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John Chapter 1, I'm going to speak about
the way to true spiritual awakening.
There is a way folks, and if you'll
open your heart to it tonight, I believe
that in whatever area of your heart and
mind you may not be awakened yet to
the things of God.
If this applies to you, God will do
everything he's promised he's going to do this
evening.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you for the anointing of
the Holy Spirit.
Oh Holy Spirit, I ask you to quicken
me.
I ask you to quicken my mind.
God, I have a sense of what you
want to do in my heart.
But you've got to take me deeper in
you than I've ever known.
You've got to give me abilities that I
don't have.
Lord, I hear you calling and I ask
you for the grace to run after you.
Lord, I pray God tonight I may stand
in this pulpit and speak as an oracle
of God.
Lord, only your word has the power to
create and recreate.
Everything else is just flattery and human effort.
It has no power.
God, help me to speak your mind.
Holy Spirit, walk closely with me.
Overshadow my frailty.
Overshadow my weakness.
God, be my strength.
Lord, I desire with all my heart to
see your church quickened.
I desire, Lord, to see a multitude of
people come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
God Almighty, push back the power of darkness.
Let the glorious freedom of Jesus Christ be
shouted in the streets of this city.
God, do something so beyond us, so beyond
our ability to do.
Lord, do something that would cause all of
the world to take notice.
Lord, that you are here, you are alive.
I thank you for it with all my
heart.
I believe, Lord, you're the God of the
miraculous.
I believe it, Lord.
In Jesus' name.
John chapter 1, the way to true spiritual
awakening.
Verse 1.
In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was
God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him, and without
him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was
the light of men.
Now, it's interesting.
This is John's report of Jesus Christ.
John who walked with Jesus, who knew Jesus.
He was close to him.
He described himself as the disciple that Jesus
loved.
His heart was open to the love of
God.
And that openness that he had to the
love that God had for him opened his
spirit and his mind to something about God
that very few in any generation really begin
to understand.
He saw that in Jesus Christ was the
totality of God.
And it's interesting that in the beginning of
his report, he says, In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
And the Word in the Greek New Testament
is logos, and it means simply intelligent speech.
In the beginning was intelligent speech.
Don't you wish it had stayed that way?
I think of the airwaves today, and the
talk radio, and all the rest of it.
All of the piles of unintelligent speech that
is going on in the airwaves even this
very moment throughout our world.
Not only intelligent speech, not only possessing all
knowledge, but in verse 3 says, All things
were made by him, and without him was
not anything that was made.
He had not only intelligent speech, but God
had the power to create anything.
Hebrews 11.3 says, Through faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by the Word
of God, so that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear.
Really, what is spiritual awakening?
Spiritual awakening is when God speaks, and he
has free course, and there is no resistance
to his voice.
It's an amazing thing.
In the beginning, if we go to Genesis,
we're not going to turn there now, but
we see that there was nothing.
It was just an empty void.
And the Spirit of God moved on the
face of the waters, and God began to
speak.
And that which existed at that time didn't
resist him.
And as he began to speak, light was
created, and light was divided from darkness, and
dry land was divided from the waters.
And living things were commanded to come to
life, and they began to live, fowls and
birds and creatures.
And then ultimately, God spoke right into the
dust, and breathed with his own breath into
dust of the earth, and created a man
in his own image.
There was nothing that could resist the voice
of God.
Nothing was resisting the voice of God.
There was an awakening that happened in a
time that we don't fully understand, other than
it was dark.
There was darkness on the face of everything,
until God began to speak.
And out of nothing, the writer of Hebrews
says, things began to be formed.
There was no resistance.
Would you be surprised to know today that's
the way that God still works?
When his word is spoken, when he finds
a heart that is open to him, and
is without doubt and unbelief and resistance, chooses
to believe God rather than the circumstance?
Chooses to believe what God's book says rather
than what they see in the mirror, or
what their ancestors have reported of them, or
what people have told them?
