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First Samuel, Old Testament.
First Samuel.
My message tonight is entitled, There is a
way to a rejoicing heart.
There is a way.
I believe that tonight that many are going
to experience a breakthrough in an area of
desperation.
This is what the Holy Spirit's been speaking
to me all throughout this week, throughout this
day, that there are people here tonight that
you are desperate.
Yes, you're a Christian and yes, you love
the Lord.
You come to the house of God, but
there's an area of desperation in your life.
A place where you have been believing God
for something that only he can do.
And tonight he's going to do it for
you.
Tonight you're going to get your answer.
We have been fighting an opposition for about
the last week and a half, but because
God wants to do something very powerful, you're
going to hear tonight a culmination really of
what you've heard this morning and this afternoon.
And then the Lord's going to give us
the grace to be free.
Father, we thank you tonight.
God, I praise you with all my heart
for your presence.
I thank you for the anointing of the
Holy Spirit.
I thank you, God, that you have an
intended purpose tonight and no power of hell
can stop what you have determined to do
in and through your church, your people, your
beloved bride.
I ask, O God, that you make all
of our hearts open and receptive to the
message that we have heard throughout this day
and what we're going to hear tonight.
Lord, let your kingdom come and be established
in our hearts and in our praises.
Lord, you've shown me you've opened something in
the scripture.
There's a way to a rejoicing heart.
Help us now to hear.
God, you said in the mouths of two
or three witnesses, everything is confirmed.
We've heard it once, twice.
Now we're going to hear it a third
time.
And Father, you're going to bring the work
home tonight.
Lord, we thank you for the rejoicing.
Thank you, God, for your presence.
Thank you for your manifested glory.
We thank you for your favor that rests
on us.
I ask, O God, that you'd enable me
to preach far beyond my own ability, far
beyond anything thoughts that I have.
Take me into realms of God that are
eternal, where your life is.
Lord, let not anything of flesh be lifted
up in this house.
Father, we thank you for it.
I praise you for it from the depths
of my heart.
In Jesus name.
OK, we're in the book of 1 Samuel,
but before I even begin to read.
Now, this is a time, 1 Samuel is
written at a time of spiritual decline or
about a time of spiritual decline.
This is the time in history known as
the time of the judges.
After Joshua went in and through him, the
people conquered what was then the promised land.
After Joshua's death, Israel entered into an approximate
350 year period of what the Bible calls
the time of the judges.
There were 13 judges during this period, the
last of which was a prophet called Samuel.
After Samuel, you remember that Samuel anointed Saul.
Then we go from the time of judges
into the time of kings.
There was Saul, then of course, Samuel anointed
David after Saul.
We're at the time of the second last
judge of this 350 year period where Israel
is riding this wave and crest, this high
and low as it is in the spiritual
experience.
They would be greatly delivered by, the Holy
Spirit would come upon an individual that God
would raise up.
The word of God as it is or
the reflective presence of Christ, if I can
call it such, would come back again to
the people.
They would be called back again to right
relationship.
They would know marvelous victory over their enemies.
They would begin to prosper again.
And of course, that prosperity would drive them
again into the trough of carelessness where when
they would forget God, God would allow again
their enemies to be risen up against them.
And when they cried out to the Lord,
then he would come in miracle power one
more time and raise up his voice again.
And at the time that we're about to
talk was a time of spiritual declension.
This was a prayerless, backslidden, immoral and greedy
priesthood was over Shiloh.
Now, Shiloh is the place where the ark
of God was.
And the ark of God, you remember, represented
the presence of the Lord God in and
among his people in Israel.
Now, there was a man in first Samuel,
chapter one, verse one called Elkanah.
And the Bible says that he had two
wives in verse two.
The name of the one was Hannah and
the other was Peninnah.
And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no
children.
And the man went up out of his
city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to
the Lord of hosts in Shiloh.
And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and
Phinehas, the priests of the Lord were there.
Now, you remember Hophni and Phinehas are the
results of a prayerless priesthood.
They're the sons of a prayerless priest.
He has no idea what prayer is.
For when Hannah comes in and begins to
pour out her complaint before the Lord, the
scripture tells us that he thought she was
drunk.
It had been so long since he'd seen
genuine intercession that he couldn't even recognize it
in the house of the Lord.
And that's a tragedy.
He had two sons that he put into
the ministry and Hophni and Phinehas were immoral.
The Bible says they were seducing women that
were coming into the court of God's presence.
And they were also greedy.
And they made the people of their generation
abhor the offering of the Lord.
People didn't.
They lost heart to give because of the
greediness of Hophni and Phinehas.
This is an absolute spiritual low.
Now, you have to understand that Shiloh is
the place where Samuel, not Samuel, but Elkanah
and his two wives are coming up.
And if we were, if we had time
tonight to go a little farther into the
Bible, Shiloh is about to be overthrown.
The Philistine army is about to be victorious
over Israel's forces and the ark of God
is about to be taken.
So keep that in mind.
And there's going to be a defeat of
this priesthood and a defeat of the Hophni
and Phinehas are both going to be killed
in the same day.
Eli is going to fall off a wall
as an old man and break his neck.
And that's going to be the end of
Eli's priesthood, the end of his house.
And God's about to establish now a new
priesthood.
