In Mark the 5th chapter, Jesus demonstrated his
power over death and the devil.
You see him cast the legion of demons
out of the Gadarenes, who'd lived among the
tombs.
In the same chapter, he raises the daughter
of Jairus from the dead, while the whole
household of people laugh at him.
He astonished the crowds, and then marveled at
his power.
You see him in the 5th chapter, spreading
his fame far and near.
In the 6th chapter of Mark, we find
Christ coming to his own country, Nazareth, to
visit his own people.
These are his friends, his family, his citizens,
those who know him best.
But he came to his own, and his
own received him not.
They were offended by him, the man who
had just demonstrated all power over death and
the devil, could do no miracles in their
midst, and he marveled at their unbelief.
Christ was incredulous, unbelief had tied his hands.
But it was in Nazareth that Jesus spoke
these very profound and prophetic words.
You hear it.
A prophet had no honor in his own
country, among his own kin, and in his
own house.
He said that to Jews, who all their
lifetime had prayed and yearned for Messiah, but
when he came, they cast him aside.
John the Baptist, the prophet who baptized him,
later had doubts about him.
His own brothers and sisters didn't believe in
him.
God's chosen people became his greatest enemy.
And how true that scripture, a man's foes
will be they of his own household.
You know, today we marvel at the blindness
of these people.
How could they not know the Son of
God?
How could the Savior of mankind walk among
the men of this world and be a
stranger?
But we're no different.
The words of Christ were so prophetic.
It's possible for Jesus to get less honor
in his own house, among his own people,
than anywhere in the world, because the worst
kind of rejection comes from those who are
supposed to love us the most.
And Christ keeps coming to his own again
and again, and his own receiving not again
and again.
And so it is at this present time,
because I believe that Christ often in our
own service has walked as a stranger among
us, as surely as he walked among the
Jews, ignored and cast aside.
And all they used him, they brought to
him those sick and afflicted to be healed.
They came for the loaves and the fishes.
They brought their children to be blessed.
They wanted their water turned to wine, and
then they discarded him.
They put him to an open shame.
They killed him.
His own people did it.
And we're still putting Christ afresh to an
open shame.
We still ignore him.
We still discard him.
And I tell you that it's possible to
gather thousands of spirit-filled people in one
place, praising and lifting up their hands, and
still have Christ walking among us as a
stranger.
Now he said where two or three are
gathered, my name, there am I in the
midst.
But he can be in our midst as
a stranger, ignored, unrecognized, even by those who
say they meet in his name.
The Jews did the same.
They gathered every Sabbath in the synagogue.
They spoke of his name.
They prophesied of his coming.
They praised the Father who promised to send
him.
They spoke his name with awe and reverence.
Then when he came, when he walked among
them, he was unrecognized.
He was a stranger.
Could it be possible that in the midst
of a spirit-filled congregation, Christ walks as
a stranger to those who speak his name,
to those who worship the Father who sent
him, a stranger to those who sing his
hosanna and call him Lord, Lord?
Yes, absolutely.
And it's happening today.
And let me tell you from my heart
three ways that we so-called spirit-filled
people, and I don't like the term it's
a gift that others are not.
Well, let me tell you how charismatic people
often are guilty of making stranger of Christ
in our midst.
First of all, we make Christ a stranger
by giving the Holy Spirit preeminence over him.
Christ and Christ alone must be the center
of all our life and our worship.
This has been God's plan from the foundation
of the world.
He loved his own son and gave him
his fullness even before the foundation of the
world, before we were ever created.
That they may behold my glory, he said,
which thou hast given me, O God, for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the
world.
And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he
might have the preeminence.
For it pleads the Father that in him
all fullness should dwell, that in all things
Christ might have the preeminence.
That means he's distinguished and spoken of above
all others, having first place, that not even
the Holy Ghost be exalted before his name,
because the Holy Ghost leads nowhere but to
the cross.
The upper room must never overshadow the cross.
The blessed Holy Spirit is not the Lord,
he shows us the Lord, he brings us
to the Lord.
And I believe he's desperately trying to get
all Pentecostals back to the cross.
To the cross.
When the Holy Spirit alone becomes the center
of our attention, the church gets out of
focus.
You see, the Holy Spirit did come down
upon Christ in the baptismal waters and he
came as a dove.
