Bless the Lord.
I just want to share a quick testimony.
It's not a, well, actually there's an email
I just got this morning from, this afternoon
from Holland.
The numbers are up to actually 130 that
are there for the School of Ministry.
Bert and Carolyn Farris were also over there
teaching and they have 100 beds but 130
people.
They had another event of just going out
and witnessing and witnessing to a lost sinner
on the streets when suddenly the power of
God came on him.
He started shaking, repenting, and then speaking in
tongues and then wanted to be baptized right
there.
So they went in some public place and
found water and baptized him.
And then next thing, a crowd, they started
preaching and they stayed there until people were
throwing mud at them and then they moved
on.
Wonderful report from the team and crew.
Some of you folks know Liz McDougal from
Scotland.
We found it interesting that when we were
in England recently that even the folks in
England don't understand her Scottish.
But she comes from a very heavy drug
addicted background, wonderfully saved, and she's been reaching
out to some real lost young ladies.
Scott got to talk to her and find
out in detail.
And just some wonderful reports.
One of them completely, totally delivered and free
and clean and another just about there.
I mean, people that are in the cesspool
that she's reached out to.
And the one thing she said when she
met with Scott was to please, if any
testimony is given, make it clear that Jesus
did it, not her.
What a wonderful heart.
And I was just looking at another report
that came a couple weeks back, but from
Scott Gunderson.
We met Scott and Louise when I taught
on Long Island over 15 years ago, and
then they came to our school in Maryland
for a bit, and then we're in the
school in Pensacola.
And they've been on the mission field for
some years in Italy and gone back out.
And their heart is really the Muslim world.
So he's had this incredible time of ministry
in Spain and Italy as Muslim refugees are
coming out.
And he said the great majority of them
are accepting scripture, and many are having encounters
with Jesus and getting saved.
I mean, God's moving in the midst of
the pressure, the hell and all the bad
news you see, God's moving.
But there was a little thing that happened
with Nancy and I that I just want
to glorify God for also.
Okay.
How many of you guys use computers?
How many of you understand the agony and
the ecstasy of computer life?
Okay.
How many of you have ever worked on
a project that took maybe hundreds of hours,
and then that project was lost or destroyed?
The data, something happened.
Well, Nancy's doing a lot of video editing
these days and stuff, and has been compiling
some stuff ultimately to help with the school
video.
And the data is so big that she
doesn't have room to store it even on
the large computer hard drive.
So she has a backup drive, actually a
couple of backup drives that are each 250
gigabytes.
So for those that are familiar with this,
you know, they're big storage drives.
And one of them was the only place
where she had all this video stuff stored.
How many hours of work would you say?
A lot.
She's not one to exaggerate, so she just
said a lot.
I mean, hours and hours and hours of
compiling things and so on and so forth.
Late Wednesday night, we were going to be
leaving for Charlotte Thursday, and she's up real
late, I'm up real late, we're talking, and
she's like, I don't believe it.
Something happened to that backup drive, and it
was completely destroyed, and all data completely lost,
inaccessible, and she was taking it with a
good spirit.
But she ran this program to try to
salvage things, and it came up with like
this.
It's like you go in to see a
doctor and say, you know, I'm in pain,
I think there's something the matter, and he
checks you out and he goes, this is
big trouble.
This is worse trouble than you realize.
That was pretty much the message on the
thing.
So we packed up, we came here, and
it was now late, I guess two nights
ago, and she emailed the disc recovery thing,
and they wrote back saying this is a
very severe error message and you might try
this, but basically they didn't have much hope.
So I was in a good place in
God at that moment, and she asked me
to lay hands on the hard drive again,
you know, on this, and I just felt
something rising, you know, another friend that had
been over, you know, knew what happened, we
were praying, so, what's that?
Just lay your hands right here, John.
Oh, okay, I'll try that.
We'll see, maybe after the service, I'll try.
So I just, I didn't even say a
word.
I probably scrunched my face, but I didn't
say a word, and I just said, Lord,
I just take out everything that's wrong here
and just put in everything that's good.
Just felt something happen.
So she then goes, now she was running
this recovery thing at the same time, but,
you know, I thought, well, it's unlikely that'll
work, but I would rather God got the
whole glory if he did this.
So anyway, all of a sudden, she looks,
she's like, okay, everything is back.
Everything that was lost is back, but that's
not the amazing thing.
She had, let's say there were eight different
things on this hard drive, okay, that were,
that were, and by the way, you know
how you go to a doctor with a
medical testimony?
We can go to our Belgian brothers to
get this verified if this is a real
miracle, you can look at it and tell
us, our computer specialists.
So anyway, she had, say, eight different things
stored on that drive, and seven of them
she actually had backed up elsewhere, but there
was one major thing that had all this
key stuff that, that, that had been gone.
All eight things seemed to be there.
When she went through all of the others,
all of the other seven that were backed
up elsewhere were not recovered, were gone.
And only that, that one massive thing that
was not stored anywhere else is the only
thing recovered.
So, Jesus name, the only thing, which you
may get, you may end up now speaking
Hebrew after that, maybe such as I have,
I give.
I may forget everything, you may have to
write the books.
I may have to be nice to everybody,
just have kind of like a switch.
Praise the Lord for his grace and goodness.
We can be here just a, a bit
later today because there's not a, a worship
team practice for Thans congregation, but the plan
is to, to bring the words, just have
time to just go back to time of
worship and then we'll be clearing out of
the building.
And please do remember the different announcements.
If you need to, if you can help
in any way, please remember to see Ken
right after the service and, and those who
are very spiritual, I guess they're going to
pray and the Lord is going to tell
them where, where Dr. Peter's home group is
going to be this week.
And they only have to hear God, whether
it's one or two places.
Was that the meaning of that announcement?
If they're in Dr. Peter's home group, maybe
they can give either Donna.
Oh, so it's one of those two.
I thought you just prayed and it was
50, 50, so it's not that tough to
hear.
Okay.
You may want to try that.
You may want to try not calling.
If you're part of the Peter's home group
and ask the Lord, is it the buckwheats
or the riches and see what happens.
Amen.
Only three doors apart.
That's the other thing that'll, that'll help this
kind of like baby lessons and hearing the
voice of the spirit where there's not much
risk involved.
And, um, those that, uh, uh, that are
praying about being part of, of a fire
school, you've got to be serious, committed to
Jesus.
This is not a rehab place.
It's not a place for the half hearted,
but if you're serious about being trained and
equipped with a sense of calling on your
life to, to make an impact for Jesus
or do the work of ministry, uh, I
don't, I don't know that you'll find a
place that's more focused and committed than, than
what God's enabled us to raise up here.
