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When Christ comes to his church...
Malachi, please, the third chapter, the last book
in the Old Testament just before Matthew for
those who are new Christians.
Please turn to Malachi 3, verses 1-4.
I'm reading from King James.
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he
shall prepare the way before me.
And the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly
come to his temple, even the messenger of
the covenant.
Here's my message.
He shall suddenly come to his temple.
I'm saying when Christ comes to his church
or his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom you delight in, behold, he shall
come, saith the Lord of hosts, whom may
be able to abide the day of his
coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth,
for he is like a refiner's fire and
like fuller's soap.
And he shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver.
He will purify the sons of Levi and
purge them as gold and silver that they
may offer unto the Lord an offering in
righteousness.
Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem
be pleasant unto the Lord as the days
of old and as in the former years.
Heavenly Father, I ask for the anointing of
your Holy Spirit.
I want to minister the Holy Spirit.
I want the Holy Spirit, I want you,
Holy Spirit, to come forth through these words
that you put in my heart.
Sanctify me and sanctify the listener, that when
we have finished this morning, we will know
that God has spoken to us and that
we will have an understanding of some of
the things that we are enduring right now.
We'll understand the process of the Lord and
what he's doing and why he's doing it.
Lord, quicken us by the Holy Ghost, we
pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
All the Old Testament prophets prophesied of the
first coming of Jesus.
He was going to come to a lost
world.
And when he comes, the prophets all said
he would bind up the brokenhearted.
He would proclaim liberty to the captives.
He'd open prison doors.
He would open blind eyes.
He'd heal the sick, raise the dead.
The Bible said he would build a church.
All the prophets foresaw that.
And the prophets also said that he would
give beauty for ashes.
He'd give oil of joy for mourning.
And the garment of praise for the spirit
of heaviness.
Now, that is how he comes to the
lost world.
He comes to redeem.
He comes to save.
But you come to the last chapter.
You come to the last chapter of Zechariah
and especially Malachi.
And you see Jesus coming in a different
way to his church.
You see, the Lord foreknew, even before the
foundation of the world, that through the cross
and through his sacrifice, millions and millions around
the whole world would receive him as Lord
and Savior.
And he would not be God.
Christ would not have been God in flesh.
If he would have gone, ascended into heaven
and turned over this church, turned over this
body of new believers into the hands of
shepherds that were half-hearted or impure or
evil, he would not do that.
He had to have in place with his
church, or for those who would come to
him be redeemed by his blood, he had
to have in place a ministry, a ministry
that was not half-hearted, a ministry that
was wholly given to Christ, who could shepherd
this flock.
What kind of a Savior would be if
he left us in the hands of hirelings
and shepherds who would not lead us and
cause us to grow and show us the
mind of the Father and take us deeper
into Christ?
So, fifty days after his cross, just as
he ascended, right after he ascended, fifty days
later, he pours out the Holy Spirit in
Jerusalem, in the upper room, and he raises
up a ministry, and it's said of the
first pastors of the Pentecostal church in Jerusalem
and the then known world, men like Stephen
and men like Peter, and all of these
men, the Bible says of them, they were
full of the Holy Ghost and power.
They not only were filled with the Holy
Spirit, but they ministered the Holy Spirit.
What they spoke was of the Holy Spirit.
They were so dependent on the Holy Spirit.
And this was the gift of Christ to
his church, to bring forth ministry.
He would bring teachers, everyone who touches his
gospel, everyone involved in his church, and I
ask you to hear me if you're an
usher, you're in the choir, you're in any
part a servant to the body of Jesus
Christ.
And furthermore, we're all called to be priests
unto the Lord, kings and priests.
Every time you witness, it's to be through
the power of the Holy Spirit.
You're to minister, not yourself.
There should be nothing of yourself coming out,
because there is no power on earth that
can convict a man or woman of their
sin in human flesh.
I don't care how many scriptures you quote.
I don't care how much you love somebody.