When God finds a heart that does not
resist his spoken word, the miraculous begins to
happen.
Things begin to be created.
Life comes where there was only death.
In the Garden of Eden, we find the
introduction of unintelligent speech.
Now, unintelligent speech came from Satan himself.
And it's the speech of a creation that
ultimately was transferred to men who were created
in the image of God.
It's the speech of a creature that was
created by God who exalted himself above the
knowledge of God.
In a sense, began to resist what God
had spoken.
Has God said?
Does God really mean this?
Is God really the last authority?
Is there not another way?
Is there not a better way?
Can we not be as God is through
some alternative route that we might take?
I'm paraphrasing, obviously, but this was really the
intent of Satan.
He sowed it in the heart of Adam.
And subsequently, unintelligent speech became part of humankind.
And today, there's no limit to unintelligent speech
that's going on in our society.
The Bible says the last days are going
to be characterized by fleshly wise, but spiritually
unintelligent speech.
The scriptures bear witness to it very, very
clearly.
In 2 Peter 2, I'll just paraphrase it
for you if you don't mind it.
Verses one to three.
Here's what it says.
There were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among
you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and
bring upon themselves swift destruction.
There are going to be teachers.
There have been throughout history.
There are in our generation who cast off
the absolute right of Christ to complete ownership
of those who are rightfully his.
In other words, they will deny the Lord
that bought them.
Oh, they might profess his name, but they
will deny his lordship.
They will deny the fact that Jesus Christ
has the sole authority to speak into my
life and into your life.
He has the right to govern us.
He has the right to guide us.
He has the right to lead us.
If we are truly his, we have truly
given ourselves to him.
We don't resist what he speaks into our
hearts, but we embrace it as the highest
way of life.
We embrace it as that voice that brings
us into places where within us will be
created things of God that make us far
more than we could ever be of ourselves,
that begin to create within us the life
that only God can give to us.
But there will be teachers in the last
days who will deny this right of Christ
to ownership of those who come to him.
Verse 2, he says, And many shall follow
their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the
way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
Now, it doesn't mean they will be speaking
evil overtly of Jesus Christ.
What it really means is that they will
emphasize another way, as Satan did, above the
ways of God.
Another way to be godly.
Another way to achieve what only God can
bring into a person's life.
Another way to find happiness.
Another way to be healthy.
Another way to be holy.
Another way to be accepted among the beloved
in heaven, other than the way prescribed through
the word of God and by the mouth
of Jesus Christ himself.
Verse 3 says, And through covetousness shall they
with feigned, or that means imagined words, make
merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a
long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not.
In the last days, people will be captivated
by empty words of those who want their
money and their admiration.
The Bible clearly says that under their influence,
people will become servants of their own inner
corruption, according to 2 Peter chapter 2 and
verse 19.
And they will take on a form of
lifeless outer religiousness that has no true interchanging
power, according to 2 Timothy chapter 3 and
verse 5.
A religion of self will be the religion
of the last day, in the name of
Christ.
It will not be the voice of God.
It will be unintelligent speech.
Paul says they'll be turned from truth and
be turned to fables, stories, words, as it
is, of no profit.
They have no power.
And all these words can do is cause
the outer man to try to form himself
into something that looks like God.
But there'll be no power, because where God
is, there is a creative and a recreative
power going on in that life.
That's why the apostle Paul says, if any
man be in Christ, he is a new
creation.
There's a new life that has come within
his life.
The old things in him are dying off.
They're passing away virtually by the hour, and
by the minute, and by the day.
And a new life is beginning to be
formed within him.
Darkness is passing away, and light is coming.
There's a division between things that used to
be gray and foggy.
Now he clearly understands what is God and
what is not God.
He begins to know the voice of God.
Jesus himself said, My sheep know my voice,
and they will follow me, and no man
will be able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand.