And the dove said, this is God's beloved
Son in whom he is well pleased.
Hear ye him?
Now, the attention was not on the dove
but the Lamb.
The dove came to exalt the Lamb of
God.
Christ told his disciples that Pentecost was coming.
The Spirit would be outpoured but for a
single purpose, to give power to men and
women to witness to the resurrection and the
atonement of Jesus Christ.
To give power to those who would witness
to it.
It was to be a power given to
all who would lift up the name of
Jesus.
And I resent power being turned in any
other way but to give glory to Christ.
Nothing else is power.
But ye shall receive power after the Holy
Ghost has come upon you.
You shall be witnesses unto me to the
uttermost parts of the world.
And Jesus made it very clear, when the
Spirit comes he will not draw attention to
himself but he will focus on my words,
he will exalt me.
When he, the Spirit of truth has come,
he shall not speak of himself, he shall
glorify me for he shall receive of mine
and he will show it unto you.
All things that the Father hath are mine.
Therefore say to you that he shall take
of mine and he will reveal it to
you.
He will show you my glory, my power,
my kingdom.
He will remind you of all my words.
The primary work of the Holy Spirit is
not fellowship.
It is not ecstasy.
It is not to teach you an unlearned
tongue.
The Spirit has come to exalt Christ.
To bring all mankind to the truth that
Christ alone is Lord.
The Spirit is not joy, it is not
peace, it is not comfort, it is not
truth.
Christ is.
The Spirit guides us to him who is
all in all.
The Spirit did not bleed in God.
Christ did.
Christ alone is the Redeemer.
Christ alone is the Advocate.
If you tell me the Holy Ghost is
your Advocate, you are wrong, you are unscrupulous.
Christ is the Advocate and the Holy Ghost
comes to make that way into the world.
It is not enough to say that the
Spirit is bringing us closer to each other.
He has got to bring us closer to
Christ.
We often speak of the Holy Ghost ten
times to one over Christ.
We talk about a baptism above an atonement.
There is nothing wrong in trying to get
people baptized with the Holy Ghost.
We better understand what we are promoting.
We are promoting Jesus Christ through the power
of the Spirit because a baptism of the
Holy Ghost is a baptism of the love
of Jesus Christ.
It is a baptism of Christ's fullness.
Anybody who speaks with tongues has got to
know it is a gift simply to help
us glorify Jesus all the more.
And if it is used any other way,
it is wrong.
It didn't come just to make us better
buddies.
He sent the Holy Ghost to fire our
souls over lost humanity, to get us out
in the highways and hedges to the unsaved,
to shake up our lazy lifestyles and get
us back to doing His work.
And I believe the Holy Spirit will withdraw
even from charismatic the moment men try to
exalt Him above the Son of God.
He will not permit His power to be
abused by those who want only the gift
and not Christ the giver.
The Holy Ghost is given by Christ.
What is a truly Holy Ghost meeting?
I believe we went to a Holy Ghost
meeting tonight.
Is that where everybody speaks with tongues?
Is that where people are being simply healed
and where saints are jumping for joy?
Where the people are prophesying?
Oh, more, much more than that, folks.
It's where Christ is being exalted, where His
holiness is piercing the soul, where men and
women fall before a Holy Son of God
and say, Oh, it's me, sanctify me, cleanse
me, O Lord.
The moving of the Holy Spirit is a
moving closer to Christ.
It's a deepening in Christ.
It's a greater submission to His Lordship.
And if you're going to speak in the
Spirit, it's when you say, Be exalted, O
Lord Jesus.
Secondly, Christ is made a stranger when people
praise Him but will not praise to Him.
We praise a Christ to whom we will
not praise.
We praise a Christ to whom we will
not praise.
We've become a praising people but not a
praying people.
For many of God's people, charismatic people included,
the prayer closet's a relic of the past.
Why ask God for what He's already given?
Why ask God for what He's already promised
by here at faith?
Just get a promise and claim it and
go after it.
We don't want Christ anymore.
We want only what He offers us.
We want escape from pain and suffering.
We want our troubles to vanish.
We're so caught up in our escape from
pain.
We need the true meaning of the cross.
This is a generation to refuse crosses and
losses.
We don't want Gethsemane.
We don't want a sweat drop of blood.
We don't want any nights of agony.
We don't even know the suffering Jesus anymore.
