Verse 19, it's the occasion
when Jesus sat at the well and met
this woman from Samaria.
And she said to Jesus, Our fathers worshipped
in this mountain, and ye say that in
Jerusalem is the place where men ought to
worship.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the
hour cometh when ye shall neither in this
mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.
He worshipped ye know not what.
We know what we worship for salvation is
of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when
the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
spirit and in truth.
For the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a spirit, and they that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in
truth.
That's all we'll read there at this time.
I'll read another verse in John 9.
Jesus had just healed a man who was
born blind and caused a certain amount of
controversy amongst the people because it happened to
be the Sabbath day when he had done
this.
And Jesus shouldn't have been doing things like
that on the Sabbath.
And so they had quite a controversy over
it and argued with the man who was
healed and the man's parents.
He says, well, you just ask our son.
He's the one that was healed.
And he's of age.
You can ask him.
They came back to him.
And then the man began to get a
little more bold.
They were afraid of being put out of
the synagogue.
The man got bold in the matter.
And they said, this man's a sinner.
Give God the praise.
And he says, whether he be a sinner
or no, I know not.
One thing I know, that whereas I was
blind, now I see.
Then said they to him again, what did
he do thee?
How open he thine eyes?
He answered them, I have told you already,
and ye did not hear.
Wherefore would ye hear it again?
Will ye also be his disciples?
Then they reviled him and said, thou art
his disciple.
We are Moses' disciple.
We know that God's spoken to Moses.
As for this fellow, we know not from
whence he is.
The man answered and said to them, why,
hearing is a marvelous thing that ye know
not from whence he is, and yet he
hath opened mine eyes.
Now we know that God heareth not sinners,
but of any man be a worshipper of
God, and doeth his will, him he hereth.
This matter of worship, you'll notice in both
the instances which I read.
Jesus told the woman that God was looking
for worshippers, those who would worship him in
spirit and in truth.
And this man said, if any man be
a worshipper of God.
And God wants to bring his people I
believe into a higher form of worship.
And I don't think we know much about
worship, true worship yet in the church, because
in my own experience, worship has simply been
a time in the beginning of a meeting
when you set aside half an hour or
15 minutes for praise unto God.
Well, that is true praise, but it's not
necessarily worship.
And what I have to say about worship,
I'm not trying to downgrade this other.
That's a part of spiritual worship and approach
unto God.
But the fact remains, God is still seeking
worshippers.
He's still seeking worshippers.
And he will continue to seek worshippers until
he's found that people who worship him in
spirit and in truth.
And I know there's some churches where they
show you how to worship.
And there's a system attached to it.
This is how you worship.
But we're not talking about that.
We're talking about becoming a worshipper.
And when you become a worshipper, that's what
you are.
And your life, your whole life is unto
God a worship.
Not just something you do.
Worship isn't just something you do.
It's something you become.
And then when you become that, then you
worship all the time.
Don't think now we're saying you shouldn't, you
know, the kind of worship you have is
no good.
It's alright to worship in the manner you
are if you're following the Lord with all
your heart today.
But it doesn't necessarily mean that you're a
true worshipper.
And God wants true worshippers.
Coming back to the Old Testament, I think
Abraham was a good illustration of worship in
the Scriptures.
Abraham was called of God to leave his
country and to grow into a strange land,
into a place that God would show him.
And we're told that he obeyed when he
heard the call of God.
He obeyed and he went out.
And obedience becomes the first condition of true
worship.
I don't care how well a man can
worship according to the way men have systematized
it.
It doesn't matter if you can worship and
meet all the requisites, you know, of the
particular system you're in.
If you haven't learned to do God's will,
you know absolutely nothing about worship.
And this man, I know the Jews said
to him, you were born in sin.
Who are you to teach us?
But he gave some very wonderful teaching there.
He says, if any man will be a
worshipper of God and do his will, God
will hear him.
And doing God's will becomes the highest form
of worship.
In all that we're saying these days, we're
very concerned and we pray that God will
mete out a portion of truth to every
person, no matter what level he is on.
And I think there is, even in the
song this morning, and in something I think
that Tom mentioned, there's something to the fact
that that the Lord had food for everyone.
Or was it in a prophecy?
I even forget.
That even the young, that the Lord was
bringing them in along with the older folks.
And that's something that I'm very concerned about.
That we do not seem to segregate and,
oh, this is deep teaching now.
This is just for the adults.
And the children are not involved.
And I know it often seems that way.
But I believe that if the Spirit of
the Lord is really in our midst, He's
able to take a word or a song
or something and to feed and to meet
the needs of the very young.
And the very young can be touched and
broken under the hearing of the Word, though
perhaps their mind isn't grasping very much of
it.