I don't care how accurate your testimony may
be.
You may give your own personal testimony of
how Christ redeemed you and set you free.
But that in itself cannot convict a man
of his sin.
The Bible said Peter stood on the day
of Pentecost.
And here's a man who had just failed
God.
He had denied Jesus Christ.
Cursed, said, I don't even know the man.
And this is just a few months later.
Forgiven, cleansed, and now filled with the Holy
Ghost.
And Peter stands now in the upper room.
Now, remember, in the upper room, there was
a sound from heaven they all received from
one source.
And they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost.
The Spirit of God fell on them.
Now, only God can send the Holy Ghost.
He's the one who ministers the Holy Ghost
to mankind.
But having been poured out, then he uses
human vessels to convey that message to the
world.
He pours it out through people.
They all received it.
But now after they've all received, Peter, an
individual, stands before the multitudes.
And he preaches the cross and resurrection of
Jesus.
And the Bible says they were all convicted
in their hearts.
So much so that they cried out, trembling,
what should we do?
What must we do to be saved?
How did they come to that conclusion?
Why were they trembling?
It was not Peter's theology.
It was not some charisma from this man.
But you see, now he's full of the
Holy Ghost and he's not ministering himself.
He's ministering the Holy Ghost.
He's ministering.
He's a minister of the Holy Ghost.
Folks, that is what God intends for every
Spirit-filled believer.
That you and I become ministers of the
Holy Ghost.
Here's another example.
Here is Peter going down to the house
of Cornelius.
The Gentiles have not yet received Christ.
And he goes down full of the Holy
Spirit, anointed of God, walking in the Spirit,
trusting in the Spirit.
And he gets up to speak before these
Gentiles who have never heard the Gospel.
And while he yet spoke, it's halfway through
his message, the Holy Spirit falls upon them
all.
Why?
Because they had been ministered to by the
Holy Ghost through Peter.
They could say, that man brought us something.
That man convicted us.
Whatever there is in that man, there's a
power there.
There's something different about this man.
And it got right to the heart.
They opened their hearts and they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost and were baptized
in water.
You find that with Philip going to Samaria.
The Bible says of Philip, he was a
man full of the Holy Ghost and power.
Where does he get that power?
It is the power of the Holy Spirit.
He goes to Samaria, to ungodly city, a
type of the New York of its day,
wicked and vile.
And the Bible says that demons began to
flee.
They had a bonfire and they burned all
fortune in filthy books and idolatrous books, pornographic
books.
Because they've had this for centuries, folks, there's
nothing new about it.
And the Bible says that the apostles came
and helped them and people had their hands
laid upon them.
The Holy Spirit began to fall all over
the city because there were men who were
ministering the Holy Spirit.
Folks, we have what are called mega churches
today, where 25,000 people come, 10,000
people.
There's a whole new kind of thing that's
in the Christian ministry today, bigness and success.
And success is counted by how many thousands
of cars in the parking lot and how
long it takes to get into the church
and police directing traffic.
And it looks so great and it's called
success.
Now, there's some of those churches, and I
say it lovingly, that have a heart for
the lost.
But let me tell you, I don't care
how big a church is, it could have
100,000 members.
But if there's not a ministry in the
pulpit that is full of the Holy Ghost,
if there's not a ministry of the Holy
Spirit coming forth to convict us of sin,
it becomes a stench in God's nostrils.
It cannot be of God.
Folks, I read the stuff coming from some
young pastors today who say, We will not
offend anybody.
And they entice people into the church.
They almost trick them in by polling them
and say, What do you want to hear?
We don't want to offend you.
Does the cross offend you?
We'll take the cross down.
But you see, any man who stands in
this pulpit and he's ashamed of the scars
of Jesus Christ cannot touch human life.
He cannot change a heart.
People are going to come.
They're going to have a little sermonette.
They're going to have a one-hour service
and run off to McDonald's just like they
came and be totally unchanged.