So this is a desperate time in the
nation of Israel.
Now, Hannah, one of Elkanah's two wives was
in despair.
The Bible says that he was coming up
yearly to the house of the Lord to
sacrifice.
But verse six and seven tells us about
Hannah and her adversary provoked her sore to
make her fret for the Lord, because the
Lord had shut up her womb.
And as he did so year by year,
when she went up to the house of
the Lord, so she provoked her.
Therefore, she wept and did not eat.
Now, the Bible just tells us that the
yearly visits had left Hannah barren.
That's an incredible thing.
Here is one wife who's having all kinds
of children and seemingly knowing great success as
it is, because really to have children was
a sign of God's favor.
It was the one thing that brought honor
to a woman, to her husband.
It was the increase, as it is, of
his lineage.
And Penina now has got all these children
and Hannah's coming up, same husband, same temple,
same God.
And not only is her womb barren, but
the Bible says that God had shut up
her womb.
That's an incredible thing.
Folks, you ever gone through times like that
in your Christian walk, when everybody around you
is getting blessed and you're not?
Everyone's talking about, they're walking around singing, I'm
free, I'm free.
And you feel like singing, I am not.
I am not.
Testimonies of favor and abundance and all these
things coming in and you're going to the
same place.
You're praying to the same God.
You have an honest heart.
You want God for some mysterious reason.
This thing that you've been asking for has
not been given to you.
And you may not be aware of it.
Hannah would not be aware of it.
But we know in retrospect, reading the scriptures,
that it was not the devil.
It was God had shut her womb for
a reason.
Now, it was a disgrace to her own
heart to return to God empty in this
area of her life year after year.
Now, it would be awful to think that
you and I could come to the house
of the Lord for the rest of our
days and never know victory in a certain
area of our lives.
Yes, have victory, have a husband.
She had a husband that loved her.
And how can I said, well, why are
you weeping?
I'm better than you than to you to
the 10 sons.
Hannah, I love you.
Isn't my love sufficient?
And sometimes we come into the house of
the Lord and we are aware of God's
love.
We know how much Jesus Christ loves us.
But yet there's still that area of emptiness.
There's still that area of barrenness that's in
our lives, that area that for whatever reason
has not yet been touched by God.
We don't understand it.
Everyone around us seems to be getting the
victory, but we're not getting the victory.
And we have to ask ourselves the question.
Now, why would God withhold something from this
woman?
Why would he withhold?
Doesn't the scripture say, ask that your joy
might be full?
Doesn't the scripture say that if we ask
something according to the will of God, that
he will give it to us?
Well, wouldn't it be the will of God
to give this woman a child and children
so that she can be fulfilled and she
can honor her husband?
So what justifiable reason would there be that
God would shut her womb?
Is there something wrong with wanting to feel
personally fulfilled?
Others around are seemingly getting what they want.
So why would God be withholding from me?
And to make matters worse, verse six tells
us that her adversary, this is the other
wife who had all kinds of children, provoked
her sore to make her fret.
And really, in the original text, it means
provoked her heart to a heated condition which
triggered hurt feelings and worry within her.
She was being provoked constantly by an adversary,
coming to the house of God, praying the
same prayers and going home.
Then the Bible says year after year, empty,
for some unknown reason.
No life, no conception, a barren womb, absolutely
dead inside.
No matter how much she prayed, no matter
what she did, no matter how much she
believed, nothing was happening within her life in
this area.
And the adversary is provoking her.
First Peter 5-8 tells us that your
adversary, that means the one who is against
you, the devil is a roaring lion, walks
about seeking whom he may devour.
And the word devour in the Greek text
means to drink you down or swallow you
up.
The adversary is here.
And I know there are desperate people here
tonight.
I know it because the Holy Ghost has
been speaking to me all day and all
week.
There are desperate people here tonight.
No, you might not look desperate.
You've come into the house and you are
worshiping God and you're singing the songs of
Zion.
And you've been here some cases year after
year.
But there's an area in your life and
for whatever reason, there's no life there.
There's no freedom there.
It's as if a death is in operation.
And the adversary is here every time you
come into the house of God as a
roaring lion, provoking your heart to a heated
condition and making you feel as if you've
been rejected somehow by God and causing you
to worry.
Psalm 74, 10 tells us that the enemy
does this by blaspheming the name of God.
I want you to hear this.
It's important.
The psalmist says, O God, how long shall
the adversary reproach?
Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever?
Now, the word for blaspheme in the Hebrew
is a verb that is often used of
God rejecting men.
Yet it contains the idea of disdain for
one who formerly received favorable attention.
Now, let me put it in simple terms.
In other words, the enemy comes and blasphemes
the name of God by saying God has
seen some flaw within you.
It's a flaw that's known only to God
himself.
And this has caused him to withdraw his
hand from you.
Now, the psalmist calls this blasphemy.
I want you to know this.
It's important to know this tonight.
If the devil is trying to tell you.
Now, I'm not talking about somebody that's living
in willful sin.
This doesn't really apply to you.
If there is something you need to repent
of, repent of it.
I'm talking about the honest Christian.
Yes, the struggling Christian, but the honest Christian
who doesn't want to live in sin and
wants a life that brings honor and glory
to Jesus Christ and comes into the house
of God.
