If you were not with us this morning,
we transitioned from the first three services, where
we dealt with some basic foundation truths, the
Lordship of Christ, forgiveness, cleansing of the house
of God, getting right with God, and this
morning we talked about maintaining that victory.
The Bible says He wants men and men
that are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord.
Not people that are up and down, vacillating,
but steadfastness.
And so we need to maintain the walk
and the life that God has given us.
We are now moving on to another phase,
and before we do that, let's look to
the Lord in prayer again.
Father, once again, we magnify You.
Lord, we exalt You.
You're the head of this church, the head
of the church.
Lord, it wasn't redeemed by the blood of
men, doesn't belong to a denomination, doesn't belong
to a movement, it belongs to You.
We are Your people, the sheep of Your
pasture.
Lord, we acknowledge Your headship over us.
We're Your body.
You're the head of that body.
And Father, we ask tonight that You would
come and do what You said You would
do, build Your church, further Your work in
us, Lord, we pray.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
I'm convinced that we are living in the
last days, exciting days and terrifying days.
There is tremendous contrast that we see in
the last days revealed in the Word of
God.
The Bible says, in the last days, I'll
pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.
That's going to be exciting.
The last day, the Bible says, in the
last days, perilous times will come.
That's not very exciting.
The Bible says, the wheat and the tares
will mature together.
So while we're going to see the church
blossom, I believe, and come into the fullness
of all that God intended, so also we're
going to see the kingdom of darkness blossom.
The wheat and the tares will mature together.
And so again, we have days of tremendous
contrast.
Days in which we're going to see, I
believe, the outpouring of the Spirit of God
in an unprecedented way.
Because God said, in the last days, I'll,
again, not only build my church, but in
the days of those kings, I will establish
my kingdom.
That kingdom will last forever.
It will crush and devour every other kingdom.
But along with that, in the last days,
we're going to see the love of many
wax cold.
We're going to see signs and wonders and
miracles created by false Christs and false prophets.
Beware, lest any man deceive you.
Worldwide deception is going to accompany the outpouring
of the Spirit of God.
And so we have to discern.
And so these are days of tension, days
of contrast.
The Bible says again, Matthew 24, there's going
to be rumors of wars, wars, rumors of
wars, signs, wonders, miracles, earthquakes, pestilence, all of
those things that we're beginning to see and
experience in a greater measure.
But it says these are just the beginning
of birth pangs.
And birth pangs do not diminish as the
time approaches.
Every woman wished, would wish they would.
But they accelerate.
And rather than get further and further apart,
they get more and more frequent.
And so we're going to see more and
more famines, more and more earthquakes, more and
more pestilence, more and more wars and rumors
of wars.
But again it's the beginning of birth pangs,
not death throes.
So God is going to birth something, a
glorious church, a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
a company of men and women.
Again as we heard tonight, those sons of
God that God is going to manifest in
these last days.
Not some exclusive, you know, company that can
incorporate.
Many years ago they incorporated the sons of
God in America.
Don't know how you do that, but they
were the sons of God.
You know, what somebody said is, bride pride.
We're the only ones.
But God is going to do something, I
believe.
He's going to display to the world a
glorious church.
And in order for God to do that,
He is going to raise up men and
women that He will use in various capacities.
Men with a passion for God.
Men with a passion for the presence of
God.
Men with a passion for purity.
Men that are not swayed by public opinion.
Men again that live their life in the
light of eternity.
They're not on the stage because of some
sort of an ego trip.
They're conscious again that they are servants of
the Most High God and that one day
they'll give an account.
The Bible says, be not many teachers, thus
incurring the greater judgment.
And it's a fearful thing to be in
leadership, because leaders will be more severely judged
than anybody else.
So be not many teachers, be not many
leaders, thus incurring a greater judgment.
To whom much is given, much is required.
But God will raise up men and women,
I believe, in these last days, that will
fulfill His purpose.
There are three things, three characteristics that I
see about the Bride of Christ.
One is purity.
I've done many, many weddings and I've never
seen a dirty bride.
And God is not coming back for a
dirty bride either.
So she has to be a pure virgin.
So one thing is purity.
The next thing is passion.
I don't think He's coming back for a
bride that's not madly in love with Him.
To those that look for Him, He will
return a second time.
But also, men and women that want to
be involved in the purpose of God.
Passion, purity, purpose.
God said to Adam, I will make you
a help meat.
And so Jesus Christ is coming back for
a help meat.
In Song of Solomon, one of the things
that the bride wanted to know about was,
take me to where you pasture your flock.
All of a sudden she became interested in
what He was interested in.
I guess if I'm going to marry you,
I better like, you know, sheep and goats
and whatever else you look after.
So let's go down there and, you know,
get involved.
We need to be involved in the purpose
of God.
It's not all about passion, lovemaking.
That's part of it.
It's also about purpose, destiny.
Again, as we read and sang tonight, at
least, the nations and this nation.
God's heart for the nations.
And so with every move, new move of
God, there is a, many times at least,
a new leadership that is raised up.
Many times the pioneers of the past are
the persecutors of the present, unfortunately.
Because they think that God's got to do
it the same way.
And when He doesn't do it the same
way that God moved 30 years ago, 40
years ago, then they resist and say, no
you don't understand, I've been there.
And then God has to raise up another
group of people.
Tonight I want to speak to you about
the birthing process, the birthing of a ministry.
If you turn with me to the book
of Judges, Judges chapter 13.
And as you're turning to that, let me
give you a little bit of a background
to this portion of Scripture.
If you've read the book of Judges recently,
you know that there has been a series
of stages in the life of Israel, where
they have gone into captivity, they've gone into
bondage.
In chapter 4 of Judges, we find that
for 20 years, the nation of Israel has
been in bondage to Jabin the king of
Canaan.
Imagine 15, 16, 18, 20 year old kids
that have never known freedom.
They've been in bondage.
In Judges chapter 6, you have the nation
of Israel in bondage to the Midianites, during
the time that God raised up Caleb, um
Gideon.
Again seven years in which the Midianites came
and totally devastated the land.
Hardly a blade of grass existed.
The economy, everything else was destroyed, because of
sin of the nation of Israel.
In chapter 13, it gets worse.
Verse 1, Now the sons of Israel did
evil in the sight of the Lord.
And so the Lord gave them into the
hands of the Philistines for 40 years.
You would have thought they would have learned
the lesson.
Seven years is bad enough.
Twenty years is bad enough.
Forty years now in bondage.
Forty years in servitude.
Forty years in captivity, under the hands of
the nations that God said you were to
dominate.
Remember this is a nation God says, I
want you to be the head and not
the tail.
I want you to be above and not
beneath.
I want you to lend, but never to
borrow.
I want you to be a light to
the nations.
I want you to be that city that
we heard about tonight.
That was the role of Israel.
That's their function in the Old Testament, to
be a light, to be salt, to be
a nation, a testimony.
And here we have them in servitude and
bondage.
Instead of them dictating what should be going
on, they are being dictated to.
They're being governed and ruled over.
And it's a time of devastation, a time
of darkness.
And yet in the midst of it, God
is at work.
How many of you know God is never
caught not knowing what to do?
