Praise the Lord.
This is the 25th anniversary of Pure Life
Ministries and I want to say to you
this morning that it's my testimony, Kathy's testimony,
that God has been faithful.
All these many years and all the different
things that we have faced with this organization
and bringing it out here from California and
all the opposition, enormous spiritual opposition, but God
has been faithful.
He has been faithful all these many years.
And God is faithful today, right now.
He is a faithful God.
But what my word is going to be
to open up the conference today is that
God is going to be faithful in the
days ahead.
But we dare not approach these days with
our head buried in the sand, so to
speak.
We can't just go on with life as
usual.
We can't continue on with just this kind
of fairy-tale American Christian thing where, you
know, we expect everything to go just exactly
as we want it to go.
A nice smooth path, prosperity, health, wealth and
all of that.
It's not going to be that way.
I'll just tell you that right now and
I'll get to that in a minute.
But we have got to escape that delusional
mentality.
But, on the other side of it, I
want to tell you that we have a
God who is faithful.
And I have proven Him in my own
life so many times in so many different
circumstances over the years.
If you'll open up your Bibles to Psalm
46.
It's been a long night, okay?
We don't believe in sleeping before we do
these conferences.
So if I just start talking, you know,
incoherently, you'll know that things didn't go so
good last night.
Dave always comes in just unflappable, sleeps for
10 hours, gets up with a word from
the Lord, you know, just moves on, never
quits.
He'll be going on 50 years after the
world has come to an end, you know.
Anyway, that's Dave Ravenhill, but he'll share with
you tonight.
This Psalm 46, I want to just share
something about this as a backdrop.
And I'm not going to get into this
story, but it just kind of brings out
a little bit of the whole point of
it.
Most commentators, almost everybody agrees that this Psalm
was penned, the Sons of Korah are the
writers, that it was penned after the whole
invasion of Israel by Sennacherib's army.
And if you remember the story, Hezekiah, when
he came into power, he brought about a
revival.
The Lord used him to bring revival to
the land, and things were going well in
the southern tribe of Judah.
And so things were going well in the
nation, but they started getting reports from up
north somewhere that there was a massive army
being formed, and pretty soon these reports that
were coming their way were increasingly more worrisome,
because this massive Assyrian army started conquering one
country after another after another, and before you
knew it they had taken over the northern
tribes of Israel and had carried away into
exile, unbelievable as it could be, God's people
carried them away up into Assyria.
And then before we know it, they are
coming down into Judah and taking over different
cities and towns, and then one day there
they were, encamped around the city of Jerusalem.
And Hezekiah said, Lord I need a word
today, you know?
And he went to Isaiah and they talked
and Isaiah got a word and said, don't
worry, do not fear, I am going to
take care of this, the Lord said.
And sure enough that night the angel of
the Lord came in and decimated that army,
185,000, can I tell you this is
not a fairy tale, this happened.
185,000 fierce warriors were destroyed that night.
And then the only thing they had to
deal with was what do you do with
all those corpses, you know?
But that wasn't such a bad thing, considering
what they were facing.
But coming out of that, the sons of
Korah penned Psalm 46.
And, you know, they wrote it in such
a way that they generalized the truth to
be a teaching for people who would read
it later, you know, so that's kind of
the way it's written.
But let's just take a look at this
psalm.
Notice that I've got it broken down into
three stanzas, it's really, actually this is true
of many of the psalms, any time you
see the word Selah, you see the word
Selah sticking out there, a little bit bald,
any time you see that word, what that
word means in the Hebrew is pause, stop
and consider what you have just read prayerfully,
meditate on this powerful truth.
Now how many of us really do that,
you know, in our frenzied lifestyle?
But that's what it means.
And it's a natural breaking point and you'll
see it in there.
The other thing I want to draw your
attention to is you see verse 7 and
verse 11 is the same words, the Lord
of hosts is with us, the God of
Jacob is our stronghold.
And many people believe, in fact, some Bible
translations actually have that as after verse 3.
I stuck it in there because, you know,
it just makes things kind of tidy and
symmetrical and I like stuff like that, so
I stuck it in there.
But it doesn't change anything, you know, but
you can see that there are three messages
there and let's just go ahead and take
a minute to read the word of the
Lord.
God is our refuge and strength, a very
present help in times of trouble.
So then we will not be afraid though
the earth itself is transformed and the mountains
collapse into the deep oceans.