And that's the kind of a service we
want to come into, where there'll be food
there for everyone.
I'm not saying it's wrong necessarily to have
classes for the young and different ages.
But I believe God's order is really that
in the ministration of the Spirit in the
assembly, there'll be something for all ages, physically
as well as spiritually.
And just to segregate them by age doesn't
necessarily solve the problem.
Because you'll find children, you'll find young people,
maybe 10 or 11 years old, that'll have
an understanding of God and His ways that's
far beyond some old people in the church.
And Jesus, at the age of 12, was
able to confound the elders there in Israel
because of the wisdom that God had given
him.
And so you come to our house, we
try and fit everyone around the one table,
little children and all.
Not that maybe the babes will partake of
the meat that's on the table, but there'll
be something there, something there for them.
And the plants that grow, the trees, we
don't expect that that little seedling that has
come up a few inches high, we don't
expect when we receive a torrent of rain
that it's going to receive very much.
But we do expect it will receive that
portion it needs for that particular occasion.
And the tree will receive more and more.
Whenever I get talking along that line, I
can't help but think of that massive tree
I saw down in Sequoia National Park.
Many saw the General Sherman tree in Sequoia
Park.
And this room is, what is it, 42
feet?
No, it's a 12-foot priest trailer, 36
feet.
This tree was 32 feet in diameter, almost
from wall to wall, 275 feet high.
I think they estimated it weighed about 6
,000 tons.
And I sort of calculated a little bit
and I figured I could probably build about
50 or 60 homes out of it.
And apparently it started to grow about the
time of Abraham, way back in those days.
Once it was just a little sapling, just
maybe receiving two or three drops of rain
for every shower that came down.
But now I couldn't estimate the amount of
water it requires.
So you see, it isn't a case of,
well, this one can only receive so much,
so we'll just tell you so much.
But the Word of God comes down like
a rain and just floods God's heritage that
every person might receive.
That which they need for that particular time.
And the rest flows on down into the
streams and creeks and rivers and finally into
the great oceans.
And so it is that truth comes from
God, waters His inheritance, and goes back to
God.
For of Him and through Him and unto
Him are all things.
And the promise from God is that His
Word will never come back to Him empty.
It comes back to Him because we can't
contain it all.
It goes back.
His promise is it will not return to
Him void, but it will accomplish the purpose
for which He sent it forth and goes
back to Him.
Why does it go back to Him?
That He might send it forth again.
And so all the rivers run into the
sea, but the sea is not full.
Why?
Because God takes it out of the sea
and brings it over our land again and
lets it fall again.
And as you have required a portion of
the latter rain in years past and days
past, so now you might require much more.
And the time will even come when you
don't even need the rain in harvest time.
But there are still those who do need
it.
And so we just pray that God will
just do that which He wants to do
in every life.
That no one will feel that, well, I'm
way down here, you know.
And often times those who feel they're way
up here are really down here, you know.
And vice versa, often times those who feel,
oh, I'm a nobody, you know, they're great
in God's sight.
For He that is least, He would be
great among you, let Him be least of
all.
And the meek are those who sort of
feel, well, you know, I just don't have
it, I'm nobody.
But blessed are the meek for they shall
inherit the earth.
So we don't want to judge where a
person is in God, we just leave that
with the Lord.
And pray that God will be faithful in
sending the Word over and over again, and
that we will be faithful in our responsibility
to receive it, embrace it, and walk in
it, until it brings us into a greater
and greater measure of maturity.
And so Abraham, his first step in worshipping
God was in obedience, doing God's will.
And he lingered a while, I know, in
Haran before he had finally found the place
that God wanted him in Canaan.
But God continued to deal with him and
separated him from his relatives and brought him
down into the land of Canaan, but still
as a stranger in that land.
And we're told that Abraham came to Shechem
and built there an altar.
And the Lord appeared to him and he
worshipped the Lord at Shechem.
And Shechem means shoulder, which in the Scriptures
is identified as a place of strength, power.
And God, the high priest, carried the names
of the children of Israel on his shoulder.
And it's a place of strength and a
place of power.
And that's where God brings us first when
we come into him.
And God is very present.
He bore the children of Israel on eagles'
wings as he brought them out of Egypt.
Very sovereign.
And he does it all for us.
And we expect him to do that, and
God expects to do it.
He doesn't expect anything else.
Just to be carried by him.
And many people feel that's the ultimate in
worship.
God's a giving God.
God's on the giving hand.
I'm on the receiving end.
The more I can get from God, the
more faith is manifested.
And how to receive from God, there's books
about it.
And it's all wonderful.
God does that.
He wants us as children to keep receiving
and receiving.
