What the disciples said to Jesus, verse 31,
some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to
him, leave this place and go somewhere else.
Herod wants to kill you.
This is man's logic.
Your ministry will affect many more people if
you could just conserve your energy a bit
and not die.
Because so far you can get around so
many people, so if you just look after
yourself carefully, you could reach so many more.
You don't want to die.
They were always trying to get Jesus not
to die.
And he says, in verse 32, go tell
that fox, I will drive out demons and
steal people today and tomorrow, and on the
third day, I will reach my goal.
In any case, I must keep going today
and tomorrow, and the next day, for surely
no prophet can die outside Jerusalem.
This is what I call, it may not
be your understanding, but this is what I
call the difference between visions and goals.
You don't go for visions.
You go for goals.
That's it.
You aim for the goal.
And Jesus aimed for the goal because he
saw the vision.
And the vision's up there, and the goal
is down here.
And the goal is always to die.
And he said, in any case, I've got
to keep going, I've got to heal people
today and cast out demons, and I must
keep going today and tomorrow, because no prophet
can die outside Jerusalem.
He was heading for death.
And that's how that Hebrews 12 scripture works.
For the joy set before him, he endured
the cross and scorned its shame.
He spent his life on earth heading for
death because he saw the joy ahead.
And that's how he made it possible for
us to join him in that world.
So this is why I have a trouble.
This is just me.
You probably don't have this trouble at all
about half of the Renewal songs.
I really have a problem because half of
the Renewal songs seem to me that we're
asking God to do what he's asked us
to do.
Oh God, if you would only do this
over there, the whole world would come to
know you.
And I think, you know, if we, the
people of God, did the revealed things, I
think the rest of the world would come
to know him in a few weeks.
It would be such a miracle if the
church started doing the revealed things.
I mean, we don't even have to prophesy.
If we just fed people and clothed them
and were kind to them, and if all
Christians did that, I think the rest of
the world would believe very quickly because it
might be the greatest miracle they've ever seen.
And you know, most of these things, I
know this will shock you, but we don't
even need to pray about most of these
things.
They're revealed.
I mean, if somebody's hungry, you don't need
to say, Dear Lord, shall I feed him?
It's revealed.
In fact, rather more awfully, it seems to
be almost a measure of whether we're saved
or not.
Because he says, in Matthew 25, When I
was hungry, you didn't feed me.
He says this to the goats.
And the goats say, Lord, we didn't feed
you.
We'd have fed you.
Because most of us goats will feed deserving
cases.
That's the problem with the poor.
We have to make sure whether they're deserving,
don't we?
Now, people, this is not our business.
We have to find out who's deserving or
not.
And I shall share some more about this
tonight and tomorrow.
Because the whole problem about giving is to
do with us.
And if we wait and guard our hearts
and say, Is he going to use it
well or not?
If we ever shut up our hearts, with
that as an excuse, we are the losers.
Because we've lost his heart.
And he's never been like that about us.
Never.
He always, Jesus, always gave indiscriminately.
He gave us forgiveness whether we received it
or not.
He gave his blood whether we wanted to
be washed in it or not.
He gave us his forgiveness.
And it wasn't for deserving cases.
It was for all undeserving.
It wasn't for those that would use it
well.
He gave anyway.
And so I believe that the revealed thing,
we are to do the revealed thing.
Unless it really is true that there are
some parts of the world or the church
that have not yet read these words of
the law.
That have not yet read Scripture.
And that could be possible.
It certainly does appear to be.
That we are blind to some things which
were revealed to our fathers.
So dream.
So prophesy.
So see visions.
God will show you what you can share
at the right time.
But be careful about the words.
I saw for years and years and years.
I saw.
I mean I saw.
Every time I walked through the walled city
I saw another city.
I saw the other city.
But I didn't know what I was seeing.
And I think one doesn't.
I think it's a backwards thing.
You think backwards and you think, oh yes
he did show me.
I did see that.
But sometimes like dreams they are a bit
vague.
You know they don't define that quickly.
And you don't share them that quick either.
But I always saw the other city.
I saw as I was walking through the
streets of the walled city.
I saw a city filled with light.
Where instead of darkness I saw orphans in
homes.
And I saw the old prostitute ladies starting
again.
Which is a great thing to do when
you are still prostituting at 70.
If you can't go to retire.
And I saw heroin addicts with their arms
thin.
And I just didn't know how you made
it happen.
No idea.
But this was a long time ago you
see.
Nobody was talking about having a vision at
that time.
