David Diga Hernandez - Time with the Lord: The Right Way to Begin in Ministry

Time with Jesus is the first key to impartation. 1 John 2:27 says, «But you have received the Holy Spirit, and He lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what He teaches is true; it is not a lie. So just as He has taught you, remain in fellowship with Him.» There’s an anointing that we’ve received, and He teaches us. Now, this, of course, is not saying that we don’t need to be taught the Word. Some people have misunderstood this. Why would God say you don’t need to be taught and then say in Ephesians 4:11, «I’ve given you teachers»? This is not saying we don’t need to be taught the Word; this is not saying we don’t need to be taught the fundamentals of the faith or the Scriptures. If you look at this verse in context, it’s saying that the anointing you have received causes you to know that you are saved, to know that you belong to Him. It’s an inner witness of salvation. But that is the first and foremost key to receiving impartation from the Lord. When I first began in ministry, it was in my school. I grew up and attended a private Baptist school and a Pentecostal church, and now you know why I am the way I am. Whenever I tell people that, they go, «That makes so much sense!» That’s where it began. I can still remember it was one of the church services. The youth pastor, whose name is Eddie Vargas, was running around because he was the worship leader at our church, and I guess the person who was supposed to flip the lyrics had bailed. How many of you remember overhead projectors? Okay, good. An overhead projector was a projector that sent an image overhead, right? There was a big box of light; you would put a transparent piece of paper on it. Some of you are looking at me like, «Huh? Why didn’t they just use a projector?» Listen, they would put a transparent piece of paper on it, which had the writing on it, and that would project, and then the magnifier would put it on the wall. I guess whoever was supposed to handle the overhead projector had left, and so I see Pastor Eddie looking around, running through the fellowship hall. I was standing with a couple of my friends when he said, «Hey, I need a favor.» My one friend on the left went that way, and my one friend on the right went that way, and I was left standing there. He said, «I need you to do the overhead projector.» I was so nervous because I thought, «What if I mess it up?» I was very anxious about it, but I didn’t realize that the day I began working that overhead projector was the day I began my journey in ministry. You cannot have your pulpit until you have your projector. Everyone needs their projector. If I didn’t man that projector, I watched, and I remember that as I look back, I think of how that moment led to everything happening today. I wouldn’t be standing here in front of you; we would not be having the Holy Spirit Conference had I, like my friends, run away. It began there, and I remember coming to service and being so proud of what I did. That overhead projector never had dust on it; all of the songs were in alphabetical order. I had a power cord that was not chaotic; I had wrapped the wires around so that it had a perfectly clean look. I would plug it in, and I even got fancy and started putting tissue boxes there because it was by the altar, and people would use the tissues from my cart when they started to cry. Not only that, I would go to the worship practices so I could learn the songs and understand their little hand signals, knowing when the bridge was coming, so that when I flipped the song, it was right there at the right time. Man, I wouldn’t let anyone touch my cart! I thought they should get me to do all the big services with my projector. I should be the projector guy! But, you see, you go from there because I had to be in front of the church. I had to be in the services, and I got to hear anointed men and women of God. Because I was in the front row, I got many prophetic words. I mean, I’m telling you it all led up to one day when I went to my youth pastor—the same one—and this was years later. I said I couldn’t sleep; I was having trouble sleeping because the Lord was telling me, «I want you to preach! I want you to preach! I want you to preach!» I was like, «No!» Not because I didn’t want to do it; part of me did, but I was scared. I remember I went up to him on a Wednesday night and said, «I feel like God’s calling me.»