But the burden of the Spirit of God
in the Scriptures is that we don't stop
along the highway that God is leading us
from here on to his ultimate perfection, you
see.
The burden of the Spirit is that we
don't stop along the way.
Because man is always inclined that way.
And so even as we encourage people to
partake of God's present blessings, there's always the
reminder of the Spirit of the Lord that
even as we're partaking of it, not to
lose sight of what God is really after.
Because it's so easy to do that, especially
if there's some tremendous manifestation of God's goodness
and blessing in our midst.
Oh, if we could just retain this, you
see.
Just retain it.
And we find it difficult.
It's difficult to retain the blessing of God
so often.
And so it's good to come to Shishun
and erect the altar and worship the Lord
at Shishun.
But Abraham dwelt in a tent.
And somehow God wouldn't just give him that
feeling of finally I've found my home.
People get so disturbed in the church when
they move from one church to another trying
to find a true home.
And then just nicely get settled and buy
themselves another pew and another congregation.
And then they don't feel at home.
But then they bought that pew.
And just got it paid for and they
feel, I don't feel at home here.
And so that's why it's good always to
be tent-like in character.
Always to be tent-like.
Because a tent you can take down and
fold it up and move on.
And you say, how does that apply in
this day and hour?
Well, I admit it's a little difficult.
It's a little difficult to be tent-like.
But may God give us that in our
spirit.
That no matter what kind of structures we
get involved in individually in our personal lives
or in some religious work, may the Lord
keep us tent-like.
In other words, something you can leave.
Never get involved with anything you can't drop.
And that goes for the millionaire as well
as for the man who's just living hand
to mouth.
Never get involved with anything you can't just
drop when God says drop it.
Keep that tent-like spirit about you.
So Abraham didn't feel at home at Shechem
and he moved on to Bethel.
Bethel means house of God.
And, oh, I think we've come to our
Bethel many of us at different times.
And what a new revelation and what a
new sense of worship there was as we
worshiped at Bethel.
House of God.
We're not just alone.
We're in union with God's people.
And there's been a gathering together of God's
people.
And how precious it is, the house of
God.
The house of God.
Jacob, you'll remember, many years later, landed at
this same spot which was called Luz at
the first.
On his way up north, he was fleeing
from his brother Esau.
And he gathered the stones about him and
laid down and made his bed for the
night.
And during the night, he saw the heavens
open and the vision of God with the
angels ascending and descending on this ladder.
And something that is seldom pointed out, he
saw God at the top of it.
God is at the top of the ladder.
And the angels were ascending and descending.
Jesus said, Hereafter you shall see the heavens
open and the angels of God ascending and
descending on the Son of Man.
It was Jesus, that ladder.
But it wasn't just Jesus but it was
that one individual who was Christ in union
with His people.
The angels of God ascending and descending on
the Son of Man.
Because the Son of Man is now exalted
in the heavens and His feet are here
in the earth and His arms are here
in the earth and His body is here
in the earth.
And the angels of God ascend and descend
on the Son of Man.
That's why there's great angel activity in the
earth today as the house of God comes
unto her own.
But don't get too caught away with angels.
God's at the top of the ladder.
The angels are sent forth to be ministering
spirits, to minister on behalf of those who
shall be heirs of salvation.
And it's wonderful to know that they're doing
that.
It's often disastrous when men see them.
Because immediately a man sees an angel, he's
a super-spiritual person.
So God doesn't give us too much of
that.
He does show them sometimes.
People see them.
That's good, wonderful.
Whether we see them or not, they're there.
They're ministering spirits on our behalf.
Ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
And so Bethel is a wonderful place of
worship.
A new sense of worship at Bethel as
we see ourselves in union with the body
of Christ.
But then it says there was a famine
in the land and Abraham went down into
Egypt.
And we question God sometimes why He sends
these famines when no sooner do we find
a beautiful form of life and a form
of worship in the body of Christ and
suddenly there's a famine.
And we saw it way back in what
they call Lateran days when there was a
real anticipation of the body of Christ coming
together with the body and a move in
that direction and wonderful fellowship.
But there came a famine in the land.
There came a famine in the land.
Because in all that God is doing unless
we keep His ultimate in mind, we're going
to fall short of His purpose.
On the other hand, we cannot sidestep all
these various altars because we see the ultimate.
And there's those who see what God really
wants in His people way out there, that
great and wonderful thing.
And everything else, I can't take part in
it because I see that.
And so I can't get involved with what
you're doing on this low level.
And so we want to go to the
ultimate without going through the means.
And for many years there's been rich teaching
on the holiest of all realm of the
temple.
The outer court, holy place, holiest of all.
You'll find it in many of the old
fundamental churches.
But they don't want the means.
They don't want gifts of the Spirit and
tongues and prophecy, interpretation, because there's something better.
