Are you convinced in my heart that there
is a message you want me to bring?
And I pray, O God, that you would
enable me to be your messenger and deliver
your truth, and that it would come, Lord,
through your wisdom and in the power and
life of your Spirit, and that it would
be backed by your own hand as we
bring your message, Lord.
May I not go on more than what
I need to, to deliver what you've given
to me, to deliver to your people.
Give each of us, whatever state we're in,
Lord, you know the many different conditions of
your people here this night.
Lord, give each of us, right where we
are, ears to hear what your Spirit is
saying.
In Jesus' name, amen.
I just want to speak to you tonight
about the absolute, critical, essential need of the
power and presence of God in our midst
and in our lives.
And although I'll probably say nothing new, and
it won't be some big insight for some
verse somewhere, these are fundamental truths that we
can very easily move away from in the
pressure of life, in the pressure of ministry,
in the zeal of following the Lord and
pursuing our calling and seeking to be effective
witnesses in this world.
We can, in the process, miss out on
one of the most critical, fundamental things, the
essential, absolute need for the ongoing visitation of
God, for the ongoing power and presence of
God in our midst.
And when we talk about the goal of
going from visitation to habitation, the goal of
not just having God visit us in power,
but stay with us in an abiding way,
we don't mean that it gets less powerful.
We don't mean that His presence gets less
intense.
We don't mean that the miracles just kind
of fade away.
We're talking about the ongoing, miraculous reality of
God in the midst of His people, which
is the New Testament norm, and without which
there cannot be any fulfilling of the Great
Commission, any Jesus revolution, any authentic New Testament,
anything without the presence and power of God.
We know the words of Jesus in Matthew
28.
We're just going to look at several well
-known passages.
We all know His words after His resurrection.
The words are so familiar to us that
we forget how overwhelming they really are.
Jesus has His eleven disciples in Galilee, some
worshipping, some still doubting.
Jesus came to them and said, Matthew 28,
18, all authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I
have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always to
the very end of the age.
Those words spoken by the resurrected Jesus are
overwhelmingly bold words and large words.
All authority in heaven and earth is given
to me.
There's no appeal to a higher authority.
There's no power that's greater.
There's no possible resistance to the will of
God asserted on the earth in the name
of Jesus.
And I was remembering some quotes that I
put at the beginning of the last chapter
of a book I wrote some years ago,
It's Time to Rock the Boat.
And these words were written by pioneers, by
people who went out into difficult, hostile territory,
one into South Africa, another into other parts
of Africa, another into China.
And they went into situations that in the
natural were impossible, but they went based on
what King Jesus said.
David Livingston, pioneer missionary in Africa.
He said, on the following words, I stake
everything and they never failed.
Lo, I am with you always, even into
the end of the world.
Not just some sentimental fact that Jesus is
with us, not just some feeling that we
have, I know the Lord is with me.
But the reality of his presence and authority
in the midst of every kind of hostile
territory and demonic situation with no believers often
around for miles and miles and miles as
far as you can go.
But he staked everything on the fact that
Jesus said, I'm with you and all authority
is with me.
Now, go listen to what Hudson Taylor said.
Missionary to China, founder of the China Inland
Mission, a man whose life and sacrifice directly
ties in with the multiplied tens of millions
of Chinese born again today.
Hudson Taylor was a man who was so
consumed with the burden.
So one of his quotes again the other
day, he said, perishing China so filled my
heart and mind that I had no rest
by day and a little rest by night
till health gave way.
No rest by day, little sleep by night
till health gave way.
The burden was so consuming and yet the
burden alone is not going to change the
people.
The burden alone is not going to break
down demonic strongholds.
The burden alone is not going to change
a single life unless there's the anointing and
the power and grace of God coming down
and bringing about the change.
Hudson Taylor said this, we are a supernatural
people born again by a supernatural birth.
We wage a supernatural fight and are taught
by a supernatural teacher, led by a supernatural
captain to assured victory.
Should I read that again?
We are a supernatural people born again by
a supernatural birth.
We wage a supernatural fight and are taught
by a supernatural teacher, led by a supernatural
captain to assured victory.
That's the power of the gospel.
That's the heart and soul of the great
commission.
Listen to what John G.
Lake said, mightily used by God in healing
miracles, the end of the 19th and the
beginning of the 20th century.
Pioneer missionary in South Africa, mightily used by
God in the States as well.
He said, a true Christian is unique.
He stands alone.
He supersedes all who have gone before.
He will not have a successor.
He is man at his best in God's
best effort for mankind.
In other words, it's through the believer that
God's going to get the job done.
There's no plan B if it fails.
There's no other commission than the great commission.
There's no other resource than the power of
the Holy Spirit.
There's no other people but the people of
God who are going to get it done.
It's not that we all just check out
and fail because we fall short and God
sends in the angels to finish.
It's going to be God working through his
people, period.
It's reality.
There's no other plan, no other way it's
going to happen.
And it's not because of our strength, it's
because of his strength.
And the largeness of the task and the
weakness of our own flesh reminds us it's
only by his might and only by his
power.
Hudson Taylor also said, we've given too much
attention to methods and to machinery and to
resources and too little attention to the source
of power, the filling with the Holy Ghost.
It's so easy to do it because we
like to be in control and we like
to make things happen.
And we want another method, we want another
formula.
Look, it's just human nature.
I can be preaching a message and everyone's
absorbing it, taking it in.
Then if I say, OK, let me give
you three points, everybody immediately starts to write
one, two, three, because that's something we can
kind of take hold of and grip.
I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying
it's human nature.
We like to know when it's going to
start, when it's going to end, how it's
going to operate.
And we like to know that we can
see a thing go a certain way from
beginning to end.