And the enemy is there because there's an
area in your life where you're not getting
your prayer answered.
And the enemy comes in and blasphemes the
name of God by trying to convince you
that God, for some unknown reason, has taken
his grace away from you, has withdrawn as
it is his hand of mercy.
Folks, I'll tell you why it's blasphemy.
Because God has beyond all doubt proven his
desire and his willingness to release the miraculous
power of his life within yours and mine.
He's proven it.
So if my request is withheld, there must
be a reason for good.
Of which I'm not yet aware.
God proved it to me when he became
a man.
God proved it to me when he was
born of a virgin.
God proved it to me when he walked
through this life for 33 years, suffering the
indignities of humanity as it is.
God proved it to me when he stood
before Pilate and allowed his face to be
slapped in his back to be smitten by
those with wits in their hands.
God proved it to me because he did
it all that his life might be released
within mine.
I refuse to let the enemy ever blaspheme
the name of God by trying to convince
you or me that there's some hidden thing
that is causing the hand of God's mercy
to be withdrawn from us.
And we're not knowing victory in some area
because there's an area of evil or some
mysterious thing that God only himself knows about
us.
You see, beloved, there's a higher purpose for
God meeting our needs than just for our
own satisfaction.
There's a higher purpose.
And sometimes he withholds until we get so
desperate that we want to know what the
higher purpose is.
We don't want our need met just so
that we can leave the house and say,
my need is met.
Oh, folks, if it were that easy, the
purposes of God would never be fulfilled through
his church.
Yes, there are some things that he will
do automatically because he's a God of incredible
grace.
But there are some areas of our life,
let me tell you, that he will withhold
the answer.
He will hold it off.
Even if we can quote the scriptures to
him day in and day out, he will
withhold until we are willing to seek his
higher purpose for our lives in this area.
Let me show you something.
Go to the New Testament, please.
Put a marker in First Samuel because we'll
be back there.
Luke chapter 10.
This will all tie into the moment and
you'll understand how it fits together.
In Luke chapter 10, verse 25, the Bible
says a certain lawyer stood up and tempted
him, saying, Master, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life?
Now, first of all, this man was not
really wanting to conform his life to God,
but he was testing to see if God
would be conformed to his own lifestyle.
He was testing God to see if his
own particular thoughts matched those thoughts of God,
or if God would, in effect, bend his
thoughts towards his thoughts.
That's what human nature is all about many
times.
Coming to the house of the Lord and
we say, we want God to conform to
our ways.
And we don't want, in some area of
our life, to conform our lives to God's
ways.
And so he asked a question that looked
so spiritual.
He said, what shall I do that I
might inherit eternal life?
Now, as I read this, he's speaking about
the future.
He's saying, basically, I want to go to
heaven.
I want to be part of this eternal
kingdom you're talking about.
So what must I do to inherit it,
that it may be mine someday in the
future?
And Jesus said to him, well, what is
written in the law?
How do you read it?
And he answered, he said, thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and all thy soul, and all thy strength,
and all thy mind, and thy neighbor as
thyself.
And Jesus answers him, verse 28, and he
said to him, thou hast answered right, this
do, and thou shalt live.
Now, he knows the answer.
In verse 25, his question is about the
future, but in verse 28, Jesus answers him
in the present.
He said, yes, you love God with all
your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love
your neighbor as yourself, and you shall live.
The word is zeal, and it means you
will be caused to live, you will be
quickened, or you will live under the constant
guidance and influence of God.
He's talking about the future.
Jesus is talking about right now.
You see, what he's trying to say to
this man is eternal life is not something
that's coming down the road after the judgment
seat.
Eternal life starts now.
For those that are mine, they have eternal
life now.
If you belong to Christ, you now have
eternal life.
It's not something coming down the road.
You've got it now.
And the evidence of that eternal life is
that you are quickened in your spirit.
You are raised from the dead.
Your heart, your mind, your motives, everything begins
to change.
The old nature begins to be put away,
and a new nature, which is in the
likeness and image of the one who died
and was raised again from the dead, begins
to live within you.
And it's an evidence that you are quickened.
You are now entered into eternal life.
And Jesus said, yes, this is the right
way.
You love God with all your heart, soul,
mind, and strength.
And if you do, you will also love
your neighbor as much as you love yourself.
But he, verse 29, says, willing to justify
himself, said to Jesus, and who is my
neighbor?
Now, here's the type of a man who
wants to appear to be in right standing
with God.
And he will love his neighbor someday.
But for the time being, he says, I'm
excused because you see, I'm just not sure
of the definition of the word neighbor.
Yet, but when I find out, you know,
Jesus, I love him as much as I
love you.
When I find out who my neighbor is,
you know, there's a whole segment of the
church that is always learning and never coming
to the knowledge of the truth, always studying,
always going to one new conference after another
to learn one new corner on God, but
never, ever finding the heart of God for
humanity.
Oh, Lord, I'm learning.
And one day, as soon as I understand
what the word neighbor means, I'll be out
there, oh, God, and I'll be doing exactly
what you called me to do.
Always studying.
And it's just a cover up.
It's a smoke screen for a heart that
doesn't want to live for God.