All right, let's pray together.
And if you have that tape brother, you
can start it.
Oh, if we can't tape then, then the
message would probably be even greater in your
memories than it was when it happened.
We are.
Okay.
Let's start it now.
All right.
Father, we love you and thank you for
your goodness.
I thank you Lord for our family, for
friends, for people committed to you, Oh God,
for people who've been saved and washed in
the same blood.
I pray, Oh God, for the opening of
our hearts to hear from heaven, that you
would speak to us with clarity, that your
word would come with life transforming force, that
we would be carried on the wave of
your word and spirit this day into a
new place in you.
Speak to this community of believers here, father,
your servants are listening in Jesus name.
Amen.
You may want to entitle this message, dancing
your way to victory, although it won't make
much sense until we get to the end.
All right.
I want to read a few verses to
you beginning in John, the 16th chapter.
We'll begin in John chapter 16.
Jesus is speaking to his disciples shortly before
they will betray him and he will be
crucified and then risen.
And he says in verse 32 of John
16, behold, the hour is coming.
Indeed, it is come when you will be
scattered each to his own home and will
leave me alone.
Yet I'm not alone for the father is
with me.
I have said these things to you that
in me, you may have peace in the
world.
You will have tribulation.
That word means pressure, tribulation in the world.
You'll have tribulation.
Notice what he's saying in me.
You'll have peace, but your experience in the
world will be tribulation, pressure, difficulty, but take
heart.
I have overcome the world and therefore in
Jesus, we overcome and therefore we have peace.
But notice the promise.
It's a promise that is not what we
call the refrigerator verse that, you know, you
put that part of the verse on the
refrigerator to remind yourself of and to claim,
praise the Lord.
I'm claiming that verse in the world.
I'll have tribulation, but it remains true.
It is something that Jesus had assured us
of just as he assured us that in
him we have peace and that he's overcome
the world.
Go over to Romans, the fifth chapter, Romans
chapter five.
Look at what Paul writes here.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God.
There's that peace word again, through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained
access by faith and to this grace in
which we stand and we rejoice in hope
of the glory of God.
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance.
Endurance produces character and character produces hope.
And hope does not put us to shame
because God's love has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been
given to us.
The sufferings that he speaks of in particular
are sufferings for the gospel, sufferings that come
our way because of our obedience in Jesus.
Then go to the book of Revelation and
the first chapter.
Revelation chapter one, John has been exiled and
is writing from the Isle of Patmos.
It would be like someone being exiled into
Siberia in deepest, darkest Russia.
Here he's in exile because of his obedience
to Jesus.
And notice what he says in verse nine,
I, John, your brother and partner, in what?
The tribulation and the kingdom and the patient
endurance that are in Jesus was on the
island called Patmos on account of the word
of God and the testimony of Jesus.
It's been pointed out that the word kingdom
occurs right in the middle of tribulation and
patient endurance and that John says, I'm your
brother and partner.
We're in these things together.
And he says, this belongs to us.
This is part of our lot in Jesus.
And then lastly, for now, second Corinthians chapter
one, second Corinthians chapter one, beginning
in verse three, for those that are visiting,
I'm going to share something with you that
we normally say for our advanced classes at
the end of the second year and the
beginning of the third year.
But it's just one of the little secrets
and keys that we share with our students
in terms of how to get around the
Bible.
And you'll be amazed at how quick our
people are here.
If you forget where second Corinthians is, remember,
it's always immediately following.
Okay.
How do you find where second Chronicles is?
After first Chronicles.
Okay.
Where's third John?
Okay.
Watch this.
Where's first John?
Before I said, I don't want to intimidate
those that are visiting.
You think I could never, I could never
know this much and be like these people,
but it's okay.
After a little while, you get it.
It's like a system.
So if you, if you haven't found second
Corinthians, it's immediately after first Corinthians.
All right.
I stole some of Steve all Sunder because
he waits for later in the deeper times
with the students before he shares that.
But I just did it for everybody here.
Second Corinthians one beginning verse three, blessed be
the God and father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the father of mercies and God of
all comfort who comforts us in all our
affliction so that we may be able to
comfort those who are in any affliction with
the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted
by God for as we share abundantly in
Christ's sufferings.
So through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort
too.
If we are afflicted, it is for your
comfort and salvation.
If we are comforted, it is for your
comfort, which you experienced when you patiently endure
the same sufferings that we suffer.
Our hope for you is unshaken for we
know that as you share in our sufferings,
you will also share in our comfort for
we do not want you to be ignorant
brothers of the affliction we experienced in Asia
for we were so utterly burdened beyond our
strength that we despaired of life itself.
Indeed, we felt that we had received the
sentence of death, but that was to make
us rely not on ourselves, but on God
who raises the dead.
He delivered us from such a deadly peril
and he will deliver us and him we
have set our hope that he will deliver
us again.
You also must help us by prayer so
that many will give thanks on our behalf
for the blessing granted us through the prayers
of many.
Pressure, tribulation, difficulty, challenge, in particular for obedience
to the gospel.
These things have been common to God's people
in every century.
These things are common to God's people around
the earth today.
Nonetheless, it is still possible to get to
a point in your own life, in your
own walk with God, in your own ministry,
in your own service where the demonic attack
and the pressure gets so intense that you
feel that you have reached breaking point, that
you feel like Paul in a certain level.
It's all over.
We're not going to make it.
It's all coming down.
In his case, it was clear we're all
going to die.
I don't know if you've ever been in
a situation like that.
Maybe your first time flying, when you hit
your first rough air, and you think this
is it, the plane's coming down.
Or maybe you've been in one of those
situations.
Scott's Uncle Robert was right next to the
World Trade Center on 9-11, and he
lived to tell about it.
But as he was trying to run for
his life and run down a subway entrance,
wasn't it?
And there's just the covered in dust and
can't see anything, it's all black.
He thought, that's it, it's over.
And sometimes you get hit with that.
Sometimes it is just a spiritual lie that
is completely unrelated to circumstances.
And sometimes it's completely tied in with the
circumstances.
The doctor comes with the report and says,
this is very serious, it's cancer, it doesn't
look good.
And the moment that word is spoken, that
thing just comes all over you, it's over.
You're going to die.
There is no hope.
It could be something as simple as a
bill coming in saying this is late and
this has to be paid, and the thing
just assaults your mind.
It's over, it's all coming down.
It could be a failure in ministry somehow
where you fall short, you don't see God
do the things you expect Him to do.
You feel He's given a promise, you feel
He's given an assurance, and the thing doesn't
happen.