Paul said there's something better.
I've shown you a more excellent way.
The realm of perfect love.
That's what we want.
That's better.
I know it's better.
But there's no doorway into the holiest of
all.
You've got to go through the holy place
to go into the holiest of all.
And so we're so inclined that way.
We see something great.
Well, I can't go along with this because
I see something greater.
So we cannot deny the means, and yet
we cannot settle for the means, you see.
I mean, we can't proceed without the means.
To come to God's intention, we must follow
along in these various, these stepping stones that
lead us unto that desired place.
And I believe the Lord is concerned that
we do not try to make it the
sure thing.
We try to make shortcuts.
Because we're inclined to make shortcuts unto God.
And we'll miss out if we do.
We'll miss out in the beauty that the
Lord is seeking to bring forth in His
people if we try and make these shortcuts.
Like the fruit tree that brings forth its
leaves in the spring.
And it says, Oh, I want to bring
forth that fruit.
That's all I want.
And the blossoms begin to appear.
I don't want that.
Cut it off.
I don't want that.
I want the fruit.
You see.
But the gardener says, No, I won't do
that.
I won't cut off the blossoms because if
I do, there won't be any fruit.
On the other hand, the blossoms come and
the tree says, This is beautiful.
This is what I've longed for.
I just want it to be a beauty
and a praise unto God and worship the
Lord in the beauty of holiness.
That's all I want.
But then after a season, the famine comes.
The dry times come.
And the flowers fall off.
And then the tree is all upset.
But the gardener says, No, that's alright.
I expected that because I want the fruit.
And so on the one hand, we can't
cut off the flowers because we see something
greater.
On the other hand, we can't continue to
try and nourish those flowers because we found
it to be beautiful.
God says, No, there's something else I want.
And so the husbandman is waiting for the
precious fruit of the earth.
With long patience for it until it receives
the early and the latter rain.
After Bethel, the famine.
It's distressing.
But sooner or later, we discover that God
was in it all.
Abraham had to go down into Egypt and
had to come back out of Egypt.
And then he had to be further disciplined
of the Lord and he had to be
separated from Lot because God had told him
to leave his kindred.
Well, Lot tagged along.
And he had to leave Lot.
There had to be a separation, a total
separation unto God.
But rather than looking upon Lot as, you
know, your wife or your husband or your
pastor or some Christian that you don't get
along too well with, let's see the Lot
as that other part of our nature.
That other part of our nature that more
earthly-minded and naturally-minded and seeking after
earthly things.
And there had to be a separation from
that.
And Lot chose the vale near the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah because it was fruitful.
And Abraham took what was left.
But after Lot had separated from Abraham, God
said to Abraham, Lift up now thine eyes
and look to the west and the north
and the south and the east.
All this I have given unto you.
Arise and walk through the land, through the
length of it and through the breadth of
it, for to you have I given it.
And so Abraham, who was prepared to leave
all and let Lot take everything, was told
of the Lord to walk through the whole
land.
That God had given him the whole land.
And then he came to perhaps the best
part of the inheritance at Hebron and built
there an altar and called on the name
of the Lord, built an altar at Hebron
in the place of the inheritance.
And perhaps some of us have been coming
to our Hebron and we're discovering what great
things God has in store for His people
and the wealth, the spiritual wealth that there
is in our inheritance.
And Hebron speaks of the very best of
the inheritance.
It's the part that was reserved for Caleb
when the children of Israel eventually took the
land.
This part was reserved for Caleb because Caleb
had walked through the land 38 years before
and God had promised him that every place
that the sole of their foot would tread
upon would be theirs.
And Caleb as a spy along with Joshua,
they'd walked through the land and I believe
as they were walking through it, they were
partaking of that promise of God that it
was going to be theirs.
And God swore with an oath that God
would give them that land.
And Caleb and Joshua came to Hebron.
And when he came to Hebron, he said,
this is a beautiful country.
This is going to be my country.
And he went back and sought to encourage
the children of Israel to go forth and
take the land.
And he had the vision of the land
because he'd walked through it.
As he walked through it, it wasn't his,
but he was laying claim to it.
So as we walk through the inheritance in
the Word and in the revelation of the
Spirit in our midst, God wants us to
lay claim to it.
To stand upon the land.
This is ours.
This life in Christ.
This overcoming life.
And we won't deal with the inheritance this
morning, but it involves your whole sphere of
life in Christ.
Your inheritance in God.
And Hebron is a wonderful place to worship,
to build your altar unto the Lord.
And I think we discover in every moving
of the Lord where He leads us on
from one degree of glory to another, we
discover that there is a changing somewhat of
the manner of worship.
