My message, a fire in my bones.
I'm going to be speaking mostly from Jeremiah
the 20th chapter.
Somebody asked me once, don't you ever preach
from the New Testament?
Call my office, order
a bunch of them.
I preach mostly from the New Testament.
But I'm preaching from the Old Testament.
Because as Pastor Stegen said this morning, the
word of the Old Testament was given as
a pattern for us upon whom the ends
of the world have come.
Oh God, speak now.
Send the power of the Holy Ghost.
I need you.
I can't preach without you.
I'm asking you to heal many people here
today.
There must be a healing of hearts.
Let it come to your word, I pray.
In Jesus' name.
God sends Jeremiah into the temple.
And you can read about his warning in
the 19th chapter when you go home.
He said, God told me to tell you
he's going to destroy the temple.
He said, Israel is going into captivity.
Very strong message.
Pastor was the governor.
He slapped him in the face.
Then he put him in stock.
He put him in a torture rack.
I read a description of the torture rack
that was used in those days.
The head is put in like a wooden
yoke and closed.
Hands twisted behind his back and locked into
another rack.
His body is twisted and tortured.
He was left in that position all night
long.
And all the next day.
Now I want to tell you there's no
man in the Bible more called than this
man.
This man had a revelation of his divine
call more than probably any man in the
Old Testament.
This is what God said to the man.
I formed you in the belly.
I knew you before you came out of
the womb.
I sanctified you.
I ordained you to be a prophet to
the nations.
Do you remember what he said to the
Lord?
Lord, I can't speak.
I'm just a child.
Lord said, don't say I'm a child.
You shall go where I send you.
And whatever I command you, you shall speak.
He said, don't ever fear man.
I am with you to deliver you.
Then the Lord put his hand on me.
And he touched my mouth.
And the Lord said to me, I put
my words in your mouth.
This is the man who knew he was
called.
He knew what his mission was.
God said, gird up your loins.
Rise up and speak everything I say to
you.
Be afraid of no man.
What he's saying, don't be impressed by their
smiles.
Don't be afraid of their frowns.
It's an amazing call.
Before the world was begun, sanctified in his
mother's womb, given one of the clearest calls
in the Bible, a man sure of his
word, anointed to speak the mind of God.
God made him this promise.
I have made you a defensed city.
I have surrounded you with iron and brass
walls.
I have made you impregnable city against your
society, against kings and priests and all the
people.
They'll fight against you but they will not
prevail against you for I'm with you to
deliver you.
He said, fear no man.
Do as I've commanded you.
Accept my call.
And then these amazing words came.
Lest I confound you before the people.
When I first read that, it was like
a knife in my stomach.
I said, God, there's no man more service
called than this man.
You call him to pull down and reprove
and build.
And simply because he doubts that call, he
said, I'm going to allow you to stand
before the people and be confused.
You will be confounded.
Now this is an important word from the
heart of God.
This is what he's really saying to us.
If you will not trust your call, if
you will not trust what I've told you,
if you doubt that I have made you
an impregnable city, when you're doing what I
told you to do, when you're obeying me,
if you will trust me, you will never
be confounded.
No man can hurt you.
He said, but if you will doubt that
call, I'll confound you before men.
I cannot tell you how important it is
today to remember the call that God put
on your heart.
I've been preaching for over 50 years.
I know the day, the hour, the time
and the place God called me.
I was eight years old.
Eight years old.
And the Spirit of God came on me
in a big tent.
For three hours under the Holy Spirit.
And never once have I ever doubted that
call.
And if you doubt that call that God
placed on you, if sitting here tonight, today,
you cannot say to your heart and to
God, I know I'm in your will.
I am in your place.
And I have the call of God on
my life.
Then you will be confused.
And that's why you find ministers running all
over the world.
They come to America by the plane loads.
They go to Toronto.
They go to Florida, Pensacola.
Some revival.
They travel everywhere around the world looking for
a message.
Trying to confirm the call of God.
One man met me backstage in a church.
He said, I had a church of 600.
I had a church.
I have a church of 600 people.
It's down to 400 people.
I got a panic.
So I took six months off.
He said, and I'm going home tomorrow after
six months.
This is the last church before I go
home.
I've been to the revival in Toronto.
Pensacola.
I've been to all of the new movements.