He's always working out His plan and His
purpose.
He knows exactly He rules over the affairs
of men.
And while He has permitted this, He is
about to change it.
And many times we look at the darkness
of this nation and other nations and we
wonder, you know, is God really in control?
I can assure you He is.
Have I not spoken?
Will I not bring it to pass?
And sometimes in the midst of the darkness
and the devastation, God is working away silently.
This is the case here.
God is about to bring forth a Deliverer.
He is about to raise up an anointed
man of God.
A man that is going to turn the
tables on the Philistines.
A man that is going to once again
put Israel on the map.
And I believe God is wanting to do
that once again.
Again through a corporate body as we heard
tonight.
It doesn't mean that individuals won't be used,
but I believe as somebody said, this will
be a faceless generation.
There will be so many individuals being used
that there won't be one person that sort
of takes the limelight.
But there is a process that I want
to look at, this birthing process.
And as we look at this, I trust
that God will give us some insight and
understanding as to the ways in which God
works.
Because God's ways are not our ways.
There are eight areas that we're going to
cover.
Some are much shorter than the other, but
the first one is divine desperation.
The second one, divine intervention.
The third, divine conception.
Number four, divine gestation.
Number five, divine restrictions.
Number six, divine possession.
Number seven, divine maturation.
And number eight, divine participation.
I will repeat those as we go through.
I thought you'd have got them by now.
Divine desperation.
Verse two, And there was a certain man
of Zorah, chapter 13 of Judges, of the
family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah.
And his wife was barren, and had borne
no children.
What a strange place to begin.
God does some funny things, doesn't he?
I would have thought he would have gone
down to some sort of school of the
prophets.
I thought he would have gone into some
Bible school.
Thought he would have gone to some priestly
family or something.
And instead, God reaches into the life of
a couple, a woman who is barren.
There's nothing more devastating for a woman than
to find out she's barren.
There's in the Proverbs, it says, there are
two things that will never be satisfied.
Sheol and the barren womb.
And a barren woman cannot be sort of
paid off with riches or possessions or clothes
or jewelry or anything else if she's barren.
Nothing is going to appease that.
Nothing is going to satisfy that, because everything
that she was created for has been stripped
from her.
And women will go to desperate lengths, in
order to bring forth life.
Why?
Because they were created to bring something that
has eternal value into this world.
The whole being was destined of God, again,
to bring forth life.
And when that doesn't happen again, there is
a deep frustration and anger many times, bitterness.
And again, extreme lengths will be taken.
Tens of thousands of dollars, or tens of
thousands of pounds in some cases, going from
one specialist to another.
And when all of that fails, then flying
to the end of the world almost, to
adopt a child from some third world nation.
But to do anything to have a child,
when you can't have a child, the frustration.
And this is where God begins.
A woman who has been stripped of her
natural capability.
A woman that God has brought to the
end of her own resources.
She's tried, and tried, and tried, and tried,
and nothing happens.
Barrenness, as you know, is a major curse,
a major reproach.
In the Bible, wasn't it Hannah that says,
he's taken away my reproach.
We have the blessings and the cursings there
in Deuteronomy 28.
Part of the blessing was that you would
be fruitful, not only in your crops and
everything else, but the fruit of the womb.
Part of the curse was that you would
not have children.
But you see, there is a reason that
God uses this woman, because she typifies the
church.
In fact, all the way through the Word
of God, the only people that are barren
are women, apart from Abraham, in the sense
of being an old man.
But you see, the church is barren, can't
do anything of herself, can't produce anything of
her own ability.
She doesn't have any resources of her own.
There's nothing wrong with the bridegroom.
I am come that you might have life.
He is the life giver.
He is the source of life.
And so the woman, the barren woman, typifies
the church throughout the Word of God.
And God will bring us to this place
of barrenness, where He will strip us again
of our capability, our self-sufficiency.
And you may, you know, come on the
stage and have a great ministry, but somewhere
along the line, God will strip you of
your own resources and your own capability, and
He will bring you to that place of
total and absolute dependency upon Himself.
And it's one of the major principles in
God's Word.
Jesus said, apart from the Father, He says,
I can do absolutely nothing.
Then He says, apart from Me, you can
do nothing.
I do only do the things that I
see the Father do.
The Son can do nothing of Himself.
Dependency.
One of the very first principles, the very
first law that Jesus ever taught His disciples,
I think I touched on it, I believe,
when I was here last time, was there
in Matthew.
The Beatitudes, the very first law of God's
kingdom, blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of God.
And that word in the Greek is the
word beggar.
Blessed are the beggars, for theirs is the
kingdom of God.
What is a beggar?
A beggar is somebody who lives of somebody
else's resources, somebody else's generosity, somebody else's wealth.
He's looked at his own impoverished condition.
I remember being in India a number of
years ago, and seeing a cripple at the
side of the road.
We pulled up in a jeep, and I
was looking around, just enamored with what was
going on.
I heard a voice, and I looked down,
and finally here was this little boy, 10,
12 years of age, all crippled.
Legs all twisted underneath him, hands all crippled,
begging.
You see, that young boy could not sustain
himself.
He didn't have the resources, he didn't have
the capability of looking after himself.
There was no means of sustaining his life.
He couldn't work, and so he begged.
You see, he derived his life from somebody
else's resources.
And Jesus said, the very first law of
my kingdom, blessed are the beggars.
Recognize that apart from him, we can do
absolutely nothing.
Look at your impoverished condition.
I don't care how brilliant you may be,
what sort of degrees you may have.
God will strip us, and bring us to
that place where we cry out to God,
and say, God, show my cup.
Lord, you've got the resources I need.
I'm going to live my life by deriving
from you all that I need.
And Jesus said, blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is, not will be, the
kingdom of God.
He makes his kingdom resources available to beggars.
And so, this is where God begins in
the birthing process.
Barrenness.
Taking away again our natural abilities and capabilities,
our own strengths, and all those things.
He will strip us, in order to get
us to this place where we look to
him, and to look to him alone.
And I could testify and give you details
of my own life, how true that is,
and many, many other lives, as I've read
the story of great men and women of
God.
It's amazing isn't it, some of the greatest
servants of God, in the Word of God,
came out of barren situations.
John the Baptist, Elizabeth was barren.
David can trace his pedigree, if you like,
his history back, just a generation or so,
to Ruth, who was barren.
She'd been married, remember, her husband had died,
they had no children.
She married Boaz, God opened her womb, brought
forth again, Obed, and then Jesse, and then
David.
Again, here is this wonderful king, that we
sing so much about, came out of barrenness.
Joseph, heard about Joseph tonight.
Where did he come from?
A barren woman.
Rachel, give me children, or else I die.
And so many times, God reaches again into
these barren situations.
Isaac, the child of promise.
Sarah, unable to conceive, until God opened her
womb.
Samuel, one of the great prophets of the
Old Testament.
Hannah, barren, until God opened her womb.
I mean, these are choice vessels, but they
all came out of barrenness.
That's the place where it all begins, recognizing
again our impoverished condition.
God, I can't do it.
I can't take this nation.
I can't take this city.
I can't do this.
I can't do that.
Lord, unless the Lord builds the house, we
labor in vain.
