John 8, 37, on the last and greatest
day of the feast.
This isn't quite, but it will be tomorrow.
Jesus stood and said in a loud voice,
quoting Isaiah 55, come, if anyone is thirsty,
let him come to me and drink.
We are living in a time where people
are dying of thirst, and part of the
world is dying because there's too much water.
The problem is that those of us who
have water need to get it to those
who are hungry and thirsty.
Near us, half a million, half a million
of a tribe that nobody wants have left
the country near us and gone to Bangladesh,
which is already, can hardly feed her own
people.
Do you hear the cry of those who
are thirsty?
We're living in a time when the world
is wandering, they're looking, they're looking for a
better country.
Whoever believes in me, Jesus said, as scripture
has said, streams of living water will flow
from within him.
By this, he meant the spirit.
So we have Jesus calling, come, and then
we have Jesus saying, go.
Streams of water will flow from us to
a waiting, hungry, dying world, and we know
that the people who are actually physically lacking
water are the same people who've never heard
of the love of the Lord Jesus.
They're dying twice over and waiting for someone
to go.
Peter talked on Sunday about the coming and
then the pumping out, the going, it's always
coming and going.
This is always the gospel.
Come and feast with Jesus, and then go
and invite others to the feast, and the
last verses of scripture, this privilege is given
to us, the spirit and the bride, to
invite the thirsty to come.
Thank you for inviting me.
I've just come to tell a few stories
about inviting people to the feast and how
it's worked, and the stories are not supposed
to make you think how special I am,
because, well, I'm as special as you only,
but that's very special, but not more special,
because everyone's been called for something different, and
there are people that you can reach that
I cannot, so admire what the Lord has
done through me, but don't admire me, it
was just what he chose for me, and
it's been good fun.
On the last and greatest day of the
feast, tabernacles, of course, is the ingathering of
the harvest, and that's what Lauren was just
talking about, when we rejoice and we pray
for what the Lord is doing in Israel,
and we pray that Israel will be saved.
This will happen as we reach the Gentiles
and the harvest, this final, wonderful grain and
wine harvest is the last ingathering of the
saints before the Lord Jesus comes back, and
this feast was always supposed to be celebrated
by Israel with the aliens, with the fatherless,
and with the widows, they were always supposed
to be part of this feast.
Some years ago, we were meeting with different
groups in Hong Kong, and we were sharing
how we reach the homeless, there are many
people who are sleeping under the bridges, and
this was a few years ago, and nowadays,
Hong Kong is so full of people and
buildings that there isn't even room on the
streets for people to sleep, it's bad.
Our homeless have to go upwards because the
streets, not even room, and then the government
builds concrete things so they cannot sleep there,
but we have been for many years going
out to them, and we were sharing with
different groups what we did, and some of
our people are saying, well, we go out
and we pray for them, and we see
them healed, of course, I mean, expect them
to, so that's part of the privilege that
the Lord's given us to go and heal
the sick, so we take rice boxes, and
we might take blankets, another group said they
gave food, what we do is we get
up very early in the morning, might be
about four o'clock, to go and meet
the street sleeper in order to get him
up, because he's asleep, and then we have
to take him to a public shower so
he can get washed, and then we take
him for a cup of tea, and then
we put him on a bus with us,
this all takes several hours, so we can
take him to the social welfare and get
registered, because he will not go by himself,
and when we get to the social welfare,
they give me a cup of tea, not
him, it's really mean, anyway, this is what
we do, and it takes time, well, different
groups were sharing, and it came to the
final group, and they said, we don't give
out blankets, we don't give out rice boxes,
we just preach the gospel, I think, what's
that?
What's that?