We don't know Him.
The church once confessed its sins.
Now it confesses its rights.
How many of us would serve Jesus?
How many of us would love Him and
serve Him if He offered us nothing but
Himself?
No healing, no success, no prosperity, no worldly
blessing, no miracles, no tithes, no wonders?
What if once again we had to take
joyfully the sporting of our goods?
Our houses bankrupt?
What if instead of the clear sailing and
problem-free living we so desire, we face
shipwrecks, fears within and fightings without?
What if instead of painless living we suffer
cruel mocking, stoning, bloodshed, being sawn asunder?
What if instead of our beautiful homes and
cars we had to wander about in deserts
and steep skins, hiding in can-dens and
caves?
What if like Stephen we had to be
stoned?
And like James had to be killed?
Like Paul shipwrecked?
And what if instead of prosperity we were
destitute, afflicted, and tormented, and the only better
thing offered for us was Christ?
You know the Lord Himself said it's possible
to do many mighty works in His name,
to cast out demons, to heal the sick
and still not know Him?
It doesn't matter how much you pray in
the formula in the name of Jesus.
It doesn't matter how many people you heal
in His name.
It matters not how many demons you can
scatter in the authority of His name.
It matters not how many great things you
accomplish in His name.
What really matters is do you really know
Him?
Do you?
Very few of God's people pray anymore.
We're too busy working for Jesus to talk
to Him.
Ministers especially, and all this is the grief
of my heart and my troubles.
Ministers are becoming too busy to do kingdom,
they're so busy doing kingdom work there's no
time left to pray.
You see Christ come into the shadows standing
outside the office door and He says to
the pastor, Man of God, can I have
an hour please?
Not now Lord, I've got a counseling session,
I've got to try to save a marriage.
Again the Spirit calls, Man of God, may
I have an hour with you?
Not now Lord, I'm meeting with my architect
and building committee for your new church.
We'll be busy till midnight.
Again the Lord calls, what about tomorrow?
May I have even one day with you
now?
Not now Lord, I have no time.
I'm leaving for South Africa for a missions
conference.
Very soon Lord, not just now, souls are
dying, I need it in Africa.
And oh there you have it.
I had a minister tell me recently who
has time to pray.
A minister of a great church two weeks
ago said, David, I haven't prayed in two
years, or rather one year.
I've had meditation, I've had devotion, but I
haven't prayed.
And that's why they came up frustrated building
contractors.
We have time to visit, to build, to
travel, to vacation, to attend meetings for recreation,
reading, counseling, visitation, but no time to pray.
Preachers who do not pray become promoters.
When they lose touch with God, they lose
touch with their people and their needs.
Preachers who don't pray have egos that spin
out of control.
They want their own way, they substitute sweats
for unction.
They get whipped up like a circus horse
running in circles.
Evangelists who do not pray become stars, storytellers.
They lack humility, so they manipulate the crowds
through emotional gimmicks.
Their preaching becomes a contradiction at the very
center of their hearts.
Preachers who don't pray don't even know what
the times are saying.
They preach their headlines, but they don't preach
the mind of the Holy Ghost.
Preachers who do not pray have no power
over the rulers of darkness.
They don't even know that this battle is
going on.
They're on the sidelines playing with some earthly
pet project.
They're not in the Holy Ghost battle because
only praying men touch God.
I'll tell you there'll be less and less
clapping as I go on.
How many pastors have cried this?
Oh, I've heard it all over the country.
How many pastors cry this?
Oh, God, where can I find an evangelist
who doesn't care about money?
One who's not promoting something.
One who can bring heaven down and make
Christ real.
Oh, God, give me at least one man,
one praying man to bring my congregation to
its knees.
God, give us one evangelist.
God is not obligated to teach the unction
on anyone who doesn't pray.
The shame of this generation is that we
have too many talented men and only a
few touching God in prayer.
And there's even less praying in the congregation.
Now, I'm 100% for getting prayer back
in our public schools.
100%.
But that's not the problem.
Not at all.
That's not God's problem.
His problem is to get prayer back in
our homes.
His problem is to get priests to pray.
To get Christians to pray.
His own chosen people to pray.
And I say, you're phony.
You're phony.
If you fight for school prayer and you
neglect your secret cause of the prayer, you
can go all over the country promoting it.