And yet our faith must be absolutely, totally
cast on God because of the impossibility of
the task to go heal the sick, to
go set the captives free.
Being back in New York City all the
time just reminds me all the more that
the city is not just going to bow
down because a new ministry starts.
The demons are not just going to run
because we were part of a move of
God.
You go into Muslim nations, you do Jewish
ministry, you go into Hindu strongholds, you start
to reach out to downtrodden people or people
who have been bound by religious hypocrisy.
The only thing that's going to work is
the power of God coming through.
Of course, if it's not lived out through
godly lives, if it's not lived out through
people with pure hearts, the whole thing's a
sham.
But it's never been either or.
Listen, in the word of God, there is
no tension between character and power if the
life is yielded up to God.
There's never an emphasis, well, you better just
work on one until you get the other.
The thing is, you need both in an
essential foundational way.
Without godly character, there's no way we can
ever make it into the work of ministry.
And once we're in the work of ministry,
without the power of God, there's no way
we can get anything done.
Listen to this little quote.
On a tablet in a large church seating
a thousand people, this inscription was placed in
memory of John Getty.
He was a pioneer Presbyterian missionary to the
South Sea Islands.
When he landed in 1848, there were no
Christians here.
When he left in 1872, there were no
heathen.
I want you to turn with me to
the book of Acts, the second chapter.
You read through the Old Testament.
You read through the Hebrew Bible.
It's a very supernatural book.
It's filled with dreams and visions.
It's filled with miracles.
It's filled with prophetic words.
When God was not working, when there were
no signs and wonders, it was taken as
a sign of judgment.
Where is the presence of God?
Where is the power of God?
How come He's not speaking and acting in
our midst?
Psalmists would pray.
Others would pray.
Oh God, take your hand out of the
folds of your garment and act.
They would cry out to God as if
He was sleeping.
And they would say, God, back up with
your hand what you say with your mouth.
God is not a big talker.
God backs His Word with His power.
You get into the New Testament.
It's a totally supernatural book.
You go through the Gospels.
It begins with the virgin birth of the
Son of God.
Then His miracles, and His death, and His
resurrection.
And then you get into Acts.
And it continues.
It's a supernatural book.
And that supernatural presence of power continues right
through.
It's understood through the epistles.
And then you read the end.
And it's going to come back.
It's going to be the most supernatural thing
of all, absolute visitation.
I mean, the clouds breaking through, and Jesus
coming in great power and glory.
And the whole earth seeing Him, like lightning
flashing from the east to west, the sound
of a great trumpet blast.
They're like caught up to meet the Lord's
extraordinary picture.
And yet somehow we think that in between,
it just kind of gets mundane, and every
day, and hard work, and effort, and just
sweat, and go for it.
What happened to the same power?
What happened to the same reality?
I said again, I'm not telling you anything
new.
I'm not telling you anything we don't believe
and we don't hold to.
I just feel from the Lord that we
need to stir ourselves.
Because with all of our effort, with all
of our works, with all of our desire,
with all of our dreams, with all of
our visions, we can still forget some of
the simple fundamentals.
We must have God coming down.
We must have visitation.
We must have outpouring.
We must have a steady stream of the
anointing and flowing of God coming out of
us and touching a sick and dying world.
Otherwise, it's not the fullness of the gospel.
Otherwise, in many ways, it's a defective, non
-New Testament gospel.
It's an interesting thing, but you go through
phases.
You go through seasons where you're really pursuing
one thing.
Maybe for years, you're seeking God to demonstrate
His power to heal.
And then maybe another time, you're just pouring
your heart out for greater compassion to touch
the poor and the needy.
And then another time, you're just consumed with
a world vision and just activating people for
mission, et cetera, et cetera.
And it's hard to always keep everything equally
balanced the same way.
And it's hard to not neglect certain areas.
And we need to stir our own hearts
honestly and ask, have any of us somehow
graduated from the fundamentals?
Have we graduated from the school of the
power of the Holy Spirit without having that
power?
Is that kind of old hat or something
that we went after more when there was
a little different emphasis?
Now, we're talking about Jesus' revolution, and we're
going to be this force changing the world.
And we want to see God touch these
people, all these nations.
We want to see all these things happen.
The dreams are from God, but they will
only be brought to pass by supernatural power,
by supernatural voices from God speaking to people
in their need and their sin, by the
voice of God blaring forth in the midst
of His people, by the demonstration of His
gifts.
It's the only way it's going to happen.
Look in the second chapter of the book
of Acts.
Notice, God comes with intensity and power when
the day of Pentecost, the biblical Jewish feast
of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, when the
day of Pentecost came, they were all together
in one place.
Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a
violent wind came from heaven and filled the
whole house where they were sitting.
Notice that God likes to take over when
He comes.
Notice that God often announces when He's coming
so that we'll take hold of the moment
and take hold of the reality.
Notice that no matter how fully prepared you
are, you can't be fully prepared for God's
coming.
He still comes suddenly.
Some of you may have remembered this sarcastic
little prayer that I wrote in one of
my books called Prayer for a Nice Revival.
Oh Lord, come and quench this longing of
our soul, but please, oh Lord, just leave
us in control.
Oh God, send Your glory, send Your power,
but please, oh Lord, just keep it to
an hour.
The reality is God comes with intensity, power,
force.
Oh, you might say, isn't the Holy Spirit
always a gentleman who comes as a dove?
Well, it's not just someone like Saul of
Tarsus who's persecuting the believers, a Jewish man
persecuting fellow Jews who follow Jesus that has
an encounter with the Lord that is not
quite dove-like.
It's also people who love the Lord and
who are hand-picked disciples and who are
waiting for His coming and still have an
intense experience with God.
