1 00:00:00,490 --> 00:00:04,090 So I'm reminding the reader that the issue 2 00:00:04,090 --> 00:00:05,970 is not Israel and herself, but Israel as 3 00:00:05,970 --> 00:00:09,510 a witness nation, a witness not of herself, 4 00:00:09,630 --> 00:00:11,390 of her own virtue, but a witness to 5 00:00:11,390 --> 00:00:14,490 God, not based on her own prowess and 6 00:00:14,490 --> 00:00:16,690 impressive ability, but exclusively His. 7 00:00:17,610 --> 00:00:22,130 And that finally, as this text indicates, only 8 00:00:22,130 --> 00:00:25,010 His spoken word, when all human basis for 9 00:00:25,010 --> 00:00:25,910 hope is gone. 10 00:00:26,610 --> 00:00:28,650 Remember that in text, when they themselves said, 11 00:00:29,090 --> 00:00:30,150 we are cut off, we are without hope, 12 00:00:30,430 --> 00:00:32,730 then there's a therefore, now prophesy. 13 00:00:33,450 --> 00:00:34,750 For not to know God is the God 14 00:00:34,750 --> 00:00:36,390 who speaks, and by whose word the dead 15 00:00:36,390 --> 00:00:39,730 are raised is not to know God, as 16 00:00:39,730 --> 00:00:41,850 He essentially is and must be made known. 17 00:00:43,350 --> 00:00:45,950 So such a fulfillment waits upon the painful 18 00:00:45,950 --> 00:00:49,830 exhaustion, utterly and finally, of any human ability 19 00:00:49,830 --> 00:00:51,050 to fulfill her calling. 20 00:00:52,610 --> 00:00:54,230 Good thing that's only Israel and not us, 21 00:00:54,350 --> 00:00:54,530 right? 22 00:00:58,870 --> 00:01:01,010 If you haven't had a sense of this 23 00:01:01,010 --> 00:01:04,269 and the experience of this, and how God 24 00:01:04,269 --> 00:01:08,070 allows us to spend ourselves thinking to fulfill 25 00:01:08,070 --> 00:01:11,110 our calling, and when we've been spent, and 26 00:01:11,110 --> 00:01:13,590 it has not been fulfilled, and we're totally 27 00:01:13,590 --> 00:01:15,870 emptied, then is the beginning of the fulfillment. 28 00:01:16,930 --> 00:01:21,350 No previous experience, however deep in God, prepares 29 00:01:21,350 --> 00:01:22,030 you for the next. 30 00:01:22,450 --> 00:01:25,150 In a certain sense, you're from square one, 31 00:01:25,150 --> 00:01:28,050 the very next time out, as if God 32 00:01:28,050 --> 00:01:30,230 had never come to the rescue, as if 33 00:01:30,230 --> 00:01:32,990 the whole issue of faith and confidence in 34 00:01:32,990 --> 00:01:35,890 Him has to be established for a first 35 00:01:35,890 --> 00:01:36,230 time. 36 00:01:36,710 --> 00:01:40,230 There's a trembling, a dependency that your previous 37 00:01:40,230 --> 00:01:43,030 experience and His faithfulness does not provide. 38 00:01:43,670 --> 00:01:45,970 So there's always a tension, always a trembling, 39 00:01:46,530 --> 00:01:48,130 always a being cast upon the Lord, in 40 00:01:48,130 --> 00:01:48,630 that sense. 41 00:01:49,250 --> 00:01:49,430 Okay. 42 00:01:51,230 --> 00:01:55,530 Surely the prophetic national acknowledgement in Ezekiel 37 43 00:01:55,530 --> 00:01:57,350 that we are without hope, our bones are 44 00:01:57,350 --> 00:01:58,470 dried, our hope is lost, we are cut 45 00:01:58,470 --> 00:02:01,090 off for our parts, is such a statement 46 00:02:01,090 --> 00:02:04,330 of final and ultimate despair, contrary to the 47 00:02:04,330 --> 00:02:08,509 historic well-known and inveterate optimism and indomitable 48 00:02:08,509 --> 00:02:10,650 self-sufficiency which we as Jews have again 49 00:02:10,650 --> 00:02:13,290 and again demonstrated to the world and ourselves 50 00:02:13,290 --> 00:02:14,130 impressively. 51 00:02:14,670 --> 00:02:17,130 It is on that basis, or is it 52 00:02:17,130 --> 00:02:18,610 on that basis, that we are to fulfill 53 00:02:18,610 --> 00:02:21,150 our Abrahamic calling, that in thee shall all 54 00:02:21,150 --> 00:02:22,330 the families of the earth be blessed? 55 00:02:23,090 --> 00:02:26,870 Israel's increasing failure, therefore, to establish herself as 56 00:02:26,870 --> 00:02:29,250 a righteous state, as an example to the 57 00:02:29,250 --> 00:02:32,990 Gentile nations, is a testimony to this fact. 58 00:02:33,630 --> 00:02:35,610 How long then for us to condemn her 59 00:02:35,610 --> 00:02:38,350 for the very things she's prophetically required to 60 00:02:38,350 --> 00:02:41,350 demonstrate, and that even the Holocaust did not 61 00:02:41,350 --> 00:02:45,410 suffice to elicit the cry that we are 62 00:02:45,410 --> 00:02:47,630 cut off, we are without hope, and that 63 00:02:47,630 --> 00:02:51,110 her own present proud condition testifies that Israel 64 00:02:51,110 --> 00:02:54,090 has not yet come to the acknowledgement that 65 00:02:54,090 --> 00:02:56,650 we are without hope, is expressed in her 66 00:02:56,650 --> 00:03:03,480 present mentality and mode of conduct, predicated upon 67 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:06,680 a military self-confidence, never again the arm 68 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:10,220 of the flesh, which unhappily invites the severity 69 00:03:10,220 --> 00:03:13,280 of gods, the severity of things that must 70 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:15,520 yet befall the long-suffering nation. 71 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:17,900 For us who had hoped for the progressive 72 00:03:17,900 --> 00:03:21,740 improvement of present Zionist Israel and the end 73 00:03:21,740 --> 00:03:24,140 of such suffering, there is a need to 74 00:03:24,140 --> 00:03:27,780 reassess whether such hopes have been humanistic or 75 00:03:27,780 --> 00:03:30,680 idealistic, and contrary to what we should perhaps 76 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:34,060 rightly have understood and expected in the light 77 00:03:34,060 --> 00:03:37,420 of the whole tenor of the Scriptures that 78 00:03:37,420 --> 00:03:39,260 is adverse to man in himself. 79 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:42,640 This has to be read, pondered, reflected upon. 80 00:03:43,500 --> 00:03:47,620 But I'm goading the Church that their own 81 00:03:47,620 --> 00:03:51,300 sanguine view, s-a-n-g-u-i 82 00:03:51,300 --> 00:03:54,840 -n-e, their own optimistic hope that Israel, 83 00:03:54,980 --> 00:03:58,940 though however unhappily is not what we had 84 00:03:58,940 --> 00:04:01,040 hoped she would be, would improve and yet 85 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,740 become that, is really a projection of ourselves 86 00:04:04,740 --> 00:04:08,960 and a lack of full appreciation of what 87 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:13,140 the whole weight of Scripture clearly establishes, that 88 00:04:13,140 --> 00:04:15,279 there is nothing to be expected in man, 89 00:04:15,779 --> 00:04:17,800 and that the whole statement of God with 90 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:19,860 regard to man is totally adverse. 91 00:04:20,500 --> 00:04:21,900 Remember it says in the Gospel of John, 92 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:23,320 I think chapter, the end of chapter 2, 93 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:26,340 Jesus knew what was in man and would 94 00:04:26,340 --> 00:04:31,860 not trust himself or reveal himself unto man. 95 00:04:32,420 --> 00:04:34,060 They believed in him, for they saw the 96 00:04:34,060 --> 00:04:36,180 miracles which he did, that he would not 97 00:04:36,180 --> 00:04:38,940 commit himself unto man, for he knew what 98 00:04:38,940 --> 00:04:39,520 was in man. 99 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:41,920 There's another A for the day. 100 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:45,140 If you could interpret and explain what that 101 00:04:45,140 --> 00:04:48,500 means, that though they believed in him for 102 00:04:48,500 --> 00:04:50,560 the miracles which he performed and which they 103 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:52,940 saw, he would not commit himself to them. 104 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:55,700 He would not make that the basis for 105 00:04:55,700 --> 00:04:58,060 their knowledge of him nor of his salvation, 106 00:04:58,340 --> 00:05:03,100 because it was totally predicated on human natural 107 00:05:03,100 --> 00:05:06,680 assessment of visible demonstration of miracles, and it 108 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:09,640 was not the revelation that comes from the 109 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:09,960 Father. 110 00:05:10,780 --> 00:05:12,600 Remember when Peter, when Jesus said, who do 111 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:13,480 men say that I am, who do you 112 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:14,000 say that I am? 113 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:16,380 And Peter said, thou art the Christ, blessed 114 00:05:16,380 --> 00:05:20,060 art thou, for flesh and blood hath not 115 00:05:20,060 --> 00:05:22,560 revealed this unto thee, not even your own 116 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:25,180 flesh and blood, but my Father which is 117 00:05:25,180 --> 00:05:25,560 in heaven. 118 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:29,020 We need to be as jealous as God 119 00:05:29,020 --> 00:05:32,840 in the sole and exclusive prerogative which is 120 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:33,260 God's. 121 00:05:33,580 --> 00:05:36,440 He will entrust nothing to man on the 122 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:37,180 basis of man. 123 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:40,920 He has a total disregard for man in 124 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:41,480 himself. 125 00:05:42,460 --> 00:05:44,640 Everything must come from above. 126 00:05:44,900 --> 00:05:48,620 Every good and perfect thing comes down from 127 00:05:48,620 --> 00:05:49,220 above. 128 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:51,340 It will never emanate up from below. 