Whatever it is, everyone that walks with God
long enough will experience that kind of harassment.
Everyone, especially if you want to be on
the front lines, if you want to be
used by God, if you want to, quote,
be a world changer or a history maker
or a real disciple or a real follower
of Jesus, if you really want to go
out and make a difference, you will come
against demonic pressure and lies and hellish circumstances
beyond what you in yourself are able to
bear.
In fact, one of the first things, you've
got to write it down and plan on
it.
The pressures will be bigger than you.
The difficulties will be greater than you.
The obstacles will be more than you can
handle.
I've journaled regularly for years and probably the
last eight or nine years journaled regularly on
computer.
And I've often made reference in teaching and
things just to looking over the course of
a year and doing a search, you know,
looking up one word and just going through
the whole year and just seeing how that
particular thing was worked out in my life
or what God was doing or what God
was saying.
And I was just looking up, I looked
up the word crumbling because I remember right
when fire was birthed, right at the end
of 2000 when there was a jarring separation,
thankfully wonderfully repaired now, but there was a
jarring separation and there was the pressure of
starting a brand new school in less than
three weeks and some of our faculty away
ministering and no money whatsoever and bills of
about $100,000 that had to be paid
right around then and no possible way of
getting anything done.
And it's on top of it, you know,
a dark, rainy, miserable day, one of those
things.
And I remember just getting hit so severely.
It was one of the darkest moments, just
getting hit so severely and so overwhelmed by
the pressure.
It was one of the rare times.
In fact, I can't remember ever journaling anything
like it.
I just wrote down in my journal, I'm
crumbling.
I said, this is too much.
This is more than I can bear.
And I just listed everything that was going
on, the circumstances themselves.
I mean, if you could have just seen
around the corner and God's provision and God's
hand and just seeing around the corner, you
know, the call from Scott that someone out
of the blue had donated $160,000 to
the ministry work.
And that's one reason that we were able
to carry on and help fire be birthed.
I mean, that was just a few days
around the line.
Or the supernatural meeting with Pastor Greg Burns.
The next thing they're building, opening up to
us and this happening and that happening and
God's favor and God's smile.
But in the midst of it, with the
lies of hell and with the pressure and
whatever we set our hand to do, it
seemed was not working.
It just got so intense.
And I just looked at it earlier today,
the journal entry.
And what I'd written down was, you know,
the pressure in the midst of revival was
overwhelming.
The highs that we experienced, the blessings, the
things that we saw God do, the joy
that I'd be caught up with, that feeling
of satisfaction in God with us was deeper
than anything I had ever known on a
consistent level.
And so also was the attack from hell.
The highs were higher and the lows were
lower.
The buffeting, the tormenting attacks of the enemy.
And what I just journaled there, I said
that the pressure of revival was unbearable.
But the pressure of Jesus revolution is more
than I could ever take.
And I found one other entry when Nancy
was under severe physical attack and was just
really in agony at home and a bunch
of other things just seemed to be crashing
in at the same moment.
And listen, it can be all imaginary.
Do you understand?
It can be completely imaginary.
There doesn't have to be any substance in
it.
It doesn't mean that you don't get attacked
at that moment.
You understand?
You could be sitting in a plane, okay?
And the plane has not yet taken off.
But you don't understand planes and flying.
And all of a sudden you hear some
noise.
Or maybe you hear, you know, if you
get on the plane early and they're testing
the thing.
You know how they test each engine?
They're doing this computer test.
You know what it says?
Fire, right engine.
Remember that?
Fire, left engine.
I remember the first time hearing that I
thought, there's a fire in the right engine?
There's a fire in the left engine?
No, they're just going through their little computer
test.
You may be sitting there on the plane
and you hear fire, right engine.
You go, oh no, the plane's coming down.
We're all going to die.
And the plane hasn't even taken off.
And it's just a little computer test.
But the fact that you get hit with
it is the reality at that moment.
And then sometimes when you add in all
the circumstances and like Paul's situation, it looked
like they're going to die.
Or they're in a boat and this thing
is coming down.
I mean, it's day after day after day
in Acts 27.
There is no light at all.
It's just darkness.
Who can imagine that?
Out to sea.
And it's clear there's no hope we're going
to make it.
In the midst of that is when God
speaks.
When every earthly thing has failed and it
is going down and it is all over.
So I've looked at that journal entry when
I come home and Nancy was under such
attack and we were under such attack.
And I just wrote down in the journal
that day that the pressures and the burdens
are bigger than me.
I don't remember writing those words, but that
reality, the thing is too big.
You know, if we are going against the
enemy and the best strength and wisdom we
have, we might as well quit now.
We do not know what we are attacking.
We talk about wanting to make an impact
at Patriots Point, one community.
I believe God's going to do it.
I believe he's put people there and he's
put it in people's hearts and there's no
reason why we can't see God do great
things.
But that alone is bigger than us.
Do you understand?
When we lived in Maryland, and I'm going
to make this very clear and practical and
direct in a moment.
I remember when we lived in Maryland and
there had been another physical attack on Nancy
and it was just a strange condition that
was tough to diagnose and it had been
going on and it was very debilitating.
It was very hard for me to just
see her in that physical condition.
And one night I was praying and I
felt like I got hold of God and
I was doing spiritual warfare and pulling down
strongholds.
But I felt like, all right, I'm doing
it.
I'm pushing back the powers of darkness against
my wife.
I'm covering her.
And the Lord spoke to me in the
midst of it.
It was actually a word that encouraged me
more than encouraged her.
When I shared it with her, it wasn't
that encouraging to her, but it encouraged me
a lot.
He said to me, there's a lot you
don't know.
In other words, basically what you're doing is
about 2% of the job at your
best and the rest is my grace.
You understand?
It's kind of like the shield of faith
that we put up is kind of like
this.
You understand?
I mean, there's a little bit of stuff
that's going to get deflected by it.
And the rest is just, man, I got
my shield of faith.
It's mainly the grace of God surrounding us
and covering us.
And that which we do see that we
can deflect, it's not like mighty warrior here.
It's mighty warrior up there.
You understand what I'm saying?
And then God did touch her and she
was delivering.
I began to think back because I know
that many in our community here are under
pressure.
And many literally don't know just in this
time of transition and pioneering and being replanted
here, many literally don't know, okay, where's my
next meal coming from?
Or rent is due today and I don't
have it.
Or listen, we've got a sick child and
we don't have money to take him to
the doctor.
And there are real-life day-to-day
things.
And coupled with that is the pressure of
the enemy and the lies of hell and
the accusations.
If God was really with you, why not
this and why not this?
He'll always construct something.