But God forbid that we should begin to
erect our tabernacles too soon and say, now
I'm in my inheritance.
God forbid that we should do that.
And I think as long as you find
it in your heart, as long as you
find that sense of unsatisfaction in your heart,
it's a good sign that you realize you
have not yet come unto your inheritance.
Notice I said unsatisfaction.
I've often wondered what word to use there.
I don't want to say dissatisfaction.
Because I do find people that are dissatisfied.
And God doesn't want His people to be
dissatisfied.
Even in tribulation, Paul says, there's to be
rejoicing in tribulation.
And there should never come upon God's people
a sense of dissatisfaction.
And I think we should examine our hearts
in that area.
Because I see it coming from time to
time, a dissatisfaction over God's people.
We're dissatisfied.
We don't like it.
We'll grin and bear it.
We'll try to endure it.
We just hope somehow that God will do
something soon because otherwise I won't be able
to stand up under it.
But we'll call it unsatisfaction.
That in everything that God is doing, we
rejoice in the way God has led us.
We have great hope in what He will
yet lead us into.
But we're just not quite satisfied yet.
God forbid, we should become satisfied until He
is satisfied.
And if we're open unto the Lord and
seeking Him, we're going to discover that we
will be unsatisfied as long as God is
unsatisfied.
As long as God comes into your life
and mind and says, no, I'm not quite
satisfied yet.
I'm pleased with the growth, but there's still
areas there I must deal with.
And you're walking with God, you'll sense that.
You'll sense it in your own life.
You'll realize it's true.
I can't feel at home yet.
I've still got my tent.
Don't think it's some strange thing if you
find yourself in fellowship with a group of
people and you don't feel entirely at home.
Just recognize that you're dwelling in a tent.
And continue to dwell there with Isaac and
Jacob, heirs with you of the same promise.
They all dwelled in tents.
They were all heirs of the same promise.
But you know, I'm not at home here,
and so we go somewhere else finding a
home somewhere else.
And if you're truly following the Lord, the
Lord might lead you from one assembly to
another.
He might do that.
But don't go to the next assembly with
the thought, now I'm going to really find
my place.
I'm going to feel at home here.
God might lead you and the Lord bless
you if the Lord leads you somewhere else.
But don't go there with the thought, now
this is really my home.
Because there are still places the Lord would
lead us onto and unto as we follow
along with the Lord.
May He continue to keep that burning desire
within us to come into the full desire
of His heart.
The full desire of His heart.
Unless He does that, unless we seek Him
to that end, unless we desire Him to
lead us from one realm of glory unto
another, we might find ourselves not moving when
God would really desire us to move with
Him.
Paul's prayer for the Hebrews was that they
would not fall short of what God had
desired for them.
I fear lest a promise of being left
you of entering into His rest, I fear
lest some of you should come short of
it.
And that's the thing, that's the burden of
the Spirit of the Lord.
That we do not come short of God's
desire.
So that brings us up to another altar
that Abraham was required to build.
And that's in Genesis 22.
After these things, after all we've mentioned and
much more that we haven't mentioned, it came
to pass that God did tempt Abraham or
test Abraham and said unto Abraham, He said
unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here
I am.
I don't think it's too difficult.
I don't think it's been too difficult for
many of us to hear the call of
God unto that realm of power or unto
the realm of the house of God or
unto the realm of Hebron, the place of
the inheritance.
Why should it be difficult?
We have nothing to lose.
But this call is a difficult one.
Perhaps difficult for us to hear.
But it won't be difficult for us to
hear if we have been obedient in our
present walk with the Lord.
I've noticed through the years there's been many
people who have cherished the ultimate of what
God wants to make His people, this glorious
church, to be manifest as one of God's
sons, to go forth with the power and
anointing of God in the last days.
Through the years, I've seen many who have
cherished that.
And yet in it all, so much inconsistency,
so much lacking of that seeking of God's
faith and seemingly a great lack of obedience
in the things of God.
And seemingly thinking that having the doctrine of
the body of Christ and the unveiling of
His glory and power in the church, that
somehow that would cover any of these other
places of deficiency.
But it will not do so.
And unless the Lord has succeeded and will
succeed yet in bringing forth that total obedience
in His people, it doesn't really matter what
great revelation we have had of what God
is doing or yet to do.
We will not participate in it.
So it's very essential that now, wherever we
are now, that God enables us and we
seek Him for that desire within us to
do God's will and to walk in obedience.
Not just with the thought, yeah, I'll do
it, Lord, as You say.
But with an earnest passion, Lord, I want
to do it.
I desire to do it.
Not just I'll do it, Lord, if You
crowd me into it.
Lord, I must know Your will.
I have to know Your will.