But unless you have a dynamic prayer with
Jesus Christ, it's nothing but Tommy Braxton's inkling
symbol.
It means nothing.
Do we pray?
Oh, yes, we pray when we need something,
when we've got this formula down pat in
the name of Jesus.
But all we seem to need Jesus for
is to counter-sign a petition check before
the throne of God.
Just counter-sign a check.
In the name of Jesus.
You know, I'm weary of hearing people say,
this is such a busy, fast-paced generation,
we don't have time to pray today.
No, it's not a lack of time, it's
a lack of desire.
You'll make time for what you really want
to do.
Look at the assistant brothers on the racquetball
court.
Sweating, concentrating, serious, hours and hours on the
racquetball court.
Imagine now he's got a Coke in hand
and he's got sandwiches probably going to watch
three hours of cowboy time.
These are the men who tell me they
have no time to pray.
And here's the dear lady, she spends her
time at Tupperware.
She's got baby showers going.
Tomorrow she goes shopping, the afternoon she's got
to see what's going to happen to Laura
on TV.
And she tells me she has no time
to pray.
Look at the young people in America.
Wasting their time, playing Pac-Man, Galaxy War,
goofing off, bored, restless, looking for action.
No time to pray.
All right, teenagers, I want you to listen
to me.
And I have a mind of God now.
Instead of playing around and goofing off, if
you would spend even one day seeking Christ
in prayer out of the month, if you
spent just one hour a day seeking the
face of Jesus, your life would become a
powerful force for Christ.
He would begin to show you a dying
world.
He could even lay an angel on your
heart.
He could raise you up and make your
life really count.
He could take you out of this restlessness
of this world.
He could set your soul on fire and
use you.
He could use you, but you don't pray.
You don't talk to him.
How can he get through to you?
Will God somehow get this generation on its
knees?
Break it, not just the Lord's prayer, but
a Holy Ghost communion.
You say you have no time to pray,
yet the very Son of God who has
the care of all the multiplied universes, He
has the time to pray for you.
He takes the time to see before the
throne of God.
He prays.
You say you have no time.
He does.
We're working so feverishly for Christ we ignore.
We'll go anywhere.
We'll do anything in His name, but we
will not pray.
We'll sing and cry, but we won't pray.
We'll visit the sick and the prisoners, but
we won't pray.
We will counsel the hurt and needy.
We'll stay up all night to comfort a
friend, but we won't pray.
We'll fight corruption, but we won't pray.
We'll crusade for morality, but we won't pray.
We'll stand up against nuclear armaments, but we
won't pray.
We can sit here for two hours praising
God, but we won't go home and pray.
We'll attend crusades and seminars, go from meeting
to meeting, lift our hands and sing and
shout and praise the Lord, but we don't
pray.
And probably because we don't believe in works.
Prayer is not just a bunch of words
running out of our mouth.
It's not just a bunch of words to
compare to people just saying words.
No wonder the devil is fapping the spiritual
strength of this generation because prayer is a
bloody battleground.
Prayer is a bloody battleground.
It's where the victory is really won.
It's where you die.
You're part of the final conflict of the
ages.
Well, God doesn't need prayer.
You can't get God any more interested in
us than He already is.
We don't have to extract God like He
was some miser waiting for the highest bidder.
No, He's any more willing to give than
we are to receive.
I think the perverted view of prayer is
pagan, to think that we have to wring
something out of God.
No, folks, the only man who tried to
wrestle with God ended up crippled the rest
of his life.
We don't wrestle with God, we wrestle with
the giant in ourselves.
We wrestle with self.
No wonder the devil fights you when you
go to pray.
The Holy Ghost waits until the glamour is
gone.
He waits until the half-hearted is gone,
until the pride is gone, until you quit
demanding selfishly, until you're ready to lay down
that secret sin in your life.
And that's where our wrestling comes in.
I believe that the devil will throw hell
to any man who says, I'm going to
pray and seek the face of God.
The devil's not afraid of power-hungry saints,
but he trembles at the sound of a
praying saint.
He knows when a man or woman has
touched God.
I believe the devil fears a praying man
or woman more than all the religious activities
in the world combined.
And because we neglect prayer, we neglect His
Word.
We wear our Bibles like a hat or
a purse.
It's a nice leather accessory to bring to
the crusade.
We wear it.