Though its waters roar and foam, though the
mountains quake at its swelling pride, the Lord
of hosts is with us, the God of
Jacob is our stronghold.
Selah.
Stop and consider this awesome truth.
There is a river whose streams make glad
the city of God.
There is the holy dwelling places of the
Most High.
God Himself is living in that city, therefore
it stands unmoved despite the turmoil everywhere.
He will not delay His help.
The nations rant and rave in anger, but
when God speaks the earth melts in submission
and kingdoms totter into ruin.
The Lord of hosts is with us, the
God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Stop and meditate upon this profound truth.
Come, think of Yahweh's marvels, the astounding things
He has done in the world.
He puts an end to war throughout the
world.
He smashes the bow and snaps the spear,
burning vehicles of war with fire.
Be still and know that I am God.
I am the God of Israel.
I will be exalted among the heathen.
I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Stop and consider this powerful truth.
All right.
We have here basically two contrasting scenes.
We have a world coming apart at the
seams.
Chaos, confusion, upheaval, turmoil.
It's like everything is helter-skelter everywhere the
psalmist looks.
It looks bad.
It looks bleak.
It looks fearful, terrifying even.
You know, what do the righteous do when
the foundations are shaken?
But we also have a contrasting scene in
heaven of the Almighty sitting on His throne.
And there He is, unshakable, immovable, unchanging, heavily
involved in the lives of His people.
Now there have been many periods down through
the years that fearful saints have turned to
this psalm for comfort and assurance.
It's been 2,500 years since this was
written, at least.
And there have been many periods of time
where God's people have faced terrifying world events.
In fact, Martin Luther, by the way, this
was his favorite psalm, Psalm 46.
And all Europe was in an uproar with
Reformation.
There were riots and just all kinds of
stuff.
And that was the psalm that served as
the basis of a mighty fortress is our
God.
It's his commentary on Psalm 46.
So, you know, God's people have turned to
this psalm many different times down through the
ages.
But I believe that we are coming to
the very end of the age.
Man's day is coming to an end.
Now, we've been hearing that preached for 40
years at least.
And it was true 40 years ago that
we were coming to the end of the
age.
But we are down to minutes now on
the world's clock.
We really are.
I believe that with all my heart.
And this message that is presented in this
psalm is very important to us now.
We're coming into a time when it's going
to be increasingly more important.
I want you to just consider the last
decade, you know, because we forget in our
busy life and all that we forget the
stuff that happens.
But I just want you to consider a
few things.
I've got a few snapshots here I'm going
to share with you.
I just want to want you to think
about some of the things that you have
witnessed over the last 10 years.
Now, these are only a few, okay?
I could put dozens up here.
But in 2004, Indonesian tsunami that killed 226
,000 people.
And 2008, the Myanmar cyclone that killed 138
,000 people.
And the Sichuan earthquake the same year, 87
,000 people.
The Haiti earthquake, a quarter of a million
people killed.
The Japanese tsunami and radiation disaster, we don't
know what the fallout is going to be
on that.
But it hasn't just been these kind of
calamities.
There's also been increasing social unrest.
You know, for instance, the Greece riots in
2009 and then the following year, Toronto and
London riots.
As economies begin collapsing and money becomes tight
and people become angry because they don't get
all the things that they wanted in life.
You're going to see an increase in this
kind of thing.
And in the Middle East, we're seeing riots
in Egypt and Bahrain and some of the
other countries over there.
You're going to see this stuff happening more
and more in our day and age.
Now the U.S. has been fairly inoculated,
but those days are coming to an end.
Those days are coming to an end.
Now, we have had some things in our
last decade, haven't we?
9-11, who could have imagined?
And I've got a couple of friends here
who were very close to that whole situation.
Then Katrina in 2005, and now what we're
facing is our economy is continually diminishing and
collapsing before our very eyes.
And our national leaders are lying to us.
They are lying to us about it.
And we have a president who seems absolutely
bent on, at the very least, diminishing the
United States as the world power.
In fact, he's already pretty much accomplished that
single-handedly.
He reminds me of a teenager with a
credit card.
He can't spend that money fast enough.
And I don't know if he's just in
something like that and he's just so out
of it that he doesn't know what he's
doing and God is just orchestrating events for
his own eternal purposes.
Or if he is just a very evil
man and he is bent on an agenda
to bring us into line with the other
world powers that are emerging in this earth.
