This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge,
P.O. Box 260, Lindell, Texas, 75771, or
calling 903-963-8626.
You are welcome to make additional cassettes of
this message for free distribution to friends.
However, for all other forms of reproduction or
electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply.
If you would turn with me in your
Bibles to 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter 13.
1 Kings 13.
I want to...
The title of the message today is One
Time Wonder.
One Time Wonder.
1 Kings 13.
I'm going to pray.
Father, Lord, I come in Jesus' name.
Lord, I pray that you would have your
way today.
I pray, O God, that you would speak.
That, Lord, you would be heard.
And then, Lord, you would be glorified.
That, Lord, this Word is going to be
mighty, O God.
Lord, that you're going to be honored through
it.
That, Lord, this Word is going to have
an eternal weight.
That, God, we offer ourselves before the power
of this Word.
And, Lord, we expect transformation and we expect
life because it is you, Jesus.
This is your living Word.
And we open ourselves up to it now.
We ask, Holy Spirit, you be the teacher
and have your way completely.
Lord, I pray the Holy Spirit can lift
up Jesus.
Lift him up that he will be seen
in all his splendor and desired and longed
for.
And we'll thank you for it all in
Jesus' precious name.
Amen and amen.
We're entering in, as you heard, to a
time of fasting.
And sometimes we have in our minds that
when we go into a time of fasting,
that when we come with our specific request
to God during a fasting time, that we're
really going to get an answer now.
Because we're fasting.
And it's almost like we're saying, you know,
God, I'm going to do this so you
have to do that.
Well, beloved, you know, I've come to realize
more and more that really what fasting does
is in the subduing of our flesh, our
spirits are made more alive to the Holy
Spirit.
It's not that we're coming and God is
a pinball machine.
Okay, I've done this so you have to
do this now.
It's no, it's Lord, I'm setting this time
aside and whatever you want to say, whatever
you want to do, Lord, I'm open now
to you, Holy Spirit.
And, you know, Isaiah 58, it talks about
really what God's chosen fast is about.
The purpose of God's chosen fast.
And you don't need to turn there, but
basically it's saying it's to loose the bands
of wickedness.
It's to loose the bands of wickedness.
And we as the people of God, there
could be areas in our life that God
is saying I'm going to loose those bands
and I'm going to do it because you
don't even know where the bands are.
You don't even realize the deep need you
have of me in that area.
It says I'm going to undo heavy burdens.
And sometimes we have come and we're under
a burden and we don't understand why.
We don't understand.
We love God with all our heart, soul,
mind and strength.
But there is a burden there.
And the undue ones, the ones not of
Christ, get lifted in this fast.
It's to let the oppressed go free.
And, beloved, that through our lives we are
going to speak a word of life and
the oppressed that hear a word that is
from the Holy Spirit, that has power in
it, are going to go free.
But first that oppression, any oppression in us
is going to be made to give up
those areas where they do oppress us.
And this fast, I know, is called of
God.
And it's going to do all this and
more.
And there's a story about a man in
1 Kings 13 that's so appropriate to what
God has been speaking to His church lately.
There's been a theme of all the preaching
lately.
And that is that people could make a
stand for Christ.
People could stand in Christ and have that
power to stand and be able to reach
people.
And that seems to be a theme.
And there's a story of a man in
the Old Testament that he actually did make
a very dynamic stand for God.
But the most unusual thing happened after he
did.
And I want to look at his story.
The man is a prophet.
And his story is told in 1 Kings
13.
But to know his story, we have to
go back a bit and know the time
that he lived in.
And the time that this man, this prophet,
he lived in, it was the time when
Solomon reigned.
And at the end of his reign, he
began not only to build the temple of
God.
He built the temple of God.
But at the end of his reign, he
also built false temples on hills surrounding Jerusalem.
So he built a temple to Ashtoreth.
And he built a temple to Malchom.
And all the foreign gods of his wives,
of his many wives, he built the temple
of God where the living presence of God
was.
And then he built all these false temples.
And at the end of his life, God
said, no, I will not put up with
that anymore.
And he chose a young man who was
industrious, the Scripture says, whose name was Jeroboam.
And God sovereignly chose that young man.
And he said, I'm going to give you
ten tribes of Israel.
I'm going to take the kingdom from Solomon.
I'm going to leave two tribes to him
for his father David's sake.