Lord, we're incapable of doing it.
So you have to do it.
Not by might, not by power, by your
Spirit, Lord.
Not by my strength, not by my wisdom,
not by my cunning, not by my skill.
Lord, I tried all that, and it doesn't
work.
And so we've got to learn, don't we?
One of my favorite portions of Scripture again.
I touched on this last time I was
here, when we had the day's teaching together.
Hebrews 11 verse 32.
Let me just read it quickly, and just
comment on it.
I won't go into detail like I did
last time.
What more shall I say, for time would
fail me, if I were to tell of
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets,
who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of
righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,
quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge
of the sword, became mighty in war, and
put foreign armies to flight.
How many of you would like to fit
into that category?
What an incredible group of men.
Unbelievable, isn't it?
I mean these are the great heroes.
These are the men that we sort of
put up on a pedestal, and we say,
well God, I mean, you know, you don't
breed them like that anymore.
These are the sort of the, you know,
the elect of the elect.
These are just a breed all of their
own.
I can't even begin to be even in
the same company.
I mean after all, when's the last time
you did some of these things?
Conquered a kingdom.
That's what we talked about.
Taking the land, performed some great act of
righteousness, obtained some great promise, shut the mouths
of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped
the edge of the sword, became mighty in
war, put foreign armies to flight.
What a list.
But you see there's one phrase, if you
were following along, I left out.
Now let me put it in, and it
will change everything.
Verse 34, they quenched the power of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, listen, from
weakness were made strong.
Oh I love that portion of Scripture.
You see there was always one common denominator
with every great servant of God.
From weakness, from barrenness, they were made strong.
God chooses the weak, and if you're strong,
He's going to weaken you.
He's going to do the Jacob on you.
He's going to make you walk with the
limp.
He's going to take that area of strength,
and He's going to bring it to a
place of dependency.
Guaranteed.
No way around it.
You may postpone it, you may put it
off, but somewhere along the line, God's going
to catch up with you, strip you of
everything.
Until again, you can be strong in the
Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Not in your own strength.
Again, not because of your own cunning, your
own ability, and so on.
My father used to have a saying, you
can have 30 degrees and still be frozen.
The next one, the second one, is divine
intervention.
Verse 3 again, then the angel of the
Lord appeared to the woman.
Until God showed up, she was going to
remain in the condition that she was, barren,
hopeless, helpless, weak.
But then something changed in that house.
God came.
The angel of the Lord appeared.
God intervened.
There was a visitation of God.
And again, the church will remain barren until
there is a visitation of God.
That's what we're crying out for.
I know that's what you're crying out for.
There's an expectancy.
When the heavens, Lord, you come down, the
mountains melt at your presence.
Not my presence, not my ability, not my
wisdom, not my personality.
The mountains melt when you come.
We need a visitation of God.
And again, you can go through the lives
of so many individuals, and you realize that
until God showed up, nothing happened.
Moses, the Bible says in the book of
Acts, supposing his brethren understood that God had
raised him up to be a deliverer.
Moses assumed everybody saw in him the leadership
qualities.
He goes out there, sought to bring deliverance
to the nation of Israel, by killing off
a couple of Egyptian soldiers and burying them
in the sand.
It takes a long time to get rid
of the Egyptian army that way.
God had a better idea.
The Bible says Moses was mighty in word
and deed.
He was eloquent.
He was raised the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
the finest education that anybody could have in
all of Egypt.
And we know now, as we've excavated and
seen some of these fabulous tombs and the
wealth and so on, all that he had
around him, the finest of everything.
I mean, here he was.
He was a striking man, part of the
family.
Suppose his brethren understood.
God takes him on the backside of the
desert for 40 years.
40 years of stripping.
40 years where God basically, sort of at
least, it would appear neglected him, and yet
God had his hand on him all along.
And finally at the end of 40 years,
divine intervention.
Suddenly God shows up.
He's never late.
Oh, I would have thought he'd been late.
I mean, when you're 40, you've got a
little bit of, you know, get up and
go.
At least I used to have my get
up and go as got up and gone.
And you would thought, you know, God surely,
I mean here I am.
I'm no longer just a teenager.
I'm 40.
I'm, you know, this is the time surely
when you're going to use me now.
Supposing again his brethren understood.
40 years on the backside of the desert.
The Bible says he was content.
The word there is to be slack.
It's like that of a bow.
When you're slack in the bow, I mean
he's lost in one sense his vision.
He's failed.
One day he turns aside and God comes.
Says, Moses, I've got a job for you
to do.
Moses says, not me Lord.
I stutter.
I can't speak.
The Bible literally says he was mighty in
word and deed.
By the time God gets through with him,
he's been around those sheep long enough that
he sounds like them.
Lord, I'm going to make a fool of
myself.
You had your chance 40 years ago.
I'm 80 now.
And says, from weakness you're going to be
made strong.
Because you're going to go in my name,
not in your name, not in your personality,
not in your strength, not in your ability.
I'm going to put authority in that rod.
I'm going to put authority in you and
I'm going to send you.
Divine visitation.
Gideon.
Talked about him a moment ago.
There he is in the wine press.
Again, maybe the last little bushel of wheat.
Trying to get something to eat.
The land has been devastated.
He's hiding, hoping nobody sees him.
Again, food was precious.
The Midianites have swooped down and again devastated
the land.
All of a sudden, the angel Lord comes.
Gideon, got a calling on your life.
Lord, you've got the wrong person.
Lord, don't you know about the tribe that
I belong to?
It's the smallest tribe of all 12.
And Lord, don't you know about my father's
house is the smallest house of all the
tribe?
And Lord, don't you know that I'm the
least in my father's house?
So Lord, why go to the smallest tribe
and the smallest house and the least member
of that house?
God says, go in this your strength.
What was his strength?
His weakness.
The greatest strength you and I have, if
we use it properly, is our weakness.
It will drive us to God.
There's been many, many, many, many times when
I've got on my face before God and
shed tears and said, God, I cannot believe
I'm doing what I'm doing.
Lord, I don't have the ability.
I look back at my life, failed many
courses in school, was nervous and shy, introspective,
never did anything publicly, never wanted to go
into the ministry.
The last thing I wanted to do.
You see, my greatest asset has become my
weakness, because over the years it's forced me
to get along with God.
It's forced me to lift up my little
cup and say, Lord, unless you fill my
cup, I have nothing.
And when you're self-sufficient, who needs God?
Because I'll do it, Lord.
I've been trained to do it, and I
know how to do it, and I've got
the personality to do it.
Jacob, all alone one night, going back to
face his brother, who has threatened his life,
and a divine visitation, divine intervention.
He was changed and transformed as God wrestled
with him and subdued him, changed his nature
and his character.
No longer will he be called Jacob, a
deceiver, a conniver, but a prince, again from
barrenness to strength.
And you can go on all the way
through the Word of God.
Joshua, the same thing.
There he is.
He's taken over command after Moses dies, and
he's out facing his first major obstacle.
Jericho, out in the field there, no doubt
looking at the size of that place and
thinking, God, how on earth?
And all of a sudden, what?
Divine intervention.
The angel of the Lord appears, and he
had a meeting place with God.