Because we know by scriptures telling us that
we're headed somewhere.
Listen folks, let me tell you something.
We're not talking about a left-behind movie.
We are talking about the reality that we
are moving into right now.
It's happening right before our eyes.
Jesus said that the last days would be
like birth pangs and it's almost as if
earth is experiencing the convulsions, the increasing convulsions
of a world that's coming apart at the
seams.
That's the way it seems.
And he made a couple of statements when
he was talking about what things would be
like in the end times.
And I think they're, I'm just going to
show them and mention them because they're interesting
to me.
The first one was in Matthew 24, he
said, the one who endures to the end,
the one who endures to the end, he
will be saved.
And then at a different time he said,
I don't think he knew the answer to
this really.
When the Son of Man comes, will he
find faith on the earth?
And what I want to say is that
I believe he will find faith on the
earth.
He's going to find faith on the earth.
And let me just share with you, I've
talked a lot, I've wrote about faith down
through the years and basically faith is having
a sight of God, of God in the
invisible realm, the spiritual realm.
That's what faith is.
You know, you can operate in the physical
and in the natural in life, right?
You don't need God to do that.
We haven't needed God in American Christianity for
the most part.
We can do it on our own.
We have great programs and we know how
to make money and we know how to
market things and we know how to do
church.
We know how to do all that.
We don't really need God to keep the
church going.
We're doing pretty good.
But that day is coming to an end.
I'm telling you it is.
And what we need, dear ones, is a
much greater sight of God, individually, personally.
We don't need great preachers.
We don't need new books or, you know,
that's going to somehow say the right thing
or say things in the right way or
something and that's going to all change it.
No.
You know, in Ezekiel, there was a time
when God's people were really struggling and the
Lord spoke to Ezekiel and basically this is
what he said.
He said, even if I sent Noah and
Job to these people, they're not going to
listen.
They are beyond the point where words are
going to bring them into the kind of
faith that they need.
So therefore, I will answer them, he says.
And that is a frightening thought.
I will answer them.
Well, I want you to know that we
can make it through this thing and there
are going to be many of God's people
who will.
And this psalm is kind of like a
blueprint of how to do it.
If I could kind of make it such
a simplistic little message like that.
Let me just put it this way.
We need fresh and a deeper revelation of
God as our refuge and as our strength
and as our helper.
We really do.
We need that.
I need that.
This word refuge, actually it comes from the
verb form to flee and really what it
means is in those times, if you were
being chased down by enemies or something, that
there was a place where you could flee
to a refuge.
And that's what that word means.
And basically what it's saying here by tying
the Lord into it is that we need
to learn to make him the first place
we turn to in our fear.
We need to see the Lord as our
bulwark and as our high tower, as our
mighty fortress.
And the greater the sight of God as
the place we turn, the easier it will
be to turn there in our time of
need.
And he's called our strength.
Here it is, this psalmist begins this psalm
right off the bat with this strong statement.
God is our refuge and our strength, a
very present help in times of trouble.
His strength is for people who see their
weakness.
You know if you're strong in yourself, you're
not going to need God.
You don't need God.
You've been strong in yourself your whole life.
You live in a prosperous culture.
You haven't needed God, maybe.
Maybe that's the way it's been for you.
Or maybe you've experienced enough in life that
you have been put into a position where
everything has unraveled around you and you've found
out how very, very, very weak you really
are.
You're blessed if you've come into that revelation
and have seen God, his omnipotent power there
for you.
You're blessed if you have made that your
own and it's real to you.
And a very present help.
Some of the other translations, I like the
way they say it.
An exceedingly ready help in the time of
distress.
A helper who is always found in times
of trouble.
An ever-present help in distress.
One said, sovereign aid he has brought us
in the hour of need.
And hour of peril.
Now here's the picture that forms in my
mind in regards to this concept is God
is enthroned in heaven.
But he's not just sitting back, you know,
kind of lethargically or casually.
No, he is on the edge of his
seat with his eyes on his beloved ones.
The righteous on this earth.
He is on the edge of his seat
ready at a moment's notice to instantly throw
himself into their need.
That's our God.
Now if you don't need him, that's another
matter.
But for those who need him, they will
find that he will be there in their
hour of need.
The truth is, dear ones, is we all
face times of distress.