129 00:05:52,260 --> 00:05:54,840 Even the best of our humanity must in 130 00:05:54,840 --> 00:05:57,780 the end show its intrinsic defect, which is 131 00:05:57,780 --> 00:05:59,580 exactly what is being demonstrated by Israel. 132 00:06:00,020 --> 00:06:02,900 The nation that was persecuted is becoming a 133 00:06:02,900 --> 00:06:03,740 persecuting nation. 134 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:06,100 The nation that was ravaged and had been 135 00:06:06,100 --> 00:06:10,520 murdered brutally is now itself engaging in what 136 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:13,140 seems to be indiscriminate acts of violence. 137 00:06:13,620 --> 00:06:17,610 It must be so, and that we have 138 00:06:17,610 --> 00:06:19,450 not understood that and not seen that and 139 00:06:19,450 --> 00:06:22,410 had some other expectation for Israel on the 140 00:06:22,410 --> 00:06:24,990 basis of her own virtue is a statement 141 00:06:24,990 --> 00:06:26,930 of where we ourselves are. 142 00:06:27,450 --> 00:06:30,390 It's an embarrassing statement that we have not 143 00:06:30,390 --> 00:06:33,570 understood that Israel cannot succeed on the basis 144 00:06:33,570 --> 00:06:36,790 of its own merit, let alone on that 145 00:06:36,790 --> 00:06:38,410 basis to bless all the families of the 146 00:06:38,410 --> 00:06:38,650 earth. 147 00:06:39,190 --> 00:06:42,210 Something grave and radical must happen. 148 00:06:42,790 --> 00:06:45,250 Only that which issues out of resurrection can 149 00:06:45,250 --> 00:06:46,870 bless and nothing else. 150 00:06:48,070 --> 00:06:50,790 That we have not recognized that is a 151 00:06:50,790 --> 00:06:54,710 statement very revealing, not only about our own 152 00:06:54,710 --> 00:06:58,330 understanding, but our own walk, and therefore we 153 00:06:58,330 --> 00:07:00,230 have projected on Israel what we want for 154 00:07:00,230 --> 00:07:00,610 ourselves. 155 00:07:00,770 --> 00:07:03,210 We also want to succeed without dying. 156 00:07:04,290 --> 00:07:05,950 We also want to be approved on the 157 00:07:05,950 --> 00:07:07,750 basis of what we do in our merit 158 00:07:07,750 --> 00:07:09,630 rather than what issues from God. 159 00:07:11,070 --> 00:07:12,690 We're more humanistic than we know. 160 00:07:15,380 --> 00:07:17,480 Ironically, how much more is Israel his witness 161 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:21,640 people in their apostasy and undeservedness that he 162 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:24,840 might be sanctified through them before the face 163 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:27,700 of all nations when he restores her exclusively 164 00:07:27,700 --> 00:07:30,720 on the basis of his own mercy, which 165 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:32,660 is to say what he is ultimately in 166 00:07:32,660 --> 00:07:33,160 himself. 167 00:07:33,740 --> 00:07:37,860 Remember, Moses said, show me your glory, and 168 00:07:37,860 --> 00:07:39,040 God hid him in the cleft of a 169 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:41,760 rock and allowed his goodness to pass before 170 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:44,760 him, his hesed, C-H-E-S-E 171 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:48,460 -D, his loving kindness, his mercy. 172 00:07:48,940 --> 00:07:52,480 God's mercy is God, and that will be 173 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:56,040 revealed in his restoration of that nation by 174 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:58,940 no virtue herself, but by all virtue in 175 00:07:58,940 --> 00:07:59,480 himself. 176 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:03,280 It is as this God that redeemed Israel 177 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:06,360 must make him known, and this out of 178 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:09,100 their own experience of his power and his 179 00:08:09,100 --> 00:08:10,940 faithfulness to his promises by his word and 180 00:08:10,940 --> 00:08:14,300 no other, and that word spoken not directly 181 00:08:14,300 --> 00:08:17,060 by himself, but by the very church which 182 00:08:17,060 --> 00:08:19,740 the Jew has been so long in enmity. 183 00:08:21,620 --> 00:08:24,300 Here is the Lord giving an extra twist. 184 00:08:24,420 --> 00:08:26,900 Not only the word that saves them, but 185 00:08:26,900 --> 00:08:28,220 a word that does not come from him 186 00:08:28,220 --> 00:08:32,020 directly, but the very church which Israel or 187 00:08:32,020 --> 00:08:35,480 the Jewry has historically despised and has been 188 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:37,980 so long in enmity is God's very saving 189 00:08:37,980 --> 00:08:38,440 provision. 190 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:41,480 The issue then is not the glorification of 191 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:42,460 Israel, but of God. 192 00:08:43,039 --> 00:08:45,320 His own goodness prompts him to act as 193 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:45,780 he does. 194 00:08:46,620 --> 00:08:49,100 It is as recipients of his undeserved grace 195 00:08:49,100 --> 00:08:52,940 and mercy that Israel becomes most powerfully ultimate 196 00:08:52,940 --> 00:08:55,300 witness unto him and is brought to such 197 00:08:55,300 --> 00:08:58,900 depths of broken repentance and corresponding character change 198 00:08:58,900 --> 00:09:02,000 as the world has never seen, and Jerusalem 199 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:03,860 is made appraised in the earth. 200 00:09:04,540 --> 00:09:08,140 Can we therefore realize that a then inert 201 00:09:08,140 --> 00:09:11,080 Israel can only be called to prophetically out 202 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:14,020 of our own experience of death and resurrection? 203 00:09:15,060 --> 00:09:17,160 Is not this death made necessary by the 204 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:20,500 stubborn depth of intractable human pride convinced of 205 00:09:20,500 --> 00:09:21,640 its own intrinsic righteousness? 206 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:24,820 The issue of Israel's resurrection from the dead 207 00:09:24,820 --> 00:09:25,860 becomes our own. 208 00:09:26,420 --> 00:09:29,400 It compels us to that transcendent ground by 209 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:32,380 which we are ourselves transformed and to which 210 00:09:32,380 --> 00:09:35,880 we would not otherwise have been brought were 211 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:36,660 it not for her. 212 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:40,100 Israel compels us to be what we all 213 00:09:40,100 --> 00:09:43,800 along should have, but never would have, except 214 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:45,800 by the requirement of her death. 215 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:49,720 This perception of Israel's future is painful, but 216 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:51,940 how much greater, though, would the pained disappointment 217 00:09:51,940 --> 00:09:56,200 be for many of an Israel that fails 218 00:09:56,200 --> 00:09:59,240 our every expectancy and brings into question even 219 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:01,940 the truth of Scripture as we had naively 220 00:10:01,940 --> 00:10:02,840 understood it? 221 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:05,340 I am of the God who appears now 222 00:10:05,340 --> 00:10:08,620 unable to secure Israel from unexpected calamity. 223 00:10:09,100 --> 00:10:10,480 When I went to Israel three years ago 224 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:12,720 with this message, having been there the year 225 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:15,460 before my first return to Israel after five 226 00:10:15,460 --> 00:10:17,500 years of absence and I have no word, 227 00:10:17,780 --> 00:10:18,580 I spoke nowhere. 228 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:21,200 I came the next year and I spoke 229 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:23,780 seven times this one message, three times in 230 00:10:23,780 --> 00:10:27,560 Jerusalem, some here may have been there, and 231 00:10:27,560 --> 00:10:31,320 Haifa, Tel Aviv, Tiberias, principal places, this one 232 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:31,720 message. 233 00:10:34,380 --> 00:10:37,200 And the thing that I left with in 234 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:39,220 my heart when I went is this, that 235 00:10:39,220 --> 00:10:42,240 the Lord wanted to save from crushing disappointment 236 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:45,600 and the possible loss of faith those who 237 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:48,180 naively believe that present Israel is already that 238 00:10:48,180 --> 00:10:50,580 prophetic fulfillment and would not be able to 239 00:10:50,580 --> 00:10:54,460 handle a devastation of this present nation, and 240 00:10:54,460 --> 00:10:57,100 that they begin to sound a note that 241 00:10:57,100 --> 00:11:00,000 would come into their consideration that maybe what 242 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:02,340 they have celebrated is not the final and 243 00:11:02,340 --> 00:11:05,740 the ultimate thing, but it's necessary preliminary, and 244 00:11:05,740 --> 00:11:07,300 that God must take away the first to 245 00:11:07,300 --> 00:11:07,860 bring the second. 