This recording is provided by Times Square Church
in New York City.
You're welcome to make additional copies for free
distribution to friends.
All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is
a violation of copyright and other applicable laws.
This recording cannot be posted on any website.
However, written permission to link to the Times
Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing
info at timessquarechurch.org.
Other recordings are available by calling 1-800
-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square
Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New
York, 10019.
I want to speak to you tonight from
the Book of Acts, Chapter 2, and we're
going to go to prayer again this evening
along the lines with what I feel the
Holy Spirit is speaking.
Pentecost changed the world.
The world was going in a certain direction.
Religion had its stranglehold.
Religion actually in Israel had become murderous, and
obviously the death of Christ was proof of
that.
There was a bloodlust in the crowd.
Thousands had been at the judgment seat area
of Pilate.
They had been crying, crucify him.
They were incited and measured by the religious
leadership of that day, and their own instability
had incited them as well.
The lack of sure direction in their own
hearts allowed them to be shifted by changing
winds and moods.
Perhaps those that were crying, Hosanna, a few
days before are now among the crowd crying,
crucify him.
And that's how man's hearts work without God.
They're moved.
They're changed and shifted by circumstance, by various
winds and whims that present themselves.
And left as a testimony to God is
120 people in an upper room, and they're
there because they've been commissioned to be there.
But what could they do against so formidable
a force?
They're living in a nation that is occupied
by a foreign power that believes in the
conquering ethic as it is.
They believe that the ways of Rome were
superior.
Most conquerors do.
And they're in there, and they're oppressing most
of the known world of their day.
There's a history of cruelty, and the Jewish
people obviously had suffered tremendously at the hands
of some of the Roman soldiers and the
invading forces.
We have this going on.
We have the Jewish people themselves having just,
in effect, crucified the Son of God, or
at least consented to his crucifixion.
And against all of this, onslaught of evil
as it is, are 120 people in an
upper room.
They really are not rich.
They're not noble.
They don't have any political influence or power.
They're not generals of armies.
They're ordinary people like you and I here
tonight.
They are against insurmountable odds, no different than
when Joshua and the children of Israel went
into the Promised Land and were confronted by
Jericho.
They have their own Jericho.
This is a spiritual Jericho, in a sense,
that has pitted itself against everything that is
God and good, as God sees it.
What could they do?
And this is really the strategy of the
enemy, to discourage the Church of Jesus Christ.
It always has been.
Challenging the Church as it is.
Take a look in the mirror.
Look at you.
You're not anything important or particular.
You have no influence or authority.
And even if you gather a little crowd,
what's that going to do?
How could a thousand people, thank you, John,
gathered to pray have an effect on New
York City or the country or even beyond
our borders?
How could this possibly come to pass?
You know, calculated gamble of the enemy is
always that he can convince the people of
God that it's hopeless and they'll all go
home.
But periodically, 120 are found somewhere who are
not convinced that it is hopeless.
They are hopeless, but they look away from
themselves and they begin to look to the
God who created this universe.
They begin to look to the one that
David said set the stars and they're cautious.
The one whose very firmaments declare that he's
in absolute control of absolutely everything.
They begin to turn to the things that
God has spoken and God has said.
And somehow their hearts begin to embrace it
and begin to believe it.
And they go away and they're not looking
in the mirror anymore.
They're looking away from themselves and now they're
looking to God.
And they're sitting in this place, as it
says in Acts chapter 2 and verse 1.
Now, I want you and I know, and
if you're new to the Lord, maybe you're
not aware of this, but the day of
Pentecost is a day when God came in
power upon a group of people that were
waiting on him.
And the day of Pentecost has changed the
world.
It changed history.
Within a very short time, much of the
Roman Empire even had been touched by the
presence and the power of God.
Many, many people had come to Christ.
There was a little band that literally turned
over for good much of the known society
of their day.
Insurmountable odds if God is not on your
side.
But when the day of Pentecost was fully
come, Acts chapter 2, verse 1, they were
all with one accord and in one place.