But the point I'm making is I believe
we're going to face them in an increasing
way in the days ahead in many different
forms.
We're seeing the economy just really wither up
in America and we're seeing all this wild,
erratic weather.
We're going to see that increasingly.
I believe that.
But you know what?
We need times of distress.
We don't want them.
I don't want them.
I want to just live a cush life,
to be honest with you.
That's what I want.
I want things smooth.
But you know what?
When things are smooth like that, I know
for myself, I tend to become increasingly complacent.
I tend to become increasingly independent of the
Lord.
I tend to become increasingly more prideful.
I need something to shake my world, to
keep me on the edge of my seat.
Three of you agree.
The rest of you are in total rebellions.
You know, but I do, I am very
comforted to know that my God is a
very present help in times of trouble.
In fact, you know, when Jesus was talking
about the end times, he said when you
start seeing all this stuff happening, the stuff
that you are witnessing, do you know what
a privilege it is to live right now?
As frightening as it is, it is a
great privilege.
And once we cross over the line and
get up into glory and we meet saints
from, you know, back in the dark ages
or back in Noah's time or whatever, you
know, just all these different periods of life.
And they're going to say, you lived in
the last time, you lived through all the
stuff that came on this earth.
And you'll just have this kind of very
humble pride.
Yeah, it really was nothing, you know.
Jesus said when you see all these things
happening, recognize that he is near, right at
the door.
Right there, right at the door.
Now here's the bottom line with this point.
If you have learned to depend on the
Lord, not just in talk.
You know, can I just say that in
the days ahead, we're going to find out
if we really believe what we say we
believe.
It's easy to talk the talk, you know,
when there's nothing pressing you.
But when everything unravels around you, you're going
to find out what you really believe.
And many people are going to find out
they don't believe.
But anyway, if you truly have learned to
live your life trusting the Lord, isn't that
what faith means?
Or does it mean just call yourself an
evangelical and just go to a good evangelical
church?
No, faith is tied into trust, isn't it?
Dependence.
If you have learned in your life to
rely upon the Lord for everything, when everything
starts unraveling around you, you are going to
automatically rush to that great almighty refuge.
But if you have been accustomed to running
to Egypt every time you face some kind
of problem in life, if you've become accustomed
to relying upon yourself to get you through,
then I feel like, I think this is
true, that you are going to discover that
you have a faith that is non-existent.
All right, number two.
The most high God in our midst.
Look at verse four.
There is a river whose streams make glad
the city of God, the holy dwelling places
of the most high.
God himself is living in that city.
Therefore, it stands unmoved despite the turmoil everywhere
and so on.
Dear ones, we are part of the city
of God.
Now, you know, from a natural standpoint, a
city refers to a condensed area of population,
you know, where a whole mass of people
live kind of one on top of the
other.
You have a hundred thousand people living within
a few acres or something or other.
That's what we consider a city from a
natural standpoint and even from a biblical standpoint,
Old Testament standpoint.
But the New Testament changed all that.
The city of God became the heavenly Jerusalem.
And you and I, those of you who
are truly converted, I want to throw that
disclaimer in there, but those of us who
truly walk with God, we are citizens of
that heavenly Jerusalem right now.
God looks down upon earth and the city
of God isn't just one location, it's God's
people spread throughout the world's populations.
But to the Lord, it's one city.
God is dwelling in that city of God
and you and I are dwelling in him,
the most high.
Now, there's many fabulous promises made to those
who abide in Christ, to those who dwell
in the most high and, you know, the
most famous one that we all know of
is Psalm 91.
And I'm just going to blow through a
few verses there real quick, just to kind
of get this in us.
Verse 1, he who dwells in the shelter
of the most high will abide in the
shadow of the Almighty.
You can say to Yahweh, my refuge, my
fortress, my God in whom I trust.
Verse 5, you will not need to be
afraid of any nocturnal terror nor of any
danger that is abroad in daylight.
Neither the plague that stalks the dead of
night nor the epidemic which devastates at midday.
Though a thousand fall at your side, 10
,000 at your right hand, you yourself will
remain unscathed.
You have only to look on and see
how evil men are punished.
You who can say, Yahweh, my refuge, even
the most high, your dwelling place, no evil
will befall you nor will any plague come
near your tent.
For he who puts you under his angel's
charge to guard you wherever you go.
Praise the Lord.
We are going to witness things like we
have just witnessed over the last couple of
days.