There was a time God's people didn't need
a paratrooper army of psychiatrists and psychologists and
family counselors.
We didn't need that.
I'm not against it, but there was a
time we didn't need it.
Because people were students of the Bible, they
had the sword in their hands, and no
demon or devil could withstand their power.
They were into the Word.
There was a time God's people had no
tapes, no library of self-help books, no
retreats, no specialized seminars, but they had the
Word hidden in their heart, and the Word
was the lamp to their feet.
Now we have all these special effects.
We've got the specialists, and yet we've got
more despair and depression and fear and anxiety.
Why?
Because through our neglected prayer and the Word
of God we're lost.
We become spiritual sluggers, unwilling to go into
the secret closet and dig out the solution,
dig out the truth.
We want some teacher to hand it out
and spoon it out to us.
And if there's anything needed in the charismatic
movement, I didn't come here to set anybody
straight.
I'm preaching to myself these are things I've
been dealing with me, and I tell you
we need a revival of Bible study.
Honor to goodness, Bible study.
Ten years ago I had a millionaire friend
who went bankrupt.
He lost his mansion.
And in a way he got mad at
me, and I don't know why.
He began to talk about me, and I
lost touch with him for ten years.
Two weeks ago he showed up at my
front porch.
Big man, with a bear hug around me,
said, David, God has touched me.
Oh, he was just filled with the Spirit
of God.
And I said, who was the preacher and
where was the revival?
He said, David, no preacher, no revival.
Three months ago I got so desperate I'd
lost everything.
God told me if I'd get into the
Word I'd find the answer.
For the past three months I have been
nothing but reading the Word of God.
God has restored my spirit and soul.
I'm making all my wrongs right.
You're the last one I have to see.
It was through the Word of God.
Thirdly, Christ has made it strange, and I
miss when we want His power more than
His purity.
We want His power more than His purity.
The leader here was a friend of Brother
Ravenhill.
He was Englishman and director of the Pentecostal
League of Prayer.
And at one time he challenged a large
congregation on this matter of purity and power.
He said, I want everybody that wants power
to line up to my right, and everybody
that wants purity line up to my left.
They lined up ten to one for power.
Now in the book of Acts, if I
read it right, Pentecost was synonymous with purity
and not power.
Peter told the council to listen to what
God did to the house of Cornelius.
He said, God gave them the Holy Ghost
even as He did to us, purifying their
hearts by faith.
Now Jesus died to break the power of
sin, and to deliver us from guilt, and
He wants to raise up a holy pure
body.
He said, who gave Himself for us that
He might redeem us from all iniquity and
purify unto Himself a special people.
Who is the man, who is the woman
that has the power?
It's the man or the woman who has
the purity.
It's not the one who can heal the
sick and raise the dead.
It's not the one who can just talk
in tongues and prophesy.
It's not the one who draws the biggest
crowds and builds the greatest church.
No, it's the righteous man, for the righteous
are as bold as a lion.
Who is it that has the boldness that
says, enter the Holy of Holies?
Only those whose bodies are washed with pure
water, having their hearts sprinkled by the blood
of Christ from an evil conscience.
The prophet Malachi prophesied of a supernatural purging
that's going to come to the house of
God before Jesus comes.
Now, if you are into prophecy, I don't
know much about prophecy, but I know prophecy
when I see it.
I'm not quite a prophecy preacher.
But nothing could be clearer than this prophecy
of Malachi that before Jesus comes there's going
to be a general purging in the church.
He said, the Lord whom you seek shall
suddenly come to His temple.
Who can withstand the day of His coming?
Who shall stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner's fire and
like fuller soap.
And He shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver.
And He shall purify the sons of Levi
and purge them of silver and gold that
they may offer unto the Lord an offering
in righteousness.
Now, this is a dual prophecy, speaking of
both His first and second coming.
He's going to come again suddenly as it
is in the night.
But before that happens, the prophet said, God
is going to purify His church.
We are not ready for the coming of
the Lord.
Is this the kind of triumphant, covetous, divorcing,
depressed, worldly-minded preaching of gospel, of prosperity,
lukewarm, competitive, redolent, rich and increased with good,
unawares and naked?
No.
Is this the church, pleasure-loving, recreation-minded,
consumed with force and politician power?
Is this the church simply coping, filled with
fear and anxiety, satisfied only with health and
happiness?