But I'm going to take ten tribes and
I'm going to give them to you, Rehoboam.
And you're going to be king over them.
And God gave Rehoboam an incredible promise.
And he said that when I give you
this kingdom, you can do whatever is in
your heart to do concerning these ten tribes.
Whatever is in your heart to do, however
you want to lead them, you can do
that.
But then he also said, but if you
would walk in my ways, if you would
do all that I command you and keep
my statutes and commandments, then God made him
an incredible promise to this young man.
He said, I will be with you.
I will build you a sure house like
I built for David.
And I will give Israel unto you.
He said, you can rule it the way
you want.
But if you will follow my commands and
my statutes, he says, I am going to
be with you.
I will build you a sure house.
As great as David's name was, I will
make your name great.
As great as David's house will be, I
will make your house great.
And he said, I will give Israel into
your hand.
Now we pick up the story.
Jeroboam, it says, if you just look to
1 Kings 12, in verse 26, it says,
Jeroboam, after receiving this promise of God, it
says, And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now
shall the kingdom return to the house of
David.
Because if this people go up to do
sacrifice in the house of the Lord at
Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people
turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehobim,
king of Judah.
And they shall kill me and go again
to Rehobim, the king of Judah.
Rehobim being Solomon's son who reigned over the
two tribes.
And so God gave him a very clear,
sure word.
Said, if you will follow me with your
heart, I will give you this.
But the scripture tells us that Jeroboam said
in his heart, No, no, no, no, no.
I know, I can see exactly what's going
to happen here.
That when people in the ten tribes go
to Jerusalem to worship at the true temple,
they're going to be swayed, they're going to
be influenced.
And finally it's going to dawn on them,
I'm not their king.
They're going to want the royal line of
David again.
And they're going to kill me.
And everything that has been given me is
going to be taken away from me.
And so the scripture tells us that Jeroboam,
this young man, verse 28, the king took
counsel.
And from that counsel he made two calves
of gold.
And he said unto them, that's the people,
It is too much for you to go
up to Jerusalem.
Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee
up out of the land of Egypt.
And so, I don't know how he pulled
that one off, but he made two golden
calves.
He made them.
And he said to all the people, it's
too much for you to go all the
way down to Jerusalem.
We're the northern kingdom.
It's too far.
It's too much for you to worship and
praise God in that place.
So we'll make two golden calves and these
be thy gods, O Israel.
The exact words that were said when the
people of Israel were in the desert and
a false calf was made.
The devil uses, you know, he uses that
same strategy over and over again.
And then, in addition to forming two golden
calves and saying, Now, I'm going to put
one in the north and one in the
south and you can, whatever closest to you,
whatever the most convenient to you, you can
go and you can worship there.
And the scripture says in verse 31, that
in addition to the gold calves, he made
a house of high places.
And he made priests of the lowest of
the people, which were not of the sons
of Levi.
And Jeroboam ordained a feast, just like the
feast that they have in Judah.
And what he said in the high places,
he put these priests.
And there they offered upon the altar that
he had made.
There they offered sacrifices on altars that he
had made.
He proclaimed a feast.
And, beloved, let's look at this picture.
Here we now have a man-made ministry.
We have false altars.
We have that were fashioned by their own
hands.
And they're saying, you don't have to go
to Jerusalem.
You just have to sacrifice here.
And the scripture says that everything that he
devised out of his own heart, that which
he did and the people followed him.
The people of the northern kingdom followed him.
Now, our story picks up.
There was a prophet sent by God in
chapter 13.
And it says, And, behold, there came a
man of God out of Judah, by the
word of the Lord, unto Bethel, one of
these altars.
And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn
incense.
And this man of God, the scripture says,
he cried against the altar in the word
of the Lord.
And he said, Altar, altar, thus saith the
Lord.
And he begins to cry against it.
And he said, It's going to be destroyed.
He said, This is not an altar of
God.
Sacrifices, prayers, anything made at these altars, God
will not hear you.
This is not a God-ordained, this is
not a God place.
And God is against it.
And he said to them that, he cries
out and he said, So that you can
know what I'm saying is true.
He said, This altar is going to be
rent into, separated into, and all the ashes
from your burnings are going to pour through
it.
And you are going to know that this
is not of God's doing.
And the scripture says, in verse 4, that
Jeroboam, when he heard this, it says, And
it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard
the saying of the man of God, which
cried against the altar in Bethel, he put
forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay
hold on him.
