Keep us, my God, in the thing that
is perfect, even now.
For we're jealous in getting your full statement,
Lord, that you dot the I's and cross
the T's and put your exclamation points and
underlinings where they need to be.
That what is in your heart would be
fully registered upon ours.
That we might give ourselves, Lord, to being
your servants and fulfilling the remarkable thing hinted
at in this text.
So we thank you, Lord, precious God.
Come and continue, Lord, with us, we pray.
We cherish every word that proceeds from your
mouth and desire that fulfillment, that you might
obtain your glory and that many might believe
upon you.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, I'm looking over the little things that
I scribbled this morning.
It looks like I've already cited most of
them.
What it will be now is more or
less a summary than any really fresh thought,
but it wouldn't hurt in summarizing and underlining
some of the principal thoughts.
And John is reminding me that I should
probably take this occasion, before I do that,
to share the principal dream that came to
me about 25 years ago in this place
and for which we have waited fulfillment and
believe that the New York invitation is that
fulfillment.
You can even help us in the interpretation.
We've never had a satisfactory interpretation of that
dream that maybe has waited for this time
and for this congregation.
So here it is.
I dreamt that I was on top of
a mountain walking with another brother, following a
figure in front of us, maybe some hundreds
of yards away, and that our every move
was dependent on how we closely observed where
he was going.
And the brother with me was never identified
in the face that I could recognize, but
the sense of his brotherness was clear, that
this was one with whom there was a
relationship of trust and of history.
And at the last moment, I watched this
figure in front of us dip into a
side path, and if I had not observed
it, I would have missed it.
But because I caught it at the last
moment, we were able to follow him down
in a labyrinthine pass down that mountain to
the base of the mountain.
The mountain, by the way, was domed rather
than peaked.
You know what that means?
It means that it's more ancient.
And when we got to the bottom, I
was by myself.
The brother somehow was not in the picture,
and I'm looking up to the— well, first
of all, I'm seeing the base of this
mountain, and it's remarkable.
It has, like, squared-off stones, but they're
not cut by hand.
But they give the impression of foundational stones,
and they're covered with moss, indicating their antiquity.
And I'm looking up.
I'm standing on that plateau, the floor, looking
up at the mountain from which I've just
come, and great boulders begin to roll off
on me.
And I'm looking up, and these great boulders
are coming down, and they're missing me, just
falling harmlessly by me.
And one last boulder coming, as they say,
that has your number.
And I'm looking up.
I'm finished.
And as it's coming down, I hear a
voice saying, Watch out.
I don't see the figure.
And I take one step, and it misses
me.
The next scene is I'm on that plateau,
and I'm on a moving escalator, moving toward
a building in which I know I'm to
receive a shower.
And that escalator is not loaded with people.
Only here and there are a few souls,
but I'm the only one taking off all
my clothing, and not at all ashamed to
do so, and folding it neatly, and putting
it down by my feet, and putting an
object on top of it, which is supposed
to be my Bible.
I never do see in the dream the
shower, but I know that it's necessary for
me to be stripped, and it's necessary for
me to be cleansed.
And when I come out of that shower,
I'm in New York City, clearly, unmistakably.
And there are great crowds.
And in the crowd, I notice a distinguished
-looking people that are clearly Jewish, wearing Van
Dyck beards, but not like your typical Orthodox,
where there's just unkempt, but nicely trimmed and
giving an indication of a quality and a
character not often found among Orthodox.
Certain erudition, learning, dignity, bearing, a significant kind
of people.
And somehow, I get into conversation with them,
and they're offering me a lift in their
limousine.
And they're supposed to take me to the
bus station where I would rendezvous with the
brother with whom I began the dream.
And in this dream, we drive past the
bus station, and I'm saying, Hey, aren't you
supposed to let me up?
Oh, they said, We'll bring you back there
later.
I never do see that brother again in
the dream.
The next thing, I'm in Brooklyn.
And in that portion of Brooklyn, Flatbush, which
I know very well, I walked and played
through those streets as a kid, and we're
sitting on the sidewalk in rickety wooden chairs
very reminiscent of the Depression years, when you
had no entertainment but just a kid would
sit and play outside and talk, sitting on
the stoops, sitting on these chairs.
And these people are talking and relating to
me as if there's no problem whatsoever.