This is pretty astounding.
I have a USA Today here that says
damage is catastrophic.
We don't get headlines like that in America
very often, but I think we will.
And I think that you and I are
going to witness unbelievable things in the days
ahead.
I believe that.
I believe you are watching the entire world
coming together into a one world global mindset
where all the kings of the earth are
united in harmony together under the anti-Christ
spirit against God.
And I believe you are going to witness
that.
You are witnessing right now it happened.
And you know, it's probably, we're only probably
a few years away before we have a
one world currency or one catastrophe away because
the people who are behind this whole push
are looking for opportunities to capitalize on to
push forth their agenda.
And that's what you're going to see happening.
Every time some new catastrophe happens, they're going
to seize the opportunity to push their agenda
further into place.
And you're going to see an increase in
the pride of man to unbelievable proportions.
In fact, you know, the anti-Christ, that
is, his whole mentality is he is full
of the devil who said, I will be
like the most high.
That was what the devil said.
I will be like the most high.
And that's what this man is going to
be in.
That's the spirit he's going to be in.
But at the same time, if you're dwelling
in the presence of the most high, you're
going to be coming into something much richer
and much fuller that's going to take you
through.
The key here, the key, this is so
important, the key to this part of what
I'm kind of sharing with you this morning
is to continually and keep humbling yourself before
God.
Your revelation of the most high God is
going to be in direct proportion to your
revelation of your great need to come down.
And you know, it's it's only as we
come down that God becomes bigger in our
minds.
I, if we're full of ourself and everything
in life is all about me and who
I am and what people say and think
about me, then God is just going to
be very tiny.
But if you get over yourself, if I
could put it that way, if you can
get to where you're humbling yourself and allowing
God to get the glory, allowing God to
be God.
The most high, you're going to find yourself
in the right place when things really start
happening.
Isaiah said, the proud look of man will
be abased and the loftiness of man will
be humbled and Yahweh alone will be exalted
in that day.
That's referring to the day of the Lord.
That's where we're headed.
And we have to decide, is that where
we want to be?
Do we want to be there down?
You got to decide that.
All right.
Number three, Yahweh and his marvelous works.
We need a greater sight of this God
called Yahweh.
This name comes from the same root as
the name that the Lord used when he
revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush.
I am.
It's the same root Yahweh.
I am.
I am that I am.
The word Yahweh was so holy to the
Israelites that they would not pronounce it Yahweh
Jehovah.
It's the same.
It just depends on how you pronounce it.
But it was so holy to them that
they would not pronounce it.
And that's why many Bibles, when it has
the word Yahweh, they translate it as the
Lord in small caps.
And it's used 6,000 times, something like
that in the Old Testament.
And it's almost, you know, most translations, it's
the Lord.
Some translations have translated it as Yahweh or
Jehovah.
But anyway, Yahweh means the self-existent, independent,
immutable, ever-present, all-filling I am.
Let me put it this way.
Yahweh means this way is all the different
names that God has been known by, pull
them all together and place them under the
name Yahweh.
You know, because this is God's name.
All the others are revealed attributes of his
character or his being.
But Yahweh is his name.
And we need a greater revelation of him
as the great I am.
Now it says here, the psalmist gives us
a hint.
What's he tell us to do?
Come and think about Yahweh's marvels, the astounding
things he has done in the world.
Now let me just ask you a few
questions.
Have you ever sat and really considered creation?
You know, and just the way millions of
different life forms, centipedes and antelope and elephants
and all the different millions of plant forms,
they still haven't identified them all at this
point.
And you know, the amazing thing about creation
is how it all works in perfect harmony.
In fact, God, Yahweh, as the creator, he
was so amazing that he worked it out
to where there was this big bang in
space one day and it all just fell
into place this way.
Talking about an amazing creator.
But anyway, have you ever considered just that
aspect of who he is?
You should.
Just go out and look at animals and
how their bodies are put together.
Just your body.
Your hands are amazing things, you know?
And you have two eyes and two ears
and just the whole, the ear mechanism is
amazing.
The eye mechanism is amazing.
The blood, just all of it, what we
are.
Do you ever consider that?
If you did, you would probably get a
bigger sight of Yahweh.
And what about the way God has worked
in mankind?
Consider how the Lord way back in eternity
past made decrees and set into motion his
purposes that have unfolded down through 6,000
years and how everything has come about exactly
how God spoke it into being before time
began.