Whatever it is that's different than your current
situation, that's what He'll construct and challenge you
with.
I want to speak to you in the
midst of some level of pressure attack.
And with that, help to prepare us for
the real attack and the real pressure and
the real difficulty when it does come.
I've often thought of Jeremiah, the 12th chapter,
where Jeremiah, looking at the prosperity of the
wicked and the suffering of the godly as
it appears to him, decides this is simply
not fair.
And he's going to have it out with
God.
He knows.
He basically says, look, I know you're right.
I know you're going to win in an
argument with me.
You know, I'll have people tell me, I'll
try to dialogue with them.
I'll say, well, there's no use, I can't
out-debate you.
You know, I just want to talk to
them and say, there's no use, I can't
win an argument with you, I can't out
-debate you.
Think of debating with God.
Think of trying to have an argument with
God.
And he says, look, I know if I'm
going to, I know you're right, God's always
right.
I mean, that's kind of the tone of
it.
I know you're always going to have an
answer, but I'm still going to tell you
I'm bothered.
It's not fair, it's not right, that we're
going to prosper.
I mean, picture how you'd feel if people
all around you, you know, they steal your
money, they abuse your family, they take all
your possessions, and then they go on and
plant the church and it prospers.
It's like, what?
How can it be?
That's not right, that's not fair, that's terrible.
And Jeremiah's dealing with this on a deep,
large level.
And he presents his case to God.
You know what God says to him?
Poor prophet, it's a hard lot you have
being there all alone.
Listen, it was a very hard lot.
We feel lonely and discouraged when we have
8,000 people standing around us, cheering us
on and encouraging us.
And our family right there with us, it's
a hard time.
Picture being a lone prophet going against the
other prophets, the other priests, the kings, the
princes, and warning constantly, it's all coming down,
that's your message.
You know, Jeremiah, what's your message today?
You're all going to die, and your kids
are going to be slaughtered, and those that
survive are going to wish you could die.
That's what the Lord says.
What's the message for us?
Those that are going to be killed by
the sword, by the sword.
Those that are going to die of famine,
by famine.
I mean, it was not a pleasant message.
It was wearing, as I'm writing this commentary
on Jeremiah, I'm overwhelmed by what it must
have taken for him to deliver word after
word.
It was hard, let's face it.
None of us in our own strength could
have possibly lived up to what he lived
up to.
And yet when he comes with his complaint
and his issue, you know what God says
to him?
He says, if you go worn out running
with the footmen, how are you going to
run with horsemen?
If you're getting shaken in the easy time,
what's going to happen when the real battle
starts?
You know, another time when he just pours
out his complaint, you know what God says
to him?
He says, if you repent, I can still
use you.
That's basically what he says in Jeremiah 15.
If you repent, I can still use you.
There is pressure, there is attack, there is
difficulty, and if we will obey Jesus, if
we will be people of the Spirit, if
we will pray and fast and live pure
lives before Him, and reach out and touch
a dying and hurting world and live in
obedience to Him, we will see God move
and we will come under far greater attack
and pressure than we've known, far greater testing,
far greater sifting.
The question is, how can we take hold
of God in the midst of it?
How can we be overcomers in the midst
of it?
How can we find peace in the midst
of it?
How can we avoid crisis and collapse and
breakdown in the midst of it?
It is not God's will that we go
around like basket cases.
God is not glorified through our failure.
God is not glorified through our inability to
move an inch forward.
I actually compiled a list here.
Thankfully, journaling everything through the years enabled me
to do this.
I'm going to tell you what's on this
list.
I remember being 18 years old before college
and really being assaulted by the enemy that
I had taken too many punches already, you
know, like a fighter, that I was too
worn out, that my best days in the
Lord were completely behind me.
I was saved like a year or something.
Face it, I was worn out and through.
I remember getting hit with that at 18.
I started college only because my parents really
wanted me to and God spoke to me
plainly through His Word to honor my parents'
request.
So I went to college but aimless because
I had no intention of going to college.
So I started as a music major.
And after a little while it was clear
I could play drums, knew certain things, but
I was not cut out to be a
music major.
So I just switched to liberal arts for
a little while.
So I had to take all these courses
that I had no interest in taking whatsoever.
And it was towards the end of a
semester and I had to write all these
stupid papers.
There was some play that Paul Newman or
Marlon Brando had been in and I had
to write a paper about this play.
I remember taking History of American Art and
these other classes just to fill a schedule
somehow.
And psychology and stuff, and I'm not putting
this stuff down, I'm just, all of it,
but some of it I am.
The only good thing with History of American
Art was they didn't take attendance and you
would sit there in a dark room and
they would just show slides and talk about
them.
So you could effectively either miss most of
the classes or close your eyes while you
were there and still, if you could figure
out what was on the test, quote, pass.
Of course, I walked away from that with
a tremendous working knowledge of the History of
American Art.
And I can go to virtually any art
museum in America or even just look at
houses and designs and architecture and tell you
the origins.
Well, I did pass, though.
I remember at the end of this semester,
I had all these papers and I thought,
I can't do it.
I just want to be reading the Word,
I just want to be praying.
Right after that, I switched and became a
Hebrew major.
I thought, I'm not going to make it.
And I remember distinctly, in my room alone,
at my parents' house, where I lived all
those years, getting so tormented that it hit
with reality.
The enemy just hit so clear.
You're going down.
You're going to have a nervous breakdown.
You are not going to make it.
You're going to crumble.
I remember it was so overwhelmingly distinct.
And what I did is I compiled a
list I just went through it because I
remember before finishing my PhD, the enemy said,
you never finish what you start.
You never finish.
You start well, but you never finish.
You will never finish.
You will never finish this.
You will never get your doctorate.
You will never write a book.
You will never do this.
It will never happen.
So I compiled a detailed list.
And on this list is all of the
nervous breakdowns that I actually have had in
32 years in the Lord.
All of the terminal illnesses that have taken
my wife.
All of the times that we have had
to declare bankruptcy.
And several other things.
I've compiled a list of every time any
one of those things that we were actually
hit with.
The time that she was going to die,
the time I was going to die.
I've compiled a list of every, honestly, because
I like to be clean and honest.
Of every single time, not all of those,
but any one of those things ever happen.
And this is the list.
Can everyone see it?
I asked Rowan, I told her I needed
a piece of paper.
She asked if this was big enough.
I said I actually needed bigger, but it
works.
Listen, you know the lesson?
That when the lie came, the same lie
that's hit you and tormented you and come
against you, the same hell that you've been
hit with, the same nonsense, oh man, you're
never going to do it.