There's a remarkable accord and an acceptance of
these people, though I myself do not have
a beard, and clearly I'm not out of
their milieu and out of their environment, but
their acceptance is clear.
The talk is very easy and pleasant.
I'm not at all a threat or rejected.
And at one point in that time with
them, I'm saying, I need a haircut.
And so the one brother says, well, the
Rebbeson, the rabbi's wife, gives haircuts.
I said, oh, okay.
And the next thing I know, I don't
see the haircut and I don't see her,
but I know I received one.
The next scene is a series of scenes.
I'm in a Brooklyn candy store.
Typical.
The only thing is that it's completely abandoned
and all of the fixtures have been removed
from it, even the light fixtures.
But I know that there'd be a candy
store, and I'm sitting on the floor with
the kids from this Jewish community and kind
of talking and playing with them in the
light that comes through the windows, and one
of the kids gives me his father's calling
card.
He's a rabbi.
The card is black, and the letters are
in pale yellow of the kind that the
yellow star that Jews wore in the concentration
camps.
And I notice the address, but I know
that there's no synagogue at that particular address,
and yet so it must be symbolic of
something.
The final scene is I'm back again with
the whole community of them, and we are
actually crossing Avenue U.
And as we're crossing, one of the men
turns to me and he says, from where
have you just come?
The fact of the matter is I've just
come back from Africa.
And I'm turning to him and I'm saying,
well, I had just...
I found myself speechless as if someone had
pulled a cord, a plug, out of the
wall.
I had not the energy or the strength,
the ability even to give a simple piece
of information, and the dream ended.
I walk with a start with that kind
of conclusion that somehow if that plug is
disconnected, I'm unable even to give information, let
alone anything of significance.
And it was time to go to the
morning prayer meeting.
And so I'm walking to the prayer meeting,
talking it over with the Lord, learning it's
a private personal dream, although I share this
with Ben Israel.
He said, share it.
We spent the entire morning, two to three
hours, just reviewing the different aspects of that
dream and giving various suggestions of what the
boulder might mean, what the haircut might mean,
but this much was clear.
The dream was indicative of a call to
New York City.
Whatever New York City represents, much more than
what it is in itself, maybe a statement
of Galut, the exile of Jews scattered in
all lands, and what this particular Orthodox people
represent, I don't know.
But we understood that it was a statement
from the Lord that our ultimate destiny was
New York City and the Jewish community there.
So when the invitation to New York came,
we felt that it was an answer to
that dream which we had been holding for
a quarter of a century.
I'll tell you how the invitation to New
York came.
Some of you are seeing the pamphlet or
booklet that we're preparing for Jewish readers in
New York.
It came to us from a Jewish brother
in Florida who called to say the Lord
has given him a burden that something should
be written for Jews in New York about
the coming time of Jacob's trouble, already becoming
apparent in the increase of violence, anti-Semitism,
and that we should be the ones to
write this, and that he would pay for
everything, a budget of $12,000, 12 being
the number of the tribes of Israel in
the apostolic number.
And so we took that to heart.
This brother is not flim-flam.
He's a man of almost my age, earnest,
and if he says the burden was from
the Lord, I believe that without question, and
that it would be advertised in the New
York Times.
I suggested the New York Times book review
section because that appeals to a leadership of
a very distinct kind.
And when you read that, we have four
copies of it circulating the room here.
You'll see that it's not addressed to the
ordinary Jew, but some who have either a
religious background or a sophistication, an erudition of
a certain kind to make the content meaningful.
Well, I had just written the introduction, and
I brought it down to the morning prayer
meeting.
And those who are in the room will
remember that as I began to read it,
the Spirit of God fell.
And I started to break and to weep,
and people started to come out of their
chairs in prayer and prophecy.
It was a visitation of the Lord as
marked as anything that we had ever experienced
in our history, and as close to the
Lord's calling in Acts 13 to the Antioch
Fellowship separate unto me.
It was a clear separate unto me by
a visitation of the Lord in the reading
of the first portion of that document before
the entire assembled community in the prayer time.
It wasn't my coming down from my bedroom
and saying, I got a dream.
It was the Lord himself clearly establishing the
call to New York.
Two days later, we had a second visitation
of the Lord.