Why?
Because God is intense for human beings.
Hey, Big Daddy, this is Chapman.
What's going on today?
Yeah, my dude.
He's not your dude or my dude or
your Big Daddy or my Big Daddy.
You say, hey, that's just the way we
relate.
Well, maybe he relates like that with you
just because of extreme immaturity, not necessarily because
of extreme intimacy.
I'm not saying you shouldn't relate to him
as Daddy and Abba and lean on him
and just be intimate and enjoy his presence
and pour your heart out to him.
When I get close to God, I don't
worry about him striking me or smiting me
or slapping me or crushing me.
I don't think that he's waiting there with
the hammer just to see if I come
the right way.
Almighty Heavenly Father, hallowed be thy name.
And he puts the hammer away.
All right, son, you can come.
I don't have any such image, but I
don't have the image that in heaven we
kind of kick our feet back in a
rocking chair and say, so man, what's it
been like being here all this time without
us?
You say, I've heard of people that Jesus
just appeared to them and that's the way
they talked to him.
Yeah, and I've heard of some of those
same people messing up later.
I wonder if there's something lacking in our
appreciation of who he really is.
I wonder sometimes if there's some lack of
reverence because of lack of experience.
I didn't plan on saying any of that,
but being spirit filled and spirit led, that
means it was from God.
Isn't that the rule?
I never planned on saying this.
Therefore, it must be the Holy Spirit.
Oh, it only works when you're preaching them.
Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a
violent wind came from heaven and filled the
whole house where they were sitting.
God was making it known.
You can almost see it in the spiritual
realm.
If you look on one of those weather
maps, the satellite maps or something, and they'll
show you, this is a picture of Hurricane
Lily coming in off the coast.
And you look at this thing, it's massive.
You know, it's going up.
The wind is blowing hundreds of miles away,
and it's raining states away because this thing's
just coming through.
I wonder what it looks like in the
spiritual realm when the visitation begins to come
near, when the presence of God begins to
come near, when the people of God charged
with God arrives.
I wonder what it looks like.
Remember, this is just the earthly sign and
symptom of the spiritual reality.
God says that it'll come like the rain.
Oh, gentle rain.
I just love when you just stand out
there and it's just the spring showers.
Oh, Lord, pour it out.
Sometimes it's like that.
But when the earth is dry and cracked,
because there hasn't been any rain, people are
dying and animals are dying, and there are
no crops, and a whole generation is about
to get wiped out, and the people are
praying for rain, and God sends the rain.
It's the floods.
It's the deluge.
It's the outpouring that drenches and soaks the
land.
That's what people need and want.
And God says, as one of His images,
just as I pour out water on the
dry and thirsty land, Isaiah 44, a promise
to Israel, but with spiritual application to all
of God's people, just as I pour out
water on the thirsty land, so I pour
out my Spirit on you.
Drenches of God.
You know, the idea of just sprinkling someone
at baptism was not a first-century Jewish
concept.
When people were immersed, they went under.
They would get under the water completely.
And when you go completely under the water,
you get completely wet.
Have you ever noticed that?
When someone is baptized or immersed, they go
under and they come out.
The hair is wet and everything's wet.
I was baptized February 4th of 1972.
I'd only been saved a few months.
And at that point, there was still a
little flesh left.
And I remember, if you can imagine this,
the mercy of God.
I remember being excited about being baptized.
And you know, one young lady there talked
about when I came up out of the
water, you know, that it was just all
filthy and dark just as it drained out.
Really?
And she said, yeah, all your sins were
just going down the drain.
And I thought, oh, I guess she means
that metaphorically.
But was it really dirty water?
But I remember kind of being excited about
being baptized in this fleshly way.
And trust me when I say God had
mercy on a foul wretch before I was
saved and a real reject before I was
saved.
I remember thinking, this is getting baptized.
So I hadn't cut my hair yet.
I had this long hair.
But most people never really knew how long
it was because they didn't see it wet.
And when it dried, I had this long
hair and I had this little flip on
the end.
Which is all right for a lady, but
not all right.
And no one really knew how long my
hair was, but I did actually think to
myself with some fleshly pride that when I
got baptized and came up out of the
water that people would see how long my
hair really was.
Sick.
You say, does that tie in with the
message?
Well, yes, in two ways.
First, it just creates kind of an endearment
between us, kind of a love and a
sense of commonality.
And secondly, it reminds you that you get
wet.
I remember when the pastor's mom was getting
baptized and she was an old lady and
not keen on going in the water.
And she just wouldn't quite go in all
the way.
She didn't speak English, so the pastor's talking
to his mom in Italian.
And she didn't quite go.
It was just the tiniest bit of her
head, because she was just terrified going under
the water.
Tiniest bit of her head.
It didn't get wet.
And I don't know how many times he
made her keep going down.
He's like, no, that's tiny bit.
I'd see her on the way into heaven.
Just everything except the top of your head,
lady, because it didn't go under.
So you get the point.
You get wet.
Saturated wet.
Completely wet from head to toe.
Covered.
Immersed.
Isn't it interesting that that's the image?
John immersed you in water, but soon you're
going to be immersed in the Holy Spirit
and fire.
That's not just symbolized by a dove lighting
upon you.
There is more that is taking place.
Even if a literal dove literally came and
sat upon you and it was some kind
of a sign, a miracle, the reality is
being immersed in God.
Being immersed in the Spirit.
Being drenched and saturated in the presence and
fire of God.
That's not a light image.
Here as God comes in power at Pentecost,
there's a reality that's being conveyed to us.
Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a
violent wind.
Notice it's sudden.
And notice the sound, like the blowing of
a violent wind.