And his hand, which he put forth against
him, dried up, so that he could not
pull it in again.
And the Bible says, The altar was rent,
and the ashes poured out according to the
sign, which the man of God had given
by the word of God.
And beloved, here we have a man in
these scriptures, very clearly anointed of God.
Very clearly making a stand.
He's going before the king now, the whole
nation, one time who knew the favor of
God.
And he stands before it.
And he says, This is not an altar
of God.
And he has a fearless testimony.
He has a fearless anointing.
He will go, and he'll stand before this
king, and he'll stand before all the people.
And he will say, I don't know how
blind you can get, but this is not
of God.
And here is proof that what I'm saying
is the truth.
God is going to back me up.
And when the king put forth his hand
against that man of God, the scriptures tell
us he could not draw it in.
It dried up.
And everything that king wanted to do against
this man in this testimony, dried up.
And he was hopeless and helpless before the
anointing on this man and the Spirit of
God in this man and the truth and
the power of his words.
It's an outstanding testimony.
He's unintimidated.
And the scripture says that the king cries
out to him and says, Entreat now the
face of the Lord thy God.
He's clearly admitting now that his God and
this prophet's God is two different things.
And he says, Entreat the Lord thy God
and pray for me that my hand will
be restored.
And his hand is restored.
And then the king said to the man
of God, Come home with me, verse 7,
and refresh thyself, and I will give thee
a reward.
And verse 8 is very important.
It says, And the man of God said
unto the king, If thou will give me
half thine house, I will not go in
with thee.
Neither will I eat bread nor drink water
in this place.
For so it was charged me by the
word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread,
nor drink water, nor turn again by the
same way that thou camest.
So he went another way, and returned not
by the way that he came.
And verse 11, it says, Now there dwelt
an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons
came and told him all the works that
the man of God had done that day
in Bethel, and the words which he had
spoken unto the king.
And they told him their father.
And beloved, here now is the fame of
this man, and the obvious presence of God
with him, and its fame is being known
now throughout the land.
And this man has a word for the
king, and now when he's asked to stay
in the land, he says no, he turns
and he leaves to go.
But the scripture says that he has a
word now, and he's not to stay in
that land.
But the prophet comes, when his sons come
and report of all he does, and he
hears about there is a man with such
an anointing, a man that can stand so
fearless, this who now calls himself an old
prophet, he wants to know this man.
And the scripture tells us that he has
his son settle a donkey for him, and
he goes after the man of God.
And verse 14, it says, And went after
the man of God and found him, that's
the old prophet, sitting under an oak.
And he said unto him, Art thou the
man of God that camest from Judah?
And he said, I am.
Then he said to him, Come home with
me and eat bread.
And he said, I may not return with
thee, nor go in with thee, neither will
I eat bread, nor drink water with thee
in this place.
For it was said to me by the
word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no
bread, nor drink water there, nor turnest again
to go by the way that thou camest.
Now beloved, it's very clear that this man
has impressed on his mind his mission.
He goes in the word of the Lord,
he accomplishes what he's to do, now he
has marching orders, he's to leave the land
directly.
And he keeps repeating it.
He says it to the king, and he
says it two times, to now an old
prophet that has come out after him.
But the scripture says in verse 17, no
sorry, in verse 18, the old prophet says
to this man, he says to him, I
am a prophet also, as thou art, and
an angel spake unto me by the word
of the Lord, saying bring him back with
thee into thy house, that he may eat
bread and drink water.
But he lied unto him.
Now here's a person with a fearless testimony,
here's someone that God could use.
Here's somebody that actually goes out and does
it.
Here is somebody that God so works with
them, that all of those who saw the
miracles that day, had to have known there
was something wrong with the altars they were
worshiping in.
He is a power for God.
He has a clear word, now instructions for
himself, but a man comes out, claims to
be a prophet, claims to have a word
for him, and he lies to him.
And he says to him, I am as
you are.
He says heaven speaks to me too.
He says, here's my mission, I'm to bring
you back.
I'm to bring you to my house, and
you are to eat, and you are to
drink with me.
Now beloved, I would like to think in
my mind, that this prophet that has stood
mighty, and God turns around, and he has
this conversation with this old prophet, and he
says, when the prophet says, you know we're
on the same equal footings, we belong to
that same spiritual elite club.