I look at different people here and there
are dreams in your heart and there are
things God's put within you, and the same
thing comes.
Face the facts.
It's not going to happen.
You're not going to see your country change.
You're not going to see revival break out.
You're not going to see God do this.
You're not going to see God do that.
Face the facts.
Listen to me.
At a certain point in life, we must
recognize lies for what they are.
At a certain point in life, we must
simply say, I'm going to take hold of
the written Word, the promises of God, and
things that I know that He's spoken to
my heart.
I remember before revival broke out in Brownsville.
I had been so sure and journaled it
and prayed it and spoken it for years
before that a wave of revival was coming
that we'd get to be right in the
thick of it.
I remember right leading up to it is
when it seemed to hit the most.
When is it going to happen?
It's not going to happen.
How long, Lord, watching people cry their eyes
out, weeping before God for Him to move
when it wasn't happening.
I remember just saying, God, how long?
And then, boom, thing bursts out here and
there and another place.
Boom, next thing we get to be in
the middle of it.
And boom, here we all are together.
And that wouldn't have happened without God doing
it.
You've got to realize the very same way
that when He comes and says, you're not
going to make it and the purposes of
God are not going to be fulfilled, and
they're going to reinstitute debtors' prison, and they're
going to start one right here in Charlotte,
where they throw you in jail if you
can't pay your bills, and you rot there,
and your own family forgets you even exist.
At a certain point, we have to say,
devil, you're a liar.
At a certain point, we have to speak
to our own little mind, which tends to
race and get all worked up.
And some of us that think we're so
spiritual, the devil just comes and whispers.
Nothing's actually happened.
Nothing's actually gone wrong.
And the devil just comes and whispers, and
next thing we're in a tizzy.
Somehow we put more faith in what circumstances
tell us, and what people and things tell
us, and what the voice of the devil
tells us, than what the Word of God
tells us, and our experience in God tells
us.
I want to stand here as a witness
today to the ongoing faithfulness of God to
say that He finishes what He starts.
I want to stand here as a witness
to say that you can put your complete
trust in Him, and you can get out
of the boat and walk on the water,
and you can go into situations that seem
absolutely impossible, and if you look to this
thing until it gets to the end of
the chapter of the story, you'll see the
faithfulness of God.
You'll see the kindness of the Lord.
I was preaching in New York some weeks
ago at our New York school on a
Monday night meeting, preaching from Exodus 4, 5,
and 6, when God sends Moses to the
children of Israel for their deliverance, and he
doesn't want to go, and fights it, and
God gets him to go, and then He
says, all right, perform these signs, and He
does, and all of Israel believes, and then
He goes marching on into Pharaoh.
All right.
This has been supernatural, sovereign, hand of God,
called out, set apart, anointed for the miraculous.
Now, he goes into Pharaoh and says, all
right, let my people go.
That's what the Lord says.
Yahweh, tremble when you hear that name, Pharaoh.
Pharaoh says, I don't know Him.
What are you talking about?
I'm not letting anybody go.
He says, you're just idle.
You're not working hard enough.
And then He makes everything worse, and the
oppression gets worse.
And now listen, they were specifically and exactly
in obedience to God.
Do you understand?
Moses was right where God told him to
be, full of the Spirit, and it looked
like the whole thing was a myth.
I remember when we prayed for someone that
subsequently died.
But we prayed, and it looked like there
was a breakthrough for healing.
About 13, 14 years ago, we were just
in the process of moving.
Actually, it was a little longer than that.
We had a late night moving, and we
were just a little disheveled just because of
that.
Some of you can relate to that.
You know, things weren't where they're supposed to
be.
We had to store everything somewhere else.
And then late in the process of that,
we get a word that so-and-so
that we thought had a breakthrough and healing
of his brain tumor.
Instead, lo and behold, he just had a
terrible seizure.
And when I got that report, I remember
it came two prong.
The first prong about the attack on him,
and he's not healed.
And then the second prong, right behind it,
there is no God.
This is not something I wrestle with.
I don't have to read lots of books
on the existence of God.
And a philosophical discussion to convince myself that
he really exists.
I don't need him to, every morning, to
say, It's time to wake up, Mikey boy,
I'm here.
You know, and then, Okay, Lord, you're still
there, you're still God.
You know, I don't go through that.
And yet, in the midst of it, boom,
that thing, I'm talking about getting smitten.
There is no God.
Just boom, the bottom fell out.
The intensity of the lies, the hit.
I want to stand here as a witness
and declare the absolute, utter, and complete faithfulness
of God.
And he will finish what he started.
And he will bring to pass the dreams
that he's put in our hearts.
And we may be like Moses going into
Pharaoh, and we make our, Alright, Pharaoh, that's
it.
Over for you, boy.
And he goes, Get away.
And it's like, not only where's your anointing,
Moses, but where's your God?
There is no God.
Yahweh, who is he?
And everything gets worse, and it gets so
bad, it gets so bad that the next
thing that happens is that the people, they're
furious with Moses.
And when he tries to encourage them, they
don't believe anymore.
And then God says, Now watch what I'm
going to do.
I mean, why did they hit that first
wall?
Sometimes that wall can last for a period
of time.
Why did it happen like that?
Is there any spiritual lesson from it?
I was preaching on that, and out of
the blue happened to make reference to Smith
Wigglesworth, Brian Parkman's good friend, Smith Wigglesworth.
Brian's a man of faith and a teacher
of faith, and knows the Wigglesworth story well.
But I happen to mention the story of
Wigglesworth, who lived from 1859 to 1947, was
called an apostle of faith.
And Wigglesworth, in the midst of his greatest
miracle ministry, got heavily assaulted in physical attack
with kidney stones.
And if you've never had the pain, I
haven't, and I'm trusting my brother's description of
it without having to find out for myself.
The pain of dealing with these kidney stones.
Wigglesworth had, over a period of years, more
than 150 jagged, ragged kidney stones that he
passed.
You heard a groan of sympathy from Brian
in the front.
He actually saved them in a jar.
He would preach publicly a miracle service and
go back to his hotel room, rolling on
the floor in agony, and his underwear blood
red.
And as I was preaching, and yet endured
the test, endured the struggle, and preached faith
all the more strongly, and would not have
surgery, he said, because no knife would ever
touch his body.
No sooner do I preach that, than Brian
gets attacked.
In fact, I preached on Wigglesworth a couple
of weeks later, and he got attacked again.
Then I thought, all right, we'll talk about
John G.
Lake or somebody.
That was the agreement, that I wouldn't preach
on Job that much.
I first want to put something in context,
and then I want to share with you
what I believe is a promise from God.
All right?