Came from heaven, filled the whole house where
they were sitting.
It's not just that when you invite God
in, he just kind of takes a quiet
back seat.
You know, one of the most ridiculous of
many ridiculous Christian bumper stickers through the years
was the one, God is my co-pilot.
All right, ready to take off, Lord?
Ready?
There's this Jesus sitting there.
You fly that plane, if you have any
trouble, as you fly to your chosen destination,
he's your co-pilot.
He'll help out.
You put that together with some of the
rapture ones.
You know, if a driver suddenly disappears, you
know the rapture's taking place.
Hey, if Jesus is the co-pilot, he'll
just take the, well, no.
Well, if Jesus comes, maybe that doesn't work.
Fills the whole house where they were sitting.
They saw what seemed to be tongues of
fire that separated and came to rest on
each of them.
They were not expecting this.
There was nothing in their own background that
told them to expect something quite like this.
All of them were filled with the Holy
Spirit, began to speak in other tongues as
the Spirit enabled them.
And notice that immediately when God comes, it
brings division.
God's not the author of confusion, and He
doesn't inspire one person to prophesy one thing
and inspire another person to prophesy the opposite
among His people.
He's not the author of confusion.
He doesn't inspire 10 people to all speak
at the same time, contrary messages, and bring
confusion.
That's not who He is or what He
does.
But when He comes, His very coming brings
division because it reveals what's really in people's
hearts.
I was telling a pastor in New York
City that before God's going to bring true
unity to New York City churches, He's going
to bring division.
He said, but Jesus wants unity.
I said, correct.
And first thing He has to do is
destroy superficial false unity, things that are only
skin deep.
Luke, the second chapter, it says that the
coming of Jesus, as Simeon prophesies over the
baby Yeshua, that He's appointed for the falling
and rising of many in Israel and for
a sign to be spoken against that the
thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
You find out what's really in people when
Jesus shows up and begins to move, when
the power of God begins to be manifest.
You can talk.
You can have lovely meetings.
You can agree on all kinds of things.
But when God comes down, that's when the
rubber meets the road.
Here, it's a synagogue.
This is a holy place set apart for
worship of God and study of His word
and prayer.
Jesus goes into a synagogue on the Sabbath,
a day set aside specially for worship of
God and service of God.
He goes into what would be considered a
holy place for holy purposes on a holy
day.
And He heals somebody.
And some of the leaders go out and
plot how to kill Him.
Do you understand that?
He announces at another synagogue meeting that the
Spirit of God is on Him, that He's
the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah.
Ruach Adonai Elohim alaih.
Yad mashach Adonai oti lebaser.
The Spirit of the Lord God is on
Him because He's anointed me to preach good
news to the meek, the poor.
Outraged, they're ready to kill Him.
Here at Pentecost, God comes down.
Listen, this was not a fabrication.
This was not an imitation.
This was not mixed with human carnality.
God came down.
And immediately, some said, this is God.
Others said, they're drunk.
One of the guaranteed things that will break
the unity of a coalition of leaders praying
for revival is revival.
Did you hear what I said?
One of the greatest things that will break
the unity of a coalition of leaders praying
for revival is revival because He will not
come in ways that fit our nice little
parameters.
And He will not come according to what
our traditional experience has been.
And His coming will always be on some
levels different than what we expect and on
other levels more than what we expect.
And the reason that we pray for revival
and we pray for visitation is because something
is wrong and something is missing and something
is off.
And when God comes to set those things
right, it brings upheaval, holy upheaval, what Jonathan
Edwards called holy disorder, because we're getting back
into God's order.
A few years ago at our younger daughter
Megan's wedding, some of you may have met
my mom, wonderful mother, as caring, loving, affirming
a mother as you could ever ask for,
just turned 80, in great shape, goes to
the gym three mornings a week and works
out.
But she was not a connoisseur Italian cook.
That was not one of her strengths.
And when I grew up and I had
spaghetti and meatballs, my mom cooked spaghetti and
meatballs.
She used for the sauce tomato soup.
I actually chatted with her about this the
other day.
We laughed about it, but she says it's
delicious.
I still use it.
That's who I grew up, spaghetti and meatballs.
When she'd make that, that was a highlight
meal.
Then I went out, started preaching, traveling around
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut states, preaching
in a few different churches here and there
at 19 years old.
They're almost all Italian, Pentecostal.
So I preached at one place, and then
after the meeting, we went to the home
of this wonderful Italian family to have lunch.
What did they serve but spaghetti and meatballs?
And I almost gagged.
I put a giant meatball, and it's like,
oh, come on.
Just a little thing, something I could swallow,
something really small.
I remember having to figure out a way
to get small enough pieces into my mouth
to swallow without chewing, because I didn't want
to taste it.
You understand?
I was so used to the inauthentic.
I was so used to the wrong recipe.
You understand that when the real thing came,
I almost choked on it.
Some of you might be thinking, you have
a lot of choking stories.
Don't, hey, don't get personal here, all right?
I mean, listen, oh God, come and, oh
God, send visitation.
We don't know what we're praying for and
asking for.
Well, some of us have been through, we
were in revival for four or five years
in Pensacola.
We know exactly what to expect.
OK, right.
Oh, things will go according to certain patterns.
I wrote about the patterns beforehand, and I
lived through them on a few different occasions.
And I've read the history of revival and
seen what's written in the Word, and the
patterns always seem to be the same.
And one of the patterns is God comes
in unexpected ways.
No matter how prepared you are, when He
comes, when His Spirit breaks out, when He
visits, it's still sudden, and it still overwhelms
you, and it still rocks your world.
And notice what happens here, because the purpose
of the coming of God is not just
the experience.