There has to be a ministry of the
Holy Ghost.
There has to be men and women who
are able to minister the Holy Spirit.
The Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come
to his temple.
He's going to sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver.
He's going to purge as gold and silver
that they may offer unto the Lord an
offering in righteousness.
Don't ever go to a church where you're
not convicted and refined.
I want the Lord to reprove me when
I need it.
I want the Holy Ghost to dig in
and show me things that I'm not willing
to admit about myself or that I don't
see about myself.
And may I tell you that every one
of you hearing me now, and it's not
just me, you've got stuff in you that
you really don't admit to, don't want to
admit to, and maybe don't want to see
it.
But if you really love Jesus, you're going
to ask, Holy Ghost, turn the light on.
Turn the light on.
Examine every part of my heart.
And Malachi says, O ye priests, this commandment
or this message is to you.
Lay it to your heart.
He said, I'm going to come and purge
you.
I'm going to test you.
The Lord said, you were messengers of the
Lord of hosts, but you have departed out
of the way.
He said, something's happened.
He said, something's happened now because I can't
allow it.
Now, he's prophesying about the coming Christ and
what the Lord is going to see when
he comes.
Malachi, he said, is going to come to
a church where there are leaders and there
are workers that have departed.
They once went, the Bible said, turned many
away from their iniquities.
And he said, you sought me, you loved
me, but something has happened.
And the Lord said, I cannot allow that
in my church, so I'm going to have
to come and purge.
I'm going to have to put you in
the fire.
He said, will I accept this of you?
He said, where's my honor and where's my
fear?
And Malachi saw a church when Christ would
come, that Jesus was going to come to
a church where the leadership, both the pulpit
and the congregation needed to be purged and
cleansed, and that God could not accomplish eternal
purpose until this happened.
Malachi is speaking not just to his day,
but primarily to the day when Christ himself
would come.
He said, God says, Jesus will come near
unto you to judge.
Let me give you a word from Paul
the Apostle that makes this simple and clear.
He, therefore, that ministers to you the Spirit
and works miracles among you, does he do
it by the works of the law or
by the hearing of faith?
He said, now listen to this word, he
that ministers the Spirit to you.
Now, who is he?
Of course, we know that's the Father through
Christ.
Jesus was given the Holy Spirit to give
to mankind.
It came from God through Christ to you
and to me.
You weren't saved except through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is in you if you
love Jesus Christ.
He's abide and he will fill you to
overflowing.
He will baptize you with his glory and
his power.
If you ask him, the Bible says.
But Paul the Apostle says, how did you
get the Holy Spirit?
How did he come into your heart?
Did you hear a message about good works?
Did you have to do so many good
things?
Did you have to witness to so many?
What did you have to do?
He said, no, you heard somebody.
You heard someone that had the Holy Spirit
who ministered that to you and produced faith
in you.
And who was that?
That was Paul himself.
And so they could say, the Galatians could
say, Paul the Apostle came to us.
We didn't know about the Holy Spirit.
And he spoke faith to us and said
we could receive the Holy Spirit.
And our lives were changed through this man.
He ministered to us the Holy Spirit.
Let me read it to you again.
It's in your Bible.
You've looked at that times and just skipped
over it.
He says, he that ministers to you the
Spirit.
It's not through works, but through the hearing.
You heard a message delivered through a vessel
that gave you, that flowed.
The Holy Spirit comes to me.
And the Bible says, out of my innermost
being shall, what?
Out of my belly, out of my innermost
being shall flow rivers of living water.
And he spoke of the Spirit.
The Spirit in me must flow out.
Folks, if you're full of the Holy Ghost
and you're walking in the Spirit, you're believing
in the Holy Spirit when you witness to
somebody, when you walk through your house of
unsaved friends and family, ask the Holy Spirit
to give you the words.
Trust the Holy Spirit that what comes out
of you will not fall to the ground,
but will bear fruit because you're speaking in
the Holy Ghost.