And it's amazing.
You see it all work out in scripture,
in the different stories, all the thousands of
stories in the Bible and stuff.
You see it all just unfolding person by
person, events, countries, and it's all keeping in
perfect line with Yahweh's mindset, his purposes.
How about just in church history?
One of the things that shaped this ministry
into what it is, and this was big,
trust me, is way back at the beginning,
God put it in my heart to read
the biographies of great men and women of
God.
And I mean at least for 20 years,
I mean almost nonstop, there was always a
book next to my bed.
And I read it.
And every night I was reading those books.
Some of them I've read probably a dozen
times.
God Smuggler and the lives of Hudson Taylor
and Jonathan Goforth and some of those guys.
I'd read them over and over and over.
How do you think I had the faith
to believe God to create a Pure Life
Ministries when everything was against Kathy and me
out in California?
When we showed up in Kentucky and had
nothing to our name and everyone around us
looked at us like we were weirdos from
California, which we were.
But in spite of that, I could believe
God to create an awesome ministry.
And He did it.
But you know how that got into me
was by reading those stories.
I always felt like if God can do
it through them, He can do it through
us.
Why not?
I'm willing to believe Him for it.
And He's done it.
And what about your own life?
How much time do you really sit and
consider?
Just think about your life before you came
to the Lord.
Think about your life before you came to
the Lord.
Just lost.
Out of it.
Oblivious.
How was God going to save you?
Was there something in you that drove you
into God?
No.
There was nothing in you and there was
nothing in me.
We were wicked through and through.
There was nothing in us that was going
to compel us to God.
No, it was the work of the Holy
Spirit.
Do you ever stop and consider that and
thank the Lord for that?
And that was just to get you saved.
I don't need to remind this bunch what
God got when He got you saved, right?
Think of all the work that the Lord
has done, how He's had to constantly balance
His discipline, His encouragement.
If He disciplined you too much, you'd start
whining like a baby.
If He gave you too much encouragement, you'd
puff right up with pride.
Only God could handle you, right?
I'm not even going to get into Dave
Ravenhill's story.
Wow, talk about frightening.
And there's another part to this and it's
also very important.
Be still and know that I am God.
You know, dear ones, the devil has been
very successful at one thing in his assault
on the American church.
It has been to get us in a
frantic, frenzied lifestyle, get us addicted to the
culture, the pleasures, all the stuff that he
offers us, to get us so addicted to
all those things that we would feel like
we have to have more.
But you don't find God in that frantic
lifestyle.
You find God by having a solid time
regularly where you quiet your soul, where God
knows He's going to find you on your
knees faithfully every morning and He's going to
be able to come in and move into
your space and bring His presence into your
inside world and make Himself real to you
and increase your faith, increase your sight of
Him.
If you don't have a time with God,
dear ones, you are not going to make
it.
I'm not trying to reduce it to a
formula.
I'm talking about the branch and the vine.
I'm talking about the great need we have
to be attached to God, to have His
nourishment, His spiritual nourishment flowing through us daily,
coming through and helping us, invigorating us, lifing
us, giving us the wisdom we need to
go forth.
You're not going to make it.
And you're in a delusion and a fantasy
world if you think you are.
Some of you really need to hear this
word and start taking it seriously.
I'm not mad at you, okay?
Well, a few of you I'm pretty ticked
at, but, you know, we're spiritual beings.
You're not going to make it through by
storing food and ammunition.
And those of you that are holding out
hope on the rapture, why don't you hold
out hope on the rapture but make sure
your life is right with God.
You can believe in the rapture.
I hope it happens.
I really do hope it happens.
Lord, it'd be okay, you know?
But I ain't putting all my marbles in
that bag.
No way.
Too much is at stake.
I'm going to have the kind of faith
and life in God that's going to take
me through whatever hell comes upon this earth.
You're spiritual beings.
You serve a spiritual God and we're in
a spiritual war that's going to be unbelievable.
We've got to know how to quiet ourselves
and let God build us up spiritually.
All right, I'm going to wrap it up.
We do need a greater revelation of God
as our refuge, as our strength, as our
helper when we need Him.
We need a greater revelation of the Most
High God.
We need to really, in a very real
way, know what it means to dwell in
the presence of God.
And those who want that, He is going
to make that happen for you increasingly.