Because I want to do it because I've
discovered that in doing Your will, that's greater
than receiving any blessing You've ever given me.
To do Your will becomes my life.
And that's what Jesus said.
My meat, my food, my daily bread is
to do the will of Him that sent
me.
That's my daily bread.
That's my life, Jesus said, to do the
will of God.
And I wonder if we've come to that.
Or is the passion of entering into the
great things of God so great that doing
the will of God becomes monotonous and boring?
God wants that desire to do His will
to become so great within us that that
becomes our food.
That becomes our life.
Oh, you see, I think it would be
real living if I could go forth with
the power of Christ to heal the sick
and raise the dead and build up the
church and build up Bethel, the house of
God and bring people into Hebron.
That would really be living it in Christ.
Well, Abraham found those realms in God, but
when God said to him, Abraham, he said,
here I am.
He was in tune with God.
And I think it's going to take that.
And these days, I just trust that in
the going forth of the Word from time
to time, it will so quicken that faculty
of hearing within us that when God says,
John, Abraham, Mary, you hear it immediately.
You say, here I am.
Here I am.
You see, unless that faculty of hearing becomes
more and more pronounced within us, God might
be saying, John, and you don't hear it.
When you say, how can that faculty of
hearing, I don't feel I hear as I
ought, how can that become so pronounced that
when God just whispers, I'll know it's God?
Why is it that now I get this
thought and that thought and I hear this
whisper and that whisper and then I try
to wade through it and sort it out?
Is this my own idea?
Was God really saying something?
So God goes out of His way in
this hour or two as He seeks to
bring us into that place where we are
in tune with Him, where we can hear
His whisper.
He goes out of His way to keep
us in line.
We don't like it, you know.
It knocks this way and we go off
and knocks us back the other way.
Why does God do that to me?
Well, you can't hear, so He's got to
keep you on the way somehow.
You can't hear, so He has to use
some of those kind of measures.
And that's a sign of God's faithfulness, but
it's also an indication that we have not
yet come to that place where that hearing
is real sensitive within us.
And so there's a secret given to us
in Hebrews 5 where Paul says everyone that
partaketh of milk is unskillful, the thought being
he's unlearned in the word of righteousness.
And the learning there is not so much
a matter of an intellectual learning but a
spiritual learning.
He's unskillful in the word of righteousness for
He's a babe.
But it's good.
And the milk is good.
And don't as a little child say, oh,
I want that strong meat because I'm an
adult.
Continue to partake of the milk of the
word that we might grow thereby.
And as God sees we're able to receive
more, He gives us more.
For strong meat belongeth to them that are
full-aged.
Those are full-grown.
Even those who by reason of use, my
margin here says by reason of habit, have
their senses exercised to discern both good and
evil.
By reason of use is a matter of
habit.
You say, I don't do anything by habit.
Well, we should.
There should be spiritual habits that we have.
It's something that you just do out of
a matter of course.
Coming into God and coming to know His
voice and to hear His Word develops habits.
You say, oh, no, I work in the
Spirit.
I don't want anything to be habitual.
Well, there are spiritual habits that God wants
us to have.
It's something you just do and do and
do and do again.
It's a habit.
That doesn't sound like the Spirit, yes?
It's a spiritual habit though.
Reading His Word.
Seeking God.
Manifesting love and charity to one another.
Persons in need, you help them.
Some people have all kinds of means, but
here's a person in need.
Well, God didn't tell me to say anything
about it.
Do you know why?
I'm glad to see a little of that
in our own little group.
Someone tells us about someone in need.
No wealthy men in our midst, but do
something about it.
Help them out.
And so God would develop these kind of
habits, you see.
And it's all part of this matter of
walking in obedience to the place where our
spiritual hearing becomes very sensitive so that when
God whispers, we hear Him.
Here I am, Lord.
Here I am.
And He said, Take now thy son, thine
only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get
thee into the land of Moriah and offer
him there for a burnt offering upon one
of the mountains, which I will tell thee
of.
This was something different.
This was different.
You mean after Shechem and after Bethel and
I went through all that famine and I
went down to Egypt and then I came
back and you wrought a great work of
restoration and you brought me to Hebron and
I've been tenting here in Hebron and it's
almost my home.
I like it here.
And you've been faithful in your promise, Lord,
that I will bless you and multiply you,
multiply your seed, and I'll give you all
this land.
And now what's this?
What's this?
But Abraham didn't even seem to question God.
We don't hear of any argument.
All it says, Abraham rose up early in
the morning and saddled his ass and took
two of his young men with him and
Isaac his son and claimed the wood for
the burnt offering and rose up and went
unto the place which God had told him
of.
God had entrusted Abraham with Moriah.
God was able to offer Moriah to Abraham.