And in the service this morning, it's the
first time I've even felt the presence of
God.
He said, do you have a word for
me?
I said, yes.
And I turned to the dear wife.
I said, here's what I see in the
spirit.
You used to be a prayer warrior.
And you got discouraged.
You don't pray anymore.
You lost your burden.
She started weeping.
I turned to the pastor.
I said, you didn't have to go any
further than the secret clause of the prayer.
That's where the revival was.
That's where the word of God was.
And because you're sitting in front of a
television set now, and you're wasting your time,
because you feel like a failure, I said,
go home.
Get back on your knees.
Forget the crowd.
You minister to Jesus.
You come to the pulpit with the word
of God.
And every hungry person with a hundred mouths
will come to hear you preach.
I had a man from India come.
He said, I came from India.
God told me, you have a word for
me.
I said, I have two words.
Go home.
And pray.
I'm not trying to be funny.
God said, I'll let you be confused.
I've been found you before men.
Because you didn't believe the call.
You didn't believe that I was able to
give you your own words.
I don't want to preach somebody else's message.
I'd rather dig a ditch.
You were called from your mother's womb.
1 Timothy 1.9 says, He has saved
us and called us with the holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
Paul the apostle said, I've been appointed to
preach for which cause I suffer.
He said, if you want to know why
I suffer, because I was appointed and I
was called and I know my work.
I am called to suffer.
Do you understand that we have all received
the same call?
Do you understand why we suffer?
Because God has laid his hand upon us.
And God has called us.
He said, I know in whom I have
believed.
I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which
I've committed on him against that day.
Jeremiah reached a low point that night in
torture.
Now here's the man who's been so assured
of himself.
And now in his torture, listen to his
words.
Oh Lord, you have deceived me.
I have been deceived.
You are stronger than I am.
And you have prevailed against me.
And the Hebrew word for deceived means opened
up.
That's verse seven, chapter 20.
You've deceived me.
Now look at me, please.
You know what he is saying?
The word means opened up.
This great prophet is saying, Lord, you've opened
me up to delusion.
You call me and allow me to be
deceived and deluded.
You call me, then you forsake me.
Can you imagine what he's thinking?
Because this rack is at the temple gate.
And all the crowd that goes by there's
the doomsday preacher.
There's the man who preaches judgment.
That's the negative preacher.
And he said, I've been mocked.
The word I preach is being mocked and
they laugh at me.
And you read the last part of the
chapter.
He said, I hate the day I was
born.
He said, my grave should have been my
mother's womb.
And when you read that, it sounds suicidal.
Lord, why didn't you kill me?
I cursed the day I was born.
You've opened me up to delusion.
We received a letter last week.
A missionary who left the mission field 20
years ago.
He's now driving a truck.
And this is what he said in essence
in his letter.
I thought that God put me out in
the wilderness.
It just left me to swing in the
wind.
He exposed me to enemies.
He forsook me.
And I left confused.
But he said, I have learned in the
years since I left.
I failed the test of a brokenness before
God.
He said, I used to be so self
-assured.
So self-assured.
He said, I would go to missions conferences.
And it seemed like every missionary had a
burden, had some problems.
But I smiled.
And I put on this facade, this fake
look.
Because he said, I never put down roots.
I was just a show.
He said, I became very bitter.
And he said, I did not go deep
enough in God.
I forgot what the Lord told me when
he called me.
He made me a promise that I forgot.
He said, God told me, I will never
fail you.
I know what this night of torture is
about.
I'm not preaching you a sermon.
I've been where Jeremiah was.
I was an evangelist.
Preaching to multitudes around the world.
Sixteen years ago, the Lord told me to
go back to New York City and raise
up a church in Times Square.
And God began to bless.
He gave us one of the most beautiful
theaters in New York City.
And he filled it.
And the newspapers carried these lines.
Standing room only for Jesus on Broadway.
The man we bought the theater from called
me one day.
He said, Pastor, you have the hottest show
on Broadway.
He said, it's not a show.
After about five, six years, the devil tried
to destroy the church and my ministry.
Satan tried to destroy.
Racial division.
We have 103 nationalities.
And one of the nationalities rose up.
And suddenly it was black against white.
And white against black.
Just a handful.
Nothing can destroy the work of God quicker
than racial strife.