You can get all bent out of shape
sometimes over very small things.
Has that ever happened?
I ordered it without the pickles.
It's not, it's, I knew it was a
bad day.
I knew I shouldn't have been in Charlotte.
I knew God wasn't calling me to fire
school, and everything's going wrong, and they put
pickles on.
I mean, little things sometimes.
There are straws that break camel's backs.
Some of you have such a fragile back,
that all you need is one straw.
You don't even need to load with it,
just the one straw is enough.
It can happen.
First thing, just to put stuff in context.
When God spoke to me a couple weeks
back that everything was right on schedule, right
on target, that it was His will that
we began here, the hospitality of Pastor Thant
and the congregation, and not start with our
own building.
We had planned it.
We thought we were supposed to.
It was very clear to us.
I mean, we didn't even ask God if
we were supposed to, because we knew, of
course, we need our own building, et cetera,
and prayed much to that end.
And we had friends working real estate and
others helping us.
And God made it very clear to me
a few weeks ago, you're never supposed to
start with your own building.
Everything's right where it's supposed to be.
And I also knew we will have as
a community, and in particular some of our
fire staff, some challenges, but we'll make it
through the summer.
We're not going to die of starvation.
Even if some of us didn't have money
to eat for the next month, we wouldn't
die of starvation.
And, in fact, it could be the best
thing that happened to some of us.
We're not going to be in debtor's prison.
We will not lose our minds.
We will not need to get an insurance
policy that covers mental illness, corporate mental illness
or something, corporate breakdown.
We will make it, okay?
And I just want to put something in
context, okay, that even though we've been through
pressure and test and challenge and different things,
everything's really not so bad.
Everything's really all right.
The worst crisis that most of us have
known would still not make it into a
footnote of an appendix of an added chapter
to Fox's book of martyrs, light version.
Scott and I were in Kirkland, Washington last
weekend and had an unexpected opportunity to minister
on a Saturday morning at a Messianic congregation,
old friends of Scott.
By the way, everyone, everywhere I travel with,
anywhere around the world, there's an old friend
of Scott and his family.
Scotty Volk, I don't care where we are.
We're in the Mojave Desert.
Do you know Volks?
Do you know Sheldon June Volk?
Where were we?
Just in a little motel in the middle.
In an elevator in Illinois.
In an elevator in the cornfields of Illinois.
In an elevator in a little motel in
an out-of-the-way place.
You don't need a car to get around
the entire metropolis of that city.
Just walk here, walk there, and you've done
it.
I mean, it's cornfields.
It's the middle of nowhere.
We're on it.
Scott Volk!
And the thing is, everybody stayed with his
family.
Now that you get to know him, you
can understand that.
Everybody.
So there happened to be an old friend
of Scott's invited us to speak at their
congregation.
And we got there a little early, and
I noticed a recent addition of Voice of
the Martyrs, where there was a photographer who
was an insider, was known by the Communist
Party, and had access to places that most
Christians couldn't get to, and some house church
Christians were brought in there to be beaten
and tortured.
And he took pictures telling them that this
would be a great thing if their superiors
could see what a good job they were
doing when they look at these pictures, that
they would get promotions and things.
I mean, he was dishonest, but he did
it for the purpose of getting these things
out.
So there are actual pictures of Chinese Christians
with electrical prods stuck on their face and
hung and being tortured in different ways.
And there's just a report here.
Sister Ma and her family were sound asleep
one night in May 2001 when Chinese Public
Security Bureau police burst into her house and
arrested her son and her daughter-in-law.
The police left her five-year-old grandson
alone with nobody to take care of him.
A 27-year-old woman, a friend and
fellow Christian named Yu Zhongyu, don't know how
to pronounce it, dropped by the house during
the raid and was also arrested.
According to interviews with members of Sister Ma's
house, church, and statements smuggled out of prison,
dozens of church members were arrested at the
same time and beaten with clubs, jolted with
cattle prods, and burned with cigarettes when they
fainted buckets of water were poured on them
to revive them.
Interrogators stomped on the fingers of male prisoners
and stripped off the clothes of young women
prisoners and abused them.
Mrs. Ma said they used electrical prods on
me all over.
They wanted to humiliate us.
Additional details about Sister Ma's arrest and torture
were learned by New York Times columnist Nicholas
Christoph who reported on November 26, 2002, that
police in a remote region of China had
interrogated a woman named Ma Yukin, but their
efforts seemed unsuccessful.
Christoph wrote she never broke when she was
tortured with beatings and electrical shocks.
Even when she was close to death, she
refused to disclose the names of the members
of her congregation or sign a statement renouncing
her Christian faith.
While the physical abuse was almost unbearable, the
mental torture was even worse.
Throughout her ordeal, Ma could hear the sounds
of her son being tortured in the next
room.
They could hear each other's screams, additional incentives
to betray their friends and their faith.
Recalling this, Ma Yukin began to sob.
They wanted me to hear my son's cries.
She said it broke my heart.
According to Voice of the Martyr sources, Sister
Yu was beaten to death while in custody.
Christoph verified what Voice of the Martyrs had
been reporting for the past 36 years.
This kind of treatment has been common in
China for more than half a century.
Christians whose only crime is worshipping God are
burned with cigarettes, beaten with clubs, and martyred
for the faith.
And then the testimony at the end of
Pastor Lam, who had spent 20 years in
prison.
He said, before I was arrested, my church
had only 200 members.
After I was released from prison, the first
time I found, the church had grown to
900 members.
Then came the confiscation of books and equipment
in the church.
Before the government confiscated our church, the church
numbered 900 members.
After the confiscation, the church had grown to
2,000 members.
With a broad grin on his face and
a twinkle in his eye, the elderly Pastor
Lam looked our Voice of the Martyr representative
in the eye and exclaimed, Persecution good for
church.
I just read that simply to say we've
not yet been beaten.
We've not yet suffered to the point of
blood in our walk with God.
We met with Fire School of Ministry staff
in Pensacola around April of last year.
And we said to them, listen, just in
the midst of our pioneering work, I mean,
what God's doing in our midst is extraordinary.
We didn't need to say that.
And the quality of what's being produced around
the world is extraordinary.
But in the midst of the pioneering work,
there are financial challenges.
No mystery to it.
And I sat with the staff.
I spoke with them, and I said, listen,
I don't know what we're going to be
able to do for the next week.
I don't know what's going to happen with
payroll.
We don't have money right now.
What do you think you should do?
Do you need to get secular work on
the outside?
Are you able to continue?
Speak to us honestly.
And one of them raised their hand and
said, listen, you know, we talk about revolution,
Jesus' revolution by life or by death.