We might kid ourselves and say, well, I'm
ready now, Lord, for my Moriah.
I'll go all the way.
God might not offer you Moriah until you've
been to Hebron and you've been to Bethel,
you've been to Shishun and manifested faithfulness and
obedience in it all, so that Moriah becomes
not just the stripping away of everything you
have, but in God's intention, it was to
be the highlight in Abraham's experience.
And even in the command that God had
given Abraham, there's a little bit of a
promise there I think that Abraham grasped.
Get thee into the land of Moriah, which
means the Lord will provide.
And I think we should come to know
the Lord in such intimacy that when God
tells us something that seems utterly difficult and
contrary to our will and desire and something
that you feel is going to just be
the destruction of everything that God has ever
given us, let us learn to receive every
promise or every command from God as a
promise that God wants to bring greater glory
out of it.
Instead of condemning God, let us learn to
see in every test that God would bring
us into a divine provision whereby God would
be glorified and we would come to know
Him in a greater way.
I think Abraham saw that there when God
said to him, go to the land of
Moriah.
Go to the place where the Lord provides
and offer up your son as a burnt
offering.
And so he arose and went and on
the third day, he lifted up his eyes
and saw the place afar off.
And Abraham said unto his young men, abide
ye here with the ass and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship and
come again to you.
We talked about Abraham worshiping at Shechem, at
Bethel, at Hebron, but actually the word worship
was never used back there.
He built an altar.
He did worship.
Able worship.
But this is the first mention of worship
in the Scripture.
This is the first mention of worship in
the Scripture.
So the true worship is not just something
you do, it's something you become.
And if you become that, you do it.
Don't say, well, I'm just seeking to become
something.
Well, if you become what God wants, you'll
do it.
So God emphasizes the life.
Jesus emphasizes the life because the life brings
forth and produces what God desires.
The first mention of worship in the Scripture
concerned a man who took everything that he'd
set his heart upon and offered it up
to God as a burnt offering.
Because worship in the Scripture is not praising
God with uplifted hands.
Worship in the Scripture is falling on your
face before God.
It literally means to fall down, to bow
down.
The Word means that.
And worship is that.
In the place of power, I've seen hundreds
of people fall back as God smoothed them
with His power.
They came into God's presence.
There was an impact of God and they
fell back.
I know there's a lot of them now
because they've seen that.
They start pushing them over.
I'm not making fun of it because I
know God does push people over and I've
been pushed over many times.
I fell back and hit my head on
a cement floor one time.
Never felt it.
But now they line them up.
Come on, you're a big husky fellow.
You're a strong man.
You come here.
And when I pray for him, you know,
you'll be ready to catch him.
Don't you do that in my meetings.
If they fall over, let God push them
over.
And I don't care what they hit.
They won't be hurt.
And so a person's ready to fall, you
know.
And the preacher's ready to give them a
little push.
I know what I'm talking about.
It's true.
God knocks a man over with the mighty
impact of His power.
But when you come into the presence of
God, you fall face down.
That's worship.
And how we long for that impact of
the Word of God in our midst when
people will fall on their face.
Paul in 1 Corinthians, he was telling the
Corinthians about the operation of the gifts of
the Spirit.
He goes through the whole list and tells
them how they operate.
And he says if you're prophesying the Word
of the Lord, and a man will come
in, an unbeliever who doesn't know what's going
on, the secrets of his heart will be
made manifest and he'll fall on his face
and say, God's here.
That's what we want to see.
That kind of a going forth of the
Word of the Lord.
Not to say we're not hearing Him at
Hebron.
Not to say that we're not hearing Him
here in this camp, or at Bethel, or
at Shishim.
But you see, we don't get too excited
about it yet because we haven't even come
to that place that they had in Corinth.
We look upon the Corinthian church as being
a carnal church.
Well, where are we?
Paul says they come into your midst and
the Word of the Lord goes forth in
prophetic utterance and the secrets of his heart
are made manifest and he'll fall on his
face and worship God.
And say, God's in your midst.
What a truth.
I and the lad will go yonder and
worship.
They worship the Lord and bow down.
They worship the Lord and fell on their
face.
It's not really God doing something for you.
It's you just totally.
Everything that you are and you have, you
just follow at His feet.
Lord, I'm all yours.
But Abraham remembered what God had said.
It's in the land of Moriah that you're
to go.
It's in the land where God provides.
And so when Isaac said to his father,
Father, we're going up the mountain to worship.
We've got the wood.
You've got the fire.
Where is the sacrifice?
Abraham said, God will provide the sacrifice.
That was faith.
That was confidence.
But as far as he was concerned, he
was going to do what God said.