Now, this is very, very important.
They were in one accord with God.
We like to say, well, they were together
with a common purpose.
But they wouldn't be together with a common
purpose if they weren't, first of all, together
in agreement with God.
After Christ rose from the dead, he gave
them instructions in Acts chapter 1 and verse
8.
He said, you shall receive power after that
the Holy Ghost has come upon you.
Now, here's the purpose of this power.
And you shall be witnesses.
That means living testimonies unto me, both in
Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the
uttermost parts of the earth.
Now, this is what Jesus had spoken to
them.
And when the day of Pentecost came, the
day of God's power as it is, these
120 were gathered together in an upper room
and they were in one accord with God.
You see, folks, the power of God is
not available to those who are not in
accord with him.
So many today want the power, but they
want the power of God to feel good.
Others want the power of God so they
can have an enhanced position in society.
Others want the power of God so they
can have power over men.
They want the power of God because they
don't have a very good self-image.
And they think, well, this will really do
something for me.
I'll be known as a great man or
great woman of God.
They want the power of God for all
the wrong reasons.
But the reason that Jesus said you will
have the power is that you will be
a witness of me.
And not only here where you live, but
all through the world.
So, in effect, these people gathered in the
upper room knew that this power of God
that he's promising to me could send me
to other parts of the world.
And they were in agreement with this, one
accord with God.
These are yielded people.
There's no secondary agenda.
It's God, I want to honor you.
And, you know, most of these people had
failed.
I'm sure many of them had denied his
name.
There are very few voices were raised on
the judgment day or ran up to Calvary
perhaps to try to stop the crucifixion.
Very few.
And they were all failures in their own
sight.
But now they said, God, we want to
honor you.
We want to honor your name.
And we realize that we need the power
that you have promised us to do this.
We can't do this in our own strength.
You can't.
I can't.
Nobody can.
None of us can honor God in our
own strength.
We can talk about him, but we can't
be living witnesses without his power.
We can't be, as we heard last night,
that surrendered vessel that nobody can argue with
or about.
That yielded vessel that bears within he, himself
or herself, the living Christ.
Changing from image to image and glory to
glory.
Always moving into the abundant life of Jesus
Christ as he promised that his church would
have.
Being renewed daily in their mind.
Being gifted as they begin to walk with
God.
Their borders expanding all the time.
The pegs of their tents always being pulled
up and pushed out farther.
This particular curious people enjoy being stretched beyond
what they can do.
Because they know only their God within them
can do it.
And when he does, he gets the glory.
They were all with one accord.
We need to be in one accord with
God to ask for his power.
And they were in one place.
They were in a place of obedience.
In verse 4 it says, and chapter 1
says, being assembled together with them.
This is Jesus, commanded them that they should
not depart from Jerusalem.
But wait for the promise of the Father,
which saith he, you have heard of me.
You see, they were in a place of
obedience.
Not only in one accord with God, but
in a place of obedience.
And this is so important.
The early disciples knew that receiving the Holy
Ghost was conditional on having a heart that
desired to obey God.
So many, many people are running around in
what professes itself to be places of God's
power.
Wanting the Holy Ghost, but not desiring really
to walk in obedience to God.
We see this in Acts chapter 5.
Where Peter and the other disciples had been
threatened and commanded not to teach nor preach
in Jerusalem.
In the name of Jesus Christ.
Now Peter answering all of the religious that
are trying to shut him down in verse
29 of Acts chapter 5.
He says some incredible words.
Now this speaks to me of a resident
knowledge that they had.
That being in one accord and in one
place was a place of agreement with God.
And it was a place where I've chosen
in my heart to obey God.
I've chosen if he wants to speak to
some area of my life that I don't
want him to speak to.
I will obey him.
I will let him speak.
If he needs to take something out of
my life, I will invite him to take
it out of my life.
If he wants to send me into a
ministry.
If he wants to do something through my
life that will glorify.
I will obey him.
Now obedience is not compulsion.