We have a large contingency, large numbers of
Puerto Ricans and blacks and all kinds of
nationalities.
Three of my trusted associates rose up against
me.
And suddenly there was strife.
They accused me of almost everything a man
can be accused of.
They knew they couldn't accuse me of adultery
or fornication.
They were afraid God would strike them dead.
But I remember the torture.
Jeremiah is in the rack and he says,
God, what's this all about?
I've given my life for these people.
My bowels, my bowels were boiling inside for
them.
I preached mercy with my judgment.
I told them if they repent, God will
forgive and restore.
I told them if they repent, God will
forgive and restore.
You know I don't want judgment on these
people.
You allow me to be tortured.
If I have sinned, show me my sin.
If this is a lesson you're teaching me,
give me the lesson.
And I couldn't understand.
I have a journal.
I opened it last week before I came.
Jeremiah was 24 hours in his torture.
I was in it for six months.
I can't read what I wrote.
Because at the bottom of every page, this
is what I wrote.
Will this nightmare never end?
I hated to go to my own church.
Because every time I would come, young people
would meet me even on the street.
They say, are you the hypocrite they say
you are?
Are you a false prophet like they say
you are?
This group that rose up announced they're starting
another church in New York City in a
hotel and they invited everybody to come.
You see, for about a month my wife
had to literally pick up my arms to
get me off the chair to go to
church to preach.
One Sunday, I was halfway to church.
I said, honey, that's enough.
I don't need this.
They were calling my children.
Trying to turn them against me.
And when I heard that, I live on
the 30th floor in a skyscraper.
Look over the city.
And I looked out the window weeping and
I said, oh God, you're trying to turn
my children against me.
And my wife said, don't they know how
dangerous this is touching God's anointed?
I finally had no tears left.
I never once mentioned it in the pulpit.
And the day they announced their new church
I was told 400 people attended their meeting.
But the same Sunday, the same day while
400 people went this way, 600 new people
came in in one day.
On Sunday mornings, you come an hour early.
Some come two hours early.
You see them running into the church.
Let me tell you why I didn't quit.
The same reason Jeremiah couldn't quit.
The same reason brother Earl of Stegan has
never quit.
And the reason no pastor here can quit.
No Christian worker.
No one who's been called to the work
of God.
Let me tell you why you can't quit.
I read it to you.
Here's what Jeremiah said.
Lord, you deceived me.
I was deceived.
For since I speak, since I've been crying
out, the word of the Lord has been
a reproach unto me every day.
Verse 9, then I said, I will not
make mention of him.
I will not speak his name anymore.
Now look this way, please.
What was he saying?
I quit.
It's enough.
I'm tired of being mocked.
You see, I had told my wife I
don't need this.
I'm a writer, I write books.
I have a large mailing list.
Why should I pastor these people when so
many want to hurt me?
This man of God says I'm not even
going to mention his name.
You can't soften those words.
You can't change them.
There comes a time when you're in the
rack.
You're going through a time of torture.
And in prayer today, the Lord spoke so
clearly to me.
To especially address the sisters that are here.
Some of you are in that dark night.
God called you.
He has his hand upon you.
But now you're in a hard situation.
You wonder if you really count.
It could be family, it could be friends.
It could be misunderstanding.
So many things that bring this upon us.
And you say that's enough.
I don't need this.
I'm not important to anybody.
I've fasted and I've prayed and I've done
everything I'm supposed to do.
And I'm in pain.
And when you're in this time you can
talk to your husband.
You can talk to a friend.
They won't understand.
Some of you are going through your dark
night.
Nobody on this earth can understand what you
are going through.
Your head is in the rack.
And everything is twisted and turned.
And I tell you my brother and sister
there is only one way out.
You see, when these times come can you
imagine how many times it reads in Jeremiah
and the Lord said but
there comes a time and there comes a
dark night sometimes and you may have heard
2,000 sermons and you may have gone
through deep experiences in the past but at
this time and this moment in your life
you can't remember anything you ever heard before.
You can hardly remember all the scriptures and
all the experiences you have your entire history
with Christ doesn't seem to help you this
hour because you are overwhelmed.
And I want to tell you you will
be saying things and thinking things that are
just like Jeremiah.
Saying where are you God?
You call me?
I sacrifice for you?
And I get nothing but pain.