He didn't baptize us only to speak with
tongues.
He didn't baptize us only to have comfort.
That's his work.
Thank God for that.
But it's for you to give out to
the world.
You've got to be giving it out.
It needs to flow through us, the Scripture
says.
The only teaching, the only preaching that has
any effect, is that which is preached in
and by and through the Holy Ghost, through
those who have spent time hearing his voice.
The message they bring is something that God,
by his Spirit, has spoken into their heart.
I want to get into something now that
brings me to the heart of this message.
Is there anything that can hinder the flow
of the Holy Spirit through our vessels?
Any known sin is a block.
It is impossible for the Holy Spirit to
flow through a vessel that has an unforsaken
sin.
If there's sin in your life, no matter
what you testify, no matter what you say.
Now, I'm not talking about the Christian that
has fallen into a sudden temptation, been overwhelmed
or surprised by sin.
It may be adultery, it may be fornication,
whatever it may be.
But this man or this woman hates that
sin, and they've gone to the Lord, broken
before it, and say, Lord, this is not
what I want.
I despise it.
And I have this, but I want to
forsake my sin.
God sees that.
God has never turned away from that kind
of a cry.
He didn't turn away from Peter.
He didn't turn away from any man.
But it's that one that's given to their
sin, hiding the sin, that secret thing, and
God's saying, no, I will not allow you
to minister to the Holy Spirit.
I will not take my spirit from you,
but there will be no impact.
There will be no ministry.
You cannot minister.
You have no effect on anyone.
Your words are just words until this is
dealt with.
This is a controversy that has to be
settled.
Now, let me go to the Christian now
that really wants the heart of God.
Not living sin.
There's nothing hidden in the life.
There's a desire to have your life count.
And he shall purge them as gold and
silver, that they may offer unto the Lord
an offering in righteousness.
If you begin to pray, oh, God, oh,
Jesus, I want to know you.
I want to be a pleasure to you.
I don't want to live half-heartedly.
Lord, I need you.
I want you.
I desire you.
I want the fullness of Christ.
I want to know Jesus in fullness.
I guarantee you're going to go into the
firing fire, refining fire.
You're going to go into the pot.
The refiner has a heavy, you know, a
refiner of silver and gold doesn't have one
big pot.
We seem to picture this.
Jesus sits as the refiner of silver and
the ore goes into the pot.
We all picture one big, huge pot.
And God just dumps us all in there
and tests us all with the same fire.
No, no, no, no.
Every one of us have our own refining
pot.
Because every one of us have a different
kind of something God's getting at, a different
kind of impurity or a different kind of
controversy.
There's something there God's getting at.
He says, I'm calling you gold.
I'm calling you silver.
I see the potential.
I see what I want to accomplish in
you.
I know my divine purpose for you.
But I've got to put you in this
fire because I'm going to need in these
last days before I come, I'm going to
have to have an army.
I'm going to have an army of tested
and tried soldiers that have been in the
fire.
We're not going to melt when it gets
bad.
When fires of iniquity and persecution come, they
can't fold on me.
They can't give up in the middle of
the fight.
I'm going to have to have soldiers.
And so God puts you in one fire.
He knows how hot the fire has to
go.
Mine may be hotter than yours or less
heat.
I don't know.
But he knows what it's going to take
to bring it out.
Remember in the New Testament, Jesus spoke of
he is the vine.
His father is the vine dresser.
And he said, any branch in me that
doesn't bear fruit, he says, I'm going to
cut off.
It's going to wither and die.
But every branch in me that bears fruit,
I'm going to prune it.
I'm going to refine it, so to speak.
I'm going to test it.
Now, that is good news.
You say, it doesn't sound good to me.
I don't want to be refined.
I don't want to be pruned.
I don't want to be cut and stripped.
Now, you hear what Jesus said, because they're
bearing fruit.
The only reason that you're being pruned is
because you're bearing fruit.