Obedience is God speaking and I know he's
speaking.
There's a difference.
It's not me or you proving that we
are in a sense devoted to God.
That's not what it's about.
It's God speaking to us and we just
simply move in that obedience.
In verse 29, it says Peter and the
other apostles answered and said, We ought to
obey God rather than men.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus
whom you slew and hanged on a tree.
It's pretty pointed preaching.
Him have God exalted with his right hand
to be a prince and a savior.
And to give repentance to Israel and the
forgiveness of sins.
And we are his witnesses of these things.
Now listen to this statement.
And so is also the Holy Ghost whom
God has given to them that obey him.
Now this was really putting a line in
the sand.
Here are a people that are being transformed
by the power of God.
Being confronted by a people who are simply
religious.
And he makes a statement.
He said God has made the choice to
give his life for the sins of fallen
humanity.
And he's chosen to give his resurrected life
to those who obey him.
Now, of course, they're standing on one side
of the line and the apostles on the
other.
And they are very well aware that they
don't have this life of God within them.
Because it says in verse 33, When they
heard that they were cut to the heart
and took counsel to slay them.
Just as they had slain Jesus.
They were in one accord.
They were in one place.
Just like I believe we are here tonight.
I believe it with all my heart.
I don't think you would be here if
you were interested in anything but serving Christ.
And glorifying him in this last hour of
time.
There's an army all over the world that
God is raising up right now.
It's not just here.
It's all over the world.
We're seeing it more and more.
Pastor David is more.
Pastor Dave called me a couple of days
ago.
Pastor Carter said, I've never seen the depth
of hunger that I'm seeing now in the
ministry.
We've never had, he said, ever as deep
a work as I've just experienced in the
series of meetings that we've just left.
He said, thank you.
And thank the church for the prayer.
This is sovereign.
This is a supernatural work of God.
Suddenly, they came from heaven.
Verse 2, Acts 2.
As of a sound of a rushing mighty
wind that had filled all the house where
they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like
as a fire and it set upon each
of them.
They were all filled with the Holy Ghost
and began to speak with other tongues as
the spirit gave them utterance.
Now, this is important.
They were filled with the Holy Ghost.
And when the Holy Ghost came upon them,
they were given the ability to speak with
other tongues.
Remember, we were fasting.
The purpose of our fast is let the
meditation, the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy
sight.
Oh, God, my strength and my redeemer.
These were known languages.
They were not speaking just incoherent syllables.
This was not a meeting where somebody said,
now repeat after me.
They were filled with the Holy Ghost.
When the Holy Ghost came upon them, they
were given the ability to communicate with people
of other cultures.
This is exactly what happened to them.
They were speaking known languages, not just incoherent
things, not just small little words or phrases
of endearment or praise to God.
There was something else that was happening here.
And this is, you see, what the baptism
of the Holy Ghost will do.
Now, I realize they had not learned these
languages, but they were speaking in languages that
were known to other people.
For the people came around and the multitude,
verse 6, came together and were confounded because
they heard every man speak in his own
language.
You remember when they built the Tower of
Babel, how God came down and confounded their
languages and caused them to speak different languages
because the Tower of Babel was man trying
to get to heaven in his own strength.
Man trying to be his own God.
Man trying to establish his own reputation.
So God confounded it.
Then he came down again on the day
of Pentecost and gave the ability.
It's as if it was reversed to a
people whose objective was to glorify God.
Gave these people the ability now to communicate
in every language, into every culture.
And it's part of the empowerment, the endowment
of power of the Spirit of God.
That's why we can go to Africa.
And we seem to understand the people and
they seem to understand us.
That's why we're going to Argentina in March.
That's why we've been to the Philippines.
That's why I could stand and this choir
could sing.
And we could go to inner city Kingston,
Jamaica, where people have known nothing but violence
and death for years.
And somehow they could understand what I was
saying.
The ability given of God to begin to
speak to people of other languages.
Other nations, other abilities, other cultures.
Transcending and breaking down all of the barriers
that have come because of sin.