So I didn't know the language.
I just saw.
And that was enough to keep me going.
I had not the remotest idea how to
make the terrible conditions I saw on earth.
Turn into the other thing.
I didn't know how it happened.
And I don't know how we are supposed
to work that out.
But I do know we are supposed to
do the reveal thing.
Heal the sick today and tomorrow.
Cast out demons today.
In any case I must keep going.
And take in the homeless that we see.
And clothe the naked that we see.
And bind up the wounded that we see.
And we'll play about seeing.
In a day or two.
So the words that we had there about
painting the picture.
I think some of us may already have
tried to work out how we think we
will do it.
Or what we will do.
I think the Lord was saying lay that
down.
And when we lay something down there are
some of us.
It's not me because I'm not a great
planner.
But there are some of us that love
to plan.
And don't lay something down today and have
the whole blueprint for tomorrow worked out.
We fall into the same trap.
I don't know how God will work this
out for you.
I don't know who those words were for
specifically.
But it's not that hard.
Because all we have to do today is
heal the sick and cast out demons.
And do the ordinary things.
I mean basic gospel.
Share your rice bowl with somebody who has
none.
Invite somebody into your house.
Give a cup of cold water to somebody.
That's basic gospel.
Normal stuff.
And most of the normal stuff is annoying.
It's easier to minister in an hour's ministry
time during a church service.
And people can get the shakies and the
feelies and the bounces.
And you too.
It's easier to do that.
Maybe even go out of your way on
Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday.
It is basic gospel.
I like the bounces and the feelies and
the shakies.
But they really will not do instead.
And they will not take the gospel to
the end of you.
We heard, you know.
We did.
About the laughing and the shaking.
And we loved what we heard.
But on behalf of the little girls who,
in Nepal, they are given a gambling debt
to their fathers or their brothers.
It's a poor country.
The men are out of work and they
gamble.
And they already have hardly anything to give.
And when they lose, they give their sisters.
One little girl.
You might have seen her.
She was on, it was either 20, 20
or 60 minutes or something like that.
And she had been given to a man
who beat her.
Of course, it's time to run away.
But she did.
Got beaten again.
And I think she went through four men.
Got AIDS.
Ended up in a brothel in Bombay.
It's where many of the Nepalese girls are
housed.
And they've all got AIDS.
She's back in Nepal now and her village
won't talk to her.
They give her food with a pole so
they don't have to go near her.
And so in our part of the world,
maybe it's like the people not too far
from here.
Say, God, how will they hear the laughter
that's going on in the places they say
revival is happening?
I do so hope it's true.
I do so hope that that laughing translates.
Because we won't hear the laughter from Asia.
Even the Christians in Asia, they take planes
to America and Canada to get whatever it
is.
We have yet to see the feet coming
the other way.
I love the Holy Spirit's work.
But it will not do instead of feet.
And the Holy Spirit will not do what
the Lord has told us to do.
We do that anyway and the Holy Spirit
gives us grace and strength and power.
But he doesn't do it instead of us.
God, the Lord has committed to work his
gospel with us.
And he will not do it without us.
I've tried taking my Bible to him and
reading to him in the streets.
But he doesn't want to read the Bible.
And so how do I lead him to
Jesus?
And I said to him, that's very rude
of you.
How could you do such an awful thing?
You have a house.
Your brother doesn't.
You don't let your brother know where you
live.
And you dare to read him the Bible
in the streets.
That's awful.
I tell you what we'll do.
We'll take him to tea instead.
So we chose the best teahouse.
I always like to shock the waiters.
So we chose the teahouse with a beautiful
white tablecloth.
So my friend brought his brother in.
And his brother is called Lau Leung.
And he's an unsuccessful street sleeper.
Most street sleepers get quite wise about certain
things.
Like where to keep your bag.
Or how to make your cardboard into something
that's windproof.
And most of them have got a bag.
A plastic bag somewhere with something in it.
Well, he was always getting his bag stolen.
And he got sores all over his body
that were wet.
And pussy.
And he came in.
And he was very thin.
And I was sitting with another uncle.
And this uncle was a fat uncle.
Very fat.
And he was very fat because he got
off heroin not long before.
And so the thin uncle came in.
And he saw me sitting there with the
fat uncle.
And the fat uncle and the thin uncle
looked at one another.
And they recognized one another.
And they both said, It's you!
And so thin uncle Lau Leung comes up
to fat uncle sitting by me.
And he said, Why are you so fat?
And the fat uncle by me says, Jesus.