246 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:10,580 Paul says that the end will not come 247 00:11:10,580 --> 00:11:13,580 until the first, a great falling away, and 248 00:11:13,580 --> 00:11:15,020 not the least of the reasons for it 249 00:11:15,020 --> 00:11:17,740 might well be a disappointment in the part 250 00:11:17,740 --> 00:11:20,900 of many charismatics and evangelicals of Israel being 251 00:11:20,900 --> 00:11:21,760 what they had hoped for. 252 00:11:21,980 --> 00:11:23,720 I mean, therefore, didn't the words say that 253 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:24,960 they would no longer be pushed out of 254 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:27,440 their borders and that they would remain safe 255 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,600 and no more would they fear and God 256 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:30,080 would be this? 257 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:32,120 How then can this happen? 258 00:11:33,340 --> 00:11:36,640 That's the danger when you have misread the 259 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:37,020 Scripture. 260 00:11:39,020 --> 00:11:39,980 How shall I say it? 261 00:11:40,060 --> 00:11:41,980 Resting the Scripture, not to your own destruction, 262 00:11:41,980 --> 00:11:45,160 but to fit your own expectation and desire, 263 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,300 because you want so much to see the 264 00:11:48,300 --> 00:11:52,520 present nation succeed that you're prevented from understanding 265 00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:54,620 the Scripture as God intended that it should, 266 00:11:55,260 --> 00:11:58,940 because that understanding is too painful to consider, 267 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:00,080 if not unthinkable. 268 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:03,340 What it means is we're standing above the 269 00:12:03,340 --> 00:12:06,420 Word of God and imposing our own subjective 270 00:12:06,420 --> 00:12:09,980 meaning that would make it compatible with our 271 00:12:09,980 --> 00:12:13,380 own established view, rather letting the Scripture stand 272 00:12:13,380 --> 00:12:16,700 by itself and speak for itself without our 273 00:12:16,700 --> 00:12:19,200 pre-subjecting it to our own view. 274 00:12:19,980 --> 00:12:20,900 That's costly. 275 00:12:22,780 --> 00:12:25,780 So this perception of Israel's future is painful, 276 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:29,300 but if it saves people from that kind 277 00:12:29,300 --> 00:12:30,660 of loss of faith it would be worth 278 00:12:30,660 --> 00:12:30,780 it. 279 00:12:30,860 --> 00:12:32,140 Could this be at least in part a 280 00:12:32,140 --> 00:12:34,840 factor in that last day's great falling away 281 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:35,700 which Paul warned? 282 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:38,180 Better to allow ourselves to be carried out 283 00:12:38,180 --> 00:12:40,600 in the spirit of the Lord from evangelical 284 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,540 naivety and presumption and be put down in 285 00:12:43,540 --> 00:12:44,920 the midst of the valley, the place of 286 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:47,800 depressing truth, and to find ourselves in opposition 287 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:50,900 to or exempted from His purposes with Israel, 288 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:52,840 however well-meaning our intentions. 289 00:12:53,620 --> 00:12:57,800 How much in fact must we inquire of 290 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:01,160 our own present Christianity as a desperate keeping 291 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:03,580 alive of what God would make desolate and 292 00:13:03,580 --> 00:13:06,240 present Israel for the projection of our own 293 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:06,820 vain hopes? 294 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:09,840 Nothing more calculated to make the Church wake 295 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:13,660 from its own sleep than the deepening, intractable, 296 00:13:13,820 --> 00:13:15,680 and insoluble crisis of Israel. 297 00:13:16,700 --> 00:13:18,900 There's a purpose served in God, even for 298 00:13:18,900 --> 00:13:21,840 the Church, as to how far God will 299 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:22,700 go with that nation. 300 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:27,280 And if He'll not hold back calamity, how 301 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:28,800 then will He spare us? 302 00:13:29,620 --> 00:13:31,860 And if judgment begins what then for the 303 00:13:31,860 --> 00:13:32,160 world? 304 00:13:32,680 --> 00:13:35,880 It's a whole awakening to the apocalyptic conclusion 305 00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:38,620 of the age of which Israel is the 306 00:13:38,620 --> 00:13:39,660 ringing of that bell. 307 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:44,160 It awakens the Church from its sleep, or 308 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:44,680 it should. 309 00:13:45,780 --> 00:13:48,220 To pray for the elimination of what now 310 00:13:48,220 --> 00:13:51,420 vexes and threatens Israel, however much humanly it 311 00:13:51,420 --> 00:13:53,600 is to be desired, is to find us 312 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:56,760 perhaps praying ironically against the very design of 313 00:13:56,760 --> 00:13:59,640 God to obtain the death of false hope 314 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:02,380 by which alone the prophetic and enduring glory 315 00:14:02,380 --> 00:14:03,220 is birthed. 316 00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:06,460 We might find ourselves opposing God, even in 317 00:14:06,460 --> 00:14:08,660 our best well- meaning intention, praying for 318 00:14:08,660 --> 00:14:10,520 the elimination of things that God Himself has 319 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:13,500 established or has brought to bring Israel to 320 00:14:13,500 --> 00:14:13,960 that death. 321 00:14:14,300 --> 00:14:15,740 And we talked about this the other day. 322 00:14:15,980 --> 00:14:17,020 How then should we pray? 323 00:14:18,220 --> 00:14:20,560 There's a radical requirement now of another kind 324 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:21,000 of prayer. 325 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:24,600 We cannot just pray intelligent prayers or kindly 326 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:25,100 prayers. 327 00:14:25,500 --> 00:14:28,820 We can only pray God's prayers that are 328 00:14:28,820 --> 00:14:32,020 in keeping with His purposes, that bewilder us, 329 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:33,800 and are contrary to the kind of strategy 330 00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:34,760 we would employ. 331 00:14:35,260 --> 00:14:36,360 But how can know that? 332 00:14:37,140 --> 00:14:38,640 And how do you obtain God's prayers? 333 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:40,560 And how do you align yourself with His 334 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:42,620 mind and find yourself in agreement with Him? 335 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:44,940 Because if there's no agreement with earth, there's 336 00:14:44,940 --> 00:14:45,700 no release from heaven. 337 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,440 This issue of prayer is more than just 338 00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:49,540 religious politeness. 339 00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:50,580 It's critical. 340 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:53,740 So what it shows is there requires from 341 00:14:53,740 --> 00:14:56,260 us a radical shifting of gears. 342 00:14:57,160 --> 00:14:59,460 What has sufficed in times past no longer 343 00:14:59,460 --> 00:15:00,980 is sufficient. 344 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:03,660 We have got to come to a place 345 00:15:03,660 --> 00:15:06,080 of identification with God in prayer, and that 346 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:10,060 corporately, that we would never have sought except 347 00:15:10,060 --> 00:15:11,060 for this requirement. 348 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:13,360 And that coming is painful. 349 00:15:14,100 --> 00:15:16,740 To go from easy prayer and prayers that 350 00:15:16,740 --> 00:15:18,840 just rise up to our mind, to actually 351 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:21,380 find the mind of the Lord corporately and 352 00:15:21,380 --> 00:15:24,680 to pray those prayers is a requirement radically 353 00:15:24,680 --> 00:15:25,900 of another kind. 354 00:15:26,860 --> 00:15:28,260 And for those who didn't hear me the 355 00:15:28,260 --> 00:15:30,960 other day, my favorite little maxim that I've 356 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:34,560 made up, the quality of our prayer cannot 357 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:36,600 exceed the quality of our relationship. 358 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:41,240 True corporate prayer rests on true corporate relationship, 359 00:15:41,860 --> 00:15:43,380 and that requires the cross. 360 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,460 Truth in any form requires dying. 361 00:15:47,820 --> 00:15:50,300 And so it's easier just to pray religiously, 362 00:15:50,980 --> 00:15:54,480 pray nicely, pray appropriately out of your intelligence, 363 00:15:54,820 --> 00:15:56,920 but that very prayer can be opposed to 364 00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:57,700 God's attention. 