Now, John chapter 1, again in verse 4,
says, In him was life, and the life
was the light of men.
The word life is zoe, which means the
highest and best which Christ is.
In him is everything that you will ever
aspire to.
Everything that your heart has ever secretly longed
for.
Everything that brings you to this house tonight
is not found in religion.
It's not found in self-effort.
It's not found in trying to prop yourself
up to be a better person.
Everything you've ever longed for is found in
Jesus Christ.
He is the one who is in the
beginning with God.
He was with God, and nothing that was
made was made without him.
He was involved in the creation, the scripture
says, of all things.
John, the beloved apostle, saw that the words
of Jesus Christ had the power to stop
certain action.
In Mark chapter 4, the disciples were in
a boat.
They got into a terrible storm.
Jesus was asleep in the boat.
They cried out to him and said, Master,
don't you care that we're perishing?
The scripture tells us that he rose up.
He stood in the face of that storm.
He said three words according to the scripture.
Peace, be still.
Amazing.
The wind stopped.
The waves got calm.
And the scripture says the disciples greatly feared.
And they said, what manner of man is
this that even the wind and the sea
obey him?
What kind of a man is this who
has authority over the elements?
You see, nature, ironically, it's only man that
is created with the will to resist God.
Nature can't resist God when he speaks.
The wind had to be quiet.
The waves had to be still at the
voice of God.
He had the power to stop certain action.
And he had the power to start other
things into motion.
Think for a moment as John stood on
the hillside and witnessed or was told of
John 11, 43, when Jesus arrives at the
tomb of Lazarus.
And he stands on the mountainside in spite
of all the human condition of unbelief that's
going on around him.
The only one that couldn't resist his voice
was a dead man.
Isn't that ironic?
Everyone else is doubting and full of unbelief.
And there's a dead man.
There's a dead man in the room at
that moment.
And Jesus stands on the mountainside as it
is and cries out, Lazarus, come forth.
And John saw this and John knew this.
So this man who was in the beginning,
this man who is the one of intelligent
speech could stop the wind, could stop the
waves, and could start something back to life
again that was dead.
He is a God of the impossible.
John knew it.
John saw it.
That's why when Jesus stood in Luke chapter
4 and verse 18 in the temple, and
this was the beginning where he begins to
identify what the father had sent him to
do.
He took the book of the prophet Isaiah
in chapter 17.
He opened the book.
He found the place where it was written.
Isn't it amazing?
He could have spoken.
It's not like he needed to read it
out of a book.
He had written it himself.
For the sake of those in the temple,
he found the place.
And he began to read, the spirit of
the Lord is upon me.
Why?
Because he has anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor.
In other words, I've come to stop certain
things which have been set into motion in
your life.
Now there are people here tonight that by
the fact that you were born into sin,
by the fact that you were born into
a certain family, that you have had certain
experiences in life, that you have certain perhaps
limitations because of various things that have gone
on in your life, you are in effect
bound by certain conditions.
But Jesus says, no, I've come to nullify
these things.
And I've come to stop certain things which
have been set in motion.
In other words, for those who are spiritually
poor, I've come to open to you.
I've come to eradicate this spiritual poverty in
your life.
I've come to take away the poverty out
of your thinking.
I've come to take you out of a
place where you've come to believe that nothing
will ever change.
Nothing will ever be any different.
You best just sit back and hope for
the best and hope to get through it
somewhat intact near the end.
He said, I've come to put an end
to this kind of thinking.
I've come to open the treasure of God's
life to the spiritually poor.
I've come to heal the brokenhearted.
Those who have had some kind of an
experience come into your life that has damaged
you, that has made you believe that you're
going to always be under the influence of
this thing.
He said, I've come to stop this thing
in your life.
I've come to stand up and speak to
it and say, peace, be still, and stop
the roaring of this thing in your life
and stop these waves of sorrow that are
rolling over and over and over in your
mind.