And the thin uncle said, I'll have him.
And so we prayed with him over the
teapot.
And we said, Would you believe that Jesus
is the son of God?
Of course.
I want to be fat.
Oh, really?
Because they had known each other, these two,
in prison.
Because the fat uncle used to be a
police sergeant.
And when they arrested people for heroin, he
started taking the heroin that they'd taken off
people.
So that's how he got off drugs.
And so he met thin uncle in prison.
Thin uncle knew that you can't get fat
apart from Jesus.
You know, because they spent all their money
on drugs.
And they don't have any money for food
or any appetite.
They can't eat after a while.
So he accepted Jesus.
And we always pray with them for a
prayer language at this time.
It sorts out a whole lot of theological
things if you do it at this time.
Because at this time, they are expecting Jesus
to be miraculous.
So in our group, we don't have any,
haven't received yet, or not yet, or can't.
Because everybody has.
So for us, it's not a problem.
Later on, when we take our guys on
outreach, about two years later, we'd say, by
the way, some people in the church have
still got a problem about this, but we
don't tell them this at the beginning.
So Lalon speaks in tongues over the teapot.
And then I said to him, OK, Lalon,
how many convictions have you had?
And he says, tatata, tatata, which is 78.
And he said, next time it'll be 79.
And I said, well, how many did you
do?
And he said, oh, about half.
Because most of our people get arrested for
things they haven't done much of the time.
And if you look like Lalon, it's really
easy to get arrested for things you haven't
done because you look so awful.
And so all they have to do is
put a syringe in his hand and he's
a good arrest.
And so Lalon came to live with us.
And he's such a sweet man.
But he had very long toenails.
I mean extremely long, several inches.
And he liked worship and he was good
at that.
And I said to him one day, Lalon,
why have you got such long toenails?
And he said, they're to gouge people with
in the night.
And, of course, that makes complete sense.
Because, you know, if people are going to
steal your bag in the night, you have
to scratch them with your toenails.
So, you know, he really did trust Jesus.
And he really did trust me.
But he did not yet trust the brethren,
all the partly saved.
Well, they are, but, you know, brothers that
were living around him.
He thought they might steal his things in
the night so he kept his long toenails.
And it took him, it was about a
year and a half, I think, before he
cut them.
And when I saw them cut, I was
so moved.
And I thought, well, I think you've come
farther than I have.
I'm not sure if I've cut my toenails
yet.
You know, he, and there are several like
him, they start so far back.
And I'm so proud of what God does
in them.
Because I think they come further than I.
They do more with what they perceive than
I, much more.
This sweet man, he used to love worship,
and he was always the first.
We worshipped every day, lots and lots and
lots and lots.
And he got cancer.
And he used to jog around the neighboring
playground.
Every day he jogged.
And still when we worshipped, he was still
always the first to stand.
He always stood.
And he came to see me, and he
said, since you're there, he said, the doctors
can't do anything for me.
They say they cannot cure my cancer.
So he said, I'm putting all my trust
in my Jesus.
And then he said, you know, sometimes at
night I can't sleep.
And he said, when I can't sleep, Jesus
comes into my room.
We talk about him.
Oh, I don't know anyone as rich as
I.
I mean, fancy having a personal intercessor like
him.
Fancy having somebody who talks to Jesus about
you.
And you sit down.
They don't talk to Jesus about him.
They talk to Jesus about me.
And he's gone home now.
I'm so glad for him.
And I'm not surprised that the Lord would
want him.
But I miss him.
God's chosen to despise things, to nullify the
things that are.
We're very rich in men like him.
And then there's Elfrida.
We have to tell you about Elfrida.
She sort of gets into all the stories.
I used to pass her down the street
in Wall City.
And I didn't want to tell her about
Jesus.
Now, this might shock you.
Maybe by Friday you'll understand why I didn't
want to.
The reason I didn't want to tell her
about Jesus was in case she believed.
I know this shocks you.
Because, you see, if she believes, how can
you leave her in the street?
She was, at this time, in her 60s.
She'd been a prostitute since she was 17.
She had no more veins in her arms
and legs.
She was still working as a prostitute.
She was being paid by having free injections
a day in her back.
It was her payment.
Now, she didn't exist with no identity card.
And she used to, if I couldn't avoid
walking down that street, she used to pull
my sleeve and say, Please can I live
in your house?
I'll do the earning.
I'll do anything.
Just let me live in your house.
And I couldn't put her in.
I mean, you can't put...
You can't, can you?