A brother from New Zealand was present to
prophesy, and the Lord filled in and made
yet more tangible this remarkable invitation, which we
interpret as being the answer to the dream
that New York was an ultimate destiny or
destination.
So you're free to offer interpretation for any
of that, maybe in conjunction with what we
are considering today.
Here's what I wrote earlier this morning.
Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
Even go to the Jewish Orthodox community in
New York City and fill up their water
pots to the brim by your presence as
commanded by the Lord as his whatsoever, drawing
water from the wells of your salvation, filling
up what is appropriate to their purification that
is presently partial and stagnant, and then draw
off from what is completed in keeping with
their own Jewish rites and practices till it
be turned into a new wine better than
at the first for rejoicing at our wedding.
The substance of the water, I'm quoting now
from Matthew Henry's commentary, and by the way,
don't turn to commentaries immediately.
Seek first the Lord directly for illumination, and
then after you have exhausted all of that,
then you're free to look at a commentary.
And Matthew Henry was remarkable in this text.
He writes, the substance of the water required
a new form by the addition thereof.
So it's water added to water, maybe either
water of a new kind or water of
a similar kind, and that the blessing of
the gospel turns the water into wine as
against the shadow of the law, which is
water, legal purification according to the law and
the tradition of the elders.
That the first miracle presages the last as
it culminates in the wedding feast of the
Lamb, our translation at their restoration.
Listen to that, our translation at their restoration.
Their need is met by wine to complete
their ceremony and their wedding, that at their
meeting of that need for them, which is
their restoration, is also at the same time
our translation, our glorification.
So the two things come as one.
There's no translation of the church, no glorified
body, no coming of the Lord until Israel's
destiny is affected.
One is contingent upon the other, but their
destiny requires our filling up.
Whatsoever he sayeth and he doeth, even go
to the Jewish Orthodox community in New York
and fill up their waterpots.
Christ would have the new wine brought to
the governor of the feast, remaining himself concealed
as the true benefactor, for the extraordinary tokens
of Christ's presence and power were not to
supersede or jostle out the ordinary or traditional
rules or methods of piety and devotion.
This is Matthew Henry.
So this is me.
He transforms it unto joy of salvation, not
by replacement but by the filling of the
existing thing to the brim, by more of
the same, through the implicit unquestioning obedience of
his servants to his whatsoever.
The substance of the water, thereby acquiring a
new form.
So I'm reading into this text our own
call to New York.
As a servant obeying the whatsoever of God,
though it doesn't make any immediate sense and
we don't know what it will in fact
detail, but somehow the obedience and the coming
and drawing out of the well of our
own salvation will bring their stagnant water to
the brim, which is the requirement not to
replace it but to transform it.
And so the tendency of the church has
been to repudiate and to reject what is
existent in Jewish tradition and observance of the
law as being passé.
But I think that the Lord is implying
far from that, my intention is not to
displace it but to employ it.
And that you have got to be willing
to add your water to what already exists
and only the water that you can bring
will transform that substance into another, namely wine.
So if the governor will say that this
new wine is better at the last and
not the first, what will those who drink
it say?
They will have to agree that indeed that's
true.
The new wine exceeds the old and rejoice
for what has come.
The prophetic man interprets the scriptures in the
context of the historic moment.
So I would say that they will run
out of wine or it will be apparent
that they have not anything more in view
of the increase of terror and persecution that
will everywhere afflict them with the collapse of
the stock market, their security, their categories, their
religious and humane and liberal views will come
to an end.
They'll know that there's a lack.
Or just as the consciousness is coming first
to the director of the feast, it will
subsequently come to them and at that moment
the Lord is acting to bring them into
not just the continuation of what they had
but into a new quality, a new dimension
of divine reality that more than will answer
the crisis of lack will bring them into
a joy unspeakable and full of glory.
We are at a new historic threshold between
the two communities who are biblically based and
scripture revering and honor the God of scripture
who have been historically to this moment separated
that the Lord is wanting, that are joining
in an accommodation.
It's critical for their salvation and our glorification.
Remember the word poignant that came up yesterday
or pathos.
If we treat those rude stone jars with
contempt we're not going to be fastidious to
fill them There's got to be a certain
empathy and respect even though we know that
what is practiced from them is more traditions
of men than biblical requirement.