Folks, when you get saved, the very first
thing you want to do is reach out
and help all the humanity around you.
I remember one night when I was a
police officer, a friend of mine, another police
officer, I took him.
We were on duty and I took him
to a place where I had been baptized
in the Holy Ghost.
And I took him to that place and
it was another friend.
And he got saved and filled with the
Holy Ghost.
And I remember as he was heading home,
he jumped out of the car, took the
last money, saw some fellow, not as a
police officer who normally arrests people on the
street who are sleeping on the street, at
least where I came from.
He jumped out of the car, took everything
he had out of his pocket and gave
it to the man so that he could
find himself somewhere to stand, some food to
eat.
What brought about that transformation?
In a matter of an hour, the man
was a different man.
I'll tell you what brought it about.
He was saved.
The power of God had come upon him.
And the evidence of the Holy Ghost within
him as there was a benevolence, that benevolence
of God as it is, was in him
and now flowing through him to fallen humanity
all around him.
Now Jesus said, let me help you understand
who your neighbor is.
In verse 30 he says, a certain man
went from Jericho, Jerusalem to Jericho and fell
among thieves that stripped him of his raiment
and wounded him and departed, leaving him half
dead.
And he said, and by chance there came
down a certain priest, etc., and passed by
and a Levite, when he was at the
place, came and looked at him and passed
by on the other side.
Jesus was saying to him, let me help
you understand who your neighbor is.
This was a time of thievery.
Now you know the Bible says the devil
has come to steal and to kill and
to destroy.
There was a spirit, as it is, that
was released among men and it was depriving
violently people of their clothing and of healing
and of comfort.
They stripped him and wounded him and left
him half dead.
And folks, that's exactly what happens to humanity
without God.
That's exactly what happens to...
they are stripped of the righteousness that could
be theirs in Christ and the covering of
their sin.
They are stripped and robbed of the healing
that Jesus has died for on Calvary.
That wholeness that could be every man's.
The enemy roars about using those that are
at his disposal to inflict, as it is,
his desire to wound the creation of God.
And leaving them, walking away.
Society without God is indifferent at best.
Walking away and leaving the man comfortless.
And folks, it must have been a common
thing because Jesus seems to infer that people
were just passing by.
It must have been common to see people
beat up and stripped and left without comfort.
Obviously, it had gotten into society, perhaps, that
it was accepted.
That you saw people just walk by and
say, oh, poor man, I wonder what happened
to him.
And just kept right on going to their
appointed grounds as they saw it.
The priest, for example, heading to the temple
to his service at the altar.
That's where the priest ministered.
He ministered at the altar.
Perhaps, hoping that night for a Zacharias vision.
You remember, Zacharias was in ministering at the
altar and an angel appeared to him and
said, oh, Zacharias, your wife Elizabeth has been
barren, but you're going to have a son
and he's going to be mighty and he's
going to turn, that was John the Baptist,
he's going to turn the hearts of many
and be a forerunner of the Messiah.
And perhaps the priest is heading that night
and he's hoping at the altar that he's
going to have a Zacharias vision of some
new great thing that's going to come into
his life and be part of his life.
And we see the Levi coming to worship
and hoping for a new song.
Maybe tonight I'll get a new song.
I'll come in and I'll be singing and
some new vision of a song will come
before me and I'll be able to write
it down.
It'll be a wonderful new praise song it
will be in the house of the Lord.
And still, but passing him by, unaware of
the heart of God for fallen humanity all
around them.
But he said there was another man and
this man saw the need and he said
he came where the man was and when
he saw me had compassion on him and
he went to him and bound up his
wounds and poured in oil and wine and
set him on his own beast and brought
him to an end and took care of
him.
Another man, he said, saw the need.
I believe this is Christ speaking about himself.
He's talking about God, the heart of God.
And at his own expense, he bent down
as it is to him.
God bent his knee to become a man.
Don't ever doubt it for one second.
God bent his knee to become one of
us and came to us in our condition,
our pitiful condition.
And he tenderly cared for him until he
was well.
Says he poured in oil and the word
for oil in the Greek is eleon, which
means the exhilarating influence of the Holy Spirit
or the enlightening of God.
He poured in himself.
That's what Christ did, folks.
Do you understand?
He bent his knee and became a man.
Almighty God saw our condition before the foundation
of the world.
And God the Father and God the Son
made a covenant one with another.
And God came to the earth and became
a man.
He bent his knee to our fallen condition.
He stopped on the road.
Aren't you thankful tonight?
Aren't you thankful that he came to you?
Hallelujah.
How many tonight could say I wasn't even
looking for him?
And he came to me.
I was laying there in my pitiful condition.
And he came to me and bent his
knee.
I know there's a man in this house
that has a testimony of trying to commit
suicide.
And the very day he was going to
kill himself, a voice, an audible voice came
to him and said, give me a chance
in your life.
And he knew it was the voice of
Jesus.
Nobody had ever told him before, but he
just knew it was God speaking to him,
bending his knee to us in our fallen
condition.
And that's exactly what Jesus Christ has done
for us.
And he tenderly cares for us and pours
himself into us.
The oil of his presence, the oil of
quickening, the oil of enlightening.
And heals us of our wounds and carries
us.
He said, set him on his own beast.