That's good.
That's not bad.
God's saying, I see something in you.
You're bearing fruit.
But I also see there's something there of
doubt and unbelief that's going to break out.
You still have some seeds in you.
And I've got to get to that.
If I just let you alone and let
you go on, just like this, happy and
content with where you're at, not knowing what
I see, then this is going to break
out a year from now or two years.
It's going to break out.
But I need you.
I see something in you.
I'm going to use you.
I'm going to make you strong.
You think you're strong now, but there's something
there that has to be dealt with.
And because you've cried out to him, because
you love him, your heart is yearning, that's
why you're in the fire.
Because God says, I call you gold, I
call you silver, and I want to use
you.
You're going to be something I can use
in these last days.
And, folks, the reason we see so much
of trial and testing in the church of
Jesus Christ today is because here, here and
here, the eyes of the Lord run to
and fro through the whole earth to show
himself strong on behalf of those who love
him, fear him.
So the eyes of the Lord are on
every one of these pots.
And you're in that pot and that fire
is burning.
And the Lord comes along and he sees
the impurity and begins to pull it out.
He knows exactly when to pull you out
of the fire.
He knows exactly how much you can take.
I have never in all my ministry seen
and heard, especially in the letters that come
to us from people on our mailing list
from around the world, I have never in
my life heard of such testing and such
trial.
But, folks, you see, we're near the coming
of the Lord now.
We're coming toward the last days.
The Bible said all hell is going to
be spit out on the earth.
There's going to be a flood come against
the church of Jesus Christ like it's never
known.
And the only defense God has, he doesn't
send angels to do it.
He has to have men and women in
the pulpit and in teachers and singers and
musicians.
He has to have a body.
He has to have a congregation in the
city, for example.
He has to have a people that when
the worst of times come, And I get
tired of saying it because I tell the
Lord sometimes, get somebody else to.
I have to get up in a park
in Washington and the sun shining and preaching
to these people who go home tonight and
they're depressed and maybe thinking it's suicide.
But I want to preach happiness.
The Lord said, no, you preach what I
tell you.
And then I go sit down by stage
and say, well, why?
What is this all about?
And I don't like to talk about hard
times.
I don't like to talk about judgment.
And I never did acknowledge to be a
prophet, but a watchman.
But folks at what is coming on the
face of the earth, God has to have
men and women who have been in the
fiercest of fires.
And it's been hot.
There are men that have hit a wall.
You thought you were strong.
You were self-sufficient.
You thought you could work your way out.
And then God allows something.
He takes you in the refiner's pot and
you hit a wall.
And now you're helpless and now you're weak.
You say, I don't know what to do.
The Lord says, good.
This is what I've wanted all along.
I want you to be dependent.
And the Lord said, until you bear fruit,
I want my purpose for you is to
bear fruit.
Now, what is the fruit?
The fruit, I'll give it to you in
one word.
Dependency.
Total dependency on the ministry and the work
of the Holy Spirit in me.
Until I come to the place where I
am willing to trust God in any circumstance.
No matter if it's cancer.
No matter if it's death.
No matter what it is.
I will trust God.
I may lose my job.
Folks, you say, well, you don't have a
job.
Give me an hour of your time backstage.
I'll tell you about my job.
But you say, well, you have a maybe
you have a flow of income.
No, folks, when things get bad, they're suffering
for all the body of Jesus Christ.
But God is God of the flood.
He reigns over the flood.
The Bible said when the flood of iniquity
came, we still have a God that's on
the throne who cares for his church.
But you see, God's trying to bring forth
a last day harvest.
And how is he going to harvest in
these last day?
Folks, what do you think is going to
take when a mad devil comes and he's
changing the Constitution?
Not only the United States, but the constitutions
in Europe.
There's going to be a United States of
Europe with its own constitution that's outlawed.
God.
And every institution that we've trusted for centuries,
marriage and all of these institutions pushing God
out of our society.