365 00:15:58,580 --> 00:16:01,300 So the whole issue of Israel brings a 366 00:16:01,300 --> 00:16:04,480 requirement of a radical kind to the church 367 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:06,160 that changes it. 368 00:16:07,300 --> 00:16:09,500 How much is the prayer the statement of 369 00:16:09,500 --> 00:16:10,900 where we in fact are with God? 370 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:12,400 You ever think of it that way? 371 00:16:13,540 --> 00:16:16,420 Spurgeon says, you can tell where a man 372 00:16:16,420 --> 00:16:19,060 is in God simply by hearing him pray 373 00:16:19,060 --> 00:16:19,580 publicly. 374 00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:22,380 Not the length of his prayer, but the 375 00:16:22,380 --> 00:16:25,620 weight and the heft of it, the substance, 376 00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:31,120 the feel, the quality of it, this speaks 377 00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:33,520 something about that man's relationship with God. 378 00:16:34,940 --> 00:16:41,300 So prayer is a remarkably significant thing and 379 00:16:41,300 --> 00:16:43,920 is pegged so much to relationship with the 380 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:46,540 Lord and with each other, and yet God 381 00:16:46,540 --> 00:16:49,780 has bound himself and can only be released 382 00:16:49,780 --> 00:16:52,840 in proportion to the agreement on earth with 383 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:53,560 himself in heaven. 384 00:16:56,950 --> 00:16:58,810 This could be frightening for people who have 385 00:16:59,450 --> 00:17:02,750 not moved in that dimension and don't want 386 00:17:02,750 --> 00:17:03,609 the cost of it. 387 00:17:04,810 --> 00:17:06,329 So this much at least is sure, the 388 00:17:06,329 --> 00:17:08,130 issues are too great to be prompted by 389 00:17:08,130 --> 00:17:11,690 sentiment rather than the Spirit, and that travail 390 00:17:11,690 --> 00:17:14,910 is effectual that has not its own agenda, 391 00:17:15,349 --> 00:17:18,150 but is in agreement with heaven, however much 392 00:17:18,150 --> 00:17:20,210 its own assumptions are crucified. 393 00:17:21,069 --> 00:17:22,109 That's a great statement. 394 00:17:23,450 --> 00:17:24,250 Oh, I like that. 395 00:17:25,230 --> 00:17:26,329 That must be the Lord. 396 00:17:27,050 --> 00:17:30,190 This much at least is sure, the issues 397 00:17:30,190 --> 00:17:33,030 are too great to be prompted by sentiment 398 00:17:33,030 --> 00:17:38,150 rather than the Spirit, and that travail is 399 00:17:38,150 --> 00:17:40,990 effectual, or that prayer is effectual, that has 400 00:17:40,990 --> 00:17:43,890 not its own agenda, but is in agreement 401 00:17:43,890 --> 00:17:48,470 with heaven, however much its own assumptions are 402 00:17:48,470 --> 00:17:48,970 crucified. 403 00:17:49,890 --> 00:17:50,850 There's death. 404 00:17:51,530 --> 00:17:55,150 Death first for the church before Israel, or 405 00:17:55,150 --> 00:17:56,090 there be no Israel. 406 00:17:56,390 --> 00:17:57,150 That's restored. 407 00:17:57,710 --> 00:17:59,710 Such was the obedience of the Lord himself 408 00:17:59,710 --> 00:18:03,770 when despite his own human desire, after hearing 409 00:18:03,770 --> 00:18:06,330 of the sickness of his friend Lazarus, abode 410 00:18:06,330 --> 00:18:07,870 two days still in the same place where 411 00:18:07,870 --> 00:18:08,370 he was. 412 00:18:09,050 --> 00:18:11,070 Had he acted prematurely out of his own 413 00:18:11,070 --> 00:18:14,110 human compassion to hasten to the bedside of 414 00:18:14,110 --> 00:18:16,730 his beloved friend so as to alleviate his 415 00:18:16,730 --> 00:18:20,230 suffering, he would have nullified the purposes of 416 00:18:20,230 --> 00:18:21,270 God, of the Father. 417 00:18:22,130 --> 00:18:24,070 This sickness, he said, is not unto death, 418 00:18:24,130 --> 00:18:25,930 but for the glory of God, that the 419 00:18:25,930 --> 00:18:27,510 Son of God might be glorified thereby. 420 00:18:28,210 --> 00:18:31,670 How assuredly is a prophetic mouth disqualified when 421 00:18:31,670 --> 00:18:34,710 it speaks a false word of comfort, however 422 00:18:34,710 --> 00:18:38,430 well-meaning, or even a true word prematurely. 423 00:18:40,250 --> 00:18:43,770 This line between true and false prophet is 424 00:18:43,770 --> 00:18:47,490 very thin, and you can lapse from the 425 00:18:47,490 --> 00:18:49,810 one over into the other, not just by 426 00:18:49,810 --> 00:18:53,630 speaking error, but speaking truth before the time. 427 00:18:54,230 --> 00:18:59,210 Jesus waited two days longer where he was. 428 00:18:59,810 --> 00:19:02,070 That for him, given his love for Lazarus, 429 00:19:02,350 --> 00:19:03,530 was a dying. 430 00:19:04,250 --> 00:19:09,430 To his own humane desire to alleviate the 431 00:19:09,430 --> 00:19:10,570 suffering of his friend. 432 00:19:11,850 --> 00:19:14,310 May we keep ourselves in prophetic obedience as 433 00:19:14,310 --> 00:19:17,810 sons despite the censure, c-e-n-s 434 00:19:17,810 --> 00:19:21,090 -u-r-e, the criticism, misunderstanding of others 435 00:19:21,090 --> 00:19:24,070 for our, quote, lovelessness. 436 00:19:26,300 --> 00:19:28,140 What will you be accused of if you 437 00:19:28,140 --> 00:19:29,040 wait two days longer? 438 00:19:30,890 --> 00:19:32,030 Hey, your friend is sick. 439 00:19:32,090 --> 00:19:32,970 Don't you have an obligation? 440 00:19:33,150 --> 00:19:33,810 You've healed others. 441 00:19:33,950 --> 00:19:34,750 Why shouldn't you be there? 442 00:19:35,730 --> 00:19:36,590 You're loveless. 443 00:19:36,850 --> 00:19:38,390 You're concerned only for your own skin. 444 00:19:38,850 --> 00:19:39,990 You don't want to be that close to 445 00:19:39,990 --> 00:19:41,870 Jerusalem where your life will be threatened. 446 00:19:42,330 --> 00:19:44,270 Many are going to think the worst of 447 00:19:44,270 --> 00:19:45,930 your pure obedience to God. 448 00:19:46,050 --> 00:19:46,690 Count on that. 449 00:19:47,410 --> 00:19:48,750 It's calculated to be that. 450 00:19:49,470 --> 00:19:53,270 Obedience will always be misunderstood and cannot be 451 00:19:53,270 --> 00:19:53,950 explained. 452 00:19:54,710 --> 00:19:56,810 Often you'll not understand it yourself. 453 00:19:58,110 --> 00:19:59,730 God will not explain it to you. 454 00:20:00,470 --> 00:20:02,230 How then shall you explain it to others? 455 00:20:02,810 --> 00:20:03,990 You have only to do it. 456 00:20:04,910 --> 00:20:08,650 Later the explanation might come, or in some 457 00:20:08,650 --> 00:20:10,930 cases, not in this lifetime at all. 458 00:20:11,250 --> 00:20:13,570 And you'll suffer the reproach of it through 459 00:20:13,570 --> 00:20:16,350 your entire believing life, as I have to 460 00:20:16,350 --> 00:20:18,570 do with certain obediences that I have performed 461 00:20:18,570 --> 00:20:19,590 over the course of the years. 462 00:20:19,930 --> 00:20:22,770 To this very day, men still think me 463 00:20:22,770 --> 00:20:25,410 a maverick, a man doing his own thing, 464 00:20:25,510 --> 00:20:28,870 independent, not submitted because he did this, this, 465 00:20:28,970 --> 00:20:30,730 and this, when he clearly got a note 466 00:20:30,730 --> 00:20:32,590 to take only 45 minutes to finish that 467 00:20:32,590 --> 00:20:32,990 message. 468 00:20:33,830 --> 00:20:35,270 Only they don't know that when I read 469 00:20:35,270 --> 00:20:37,570 it, my vision was blurred, and I'm sure 470 00:20:37,570 --> 00:20:38,810 it said 45 minutes. 471 00:20:39,950 --> 00:20:41,410 And I believe that to this day. 472 00:20:42,730 --> 00:20:44,350 But how will I explain that to them? 473 00:20:44,470 --> 00:20:44,970 I can't. 474 00:20:45,390 --> 00:20:47,790 I have only to suffer the reproach of 475 00:20:47,790 --> 00:20:50,850 being seen as a maverick doing his own 476 00:20:50,850 --> 00:20:51,210 thing. 477 00:20:51,970 --> 00:20:54,910 Though later on, deeply spiritual people who were 478 00:20:54,910 --> 00:20:57,350 there and heard that word said, this was 479 00:20:57,350 --> 00:20:59,570 the message of the conference, and I wasn't 480 00:20:59,570 --> 00:21:00,630 even a scheduled speaker. 481 00:21:01,890 --> 00:21:04,170 So these are the kinds of prophetic obediences 482 00:21:04,170 --> 00:21:05,130 to which we'll be called. 483 00:21:05,650 --> 00:21:07,030 And if you have no stomach to bear 484 00:21:07,030 --> 00:21:09,770 reproach, and need to be approved of men, 485 00:21:10,230 --> 00:21:12,310 you'll not wait two days longer where you 486 00:21:12,310 --> 00:21:12,570 are. 487 00:21:13,150 --> 00:21:15,330 You'll be quick to do the thing that 488 00:21:15,330 --> 00:21:17,090 men expect of you. 489 00:21:18,090 --> 00:21:19,910 Or your own humanity desires. 490 00:21:20,630 --> 00:21:24,250 Can you live with the tension of unreconciled 491 00:21:24,250 --> 00:21:27,730 suffering, knowing that God has a greater purpose 492 00:21:27,730 --> 00:21:28,730 than its alleviation? 493 00:21:29,390 --> 00:21:31,770 Namely, this is for the glory of God, 494 00:21:32,470 --> 00:21:33,590 and of the Son of God. 495 00:21:35,030 --> 00:21:36,850 That has got to be our abiding motive. 496 00:21:37,310 --> 00:21:38,010 It was His. 497 00:21:38,430 --> 00:21:39,650 And that's what it means to be a 498 00:21:39,650 --> 00:21:39,850 son. 499 00:21:40,270 --> 00:21:41,870 See, every voice is shouting at you. 500 00:21:42,410 --> 00:21:44,570 Every logical and humane thing says, go. 501 00:21:45,270 --> 00:21:46,130 Why not heal? 502 00:21:46,330 --> 00:21:48,370 When you heal Gentiles, how about your friend 503 00:21:48,370 --> 00:21:50,490 Lazarus, whom you profess to love? 504 00:21:51,070 --> 00:21:52,950 Those choruses will be deafening. 505 00:21:53,390 --> 00:21:54,730 You'll even get the dirty look of your 506 00:21:54,730 --> 00:21:55,350 own disciples. 507 00:21:56,290 --> 00:21:59,210 And against all of that tumult is the 508 00:21:59,210 --> 00:22:02,230 still, small voice of God that says, stay. 509 00:22:03,430 --> 00:22:07,190 Now, what will we hear, and to what 510 00:22:07,190 --> 00:22:11,150 will we accede, if we are not habituated 511 00:22:11,150 --> 00:22:14,070 to an obedience to that still, small voice? 