My Bible said He's coming back for an
overcoming church without spots, without wrinkles, one whose
affections are on things above and not on
things of this world, with clean hands and
pure hearts.
People are looking for His coming.
People with a New Jerusalem state of mind.
A New Jerusalem state of mind.
Oh, there's nothing wrong with the church of
Jesus Christ.
The gates of hell will not prevail against
it.
But you know as well as I do
that there are many in our midst who
are sick.
Now the question now, as far as the
prophet Malachi is concerned, the question is not
now, what can my faith get me?
That question is gone.
This idea, what can Christ do for me
next?
What miracle will He perform for me now?
That's not the question.
The question now is, how shall I stand
before Christ?
How shall I stand at the judgment?
Who shall stand, the prophet said?
Who shall stand when He appears?
The question no longer is, how do I
feel?
How do I get happiness?
How do I get to deserve my heart?
That's not the question of the hour now,
folks.
The question of the hour is, how can
I withstand that moment?
I stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
How do I withstand that hour when I've
lived carelessly, when I've been so selfish, and
I've neglected this great salvation?
Am I going to stand on that judgment
day?
That's the question.
The issue now is, have I neglected Christ
in this midnight hour?
Has He been calling me and calling me,
and I've been turning Him away?
It's not a matter now of miracles and
casting out devils and healing the sick, or
demonstrating power, but am I pure in the
sight of God?
Because it's possible to do all these things,
and the Lord said to you on that
day, depart from me, you work of iniquity.
I never even knew you.
Never knew you.
That's not a handful.
That's a whole class of society He's talking
about.
People who did mighty works in His name.
The purge is going to begin in the
pulpit.
The purge is already begun in the pulpit.
He shall purify the sons of Levi.
And how's He going to do that?
By turning up the heat.
He's going to turn up the heat, gentlemen,
on all of us.
He's going to make things so hot, so
intense, God's men are going to be driven
to their knees.
This is the fire of the Holy Ghost,
but it's the fire of persecution, it's the
fire of tribulation, the fire of rebellion, the
fire of unbelievable hardships, ridicule, gossip, financial problems.
He's going to shake.
The Holy Ghost is going to shake.
Everything is going to be shaken.
Even our faith is going to be shaken
and tossed into this fire.
If God's men will not come back to
Him willingly, He'll do it sovereignly.
And I believe He's here to do a
new thing in our midst.
He's come now to refine our fire of
silver.
He's in His holy place now, heating the
fire seven times hot, and we are all
going into this crucible.
I know people don't like it when I
talk about the coming persecution in trial.
They don't like to hear preachers preach that
because we've got it for years and we've
become so, so me-conscious.
We don't like to hear people come along
and preach us with this kind of preaching.
But you better believe it, folks.
You better believe it.
We are going in hard times in persecution
before Jesus comes.
We're going into a crucible because He comes
now to refine our silver.
No one's going to escape the purging.
God's determined to get all the dirt out
of us.
He wants a holy priesthood.
He's going to sever us from our backsliding.
He's going to sever us from our worldliness.
He's going to sever us from our secret
sins.
Hey, look, I'm not castigating the ministry.
These are my brothers, and they're all through
the audience.
These are holy men of God, and I
believe, like me, they're hungry for holiness.
And I suppose I need this more than
any man in this place because I feel
the past nine months I've felt the white
-hot heat of testing.
God has been scrubbing me down.
He's been working on some ugly spots in
my life.
And oh, if you have a heart for
God, any man in this place has been
on his knees.
Any man or woman has been praised.
Watch out.
John the Baptist didn't see Jesus coming as
a divine Santa Claus.
He saw Him coming with an axe in
one hand and a fan in the other,
and the axe he laid to the roof,
and the fan would blow out all the
tap and leave only the leaves.
It's going to spread from the pulpit to
the pew.
You better get ready, saints.
All you Holy Ghost people, get ready.
You get ready to expose all your secret
sins, all adultery, all foolishness, because when He,
the Holy Ghost, comes, He will what?
He will reprove the world of sin.
Yes.
And I am one of those who don't...
I do not believe we've seen yet the
fullness or the outpouring of the Holy Ghost.
We've only seen a few sprinkles, because when
the Holy Ghost comes and pours out His
Spirit upon all things, there will be a
general conviction of sin around the world.