This is nothing.
I mean, this is what we signed up
for.
And then Mike Lebonovic raised a point along
those lines.
And he said, you know, he remembers learning
about John Lake and then reading about him,
John G.
Lake, who lived from 1870 to 1935 and
another forerunner, an apostle of faith.
And he said, listen, Lake said that the
reason they had such an extraordinary impact in
South Africa, God willing, we'll teach again on
giants and the faith in the school in
the coming year.
Look at some of these lives.
He said, but the reason they had such
an extraordinary impact, I mean, unbelievable miracle ministries
and church planting and explosive work that grew
to hundreds of thousands over a period of
years.
Mike was remembering that Lake said the reason
that we were able to do what we
did was because there was a spirit of
martyrdom on the men.
And he said, you know, we've not we've
not come to that anywhere near it.
This is about as close as we come.
And he he was recalling the story.
There had been slanderous reports sent out about
Lake and his work, reports that they had
all the money and materials they needed and
no more money needed to be sent.
And all of the support dried up.
He had 120 men on the field with
their families and they had no way to
continue to pay them.
So Lake called them back.
They sold furniture that they own and clothes
and watches and things just to get money
for train tickets to bring them back in
from all over South Africa.
And they all came back in.
And then, excuse me.
And then Lake met with them and he
said, listen, he said, we don't have any
money.
We don't have any support.
We have no way of paying you men
out on the field.
And they met together for three days.
And on the third day, they asked Lake
to leave for a little while.
He went just across the street and got
a cup of coffee.
And when he came back in, they had
chairs set up in a circle, 120 chairs
with the elements of communion, the bread and
the wine in the middle of the room.
And they said to Lake, we're going back
to preach.
If our children die, we're going back.
If our wives die, we're going back.
If we die, we're going back.
Only you must come and bury us.
And when they took communion that day, they
were participating and joining in the sufferings of
Jesus.
And they were saying also, my blood for
the gospel.
And Mike remembered that story and then just
asked me about the end of it, what
happened in the end, how many died.
And Lake said, in retrospect, he said that
next year, he said, I buried 12 of
the finest men and 16 of the finest
women and children that the world has ever
seen.
And if they had just had any kind
of a normal meal that would have sustained
them, they could have lived.
When you look at sacrifice and suffering to
pioneer works and to do something for the
kingdom, on that line, and then you look
at what God has allowed us to go
through together and those that are joining in
and becoming part of the family, sharing it
together.
It's a privilege and an honor, but really,
it's not a test that's going to drive
us into the ground and into despair.
And it's not one where we're burying men,
women, and children by willing sacrifice to go
and do it.
Thanks, man.
Scott also did that as an example.
Also wanted the reward.
It's cold, too.
Actually, I just coughed as an example so
that Scott would get the water as an
example so we could remember to have water
for the speakers next week.
Everything we do here is always teaching and
instructing.
Where are we at right now?
Why are we here in Charlotte?
I'm going to say this quickly and come
to a close.
We heard a lot of different things about
Charlotte.
And this is not to speak negatively of
the deeper south, of lower Alabama or Pensacola,
but culturally it's been very different.
Trust me, you put somebody from Seminole, Alabama
in Manhattan and they will not last as
long as we lasted in Seminole.
It's been kind of a cultural exile, living
down in that neck of the woods.
And there was only one reason why so
many...
How many lived in Pensacola for a while?
Just raise your hand.
Okay, there's only one reason.
And when we would do a survey at
a fire service, maybe it's 600 or 700
at the height of attendance, and we would
say, how many of you were born in
Pensacola?
We'd have one or two.
Almost everybody else was a transplant.
And almost nobody actually liked being there, but
they were all there for some other reason.
And we were there for a God reason.
It's not like you survey the place and
think, you know, I think I'm going to
settle down in Pensacola.
I mean, I wouldn't as a New Yorker.
Some would, okay?
Again, I'm not saying good or bad.
You know, trust me, there are plenty of
places that Southerners could go to in America
that I find to be wonderful that they'd
run out.
I mean, I enjoy the horns honking in
New York.
It doesn't bother me that you go into
a store and people are nasty to you,
that they're supposed to be waiting on you.
Can't you see I'm busy?
I've got stuff to do.
Sorry, just coming into your store to buy
something.
Not everybody's like that.
I'm exaggerating.
Tom and Carolyn Barrier are some of the
nicest people you'll meet, and they're New Yorkers,
right?
My wife and I, same thing, New Yorkers
as well.
But, you know, we're coming out of Pensacola
and we hear all this stuff.
Well, you know, Charlotte is a much bigger
city, and a lot more places for outreach,
and international airport, and second leading financial district
in America, and one of the more rapidly
growing places, etc., etc., etc.
Listen, I don't believe God has us here
primarily for any of those reasons.
Do you understand?
I don't believe that he looked and said,
all right, where could I put these people,
move them out from Pensacola into kind of
like an ideal paradise ministry setting, and the
angels said, Lord, there's only one place, Charlotte.
Charlotte, that's it, Charlotte.
Oh, yeah, trust me, the international airport, or
just a national airport, you know, will be
great.
I won't have to fly north to go
south, or fly west to go east, or
whatever.
Scott and I did constantly.
I will not miss the Atlanta terminal.
We actually found out that if you're saved
in Pensacola, you go to heaven by way
of Atlanta.
There'll be a lot of things, you know,
a lot more people to reach, a lot
more places to do outreach, and so on
and so, that's all wonderful.
But I came to a very clear conclusion
a few weeks back, very clear conclusion.
When Nancy and I were here and driving
around and appreciating so much of the nice
new things, and developing this, and the universe,
and so on and so forth, I came
to a clear conclusion.
There's only one reason that God has us
here.
It's because he's promised revival for this area,
and we're to be part of it.
It's that simple.
It is not a matter of, you know,
all the other explanations are going to come
and go.
This may be the worst financial district in
America, or the best, the international, USAir may
go out of business, and we may have
to take a boat to get across the
ocean.
I don't know.
It's not for any of those reasons.
It would be like being called to Pensacola
two years before revival, and God doesn't tell
you why.
Think of that.
This is where I'm calling you.
This will be your home for the next
ten years.
Why Pensacola?
Well, it was one of the earliest settlements.
That's not why.
Well, you know.
None of that.
It was a God thing.
There was a promise here.
For weeks and weeks and weeks now, I
get flooded.
I'm talking about heavy.
I'm talking about strong.
I'm talking about at times overwhelming.
Get this overwhelming sense from God, flooded with
it, of another wave of revival coming.
Something that will be greater than what we've
seen.