He carries us as it is and takes
us to shelter and takes care of us
all the days of our lives.
Isn't that an amazing thing?
Hallelujah.
I thank God for the understanding that I'm
not left to walk this walk alone.
There's a song we sing that says, he
walks with me and he talks with me
and he tells me I am his own.
He has poured his life into mine and
he has carried me when I can't walk.
And he has taken me to shelter.
And even beyond that, it says on the
morrow when he departed, he took out two
pence and gave them to the host and
said to him, take care of him.
And whatever you spend more when I come
again, I will repay you.
Guess who the host is?
I see that as you and me.
I see that as the church.
This man came and poured into humanity and
those that have come to Christ are those
that are in need of care.
He said, listen, I'm going to give you
a deposit.
I'm going to give you a down payment
as it is and I'm going to give
it to you.
I'm going to entrust it to you and
take care of him.
And anything you spend beyond this, I will
give it to you when I come again.
I will repay you, says the Lord.
And then he says to this man, go
and do likewise and you will have life.
Go and do likewise and you will be
quickened.
Go and do likewise and you will be
tapped into that quickening power of God and
you will be drawn into eternity now.
Eternity will not be a far off concept.
Eternity will become now.
But you see, eternity has a cost to
it.
Yes, it cost the son of God.
It cost God his very life.
It cost him pain.
It cost him suffering and sorrow and temporary
separation from his father and the pain of
that we will never understand until we finally
get into eternity.
And sometimes it will cost us some comfort.
It will cost some of us some of
the things perhaps that we hold dear in
this world, that we may walk with him
and follow in the very footsteps of the
son of God among fallen humanity all around
us.
Now, go back to 1 Samuel again.
Remember the story of Hannah.
It's a desperate hour.
God has withheld from her for a reason.
God has held off answering her prayer.
And she got desperate.
In 1 Samuel 1, 7 it says, So
as he did year by year when she
went up to the house of the Lord,
she provoked her.
Therefore, she wept and did not eat.
Now, she refused any other satisfying, but that
satisfying which comes from God.
She stopped eating.
She started fasting.
This was the beginning of the search of
saying, God, what is it that you're trying
to do in my life?
What is it that I'm not hearing?
I'm not satisfied with this barrenness.
You said you came to fill me.
You said you came to give me an
abundance.
And I'm not satisfied with anything but the
fullnesses of your promises being released into my
life.
I'm not satisfied.
And folks, that's a good thing.
It's a good thing if you have an
empty area in your life and you're here
tonight saying, I'm not satisfied with this emptiness.
Because many people are.
Many people called by the name of Christ
are quite happy to be absolutely bankrupt for
the presence of God.
As long as they go to church and
have some semblance of hope for the future,
that's good enough for them.
But this is a desperate hour.
We are living in modern day Shiloh with
a fat bachelor in priesthood and sons who
don't know God, who have made the offering
of God an abhorrence among God's people, standing
at the door and demanding the fattest and
the finest of the meat for themselves, not
willing to live by faith and trust God
for their provision.
And they've caused the people of God to
laugh and to abhor the offering of God.
This is a desperate hour that we're living
in.
Just as desperate as the hour of Hannah.
And then said Elkanah her husband, why are
you weeping?
Why are you not eating?
Verse 8.
And why is your heart grieved?
Am I not better to you than ten
sons?
Verse 9 says, Hannah rose up after they
had eaten in Shiloh and after they had
drunk.
In other words, she said, I'm going to
press through.
Everyone around me is eating and drinking.
Everyone around me is satisfied.
But something is missing in me.
And I'm not happy.
I'm not satisfied.
I'm getting up.
They might be quite content to eat and
drink and go and say a few prayers
every year, but I'm not satisfied.
She was going to press through to where
no one around her had a desire to
go.
There may be people listening to this message
on tape in the future, and you're sitting
in a church with a fat, bastard, knee
-high priesthood.
I challenge you to get up and press
through to God, even if you're the only
one that wants to go in your church.
Get up and press in and let God
begin to do miracles in your life.
She said, you may be full but I'm
not.
And I'm going back to find out what
is blocking the life of God.
I'm going back to find out what is
blocking the life-flowing power of God within
me.
The Bible said she went back after they
were all finished eating and drinking in Shiloh.
Eli the priest sat upon a seat by
the post of the temple of the Lord.
Verse 10 says she was in bitterness of
soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept
sore.
She was desperate.
God, you've got to do this thing in
me.
Lord, you've got to come and give me
life.
I want life.
I don't want religion.
I'm not going home with an empty womb
one more time.
I'm going home with a seed of life
in me.
I want life.
And now she gets to the place where
God has been trying to bring her all
along.
This is where he's been trying to take
her to in verse 11.
And she vowed a vow and said, O
Lord of hosts, if thou will indeed look
on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember
me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will
give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then
I will give him unto the Lord all
the days of his life, and there shall
no razor come upon his head.
Now she's finally come to the place where
God has won.
That's why he had closed her womb.
And so, she got to the place and
said, God, whatever you give me, I promise
you, I promise you, I promise you, I
will bring it back for your glory.
I will bring it back for your cause.
I will bring it back for your half.
I will bring it back for your purposes.
I'm not just asking for something to take
home.