Men and women will tremble in the presence
of the Holy Ghost.
If we had the true fullness of the
Holy Ghost, nobody in the house could sit
comfortably in their sin and fall on their
knees in His presence.
How are you going to play games when
He throws you in the fire and everything
around you is boiling?
How do you stay glute warm?
The Holy Ghost is going to put some
fire in your baptism.
The old Malachi said, The day that cometh
shall burn as an oven, and all the
proud and all that do wickedly shall be
stubble.
And the day that cometh shall burn.
The day that cometh shall burn.
There's another part of this prophecy that blesses
me.
God has promised that along with the purge
in His house, He's going to start pulling
down the strongholds of the devil.
Now, people, like Brother Robinson, I have never
believed that God would turn a whole generation
over to drugs, infection, alcohol, and abandonment of
the devil.
I have never believed that the Lord would
sit behind and do nothing about all the
divorcing, the breaking up of the homes.
I've never believed that the Lord would let
that go by very long without doing something
about it.
And God said He's about to do something
about it.
God's getting ready to trample on the drug
and alcohol problem in our schools.
And I tell you honestly, if I have
never heard anything else from God, I know
I have heard this.
We are on the brink of the greatest
outpouring of God's Spirit in all high schools
America's ever seen.
There's a revival coming to our schools.
A little poor man down in Texas, 100
miles from me, gets sick and sad of
all the drugs now coming to school.
He starts fasting and praying.
Last I heard, 300 were saved in the
whole school.
All the drugs now called gone.
God killed it overnight.
And here it is.
Here's the promise.
And I will come near to you in
judgment, and I will be a swift witness
against the sorcerers.
Those are the drug butchers, the sorcerers.
And against the adulterers.
And against the false swearers.
And all that turn away the stranger from
his right.
And all who fear me not, says the
Lord of hosts.
I'm coming to my church.
I'm coming back to send judgment on this.
And God is going to deal fervently, folks.
I'm leaving in a week or two to
spend the summer in the streets of New
York and Los Angeles and Washington and Philadelphia.
And folks, we're taking 1,500 workers.
There is such an excitement, I can hardly
sleep.
Because while people are talking about how dark
the age is, the Holy Spirit is going
right on down the street.
And hundreds and hundreds, even homosexuals are being
converted.
Some of those who are in drag, drag
queens, are getting saved and preaching the gospel
now around the country.
I can name three outstanding drag queens.
God just now saved one of those drag
queens down in New Orleans a few months
ago.
And what an anointing he has now, totally
delivered.
He's going to do something about this problem,
folks.
Before he comes, he's coming back after a
display of his power.
He's going to let the devil and the
whole world know who has the power.
Now, if God's going to do everything the
prophet said he's going to do, we've got
some glorious things coming ahead.
Listen to it.
He said he's going to purge and purify
the preachers, the ministers, and the evangelists.
He's going to purify them.
All the chaff, he said, they won't even
have a congregate.
He's going to put them aside, put them
on the shelf.
They're going to be burned out mountains.
He said he's going to call his church
back to repentance and holiness.
He's going to see a people offering praises
and true righteousness.
He's going to bring a revival to our
young people.
Drugs, strongholds are coming down.
Alcohol and divorce will no longer be controlled
in America when Jesus comes.
Oh, there'll be two streams, the wicked going
this way and the righteous this way.
But God's going to give a sign, a
tremendous sign to this world of his overcoming
power, a marvelous display.
He said there's going to be a sound
of prayer again in his house in his
sentence.
People are going to discern between the holy
and the profane.
God's people are going to go back to
his word.
Christ is going to come again and reveal
to the church a new kind of prosperity
preaching.
And I believe there's a new kind of
prosperity preaching already being preached in the land.
It's moving away from anything that's material, and
it's coming now to revelation of the true
riches of God in Christ Jesus.
Hallelujah.
Praying patience.
A little book Brother Ravenhill gave me, it's
out of print, 1820, 1806, I think it
was.
Presbyterian pastor, one of the great praying saints
of God in American history, praying patience in
the middle of a great depression in America
at that time, just 30 years after the
Declaration of Independence.
He wrote a letter to his mother.
He said, Dear Mother, the depression is so
severe in Portland that all the businesses have
failed.
Men are committing suicide because they have no
Christ to support themselves.