That's why a housewife in New York City
can receive the Holy Ghost.
And go to Harlem and stand on the
worst street corner.
And begin to speak.
And the power of God will transform people's
lives.
The Scripture says they were confounded.
They heard every man speak in his own
language.
And they were amazed and marveled.
And they said, behold, are not all these
which speak Galileans?
Are these not all New Yorkers?
Is this not a college professor?
Is he not a lawyer?
Is she not a real estate agent?
Is this not a construction worker?
Where did they get this power to speak
my language?
It's amazing.
I've seen this.
I've known this personally.
How God gives wisdom.
He allows us to speak into situations where
we have no skill whatsoever.
We have no experience.
No briefing.
No committee around us.
No power.
But he sends us.
And with the compassion of God, gives us
words that cannot be resisted.
Oh yes, people may get angry.
And they may repent.
But they cannot resist it.
There will be an effect.
And now they said in verse 8, We
hear every man in our own language.
We're in.
We were born.
And then they go on to list.
It says in verse 11, all the cultures,
all the nations.
And then in verse 11 says, We do
hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful
works of God.
This is what they were speaking.
The word in the Greek is Megalios.
And this is what it means.
I wrote the definition right out of the
concordance.
It means great works or miracles.
Contemplated as the outcomings of the greatness of
God's power and glory.
This is what they were speaking.
They come out of the upper room.
They are people who are common, ordinary people.
They are very familiar with their own weaknesses
and inability to do what they're called to
do.
But God's power came upon them.
And they come out into the open.
First evidence that the Holy Spirit is upon
you is that you will come out into
the open.
And they stood out.
And, folks, it was a God birthed and
burdened moment.
Because they stood out in front of a
crowd that had just crucified their Savior.
And the bloodlust is still very, very real
in that society.
Every one of them knew to stand out
and to do what God's calling me to
do.
I might be the next one on a
cross.
Because it was very, very fresh.
Christianity was not the accepted religion of that
time.
And they began to speak with other tongues.
But what were they saying with these other
tongues?
I'm going to heaven's video section when I
get there.
I want to know.
But I know that the Bible says they
were speaking about great works and miracles.
That were contemplated.
That means understood, thought about, maybe not yet
realized.
You understand this?
Not yet fully actualized.
But they were hearing God speak to them.
And they were speaking back out what God
was saying.
And these are miracles that are contemplating as
outcomings or outpourings or evidences or realities of
the greatness of God's power and glory.
I don't know what it is that they
were saying.
Maybe one man was standing and speaking in
a language that he didn't know, but people
understood.
God has not given me a spirit of
fear, but of power and love and a
sound mind.
I'm not ashamed anymore of the testimony of
Christ.
I'm willing to be a partaker of the
afflictions of God.
Maybe another one stood and said, not only
me, but my house is going to be
saved.
My family are coming to God.
The enemy's reign is over.
It's finished.
Maybe another man who's had a heart full
of hate stood up.
Oh God, I have a love in my
heart.
I feel it in my heart.
I'm not what I used to be.
I'm changing.
I feel the change right now happening in
me.
How would you feel if you walked down
Broadway tomorrow afternoon at 4 o'clock and
120 people are standing there saying these types
of things?
I don't know about you, but if I
was an unsaved man, I'd stop and say,
goodness sakes, what is this?
And that's exactly what happened.
The people gathered around said, what is this?
Now, Peter's sermon led them, led 3000 of
them to Christ, led them, but they did
not gather because of Peter's sermon.
It was not about Peter's sermon.
Peter's sermon was just an answer to what
really gathered the crowd.
The crowd were gathered by a God-gripped,
Holy Spirit-filled, Latin-inspired people who stood
out among the crowd in spite of their
bloodlust.
And said, let me tell you what God
has done for me.
Let me tell you what God is speaking
He's going to do for me.
Let me tell you, megalios, things that I
contemplate, that I have begun to realize in
my heart that God is going to do
for me.