Isaiah went into the house of God one
day, had a meeting place with God.
I saw the Lord high and lifted up.
I heard him speak, who shall we send?
I said, Lord, I'll go.
First of all, it was cleansing.
The seraphim took the coal, placed it on
his lips.
Abraham, the Bible says, the God of glory
appeared unto our father Abraham.
The 120 in the upper room, again, suddenly
it was the outpouring of the Spirit of
God and those fishermen.
Oh, not Sanhedrin, not, you know, Pharisees with
all the scriptures they'd memorize, dangling, you know,
like a fly fisherman with his corks, you
know.
You would have thought God would have reached
into the life of one of those, but
Paul says, listen, not many mighty men.
God takes the foolish things, the weak things,
the base things.
You see, God's biggest problem is, how do
I get the glory?
God's biggest problem.
And while he will share everything with us,
he says, my glory I will not share
with any man.
He'll share his love, his patience, his kindness,
all those other things with us.
But my glory, I don't give to any
man.
And how does God get the glory?
By taking something that is despised, and worthless,
and insignificant, and weak.
And people look and say, that's got to
be God.
I went to school with that guy.
He was the most unlikely to succeed in
our whole class.
And now look at him.
Something's happened to him.
The third one is divine conception.
Verse 3, the angel Lord appeared to the
woman and said to her, behold, you are
barren, and are born no children, but you
shall conceive.
See, God knows where you are.
I don't know where you are.
God does.
Here is a nation of a million plus
people, and God knows exactly what's going on
in each home, each heart, each situation, each
circumstance.
Many times we feel, you know, the pastor
doesn't see me, and this person doesn't recognize
me, and so on.
Here I am, just sitting there.
But God knows where you are, and he
knows what's going on.
I know you're barren, he says.
I've been watching you.
You're not just a number to me.
Your name is inscribed on the palm of
my hand.
When we think we're all alone and nobody
cares, he cares.
He calls his own sheep by name, but
not by number.
And he says, I know all about you.
I know what you're going through.
I know the tears you've shed in the
secret place, longing to hold a child, longing
to bring forth life, longing to be fruitful.
I know all about that.
And you shall conceive.
You see, God can open the womb whenever
he wants.
And sometimes we have to wait, because there
are dealings that God has to do in
our life.
Because the Bible says, an inheritance gained hurriedly
in the beginning will not be blessed in
the end.
And we have a classic case of that
with the prodigal.
He seemingly wasn't mature enough to handle what
he was given.
You see, the anointing is like money.
You give a million dollars to a six
-year-old and you can get a million
dollars worth of bubble gum.
He's not going to invest it.
He's not going to buy houses and lands
or invest it in some way and make
it grow.
He's going to blow it, so you don't
give him that.
Yeah, blow it literally.
Some of you are more awake than I
am.
And so God waits a time, doesn't he?
See, if he'd have given it to Moses
at the age of 40, supposing his brethren
understood, Moses was full of it.
He thought he was the cat's whiskers.
He thought, you know, surely everybody sees in
me the potential of being a great leader.
After all, you know, I'm an Israelite, but
I've been trained up here in the ways
of Egypt, and I speak the language, and
I know the culture, and I know, you
know, I've got connections.
I'm a son of Pharaoh's daughter.
I know all the, you know, I'm the
one.
See, God knows when.
You shall conceive.
Conception is a very personal thing, very private
thing.
In the years that I pastored, I've gone
to the hospital numerous times, especially in New
Zealand, and I'm sure it's this way here
in this country, where you have sort of
socialized medicine.
In America, you know, if you want to
do visitation in the hospital, you need to
follow the ambulance, you know.
There's no sooner there's a baby arrived, than
you're back home.
If you can make it in half a
day, good, you know, but never more than
a day, very seldom overnight.
Pastors' nightmare, if you want to get there,
and at least show some sort of compassion.
But in New Zealand, at least, it used
to be at least a week, they would
keep you in hospital.
If you were tired, or they didn't think
you were quite ready, ten days, all at
government expense.
And I've gone to the hospital numerous times,
more times than I can ever imagine.
Climbed up the stairs there, of Christ Church
Women's Hospital, given the name, and been shown
where the ward is, and gone in, and
admired that beautiful little baby, a boy, a
little boy, a girl, stood around the bed
with the parents, maybe other siblings.
Many times, taking that child, and just offering
it back to God, there and then, in
the room, and saying, God, thank you for
a safe delivery.
That all the faculties are there, and the
hands, and the toes, and I've done that
many, many, many, many times.
Then maybe a month later, I've stood on
the platform like this, with some of the
other brethren, and we've formally held that child,
and presented it back to God, and had
the parents there, and grandparents, and so on.
But you know, I've never been there when
conception took place.
Oh, I'm not trying to be crude.
You see, it's a personal thing, isn't it?
Oh, I've admired the babies, I've admired what
they've given birth to, but I've never been
there during conception.
You see, there are certain prerequisites for conception,
and I think what we see in the
natural, we see in the spiritual, I think
there is a parallel, many times the Bible
says, first the natural, then the spiritual, and
the first thing is a total commitment.
Total commitment.
And I know we're not supposed to talk
about marriage, because we have a Bible school
here, but those things, so.
But no doubt the day will come, when
one of these young men will propose to,
maybe one of these young girls, I don't
know, but one, some young girl.
Can you imagine if he gets down on
his knee there, in some fancy restaurant, and
he says, darling, I want to ask you
a question.
Would you marry me?
She said, I'd love to.
And he says, well, I'm going to make
the weekends available, so I can be with
you.
But you know, Monday is the night I
spend with Mary, and Tuesday's night I spend
with Alice, and Wednesday's night I spend with
Susan.
I don't think so.
Total commitment or nothing.
Again, like Ruth.
Ruth clung to Naomi, and says, listen, don't
try and turn me back.
I'm going with you, because where you go,
I go.
Where you're going to live, I'm going to
live.
Again, your people are going to be my
people.
Your God is going to be my God.
Where you die, I'm going to die.
Total, radical commitment.
You see, God doesn't go around sort of
getting people in trouble, was the old expression,
whatever the new one is.
Doesn't go around fathering a bunch of sort
of bastard ministries.
He looks again, as we heard this morning,
for men and women that will commit their
will, put their hand to the plow, and
say, God, from this day on, I'm going
to follow you.
From this day on, all that I have,
and all that I am, belongs to you.
I commit myself to the cause of God.
I commit myself to you, Lord.
I'm going to marry in to you, and
to your purposes.
And there's a cost, isn't there, forsaking all
others.
The second thing is time alone.
Conception doesn't take place in public.
It's a private thing.
Again, it's when you're alone, you and your
beloved.
You see, most of us never get alone
with God.
Most of us never saw a draw aside
from all the activities, from the hustle and
the bustle, to really spend time with Him.
Again, that secret place.
As my father got older, when he got
into his late 70s and 80s, he told
me, he said, David, he said, I've been
getting mail lately from seminary students, and young
men saying, Brother Ravenhill, could I come and
see you?
I know you're getting up in age, and
I'd love it if you could pray for
me, and impart your mantle to me.
He said, I'd love to have your mantle,
Brother Ravenhill.