I've come to put an end to it
if you'll just listen to my voice.
I've come to preach deliverance to the captives.
Every sexually addicted person, every drug addict, every
alcoholic, every immoral person, everyone captivated by something
of the flesh and of the mind.
He said, I've come to preach deliverance.
I've come to put a stop to these
things that have dominated your life.
I've come to give sight to those that
are spiritually blind.
You couldn't see your way out.
Just like creation, before my voice began to
speak into this abyss of darkness, there was
no life, there was no hope, there was
darkness upon the face of the deep.
I've come to open your eyes to the
reality that God has come, that His mercy
is now yours, that the freedom of Christ
can now be attained by faith, that you
can be saved from your sin.
The chains of hell can be broken from
off of your life.
You can be a new creation in Christ
Jesus.
I've come to set at liberty those that
have been bruised, those who feel that your
heart is so deep, it's so dark, it's
so far, that you'll never climb out of
the pit that you find yourself in.
He said, I've come to show you a
way out.
I've come to stop these things that have
governed your life and to tell you that
this is the hour of your freedom and
your deliverance.
2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 1, again,
or 2 Peter chapter 1, rather, verse 3,
not only to stop certain things, but to
start other things.
I thank God for that.
Not only to stop the wind in the
ways, but to bring Lazarus back to life
again.
2 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 and 4
says, according as His divine power has given
to us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that
has called us to glory and virtue.
Now, the word glory means to be brought
to reputation, where the testimony of Christ in
you is seen by men.
Now, by His power, the scripture says, He's
given to us all things that we need
for life and godliness, through the knowledge of
Him, that is Christ, that has called us
to glory.
That means to be brought to reputation.
God said, I've not called you just to
survive.
I've called you to be a wonder in
your generation.
I've called you to have so much of
my life.
I've called you to change so drastically.
I've called you to be so much other
than what you were without me, that men
will look at you, and they will have
to acknowledge that I am alive.
They will know it's not you that's brought
about this change.
The change in you has come about by
the Spirit of Almighty God.
And He says, I've called you to virtue.
And the word virtue means the excellency of
God, revealed in the work of salvation.
It means the force or energy of the
Holy Spirit, which accompanies the preaching, as it
says in the Zodiac, of the glorious gospel.
God said, I've called you to moral excellence.
I've called you to right standing.
I've called you back into divine order.
I've called you to be awakened to the
fact that I'm able to call you out
of darkness and into the marvelous light of
who I am.
I've invited you into my life.
I've called you back into divine order.
You're not to be confused anymore.
You're not to walk around like the rest
of society, dependent on circumstance.
No, you're to be much deeper than that.
You know who you are.
You know where you come from.
You know who bought you with His blood.
You know who God's life is within you.
And you know where you're going into eternity
and as well as time.
In Ephesians 1, verse 13, the scripture tells
us that after you trusted, Paul says you
were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
The Holy Spirit came.
And the seal of the Holy Spirit, according
to the definitions I was reading, is a
legal term denoting a summons or a promise
undertaking to do something.
God said, I made promises to you.
That's what Peter says, whereby are given to
us exceeding great and precious promises that by
these you might be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in
the world through lust.
God says, I've given you promises.
I spoke to you.
I've got a book for you.
Folks, you've got to know this book in
this last hour of time.
This is not something you open and read
just to pass the time or to fulfill
some legal obligation for 15 minutes in the
morning.
This is your life.
This is the word of God to you.
The words on this book are not just
a historical account of God.
This is the voice of God speaking to
you.
Every word in this book by the power
of the Holy Spirit is yours.
You have, with the power of Christ within
you, the ability to receive these promises and
to be changed, the Bible says, into this
very divine nature of God that is within
you.
There's a life that is given you in
Christ through the promises that you find in
this book.
And the Holy Spirit is the evidence of
God that every promise that's been given to
you in this book is going to be
made into a reality in your life.