The Holy Ghost speaking, and I'm just simply
agreeing with Him.
I may not be this thing that God
is speaking to me, but I believe it
with all my heart.
What does a society filled with hopelessness need
to hear today?
It's not an argument about Christ that people
are longing for.
It's the reality.
I believe, I believe, I believe.
Pastor Williams' own testimony is that he wandered
the streets of New York City.
And he said, God, for three years he
wandered the streets and said, God, show me
one person that has a living, real relationship
with you, and I will live for you.
He said, I walked in the doors at
Times Square Church, stood at the back.
I heard Pastor David speak, and I knew
my prayer had been answered.
I found a man that I knew was
a man of God.
Megalios.
I've seen Pastor David.
He's 74 years of age now.
I've seen him minister in youth rallies.
How many 74-year-olds do you know
that minister in youth rallies?
Not very many.
I venture a guess.
I don't know of any others.
And he just declares the Megalios of God
under the influence of the Holy Ghost.
This is what God has done.
This is what God will do.
And this altar will be filled wherever he
is.
The altar is filled all over the world
now.
Teenagers are coming into the pastor's conferences and
filling the altars.
Megalios.
This is what God has done.
This is what God will do.
This is who God is.
No apologies.
An inner knowledge of who God is, and
a verbal expression of that living reality.
This is speech which introduces men to the
deepest longing of their hearts.
Every man ever created, every woman ever created
is created in the image of God.
They are created for God.
You have to know this knowledge.
You have to have this in your heart.
You have to know this.
And they have an inner desire to get
back to God.
You see, it's in them.
They were created.
They have to get back to their Creator.
Now, men in their darkness find all kinds
of pathways to try to either realize that
or deny that.
But it's still in their heart.
I believe the world is yearning now, yearning
for a visible manifestation of who God really
is.
And the only manifestation you're ever going to
get is a surrendered Christian, a surrendered life.
I want my life to be one of
those.
And I believe that many of you here
tonight, you want this as well.
You want it with all your heart.
But if you're going to know a Pentecost,
if I'm going to know the full realization
of Pentecost, may I put it that way,
I have to be in one accord with
God and in the place of obedience.
That my life, God Almighty, in Jesus' name,
is yielded to your purposes.
And if you speak to me, I will
obey you.
God says if I can find you in
that place, a rushing wind will come to
you.
Or perhaps just a renewed sense of who
God is if you're already filled with the
Holy Ghost.
A renewed understanding of the purpose of God
for your life.
He will do it for you.
He will touch you.
I promise you.
Because it's more his desire than it is
yours and mine.
It's his desire to be glorified through his
church.
The fast that we've undertaken is not because
we delight in looking for some new wrong
thing inside our hearts.
It's not about our salvation.
We shared that the other night.
We are completely righteous, absolutely forgiven, completely accepted
with God as Christians.
It's about our testimony of him and his
testimony through us to a generation that is
dying without God.
That's what this fast is about.
In my heart, God, whatever's gotten into this
temple that is blocking this outworking of your
life, take it out of me.
Even if it's religious and it's found a
place in the corner of the temple and
I think it's okay.
If it's not right, God, get it out
of me.
If you prayed that prayer, you're going to
have a very uncomfortable month or two ahead
of you.
Because Jesus will answer your prayer.
And he will put you into a circumstance
that will force this thing up in your
heart.
Because you and I have no way of
seeing it otherwise.
We don't know it's there.
And it's not about our salvation.
You have to understand this.
And we've not been placed in the sight
of God in a dimmer view or anything
like that.
He already knows it's there.
It's about being the church to our generation.
And I want us to pray tonight that
out of our mouths flow the megalios of
God.
Out of our mouths.
If you know you're in one accord with
God, if you know tonight.
Well, if you're not, get there.
By faith, get there.
God, there's quite a distance between where you
called me to be and where I am.
But I'm believing.
If that's your prayer, then move there.
And God will give you the grace to
go there.
Your life and mind is to be a
witness for Christ.