That he would say, no, I'm only a
messenger and a servant.
When the old prophet says to him, heaven
opens, and an angel spoke to me.
I would like to think that this man
of God, mighty in the anointing of God,
would say, well maybe an angel speaks to
you, but God himself speaks to me.
I would like to say, when the prophet
said to him, I'm here to bring you
back.
That that prophet looks at him and says,
take me back.
Take me back where?
To altars?
That God is not there?
To man-made altars?
To places where there is no mercy seat,
there is no shedding of blood, there is
no forgiveness, there is no cleansing, there is
no anointing, there is no deliverance, and there
is no living word?
Take me back where?
And why?
God has called me, I have seen, I
see so clearly, what is the religious strongholds
in this place.
God has anointed me to see, and I
have spoken the word of God, and he
has backed me up.
And I believe that many have seen the
error and the absolute devilishness in it.
He says, you want to take me back
there?
God gave me a word that I would
have no fellowship there.
I was not to tarry in that land,
that I was to go in, I was
to speak his word, and I was to
get back out.
He said, why should I go back into
a place where there is no living testimony
because there is no real presence of God?
Why would I go back to a man
-made priesthood?
Why would I go back to where there
is no mirror held up before the people?
And so people just go down under the
weight of their sin to more and more
abomination.
Why would I go back there?
The old prophet says, come eat, drink, eat
bread, drink water at my house.
I would like for that prophet to say,
at your house?
You live there?
You live in this land?
Well, why were you not sent?
If you're the prophet and you live there,
this is your people.
This is your family.
This is your co-workers.
This is your nation.
This is your future.
You say you're here from heaven.
Why did you not have that burning word
in you?
Why did somebody from the outside have to
come in and speak to you?
You live here?
Why were you not sent?
The old prophet did not stand in open
identification with the prophet before the king.
His voice was silent before false altars.
His voice was silent before a ministry where
Jeroboam just took the lowest of the people
because he could manipulate the men.
Because they'd get a Jeroboam word, not a
God word.
Where was his voice standing up and saying,
this is not God, this is demon inspired.
And those that follow him will only have
God in name only.
And they will become so entangled in sin
that they'll lose all faith and all hope
that God himself will have to turn that
nation away from himself.
Where is your voice, old prophet, if you
are a prophet?
But beloved, the man of God, the one
so mightily used, the man who could see,
the man who had understanding as almost no
one in that nation could, that man says
nothing before the lies of this old prophet.
He has none of the questions.
He is lied to.
And then he is so easily turned aside
from his off-stated convictions.
Scripture says, verse 19, so he went back
with him and he did eat bread in
his house and drank water.
This prophet, this man of God is lied
to and he can't discern it.
He is a man of God and beloved.
After this prophet stands for God, the Scripture
says that this lying spirit went out after
the man of God and found him.
That there are going to be people that
God has an anointing for and a calling
for.
But the devil so fears this kind of
man that he has a special plan for
him.
And there is now a lying spirit going
out after this man and it seems like
the lying spirit has won.
And this man so easily he can repeat
over and over again, I know what my
convictions are, and yet he speaks some lies
to him and he goes, okay, I'll go
to your place.
I'll drop all my convictions.
And as this prophet goes back to the
old prophet's house, the Scripture says, and it
came to pass, verse 20, as they sat
at the table that the word of the
Lord came unto the prophet, the real one.
No, I'm sorry.
It came to the prophet, the old one
that brought him back.
And he cried, the old prophet, unto the
man of God that came from Judah, saying,
Thus saith the Lord, forasmuch as thou hast
disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and hast
not kept the commandments which the Lord thy
God commanded thee, but came back and has
eaten bread and drunk water in the place
of which the Lord did say to thee,
eat no bread and drink no water.
Thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulcher
of thy fathers.
And it came to pass after he had
eaten bread and after he had drunk that
he settled for him the ass to wit
the prophet whom he had brought back.
Now all of a sudden, the old prophet
finds his voice and he truly is anointed
of God.
And he tells that man, the true prophet
of God, he said, you have absolutely disobeyed,
you have absolutely been in revolt and rebellion
to what you clearly know.
And it says, thy carcass shall not come
unto the sepulcher of thy fathers.
It means that in your returning and your
going back, your eating and your drinking and
partaking where I have used you to cry
out against, in your returning you are joining
the ranks of the old prophet.