What's it going to take?
The Church of Jesus Christ is not going
to fold the Bible says the gates of
hell will not prevail against the Church of
Jesus Christ.
He said it's going to be a victorious.
We're going to be more than conquerors, he
said, not just conquerors, but more than conquerors.
But how's he going to do it?
He has to have a people by through
which he can speak and move and minister.
The spirit of the living God.
Only the Holy Spirit can convict men of
sin.
Only people full of the Holy Ghost can
bring people to conviction and to their knees
and to salvation.
And if we don't have that, we're going
to we would lose a whole generation.
So what I see coming.
And the evidence of it happening, I see
coming a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
And it's already here.
And the evidence of it is the fire
of testing is going on because God sees
something coming out of it for his honor
and his glory.
I'm not going to preach long this morning.
But this is serious business.
Let me say it again.
Quote to you what Jesus said.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit,
he taketh away.
And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth
it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now, folks, this fruit is the spontaneous outgrowing,
a spontaneous outgrowing of just abiding in Christ.
All my ministry for 50 years, I have
read this, abide in me and I abide
in you.
If you abide in me, what am I
talking about?
You see, you'll bear fruit if you just
abide in me.
And the fruit is just the spontaneous abiding
in Christ.
Abiding in Christ is simply trusting him in
everything in my life.
The closer I get to home, the more
I see the whole issue now.
There is no other issue.
It's this.
What I'm doing, is it of the Holy
Ghost?
Does this come from my flesh or is
this from the Holy Spirit?
And am I trusting him in what I'm
going through?
Now, there are some people hearing me right
now that are going through the test of
your life.
Probably the last three weeks, and Pastor Neil,
I know, and just about everybody that's been
in this pulpit for the last month, been
trying to get at something.
It's been the same message in different ways,
bringing us where we will cast ourselves, where
we're absolutely abiding by faith, we're just casting
ourselves in the care of the Master.
Where we say, Lord, it's above me.
Folks, things are going to get to the
place where it's above all of us.
We're not going to be able to just
say, I'll work my way through it.
It's going to happen through confidence and faith
in the Lord.
Now, I promise you on everything in this
book that God is going to see us
through.
I said God has everything under control.
I've said that over and over again, and
God is going to see us through.
There's not a person here this morning that
is not going through a trial.
Behind me, pulpit, you're going through a test.
You said, does it ever come a time
in your life that you test stop?
And you just breathe and say, I can
just coast into heaven now.
No.
I'm 73, and going through the refining fires
at 73, after preaching 50 years.
But I'm going to tell you, there's such
an assurance through it all, such a peace.
It says, oh God, I know what's going
to happen.
I've been here before.
I'm going to come out of this with
more trust than I've ever had before.
I'm going to come out with more faith
than I've ever had.
And now I've come to a place, I've
not reached perfection at all, but I've come
to a place where Paul says, I'm beginning
to thank God for my afflictions.
That's in your Bible.
Folks, I'm not shouting at you.
I'm not even trying to get you to
shout.
I'm just trying to show you something here
by the Holy Spirit, because he's speaking through
me now.
He's speaking into your heart.
Some of you, and here's the danger.
He said, if you will not allow him
to prune you, and if you question him,
and you keep questioning.
Now, it's sometimes natural just to say, well,
why?
But then you've got to move out of
that.
You've got to come to the place where
you say, God, I don't know what you're
doing, but I've come to the end of
myself.
If you will let the Holy Spirit now
just bring his rest to your heart.
If you would just lay back in the
arms of Jesus and not fight it, that's
abiding.
That's abiding in Christ.
But when you fight it, the Bible, and
this really hit my heart all this week,
and even this morning when I was going
over my notes, this hit me so hard.
He said, those branches that do not bear
this fruit, in other words, they're not dependent
on the Lord.
They harden their hearts, and I'm going to
say it now, and this is directly from
the Holy Spirit.