Something that will be deeper and more impacting
than what we've seen.
I get overwhelmed with it for here, for
Charlotte.
I get overwhelmed with it for New York.
And you say, well, everywhere you go in
America, people say there are promises.
Well, maybe there are, and maybe God's going
to pour out His Spirit all over the
place.
But this much I know, for years and
years and years, He spoke to me about
what was coming, and it came, and it
happened, and He's speaking to me again, and
it's heavier on me this time.
And it has to do with us.
It has to do with this place.
It has to do with all those that
have been here, praying and crying out for
years.
There's something God wants to do.
And we're to be part of it.
And the trials and the tests and the
challenges and the difficulties, in light of what
He's going to do, are ridiculously minor.
And we can either bow down to them
and let those things be our master, or
together, honestly, take one another by the hand,
help one another stand together, get through together,
and see God move in power.
So here's what I just want to end
with.
Dancing?
Your way to victory?
I was very much in the Spirit, encouraged
in faith, praying late at night, two nights
ago.
And I've got this tablet PC, you know,
you write down, it's got handwriting recognition.
So I was just interceding for fire finances,
just for grace to get us through the
season of intense pressure.
Or the year of intense pressure, or the
decade, whatever, you know, experience of it.
But this, just grace now, just interceding, but
not in a way of hopelessness or fear,
but in a way of just, God, the
needs are great.
So I'm writing out, and as I'm writing,
the computer's just recognizing the handwriting.
So I'm saying, God, we need money.
Again, not in unbelief, but in faith, you
know.
God, we need money.
Cash.
Dollar signs.
I'm just having fun writing it.
What's another good word for money?
Moolah.
That's what I wrote.
Moolah.
And then I said, we need a breakthrough.
And when I wrote the word breakthrough, I
wrote it all in caps.
And when it came up on the screen,
it was we need a, and it didn't
get recognized.
And instead of breakthrough, it said foxtrot.
We need a foxtrot.
And the first thing that struck me, you
know, and I started laughing out loud.
Nancy was in the next room, didn't hear
me.
I started laughing out loud, this breakthrough to
foxtrot.
I'm bringing the urgency of the situation to
God and asking for help and grace.
We need a foxtrot.
And the thing that hit me, what, you
want to waltz?
You want to waltz your way?
Is that what you just want to, waltz,
no battle, no testing, no difficulty.
You just want to waltz your way through?
And then that got me thinking about something
else.
And of course, my mind went, my heart
went to Habakkuk, the second chapter, where the
prophet has the great revelation from the Lord
that the just will live by faith.
He saw all kinds of problems and injustice
and he prayed about it.
And God answered him, I'm going to judge.
And then the judgment was worse than the
initial problems and he didn't know what to
make of it.
And the Lord said to him, the just
will live by faith.
And in the end of the third chapter
of Habakkuk, verses 17 to 19, Though the
fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be
on the vines, the produce of the olive
fail and the fields yield no food.
The flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stall.
That means it's over.
That means everybody's going to die.
That means there's no food.
That means there's no provision.
That means there's no hope.
That means it's in a far worse situation
than probably any of us have ever been
here in America.
Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will take joy in the God of
my salvation.
And look at what he says, God the
Lord is my strength.
He makes my feet like the deer's.
He makes me to tread on my high
places.
And I really felt clearly that for all
of us under pressure, it was a practice
I had years ago not to ignore bills
and financial pressure, but whenever we started ministry,
what I was paid was never enough.
We always had to believe for more.
The salary that I got at a Bible
school was not nearly enough to just live
even modestly.
We always had to believe for more.
There was always that pressure.
And there were times when I would just
take all the bills.
I've shared this with you before.
It's not to throw them out or ignore
them, but it was to deal with the
pressure.
I'd put all of them on the ground
in a pile and dance on them before
the Lord just to get a mentality that
I'm going to worship God.
I'm going to rejoice.
My joy is not going to be based
on circumstances.
My rejoicing is not going to be based
on how things are going and what the
latest report is.
My rejoicing is going to be based on
who God is.
And one way or another, He comes through,
He comes through, He comes through.
And where He needs to change our habits
or our lifestyle or speak to us, He
does it.
We respond.
We move forward.
Amen?
So I want to invite you to stand
together with me.
And we're just going to do a song
of rejoicing, but I want to encourage you,
if you've been under pressure, if you've been
tested, if you've been squeezed, if you've been
under it, if things have not been going
well, if promises you've expected to happen haven't
happened, if there are money needs, if there
are directional needs, if there's crisis in the
family, I want to invite you to be
among the first just to step out.
And we're just going to do a song
of rejoicing.
Do you guys know So Good to Me?
You do that?
Alright.
We're going to do this, but listen, this
is a participatory song.
And what we're going to do is if
every...
Here, these are the problems, these are the
difficulties, these are the challenges.
We're going to dance on them.
We're going to rejoice.
We're going to cut loose.
We're going to celebrate.
We're going to honor Jesus.
And together, look at me, together, we will
see the glory of God here in this
city.
Together, we will see the glory of God
here in this city.
Together, we will see the visitation of heaven.
Amen?
So everyone that's been struggling, under pressure, under
attack, having needs stretched, get out from your
seats, okay?
Just in case.
Unless this is the wrong message for the
wrong people, and this doesn't apply to anybody
here.
I didn't say you've been losing your mind.
I didn't say that the pressure's been there.
Step out.
If you step out, it doesn't mean you
have to run around the building.
Okay?
We're going to do this.
Thank you, Jesus.
And we're going to rejoice.
So this song is jumping and shouting and
singing and spinning.
And if you're just not free, you need
to get free.
And just, come on, we need to put
the devil under our feet.
If you've never danced before the Lord before,
you know the phrase, dancing in the Spirit
does not occur in the Bible.
It's not like you wait.
It's like, woo!
My foot's moving.
Woo!
No, you just enjoy the Lord.
Thank you, Jesus.
Yeah, I'll join in.
Sure.
Thank you, Lord.
So let's cut loose, alright?
Oh God, you've been so good to me.
You came and found this orphan and you
brought me right into your family.
Oh God, you've been so good to me.
You threw away my past and you never
count my sins against me.
You got me dancing and now I'm shouting.
You got me leaping and now I'm spinning
out of New York.
Oh God, oh God, you've been so good
to me.
And every day I wake up I breathe
another breath of your mercy.
Oh God, you've been so good to me.
And my delight is in you because I
know that your hand is upon me.
You got me dancing and now I'm shouting.
You got me leaping and now I'm spinning
out of New York.
Jesus, you're the one.
Jesus, you're the one who saved myself from
me.
you