I mean, you know, I've got 20-something
just recovering gangsters.
You can't put a not-yet-safe prostitute
who's still active in amongst them.
And I didn't know anyone else, you see.
Maybe you've had this problem, but, you see,
the problem with our group being as unhealthy
as we are, none of us have got
homes.
We haven't got homes, we haven't got transport,
we haven't got mothers, we haven't got fathers.
We haven't got anything normal.
And all my friends who had these things,
you know, who'd got an apartment or a
spare room or a mother or a father,
most of them didn't want their place to
be, or at least only one.
And so there was nowhere to put her,
and that's why I didn't want to tell
her about Jesus.
I know you're shocked, but, you see, for
me, it's really hard to say the words
of the gospel and not do them.
It's very hard to say, Jesus will give
you eternal life, goodbye.
And so I tried not to.
But anyway, couldn't resist it one day.
And she came to stay with us.
And, of course, it was simple.
Or as simple as it always is.
Somebody once stayed with me and saw how
we prayed through people off drugs.
And she was really angry with me, and
she said, you wrote in your book, all
you had to do was pray in tongues
and the power of the Holy Spirit would
get them off.
And I said, I'm so sorry, I need
to repent.
I gave a wrong impression.
That's such part of it.
Most of our people are as moved by
the fact that somebody sits with them nonstop.
We have six people a day sitting with
one man or one woman in four-hour
shifts.
And they pray in tongues nonstop.
That's six in one day.
That means in ten days you need 60.
Of course, the same person may reoccur.
That means if we take ten people off
drugs in a month, we need 600 Christians
to help.
And most people would prefer to bake a
cake.
That's why we're always tired, you see.
Because we want to do this job properly.
We will sit with them.
And we sat with her ten days and
ten nights.
In a room that was five feet long
and two and a half feet wide.
It was fine for her because she's only
five feet.
And she just about fitted.
It wasn't so easy for the person sitting
with her.
And was it the power of God or
was it the people who sat with her?
I don't know.
I think it's both.
She received Jesus and the power of the
Spirit, spoke in tongues and got off drugs.
There's very little pain or cramps.
No vomiting.
And I'm talking about a 50-year habit.
This is heroin, 50 years.
We're not talking about occasional grass or something.
This is a long-term habit.
Just to set free.
Well, that was just the beginning.
I mean, there's a lot of jobs to
do after that.
And you know, it was funny with her
because every time we worship, and we worship
a lot, she used to cry.
And I was having questions about praying for
inner healing at this time.
I mean, I'm always having questions about praying
for inner healing.
I'd swing from one to the other, you
know.
And every time we worship, she cried.
And she has got the most horrific life
story that you can imagine.
Her mother committed suicide when she was five,
but her father lied about it.
And so she didn't find out until later.
And her father was having an affair with
her mother's sister and her father's brother and
all kinds of people simultaneously.
And she watched this while she was growing
up to the keyhole.
Every kind of relationship that you can imagine,
she saw.
And she got engaged when she was 16.
And she slept with her fiancé and her
father threw her out of the house.
And that's why she was a prostitute from
then on.
And she ended up in Hong Kong with
no identity.
And eventually she got onto drugs and then
she got captured by this brothel in the
walled city.
And in this brothel she'd seen two people
murdered.
One was an old lady that they'd beaten
and she fell down and died.
And they made her take her to the
hospital.
And the other was a pregnant prostitute whom
they wanted to serve a customer.
And she didn't want to, so they put
a hosepipe.
That might be me one day, because I
don't exist.
I don't exist.
And I don't want to die when nobody
misses me.
But now she had a new life.
Then a lot of problems we have to
get her an identity card.
You get healed a whole lot easier than
taking them to social services.
And the shame that you suffer in social
services and the looks that you get.
And think, if you get it, it's much
worse for them when they go without you.
It's worth sitting with them so that they
are not shamed and abused by little officials.
So we went through all of that and
took a long time.
And still she cried in worship.
And I was thinking, God, how long?
This went on for some years.
If she's had 50 years of abuse, do
we need to have 50 years of ministry?
I'm always asking this question.
How long?
I mean, she's the most unhealed lady I
have ever seen.
And, you know, I've known some people who
I didn't think were that abused who had
already 10 years of prayer about it.
And I'm thinking, boy, if they're having 10
years of prayer about that little incident, how
many years has she got?
You know, we'll never get to the end
of this.
And is the cross the cross?
You know, I'm always asking these questions.
But still we continued to pray for her
every time there was worship.