Look at John chapter 16, please, with me,
if you will.
John chapter 16, verse 13.
Here's what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit.
I'll be it when he, the spirit of
truth has come.
He will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself, but
whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak.
And he will show you things to come.
Oh, thanks be to God.
Folks, I got into this book as a
young Christian and bound as most are bound
before they come to Christ and just after.
So far back, even in understanding, but I
began to read this book and God's Holy
Spirit began to show me things to come.
I'm not talking about future events for cities
and countries and such like, but things to
come in me.
You see, every promise is a thing to
come.
God says, I know it's not in you,
but I speak about things that are not
as if they are.
I can create something out of nothing, but
these things are for you.
And I began to read it.
And you know, my story, one of the
first things to come is God has not
given us a spirit of fear, but a
power and of love and of a sound
mind.
I didn't.
I had a spirit of fear.
I had very little power in my mind.
Wasn't all that sound regarding these things.
Now I have a choice.
I can either stay in that condition or
I can stop resisting what God has spoken
to me.
And I made a choice to believe what
God had spoken and started to move in
the direction of his voice, just like Lazarus
did when he came out of the tomb.
A little step at a time.
Lazarus didn't come out bounding because he was
all wrapped up in that thing that had
gripped his body, but still he walked out
towards the voice that was speaking to him.
And I began to walk towards that voice
and I began to understand that it's the
Holy Spirit's job in this book, as I
read it with an open heart and unresist
understanding that this is intelligent speech.
What God speaks has the power to create
and recreate life in me and to begin
to walk towards it.
And the Holy Spirit will show you things
to come.
In verse 14 he said, he shall glorify
me for he shall receive of mine and
shall show it to you.
The Holy Spirit will understand everything I won
on Calvary.
I've won the resources of heaven.
It belongs to me, Jesus said, but it
belongs to my body, my bride, my church.
And the Holy Spirit will come.
He will reside within you.
I'll be seated at the right hand.
Now we understand that God is not divided.
He's three persons in one God.
But for the sake of understanding, Christ sits
at the right hand of the Father.
The Holy Spirit comes, indwells the heart of
the believer.
And everything that Jesus won on that cross,
everything that is his where he sits at
the right hand of all authority and things
that were lost because of sin.
Now the Holy Spirit in the life of
the believer makes all of this victory known
and says it's all yours.
Everything in this book is yours.
Read it.
It's yours.
It's not for somebody else.
Don't resist what God has spoken.
Open this Word.
See the promises of God and claim them
for your very own.
Folks, don't live in spiritual poverty any longer
when you have the riches of Christ's victory
living inside of you.
Remember, you have the Holy Spirit and he
will teach you all things.
He will show you.
You don't have to run to somebody for
a word.
God has given you all of these pages
of his Word.
You just get in it and say, Holy
Spirit, make it real to me.
Show me, oh God.
Awaken me.
Don't let me live in darkness any longer.
Don't let me live in poverty.
Don't let me live behind prison doors.
God, don't let me live in a place
of wounding.
Don't let me join groups where we just
rehearse our wounds of the past.
I want to move beyond it.
You're not called to lay in the corner
and lick your wounds until Christ returns.
You are called to be a victorious testimony
of Calvary.
Every once in a while throughout history God
finds a heart that doesn't resist him.
God finds somebody that's just foolish enough to
believe him.
Say, Lord, I'm just putting away my thoughts
about myself.
I'm putting away what everyone else has said
about me.
I'm putting away what the devil's trying to
speak into my heart.
And just like the universe did when you
began to speak, I choose to believe you.
I choose to get out of the way
and I'm not going to resist you.
If you say this is what I am,
then this is what I am.
If you say this is what I can
do, this is what I can do.
If you say this is where I'm going,
this is where I'm going.
But God's word was made possible.
He calls us to an impossible journey.
He's not looking to you for the resources
to do what he's asked you to do.