Now let me tell you what that means.
You are joining the company of the spiritually
unusable.
You are joining the company of a one
-time wonder.
You are joining the company of those that
I could use greatly, but only once.
You are joining the company of those that
have tasted and know my anointing and you
know my heart and you know the hour
you live in and you know what you're
crying against and you know what it's going
to mean for all those that you speak
to.
But I can only use you one time.
You're a one-time wonder.
You are expected to have an end, an
honored end in the graves of your father,
but you are going back and you are
never going to end up in the place
I've intended you to end up.
The scripture says in verse 23 that after
he ate and drank, he left.
But beloved, the after comes after verse 21
where that prophet, the old prophet says you
have disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and
you have not kept the commandment, but you
have come back.
And beloved, he didn't jump up then.
This man that had known an anointing of
God to tear down strongholds, he didn't jump
up and say, God forgive me, what have
I done?
God forgive me, what am I doing?
I had that feeling that whole time I
was coming back with this man, that I
had that troubling, I had that sick feeling,
I felt like no, no, I shouldn't be
going, but he had this other word and
he didn't jump up and say, what am
I doing?
God forgive me.
No, the scripture says after he had eaten
and drank, after he had satisfied himself, after
the word of God was spoken to him,
he got up knowing full well that he
had disobeyed and the scripture says he left.
And in verse 24 it tells us, and
he was gone, a lion met him by
the way and slew him.
His carcass was cast in the way and
the ass stood by it and the lion
also stood by the carcass.
And the scripture tells us that the old
prophet hears about his dead body in the
road and he goes and he gets it.
And he says in verse 26, and when
the prophet that brought him back from the
way heard thereof, he said, it is the
man of God who was disobedient unto the
word of the Lord.
Therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the
lion, which hath torn him and slain him
according to the word of the Lord, which
he spake unto him.
Very ironic.
This man is now so discerning.
But beloved, I want to say what God
said to me concerning this man.
Oh my goodness, how can a man with
such an anointing be so deceived?
But that's not the story.
Say, my goodness, a man that God had
used and he met such tragic an end
with a lion.
But that's not the story.
The Spirit of God in teaching us this
is saying, here is a man who could
believe and speak the words concerning others and
concerning a nation, but he could not hold
the word concerning himself.
Here is a man who could speak a
powerful word to the nation.
Here is a man undoubtedly anointed of God
and he could stand and he had a
word for the nation.
But the powerful word to himself was also
given.
A very clear word for himself was also
given.
But he couldn't hold that.
He somehow couldn't say, as surely as that
word I preach to the nation, as surely
as the word or the clear seeing that
I see for others shall come to pass.
Anything that God says concerning me, I can
see it and preach it for others, but
I have a hard time holding that word
for myself.
You see, he was going into a place
where the powers and principalities, the spiritual wickedness,
the strongholds in that place was Jeroboam who
couldn't keep the word God gave to him.
There was a land, there was a promise
and God was saying to Jeroboam, look, Jeroboam,
if you will walk according to my statutes
and my way, I will give you the
nation.
I will establish you as king.
I will be with you, Jeroboam.
Israel will turn to you.
And beloved, I'll tell you something, Jeroboam could
not keep the commandments.
He needed the mercy seat and he needed
the temple of Jerusalem and he needed to
go down to Jerusalem and find there at
the mercy seat strength for what he needed
to do and he would have rose up
in power and strength to be able to
fulfill the commandments of God and to be
able to receive the word that was given
him.
If we cut ourselves off from the mercy
seat, if we try to fabricate, if we
hear these precious promises and all that God
wants to do in us and all that
God wants to do through us, but beloved,
then we somehow get that word and it
becomes something else, gets formed in us, either
pride or fear.
Beloved, in his case it was fear.
It was fear and unbelief.
It was fear, God, I can't keep the
commands.
And then it became unbelief, God, this word
can't be for me or this word as
you've spoken it to me cannot be true.
And so he fashioned another kind of worship.
It looked so much like Jerusalem worship except
there was no mercy seat, except there was
no blood covering, except there was no presence
of God, so there was no protection of
God.
And here's a man, God giving him the
most incredible promises, another David I tell you,
another David.
But he couldn't receive the word given him
and now we have this prophet and he's
going in, beloved, and he's got the same
problem.