Still, it has to do with a sense
of piety with a desire to be clean
before God.
We can't be contemptuous and disdainful of that
and be servants that fill that pot.
The fact that they are stone and that
they are not cast bronze or sculpted things
indicates the word that I use, melancholy.
We have to look upon them with a
certain kind of pathos and a certain poignancy.
Oh, how pitiful that these Jews think that
by the washing of their hands and the
containing of this water that somehow it's serving
purposes that are holy.
But that's their limitation, that's their blindness.
And so the Lord himself employs that and
does not discard that.
If we discard it in our own hearts
and our own attitudes the miracle is nullified.
Something is required from us that which is
out of his own heart which is a
pathos of identification and sympathy with the thing
that is and exists though it's stagnant and
only partial and more the tradition of men
than it is the actual requirement of law.
We cannot bypass it and put the wine
directly on the table.
It's got to come through that existing framework.
And that's a test for us.
If there's an element of pride or superiority
that will not condescend to that forget the
whole miracle.
Something is being tested in the servants.
There's more than just blank obedience.
Who knows what was in their hearts that
had to be overcome in fulfilling the requirement
to fill those spots and needs to be
overcome in our hearts also.
And as I'll pick up tomorrow probably of
what happened in Canada you'll have a graphic
picture that many Christian hearts are not willing
and are antagonistic to any condescension to the
Jewish community and its practices as it now
is.
They would completely not only discard and reject
any ministry to those spots they would bring
them down and completely shatter and destroy them
and say that the new has replaced them.
The Lord did not replace, he employed.
You need to be one with him.
I would say if one could come to
them or a church could come to them
and show and take their water used only
in a ceremonial way in their desire to
obtain some kind of cleanliness and show them
a greater implication and application that would bring
a water of a kind that fills up
what they already have and changes its substance.
Not discarding it but bringing new dimensions of
understanding of what real holiness is and what
real cleansing is and what real separation is
of which you have only a partial and
pitiful and inadequate expression.
But we're not dismissing that expression we're bringing
an additional water of application and interpretation to
fill it up thereby changing its substance.
And that's something they can't perform for themselves
it's got to come from others who have
the better water of life but do not
despise what they have.
But I think this comes back to the
suppleness of the wine skin.
If we are too brittle in our own
categories and balk at an obedience of the
whatsoever that he requires the miracle is nullified.
So there has to be a flexibility a
suppleness and an ability to understand what the
Lord is wanting and requiring and not to
balk at it because as if we are
condoning, justifying or sanctifying the traditions of men
and yet we can add water to that
and thereby transform it.
The Lord is saying a number of things
here and we have to somehow they're not
piecemeal they're all related and integral.
Remember that when I came to that yeshiva
in New Jersey on that winter night they
were celebrating Shalom there were schnapps on the
table booze and gin for men who do
not have access to the spirit of life
and need to simulate something by a substitute.
So maybe until they see the expression of
the true wine of necessity they'll have to
dabble with its equivalent become red-eyed over
it and that's part of our function and
our ministry to them.
So much will be at stake in how
I deport myself assuming that a door of
acceptance is granted and don't think that I'll
not be provoked there'll be wise alecks and
men who are seething with anger the officials
may have a lot of me but there'll
be men who'll be jabbing making wise cracks
and taunting me and making implications about Jesus
as being illegitimate that my response to those
provocations will be critical.