I'm ministering the Spirit to you now, and
I'm saying it lovingly.
You can come to a danger point, and
that danger point is that you say, I
have had enough.
Or the thought is, seed is there, God
is not keeping his word.
God is not answering prayer.
And it's almost as if you have this
thought in your mind, it's that God has
cut off the cord and cut me off
and let me drift out into this tossed
sea.
And the Lord says very clearly that that
branch that will not abide and rest in
him and trust, be cut off.
See, you cut off the source of everything
you need to get through it.
And this is serious business.
I said, Lord, I want to see what
you're saying to me and what you're saying
to this congregation.
And the Lord, by his Spirit, said, David,
look at it closely again.
You've read it for many years, you've preached
from this, but read what I said.
You can be cut off in this time
of testing.
You will not allow him to come and
comfort your heart.
You will not just rest in his love.
It's so important for you to hear that
now before we close this message.
I'm going to close in just a few
moments.
I don't know who I'm speaking to in
the annex upstairs here.
I don't know who I'm going to be
speaking to through the tapes that will go
out from this congregation.
But of all the messages I've preached from
this pulpit in the past 17 years, this
is the one that you have to hear.
If you're going to make it for what
is coming, if in my flesh I did
what I feel, sometimes I want to take
back everything I've said because it's been so
strong.
So many people have called it nothing but
gloom.
But God wants to make you strong.
God is taking you through this because he
sees that you're the one that he's chosen.
It's only his goodness and his grace and
his love.
I believe I've been shown, Paul the Apostle
was told, when he saw the man of
God was sent to him, said, tell him
he's been chosen to suffer.
Why?
Because he became one of the greatest testimonies,
one of the great commanders of God's army.
He has chosen you.
What you're going through is not of the
devil.
It's God.
It's refining.
And he's sitting there right now.
He's watching over you.
He knows the fire.
And I'll tell you, God gets no glory,
no pleasure out of it.
God gets no pleasure out of what you're
going through.
He grieves and he hurts, but he knows
it has to happen.
I'm a father of four children and ten
grandchildren.
I know the grief when I've had, out
of love, have to chasten and put the
fire to my children.
And I know the pain and the hurt.
And I knew that if I didn't do
it, I'd destroy them.
They'd go to hell.
And the Lord feels your pain.
He's touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
But these things, I tell you again, it's
not the devil.
It's God.
God is at work in you.
So you can be at peace.
You don't have to rest.
You should not, anything I said to you
this morning should not produce fear in your
heart.
It should bring you to a place of
rest.
Because God wants everything that comes out of
your heart to be the ministry of the
Holy Ghost.
So that we're not just the talking people.
We make an impact on this city.
We make an impact on our families.
Will you stand, please?
Now, look at me, please.
I didn't get you to shout.
There's a time for that.
You may shout this afternoon.
You may shout this evening.
But right now, there's a deep work going
on of the Holy Spirit.
You know, at my age, I've become a
father to the church.
And a father to many people around the
world.
And these gray hairs on my head can
tell you a story.
Some of the deepest, deepest testings and trials.
And I can tell you they don't stop.
But I can stand here as a testimony
before the Lord that at 73, I love
him more than I've ever loved him.
I've proven him more than I can tell
you.
And he has proven faithful.
And he's put a fire in my bones.
He's put some steel in my back.
And some of you that are here now,
you are suffering in physical pain.
And some of you are in financial disaster.
It looks like total disaster.
I got a letter this past week from
a pastor.
He's got a child that has a learning
disability and has to send them to a
special school.
And a wife that's sick and everything.
And he said, Pastor Dave, I owe $85
,000 on my credit cards.
And I don't know what to do and
my wife's about to have a nervous breakdown.
Of course, I sent some help.
But he doesn't understand.
He can't understand.
Folks, God will not let you stay in
that fire.
He's not going to keep you in that
fire.
The moment you say, I give up trying
to work it out myself.