And God is saying, you know, I don't
want you out there speaking to people if
we are knowing defeat in a certain area
and we are speaking to the defeated.
No, no, no.
We can't be out there being what God
is asking us to be.
And there is an area of defeat.
And we are not going to a true
worship center.
We are in our heart.
Jeroboam did not go to Jerusalem and he
barred everybody else from going there.
And that was his salvation.
That was his deliverance.
If he had gone there, he would have
found strength to say, God, in my weakness,
You are all my resource.
And he would have found the strength to
receive the word God gave him.
He would have received strength to go back
and be a David to his people, but
we would be singing Jeroboam's praises.
And now this land is filled with fear
and unbelief.
That's why the golden calves, that's why the
people can seemingly so believe a lie because
they are like what they are worshipping.
That spirit of fear and unbelief permeates the
land and permeates the worship and permeates their
understanding of God.
And now a man of God is sent
in.
Now somebody with the anointing, somebody with the
eyesight, somebody who can see so clearly the
ills of the land, yet they can't hold
the word for them.
They can't walk it out.
There's no power in him.
You know, beloved, he wasn't deceived by a
lie.
He was deceived because he went into a
land who he turns back and goes into
a land because that land is in him.
That's really his native spiritual country.
He goes into that land and he returns
to that land because it is in him.
It is spiritually home to him.
And beloved, God is speaking to us today.
You know, his call for us is still
like that prophet.
That God is looking for people to be
able to open their eyes spiritually and go
and speak to the families and the co
-workers.
To people, beloved, God wants to open our
eyes because we can't be like this prophet.
We have to have...
God knows if we have a one-time
usability because we have a word for them
but the word for us we can't obey.
We have a word for them but we
can't hold the promises God is giving us
in faith.
I believe this fast is God is going
to open our eyes.
God is going to show us places and
areas in our life where truly we can't
hold a word.
We can't hold the word in obedience because
we need a mercy seat.
We have to say, God, I am so
lacking but You are my resource.
I come to the mercy seat.
I come to forgiveness and cleansing.
That's the power to obey You.
Or we can't receive when God says, I
want to use you.
I want to use you.
We can't hold that promise either because we
keep looking at ourselves in fear and unbelief.
And we are like a partaker.
We want to go and speak a great
word to people but if that fear and
unbelief that we're speaking to them about is
still in us, it's not going to work.
But if we say, God, I'm going to
the true altar.
God, I'm going to go as I am.
I'm going to come who I am.
But I'm going to come, oh God, and
I'm going to believe You.
Every area in my life where there's compromise,
every area where there's a halfway altar, like
You're asking me to curse in their lives,
God, whatever You're asking me to speak to
them, it's got to be true in me.
But God, I'm coming to an altar where
You are.
I'm not like Jeroboam that I have to
make up some cap and there's no real
deliverance there.
It's not a God of my own making
and a God of my own fashioning.
I come to a God in truth that
this word reveals to me who says there
is a cross, there is a mercy seat,
there is a place of forgiveness where we
freely come and say, God, I'm a coward.
God, I don't want to.
God, this is not yet formed in me.
But I'm trusting You to do it.
And You will give me the passion in
it for them.
And God, You're going to release me to
speak it because God, You are doing something
of truth in me and I'm believing You
for it.
I'm believing You for it.
Hallelujah.
There's a true story of a soccer team
in South America.
And they were flying to a soccer match
and their plane crashed.
And most on board were killed.
It took a day and a half for
all to die.
Some very horrible long and lingering death till
a handful was left in the wreck in
the mountains.
And that handful of young men, strong young
men, now were going to hope to be
rescued.
One of the young men that was with
them had been knocked out.
And he was unconscious.
By the end of two days, everybody that
was dead was dead.
But there was a young man there and
he was unconscious.
And so they got out, they found in
the plane, they had some reserves, they had
some chocolate and they had some wine and
everything.
And they figured out what they thought would
be how many days till their rescue.
So they divided up all the food stores
that they had and the wine and the
water and they divided it up.
And everybody was going to have a certain
day's rations.
One young man, a friend of the young
man that was unconscious, says, you have to
give him his portion.
They said, what are you crazy?
This is life and death.
The living, the conscious get the portion.
He goes, no, he's not dead.
He gets a portion.
And he had to fight for them to
give that young man a portion.
Then he had to guard his portion.