512 00:22:15,010 --> 00:22:18,590 That kind of facility is not obtained in 513 00:22:18,590 --> 00:22:18,970 a day. 514 00:22:20,110 --> 00:22:22,390 It takes a lifetime to train up a 515 00:22:22,390 --> 00:22:27,210 prophetic man, a generation, many experiences that God 516 00:22:27,210 --> 00:22:29,390 will bring you through to test you on 517 00:22:29,390 --> 00:22:30,710 this very thing. 518 00:22:31,110 --> 00:22:32,810 What will you hear, and what will you 519 00:22:32,810 --> 00:22:33,190 speak? 520 00:22:34,030 --> 00:22:36,990 When every other voice is clamoring for another 521 00:22:36,990 --> 00:22:39,650 expression, and you'll be goaded and prompted by 522 00:22:39,650 --> 00:22:43,570 the full gospel businessmen to take your cue. 523 00:22:43,950 --> 00:22:44,850 Don't you guys know that? 524 00:22:45,470 --> 00:22:47,250 There's a certain way that men can kind 525 00:22:47,250 --> 00:22:50,310 of prompt you along to be one of 526 00:22:50,310 --> 00:22:50,790 the boys. 527 00:22:51,570 --> 00:22:54,970 But somehow, while you fasted and prayed for 528 00:22:54,970 --> 00:22:58,530 two days for this full gospel conference in 529 00:22:58,530 --> 00:23:01,770 Washington, D.C., before 5,000 people, you 530 00:23:01,770 --> 00:23:03,490 seemed to sense the Lord was asking you 531 00:23:03,490 --> 00:23:06,250 to speak on a eunuch for Christ's sake. 532 00:23:06,870 --> 00:23:10,130 And they wanted your testimony, because it's so 533 00:23:10,130 --> 00:23:11,990 exciting, a Jew that was an atheist and 534 00:23:11,990 --> 00:23:13,030 a Marxist saved. 535 00:23:13,590 --> 00:23:15,810 But somehow, this thing about eunuch, for Christ's 536 00:23:15,810 --> 00:23:17,930 sake, and you looked and fasted, and finally 537 00:23:17,930 --> 00:23:20,070 the night came, Saturday night, 5,000 people, 538 00:23:20,290 --> 00:23:22,510 Catherine Kuhlman in the wings, all the big 539 00:23:22,510 --> 00:23:26,090 shots in circadian, and you've been not eating, 540 00:23:26,350 --> 00:23:29,530 and there's a meal, and it's lamb, your 541 00:23:29,530 --> 00:23:34,790 favorite dish, and you turn away, and it's 542 00:23:34,790 --> 00:23:37,750 a suffering, and seek the Lord yet one 543 00:23:37,750 --> 00:23:40,710 more time, and still that inner voice seems 544 00:23:40,710 --> 00:23:42,430 to say, eunuch for Christ's sake. 545 00:23:43,170 --> 00:23:45,270 And then it's time to speak, and you're 546 00:23:45,270 --> 00:23:48,490 obedient to that voice, and you speak, eunuch 547 00:23:48,490 --> 00:23:49,230 for Christ's sake. 548 00:23:49,330 --> 00:23:50,810 There are eunuchs that are made, that are 549 00:23:50,810 --> 00:23:52,550 born eunuchs, biological freaks. 550 00:23:52,910 --> 00:23:54,350 There are eunuchs that are made eunuchs by 551 00:23:54,350 --> 00:23:56,630 men, but there are those who have made 552 00:23:56,630 --> 00:23:59,770 themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God's sake, 553 00:24:00,130 --> 00:24:02,450 and let them who have ears hear. 554 00:24:03,250 --> 00:24:04,710 And to go on and to develop that, 555 00:24:04,790 --> 00:24:07,050 only to find out later, my God, what 556 00:24:07,050 --> 00:24:07,670 did you say? 557 00:24:07,750 --> 00:24:09,850 You have offended 5,000 people. 558 00:24:10,230 --> 00:24:13,110 They're going haywire, and men are waiting to 559 00:24:13,110 --> 00:24:14,850 stone you the moment you step down off 560 00:24:14,850 --> 00:24:17,830 the platform, and a Jewish man claiming to 561 00:24:17,830 --> 00:24:19,410 be a prophet has come up to you 562 00:24:19,410 --> 00:24:20,710 and said, God has sent them to tell 563 00:24:20,710 --> 00:24:23,190 you, you've misdemeanored the Lord, you've done incalculable 564 00:24:23,190 --> 00:24:25,070 damage against the body of Christ, and you 565 00:24:25,070 --> 00:24:26,890 need immediately to go to the microphone and 566 00:24:26,890 --> 00:24:27,790 retract your statement. 567 00:24:28,550 --> 00:24:30,870 What an onslaught in what you thought was 568 00:24:30,870 --> 00:24:31,890 a simple obedience. 569 00:24:32,710 --> 00:24:35,210 Okay, can one Frenchman be right, and a 570 00:24:35,210 --> 00:24:37,710 million is wrong, and you alone have the 571 00:24:37,710 --> 00:24:40,350 mind of the Lord, and there's Shekerion, and 572 00:24:40,350 --> 00:24:42,890 Oral Roberts, and Catherine Coleman, you know, and 573 00:24:42,890 --> 00:24:45,430 what are you, some Jewish pipsqueak who saved 574 00:24:45,430 --> 00:24:46,930 about five years, something like that? 575 00:24:47,630 --> 00:24:50,650 I'll tell you, it was horrendous. 576 00:24:51,250 --> 00:24:52,550 And then that night, I don't think Inga 577 00:24:52,550 --> 00:24:55,430 has ever recovered, you're invited as a speaker 578 00:24:55,430 --> 00:24:56,670 with the others, of course, how can they 579 00:24:56,670 --> 00:25:00,690 then block you out, to the penthouse apartment 580 00:25:00,690 --> 00:25:04,010 of Dima Shekerion, and you walk into that 581 00:25:04,010 --> 00:25:07,070 room with all these personalities, and you feel 582 00:25:07,070 --> 00:25:08,350 like a turd. 583 00:25:09,470 --> 00:25:13,130 Everyone is turning their shoulder, and oh, here 584 00:25:13,130 --> 00:25:16,750 comes that loathsome guy who spoke about eunuch, 585 00:25:17,470 --> 00:25:24,250 and how impolite, and you learn how to 586 00:25:24,250 --> 00:25:27,590 bear reproach, but your wife hasn't learned it, 587 00:25:29,390 --> 00:25:31,210 and she's got to bear that with you, 588 00:25:31,590 --> 00:25:33,970 and she's calculated and made by God to 589 00:25:33,970 --> 00:25:36,050 be a mercy person that doesn't want to 590 00:25:36,050 --> 00:25:41,430 offend anyone, wants to make nice, and she's 591 00:25:41,430 --> 00:25:44,150 married to a man who's upsetting the apple 592 00:25:44,150 --> 00:25:47,610 cart, and is antagonized to the point of 593 00:25:47,610 --> 00:25:48,850 breaking. 594 00:25:49,230 --> 00:25:50,910 In fact, Inga wept through that whole message. 595 00:25:52,170 --> 00:25:56,010 So, the School of the Prophets ain't a 596 00:25:56,010 --> 00:25:57,390 little two-and-a-half-week picnic. 597 00:25:59,190 --> 00:26:03,150 It's a real place of preparation and testing, 598 00:26:03,530 --> 00:26:06,150 and there's not a God there at your 599 00:26:06,150 --> 00:26:08,430 elbow to say, don't listen to him, my 600 00:26:08,430 --> 00:26:09,890 faithful servant. 601 00:26:11,030 --> 00:26:15,290 God is silent, and allows you to get 602 00:26:15,290 --> 00:26:19,510 roasted, and skewered, and turned over in your 603 00:26:19,510 --> 00:26:24,250 kishkas, and you're exiled virtually out of the 604 00:26:24,250 --> 00:26:26,130 country, as I was, and went to Denmark, 605 00:26:26,290 --> 00:26:28,610 and lived there for several months, and never 606 00:26:28,610 --> 00:26:31,190 took a meeting, but was licking my wounds 607 00:26:31,190 --> 00:26:33,510 for many months, while this same so-called 608 00:26:33,510 --> 00:26:36,750 Jewish prophet was sending me telegrams, and long 609 00:26:36,750 --> 00:26:39,890 -distance phone calls on Jewish holidays, calling for 610 00:26:39,890 --> 00:26:42,230 my repentance, and my recanting of that message 611 00:26:42,230 --> 00:26:43,950 that should now be published in the full 612 00:26:43,950 --> 00:26:47,450 gospel business lens, Voice Magazine, and for all 613 00:26:47,450 --> 00:26:49,730 I knew, he might be right, and where 614 00:26:49,730 --> 00:26:50,290 was God? 615 00:26:51,310 --> 00:26:52,430 Here's the tension. 616 00:26:53,330 --> 00:26:55,050 The tension of having to speak. 617 00:26:55,190 --> 00:26:56,050 The hour has struck. 618 00:26:56,890 --> 00:26:57,870 The moment has come. 619 00:26:58,390 --> 00:27:00,570 You speak what you believe is in your 620 00:27:00,570 --> 00:27:03,230 heart by the Spirit, though still and small, 621 00:27:03,590 --> 00:27:06,910 and contrary to what is expected, but never 622 00:27:06,910 --> 00:27:10,530 a final assurance that you were right, and 623 00:27:10,530 --> 00:27:13,270 that you may have missed it, even for 624 00:27:13,270 --> 00:27:14,110 all your fasting. 625 00:27:14,790 --> 00:27:18,710 That is the prophetic tension, and you'll never 626 00:27:18,710 --> 00:27:19,530 get over it. 627 00:27:20,490 --> 00:27:22,610 You'll carry that till your final day. 628 00:27:23,170 --> 00:27:27,310 You'll never speak with a total certitude that 629 00:27:27,310 --> 00:27:30,330 there's not some possibility that however much you 630 00:27:30,330 --> 00:27:33,150 desire a pure obedience, that you may miss 631 00:27:33,150 --> 00:27:33,350 it. 632 00:27:34,110 --> 00:27:35,370 What do you think last night? 633 00:27:37,150 --> 00:27:40,370 Would you believe my mind battle while I'm 634 00:27:40,370 --> 00:27:43,010 speaking to you, and there was some kind 635 00:27:43,010 --> 00:27:45,770 of brokenness, and an effect of that word? 636 00:27:46,010 --> 00:27:46,970 You know what was going through my mind? 637 00:27:47,670 --> 00:27:49,430 You've laid a trip on this people, cats. 638 00:27:50,310 --> 00:27:52,850 That's not God's Word, or even God's requirement, 639 00:27:52,850 --> 00:27:55,550 but there's an anointing on you in general, 640 00:27:55,970 --> 00:27:58,290 and anything you would say would have an 641 00:27:58,290 --> 00:28:00,710 effect, but that doesn't make it God's Word. 642 00:28:00,770 --> 00:28:01,870 This is your thing. 643 00:28:02,330 --> 00:28:05,190 You like this little thing about commanding God, 644 00:28:05,510 --> 00:28:07,690 and we've worked it up, but it's not 645 00:28:07,690 --> 00:28:10,490 His, and it's affecting this people, but it's 646 00:28:10,490 --> 00:28:11,030 not God. 647 00:28:12,650 --> 00:28:14,750 You've laid a trip on them out of 648 00:28:14,750 --> 00:28:17,830 the general power of your own personality, and 649 00:28:17,830 --> 00:28:21,250 your anointing, and I have to walk home 650 00:28:21,250 --> 00:28:22,690 after that and say, Lord, was that you? 651 00:28:23,250 --> 00:28:24,150 Was that me? 652 00:28:24,290 --> 00:28:24,970 Was that you? 653 00:28:25,210 --> 00:28:25,870 Was that me? 654 00:28:25,950 --> 00:28:26,710 Did I miss it there? 