I'm asking for something to bring back.
I'm asking for something, God, that you can
take and use for your glory.
There's a reason why God withholds.
Until we get to the place where we
say, God, I want you to come and
touch this area of my life.
And I don't want just to be set
free, I want to be overflowing with your
presence.
And God, by your grace, by your grace
I'll bring it back into your house.
By your grace I'll use it for your
glory.
By your grace I'll stand on the mountaintop
and I'll shout your name to my generation.
By your grace.
Hallelujah.
It's like the person that comes into the
house of the Lord and says, God, I
can't love anybody.
I don't love anybody.
And I'm sick and tired of this lovelessness
in my heart and in my life.
God, fill me with your love.
Birth your love in me and I'll love
everybody that you lead me to.
You lead me to them and I'll love
them, oh God, for your glory.
I'll reach out, I'll touch their lives, because
it won't be me, it will be your
life within me that is touching them.
Hallelujah.
This is the place where Eli, so unused
to intercession, thinks he's drunk.
Isn't that amazing?
Here's the first intercessor, been in this house
perhaps in months, if not years.
And he looks down and he says he's
drunk.
And he's trying to portray some semblance of
spirituality.
He says, how long will you be drunk
and put your wine away from you?
Isn't that amazing?
Somebody is interceding, he thinks they're drunk.
And we're in a generation where the priests
of this generation think that drunks are intercessors.
Folks, it's all turned around.
We have holy ghost bartenders now in the
house of God.
Dispensing spiritual booze to people.
Thinking that drunks are worshippers.
It's as stupid as Eli was in this
situation.
And Hannah goes on and says, Eli answered
and said, go in peace.
And the God of Israel grant thy petition.
He's got no faith.
It's just the right thing to say.
But verse 18 says, and she said, let
thine handmaid find grace in thy sight.
So the woman went her way and did
eat.
And her countenance was no more sad.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
When you get to this altar, when you
finally say, God, whatever you do is for
your glory.
I tell you that's where faith comes into
your heart.
That's where faith begins to take hold of
you.
She rose up from that place.
As far as she knew, she's still as
barren as she was before.
But a seed of faith was now planted
in her life.
God, I now understand why you've withheld from
me.
Lord, you're going to do something in my
life.
I could see her going back into that
place where everybody's eating and drinking and all
laying at the table after their banquet in
Shiloh.
And she comes back in and there is
a glow on her face, a presence of
God.
She has a promise in her heart now.
God, you're going to do something that can't
be done by the hand of man.
Hallelujah.
Now the Bible tells us they went home.
Elkanah knew his wife and the Lord remembered
her.
Verse 20 says it came to pass that
when the time was come after about Hannah
had conceived that she bear a son, they
called his name Samuel and said, because I've
asked him of the Lord.
And the man Elkanah and all his house
went up to offer unto the Lord the
yearly sacrifice.
That's a year later.
Going back again to the yearly sacrifice.
And Hannah didn't go up for she said
to her husband, I will not go up
until the child be weaned.
Now folks, you have to be careful of
this.
Now, she said, no, I'm not taking the
child back until it's nurtured, until it's grown.
But folks, you can't wean the child forever.
There are people like that.
God begins to touch their life and they
say, I'm going to use this for God.
Boy, this is going to be for God's
glory.
As soon as it matures and it grows
and the grace increases.
And you imagine how foolish it would be
if she were still holding a 20 year
old in her bosom.
You know, saying, he's not ready yet.
He's not quite weaned yet.
To take him up to the house of
the Lord.
No.
Don't hold on to your gift forever.
When God gives it to you, remember it's
for a purpose.
It's to bring back and to be used
for His honor and for His glory.
We are to be a testimony.
We are to be living witnesses in the
entire world of the fact that Jesus Christ
is alive from the dead.
Sitting at the right hand of all power
and glory.
And verse 26, she brings him now to
the house of the Lord and she said,
now you have to understand now, this is
Samuel.
She called him Samuel, which means God asked
of God.
That's what Samuel actually means.
He's asked of God.
I asked God for him and He gave
him to me.
And now I'm giving him back to God.
And she said, O my Lord, as thy
soul liveth.
Verse 26, My Lord, I am the woman
that stood here by thee praying unto the
Lord.
And for this child I prayed.
And the Lord has given me my petition
which I asked of Him.
Therefore I have lent him unto the Lord
as long as he lives he shall be
lent to the Lord and he worshiped the
Lord there.
You see, the child was brought to God
and the need of a nation was met.
How is the need of a nation met?
The need of a nation is met when
you and I, in desperation, say God Almighty
in the power of the Holy Ghost, let
your life be released through me.
And then bring me back again into your
house and tell me and show me what
I should do.
That the need of the nation should be
met.
Folks, when the people are just sitting at
the table eating and drinking, the need of
the nation is not met.
There has to be somebody that is willing
to give their lives as a living sacrifice
to God which Paul the Apostle said is
your reasonable service.
It is reasonable to do these things.
It is reasonable to bring back to God
the giftings that He has planted within our
lives.
Now Hannah, praise your prayer.
Chapter 2 Remember the title of my message
tonight is There is a way to a
rejoicing heart.
Verse 1 says Hannah prayed and said My
heart rejoices in the Lord.