And we need a greater revelation of this
Great I Am, the Great I Am and
all His marvels because then we'll have sight
in our mind's eye.
We'll have the sight of seeing ourselves go
through just like the children of Israel in
Egypt.
Who could have imagined what God was going
to do to set them free?
And you'll see thousands falling on either side
of you and it won't come near you
in a certain sense spiritually because you're going
to go through.
We need that.
But there's another part of it that I've
got to mention just wrapping it up.
There's the aspect of preparing our hearts.
I hope that the Lord won't have to
say of us like He had to say
of the people of Israel in the wilderness,
that they were a people who did not
prepare their hearts.
I want my heart to be prepared for
whatever may come.
When I went in the Los Angeles Sheriff's
Academy back in 1981, I knew sort of
what I was getting myself into.
Sort of.
There was nothing I could do to prepare
myself for the emotional abuse I would take
it from those DIs and all that.
But I knew what the physical training was
going to be.
And you know what I did?
I started getting ready.
I started getting prepared physically.
I was out running.
I was exercising.
I was lifting weights.
I was doing whatever I could do to
prepare myself because I knew the academy.
I had my date and I'm getting closer
and closer and it's like the anticipation and
the fear is building in me.
I wanted to be ready so I could
handle what they were going to throw at
me.
And so I show up at the academy
and it was far worse than I thought
it was going to be.
But there were guys there, I was absolutely
astounded.
They showed up there out of shape, sloppy,
flabby.
They were clearly undisciplined and I'm looking at
them and I'm thinking, what were you thinking?
Some of them came from across the country.
We were from all over the country.
Believe me, L.A. If you live in
L.A. you know you don't want to
be a cop so they have to go
outside L.A. to get people stupid enough.
But some of these guys really went through
a lot to get there but didn't do
nothing to prepare themselves.
And they washed out right away.
They didn't make it.
What's it going to be like for us
in the days ahead?
Well, I've got one more thing here that
we should look at.
But that phrase that keeps surfacing in this
song, the Lord of hosts, the God of
Jacob.
Let me put it this way, the commander
of heaven's armies who with one word created
the universe.
With one word can move all the physical
forces at work in our planet.
This almighty God has covenanted himself to us
as his people.
He is the God of Jacob.
He has covenanted himself to you.
He has inextricably tied his honor to your
life if you're one of his.
And you know in the L.A. academy
the D.I.'s, their whole deal was to
try to get as many people to quit
as they could because they only wanted those
who were most determined.
But it's not going to be that way
for you and me.
It's going to be more like marine boot
camp, you know, where you're going to go
through.
There's no getting out of it in the
marine boot camp.
You know in the sheriff's academy you always
knew and that was the hardest part of
it, believe me.
The hardest part was knowing that I can
walk away right now.
I don't have to subject myself to this.
But in the marine boot camp it's not
that way, man.
You're at Camp Lejeune or whatever.
You are there for 12 weeks or whatever
it is of hell and you will go
through.
I mean you could sneak out of the
barracks and somehow get off the base in
the middle of the night and go AWOL,
you know, which is like breaking your covenant
with God.
You can do that.
You can commit apostasy if you wish.
But outside of that, God is going to
take you through.
But what is it going to be like
for you?
Do you know what it's like for guys
to show up in the marine boot camp
out of shape?
They can't just, like the L.A. academy,
they just quit.
But you don't quit in the marine boot
camp.
You go through.
But it's not easy.
Dear ones, we have to prepare our hearts.
We have to prepare our hearts.
The times of all the fun and games
in the evangelical church are coming to an
end.
That time is over.
We've had our fun, you know, we've had
all our church things and all that stuff.
That time is coming to an end.
Before long they are going to be hating
us more than they already do.
You're going to discover what's inside you.
Because God wants to know, Jesus wants to
know, will I find faith on this earth
when I come back?
Am I going to find that you really
do believe what you say you believe about
me?
Or has it just been a bunch of
lip service?
You know, so the mission I want to
leave with you is that this is very
sobering.
It's terrifying really in the natural.
And if your whole life is wed to
this world, I hope that what I've given
you will depress you today.
Because Babylon is falling.
But just as true is if your life
is wed with the Most High God.
He's going to take you through.
And you will find that you have what
you need when you need it.
He will be there powerfully for you.
He will give you what you need.
You just got to prepare your heart.
You know, and He's going to see you
through.