He's only looking for an obedient heart.
A man or woman who has the courage
to say, God, I know I'm not a
good speaker.
I know I can't do this.
But you made my mouth.
Your Holy Spirit lives within me.
I have your word, oh God.
I have you walking with me.
God, I can do all things It's through
Christ who strengthens me.
That's what Your Word says.
That's what I choose to believe.
By the Word of the Lord, Gideon was
brought out of weakness and made a warrior,
hiding in his father's backyard as it is,
trying to squeak out a little living which
may even have been illegal in that day.
But nevertheless, God's Word came to him.
And out of weakness, he was made strong.
But God has to find a heart that
won't resist Him.
Oh, the strength that's in this room!
If you could see it, if you could
understand it.
The missionaries that are here.
The great good that could be done.
The volume of people who could come to
the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!
If somebody would just believe Him!
Somebody, somebody would have an open heart and
say, God, I refuse to be bound by
my image of myself.
You've spoken words into my life.
I'm getting back into this book.
I'm blowing the dust off my Bible at
home.
I'm opening the pages.
And God, you're going to teach me again.
Through the Word of the Lord, David, the
king was shown how to walk righteously in
terribly adverse situations.
The Word of God is so powerful that
only a whisper of God's Word brought Elijah
out of thoughts of self-destruction and into
a place of continued and fulfilling life.
That's how powerful God's Word is.
Only a whisper is necessary.
Only a sweet promise in the morning as
you open this book can change the course
of your life.
Josiah, the king, discovered the Word of the
Lord as he set out to repair the
house of God.
And the Word of God brought blessing and
righteousness one more season to the people of
God.
Peter, the apostle, found the direction he needed
to guide him from impulsive spirituality to the
rest that truth brings.
The apostle Paul was made into completely another
man.
Hallelujah!
If I'm going to make a choice, if
I had somebody I'd like to follow, it
would be Paul.
God, make me into another man.
Make me into a completely different man.
Make me into a man who at the
end of my life, no matter what kind
of circumstance I'm in, I can still take
a pen in my hand and still write,
inspired by the Holy Ghost, words of encouragement
and support to others who are coming after
me.
By the Word of God, the apostle John,
at the end of his days when he
was in prison, saw hope and where it
was to be found in his present time
of struggle.
He said, I saw heaven open and behold
a white horse and he that sat upon
him was called Faithful and True and in
righteousness he does judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire
and on his head were many crowns and
he had a name written that no man
knew but himself.
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped
in blood and his name is called The
Word of God.
John saw where his hope was.
His hope was in the Word of God.
The Word of God who comes to deliver.
The Word of God who is all-powerful.
The Word of God who is the only
intelligent speech and has the power to shape
and reshape a man or woman's life into
the very image of the Son of God.
In John chapter 16, I want to close
with this tonight.
In verse 23, now the disciples had been
in a time of confusion.
Jesus was speaking about going to the Father.
He had just finished telling them when the
Comforter, the Holy Spirit comes he's going to
show you all things and he will glorify
me, he will take of mine he will
show it to you.
And in verse 18 they said we cannot
tell what he says.
We don't know we can't fully understand this.
You see their minds were not yet open
to that kind of speech that can bring
about this newness of life that Jesus Christ
was speaking about.
But then he told them they were going
to have sorrow but in the moment that
sorrow was going to be over.
In verse 22 he said now therefore you
shall have sorrow but I will see you
again your hearts shall rejoice and your joy
no man takes from you.
In that day, verse 23, you shall ask
me nothing.
In other words, in that day there will
be no more questions.
You're going to know who I am.
You're going to understand what I've done.
And you're going to enter into a life.
Oh God help us.
God help us.
What has the church of this generation become?
A self-seeking gluttonous people who are so
far from the heart of God.
The heart of God is to reach fallen
humanity.
That is the work of God.
It's to deal bread to the hungry.
It's to give clothing to the naked.