Would it be all right for me to
stop by?
I'm going to be passing through your part
of the, you know, nation, or whatever, and
you know, just would love you to just
lay hands on me.
My father, with sort of a twinkle in
his eye, he said, you know, David, everybody
wants my mantle, nobody wants my sackcloth and
ashes.
But you see, that's the secret place that
the mantle comes from.
Getting along, pouring out before God, weeping, or
whatever it takes, groaning, travailing, in the secret
place.
Go into the closet, shut the door.
Shut the door, as opposed to the Pharisees
who prayed to be seen of men.
And Jesus said, you've got your reward.
See, it deals with motivation, doesn't it?
Oh Lord, if I can do it publicly,
you know, I'd love a public ministry.
Begins in the private, it begins alone.
Time alone with the one that you love.
The third thing is a time of exposure.
There has to be nakedness.
You can't go around, you know, trying to
be something you're not.
You've got to expose yourself.
Transparency, honesty, that's where it begins.
God, I don't really have, even though I
go to this church, I don't really have
that burden for the nation.
I don't really have, Lord, an understanding of
revival.
It doesn't really sort of interest me.
I know everybody talks about it, but Lord,
I'm being honest.
I'm going to shed my religious, you know,
garb, so to speak.
Lord, I put up my hands.
I look fine.
Everybody, I'm going
to be honest.
I'm going to be transparent.
We've got to get transparent.
We've got to be honest before God, don't
we?
We've got to strip away all the show
and all the pretense.
And just as in the natural, God sees
us just the way we are.
Oh, we don't cover ourselves.
These days, we have certain cuts and certain
clothes that cover a multitude of sins.
But we do it spiritually, don't we?
But your beloved knows what you like, and
the heavenly beloved knows what you like, too.
All things are naked and bare before the
eyes of Him with whom we have to
do.
And the sooner we face the reality of
who we are, Lord, I don't have a
burden.
I don't do this, and the sooner we're
going to concede.
And then the final thing, of course, is
that time of intimacy, where you enter into
the presence of God, and it's heart-to
-heart and face-to-face, and there's a
joining, where you go beyond the veil, just
as in the natural, there is a veil
that has to be penetrated in order to
have proper union in a marriage.
So in the spiritual realm, there is a
veil that we've got to go beyond, from
the outer court right into the very presence
of God.
We've got to have a meeting place with
God.
We've got to find ourselves again in that
place along with Him.
It's there where He births vision.
It's there where the seed of God is
imparted to us, the sperm of God.
That's what the Bible calls it, the Word
of God.
Where God births again something, maybe for a
nation, maybe for a city, maybe some particular
calling for an orphanage, or whatever it may
be, I don't know.
But there, as we're all alone with God,
waiting on God, and we come face to
face, God begins to speak, and He begins
to make known to us.
Elijah didn't just strut on the stage and
announce to Ahab, listen, it's not going to
rain for a while.
He says, no, the Lord God before whom
I stand.
Behind the scenes, he was alone with God,
and we've got to get alone with God.
That's where conception takes place.
Number four is divine gestation.
After conception takes place, there is the gestation
period.
It can be long.
The earth would be overflowing, if you could
conceive and give birth at the end of
the week.
But it's that nine months that you never
think is going to end, and the spiritual
is like that, only it's longer, most of
the time.
Then there's the initial excitement, maybe that you've
conceived, you know, and you let everybody know
the tests are positive, and you know, call
up the relatives, and blah, blah, blah.
Maybe you call your husband at work.
You've just got back from the doctor, and
you're all thrilled, and then all of a
sudden, the months begin, and people look, you
know, how far along are you?
Oh, you look a lot more.
Every woman loves that.
But you know, something has been birthed within
you, and something begins to stir within you,
and you're not, you know, you're experiencing things
that you've never experienced before, and changes are
taking place, and your interests begin to change,
don't they?
You know, all of a sudden in the
natural, women are talking now about maternity clothes,
and they've never talked about that, and they're
looking at borders to put up in the
baby's room, and you know, they get interested
in knitting little, you know, suits, and all
of a sudden, I mean, all sorts of
different things, and then they get crazy urges,
and you know, I mean, all those funny
things that happen, they happen in the spiritual.
All of a sudden, you get interested in
certain things, certain types of ministries, and certain
types of programs, so on and so forth,
and something is beginning to work inside you,
and changes are beginning to take place, and
you're beginning to change, and then you begin
to carry a burden, a heavy burden.
And while I've never been there, my wife
has been there.
Oh, and the backache and everything else, you
know, I mean, the burden, but spiritually there's
a burden that comes, a burden for the
nation, a burden for the youth, a burden
for evangelism, a burden for this, burden for
that, gestation, and God is beginning to put
something together inside you.
You see, conception took place for Joseph.
We heard about him tonight.
Conception took place one night, in the middle
of the night.
He had some dreams, and oh, they were
exciting.
After all, he was Daddy's special favorite, and
the rest of the family knew it, didn't
especially appreciate it.
He got the favors, you know, the fancy
coat, and well, oh, he had a dream,
you know, vengeance is mine, I will repay,
said the Lord, you know.
Joseph, they're all going to fall down.
You're going to be the top dog.
I mean, you know, I'm going to elevate
you.
I'm going to raise you up, Joseph.
And oh, you know, he bounded down to
breakfast that morning, convinced that after he blabbed
out his dream, that everybody get off their
stools or whatever, and fall at his feet.
And you know, Joseph, you see, that was
just conception.
Thirteen years of gestation.
That's a long one.
Thirteen years of preparation, inions, rejection, accusations, and
finally the baby was born.
But God had done a work in him.
Moses, 40 years of gestation.
How many would like that one?
Supposing his brethren understood.
You see, I believe God did put a
burden in him, as a young man, but
he thought it was God's timing.
God was doing something, 40 years later, the
baby's born, so to speak.
Jesus, we heard about this morning, 30 years,
never did anything.
Oh, was it last night?
Yesterday morning.
No miracle, no raising of the dead, no
great message, and yet the Father said, this
is my beloved Son.
It was a timing, in the fullness of
time, God sent forth His Son.
And in the fullness of time, God still
sends forth His Son, and His daughters.
And He knows the time.
I don't understand why we've got 400 years
of silence, between all the Old Testament prophets,
and you know, until the child is born,
and so on.
It doesn't make sense.
If I'd have been God, I'd have, you
know, Lord, they need a Messiah now.
But God knows.
And so again, you know, you've got all
these years and years of preparation, Joshua, 40
years of preparation, 40 years of being a
servant, 40 years of serving the man of
God.
God was watching him.
When Moses left the house of God, the
presence of God, the Bible says, Joshua lingered.
God says, that's the sort of man I
like, somebody that likes to linger in my
presence.
That's the sort of man I like, a
man that's a servant.
And all the qualities that you see in
Joseph's life.
And God was sort of, yep, he's doing
great.
Not going to be too long now, another
20 years, you know.
And I'm going to take your, I'm going
to take Moses and David, all those years
after God had called him, where he's under
Saul, gestation.
And so I believe the greater the call
of God, the greater the time of gestation.
Number five, divine restrictions.