Strange, you know, but God will ask His
people to do things which will mean, if
they do it, the utter cancellation of everything
that they've set their hearts upon throughout their
lives and in which God has blessed them.
A gift.
A ministry.
A great place in God.
It's not hard to hear the call to
prosperity, to blessing, to gifts, to power.
And God might call us into those areas.
I'm not denying that.
But the ultimate of God's call is to
Moriah.
To Moriah.
God will provide.
And God did provide.
God did provide.
But it took the sacrifice.
And Abraham lifted his knife to slay his
son.
And Paul says he did it.
There's no thought that he raised his knife
and was going to hold it there until
God came forth and did something to change
his mind.
Because Paul says in intent and purpose, he
actually slew his son and received him back
from the dead.
That's the kind of faith he had.
Abraham had resurrection faith.
And that's why he was prepared to obey
unto death.
Because he had resurrection faith.
Maybe God hasn't called us to our Moriah
because we don't have resurrection faith yet.
We've got faith to receive.
Faith to get.
Faith to heap upon ourselves.
Faith to build up a church.
Faith to launch big building programs, TV programs.
Faith to do all of that, but no
faith to lay it down.
No faith to cancel it out.
You see?
So that's what's involved in Moriah.
I don't know what that will mean in
your life.
I don't really know what it will mean
in mine.
But may the Lord help us to keep
this thought before us.
Even though the Lord is blessing and manifesting
Himself and the bringing together of His body
and manifesting truth concerning the inheritance and giving
us that vision, in the ultimate it means
you give back to God literally everything that
He's given to you.
And there we will see the glory of
God.
Jesus said, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see
My day, and he sought and was glad.
I believe it was on Mount Moriah that
he saw the glory of God.
And God somehow pulled away the veil and
showed him a day of Christ.
And then Abraham could understand why all these
years he'd been living in a tent looking
for something better, looking for a home, looking
for a city.
He couldn't settle down and say, This is
my home.
I'm going to build a city here like
many others had done that we read of
in the book of Genesis.
They built a city.
We hear them today building their cities.
Their faith cities.
Their cities of God.
Abraham looked for one.
And God's Abrahams today are looking for it.
It's too big for us.
It's beyond our ability.
All we can do is look for it.
Wait for it.
The city of the living God, not made
with hands which cometh down out of heaven.
Even the bride of Christ who has prepared
herself and made herself ready.
Let's continue to look for that city.
Let's continue to be worshipers at a tent
and an altar.
You don't voluntarily go up to Mount Moriah.
God calls you there.
But be faithful in the place you're in
now.
Walk in obedience now.
Perhaps God will entrust us with a call
to Moriah in the days to come.
May God bless this Word to your hearts
this morning.
My dwelling place A home
for the presence of the Lord And
my heart shall be Separated
unto Thee That I might be what I
was born to be I was
born to be Thy dwelling
place A home for the presence
of the Lord And my heart
shall be Separated unto
Thee That I might be what I was
born to be I will
give myself to Thee As a living sacrifice
Holy and acceptable to God I will give
myself to Thee As a living sacrifice
Holy and acceptable to God Lest
we enjoy singing these things or declaring these
words and believing these truths and there still
seems to be some area there where our
hearts are not really going along with it.
May the Lord test us thoroughly even these
days that the motives of our heart will
truly be revealed lest we deceive ourselves into
thinking we're going on with God and God
says you're walking in disobedience.
I will give myself to Thee As a
living sacrifice Holy and acceptable to
God I will give myself to Thee As
a living sacrifice Holy and acceptable to
God Dear people, even at this moment even
now there might be a commitment unto you
even now, Lord, that you might work in
the hearts of your people who have perhaps
long wondered just where they stood with you
and whether they were really given over to
you to simply make that commitment Lord, I
do give myself to you and I desire
that you will lead me in your ways
and that you'll give me grace to walk
in obedience no matter what the cost for
truly I recognize at this moment that there's
nothing I could give to the Lord except
what He has given to me in the
first place so I give it back to
Him knowing that in giving it back to
Him I'm bringing great joy to the heart
of the Father because the Father has recognized
that we really believe that everything that we
have is from Thee and therefore we give
it back and if we retain it then
we're saying, no, this is mine this is
something I brought forth of my own power,
my own strength we give it back to
you we're saying, Lord, you gave it and
you can give it again even as Abraham
had resurrection faith and in laying down all
that he had he received it back in
resurrection life Lord, how we've desired to walk
in resurrection life yet how slow we've been
to comprehend the way into resurrection life is
through the way of the cross make this
very real to your people, we pray even
during these days and in the days to
come may it become an established thing within
us that we might have spiritual habits develop
spiritual habits that will continually relate us to
you and your word and your ways in
Jesus' name we ask it, amen