My horn, that means the power of God
within me or the symbol of power is
exalted in the Lord.
And my mouth is enlarged over my enemies
because I rejoice in thy salvation.
God, you have released your power within me.
And now she goes on to say verse
2, there is none holy as the Lord.
And there is none beside thee neither is
there any rock like our God.
Talk no more so exceeding proudly.
And let not arrogancy come out of your
mouth.
For the Lord is a God of knowledge
and by Him actions are weighed.
Folks, when we are dedicated to God you
can face the devil you can look him
right in the eye and say don't speak
so arrogantly.
For God knows my heart.
And I know my God.
And I know what God has given me.
And I know what God is going to
do in my life and through my life.
There is no rock like our God.
There is no standing place in all of
the universe than to stand on the promises
of God and the completed work of Calvary.
Don't talk arrogantly to me, my enemy.
Don't rejoice over me.
Because God is my stay.
He has given me His promise.
And God's life is going to be birthed
into my life.
And I'm going to bring it back to
His glory by His power and by His
grace.
The bows of mighty men are broken.
Verse 4.
And they that stumble are girded with strength.
They that were full have hired themselves out
for bread.
And they were hungry ceased.
So that the barren is born seven and
she that has many children is waxed feeble.
In other words, the children of natural strength
are going to lose their strength.
But those that wait upon the Lord are
not going to lose their strength.
God says I'm going to keep you and
give you something that's eternal.
The Lord killeth and maketh alive.
He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth
up.
The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich.
He bringeth low and lifteth up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the
dust and lifts up the beggar from the
dunghill to set them among princes and to
make them inherit the throne of glory.
For the pillars of the earth are the
Lord's and He has set the world upon
them.
Verse 9 says He will keep the feet
of His saints and the wicked shall be
silent in darkness.
He will keep the feet of His saints.
God says I will keep you in the
coming times of difficulty.
Give me everything.
Give me all of your life.
Give me all of your heart.
Bring back to me those things that I
have done and will do within your life.
And I will keep your feet in the
time of darkness.
I will give you a sure path.
You are not going to stumble and you
are not going to be afraid.
The wicked are going to be silent, but
you will not be.
The adversaries of the Lord, verse 10, shall
be broken to pieces.
Out of heaven He shall thunder upon them.
The Lord shall judge the ends of the
earth.
He shall give strength to His King and
exalt the horn of His anointed.
And what does exalt mean?
Lift up.
The horn is the symbol of power.
And the word anointed implies an anointing of
God for a special purpose.
And here is Hannah's time of rejoicing.
God alone, she says, is going to lift
me up in His power because I have
been anointed of Him for a special purpose.
Hallelujah!
That is your promise tonight.
Whatever area of your life is this area
of desperation, wherever it is that God has
withholden from you, I want you to hear
me tonight.
Wherever He has withholden from you, He has
done it for a reason.
That at this altar tonight, whether it is
a physical altar or a place in your
heart, you are going to say, Lord Jesus
Christ, King of the Universe, Mighty God, I
am coming to You tonight.
And by grace alone, what You birthed into
me, I am bringing it back for Your
kingdom's sake.
You are going to lead me.
You are going to guide me.
And You are going to use my life
for Your glory because You have anointed me
for a special purpose.
God, thank You for not giving me all
my desires without understanding.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You withheld even
this one area of my life just to
make me desperate so that I would want
to know what Your kingdom is about in
my life.
There are people here tonight that are going
to pray a simple prayer and say, God,
I give You the life that You have
given me.
I give it to You for Your purposes.
The child is now weaned.
I ask You to begin to start touching
lives through me.
The child is weaned.
There are people here tonight that God has
given you long ago what you asked for,
but you have not yet brought it back
for His purposes.
You have not yet brought it back to
begin to touch suffering humanity.
You see, that is the purpose of God,
folks.
There is no other purpose.
Christ came to save sinners.
Paul said it clearly.
Christ came to touch, heal, set free, anoint,
release, preach comfort and peace to all who
could turn to Him.
That is the purpose of God.
And there are many, many here that you
have been given.
You have been given your gift already.
And now it is time to give it
back to God.
It is time just to come to an
altar somewhere and just say, Lord Jesus Christ,
touch through me.
Touch through me.
Speak through me.
Walk through me.
Give through me.
Oh, Jesus, forgive me for being given such
wonderful things.
And I have taken them home and I
am still weaning them.
And I haven't brought them back to the
temple.
I have not come back to you with
everything you have given me and said, God,
take it and use it for your glory.
You see, that is why there is so
little rejoicing sometimes.
So little joy.
You will never really fully understand and neither
will I.
None of us will fully understand the joy,
the true joy of the Lord until we
are released to His purposes.
Until we are just a channel of God's
blessing to the church, and to those outside
of the kingdom of God.
We become a channel of the blessing of
God.
That is the source of joy.
There is a pathway to a joyful heart.
Hannah didn't rejoice until she had...
You know how hard that must have been,
folks?
Do you know how hard that would be
to bring a child...
That generation would be weaned at around 3
to 4 years of age.
Can you know how hard it would be
to bring that child and give that boy
to that fat, back-slidden priest, Eli?
Do you know how difficult that must have
been?