Children, family, marriage.
Now let me tell you what the Holy
Spirit told me.
There is a wonderful spirit in this place.
And I'm speaking primarily to those at KSB.
I said Lord in an atmosphere like this
it's impossible for people to be in the
rock of pain.
They sit under such powerful preaching.
Everybody looks so sweet and holy everybody sounds
so holy and I believe most people are
holy.
But here's what the Holy Spirit told me
just an hour before I came here people
in this kind of righteous atmosphere face the
greatest test of all simply because of the
call.
To give and sacrifice.
Nothing is as it appears.
Because when I was going through my night
of terror if I had come to a
conference like this you would have seen a
false smile on my face and I wouldn't
tell you I wouldn't tell anybody that I
was in a living hell.
It's not because I didn't trust God.
Do you understand that God did not reprimand
this man?
I dare you to show me in a
scripture where he rebuked this man.
He knew it wasn't coming from the heart
the depths of the heart.
It's just his head speaking out of pain.
As if God is saying he's hurting but
he's still my man.
I called him from the womb.
I'll let him let off some steam.
But I know his heart.
He will remember his call and listen to
what the prophet said then I said I
will not mention his name but a very
important but his word was in my heart
as a burning fire set up in my
bones.
The Holy Ghost came on him.
He said Jeremiah remember you're an impregnable city.
Forget what people say.
Remember your call.
It's a word I promised you.
Remember that I sent you.
I anointed you.
Remember I told you they would be suffering
but let it burn and that's why I
didn't quit and I will never quit because
there's a fire burning in my bones because
I am cold and I don't care what
you go through you're going to stand up
today and you're going to say I am
cold I'm going through a hard trial but
there is a fire burning in my bones
he said and I'm weary, I'm tired for
holding it in I can't stop I must
speak his word so no matter how I
feel no matter what the devil lies to
me about I am called by the Holy
Ghost and no devil can kill you please
stand oh hallelujah
hallelujah I
want to pray for the sisters I asked
the Lord today why am I here I've
loved your pastor here for years to come
here to see what God is doing and
I said Lord why am I here why
is Gary here, why are we here the
Lord made it very clear to me what's
about to happen right now is one of
the most important reasons he wants to bring
healing and restoration to those that are under
the rack of torture and pain I'm going
to pray for every sister in this house
and every brother that God will renew you
and stir up that fire when it says
in my bones it means my whole being
I want every person that's called of God
not just the preachers you may drive a
truck or feed cows but God called you
some of you have been thinking I've had
enough you want to take an easier path
but there's a fire let it burn let
the Holy Ghost bring it back to your
heart I want everybody in this house before
you sit down for your next meal to
go with rejoicing heart if you're with your
wife you can take her hand and wife
you can take the hand of your husband
and say we are not going to run
we are not going to quit we are
called my God send the Holy Ghost now
heal every sister in this house destroy every
lie of the devil heal the hurt of
every hurting person oh fire of the word
of God come and remind us Satan cannot
destroy me God has a wall of fire
around about me don't be afraid to cry
sister don't be afraid to weep before the
Lord he's trying to heal you he's going
to lift his spirit from you we take
the authority of Jesus Christ the authority of
Christ Jesus our Lord and we command these
evil spirits that harass from the outside you
have no rights my God set us free
would you just worship him now just worship
him tell him you love him tell him
Lord I trust you speak the word of
faith I am called of God thank you
Lord thank you Jesus thank you Jesus could
we just give him thanks just give him
thanks speak the word of thanks thank you
Jesus in just
a few it won't be very long the
next service my closing message is let's
bow and pray thank you Lord for reminding
us of our calling thank
you for taking us back in spirit to
the time when we heard the divine call
may we never doubt may we never forget
may we never forget and remember it as
if it were today and then Lord remind
us of our vows our promises by
your grace we want to pay those vows
we want to remember them as well and
may all this burn in our bones and
may there be nothing of the past the
present and the future that will separate or
deviate us from that divine call when
the devil wants to dampen that fire and
those flames let the miracle happen that that
water won't turn into wine but turn into
oil and that we'll be more aflame than
ever before may
everyone Lord everyone in our midst remember that
divine call grant
us the grace to be faithful to the
end whether it's through
life or death whatever it costs to
your glory we ask it amen