And this is a question that we need
to think about, because Peter was talking about
the new Jerusalem, and the heavenly Jerusalem, and
the earthly Jerusalem, and part of our privilege
is to bring the heavenly Jerusalem to earth,
the kingdom of God, to change, not just
get people to put their hand up to
accept Jesus as savior, but to see them
fed, clothed, healed, set free, looking after their
families, loving their wives, this is the kingdom
of God, it isn't a yes in church,
only though that hopefully will be the beginning,
I knew a lady, she was the mother
of a drug addict, and this, he never
has changed, I'm sorry to say, but he
lived in the walled city, and that was
a place that I was sent to when
I got to Hong Kong 50 years ago,
and it's a strange place, it was outside
Hong Kong's law, it was left out of
the treaty between Britain and China, and there
I was in the walled city, which was
outside the law, and because of that, it
was that it began to be built up
when the many refugees came, because they didn't
need to have building permission, so it just
went upwards, it was a city without foundations,
because it was like a card house, they
just built one upon another, so our slums
go upwards, they're the same as your slums,
but upwards, and in the streets, they're just
two or three feet wide, because they're built
so closely together that if one would fall,
they nearly all would fall, it feels like
being in an underground city, very similar to
the old city here, feels like that, except
the streets are much narrower and darker, there
was, when I got there, there was no
toilets, and for nearly 100,000 people in
about six acres, if you can imagine that,
and just open sewers, and more rats than
people, and everybody of course living in one
room, but then we still all do in
Hong Kong, many of the families we know
even now are living whole family in three
square meters, that's how it is, there's just
not room, so there was the walled city,
and it soon got taken over by gangs,
they're called triads, and they controlled the selling
of women, selling of drugs, there were 39
opium dens, and people from outside weren't supposed
to go in, because it was dangerous, if
you got, there was no law in there,
later I found the police were doing many
things in there, but not the law, they
were part of selling the girls, I was
to see, but you can, I've seen where
some of you come from, and you will
have them in your cities now, these sold
girls, it was just easy for me to
see the 13 year olds, who limped, born
with polio, and visited approximately once every 30
minutes, so I knew they would die soon,
I couldn't get to them, unless I paid,
and how can you bring good news to
a girl who's locked up and guarded, anyway
that's where this man, this drug addict lived,
who never changed, and I was worried about
his mother, I used to say, please can
I visit your mother, and he said, oh
no, no, no, no, she believes in idols,
she won't want you to call her, and
I knew that it was because he got
money from her, anyway he got put in
prison at one time, so I finally found
where she was, and I took someone with
me, actually he was a gangster, who had
just about been redeemed, I mean our people
are saved by a whisker, and just the
grace of God, so I took him with
me, and we went up six stories, and
I found her dying, she was lying in
bed, and what had happened was, that when
she was in hospital, years before she had
bought this boy, because if you don't have
a son you have nothing, she was a
widow, so she bought him, so she made
her money selling herbs in the market, but
she didn't have a license, so she was
always getting fined, or paying bribes, I went
to her, her name was Mrs. Chan, and
I said, Mrs. Chan can I pray for
you, and she said, what do I have
to do, and I said, nothing just close
your eyes, and Jesus will come, she had
decided you see, that because she had a
bad son, she would die, so she was
lying in bed, waiting to die, so I
said Jesus will come, try this by the
way, don't tell them about Jesus, before you
pray for them, let him do it, because
he's better, and so people are a bit
interested, if you say close your eyes, he'll
come, and so I put out my hand,
and I was praying in tongues silently, that's
the polite thing to do, so I was
praying in tongues silently, dear spirit of God,
please show her who you are, please save
her life, and after a minute, she began
to sigh very deeply, and I said, I
learned this in California by the way, how
do you feel?
She says, oh hang, I feel very light
in my chest, she had a chest complaint,
that was why she was waiting to die,
and I said, you know, the God who
made heaven and earth, really knows how you
feel, because he lost his son, he sent
his son down to the earth, because he
understands about your son, and he understands about
your chest pain, will you believe Jesus is
the son of God?
Yes, this is always how it goes, and
then silent prayer for another half a minute,
okay how do you feel now Mrs. Chan?
Oh, my chest feels really clear, I said,
that's because Jesus put all your chest pains
on him when he died, he died on
the cross for you, will you believe that?
Yes, and then the next question, this is
always the easy one by the way, will
you believe that Jesus rose again?
Of course, I've just met him, you know,
this is the frequent way that we lead
people to Christ, you see, it's much easier
if he does it, so, all right Mrs.