It's not just the tongues, and it's not
just the fire.
It's not just falling or shaking or some
kind of encounter.
It's to glorify the risen Jesus.
It's to do the work of God on
the earth.
I mean, what if you got a job
at a cemetery?
Someone said, OK, here's your job.
First thing you've got to do is just
go through all the roads here, where you
see leaves have fallen, branches, different things, you've
got to clean all that up, garbage, litter,
you've got to clean all that up.
Then you've got to go, you've got to
rake up around the grave sites and things
like that, and just make sure everything is
clean and nice.
OK, can you handle that?
Yeah, OK.
And then go raise the dead.
The Great Commission is go raise the dead.
And even though most of the time we
don't see most people rise from the dead,
and there are only a few resurrection accounts
in the New Testament, in other words, it's
not written that all the dead that Jesus
was ever around He raised.
It is written that all the sick that
came to Him were healed.
Healing the sick by the power of God
is just as difficult as raising the dead
by the power of God.
It's just as difficult as seeing the true
salvation of any human being.
It's only by the power of God.
You know, I look out and I see
people from different nations here.
And we may be used, most of us
used to what's happening in America and how
the Gospels received in America.
You go to other countries with your exact
same method and your exact same witnessing techniques
and your exact same everything, and you hit
a brick wall and nothing happens.
And you end up going home discouraged and
wondering what's wrong.
Well, there are demonic strongholds that are not
coming down easily.
And people's eyes that have been blinded for
centuries and centuries through their ancestors and traditions.
And it's only a visitation from God that
will break through.
That is reality.
So Peter stands up and immediately says this
is a scriptural thing.
This is the outpouring of the spirit that
Joel prophesied.
Peter makes it clear this is a last
days event.
And if you are convinced that we are
living in the last days, of course, we
have been since Jesus died and rose from
the dead.
It's been the last days according to the
New Testament, the last hour.
But if you have some other sense, well,
aren't these the last of the last days?
Well, remember that God says in the last
days He'll pour out His spirit on everybody.
Don't buy into a theology that just says
the last days get worse and worse and
worse.
The last days get darker and darker and
darker.
And the people of God weaker and weaker
and weaker until Jesus just comes and rescues
us.
Like one dear brother had in a chart
in a book written about 75 years ago,
the chart was called the failure of Christianity.
He didn't mean, listen to me, he didn't
mean the failure of human traditional ways trying
to imitate the New Testament gospel.
By Christianity, he meant the New Testament gospel
lived out through the ages.
He had a chart about the failure of
it.
It all just goes down.
And then Jesus just rescues this drowning group
before they perish, proving that man's a failure.
Yeah, man's failings have been proven over and
over again, which is why we rely on
the power of God and the wisdom of
God and the resurrection of Jesus.
This is not about the failure of people.
This is about the failure of God, because
His word declares that He will have a
people from every nation and that we are
to make disciples of the nations.
And this gospel will be preached as a
witness to all nations.
And He will pour out His spirit on
all flesh.
Either it's true or it's not.
But look at what Peter goes on to
say.
He first preaches Jesus, preaches His death, His
resurrection, and then he explains what's happening.
Verse 29, brothers, I can tell you confidently
that the patriarch David died and was buried,
and his tomb is here to this day.
But he was a prophet and knew that
God had promised him on oath that He
would place one of His descendants on His
throne.
Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the
resurrection of the Messiah, that He was not
abandoned to the grave, nor did His body
see decay.
God has raised this Jesus to life, and
we are all witnesses of the fact.
Exalted to the right hand of God, He
has received from the Father the promised Holy
Spirit and has poured out what you now
see and hear.
He's alive.
And this is the proof.
This is something they gloried in in the
book of Acts.
We have evidence that Jesus is risen from
the dead.
It is not only that He lives within
my heart.
It is the tangible evidence of the power
of God in the name of Jesus today.
You know, there's a simple little witch doctor
story I heard once, but it's so real.
These solid believers, spirit-filled people were talking
to a witch doctor in an African nation.
I forget which nation it was.
The story is so simple.
And they were talking to him and asked
him, well, tell us about this power that
you have, this power by which you do
all these things.
And he said, well, it's not here now.
And they said, well, what happened to it?
And he said, well, it left when you
came in.
I mean, ultimately, according to Revelation 12, when
Satan's cast out of heaven, it's because he's
not strong enough to fight Michael.
It's a power struggle.
The reason that Satan doesn't assault the throne
of God is not just because God is
so loving and Satan says, he's just too
good.
I don't have it in my heart to
do that.
And it's not simply because he thinks he'll
be outsmarted.
And he'll say, you know, we know the
secret entrance into the back of heaven.
And when he gets there, God will have
it bolted up.
It's not just that.
It's the power of God is against him.
And there is no wisdom or counsel or
might against God's power.
I was meditating on something the other day.
I was meditating on at times in my
life that I knew God was against me.
Maybe when he was dealing with me in
conviction before I was saved, or as a
new believer, when I was going in a
path, some minor thing, and he was just
making it clear, don't do it.
I'm not in this.
And it would be the most wild thing.
Not literally this, but as if you get
in your car to drive over to see
someone that God doesn't want you to see,
and all four tires get flat simultaneously.
And then you put on the radio to
hear the news, and instead, a station that
you've never put on before, there's a guy
preaching at you, and you go to change
the channel, and it doesn't change.
I remember as a new believer, one of
my friends was going with a young lady,
and they committed the foolish act of just
being alone together in her home while the
parents were out.
And they started to touch each other and
do things that they shouldn't have done.
The phone rang, and of course, there's the
immediate sense of guilt, and oh no.
