We are speechless again, Lord.
Because in your presence, Lord, you.
Seem to overshadow in such a way where
our heart.
Has a hard time even articulating, saying.
We see your glory, we see your majesty,
we see your loveliness.
We send so deeply, Lord, in our spirits,
the mighty work.
That you're doing.
We sense, Lord, that you have claimed ownership.
Of your body and that you're taking personal
responsibility.
To care for it.
To water it, to prune it.
To cut away.
Those branches in our lives.
That.
Are hindering us.
From bringing forth the abundant lasting fruit.
Thank you for the pruning hook.
That you have.
So skillfully.
We used in our midst this morning.
Thank you for the pruning hook.
That.
Has cut.
Branches out of our life this morning.
Though we may be experiencing a sorrow and
pain because of this pruning hook.
May we remember, Lord, that.
The fruit.
Of pruning.
Is more fruit.
Lord, I pray that you will.
Continue this work in our lives, in our
homes and in our gatherings.
Not only here when we gather in this
auditorium.
For however long you may open this door.
But Lord, cause it in our bedrooms when
we're home alone talking.
And in our cars when we're driving.
Continue this pruning hook, Lord.
That we might bring forth fruit.
In your garden.
For your pleasure.
And now, Lord, for these few moments.
We ask.
For you to continue to confirm your word
in Christ's name.
Amen.
And amen.
Praise the Lord.
For his faithfulness.
For his love.
Thank God for his.
Ministry of the high priest in our midst
this morning.
Isn't it lovely and encouraging?
We're going to share.
Communion in a few moments.
But before we do, I'd like to just
share a few exhortations.
I'd like to say, first of all.
That nearly everything that was in my spirit
this morning to share has been shared already.
Through our brother's ministry this morning, sharing the
heart of the Lord and other brothers who
shared.
Captured in a most marvelous way.
And God knows my rejoicing.
Knowing that he's truly doing a work in
our lives.
And I rejoice.
That he has given us his Holy Spirit.
First John chapter one.
Let us remember, beloved, that this work that
God is doing.
Is not originating.
From our own lives, it's not originating.
From a group of elders.
Or a pastor.
The work of pruning and discipline and scourging.
And the work of purging sin out of
the church.
Is not initiated by you and I.
Fixing our eyes one upon another.
Discovering each other's sins or faults and then
taking action.
Some fellowships have experienced similar moves of the
Holy Spirit that we're experiencing in our lives.
And they have erred because they have taken
it upon themselves.
Usually this occurs in leadership.
Where several men gather together and begin to
feel that it's their job to purge the
church.
But we want to sound a clarion warning
this morning.
That the work of the Lord will continue
in our lives and in the lives of
any group of people.
Only as we are enabled each and every
one of us to individually and corporately live
by the law of life that comes from
Jesus Christ.
First John chapter one.
That which was from the beginning which we
have heard.
Which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and our hands have
handled of the word of life.
For the life was manifested and we have
seen it and bear witness and show unto
you that eternal life.
Which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us.
That which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you that ye also may have
fellowship with us.
You see the apostle here is immediately stating
the only true basis of fellowship that we
have with one another.
And that is that we all revolve around
and focus around the person and glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
The spirit of God is reconnecting the body
to the head.
The spirit of God is reconnecting the individual
members of the body of Christ back to
the headship of Christ.
Because it is only from him that light
comes that results in the workings that we
are experiencing in our midst.
Being exposed, being naked, having our life exposed
does not come through men confronting one another.
It comes when we all confront the light.
Where the light shines everything is made manifest.
And it is only as we walk in
the light that this unveiling occurs and that
the government of the Holy Spirit is in
control then.
Now listen closely.
That which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you.
We ought to be declaring to one another
what we have seen and what we have
heard from the light.
From the Lord.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son Jesus Christ.
And these things I write unto you that
your joy may be full.
Verses 1 through 3.
John is telling the church it's all about
him.
It's all about Jesus.
It's all about what we have seen and
heard.
John is saying the sum total of who
I am.
John, right now writing this epistle.
The sum total of what I am is
the result of having seen, having heard, having
handled, having fellowshiped with, having been intimate with,
having his light conquer me, having his light
shine on me, weeping in his light, laughing
in his light, mourning in his light, grieving
in his light.
It's all under the umbrella of his light.
Brothers and sisters may we pray that the
workings that we are experiencing now might result
in an increased passion and desire to walk
in his light.
Walk in the light of Jesus Christ.
Watch this.
This then is the message which we have
heard of him and declare unto you that
God is light.
You see we've been talking a lot for
several weeks about being naked and everything being
manifest and everything being exposed.
But you can't get on that subject, you
can't go in that direction without connecting it
to the reason that's happening is because his
light is shining.
It's got to be two sides to the
same coin.
If we engage in the desire to be
naked, to be exposed, to be naked, to
be exposed, to be vulnerable, to open up,
to have everything manifest, but we don't experience
that through his light, then it turns into
something evil.
It turns into something wicked.
God is light and in him is no
darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship with him
and walk in darkness, we lie and do
not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, the basis of
our continuing to walk together and experience the
dealings of God like we're experiencing hangs upon
if we walk in the light as he
is in the light.
And so the Holy Spirit bids us this
morning continue to walk in the light as
he is in the light.
And then our fellowship will be with the
Father, with the Son, and with one another.
And that fellowship will have the sweetness of
his light, the sweetness of his love, the
sweetness of his purging eye.