And he will move you now to the
place of obedience.
If you're not in the place of obedience,
pray for the grace now.
There's some things in this house that some
people know that God is speaking to you.
He's been speaking for a long time.
And yet you refused to do these things.
And now is the time.
If you want to be a witness for
Christ, put these things away.
Get them out of your life and move
to that place of obedience.
It's a lonely place sometimes, but that's the
place where the glory of God is.
It's a place where God's power is.
And out of your mouth will begin to
come.
And I know this from experience.
I know it from a young Christian.
I had no speaking ability.
God told me I would stand before thousands.
I had no ability.
So I have a choice.
Do I look at my no ability?
Or do I confess what God is speaking
to my heart?
Now, it's not going to be the same
for everybody.
See, the Megalith has got to be something
that God speaks.
The Holy Spirit speaks it.
It's not something that comes out of your
own mind or your own heart.
It's not something that you conjure up because
you feel it's going to make you more
important.
No, it's what God speaks.
This is what I've destined for your life.
This is what I want to do through
you.
And you may not have realized it.
But you stand and you begin to say,
God, this is what you've spoken to me.
I believe this with all my heart.
I believe you're going to help me to
be the husband, the wife that you've called
me to be.
I believe you're going to help me to
be an influence over my children's lives.
I believe, God, that you're going to take
this selfish heart out of me and give
me a heart of love.
I believe it with all my heart.
And the Holy Spirit begins to speak.
And the power of God begins to come
on your life.
And we serve a God who calls things
that are not as if they are.
We serve a God who looked at emptiness
and said, let there be light.
And light was.
This is the God who lives within us.
He begins to speak.
We simply agree with him.
I'm not talking about positive confession.
That's taking a truth and moving it into
an absurd realm.
I'm talking about the fact that God does
speak to people's hearts.
He does say, I'm going to do these
things.
And some of them are written in the
word.
And some of them are promises from God's
word that are just whispered to your heart
alone.
He says, I'm going to do this.
And we come out and we begin to
declare.
This is who God is.
We get a history after a while and
we can say this is what God has
done.
This is how faithful he's been.
This is where he's taken me.
And then he begins to whisper other things.
And we believe him.
We believe him.
We're not trying to bolster ourselves.
We're just trying to give glory to God
in everything that we do.
Hallelujah.
Let's stand together tonight.
I'd like you to pray with us tonight.
If we could join in groups of three
or four.
If we could do that tonight and begin
to pray the megaliths of God.
The things that the Holy Spirit has spoken
to your heart.
The things that you are believing that God
is going to do to glorify the name
of Jesus Christ through your life.
Oh folks, this is, I feel the despair
almost setting into some hearts.
Don't go there.
Believe him.
Begin to speak out loud the things that
God has spoken to you.
He's going to give me the courage to
believe him.
There's something.
You can start there.
He's going to draw me into a place
where my life is usable.
He's going to give me the power to
love my wife or love my husband.
He's going to enable me to be an
honest, hardworking employee at my job and have
a witness for Christ.
He's going to give me a new song
and take this complaining spirit out of my
heart.
He's going to take away a backbiting, gossiping
tongue and give me a brand new tongue
that can speak to the needs of this
generation.
He's going to change me.
He is working his work out in me.
I have yielded to him.
He is God.
He has promised to recreate me in the
image of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.
These are the things I confess.
These are the things my mouth begins to
speak.
O God, fill us with the Holy Ghost.
God, fill us with your Spirit.
Lord, breathe upon us, O God, that we
may stand as living oracles of God in
a dying generation.
We desire to glorify you, Jesus.
We want to give honor to your name
and glory to your name.
Lord, we refuse to look at our weaknesses.
We refuse to be bowed down by the
lies of the devil any longer.
We are sons and daughters of God.
We are living testimonies of Jesus Christ who
sits at the right end of all power
and authority.
Hallelujah.
Please lift your voice.
Lift your voice tonight.
Lift your voice and speak words of faith.
This is the conclusion of the message.