It's to go to those that have no
helper.
It's to reach out with the tender but
it takes a recreation because man by nature
is not giving like that.
It requires a new nature.
It has to be a man or woman
who is reborn by the spirit of God.
There has to be a new heart.
There has to be a new mind.
There has to be a new spirit.
Otherwise we will learn but never realize where
that learning is to take us to.
It's to the simplicity of ministering to those
who are without God and the joy of
seeing one soul come to the saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ.
This is the work of God.
In my life it's the work of God
in your life.
He says in that day you won't have
any more questions.
You'll ask me nothing.
Verily I say to you whatsoever you shall
ask the Father in my name He will
give it to you.
Now it's not to consume says upon your
lusts.
That's why people are praying and not hearing
anything.
Not receiving an answer.
But whatever we ask for that we might
be made into the very expression of God's
heart for this generation.
That we might become the extended hands of
God to a generation that needs to be
shown the way to eternal life.
That we may have the compassion of God
that He exhibited to us through Jesus Christ
when He became a man and walked this
earth to pay the price for our sins.
I don't waste my time asking for God
says if I seek first His kingdom and
His righteousness He'll provide for me everything I
need.
I'm more concerned about having a heart for
Him first and for His people.
That my life truly be an expression of
His grace to people all around In verse
24 he says Hitherto or up to this
point you've asked nothing in my name.
Ask and you shall receive that your joy
may be full.
Ask me.
I've been hearing this recently from this pulpit.
Brother Dave preached a message recently bind God
to His promises.
Ask me.
You don't care about people Ask me for
a heart that cares.
You don't have the courage to take a
step if I were to ask you to
do something outside of your sense of ability
your own ability.
Ask me for the courage.
You're captivated.
You need to be free.
Ask me.
You're blind.
You need spiritual sight.
Ask me.
You're wounded and you've been driven and led
by this wounding in your life You don't
know if you'll ever get out of it.
Ask me.
And come with a heart that's not filled
with excuses as to why I can't do
this for you.
Come with a heart believing without faith it's
impossible to please Him for he that comes
to God must believe that He is and
He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek
Him.
If a son or daughter asks for bread
will his father give him a stone?
If he asks for a fish will he
give him a serpent?
He said if you know if you being
evil know how to give good gifts to
your children how much more will your heavenly
father give good things?
And another version says give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask Him.
Ask and your joy shall be full.
Folks, I have to be honest with you.
My joy is increasing in my heart.
I struggle like everyone else does.
I've got difficulties in my physical body and
do I have family troubles once in a
while?
Yes, just like everyone else.
But there is an abiding joy that's increasing
in my heart.
The things I'm asking for are not temporal
things around me.
I'm asking for things far beyond that.
God, You've got to give me a mind
to understand.
You've got to give me a heart to
be able to communicate.
You've got to give me compassion for the
wayward and the lost.
Oh Jesus, You've got to open the treasure
of this book to me that I may
understand it.
Lord, I'm asking You.
I've asked Him that my family be a
missionary family.
Years after I'm dead and gone that my
family, my lineage would be traveling the world,
helping those who are in need and don't
have a helper.
I've asked Him for this and I'm watching
God begin to answer my cry.
Folks, you have not because you ask not.
It's as simple as that.
You've got to ask and when you're asking
for the purposes of God and for the
will of God, God comes and He begins
to speak into your situation, calming your storms
and bringing death to life.
This is a miraculous walk.
It's a supernatural life, folks.
Christianity is not just a mental agreement with
concepts in a book.
It's a supernatural life.
There are missionaries here.
There are preachers of the gospel here.
There are people who will have powerful testimonies
of God's keeping and saving and changing ability
if you will simply ask Him.
Ask Him for the right reasons.
Jesus, be a testimony in me.
So change me that my cup will overflow,
that I won't be able to contain it
in myself anymore.