655 00:28:28,830 --> 00:28:33,370 Prophetic obedience is dying, and yet when the 656 00:28:33,370 --> 00:28:36,090 enemy whispers, that wasn't God, that was you, 657 00:28:36,190 --> 00:28:38,490 you're laying a trip on this people, and 658 00:28:38,490 --> 00:28:40,750 you're allowing the force of your personality to 659 00:28:40,750 --> 00:28:43,990 impress them with something that is credible enough 660 00:28:43,990 --> 00:28:48,310 to be worth hearing, and I don't know 661 00:28:48,310 --> 00:28:52,030 about you, but are we susceptible to taking 662 00:28:52,030 --> 00:28:53,650 the devil's thoughts into our consideration? 663 00:28:54,650 --> 00:28:56,550 Boy, we have conversations with him right and 664 00:28:56,550 --> 00:28:56,730 left. 665 00:28:57,030 --> 00:28:58,330 Yeah, boy, you're making a point to ask. 666 00:28:58,390 --> 00:28:58,730 That's true. 667 00:29:00,910 --> 00:29:03,870 And we ask God to say, don't listen. 668 00:29:04,190 --> 00:29:06,310 You know that God doesn't. 669 00:29:07,050 --> 00:29:09,530 He allows you to suffer the It's a 670 00:29:09,530 --> 00:29:12,710 baptism by fire each time, and unless it's 671 00:29:12,710 --> 00:29:14,590 a suffering, is it a real word of 672 00:29:14,590 --> 00:29:14,810 God? 673 00:29:15,270 --> 00:29:17,570 Because that suffering is a death, and it's 674 00:29:17,570 --> 00:29:18,790 the death that brings the life. 675 00:29:20,210 --> 00:29:21,870 It's death that works in me, Paul said, 676 00:29:22,090 --> 00:29:22,930 and life in you. 677 00:29:23,470 --> 00:29:25,470 Whenever you're performing something from God that does 678 00:29:25,470 --> 00:29:27,710 not require a death, it's not going to 679 00:29:27,710 --> 00:29:28,130 be a life. 680 00:29:28,370 --> 00:29:29,310 It'll be pleasant. 681 00:29:29,910 --> 00:29:32,290 There will be an enjoyment, but it's not 682 00:29:32,290 --> 00:29:35,550 going to be a life-giving, life-changing 683 00:29:35,550 --> 00:29:38,330 thing if it does not come out of 684 00:29:38,330 --> 00:29:42,290 a death again and again and again and 685 00:29:42,290 --> 00:29:42,590 again. 686 00:29:44,110 --> 00:29:46,550 Imagine a whole church that is prophetic in 687 00:29:46,550 --> 00:29:49,890 this sense, and indeed, until there will be, 688 00:29:50,270 --> 00:29:51,570 Israel will remain in her grave. 689 00:29:52,270 --> 00:29:55,490 That's why the death of the church must 690 00:29:55,490 --> 00:29:57,830 precede the death and resurrection of Israel. 691 00:29:59,730 --> 00:30:02,170 A woman pastor stopped me in a message 692 00:30:02,170 --> 00:30:02,850 in California. 693 00:30:03,050 --> 00:30:04,690 I was only about 15 minutes into it, 694 00:30:04,690 --> 00:30:08,290 and she's just having to step down, and 695 00:30:08,290 --> 00:30:10,090 I just moved away, and I stepped down. 696 00:30:10,170 --> 00:30:11,550 There were shrieks and howls, let him continue, 697 00:30:11,650 --> 00:30:12,110 let him finish. 698 00:30:12,310 --> 00:30:13,690 The Lord had given me that message on 699 00:30:13,690 --> 00:30:16,410 my knees that morning, in revelation, in prayer 700 00:30:16,410 --> 00:30:18,750 with a brother from Ben Israel, and to 701 00:30:18,750 --> 00:30:21,650 this day, this stink and reproach has never 702 00:30:21,650 --> 00:30:22,390 been resolved. 703 00:30:22,950 --> 00:30:25,750 They even accused me of planting Ben Israel 704 00:30:25,750 --> 00:30:27,470 people in the audience to cry out, let 705 00:30:27,470 --> 00:30:30,290 him continue, let him continue, and then she 706 00:30:30,290 --> 00:30:33,090 said, if you knew that, and the board 707 00:30:33,090 --> 00:30:34,730 of people with her, if you knew that 708 00:30:34,730 --> 00:30:36,050 you were going to be speaking a radical 709 00:30:36,050 --> 00:30:39,050 message, why didn't you submit that message in 710 00:30:39,050 --> 00:30:42,350 advance for our approval before you spoke it? 711 00:30:42,410 --> 00:30:44,330 I said, but my dear lady, I've never 712 00:30:44,330 --> 00:30:45,690 submitted a message in advance. 713 00:30:46,950 --> 00:30:50,170 I mean, if you don't have sufficient confidence 714 00:30:50,170 --> 00:30:52,110 that I'm with the Lord and sent of 715 00:30:52,110 --> 00:30:54,050 Him, don't invite me, but if you invite 716 00:30:54,050 --> 00:30:55,810 me, trust that what is going to come 717 00:30:55,810 --> 00:30:56,690 is the Lord. 718 00:30:57,270 --> 00:30:58,550 Well, you should have prepared it. 719 00:30:58,690 --> 00:31:01,790 I said, it's not the message that needs 720 00:31:01,790 --> 00:31:04,970 to be approved, it's the man, and if 721 00:31:04,970 --> 00:31:06,710 the man has been submitted and his life 722 00:31:06,710 --> 00:31:09,610 has been tested and overseen, then we can 723 00:31:09,610 --> 00:31:11,590 trust more readily for the message. 724 00:31:12,170 --> 00:31:13,790 So it was a real eye-opener to 725 00:31:13,790 --> 00:31:15,830 me, because who can advance? 726 00:31:15,970 --> 00:31:17,110 I don't know what I'm going to say 727 00:31:17,110 --> 00:31:17,590 in advance. 728 00:31:17,830 --> 00:31:20,550 That word was fresh, right off the anvil 729 00:31:20,550 --> 00:31:22,570 of God given that morning, and I did 730 00:31:22,570 --> 00:31:25,530 not know it was radical until I spoke 731 00:31:25,530 --> 00:31:25,730 it. 732 00:31:25,810 --> 00:31:27,610 I didn't know that Munich for Christ's sake 733 00:31:27,610 --> 00:31:31,430 was going to cause enormous uproar, and people 734 00:31:31,430 --> 00:31:33,430 came to me and said, I hated your 735 00:31:33,430 --> 00:31:35,810 word, and I want to be a grandparent. 736 00:31:36,490 --> 00:31:38,110 They thought that I was literally telling their 737 00:31:38,110 --> 00:31:42,790 children to forsake having children and living celibate 738 00:31:42,790 --> 00:31:43,110 lives. 739 00:31:43,190 --> 00:31:45,150 It was a spiritual message, but they interpreted 740 00:31:45,150 --> 00:31:47,630 it carnally, and it became for them a 741 00:31:47,630 --> 00:31:49,930 root of offense, and the Lord allowed me 742 00:31:49,930 --> 00:31:52,550 to languish in the whole heat of that 743 00:31:52,550 --> 00:31:55,310 opposition and the thought that I might be 744 00:31:55,310 --> 00:31:57,290 wrong, that I might have missed the Lord. 745 00:31:57,470 --> 00:32:00,690 After all, I was still relatively young, and 746 00:32:00,690 --> 00:32:02,550 there I was in Denmark in a little 747 00:32:02,550 --> 00:32:05,650 place upstairs, licking my wounds like a dog, 748 00:32:05,970 --> 00:32:07,170 saying, Lord, never again. 749 00:32:07,250 --> 00:32:07,930 I'm not a preacher. 750 00:32:08,510 --> 00:32:09,410 I never asked for it. 751 00:32:09,430 --> 00:32:10,110 I don't want it. 752 00:32:10,410 --> 00:32:15,610 And finally, I agreed to take a series 753 00:32:15,610 --> 00:32:17,970 of meetings in Denmark, and I was reading 754 00:32:17,970 --> 00:32:22,130 Watchman Nee's trilogy on the spiritual man, somehow 755 00:32:22,130 --> 00:32:24,390 in preparation, and I came to a place 756 00:32:24,390 --> 00:32:27,590 where he's speaking about Munich for Christ's sake, 757 00:32:28,190 --> 00:32:29,750 and he's quoting out of Matthew, and he's 758 00:32:29,750 --> 00:32:31,830 quoting out of 1 Corinthians 7, and the 759 00:32:31,830 --> 00:32:34,050 very same scriptures that I used, and then 760 00:32:34,050 --> 00:32:36,190 he says, this is so sensitive, he said, 761 00:32:36,230 --> 00:32:37,730 that if you miss this by the Spirit, 762 00:32:38,050 --> 00:32:40,970 it's the very heart of offense, and boom, 763 00:32:41,310 --> 00:32:44,730 the burden lifted, as if I had not 764 00:32:44,730 --> 00:32:45,750 breathed for three months. 765 00:32:47,490 --> 00:32:49,590 It was a mechaya, you know? 766 00:32:50,570 --> 00:32:52,670 But why did the Lord allow the burden 767 00:32:52,670 --> 00:32:55,510 to remain for three months, that I might 768 00:32:55,510 --> 00:32:58,390 have missed the Lord and done incalculable damage 769 00:32:58,390 --> 00:32:59,210 to the body of Christ? 770 00:33:00,910 --> 00:33:03,350 Because if you're going to bear the Word 771 00:33:03,350 --> 00:33:06,410 of God, the real Word, you've got to 772 00:33:06,410 --> 00:33:11,310 know that it's a great responsibility, and you've 773 00:33:11,310 --> 00:33:13,050 got to go through a baptism of fire. 774 00:33:13,630 --> 00:33:15,310 You're not playing games, and you're not in 775 00:33:15,310 --> 00:33:18,870 the entertainment business, and God will not entrust 776 00:33:18,870 --> 00:33:22,270 His Holy Word to casual speakers or to 777 00:33:22,270 --> 00:33:23,830 men who will make profit of it. 778 00:33:24,450 --> 00:33:27,070 There's got to be a baptism in fire, 779 00:33:27,170 --> 00:33:29,430 there's got to be multiple deaths, there's got 780 00:33:29,430 --> 00:33:32,010 to be testings, and they're not cheap, they're 781 00:33:32,010 --> 00:33:34,890 not easy, and they're not quick, and then 782 00:33:34,890 --> 00:33:38,250 can God entrust His sacred words. 783 00:33:39,170 --> 00:33:42,150 How would you stand up under the accusation 784 00:33:42,150 --> 00:33:48,810 of lovelessness that was unloving, or your message 785 00:33:48,810 --> 00:33:49,690 is hard? 786 00:33:50,050 --> 00:33:53,330 I'm hearing that now so frequently, and really, 787 00:33:53,410 --> 00:33:54,190 I wasn't aware of that. 788 00:33:55,450 --> 00:34:00,350 Can you take the accusation that you're loveless? 789 00:34:01,030 --> 00:34:02,950 That was the very cry that I heard 790 00:34:02,950 --> 00:34:05,470 in the congregation in Jerusalem when I spoke 791 00:34:05,470 --> 00:34:06,730 the Ezekiel 37 message. 