But it will be generating from his light.
How important it is for us to keep
our eyes fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ
at this critical time in our life.
In our history with God today.
How critical it is to keep our eyes
on the Lord.
How critical it is for our vision, for
the thing that we see.
It must be that which we see because
his light is shining.
Let everything be exposed, but let it be
exposed by his light.
Let it be exposed by the radiance of
his glory coming into our lives, coming into
our families, coming into our fellowship one with
another.
Let my faults and your faults be exposed
as together we walk in his light.
So let us pray, let us pray that
our vision, our fellowship might be springing out
of walking in his light one with another.
Walking in his light.
And as we walk in the light as
he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another.
And the blood of Jesus Christ his son
cleanses us from all sin.
You cannot walk in his light without seeing
your sin.
But when you see his sin by his
light, you have the blood of Christ cleansing
you from your sin.
You have the blood of Christ washing you
from your sin.
And as you keep yourself through the Holy
Spirit in a posture of humility and brokenness,
then you are able to confess if we
confess our sins.
Verse 9, he is faithful and just to
forgive us.
So we walk in the light together.
We walk in the light individually.
The light shines.
We become naked.
Everything is exposed in our life.
Everything will be unveiled.
Before God brings his glory to the church,
before he comes for the church in the
air, he is going to appear in the
church.
He is going to appear as a refining
fire.
He is going to fulfill the prayer that
he prayed in John chapter 17.
He is going to have a company of
people who will bear his glory, who will
be one organically, and who will reveal to
the nations that there is a God in
heaven who has sent his son Jesus Christ.
He is going to do that.
Yes, he is.
It doesn't matter how divided and how many
denominations and how difficult it is.
God will answer the prayer of Jesus.
But he is going to do it.
Through a company of people who have learned
to live in the light.
I feel the need to emphasize because in
times past, believers have touched on what we're
touching.
But unless we stay humble and broken and
realize the source of correction and reproof and
pruning and purging doesn't come from men.
It comes from God.
If we don't keep that before us, then
we're going to get the idea that it's
our job.
And it's not our job.
It is the high priestly ministry that Christ
alone fulfills.
He's purging the church.
It is his light shining in our lives
that exposes our nakedness.
And then as we walk in the light,
we confess our sins.
What his light exposes.
What his light reveals.
What his light makes known.
And when God shines light, as it says
in Hebrews 4.12, the motives and intentions
of our heart are exposed.
And it is at that time that we
must pray that God will enable us to
confess our sins.
You see, confession follows the light exposing.
We don't have to go around and just
after the flash confess everything.
You confess what the light exposes.
You confess what God exposes.
And then when it's God exposing, it's not
your brother exposing.
It's not your sister exposing.
It's not some board of elders exposing.
But it's the light of God.
And then in brokenness, you come to God
and you thank him for the blood.
And you confess and he washes away all
of our sins.
And it will be in a church who
lives by the living principle of this that
God will bring his glory to.
Now, we're going to have a time now
of communion.
And God willing, we're going to look to
the Lord to continue to bring forth more
light from his heart on this whole subject
of being naked and unashamed in his presence.
We're going to look by his light and
see what this light is going to do.
As the light of Christ shines in the
church, what's going to happen?
What's going to be the result?
We're going to look at the nature of
the purging in days to come.
We're going to look at the nature of
the shaking.
We're going to look at the nature of
what God is going to get after in
your life in order to prepare you to
be a vessel of glory.
We're going to walk through as the light
shines and together see this.
And we're going to also see the danger
of resisting the light.
When God begins to move by the power
of his spirit and begins to say I
want a body that is transparent in my
light and we resist, there's dangers that could
happen.
You remember Ananias and Sapphira.
Do you know why Cain killed his brother
Abel?
Because when the light shined in Cain's heart,
he resisted it.
And as a result, he moved in anger.
And anger is the seed of murder.
It all happened because when the light shined,
Cain didn't humble himself.
See, he didn't confess his sin.
And that's what it says in 1 John.
Cain was a murderer because he failed to
love his brother Abel.
Anything that we do that does not spring
out of the gold, the precious stones, the
silver, those words indicate quality.
The quality that can only pass the test
of God's heart is that which is springing
out of the love of God in us
governed by the Holy Spirit.
Only what we do through love.
A few days ago, I looked at a
building.
It's an edifice, a church building.
And I saw it in Hackestown.
It was beautiful.
And I heard the Lord say to me,
Do you know what built this building?
I said no.
And He spoke to me, Malice and envy
and jealousy.
You see, when we look at a building,
when we look at a work, we look
at it outwardly.
But God sees what is the motivating factor
behind the work.
And He judges it based on that.
The nature of this capital L-I-G
-H-T, the nature of the light that
is going to shine in the body in
this hour that we're living in, that's going
to bring us into the new millennium, is
a light that is going to make naked
all of our hearts in His presence and
purify the motives and very intents of our
heart so that we are not moving, we
are not doing, we are not speaking.
No matter how good it looks, we're not
doing anything that is springing out of anything
other than that pure, perfect love of God
governed by the Holy Spirit of God.
That is what He's going to do in
our lives in this hour that we're living
in.
So let's together share communion and let it
be a time when we can affirm, as
we share in communion, our confession that Christ
is the bread and Christ's blood is the
blood and that as one body, we desire
the fullness of the head to come forth
in our lives.
Amen.
We have a few brothers or...