The poor houses are filled.
He said people have been scattered to the
four winds.
He said almost all the people, especially young
married couples, have lost their homes in my
church.
But he said, Mother, don't say poor Edward.
Say blessed Edward, because in these hard times,
even though I have only pennies to live
on and can't afford to get married, he
said God has been revealing the true riches
of the glory of God in Christ Jesus.
And he said this, Mother, my people are
taking joyfully the sporting of their goods.
He said my prayer is, and listen to
this, folks, how different from what we've been
hearing in these last days.
He said, Mother, it's my prayer that if
God has any material blessings in store for
me, he would be pleased to turn them
into spiritual ones instead.
He said if God has anything material in
store for me, would he be pleased to
give me his grace instead, turn them into
spiritual blessings.
Now, folks, I don't have a heavy burden
to lay on you tonight because Christ didn't
come to condemn us, but to save us.
And just like you, I'm struggling with temptation
and trial, weakness and times of disobedience.
And to tell you the truth, I have
read more books on theology in the last
year than I have in my whole lifetime
combined.
I've gone through all the Puritan writers.
I've gone through all the great holiness of
preachers.
I've gone through Wesley.
I've gone through it all.
And even though my heart is so hungry
and I pour over the scriptures, I tell
you honestly, I don't understand all the doctrines
about holiness and righteousness and purity.
I don't understand this great conflict between Calvin
and Arminian.
I don't know anything about these great doctrines
that I could dispute with you about.
And the more I read sometimes the less
I feel I know.
And I think like dwindling, I feel, oh
God, I have to put it all aside.
And just like Paul said, I'm determined to
know nothing among you, said Jesus Christ and
him crucified.
And I don't know all those doctrines.
And I'm not standing here telling you I'm
a great praying man because the last nine
months, God has shown me that he's been
putting me back to prayer and fasting.
How far away I've gotten from all of
that.
International profit.
I used to walk the streets and cry.
I'd get on the Staten Island Ferry and
I'd cry.
And hundreds of people looked at me like
a crazy man.
But I looked over that Brooklyn skyline and
I cried for hours.
I walked the streets of Harlem and I
cried.
And I prayed.
When I drove my car, I had to
stop and pray.
Every sermon I've preached up to nine months
ago.
And I'm ashamed.
I'm really ashamed.
But every sermon I've preached up to nine
months ago, I don't want to even look
at.
Because nine months ago, God spoke to my
heart and said, if you really believe that
it's the end, if you really believe I'm
coming, why are you playing games?
Oh, God will come to us time and
time again and say, pay the price.
And we go so far and we stop.
And I said, God, this time I'm going
all the way.
I'm not going back.
And I tell you now, I take time.
I take days.
I take weeks.
I've canceled everything from August to January for
five months.
I'm going to shut myself in with God.
Now, maybe you can't do that.
And I'm not saying that to boast you.
I'm telling you that I feel I need
it because I don't know where I've been.
God is trying to say something to the
church of Jesus Christ.
And we're so into happiness in God.
And that has its place.
And that, too, is the work of the
Holy Spirit.
But can you imagine what would happen if
10,000 people would go home and pray
for the two hours you spent praising him?
We would turn this world upside down if
10,000 people didn't intercede tonight.
God got my attention.
Here's His way.
He's going to get your attention.
The only power I want now is His
purity.
I want His righteousness.
And I can't get it by anything I
do.
It's a gift.
It's His grace.
Hallelujah.
I didn't know what kind of response or
what God was trying to say to you.
I know what He's trying to say to
me.
It's time for cleansing.
It's time for purifying.
And the fire is here.
Have you sensed it lately in the last
few months in your heart?
Hasn't the Holy Ghost been saying to you
what He's been saying to me and so
many others?
I hear from preachers all over America, saying,
Bro.
Dave, I don't know what it is.
I've been drawn to Him more than ever.
I'm so restless.
I'm not satisfied with what I've had.
God has to do something in me and
for me.
Here's one preacher not giving up until I
touch God.
I'm not giving up.
I'm going to press in.
I'm going to press in until God says
something in my heart and God's trying to
say that to His church.
Come back to the prayer closet.
All right.
I'm finished.
But the Holy Spirit is walking among us
tonight.
What He is saying, exalt the name of
Jesus.
Exalt in His presence.