Verse four, now therefore, you're going to conceive,
now therefore, be careful not to drink wine,
a strong drink, or eat any unclean thing.
Be careful.
You're carrying something.
You're going to be holding a priceless vessel,
a ministry, a calling, a gifting.
Be careful.
See one of the things about pregnancy is,
that you can abort that child.
I'm not talking about going to a doctor
and aborting it.
I'm talking about just because of neglect or
abuse.
I remember way back, because she's about my
age, Princess Anne, when back in those days
she was an avid equestrian, you know, rider,
loved horses, possibly still does.
And I remember when she got pregnant, and
the doctor says, no more riding.
Why?
Because what you're carrying is far more priceless
than any horse.
You've got to be careful.
You could fall off that horse and lose
royalty.
So be careful.
And we have to be very careful, don't
we?
You see, God will put on us restrictions.
I used to carry around in my Bible
a little tract that says, others may, you
cannot.
It was a famous tract many years ago.
Lord, why do others do what they do?
That doesn't matter.
What is that to be?
Follow thou me.
Paul says, all things are expedient, but they're
not, all things are, uh, what was the
word?
But they're not expedient.
All things are lawful, but they're not expedient.
Paul says, listen, there's lots of things I
can do, legally do, but they're not expedient.
Be careful.
And God comes time after time.
First of all, in verse 4, verse 7,
Behold you shall conceive and give birth to
a son.
You shall not drink wine, a strong drink,
or eat any unclean thing.
Verse 13, The angel Lord said to Manoah,
let the woman pay attention to all that
I've said.
She shall not eat anything that comes from
the vine, or drink wine, or strong drink,
or any unclean thing.
Let her observe all that I've commanded.
Three times God says, listen, you're under restraint
now.
I'm putting restrictions on you.
You can't do what others do.
If you're going to bring forth a vessel,
I'm going to confine, I'm going to restrict,
I'm going to put disciplines on your life.
We don't like discipline, do we?
Oh, we want to be free, and I
don't want to pray.
I don't want to see God.
I don't, you know.
And God will say, listen, if you're going
to be the man of God, I want
you to be.
If you're going to be the woman of
God, I want you to be.
It's going to be restraints.
I remember when God clearly spoke to me,
25, 30 years ago, I suppose, not to
go to another movie.
I'd never imposed it on my family, on
my kids.
Obviously they try and be selective as to
what they go to, but restrictions.
You can't, others can.
You can't drink wine, others can.
You can't have strong drink, others can.
You can't eat anything that comes from the
vine, others can.
But not you.
Why was that?
Because she was going to give birth to
a Nazirite.
God makes it very clear.
Listen, what you're carrying in your womb, verse
5, is going to be a Nazirite to
God.
Again, the same thing in verse 7.
He's going to be a Nazirite.
You see, she was going to give birth
to a Nazirite, but she had to become
a Nazirite.
We heard again that this morning.
You can't separate ministry as a sort of
a calling from your own character and who
you are.
It has to be one and the same.
You can't preach holiness unless you live holy.
You can't talk about integrity unless you're a
man of integrity.
You can't talk about evangelism unless you have
a passion for souls.
She is going to give birth to a
ministry, but she has to become what she's
giving birth to.
She has to model what she's giving birth
to.
She's going to give birth to a Nazirite.
Here's this little boy, three or four or
five years of age.
He's beginning to talk a little bit, and
here she is, you know, scoffing down the
grapes and drinking the wine, and mommy can
I have some of that?
No.
Please mommy, no.
Why?
Because you're a Nazirite.
Well why can you have it?
I can't.
So she had to model what she was
going to raise up, and our lives have
to reflect what God has called us to
do.
Time to go around the nation talking about
intercession, unless you spend time alone with God,
or prayer, or whatever it is.
See, you've got to be the very thing
that you're going to give birth to, and
in order for that to happen, many times
there are restrictions that God will impose upon
you.
Number six, divine possession.
What God births, God owns.
He says again in verse five, behold you
shall conceive, give birth to a son.
No razor shall come upon his head, for
the boy shall be a Nazirite to God
from the womb.
We go on in verse seven, behold you
shall conceive and give birth to a son.
You shall not drink wine, or strong drink,
or any unclean thing, for the boy shall
be a Nazirite to God from the womb
to the day of his death.
The Nazirite law was an interesting law.
It was not restricted to any tribe, as
was the priesthood.
You had to be a Levite, then you
had to be of the house of Aaron,
then you had to be a son of
Aaron, then you had to be physically fit
in order to be a priest.
But anybody could be a Nazirite, male or
female, any tribe, and you could choose the
length of time you wanted to be a
Nazirite.
You could be a Nazirite for a week,
a month, two months, a year, two years,
four years, five years, ten years, whatever.
And at the end of your completion, then
you went to the priest, and you know
it was over, you'd fulfilled your vow.
But you see when God calls a Nazirite,
it's from the womb to the day of
death.
You're mine, I have ownership of you.
Well Lord, I think I'll try the ministry.
You know, if it doesn't work out, I
can always go back to business.
You know, I'll be a missionary for, you
know, a couple of years, and you know,
I'll try pastoring, and well Lord, you know,
I can always fall back on.
So you know, I'll give you the next
year or so, and if it pans out
good, fine.
If it doesn't, you know, fingers, no, you
see, total commitment.
From the day God births that thing within
you, it's His.
To the day it dies.
Belongs to God.
He created it.
He gave it.
It's His.
And you can't play around with it.
You can't, again, put your own sort of
conditions on it.
God is the one that does that.
And so we're accountable to God for what
God gives us.
Number seven, divine maturation.
Finally the child is born.
Sorry, before the child is born, let me
just back up a moment, but divine maturation.
Manoah comes before God, and he prays, and
he said, Lord, let the man of God
return.
The man that spoke to us.
The man that spoke to my wife.
This divine visitation.
Lord, I need this man of God back.
He didn't realize it was an angel at
that particular stage, but he said, God, I
need to hear from your servant again.
So in verse 8, and Manoah entreated the
Lord, and said, O Lord, please let the
man of God whom thou has sent us
come again, that he may teach us what
to do for the boy who is to
be born.
He goes on, verse 12, and Manoah said,
When your words come to pass, he's talking
now to the angel, Lord.
When your words come to pass, what shall
be the boy's mode of life and his
vocation?
What an interesting scripture.
Let me read you a couple of translations.
Moffat's translation, how are we to train the
boy?
Knox's translation, how is the boy to be
nurtured?
The Berkeley translation, show us his life and
his activities.
The Septuagint, how is he to be educated?
You see, most of us get so excited
at the birth of the baby.
Finally, you know, I've been asked to speak.
I've been asked to sing.
I've been asked to play.
I've been asked to go on a missions
trip.
You know, finally, you know, they've, you know,
the baby's born.
You know, I've waited so long to be
a part of this group, you know, and
we get so excited about the baby.
We run around, you know, talking about the
baby, and showing the baby off, and you
know.
How many of us say, Lord, what does
this thing look like when it reaches maturity?
Lord, how do I raise?
How do I educate?
How do I further this priceless gift that
you've given to me?
Lord, where does it go from here?
