to lose a lot of weight. And when they go in to see their physician for the weigh-in, sometimes they actually gain some weight and they'll say, well, I stuck to the diet. I did everything I could. And the doctor will always tell them, no, I'm looking at it right now. Like the scale doesn't lie. You are lying to me. You are lying to yourself. And that's what we do. We lie to ourselves about how committed we are to the word and to prayer. And then, of course, we don't reap the results that we want. I'll say this, John chapter 8, verse 32. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

33:42 If you are still bound, then there's a truth you have not yet come to believe. And you can only know that truth by getting in the word, by bringing it full circle, hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, coming back to this place where you're committed to fellowship with him. I mean, no demonic bondage or demon can swim in the depths of the glory of God. You walk in the Holy Spirit, you're going to walk in freedom. You walk with the Holy Spirit as you should. You're going to live the Christian life. And so you need to come back to that place where you can hear his voice. I'll give them, I want to give them just one quick little breakdown here. There are degrees of hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. The first is the word. The word is the primary way we hear him.

34:26 That's the foundation. And everything else we hear from him is measured by that standard. Now, there are some people, not such as we have in the cessationist camp, as you referenced just a moment ago, who will say, well, if God said it in his word, he doesn't need to speak it to you in your heart and in your spirit. And if God didn't say it in his word, he wouldn't speak it to your heart or to your spirit. But that thinking fails to take into account the very specific directions that we need for everyday life. You cannot find chapter and verse, what state you should live in, what job you should take, what spouse you should marry. Sure, in the Scripture we find groupings of wisdom that can ultimately help to guide your decision-making process in those areas. But you are going to need to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and discern those things for yourself on a very personal level. And then some might ask, is the word of God not sufficient? I would say it's because the word of God is sufficient that we can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in our spirits, because it did its job and connected us to him, and God didn't go mute. So number one is the word.

35:24 Number two is wisdom. Wisdom is a result of the word. Wisdom is that purposeful pool of God on your life. It's not necessarily a specific instruction to your heart. It's a knowing. It's a way of thinking. It's the divine reasoning of God through the Holy Spirit in you. So the more you're in the word, the greater your wisdom will grow. And that wisdom is a form of the Holy Spirit speaking. So the word is the most reliable. The second most reliable is wisdom, because wisdom comes from the word. Then there's what I call the whisper. This is where the Holy Spirit will begin to speak to you directly and begin to talk to you. Now, he will speak more often to the word and wisdom than he does to the whisper, but he still will occasionally speak to the whisper. People who think they hear the whisper all the time are probably mistaking that for wisdom. And then there are wonders. Wonders is the prophetic.

36:18 God speaking through another individual. Signs and wonders. And that is, I put it this way, I'm not necessarily trying to be negative in my description of this, but it is the least reliable way to hear God, because even Satan can duplicate wonders. Now, I believe in healing deliverance, signs, wonders, the prophetic. I'm in the healing ministry. Many of you watch and see the healing testimonies coming from our ministry. Many of you also don't, but for reference, that's where I stand in it. So I'm not by any means, and I'm not saying that to brag, I'm saying that so that you understand that I'm not by any means downplaying the role of wonders. Now, some Christians reverse that. They try to live based on wonders and the whisper, and look at wisdom and the word as just restrictive ways that the distractions come. When it's actually the opposite, you begin with the word, then wisdom, then whispers, and then wonders. And you live that way, and going into 2024, you're going to notice a stability coming upon your life, and a real confidence in the voice of the Holy Spirit, a deeper fellowship with him, greater demonstrations of power. And I'm not talking about just gifts, I'm talking about glory.

37:22 People can move in power, but do they carry the presence? And there will be that beautiful resting of the glory of God on your life and being in such a way that it begins to transform you internally and even those around you. Yeah, that's so good. David, thank you so much for sharing about those tips about what we need to be doing in 2024, and really every year. I mean, those are so practical, and I love how you gave those the word, wisdom, and whispers, and wonders. I love alliteration like that. That's really helpful. Could you just tell people where they can find more information about you, your social media, and things like that, if they want to follow your ministry more?

38:02 Well, primarily, I suggest our YouTube page. You can just type in my name, David Diger Hernandez, David D-I-G-A Hernandez, on YouTube, and you'll get our YouTube page. And as you connect with the YouTube page, you're going to obviously be connected naturally as time goes on with our various other means of communication. But I tell people all the time that subscribing to that channel will benefit you because I release teachings on the Holy Spirit, prayer, spiritual warfare, and similar topics. We also show footage and live streams from events that we do around the world, where people are saved, healed, delivered, and empowered. And you can witness the power of the Holy Spirit in action.

38:44 We actually capture some of those moments on footage. So that's all there at the YouTube channel, David Diger Hernandez. And when you do subscribe, make sure you click the notification bell so that you can receive notices whenever we release new content. I'll make sure to put a link to your channel on YouTube in the description or tag that in the title as well. David, it's been a pleasure to be able to talk with you. I know our time has come to an end, and I hope that we can do this again sometime soon. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.