Chan, well tell him, you'd like to give
all your chest pains, and your worry about
your son, and all the things you feel
bad about, the things you've done, and just
give them all to Jesus, and he'll give
you a new life, so that's how she
came to the Lord, after that by the
way, we boiled some bones that we'd brought
with us, because Chinese love soup, and so
we gave her soup, and we gave her
bran's chicken essence too, so she could revive,
and a few days later I came back
to see her, and I said, now Mrs.
Chan, how are you?
She'd thrown out all her idols without being
asked, she said, they never helped me or
my son, so, good, next thing she said,
I got to be baptized, so I said,
Mrs. Chan, where did you get that from?
She said, well, the other night I was
watching the TV, now she had a TV,
but there's no electricity you understand, so she
had this 31 inch TV, and she said,
I was watching the TV the other night,
and she said, this man walked by, and
he had on a long white robe, and
he was walking up a mountain, and it
was very beautiful, and there were lovely flowers
up there, and he held out his hand,
and he said, Mrs. Chan, will you follow
me?
And I said, yes Lord, and he said,
be baptized.
How did I get to Hong Kong?
Well, I wrote a book, and I haven't
bought it to sell to you, sorry, sorry,
I always forget these things, it's not my
thing selling books, but anyway, somewhere you might
be able to get a hold of one,
it is in Arabic, but it was through
a dream, it was through a vision, and
I came to know Jesus, and it was
like breathing in and breathing out, you know,
that's why I'm not very good at conferences,
because you know, I came to know Jesus,
and 30 seconds later I thought, oh this
is awful, you know, well I've got eternal
life, I've just done Bible study with my
friends, and, but how can I enjoy it,
if my father is not there, he doesn't
know you, the Lord, I'm not sure if
I can enjoy eternal life when there are
people who are going to hell, so I
opened my eyes, this was my first Bible
study, and my friends were sitting around, and
then they got up, as Christians do, to
eat, always eating, and, and you know, I'm
just born again, and I'm very intense, so
they were cooking risotto, if you know what
that is, and I thought, how can you
eat risotto, when people are going to hell,
I really, that's exactly how I thought, so
I couldn't stay there and eat risotto, I
felt we were all rather well fed already,
so I went out, this was in London,
and, found somebody who was stuck to a
park bench, she'd been there several days, she
was stuck to it because she'd urinated on
it, that's it for me, you come, and
you go, and I've rarely been able to
handle conferences, because it's all, you know, eat,
eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, you know,
and so I said to the Lord, it's
you know, it's like breathing in and breathing
out, I've got to, I've got to go
and find some lost people, what shall I
do if I've got to handle a long
conference, and he said to me, it's okay,
you can take deeper breaths, the feast, it
came that, after he told me to go,
and, there was only one thing I wanted
to do with my life, and that was
to share the love of Jesus with people
who didn't know, it was just like Peter
was saying on Sunday morning, you know, the
words I've wanted to hear my whole life,
since that day were, well done, good and
faithful servant, come and share your master's happiness,
that's the yearning in my heart, I know
I'm saved, but you know, on the day
that I meet him, I don't want to
be ashamed that I wasted time, or wasted
his heart, because that's what I have to
share, and that's what you have to share,
so it was through a dream, through a
vision, and this is 1965, when I was
praying, even through a message in tongues, and
an interpretation, even in those days, so I,
you know, I didn't think any of these
things were strange, because they're all in the
Bible, I just wanted to know what I
was supposed to be doing, and the Lord
said go, and so I wrote to missionary
societies, and they didn't want me, and one
of them said, you've got to wait till
you're 25, and then you've got to go
to missionary college, and learn things that you'll
need on the field, and like changing car
tires, and getting on with your worst friend,
and so I said, well, I'm afraid Jesus
might come back before I'm 25, could I
please go a bit sooner, and they said
no, that's our rules, so nobody wanted me,
but the Lord was saying go, through the
dream, through the vision, I knew they were
hungry people, so finally I went to see
a pastor in London, and I said now
the Lord is telling me to go, and
he's spoken to me very clearly, I've given
him notice in all my jobs, I'm ready,
but as he hasn't told me where to
go, we've reached stalemate, so I think I'll
stay in London, and help you, and he
said no, no, no, no, no, no, the
Lord's telling you to go, you must go,
and I said, well I can't, because he