Lord, when it's educated, when it's trained, when
we nurture this child, Lord, teach us.
Oh, most of us are too excited just
to do anything like that.
Finally, you know, I've been recognized.
I've got my calling, my ministry.
It's taken years, but now Manoa could have
gone to the neighbors, said to the lady
next door that's got a dozen kids running
around, listen, would you mind coming over some
afternoon, and let my wife and I just
talk to you, and you know, give us
some pointers on, you know, how to look
after this baby.
You know, it's going to be due pretty
soon.
You know, this is our first one, and
we're not quite sure what to do, and
you know.
You see, one of the tragedies that I've
seen, and I've experienced a few sort of
minor, if you like, moves of God over
the years, and seen different movements come and
go, but very seldom do they get together
and say, Lord, where is this thing really
going, and what does it look like, what
is your purpose?
We heard about it tonight a little bit,
the church being the church.
Oh, we're not just flopping around like fish,
and enjoying, you know, the presence of God,
and getting goosebumps, and this feels good, and
I can't wait till the next conference.
No, what does it look like when it
matures?
What's the purpose for all this?
Why is God touching us?
Why is God visiting us?
You know, what do we do with it?
Lord, you're obviously, there's a baby beginning to
form here.
In our congregation, we've been barren for years,
and something's happening now, the move of God.
People are getting touched, and so on, but
nobody ever takes time to get together with
the leaders, and the elders, and say, listen,
let's pray.
God's moving, but listen, we've got to be
careful.
How do we carry this thing to maturity?
Where does it go from here?
I was part of a very brief, sovereign
visitation of God, many years ago, down in
the South Pacific islands of Tonga, with Youth
for the Mission.
We were on a little island, way out
in the middle of nowhere.
Most of Tonga's little islands, anyway, but I
mean, this island, you could walk around in
less than an hour.
That's how small it was, and there was
an all-girls school, and a typical YWAM
faux pas.
They sent the boys team, but we got
there after many, many hours.
It was supposed to be a six-hour
journey, by an open sort of trading vessel.
Took us 32 hours, ran into a storm.
It was just unbelievable, and got there, and
then we had torrential rain for three or
four days, and we were holed up in
this house, just had mats on the floor,
no furniture or anything.
We had our lilos we slept on, and
it was a girls Methodist school compound, and
all we could do is pray and seek
God.
Couldn't do the typical YWAM thing in those
days, go out and knock on doors.
And God gave us a word that God
was going to bring the people to us,
and one afternoon the clouds parted, and the
sun came out, and before you knew it,
all these girls surrounded all these guys.
And that afternoon there were groups of six
and eight, twelve girls sitting on the grass
with two guys, and we were sharing the
word.
But that night, one of the men asked
the director of the school, the principal's name
was Ulfa, means love in Tongan, did we
have a meeting with the girls?
It was a boarding school.
And at the end of his meeting, he
shared his testimony, and then he said for
some reason, he felt to raise his hand
and said, receive the Holy Ghost.
And he said, a wind just came right
through, just like a rushing mighty wind, and
people fell off their chairs, started weeping, kids
started prophesying.
They didn't even know what prophecy was.
And we were having a meeting with some
of the teachers, and after about two hours,
a couple of these guys came in.
You could see a beam on the face,
something had happened, and the headmistress said, you
know, I need to go and make sure
the kids are, you know, getting ready for
the evening.
And she disappeared.
She came back running about 20 minutes later,
and she said, what on earth has happened?
She said, I went into one of the
dormitories, and she said, there the girls have
got their hands up, and they're just weeping.
And a little girl met me at the
door, and she said, Ulfa, Ulfa, if you
don't cry out, the rocks will cry out.
Methodist girls.
And for about three days after that, they
would stand up, and it would take them
10 minutes sometimes to compose themselves.
And the tears flowed, and they would ask
the teachers for forgiveness, because they'd cheated, because
they'd been smoking, because they'd been stealing bananas
off the plantation, and so on.
And Ulfa said to us, the headmistress, she
said, I've been in the school something like
three years.
This is the first time after a week
or so, first time I've seen ripe bananas
on that, those plantations.
But you know, we were young.
We didn't know what to do with it.
God gave us a wonderful baby.
A week later, we got on another boat
and went to another island.
See, we've got to learn, Lord, now that
I've got this, what does it look like?
How do I educate?
How do I train?
How do I nurture?
Lord, where do we go from here?
What's the whole purpose of this wonderful outpouring
of the Spirit of God?
Lord, what is the end result?
Is it for my sake, just so I
feel good?
We've got to be wise master builders, don't
we?
I had a friend who was one of
my elders in the last church that I
had, before I launched out in ministry.
And we had a school, and he was
one of the teachers in the high school,
and then we cancelled the school, and we
couldn't take him on financially, nor did we
feel he was the right one.
And so he was offered a position at
another church, where there was a real move
of the Spirit.
Three pastors from three denominations had gone to
Toronto, come back, touched in a very powerful
way.
They were drunk, and people poured in from
all over the northwest in America.
But you know, it never matured.
I finally told my congregation, I don't want
you going, because they kept it in that
infancy.
And this man that was one of my
elders, became the worship leader.
In fact, he was a worship leader for
me for a while.
And he adopted a baby, and it's about
a year later, and he sent me a
card, or his wife did, and he had
a letter inside it.
And he said, you know, things are going
so well here, blah, blah, blah.
You know, we've adopted a baby, a little
picture, and so on.
He said, you know, one of my favorite
songs, and he wrote out the words.
Let me read them to you.
Jump into the river, and drink till you
sink.
It's better where it's wetter, and the fish
wear sweaters.
See, that's getting heady on the new wine.
There's no sense to it.
You're casting off all restraint, freedom for freedom's
sake.
You know, we're going to do away with
all the trimmings of hymns, and all, you
know.
We're just going to be free now.
Jump into the river, and drink like a
fish.
It's better where it's wetter, and the fish
wear sweaters.
Wasn't too long after that, I got a
flyer in the mail.
I still have it in my file.
These were the topics.
How to blow your nose, while having the
jerks.
How to drive while drunk.
More fun than you can imagine, with these
spiritual drunks for Jesus.
I mean, these are literally the topics they
had.
Or they had a baby.
It's still a baby, as far as I
know.
It may have died.
There was no wisdom.
There was no maturity.
There's no coming before God, and say, God
you've given us a visitation.
Where does it go from here?
How do we mature it?
What's your purpose behind this?
There's one thing to have fruit.
The Bible says, there's got to be much
fruit, and then it goes from much fruit,
to much, to fruit that remains.
I've appointed you that you bear fruit, then
much fruit, then fruit that remains.
I want fruit that remains, don't you?
I want to be part of something in
these last days, that isn't just a little
fizzle here, and you know, but something that
matures, and something that swells, and something that
really does become the church, as we heard
about tonight.
That advances the cause of God's kingdom, with
the sacrifice involved, and other things.
And it's not just, you know, splashing around
in the waters, and enjoying the fun and
games, if you like, of the things of
the Spirit.
We've got to learn to mature.
Lord, what does it look like?
Worship.
Thank God for the level of maturity.
But I'm in churches, and they never get
out of the outer court.