I remember when my friend told me, with
fear and trembling, he said, we answered the
phone, and there was no one on the
other end of the line.
I mean, they had this distinct feeling that
God called them, this very distinct feeling.
Hello?
Oh my God.
Some of you have seen, when you try
to do something, God wasn't in how it
failed, and failed, and fell through, and didn't
work, because you knew, God is not in
this.
God is against me.
And I was thinking, how much more powerful,
how much more real, how much more dynamic
is the fact that God is for us?
If God being against us makes it absolutely
impossible, you know, God set the law of
gravity, and I'm gonna jump up and touch
the ceiling.
No, the law of gravity is against me.
It's not gonna happen.
But I've been exercising.
No, it's not gonna happen.
It's not gonna happen.
But I got these new Nike sneakers, and
I, no, it's not gonna happen, because there's
a law of gravity set against me.
There are times when God himself, you can
have all the resolve that you want, but
if you're gonna walk through 145 mile an
hour, hurricane wind, you're not gonna walk through
that.
That's the reality of God being against you.
Whatever you try to do is gonna fail.
Whoever tries to back you, they're gonna lose
their money, they're gonna lose their reputation, because
God's on it, God's against you.
What about the reality?
God is for us.
God is with us.
What does that actually mean, in terms of
the work being done?
What does that actually mean, in terms of
the demonstration of His light and power?
God is for us.
That's why it's asked quite plainly, who can
be against us?
What can be against us?
Peter gloried in the fact that there was
tangible evidence that God was with them, that
they were witnesses to the truth, and God
was demonstrating it, he said, as you can
all see and hear.
You say, doesn't that deny faith?
No, he's now saying, put your faith in
the one you can't see.
The fact that God gives evidence, the fact
that God gives reason to believe is not
a denial of faith, it's an impetus to
faith.
And then he promises, notice what he promises,
not just they'll repent to be baptized, they'll
have their sins forgiven, but he says at
the end of verse 38, and you'll receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit for the
promises to you and to your children, to
all that are far off, as many as
the Lord our God will call, the promise
of the Holy Spirit was big stuff, major.
And then you get into the third chapter,
and the lame man, man, lame from birth
is healed.
And crowd comes gathering around and clinging to,
you know, the lame man's holding on to
Peter and John, and the crowd's coming and
gazing at them.
And look at what Peter says.
He again preaches Jesus.
This is all for the glorification of Jesus.
Preaches the gospel, you killed the author of
life, God raised him from the dead.
End of 15, we are witnesses of this.
Remember, witnesses just testify to what they've seen
and heard.
Tell us, you're at the scene of the
accident, yes.
You're a witness, yes.
What did you see?
We're witnesses of his death.
We're witnesses of his resurrection.
And look at what he says in verse
16.
By faith in the name of Jesus, this
man whom you see and know was made
strong.
It is Jesus' name and the faith that
comes through him that has given this complete
healing to him as you can all see.
Here it is.
He's alive.
You can see the reality of it.
Sent his spirit and power.
Go to 1 Corinthians, the second chapter.
1 Corinthians chapter two.
None of us are wiser than Paul.
None of us have better understanding of God
than Paul.
None of us have more insight into redemption
than Paul.
None of us are better defenders of the
faith than Paul.
None of us are more experienced soul winners
than Paul.
None of us understand what apostolic is better
than Paul.
None of us debate rabbis better than Paul.
I mean, go down the list.
Take anything that you do for the kingdom
of God.
You know that Paul did, he did it
better.
He's an extraordinary vessel in the hands of
God.
And yet, look at what he said.
Chapter two, verse one.
When I came to you brothers, I did
not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as
I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
For I resolved to know nothing while I
was with you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear
and with much trembling.
My message and my preaching were not with
wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration
of the spirit's power.
So that your faith might not rest on
men's wisdom, but on God's power.
We're not gonna improve on the methodology of
Paul.
We're not gonna improve on the methodology of
Jesus and the apostles.
The immersion in the spirit, the outpouring of
the spirit, the empowering of the spirit, the
visitation of the spirit, the ongoing fire and
gifts and anointing of the spirit are absolutely
essential and foundational.
Go back to Exodus 33.
I believe this will be the last passage
we read.
Exodus 33.
Because God's holiness does not mix well with
sin.
God could not dwell in the midst of
the people of Israel after they worshiped the
golden calf.
Otherwise, he would have killed them.
It's more or less like saying that fence
is electrified.
If you touch it, you die.
There is no mixing the holy presence of
God with willful human sin.
Either God will depart or he will judge
the sin.
That is what his holiness requires and does.
It is an automatic, you could say.
So the people are repenting.
Moses is asking God to come in the
midst of the camp again because God has
departed.
And remember, they saw God in the midst
of the camp.
They saw the cloud by day and the
fire by night.
It was a visible, tangible thing.
And now, where is he?
It's outside the camp.
And God tells Moses, I can't dwell in
the midst of the camp because I'll kill
the Israelites if I do.
Doesn't mean he'll go berserk and go out
of control.
It's just his holiness will bring judgment on
sin.
Verse seven, now Moses used to take a
tent and pitch it outside the camp some
distance away, calling it the tent of meeting.
Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to
the tent of meeting outside the camp.
And whenever Moses went out to the tent,
all the people rose and stood at the
entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he
entered the tent.
It's an extraordinary event.
As Moses went into the tent, the pillar
of cloud would come down and stay at
the entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses.
Think of being Moses and having this extraordinary
relationship with God.
And the whole nation knew it.
Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud
standing at the entrance to the tent, they
all stood and worshiped each at the entrance
to his tent.
This, wow, God would worship you.
He's the reality of it all.