792 00:34:08,030 --> 00:34:12,389 You know, you've got to have such foundations 793 00:34:12,389 --> 00:34:15,830 in God that no matter what men say 794 00:34:15,830 --> 00:34:19,070 of you, that somehow you're not wither under 795 00:34:19,070 --> 00:34:22,790 the blast of it and come unglued and 796 00:34:22,790 --> 00:34:26,130 undone, that you somehow need their approval or 797 00:34:26,130 --> 00:34:28,429 need to be seen and recognized as being 798 00:34:28,429 --> 00:34:28,710 loving. 799 00:34:29,510 --> 00:34:30,610 If that's the way you're going to see 800 00:34:30,610 --> 00:34:32,429 me as being loveless, so let it be. 801 00:34:33,510 --> 00:34:37,810 Let God vindicate me, but if that's what 802 00:34:37,810 --> 00:34:39,590 I've got to suffer for speaking that word, 803 00:34:40,190 --> 00:34:40,710 so be it. 804 00:34:41,590 --> 00:34:42,770 Have you come to that place? 805 00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:46,940 And what does it take to come to 806 00:34:46,940 --> 00:34:47,120 it? 807 00:34:49,460 --> 00:34:52,280 The whole substance of all that we're speaking 808 00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:54,639 in these days is simply to come to 809 00:34:54,639 --> 00:34:58,120 the place where we allow God the free 810 00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:01,860 right to prepare us in such ways, because 811 00:35:01,860 --> 00:35:03,480 it's not for everyone. 812 00:35:04,260 --> 00:35:05,200 Others can, you cannot. 813 00:35:06,240 --> 00:35:08,860 This is only for those who are called 814 00:35:08,860 --> 00:35:10,940 to the ultimate things that pertain to his 815 00:35:10,940 --> 00:35:13,420 glory, to the things that are prophetic and 816 00:35:13,420 --> 00:35:17,320 apostolically true, and that preparation is the greater, 817 00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:20,060 the more demanding, and the more painful. 818 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:23,980 But he will not inflict it, except that 819 00:35:23,980 --> 00:35:26,040 we voluntarily welcome it. 820 00:35:27,180 --> 00:35:28,900 So if you want to live a Christian 821 00:35:28,900 --> 00:35:32,200 life in a lesser or other place, charismatic 822 00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:35,000 and evangelical, for which he'll never fault you, 823 00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:37,300 you're quite free to live it at that 824 00:35:37,300 --> 00:35:38,600 level, he'll allow you. 825 00:35:39,380 --> 00:35:40,940 This is only for those who say, Lord, 826 00:35:41,020 --> 00:35:41,820 whatever it takes. 827 00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:43,200 And it takes. 828 00:35:45,150 --> 00:35:45,470 Okay. 829 00:35:46,330 --> 00:35:47,870 It's just like we're already on the subject 830 00:35:47,870 --> 00:35:50,770 of prophets, and I didn't intend that until 831 00:35:50,770 --> 00:35:51,590 tomorrow. 832 00:35:53,330 --> 00:35:56,590 So however much our non-intervening silence will 833 00:35:56,590 --> 00:36:00,490 be construed as lovelessness, ironically, it's only a 834 00:36:00,490 --> 00:36:02,290 faith that works by love that will suffice 835 00:36:02,290 --> 00:36:04,150 in that once and for all critical moment. 836 00:36:05,590 --> 00:36:08,370 Not the present love, which may be no 837 00:36:08,370 --> 00:36:11,630 more than sentiment or symbiotic identification or appeasement 838 00:36:11,630 --> 00:36:14,410 for guilt, or fascination for the mystique of 839 00:36:14,410 --> 00:36:17,610 Israel, but the unconditional love of very God 840 00:36:17,610 --> 00:36:18,110 himself. 841 00:36:18,850 --> 00:36:21,810 I think nothing provoked a greater howl than 842 00:36:21,810 --> 00:36:24,170 my suggestion in Jerusalem that a lot of 843 00:36:24,170 --> 00:36:26,770 you Christians have an identification with Israel that 844 00:36:26,770 --> 00:36:30,010 is symbiotic and subtly self-serving. 845 00:36:31,150 --> 00:36:32,850 You know what symbiotic means? 846 00:36:33,470 --> 00:36:36,690 You're in a relationship by which you expend 847 00:36:36,690 --> 00:36:39,370 yourself for another, but only because something is 848 00:36:39,370 --> 00:36:41,350 returned to you of a kind that is 849 00:36:41,350 --> 00:36:42,670 personally gratifying. 850 00:36:43,810 --> 00:36:46,710 That one thing, as I said last night, 851 00:36:47,150 --> 00:36:49,310 disqualifies ministry as being priestly. 852 00:36:49,970 --> 00:36:51,870 And if it's not priestly, then neither can 853 00:36:51,870 --> 00:36:52,530 it be prophetic. 854 00:36:53,370 --> 00:36:56,070 How far must God's death go? 855 00:36:56,830 --> 00:36:59,570 How far must the application of the cross 856 00:36:59,570 --> 00:37:04,330 reach to touch the most subtle ligaments and 857 00:37:04,330 --> 00:37:08,170 sources of subtle satisfaction that come to us 858 00:37:08,170 --> 00:37:12,570 through serving, or through identifying with the purposes 859 00:37:12,570 --> 00:37:14,050 of God or with the people of God? 860 00:37:15,270 --> 00:37:18,270 And until we've come to that, we have 861 00:37:18,270 --> 00:37:20,930 not his unconditional love, but something lesser and 862 00:37:20,930 --> 00:37:21,190 other. 863 00:37:22,310 --> 00:37:24,270 But that faith will not work except it 864 00:37:24,270 --> 00:37:25,530 works by love. 865 00:37:27,190 --> 00:37:29,090 So we are called to a prophetic faith 866 00:37:29,090 --> 00:37:32,850 beyond ourselves, a love beyond ourselves, an obedience 867 00:37:32,850 --> 00:37:35,570 beyond ourselves, an agreement in unity beyond ourselves, 868 00:37:36,870 --> 00:37:38,670 and being required to speak as of one 869 00:37:38,670 --> 00:37:38,970 voice. 870 00:37:39,350 --> 00:37:41,110 For us to live, then, must be Christ. 871 00:37:42,210 --> 00:37:44,090 Will we wonder that the Lord enjoins Israel? 872 00:37:44,430 --> 00:37:45,770 Then you shall know that either would have 873 00:37:45,770 --> 00:37:47,450 spoken it and performed it, says the Lord. 874 00:37:47,910 --> 00:37:49,650 Indeed, for who is to say where such 875 00:37:49,650 --> 00:37:51,650 a son of man ends and the Lord 876 00:37:51,650 --> 00:37:52,150 begins? 877 00:37:52,610 --> 00:37:55,390 So complete that fits the bride for the 878 00:37:55,390 --> 00:37:57,150 bridegroom, when you can't tell where the one 879 00:37:57,150 --> 00:37:58,510 ends and where the other begins. 880 00:38:00,910 --> 00:38:02,750 So here's the final summary and conclusion. 881 00:38:04,290 --> 00:38:07,510 For if he himself, as an utterly devastated 882 00:38:07,510 --> 00:38:08,930 son, cut off and out of the land 883 00:38:08,930 --> 00:38:12,550 of the living, and could then, as the 884 00:38:12,550 --> 00:38:15,730 resurrected and glorified son, enlist the power to 885 00:38:15,730 --> 00:38:18,210 birth the church, how shall we expect less 886 00:38:18,210 --> 00:38:21,830 or other for Israel, whose glorious restoration is 887 00:38:21,830 --> 00:38:22,890 the key to the nations? 888 00:38:23,210 --> 00:38:26,690 If Jesus himself was required as a son 889 00:38:26,690 --> 00:38:29,790 to taste death in order to come into 890 00:38:29,790 --> 00:38:33,530 a resurrection and ascendant place to birth the 891 00:38:33,530 --> 00:38:37,350 church and to forward the redemptive purposes of 892 00:38:37,350 --> 00:38:39,790 God, how shall we expect less of the 893 00:38:39,790 --> 00:38:42,950 son that Israel was called to be, and 894 00:38:42,950 --> 00:38:44,610 that it should find a means other than 895 00:38:44,610 --> 00:38:45,270 what was his? 896 00:38:45,830 --> 00:38:48,890 It too, as the church, must come through 897 00:38:48,890 --> 00:38:50,250 the way of death and resurrection. 898 00:38:50,750 --> 00:38:51,790 But how is this affected? 899 00:38:52,390 --> 00:38:54,150 The prophet is no more a spectator but 900 00:38:54,150 --> 00:38:54,570 agent. 901 00:38:55,270 --> 00:38:58,730 His fidelity, his faithfulness alone, releases the powers 902 00:38:58,730 --> 00:38:59,710 which brings new life. 903 00:39:00,230 --> 00:39:03,010 His vision is critical to the fulfillment, all 904 00:39:03,010 --> 00:39:05,310 the more because he sees the situation at 905 00:39:05,310 --> 00:39:06,150 its worst. 906 00:39:07,730 --> 00:39:10,010 Therefore, if he dealt with as severely as 907 00:39:10,010 --> 00:39:12,130 Israel itself, for if he is to be 908 00:39:12,130 --> 00:39:14,670 as God's mouth, he must first become one 909 00:39:14,670 --> 00:39:16,830 with God's heart, for out of the abundance 910 00:39:16,830 --> 00:39:18,710 of the heart alone does the mouth speak, 911 00:39:19,390 --> 00:39:22,270 and that by a willing obedience consistent with 912 00:39:22,270 --> 00:39:25,110 all past obedience and not just a final 913 00:39:25,110 --> 00:39:26,210 moment's obligation. 914 00:39:27,710 --> 00:39:30,310 That obedience is itself a death to those 915 00:39:30,310 --> 00:39:34,710 final inveterate prejudices and envies, insecurities that would, 916 00:39:34,930 --> 00:39:36,990 for many, just as soon leave Israel in 917 00:39:36,990 --> 00:39:39,370 its grave than bring the prodigal back from 918 00:39:39,370 --> 00:39:42,050 the dead, to bask in the father's favor. 919 00:39:42,690 --> 00:39:44,370 For only such a death will free the 920 00:39:44,370 --> 00:39:47,190 son of man company from those final succulties 921 00:39:47,190 --> 00:39:49,890 of pride and prejudice that qualify it at 922 00:39:49,890 --> 00:39:52,030 last as God's prophetic people. 923 00:39:52,690 --> 00:39:54,930 Now the sticks can be joined together so 924 00:39:54,930 --> 00:39:56,670 that one king shall be king over them 925 00:39:56,670 --> 00:39:58,550 all and David their prince forever. 926 00:39:59,050 --> 00:40:01,170 It is the issue of Israel alone, though 927 00:40:01,170 --> 00:40:04,110 she be oblivious to this function, that compels 928 00:40:04,110 --> 00:40:07,510 the church to that ultimate faith, obedience, and 929 00:40:07,510 --> 00:40:10,270 stature by which it is itself fitted for 930 00:40:10,270 --> 00:40:10,790 eternity. 