But of course not the least of the
benefit and reasons for the Lord sending me
is to get to understand where they are
directly hearing them out of their own mouths
that we would not speculate what we think
they believe but be in the midst of
them and catch the whole sense of where
they're at how they understand the future how
they understand the present what they expect messianically
and I'll tell you this because they are
waiting for the the Hasidim the Lubavitcher Hasidim
it's a certain segment there are two or
three principal different orthodox communities and they're not
in great agreement the one in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
is different from the one in Eastern Parkway,
Brooklyn and they even dress differently and when
you go to Israel in the Meir Shearim
you can distinguish orthodox Jews on the basis
of their dress some come out of Polish
some out of Romanian some are disciples of
this rabbi some of that rabbi there's not
a complete coherence but the Lubavitcher who have
Rabbi Schneerson the one, the most evangelical movement
to be found among the orthodox who go
out into the world that when we were
in Russia we found that their rabbis had
come and they're establishing communities and giving teachings
to Russian Jews who have been robbed of
any knowledge of their own identity as Jews
for the 70 or 80 years of the
communist atheistic rule and so there's a void
that they are filling John Parson's radio program
in Russian began with our visit to a
certain city in Ukraine on our way to
Kiev and we stopped in this town we
couldn't go further and I said, I announced
at the dinner table at the hotel we
are not leaving until I've made contact with
a Jew where are you going to find
that it's late at night and so there's
an orchestra playing it must be a Jewish
musician and so we sent our interpreter a
German interpreter to speak to them in German
because they could understand that they speak Yiddish
and the man said well there is a
synagogue here but it's closed now but if
you go this way and that way you
can find it we went out from the
dinner table into the dark night and found
the synagogue closed, shut, tight I took a
copy of Ben Israel in Russian and I
slipped it through the mailbox and said well
that's the best we can do but then
I noticed there's a man across the street
looking at us suspiciously wondering what we're about
we went across the street started talking to
him he was a policeman but he was
off duty taking a constitutional stroll and well
what are you doing at the synagogue I
said well we're Jewish and we want to
make contact with the Jewish community oh he
said I don't know how you would do
it now everything is shut down but he
said I remember that I took a my
wife took a computer class and she was
talking about some Jewish students in that class
and she knows where they live so he
went to the telephone called his wife got
the address and 15 minutes or a half
hour we're standing outside the doorway of an
apartment building ringing the bell knocking on the
door of this Jewish family and the door
opens and the man's looking at these foreigners
standing outside on their mat and we introduced
ourselves we wanted to make contact with the
Jewish community and he welcomed us in his
wife was a nurse and they took out
everything that they had their tuna fish their
eggs what do you call those sturgeon eggs
caviar the best that they had schnapps, booze,
bread and we had a little feast and
while we were there the son came in
with a pig tail what do you call
it and he told us that he had
attended a course on the meaning of Jewish
history religion given by the Lubavitcher Chassidim in
that town and when John heard that it
pricked our hearts where are the Christians giving
them an understanding of what it means to
be Jewish according to the faith and to
the Bible rather than the traditions of men
so that began John's desire to start a
radio program in Russia and John said Art
will you pray for me and lay hands
on me and communicate what you have he
said when you said you'll not leave town
until you make contact with a Jew I
thought fat chance but I have to say
God has honored your tenacity and give me
pray for me that I would have that
same spirit and that the Lord would open
the way so now here's the thing this
Rabbi Schneerson whom I've heard speak for three
hours in Yiddish and you could hear the
proverbial pin drop men stood up for three
hours to hear this sage and the wisdom
that would issue from his lips the breadth
of his knowledge not just in scripture and
rabbinical tradition and Torah but he had been
an engineer and knew secular realms of knowledge
and bring in appropriate things he was a
tower of wisdom they thought that he had
the qualifications to be Messiah because they were
not as steep in the biblical requirement as
we ourselves because he was brilliant because he
was righteous because he led a holy and
sanctified life because he was a great teacher
because he was the descendant of six or
seven generations of distinguished rabbis that he was
the Messiah but he went and died on
them in his 91st or 93rd year but
they were so persuaded that he had to
be the Messiah that they are awaiting his
resurrection so in a magazine to which I
subscribe is an article by David Berger a
rabbi and a professor of history at Queens
College in New York saying that these Hasidim
and orthodox Jews are introducing for the first
time the dangerous Christian heresy of believing that
a man can die and be resurrected again
who is Messiah and who had not fulfilled
his earthly calling and that it requires his
coming again he said if that begins to
penetrate the Jewish community it opens us to
Christian belief and this is the most dangerous
heresy that has ever come down the pike