The Lord would speak to Moses face to
face as a man speaks with his friend,
not meaning that Moses fully saw the Lord's
face, but they just talked back and forth
like a man speaks with his friend face
to face.
Then Moses would return to the camp and
his young aide Joshua, son of Nun, did
not leave the tent.
If you wonder why Joshua was the one
who led the people of Israel into the
promised land, this is a good verse to
tell you why.
He stayed in the presence of God.
He was addicted in a sense to the
presence of God.
Waiting on Moses was important.
Waiting on God was more important.
Moses said to the Lord, you've been telling
me to lead these people, but you've not
let me know whom you will send with
me.
And it's an interesting thing if you look
back, just to make this point in the
32nd chapter.
Remember God had to kind of twist Moses'
arm to get him to lead Israel out
of Egypt.
He fought and he argued, not me, he'd
send somebody else and I can't talk.
And finally God had to send Aaron along
with him.
Moses was very reluctant to go.
Well, when they're on Mount Sinai and Moses
is receiving the 10 commandments and the laws
and the instructions for the building of the
tabernacle, Israel sins.
And look at what God says to Moses
in Exodus 32.7. Then the Lord said
to Moses, go down because your people whom
you brought up out of Egypt have become
corrupt.
There's a Jewish tradition where Moses protests and
says, Lord, my people.
And God says, yeah, when they're good, they're
mine, when they're bad, they're yours.
I mean, it is a peculiar verse and
the only legitimate thing I can make out
of it is God's thrusting it back on
Moses so Moses will intercede for his people
and feel the weight of it and take
the responsibility for it and bring it to
God, which is exactly what he does.
And God says, let me just blot out
the whole nation.
I'll make a new nation out of you.
And Moses, remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And again, a Jewish tradition says that he
appealed to God and says, Lord, if a
chair with three legs, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob can't stand, a chair with one
leg, just me is not gonna stand.
God has mercy.
Moses, the great intercessor.
Another Jewish tradition says when Moses died, God
wept because he said, who's gonna intercede for
Israel?
So here Moses, the intercessor.
You've been telling me lead these people, verse
12 of chapter 33, but you've not let
me know whom you will send with me.
You said, I know you by name and
you found favor with me.
If you're pleased with me, teach me your
ways so I may know you and continue
to find favor with you.
Remember that this nation is your people.
So he's throwing it back on God.
It's your people.
You think, wait, wasn't it enough that Moses
just met with God?
Wasn't it enough that he was caught up
in the presence of God?
No, there's a whole nation out there.
There's a whole people.
Remember, they were still on their way to
the promised land.
The golden calf didn't keep them out of
the promised land.
It was grumbling and complaining, which led to
unbelief and outright rebellion.
It kept them out of the promised land.
The Lord replied, my presence will go with
you and I will give you rest.
Then Moses said to him, if your presence
does not go with us, do not send
us up.
And that's gotta be the heart cry of
every hungry believer with a burden to see
God glorified in the earth.
That's gotta be the heart cry of every
child of God who wants to see the
kingdom of God advance.
That's gotta be the heart cry of everyone
who longs for God's reality.
If you don't go with us, don't send
us.
Don't send us.
That's why we pray right at the very
birthing of fire, not to be melodramatic.
God, if you're not birthing this, don't even
let it get off the ground.
Don't let the thing start.
Don't let anything happen.
Who needs another work?
Who needs more people doing more things for
God without God initiating it and guiding it
and anointing it and blessing it?
But if it is a God thing, then
we need the God presence and the God
anointing and the God gifting and the God
grace.
Moses said to him, if your presence does
not go with us, do not send us
up from here.
How will anyone know that you are pleased
with me and with your people unless you
go with us?
What else will distinguish me and your people
from all the other people on the face
of the earth?
That remains the reality.
And the Lord said to Moses, I will
do the very thing you have asked because
I'm pleased with you and I know you
by name.
Then Moses said, now show me your glory.
Then his personal hunger for the visitation and
manifest presence of God is absolutely overwhelming.
Burst, now show me your glory.
What else is going to distinguish us as
God's people?
What else is going to distinguish the name
and reputation of Jesus?
You know, listen, here's a stark reality.
Our foundation is the word of God.
We understand that.
And if God did not work another miracle,
if I never heard the voice of God
again, if he never answered another prayer, he
remains 100% true.
And by his grace, I'm dedicated to following
him until I see him face to face,
period.
End of subject.
There's not some crutch we're trying to lean
on.
In fact, many people who don't believe in
the gifts and power of God for today,
I mean, believers, Christians who question that these
things are still for today, they say, oh,
you just need a crutch to lean on.
They don't understand that this kind of stuff
makes it a whole lot harder.
It's just easier to walk away and say,
hey, we don't have any expectation.
Someone gets sick and dies, we just say,
well, I guess that was the will of
God.
We witness and preach and nothing happens.
We say, well, I guess it's not time.
It's a lot harder when you keep going
to God and say, God, where's your power?
It's harder when you pray for someone that's
sick and they die and it leaves you
with questions and Father, what about your promises?
It's harder, not easier.
There's not some crutch that the immature are
looking for.
This is something that the serious and mature
are crying out for because it's reality.
Despite the fact that it's difficult and challenging.
What else are we gonna do?
Where else are we gonna go?
We need fresh encounters with God.
We need to have that hunger again for
the supernatural.
We need to have that striving after Him
in the spirit and seeking His manifest glory
and kingdom.
To those who have been going after Him,
He encourages you to say, press in.
To those who have let things fall and
go slack, He reminds us of who He
is and what His promises are.
Let me read the quote from Hudson Taylor
again.
We are a supernatural people, born again by
a supernatural birth.