931 00:40:11,270 --> 00:40:13,090 Is not this the heart of that mystery 932 00:40:13,090 --> 00:40:15,850 that alone saves us from the deadly conceit 933 00:40:15,850 --> 00:40:19,170 of our own misconception as the church, apart 934 00:40:19,170 --> 00:40:21,210 from Israel or substituting for Israel? 935 00:40:21,990 --> 00:40:23,510 Where shall be found more to be down 936 00:40:23,510 --> 00:40:25,650 to the eternal honor of God than this 937 00:40:25,650 --> 00:40:28,370 triumph over sin and death in both Israel 938 00:40:28,370 --> 00:40:29,110 and the church? 939 00:40:29,970 --> 00:40:32,930 The same powers of hell and darkness that 940 00:40:32,930 --> 00:40:35,770 rushed in their characteristic fury to bring to 941 00:40:35,770 --> 00:40:37,830 death the Son of God will now again 942 00:40:37,830 --> 00:40:39,830 at the end of the age repeat their 943 00:40:39,830 --> 00:40:42,290 ineluctable logic against the whole house of Israel, 944 00:40:42,690 --> 00:40:46,090 seeking an extermination of that nation whose restoration 945 00:40:46,090 --> 00:40:47,930 is cojoined with the coming of its king 946 00:40:47,930 --> 00:40:51,750 and the triumphant establishment over the nations through 947 00:40:51,750 --> 00:40:53,450 his theocratic rule. 948 00:40:53,950 --> 00:40:56,570 The threat of that lost sway of the 949 00:40:56,570 --> 00:40:59,590 principalities and powers over the nations so enjoyed 950 00:40:59,590 --> 00:41:03,110 till now accelerates and intensifies the rabid hatred 951 00:41:03,110 --> 00:41:05,750 of the deceived of the nations, both Islamic 952 00:41:05,750 --> 00:41:09,410 and Western, against Israel, fulfilling the purposes of 953 00:41:09,410 --> 00:41:11,470 him who is sovereign over all, and whose 954 00:41:11,470 --> 00:41:14,810 certain triumph over death by the spoken word 955 00:41:14,810 --> 00:41:16,510 will be played out before the face of 956 00:41:16,510 --> 00:41:18,670 all nations and that of the chosen nation 957 00:41:18,670 --> 00:41:19,230 itself. 958 00:41:19,730 --> 00:41:22,830 Thus Israel will fulfill the role which it 959 00:41:22,830 --> 00:41:26,290 had spurned or so sorely misunderstood, fulfilled ironically 960 00:41:26,290 --> 00:41:29,190 now more by its vices than its virtues 961 00:41:29,190 --> 00:41:32,010 and in its failings than its successes. 962 00:41:32,610 --> 00:41:34,550 O'er the depths of the riches, both 963 00:41:34,550 --> 00:41:36,590 of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how 964 00:41:36,590 --> 00:41:39,290 unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past 965 00:41:39,290 --> 00:41:39,950 finding out. 966 00:41:41,250 --> 00:41:42,030 That's the article. 967 00:41:43,310 --> 00:41:47,670 Let's pray a blessing on it and that 968 00:41:47,670 --> 00:41:49,930 the Lord will imbue it with the spirit 969 00:41:49,930 --> 00:41:54,510 of truth and give an ability of people 970 00:41:54,510 --> 00:41:57,590 who have not had our privilege, our preparation, 971 00:41:57,850 --> 00:42:00,670 somehow to understand by it the same things 972 00:42:00,670 --> 00:42:04,150 that require for us a background, and that 973 00:42:04,150 --> 00:42:05,390 it will be a turning point that will 974 00:42:05,390 --> 00:42:08,530 be pivotal in opening up whole new perspectives 975 00:42:08,530 --> 00:42:09,270 of the faith. 976 00:42:09,610 --> 00:42:12,510 What the call of God is, what the 977 00:42:12,510 --> 00:42:14,610 creative word is, what the prophetic word is, 978 00:42:14,610 --> 00:42:17,390 what kind of obedience as sons it requires 979 00:42:17,390 --> 00:42:20,010 and how that is to be obtained, why 980 00:42:20,010 --> 00:42:22,730 the church must first know death and be 981 00:42:22,730 --> 00:42:25,790 itself a resurrection phenomenon where Israel cannot be 982 00:42:25,790 --> 00:42:26,710 raised from the dead. 983 00:42:26,930 --> 00:42:29,690 Only a resurrection word will succeed and it 984 00:42:29,690 --> 00:42:32,070 must come out from a resurrected people who 985 00:42:32,070 --> 00:42:34,910 themselves have submitted to the necessary death of 986 00:42:34,910 --> 00:42:37,310 their own first things. 987 00:42:38,610 --> 00:42:40,370 So Lord we just hold this up to 988 00:42:40,370 --> 00:42:41,190 you, precious God. 989 00:42:42,410 --> 00:42:45,670 You've given this, my God, if I know 990 00:42:45,670 --> 00:42:50,070 anything, it's a critical key of understanding not 991 00:42:50,070 --> 00:42:54,370 only for Israel and her future, but the 992 00:42:54,370 --> 00:42:59,910 church, the meaning of the faith, all the 993 00:42:59,910 --> 00:43:01,770 issues of the faith, my God, in a 994 00:43:01,770 --> 00:43:03,670 way that we have not been required to 995 00:43:03,670 --> 00:43:05,650 see it, even what prayer means, what unity 996 00:43:05,650 --> 00:43:07,790 means, what the body of Christ means, what 997 00:43:07,790 --> 00:43:08,770 prophetic means. 998 00:43:09,590 --> 00:43:11,850 It's revolutionary, it's radical, it's demanding. 999 00:43:12,190 --> 00:43:14,930 It raises the cross and makes it again 1000 00:43:14,930 --> 00:43:16,870 central to the faith in a way that 1001 00:43:16,870 --> 00:43:18,770 we have not been invited to see it 1002 00:43:18,770 --> 00:43:20,690 in all of our charismatic years. 1003 00:43:21,390 --> 00:43:23,850 And Lord we're asking an appropriate blessing. 1004 00:43:24,530 --> 00:43:27,190 These children now can have part in the 1005 00:43:27,190 --> 00:43:30,470 reward of this by their investment, by their 1006 00:43:30,470 --> 00:43:35,370 participation in faith, in prayer, in intercession for 1007 00:43:35,370 --> 00:43:38,350 this article in this journal that has been 1008 00:43:38,350 --> 00:43:40,230 willing to publish it. 1009 00:43:40,870 --> 00:43:43,690 Lord may it open doors elsewhere as Lilia 1010 00:43:43,690 --> 00:43:45,390 has hoped that now she will submit it 1011 00:43:45,390 --> 00:43:48,490 in French to a French Christian publication and 1012 00:43:48,490 --> 00:43:50,690 hopefully German and that it will make its 1013 00:43:50,690 --> 00:43:52,850 rounds and do its work for your church 1014 00:43:52,850 --> 00:43:55,830 in the earth among the nations everywhere. 1015 00:43:56,710 --> 00:43:58,390 And let that work be done with us. 1016 00:43:59,310 --> 00:44:01,790 Lord you've spoken to us in ways I 1017 00:44:01,790 --> 00:44:04,330 didn't intend today of what it means to 1018 00:44:04,330 --> 00:44:09,250 be prophetic and obedient, what kind of a 1019 00:44:09,250 --> 00:44:12,750 preparation to be bearers of your Word, let 1020 00:44:12,750 --> 00:44:15,010 alone that last and ultimate Word that saves 1021 00:44:15,010 --> 00:44:16,390 the nation out of death. 1022 00:44:17,470 --> 00:44:19,690 And we just ask you to look upon 1023 00:44:19,690 --> 00:44:21,170 us, my God, who have called us to 1024 00:44:21,170 --> 00:44:23,850 hear such things that you might have from 1025 00:44:23,850 --> 00:44:26,970 the deepest place of the truth of our 1026 00:44:26,970 --> 00:44:28,230 being, a yea and amen. 1027 00:44:29,130 --> 00:44:31,090 Lord if we didn't tell you exclusively we'd 1028 00:44:31,090 --> 00:44:32,610 tell you now whatever it takes. 1029 00:44:33,110 --> 00:44:35,110 Whatever took for aught and is taking for 1030 00:44:35,110 --> 00:44:38,290 aught must necessarily be required also of us. 1031 00:44:38,370 --> 00:44:40,650 There's no shortcut and we're willing. 1032 00:44:41,570 --> 00:44:43,810 God forbid that we should enter eternity having 1033 00:44:43,810 --> 00:44:47,770 missed the grandest opportunity to have been significantly 1034 00:44:47,770 --> 00:44:50,270 employed for you in your work with the 1035 00:44:50,270 --> 00:44:52,990 nations and this nation that we would have 1036 00:44:52,990 --> 00:44:56,830 opted for something less and less costly but 1037 00:44:56,830 --> 00:44:59,010 we're telling you now that whatever it takes. 1038 00:44:59,510 --> 00:45:02,870 Fit us by trial, by testing, by the 1039 00:45:02,870 --> 00:45:04,630 things that you'll demand, by the things that 1040 00:45:04,630 --> 00:45:07,270 cannot be explained, by the dust that we 1041 00:45:07,270 --> 00:45:12,330 must taste to be eminently that people of 1042 00:45:12,330 --> 00:45:15,950 the resurrection who can bear your Word for 1043 00:45:15,950 --> 00:45:17,730 your Word alone is life. 1044 00:45:19,270 --> 00:45:21,470 Thank you precious God for every amen to 1045 00:45:21,470 --> 00:45:22,970 that prayer you're hearing out of these children, 1046 00:45:23,110 --> 00:45:23,810 out of their hearts. 1047 00:45:24,790 --> 00:45:26,990 That even today this has been for us 1048 00:45:26,990 --> 00:45:31,370 an event, something turned, something established in your 1049 00:45:31,370 --> 00:45:34,830 hearing, in your recognition that would even make 1050 00:45:34,830 --> 00:45:37,530 the powers of the air to tremble. 1051 00:45:38,670 --> 00:45:40,850 Lord I ask a release of prophetic men 1052 00:45:40,850 --> 00:45:44,810 and women from this congregation and from the 1053 00:45:44,810 --> 00:45:47,530 hearing of this tape to come into a 1054 00:45:47,530 --> 00:45:51,030 world desperately needing to hear the Word of 1055 00:45:51,030 --> 00:45:55,310 truth uncompromisingly spoken even when it will be 1056 00:45:55,310 --> 00:45:58,730 misunderstood which by its very nature must be 1057 00:45:58,730 --> 00:46:02,050 so and yet bear it without hesitation. 1058 00:46:02,830 --> 00:46:07,610 Oh Lord come and have such sons and 1059 00:46:07,610 --> 00:46:10,510 daughters for your use in these last days. 1060 00:46:10,910 --> 00:46:14,070 We bless you for the privilege of being 1061 00:46:14,070 --> 00:46:18,090 such and welcome from your hand every preparation 1062 00:46:18,090 --> 00:46:21,510 required that only you can give and you'll 1063 00:46:21,510 --> 00:46:22,850 not hear us whimper once. 1064 00:46:24,030 --> 00:46:25,770 Thank you Lord for the high calling in 1065 00:46:25,770 --> 00:46:29,590 Christ Jesus which we affirm again today and 1066 00:46:29,590 --> 00:46:33,750 say yes Lord with gratitude it's ours in 1067 00:46:33,750 --> 00:46:34,530 Jesus name.