and needs to be recognized and combated and
that's the New York into which I'm coming
that's the controversy that is presently raging about
whether there could be an expectancy that a
man who had lived and exhibited and demonstrated
such godly qualities as to be recognized as
Messiah can die and then be resurrected to
come to fulfill his Messianic call if Jews
can believe that Rabbi Berger says in his
article it will not take much to move
them from Rabbi Schneerson to Jesus Christ Rabbi
Berger says in his article it will not
take much to move them from Rabbi Schneerson
to Jesus Christ we are at a historical
I'm getting Holy Ghost chills we are at
a historical moment at a crossroad of time
in which every factor is palpitating including the
September 11th destruction of the trade towers that
has affected the whole climate and disposition of
New York that I could not recognize my
own city that the new cordial atmosphere and
humbling had come to an entire people whose
arrogance and antisocial attitudes were well known I
could not believe the respect and kindness and
deference that is now exhibited which would make
my coming and ministry men like me more
acceptable than before so it's a whole conjunction
of time and event at the same time
that what is triggered in Israel is now
affecting Jewish communities worldwide that antisemitism is erupting
of the vilest kind that has not been
known since the Middle Ages the blood libel
that Jews kill Gentile children and use their
blood in the making of their matzah and
ritual needs has not been heard since the
Middle Ages coming from university professors and learned
people in sophisticated civilizations Jews are terrified because
they had not dreamed that this kind of
thing could take place in modern times that
they're more frightened now by what is erupting
than even by the Holocaust past this is
ominous this note that's being struck is being
struck worldwide Norway, Denmark, France 600% increase
in antisemitic episodes the firebombing of their synagogue
and when the firemen come to put it
out they are pelted with stones by Muslims
to keep them from extinguishing the flames they
have complained to the French authorities that we're
not being defended we need protection as French
citizens and the French government has said don't
expect it we are not capable of providing
it it's too extensive it cannot be controlled
by government and so when I heard that
I knew what it is that will constitute
the grit of the time of Jacob's trouble
and why Jews will be uprooted and fleeing
in nations which are not necessarily opposed to
them but cannot protect them they cannot remain
in urban centers where they will be identified
as Jews it would just be too dangerous
we're going to see bombs what do they
call them human bombs these suicide bombers not
confined to Israel but blowing themselves up in
New York City and a Jew will be
afraid to go out on the street as
they are afraid to go out on the
street now in Germany, France, Italy and these
three nations England, Germany and France leaders of
the communities distinguished Jewish voices have warned their
communities learn a new language and pack your
bags because it's not going to be safe
to remain but pack your bags to go
where?
and so the whole issue of places of
refuge for Jews in flight becomes the paramount
issue before the church of the last days
for this woman will flee into the wilderness
where a place has been prepared for her
and where she will be fed for three
and a half years and if that place
is not provided there will be no Jewish
survival at all the Jewish community monitors all
of these reports we only get a little
fragment they know exactly what is happening worldwide
and they are terrified and because they are
terrified as I was sharing in the break
that we had they are much more amenable
to consider a friendship with evangelical Christians because
of they are so desperate for allies and
someone standing with them at a time when
they are threatened everywhere and they realize that
the evangelical Christians are the ones that have
the deepest affinity for Israel but they are
also the most dangerous because they seek the
conversion of Jews but whatever the danger in
that they are so desperate for the ally
that they are now approaching and showing themselves
friendly to evangelical Christians and ministries in a
way that here before had never existed that
is a plus for me and as you
will remember from the letter that I wrote
I am suggesting to them little thing that
I am in myself maybe this is the
beginning of some kind of bridge of connection
that will bring to the Jewish community a
support from Christians who will be made more
knowledgeable about Jewish life and need through your
willingness to accept and to instruct me and
so you must not be hasty to dismiss
me as a threat when it may well
be a provision of God for a new
historical moment that has arrived in which there
needs to be some bridge of connection between
essentially believing or scripture revering communities so pray
for that letter pray for its acceptance pray
for the door to be opened pray for
my ability to be a student among them
at my age and to learn of them
and to deport myself in such a way
as does not shut the door though I
would be provoked or whatever that they will
catch something of the sense of the Lord
in the grace that will accompany me before
them but talk about dreams I have had
a dream here at Ben Israel where I
was awakened by a pounding on the front
door something like 3 or 4 o'clock
in the morning I went down in my
pajamas and bathrobe two policemen were at the
door and arrested me and someone from my
house not Inger and threw us into the
back seat of the car bound and drove
us off into the night and I'm asking