To be an overflow of your life, to
be an overflow of your compassion.
God, I will be compelled because of the
love that you place in my heart to
reach out to those who are afflicted and
without hope in our generation.
Ask and your joy shall be full.
Ask.
You see, I can't do it for you.
And now you've got to face something.
Now you're either going to be like the
world was when God began to speak and
you're going to open your heart and let
Him begin to do what only He can
do or you're going to resist Him.
Folks, let's go with God.
New York City needs a testimony.
There's a lot of churches around.
Thank God for the testimony now of the
glory of God.
There needs to be an awakening in New
York City, but it must start first among
God's people.
There has to be a testimony.
Oh, I'd love it tonight if out of
this sanctuary there's probably 1,800 people here
tonight, and if out of this sanctuary even
1,000 would go into the city and
you would be virtually compelled to tell people
what God has done for you.
You're not throwing Scripture at people trying to
stuff a tract in their pocket, but you
have a living testimony.
I've got to tell you what God did
for me last Tuesday night.
I've got to tell you.
Folks, there's nothing more attractive than that.
You go in your office and you start
telling people and all of a sudden the
pencils go down and the sneers go away
just for a moment because everyone, everyone, everyone
wants evidence of the reality of God and
God says, I've chosen to show it to
them through you.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is speaking to you tonight
and there's something that you need.
Now I know that sounds very general and
I don't mean it to be overly general,
but the Holy Spirit has spoken specifically into
your heart and you know what it is
that God's got his finger on tonight, whether
it's an imprisonment to sin that you need
to be free from or an area of
fear in your heart that you need to
be released from or a wound of the
past or maybe you're beyond that but you
say, God, I just lack compassion.
I lack faith to believe, God, that maybe
you just need to be asking God for
some discipline to get in this book.
Whatever it is, and the Holy Spirit is
speaking to you tonight.
This is the pathway to spiritual awakening.
It's the pathway to hearing his voice again.
And if God's speaking to your heart, as
we stand, please step out of your seat.
Join me here at this altar and let's
worship for a moment together and then we'll
pray.
Let's stand on the balcony.
You can go to either exit.
Make your way here.
Walk out.
Just walk out of that prison.
It's as simple as that.
Jesus said, I set before you an open
door.
Just walk out.
God's spoken to you tonight.
You don't have to reason.
You don't have to try to figure it
out.
You don't have to procure any amount of
natural effort.
You just walk out.
Walk out of the hurt.
Walk out of the past.
And walk into the power of God.
God, help us to be intelligent.
Help us to open our hearts to intelligent
speech.
You are the Word that created the world.
We are the result of the breath of
your mouth.
God, help us to understand these things and
to open our hearts and minds again to
the words that you speak to us.
I pray, Father, with all my heart, that
this be a church congregation that gets into
your Bible and knows the Word of God,
rightly dividing it from beginning to end.
I pray, God, that we not be like
the children of Israel who limited the Holy
One of Israel.
But, God, we would take off all of
the trappings of unbelief and say, Lord, if
you've spoken it, I believe it.
God, I can walk into it.
It's mine in Jesus Christ.
I pray, God, that you establish in this
church a testimony for Christ that will shake
this city, that will shake the business community,
it will shake the parks, it will shake
the streets, it will shake Times Square, everywhere
we go, there will be a shaking of
the powers of hell.
I pray, God, as in the day when
you did it through Jonathan and his armor
bearer, that you cause a great trembling to
go into the host of darkness that have
partied over this city for too long.
God Almighty, send a trembling into the host
of evil.
God, as you have a people that are
willing to believe you and are willing to
walk with you.
Lord, we choose to be the people.
We open our hearts to you.
We say, God, do whatever you want to
do.
Jesus, let your life come into us.
Let your thoughts be our thoughts.
My God, we give you praise and thanks
tonight.
You've got to thank him from the very
depths of your heart tonight.
This is the conclusion of the message.