And it tells that story, it tells us
that after several days he came to his
friend that had fought for his portion, the
friend that had fought really for his existence
and here was some food and sustenance and
he came to and he stayed alive with
them.
And finally, after the days became weeks and
the weeks turned into a month and there
was still no rescue, there was still no
planes in the sky, it became obvious they
couldn't find them, they couldn't locate them and
they were doomed to die on the Andes
Mountains.
And finally, that young man that had been
in a coma that his friend had fought
for, he finally said, I'm walking out of
here.
I'm going to go get help.
If I die, I die.
And by this point, nobody had the strength
to dissuade him.
He became their only hope.
Beloved, that true story is that young man
walked out and found help.
Got in a plane and directed them back
to where the rest of them were starving
and dying on that hillside.
And I so see myself in that picture.
I so know that Jesus Christ is my
friend who when I am all but dead
and helpless in my sin, when I have
but no belief left in me that I
could be capable of anything, that Jesus Christ
is that friend to me who fights for
my portion, who says, No!
There will come a day what I have
done for you, what I have done for
you, what I have given you, what I
have guarded for you, what I have fought
for you, there's going to come a day
that you're going to be able to stand
on your feet because of me.
And you're going to be able to walk
out and save those others because of what
I have done for you.
Hallelujah!
Everyone said, No, don't feed that guy.
Don't give that guy anything.
He's unconscious.
He's useless to us.
This is for the living.
And yet that friend in fighting for him
is so Jesus for you and I.
We're not called to be that great prophet
that walks in and can curse the altar
and walk out.
No.
No, because when that kind of pride and
that kind of spiritual elitism falls for anything
that concerns his own flesh, when it came
to eating and drinking, he had to get
back to the fellowship in the land that
was cursed because it's still in him.
No, it's Jesus Christ fighting for our portion
who says, I'm going to give you the
strength for the others.
And beloved, what kept that young man going?
I had to have thought when he came
to.
He remembered with a wonder.
A friend had fought for his portion.
A friend had fought and said, No, he's
not dead yet.
He gets his share.
Beloved, that's Christ to us.
What kept him walking was that friend.
What will keep us walking is that friend
in Christ.
If we will keep coming, if we will
never despair of the mercy, beloved, let us
not be so proud that we deny ourselves
the mercy we need every day.
Let us come boldly to that throne of
grace in this time of the fast.
Let us come knowing who we are and
who Christ is and who he promises to
be to us.
And beloved, we'll be able to go out
and be the hand and the life of
Christ because something formed in us.
That what we're offering them is Christ, not
us.
That we're not talking to them out of
our defeat.
We're not talking to them, Listen, you've got
to do this and you've got to do
that because it's going to ring so hollow.
But we have come every day to a
living Christ.
He has deposited some power in us.
And those areas where our flesh always dominated,
where that sin, where that lack of obedience,
where that repeated failure dominated us.
And so we felt we are either unworthy
to go out or we don't even want
to look at it and we go out
in spiritual pride.
Either way, we'll turn them off.
Either way, there'll be no power.
But Christ is saying, look who I am
to you.
And in this fast, I'm going to show
you areas.
Listen, don't despair.
Don't give up.
Keep coming to me.
Because I am all you need.
I am the resource.
And what used to dominate you, that sin
that you always had to keep going back.
You had to keep always going back.
You had to keep always returning to that
land of death.
I will say that's enough.
And I will heal you.
I will break that power of sin over
you because I am the Lord.
Because you're coming to the place where I
am.
You're coming to a mercy seat.
You're coming where the power of sin is
broken in you.
And I put myself in you.
And then I'll send you out.
I'll send you out in my power and
my spirit.
Will you stand with me?
This altar call is for those that have
felt, God, you can't send me out there
because I'm still defeated by what defeats them.
My struggles are so real.
God, I'm not going out a hypocrite.
But you've heard the word of the Lord
today.
You're saying, God, I thank you that the
hope is I'm not going to be defeated
in this area.
I'm going to be honest.
Beloved, during these fast times and even now,
you can come as I'm speaking.
God's going after the strongholds.
God's going after the place where the flesh
rules us so strongly.
Where he has ruled unchallenged for a long
time.
Perhaps forever.
And it's also for those that have been
disobedient repeatedly.
You are drawn back repeatedly in your fear.
You're drawn back.