Is anybody saying it's easy to live for
God?
No, sometimes it's hard.
Sometimes it costs.
Sometimes we have to release those things that
are the dearest things to our heart.
We have to let them go that God
might be glorified.
I remind you one more time that the
boy she brought was called Samuel.
One of the greatest judges that Israel had
ever known.
Brought the nation back again.
The one who anointed David king over Israel.
Samuel.
Samuel was asked of God, but he was
brought back to God.
We live in a church age where all
people do is ask, and ask, and ask,
and ask, and ask.
And we have whole denominations built around just
asking.
But nobody brings back to God what He's
given to them.
And it's just this greed.
There are greed altars in the house of
God.
More!
During the so-called blessing revival in Canada,
the mantra was to chant around their altar.
More!
And they're filled to the full with the
fullness of God so many of the people,
but it's just an endless greed.
So few bringing anything back to God.
People flying from all over the world for
a so-called revival.
And when an offering was taken in one
instance for missions, I believe the offering amounted
to 15 cents for a transformed life.
Swallowing a camel and straining at a gnat.
Religion at its worst.
No!
No more, God says, until we bring back
what He's given us.
No more!
To consume on our own greed.
It's the highest calling in the universe to
live for God.
There's no higher calling to speak for Him.
To come to His throne.
To hear from God and bring it to
the people.
There's no higher calling in the world than
to reach out and touch the fallen soul.
To stop by the wayside and pour in
oil and wine.
And give of ourselves in representation of the
God who gave Himself for us.
There is no higher calling in the universe.
God forbid!
I don't ever want to be found around
some altar crying out, more!
I want to be found in a place
where what God has given me is being
used for His glory.
And let it start small.
Let it start where we are, where we
live.
Let it start by bringing back to Him
now what God has given us.
The child is now weaned.
We live in the generation, folks, it's a
fearful time we're in.
Because I see many of God's people being
released to foolishness.
We've seen it for seven years now in
the house of the Lord.
All over North America released to absolute foolishness.
Countries all over the world now are closing
their doors now to North American preachers.
Did you know that?
All over the world now they're closing their
doors because they brought the same stupidity that
swept our borders into other countries.
There are others here tonight that are just
simply going to say, Lord, I'm barren.
I'm empty in this area of my life.
Give me new life.
And by grace, I will bring it back
to You for Your glory.
God, give me life in this area.
If you are plagued with immorality, you can
say, Lord, give me clean eyes and a
clean heart.
And God, I'll bring it back to You
for Your glory.
Whatever your situation is, whatever your problem is,
whatever difficulty you face, if you have an
indifferent heart, indifferent means that you can't even
work up a burden for anybody around you.
You can't even work up a burden for
the work of God.
You say, Lord, I'm barren.
I'm supposed to be a Christian.
I'm empty.
I'm bereft as it is of Your life.
I'm empty.
But God, I'm going to press in until
You give me new life.
And then by grace, I'm going to bring
it back to You.
I'm going to bring it back to Your
glory that Your kingdom may come through my
life.
That I'll be faithful to Your call only.
Hallelujah.
The Holy Spirit is speaking to you tonight.
I'm going to ask you to stand all
together and come and join us at this
altar.
We're going to pray together.
Would you do that right now?
And let's believe God.
This is a fine hour.
You're going to be set free tonight.
You're going to be set free.
You're going to go home with faith.
Please move in close.
The devil fights this with everything in his
arsenal to stop this from happening, this type
of thing tonight.
Because you're desperate now.
And we understand, you understand, we understand tonight,
all of us, that the kingdom comes for
a purpose.
Bless you Jesus.
Bless you Lord.
I have fought hell this week to preach
this message.
Right to the last moment.
I had severe chest pains tonight.
The enemy doing everything in his power to
stop you from getting free.
Keep coming.
You're desperate.
Remember Hannah said, enough is enough.
I want life.
I want freedom.
I want to be the bride of Jesus
Christ.
Give you an opportunity everyone, please reconsider if
you're wavering in the balcony tonight, if you're
not sure you want to live for Christ,
please reconsider this.
Same thing in the Annex Main Sanctuary, reconsider
this.
Because this is an altar where God's promise
is going to fill you.
You're going to walk away from here with
faith tonight like Hannah did.
You're going to be different.
I speak that because I've been in the
presence.
You're going to walk away.
You're never going to be
Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of my soul, and
King of my life.
I thank you for making me desperate in
this area of my life.
I now understand you've withheld from me because
you've desired that I may live with your
life being fully known and fully expressed through
my life.
Tonight, I ask you to fill me in
the area of my deepest need.
Lord Jesus Christ, you know what that is,
and I know what that is.
Tonight, by grace, Lord, whatever you do in
me that it may be used, I
ask tonight you would begin to touch life
and your feet and a bruised generation.
Speak through me, Jesus.
Touch through me, Jesus.
Love through me, Jesus.
Let your life be in my life.
God, thank you tonight in me.
You're going to change me.
King of this universe, I thank you tonight
for your quickening power and changing me.
I have a testimony of a
rejoicing heart.
Something happened at that altar.
Don't you let the devil take it away
from you.
God is going to work a miracle in
me, and I'm bringing it back for his
glory.
This is the conclusion of the message.