what are you doing what does all this
mean and one of the two men turned
and said you are among those who love
the Jews you know that after our three
year being cast out from this place and
the return Inger said she would not return
until we had extended the living room the
house is too small and so we extended
it and upstairs I have now my loft
which if you come there will be a
tour I will show you and the carpenter
built it was a Christian it was his
first job in the establishment of his own
company and he left a gaping hole in
the wall of the upstairs loft that I
have and I said to him aren't you
going to repair that no he said he
said that's your corey ten boom hole that
hole is still there in my wall and
I've got a desk up against it with
my fax machine and my radio and so
on you would never know that there is
a hole large enough for adults to crawl
through and go under my attic it has
never been repaired when he said that this
is your corey ten boom hole the spirit
of God came down on my head and
over my shoulders with the hem of my
garment that hole remains so I don't know
how the lord is going to do it
our name gives us away our location is
accessible we are not that hidden unless there
is a covering we will be found out
but here is what I am expecting I
am expecting regional revival we are on an
Indian reservation here the leech lake Indian reservation
and that's going to afford us a measure
of protection and insulation from other governmental sources
that have to respect Indian nationality and sovereignty
they have already in red lake their own
courts, their own police their own institutions I
believe it will take place here and somehow
that will be a protection also but the
Indians then must be in alignment with this
vision and call and right now they are
distant so I am expecting regional revival by
which they will be swept up and taken
up into the purposes of God the brother
in Idaho Mike Schwartz who invited me now
for a second conference when he called me
the first time he said, Artie said after
we talked about the details I have a
dream that I don't understand does it make
any sense to you?
he said I saw lines of Jews bedraggled
and in torn clothing and shredded and beaten
walking in remote places and there were Indians
on horses guiding them does that make any
sense to you?
I said powerful so there is a drama
that is being outworked and to which we
are all called well when they come they
will be occupying this building you can leave
your blessing behind in this place that this
will harbor them but the Lord has given
us this building is itself a miracle this
whole property was sold to an unbelieving man
who tried to give this building to the
one of the governmental agencies and they didn't
want it and he was stuck with a
tax liability and so he offered it to
us we had withdrawn and taken all of
our interest and just trusted the Lord and
the building came back into our laps with
the six acres of ground upon which it
stands as a gift a benefit for him
in being saved the tax bill and a
blessing to us that enables you to be
here now and Jews one day to find
a place of refuge here so pray now
for the return of the entire property that
the Lord gave at the first going back
now for 28 years when at the head
of the camp road here as being a
speaker 40 miles away from here and being
brought to this property that was for sale
it was a boys camp that had gone
bankrupt and they said Art would you care
to see this property?
I said why not I was living comfortably
in a 17 room house in New Jersey
that Inga loved I would have loved ever
to remain and so sure let's go for
a ride and we got up to the
head of the road with no trespassing there
was a chain across the entrance to the
property I stepped over the chain as my
foot came down on the property and the
Lord said Dominion end time teaching center community
refuge we did not even understand refuge for
whom or what refuge meant we didn't know
what community meant but when the word of
the Lord comes take and fill up these
stone pots with water you don't ask you
obey that's why we're here that's why you're
receiving the blessing and the benefit what did
that end of the dream mean when I
could not even give a piece of information
as if a plug had been pulled out
and I had not the life even to
speak an innocuous thing let alone a ministry
I felt that that was breaking the cord
of connection between myself and the community and
losing thereby the life, the energy, the dynamic,
the strength that can only come as we
are organically joined so that the dream ended
like that and I woke with a start
and a fright as the Lord showing the
enormous significance of the connection between Antioch and
those that are sent from it laying on
of hands of the Antiochal believers upon Paul
and Barnabas God construed as being sent forth
by the Holy Ghost it was not a
cheap little genuflection or little ceremonial symbol it
was a statement of identification that there would
not have been the kind of apostolic ministry
that turns the world upside down unless they
had been sent and kept in connection with
and being interceded for by that sending community.
Their laying on of hands was the statement
that we are joined with those who go
from us and the power and the authority
that they had to turn the world upside
down was that connection and so we need
it as much now as at the first
inception of an apostolic sending.
Pray for the base, the Antioch as well
as the one sent from it.
Let's end with a prayer and a prayer
that asks the question has that last boulder
that had my number on it yet fallen?
Have I stepped aside?
Has it safely passed or is it yet
some threat before departure for New York?
So I put that before the Lord.
Who wants to conclude for us in prayer?