But there's been areas of that repeated disobedience.
And you know it.
And it's eating away your faith.
It doesn't take God all day to break
a stronghold in us.
We come to a mercy seat.
And the power of God is there.
And when we leave, every time the temptation,
every time the battle rages, we offer it
to a Christ who is Lord over it.
And beloved, he breaks the power of it.
He gives us himself.
We don't battle this alone.
He gives us himself.
When we cry out to him, he shows
up.
He shows up.
Hallelujah.
Are you struggling, my friends?
Don't be defeated.
This is not a message about defeat.
This is a message of incredible triumph.
For God says you don't dwell in a
land where the religion is a vain one.
You don't dwell in a place where there
is no God in our midst.
And God is going to show up for
it.
Beloved, I want to tell you something.
When that prophet prophesied against that altar, he
said there's a young king coming and his
name is Josiah.
And in his day, God is going to
cleanse the land.
That the idol worship and everything that the
northern kingdom, all the abomination they brought in,
this man was going to come and cleanse
the altars, cut down the groves.
There was going to be a revival and
there was going to be a cleansing of
the land.
Before God judged it, there was going to
be a cleansing of the land.
And beloved, do you want to know something?
Josiah was eight years old when he got
on that throne.
An eight-year-old child.
An orphan.
No major influence now to guide him.
But as like a little child began to
cry, Oh God, be father, be mother, be
everything I need to be.
And God's type is that it's not the
strong.
It's not all those that have been mentored
and have this great spiritual past that I
can use so greatly to bring revival.
That I can use to cleanse the land.
That I can use to touch, touch way
beyond what you can hope or think.
Beloved, I'm telling you, don't pray little prayers
during this fast.
Look away from yourself.
If you have a heart like a little
child, like Josiah.
A little child's heart is just...
If you're the father, then your will goes.
Whenever my will and your will meet, you're
the father, your will goes.
That's as simple as what a little child
is.
Content to be on a father's lap saying,
Thy will be done.
And it was an eight-year-old child
that he was prophesying about.
We don't have to be great and mighty
in God.
We have to be an open heart.
Come to the mercy seat.
And receive the forgiveness.
And see that power of sin brokenness.
We come to the mercy seat.
The one where the blood of Christ is
now poured that you and I can be
forgiven.
And where the depths of sin...
The blood of Christ goes right to the
depth of the sin.
The blood of Christ covers it.
The blood of Christ annuls it.
The blood of Christ breaks up the power
of the enemy.
And it takes you and I coming in
the faith of a little child.
God, I'm not looking at how strong I
am on my past record.
I come.
I come needy.
I come needing you.
I come empty.
I come sinful.
But I come.
And you will be God to me and
you will turn me out with sin broken
off in my life.
Beloved, let's take God at His word.
Let's take Him at His word because He
is faithful and He is true.
He's going to break that power of that
dominating sin.
He's going to break that flesh over us.
He's going to break the unbelief in us.
And He's going to use us greatly in
this last time.
There's a Josiah anointing.
Will you raise your hands with me?
Oh God, I pray Lord for those that
can only understand a little of this.
God, touch their eyes.
God, touch their heart.
And grant them an anointing to see Your
incredible mercy.
Oh God, You are the most high God.
Reach down now and break that iniquity, the
chains, the generations of iniquity.
Break it, oh God.
God, I pray for those that are coming,
Lord, barely breathing.
Barely breathing.
Let them remember, oh God, You fought for
our portion.
You fought for all that we need, oh
God.
And You now minister to us in love.
And God, in the strength of You, You're
sending us out to walk out to bring
freedom, oh God.
And Lord, I pray for those, Lord, that
are discouraged and defeated.
God, would You strengthen them now to believe
You fully.
God, I pray for everyone in this house
that can hear You.
That we could pray big prayers, great prayers
this fast.
That we would not limit You, oh most
high God.
That we would believe You that You could
use us in any way You want.
That God, we would not be a one
-time wonder.
You just being able to use us once.
But then being slaved by areas where we
won't obey You.
But God, we're trusting You now to give
us the power to obey You.
In areas we've never obeyed You before.
We look to the mercy seat and we
look to Jesus Christ.
And we thank You, oh God, You're going
to answer this prayer.
For Your name's sake.
Because You are worthy and because You love
us.
Now beloved, let us go rejoicing in Jesus.
He is worthy.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the message.