And every time she wept.
Until one day we took her to a
neighboring old people's home.
And she came back really angry.
And she said, it's really rotten there.
It's cold, Christian.
But nobody washes their hair and nobody prays
for them like that.
She was sane.
I mean, she had her off days, but
she used to go then every week and
she would wash their hair.
And she would pray.
And then she would go to see where
the other old prostitutes used to live.
And one of them was so senile she'd
stuck to the bed and she would wash
her hair and take out the bath and
pray with her.
She'd been prayed for her.
That's mainly how she got healed.
Later on she got married.
It was totally funny.
She wore this white wedding dress.
She married a guy of 70.
And it was very funny.
Because we've got this great wedding photo of
Elfrida in white.
You know, after this extraordinary life she walks
up the aisle as a virgin.
And later on another old lady was going
to get married.
The other old lady had been a widow.
And she asked Elfrida, have I got your
wedding dress?
And Elfrida said yes.
And she came to me and she said,
I told her she can't.
Because she can't wear white.
She'd be married.
We've got a few blocks in theology, you
know.
She said, I told her she can't, but
she can't.
God has chosen the things that are not
nullified the things that are.
And she didn't exist.
But it's people like her and people like
Lau Leung that have become treasures to me.
And not only treasures, but ministries.
And God's chosen them, you see, really because
apart from Him, they haven't got anything else.
And you'll find that with our people, at
least at the beginning, unless they're in Christ,
they can't function at all.
I mean at all.
Apart from Him, they aren't anyone.
They have to start growing up.
They can't function at all.
They're so hurt and so far behind.
And I think that's why when they're in
Christ, they draw people to Him.
Because there's more room for Him to shine
in people who aren't good-looking or influential
or of good report or who have anything
else to recommend them.
And this, of course, is what Paul said.
He meant when he said in Philippians 3,
he had reason to be confident in the
flesh, circumcised the eighth day, from the right
family, the right tribe, the right part of
the Church, as to zeal, persecuting the Church,
as to legalistic righteousness, faultless.
Paul said everything that could recommend him to
men he had.
And he meant it.
And then he said, What was to my
prophet I now consider lost for the sake
of Christ.
What's more, I consider everything a loss compared
to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whose sake I've lost all
things.
I consider them rubbish, that I may gain
Christ and be found in Him.
And the word rubbish in Scripture is actually
not rubbish.
It's a much gooder word.
It's a fairly soiled, filthy garment.
Paul said that the things that the world
counts are not what he counts at all.
He says despite those things, he's used by
the Lord.
And I believe that if we will learn
how to reach the poor, we will reach
the ends of the world much quicker through
them than through any other way.
Much quicker.
I know of hardly any gospel program that
targets the hopeless, the unlovely and the delinquent.
Most of them will target those who can
think, those who can work out a Tuesday
program.
And the Lord came to the poor, those
who have nothing else, but Him.
Therefore they shine.
And this is His plan, I believe, for
reaching the world through the poor.
And what we have found is that strangely,
we've gone for the poorest of the poor.
Do you know what's happened?
The rich have come in.
All by themselves.
And one man in Hong Kong that comes
from a very good Christian family, he had
a very good business.
He came in and he said, I wish
I had been a drug addict.
And he actually said that.
And you know, he runs the same businessman's
Bible study every Friday, you know, for executives,
and lives the moral life.
And he says, I wish I had been
a drug addict, because your people know more
of the love and grace of Jesus.
How amazing.
And that was what opened him to the
Holy Spirit.
That was what opened him to healing.
And you'll find him on the streets of
Vancouver now.
Still a top businessman.
But he's on foot, giving out food to
the poor and praying to the poor.
His life's been changed through them.
And their understanding of Jesus has drawn him
to a Jesus that he longs for and
hadn't known.
And we've found with unbelieving rich, they've come
along because they've seen how God has changed
those who are despised, lonely, or who were
not.
And they have said, they have something that
we don't.
We are poor.
We want their riches.
So we find that this just happens.
We never targeted the rich.
We targeted the poor, and the rich came
running to a Jesus who turned all things
round by the cross and made the poor
rich and the rich realize their poverty.
And they met in Jesus.
And so week after week, they worshiped together,
and we had the police chief sitting next
to the guy who'd been on heroin for
50 years.
And nobody cared.
And it wasn't a big thing.
And they respected each other, and they learned
from one another, and they worshiped together.
Half the time, they don't speak the same
language even.
So we find that this mixture of rich
and poor brought health to church.