Volume, happy clappy, you know, everybody gets stirred.
The shofars blow, and people drool, you know,
like Pavlov's dog, you know.
It's amazing, isn't it?
As though somehow that trumpet blast has got
some sort of special anointing, because it comes
from a, doesn't even come from a ram's
horn.
Unfortunately, somebody's made a fortune conning the body
of Christ.
The Bible says the shofar was a ram's
horn, not some South African, whatever it was.
Nothing to do with South Africa.
Yeah, and anyway, the trumpet that blew the
warfare signal, was a silver trumpet in the
Old Testament.
Make silver trumpets to sound the alarm of
war.
But it's amazing, isn't it, how we react
emotionally, and everything else, and we just have
these happy clappy songs, you know.
And there's a place for that.
But we don't really mature in to the
presence of God, where the instruments begin to
prophesy.
What does it mean to prophesy on an
instrument?
It means to discern the mood of the
Spirit.
And all of a sudden, we can go
into a militant mood, because there is a
man who is openly listening to the Spirit
of God, and he changes the mood, again,
by prophesying on the instrument.
You know, something that's got some militancy, and
all of a sudden, we're...
See, there's two types of worship.
My friend, Des Evans, who's a great Welsh
preacher in Dallas.
We are honored to have him.
He says, there's feminine worship and masculine worship.
And we've got to discern, not that one's
right, and the other's wrong.
There are moods.
There are times of love-making, of contemplation,
worship, and just adoration.
But there's times when we make declarations, like
this last song.
And we declare His majesty, and His power,
and the power of the blood.
And the powers of darkness, again, shake and
tremble.
That two-edged sword in our hand, whereby
we bind nobles and fetters with chains.
We had an Awake America crusade in Denver,
Colorado, one of the most successful of all
the Awake Americas.
And in the middle of it, in the
middle of worship, we were led to go
into a time of, sort of, militant warfare.
And we focus, just like a laser, on
the demonic strongholds over Denver.
Denver is known as a New Age center,
apart from Colorado Springs now, that has become
the spiritual Mecca.
But Denver itself, and much of Colorado, because
of the rugged mountains, and you know, people
go there, and there's drugs and everything else.
And we began to declare the name of
Jesus.
And we did something that Ed Miller taught
many years ago, just a sort of a
warfare clap, where we had about 6,000
people, just one beat.
And we just said, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
And it was electrifying, as you had you
know, 6,000, 8,000, whatever it was,
people doing that.
But we didn't just do it.
We focused, and we addressed it, just like
a, you know, a concentration of light.
And at the end of that period, there
were some men that came up, ministers, and
one of them said, I had a vision.
And he said, I saw the state of
Colorado covered with this rebar, you know, the
steel reinforcing that you put in concrete, in
roads, and so on.
And he said, all of a sudden, when
we began to do that, he said, that
rebar broke.
And it just was like a net that
was breaking.
And somebody else had a similar vision.
And we went back three times, maybe four
times, I've been back, where they've continued on
with their own Awake Americas, and brought different
people in, because something was happening in that
city.
See, we've got to mature.
We've got to understand and discern.
And we can do things, if we're, you
know, if we're not very smart, that grieve,
again, the Holy Spirit.
I remember one day, we had a lady
in New Zealand, and at the end of
the meeting, there was a tremendous sense of
God's presence, you know, that, the heaviness of
God's presence, the kabod, the weight, the glory
of God had just sort of settled.
And it was a time when we could
have all just sort of fallen off on
our faces.
And she made the mistake of saying, could
somebody come up and just lead us?
And one of our young men got up,
and all of a sudden, we were dancing.
And the whole atmosphere just instantly changed.
The power of music.
You see, I think in one sense, and
this may not be the right interpretation, but
I think it's an application, when God was
trying to deal with Saul, and finally he
sent an evil spirit, and I think it
could be God's last chance for Saul, to
show him what it's like.
That evil spirit bugged him and agitated him,
almost like a spirit of conviction.
And he realized, you know, the presence of
God had withdrawn, and maybe that was God's
final appeal to Saul.
Listen, this is what it's going to be
like, unless you repent.
This is what it's like without my presence.
This is what it's like when you disobey.
You open yourself, and I'm letting you experience
the full fury of the enemy.
And what happened?
He said, listen, we need somebody that can
play an instrument.
And David came.
Young man, he had to obey.
He was under the king's authority.
And he started playing, and all of a
sudden, that spirit departed.
And that may not be the interpretation, but
I think there's an application there, that we
can change the mood of what God is
wanting to do, you see.
So we've got to reach maturity.
The last thing, divine participation, very briefly.
Verse 24, And the woman gave birth to
a son, and named him Samson.
And the child grew, and the Lord blessed
him, and the Spirit of the Lord began
to stir him.
Notice, the child grew, and it was only
after the child grew, matured, that God began
to take this life and use it.
And the Spirit of the Lord began to
stir him.
It was not Samson controlling the Spirit.
It was the Spirit controlling Samson.
You see, it's not us trying to control
God for our own ends or our own
purposes.
It's us becoming totally and completely available to
God.
So God can lead us, and God can
guide us, and God can take us wherever
He wants.
And we don't take the glory for ourselves,
to embellish our ministry, and to further our
cause.
But rather, God has control.
God working with them, the Bible says.
That's what I want.
God working with them.
What a difference that makes.
What a difference when the Spirit of God
comes, and where we have instruments, vessels, men
and women, that know what it is to
be controlled by the Spirit of God.
Where they are totally His, again, Nazarites.
And He says, that's mine.
I can do with that vessel whatever I
want.
And we begin to participate again with the
Living God.
We know what it is to be led
by the Spirit.
You see, there is a process.
I think God allowed us to enter a
realm tonight, to show us what He wants
to do.
And I don't think it's coincidental that now
He's saying, listen, this is how you get
there.
If you're going to be one that's going
to go through into that realm, and you're
going to have longevity in the kingdom.
Paul Cain said to me many years ago,
he said, David, few people survive the anointing.
Few people survive the anointing.
I want to survive the anointing.
I hope you do.
And so God has to form us, mold
us, fashion us, deal with motivations, strip us,
in order to birth in us, what He
wants.
Let's close in prayer.
Father, we're conscious tonight that we've already stood
on holy ground.
That Lord, you've given us the privilege of
coming in to your presence and standing before
you.
Lord, you've opened our eyes to what you
want to do with us as a church,
as a people.
And now Lord, we ask that you would
raise up out of this congregation, bodies of
believers, in which you can birth again your
purposes.
Lord, ones that will be able to endure
again the gestation period.
Ones that will know what it is to
get alone with you, wait upon you.
When others are involved in other things, they'll
go into that closet and shut the door.
Father, raise up in this nation some Samson's
that will turn the tide again, demonstrate to
the world the very power of God, the
might of God, that will pull down strongholds.
Yet Lord, we think of the tragic ending
of this man.
Lord, keep us.
Keep us pure.
Keep us holy.
Keep us dependent.
Keep us, Lord, from the Delilers of this
world.
Lord, we don't want to lose our hair.
We don't want to lose our strength.
So Lord, come and have your way.
In Jesus name.
Amen.