We wage a supernatural fight and are taught
by a supernatural teacher, led by a supernatural
captain to assured victory.
I am not saying that we just snap
our fingers and miracles happen.
I am not saying that we let down
on any emphasis that God's put within our
hearts.
I am saying that without this divine reality,
you can build all the altars you want
and you can place all the sacrifices on
them that you want, but unless we have
a God who answers by fire, it's all
in vain.
We need the visitation of God.
We need the demonstration of the Spirit.
We need greater outpouring.
I believe God has caused many here, some
we've known for years now, to grow in
so many ways and to have so much
added to in the wisdom of God and
in the understanding of the Word and in
spiritual truth and in sacrifice and service.
There's been growth in so many.
I believe it would be even more wonderful
than anything we've known to see God's great
visitation.
I believe it would be more wonderful than
anything we've known to see a Holy Spirit
eruption.
I believe the potential fruit in terms of
lives that could be ignited in a triggering
effect could be staggering.
I'm going to end here by just saying
that as I look back to the 60s
and early 70s to a tumultuous time in
American and world history, and I see how
many elements came together to bring about, for
the most part, negative change.
All of you that have heard us talk
about how the church slept its way through
the counterculture revolution, et cetera, you understand what
I'm talking about.
I look at the different forces that came
together and a lot of it is supernatural.
A lot of it was the mingling of
demonic with flesh and something coming together that
had a combustive effect and brought about destruction
in so many lives.
There must be a holy coming together.
There must be a holy moving of forces.
There must be a heaven sent thing that
happens that causes something to ignite and break
in society.
It's just not going to happen any other
way.
It's not going to happen through any other
means.
And while we do what we know how
to do on a day-to-day basis,
and you witness whether or not God gives
you prophetic words for people, you witness it
with compassion just the same and you preach
the Word.
The Word is truth.
And the Word itself carries its own anointing.
And you pray for the sick, whether you
see results or not.
But I'm telling you, we must, we must,
we must deepen our passion, our hunger, our
desire for the outpouring of God.
The third year class the other day, I
was just talking about prophets being the biblical
description, men of God, to be a man
of God, a woman of God.
And I said, it's not just someone who
is devoted to God, but someone who has
God-like qualities.
And that's clearly what the Hebrew referred to.
Someone who was endued and endowed with qualities
of God.
That there was that touch of heaven on
their lives.
And I want to encourage you that God's
heart is willing.
That God has not been deaf to the
prayers we have prayed and the fasting and
the crying out.
He has not been indifferent.
He has birthed it, He has orchestrated it.
He's calling us deeper.
And to the extent that we have responded
to Him to build a house of prayer,
to the extent that we have moved forward,
to that extent He's answered.
And I believe as we deepen things these
days, as we spend this time in prayer
and fasting and seeking His face, that He
will draw near to His people.
I'm not giving a prophecy of what is
about to happen because I do not know.
I simply know He laid this on my
heart tonight.
I was 100% blank before Him with
no clue whatsoever what He wanted me to
speak on and perfectly happy not to say
a word and just let the night go
on in worship or other things.
I'm convinced that this is what He wants
to say to us because He desires to
back His Word and His power.
And it was the disciples in Acts 4,
freshly filled with the Spirit in Acts 2,
who prayed, God, stretch out your hand.
And act, glorify Jesus with signs and wonders
and miracles.
And as a result of that, the place
where they were praying was shaken.
And they were all filled with the Spirit
and spoke the Word of God boldly.
Let's stand to our feet together.
Just going to have Aaron come back and
just play quietly at the piano.
And we're going to pray a closing prayer.
And those that want to go can go.
Those that want to stay and seek God
for a while or have us lay hands
on you and pray for a fresh touch
of the Spirit, feel perfectly free to stay.
I just ask that the leadership team, spouses
of leaders that feel God's grace and anointing
on them just to join us in praying
for folks.
And those that want to leave, leave with
the blessing and smile of God.
Those that want to stay and just seek
God on your own or find a corner
and pray and seek His face or receive
prayer, then by all means do it.
And let's go after Him.
Let's go after Him.
Deeper, deeper.
The Lord is telling us, dig the wells,
your own heart, your own life.
I want to go deeper.
Father, I'm almost embarrassed by the simplicity of
this message, thinking it's something on a certain
level that we all know, but I know
for sure it's something you're speaking that we
must hear.
That in another very real way, we don't
know it.
Oh God, come and touch.
Oh God, break out in our midst.
Living God, stretch out your hand.
Revive us again.
Visit us again.
Find a place of habitation in our midst.
Manifest your power and your glory.
Oh God, we hunger and thirst for you.
We long for you.
We desire you.
Come and send the fire to fire, that
we might become a spreading fire.
Oh God, just lift your voices and cry
out to Him.
Just cry out to Him.
Mighty One, Mighty One, Mighty One, Mighty God,
Mighty God, Mighty God, Holy One, Holy One,
Holy One.
Oh Lord, forgive me, Father, for my own
backsliding in these areas, for busyness of life
and ministry.
Still not digging the proper wells for the
depth of the moving of your spirit.
Father, forgive me.
Oh God, forgive any of us, Lord, that
have grown cold or weary or lukewarm or
forgetful in these areas.
Mighty God, we seek your face.
We seek your face.
Everyone, just your heart's hungry and cry out.
Just step out from where you are and
begin to cry out to Him.
Begin to seek His face.
Begin to go after Him.
Step out from where you are and just
begin to go after God tonight.
Mighty God, Mighty God, Mighty God, Holy One,
Holy One, we long for you.
We long for you.
In a dry and thirsty land, we long
for you, oh God, to come in power
and touch.
But I'm not able to keep it in
the night.