The moment you say in your heart and
you're convinced and you know it.
No matter what it costs, no matter what
I'm going through, God, I am going to
be dependent upon your faithfulness.
And when God sees that, he's going to
bring you out.
It may not happen overnight, but little by
little.
One token after another.
One sign after another.
One touch after another.
Sometimes it's just a day without pain.
Sometimes it's just something where God says, just
hold steady.
I know where you're at.
I know what you're going through.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Don't despair.
Don't get mad at me.
Don't think I've cut you off.
Now, I'm going to open this altar.
Folks, this may seem a little disjointed this
morning.
Very quiet.
But God's accomplishing something.
If this message is for you and you're
in the fire, you're asking God to bring
you out totally dependent on Jesus.
Totally dependent on the Holy Spirit.
Dependent to this point that you believe that
he will speak to you and give you
the direction and the steps to come into
deliverance.
Because he will speak to you and tell
you how and what to do.
I've proven that over all my lifetime now.
Would you bow your heads?
Have a word from the Lord.
My flock, fear not.
For I'm with you.
I will not cast you aside.
I will not forsake you.
Though the waves roar and the fire burns,
I will take you through it.
There will be no harm come to you.
Don't look at the storm.
Don't look at conditions.
I am Lord of their flood.
I'm King of the flood.
I've brought you to this time and this
place.
I've caused you to turn from your own
ideas.
Because your thoughts are not my thoughts.
And your ways are not my ways.
My thoughts are above your thoughts.
And my ways are above your ways.
If you will trust that, I will give
you my thoughts.
I will give you my ways.
And I'll bring you into a promised place
of rest.
I will bring you out so that I
can bring you in.
Into peace and rest in the Holy Ghost.
Now let me read the word of the
Lord to you.
God is our refuge and strength.
What kind of help?
Very present help in trouble.
Therefore will not fear, though the earth be
removed and though the mountains be carried amidst
the sea.
The waters roar in trouble.
The mountains shake with the swelling.
But there's a river, the streams, where I
shall make glad the city of God.
God is in the midst of her.
She shall not be moved.
God shall help her and right early.
Did you hear what I said?
God will help you and he will be
right not only on time.
He said, I'll be early.
I'll be there.
The Lord
of hosts is with you.
He make it your wars to cease.
So be still and know that I'm God.
I'll be exalted among you.
I'll be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with you.
The God of Jacob, your refuge.
Hallelujah.
Thank you for your word.
Oh, God.
Now, Heavenly Father.
If what we're going through now was caused
by the devil.
We could be afraid.
We could wonder.
We could question.
But Lord, you're the one who's sitting as
a refiner of fire.
You're the one who puts us in the
fire.
That's what the scripture says.
But you do it as an act of
love and of mercy.
Because you're bringing forth an army.
Strong in the Lord.
Without fear.
Without unbelief.
Oh, God.
Let us rest in you now.
And let us not tremble.
Let us not be afraid.
You said though the waves roar, the mountains
tremble and fall around you.
You will be with us.
You will deliver us.
You will be our refuge and our strength
in the time of need.
So he said, do not be afraid.
And we will not fear.
Lord, I ask you now to bring peace
and rest and confidence in the hearts of
your people.
Hallelujah.
One last word for you.
Weeping may endure for a night.
But joy cometh in the morning.
Joy cometh in the morning.
Will you pray this prayer with me?
Lord Jesus, I'm in the fire.
And it's intense.
And it hurts.
But I know you're in control.
Forgive my unbelief and my fear.
Holy Spirit, come upon me.
Give me rest and confidence.
Oh, God, I want to depend only on
you.
Not on some person.
Not on circumstances.
Not on my own thoughts.
I surrender my thoughts, my plans, and I
give it to you.
I give everything to you.
Holy Ghost, take control.
Do it now.
Now give him thanks.
Lord, I give you thanks.
I give you praise.
Holy Spirit.
This is the conclusion of the message.