hasn't told me where, and he said now
if the Lord gave you, a job, a
house, a health insurance, you wouldn't need to
trust him, why don't you just get on
the boat, find the cheapest one you can,
calling in the most different countries, get on
it, and pray where to get off, now
when he said that, you know it was
the first time, in all those months of
searching, that anything made sense, and I thought,
oh that's wonderful, bells went off in my
heart, you know, oh, I said, oh I'd
love to do that, but then the religious
bit kicked in, and I said, he must
be cheating, because I'm sure missionaries have to
suffer, and that sounds fun, and he said,
no it's scriptural, he said Abraham, was called
to go, and he spent most of his
life, not getting there, but he was looking
forward to a city, Hebrews 11, 10, he
was looking forward to a better country, so
I thought, this is wonderful, he was a
very smart man, this pastor, he said, don't
expect that you're going to get on a
ship, you know, and have a funny hairstyle,
and get off the other end, and have
a ministry, he was so smart, he said,
maybe you'll go all the way around the
world, just to tell one sailor about Christ,
I thought, how, you see, it's very easy,
you can't lose, and I thought, oh, how
wonderful, we might get shipwrecked, and, you know,
there might be somebody on an island, who's
just waiting to hear about Jesus, can't lose,
you know, so that's in fact what I
did, I got onto a ship, and when
we got, we went to eight different countries,
I'd had my injections for all of them,
just in case, I was to get off,
and we got to Hong Kong, and they
wouldn't let me get off the ship, because
they said I hadn't got enough money, and
they said, you know, where are you going
to live?
And I said, I haven't got anywhere yet,
where are you working?
I said, no, I haven't got a job
yet, where are your friends?
No, I haven't gotten yet, where's your mother?
She's back in England, where's your return ticket?
No, I haven't got a return ticket, but
I tell you what I did have, I
had, the equivalent of 15 American dollars, so
I felt quite rich, so they said, we'll
refuse your permission to leave the ship, and
I thought, oh, I know what's going to
happen, it's just all my, all my mother's
friends quoted the verse that isn't in the
Bible, you know, they said, God helps those
that help themselves, very irresponsible, you know, and
I thought, oh, I'm going to be arrested,
and sent back to England in disgrace, and
then I thought, oh, maybe I can convert
the jailer, no, you see, you can't lose,
that's all, I've been on a journey, that's
how I got there, and I'm still on
it, no, I don't have a ministry, I
have a life, and my life is simply
to touch the person near me, that's it,
and you can do that, we can all
do that, that's how I got to wall
city, and I want to use the parable
that Jesus used about the great banquet in
Luke 14, because this goes with the feast
of tabernacles, this is the last in gathering
of those who will know the Lord Jesus,
and Jesus in Luke 14 has already said
in verse 13, when you give a banquet,
don't invite the rich, because they can invite
you back, invite the poor, the crippled, the
lame, and the blind, it's like tabernacles was
always supposed to be, also including the aliens,
the fatherless, the widows, those who have no
source except God and God's people, because that's
always how it was in the scripture, when
those at the table with him heard this,
one of them said to Jesus, blessed is
the man who'll eat the feast in the
kingdom of God, verse 16, Jesus said, a
certain man was preparing a great banquet and
invited many guests, at the time of the
banquet he sent his servant to tell those
who'd been invited, come for everything is now
ready, in those days when they were inviting
someone to a feast or a wedding, they
would send out an invitation, and people would
say, yeah, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming,
but they would wait for the second invitation,
now ready, now come, and this is what
happened, all alike began to make excuses, the
first one, I've just bought a field, please
excuse me, another, I've just bought five yoke
of oxen, I'm on the way to try
them out, please excuse me, and still another,
I got married, so I can't come, if
there are young people here, and if you've
come to know the love of the Lord
Jesus, please use your life to go out
and invite others to the wedding feast, invite
others to the marriage of the lamb, this
is your privilege, this is my privilege, all
these people in this parable, said they would
come and missed it, and they actually missed
it, the fact is, I don't know if
they'd ever put their hand up in church,
or signed a thing, but the fact is
they missed it, we are to be about
the lost, we are waiting for the lost,
in gathering of the harvest, the lost, the
hungry, the hungry know they're hungry,
the blind know they're blind, those who are
naked know they're naked, it's the rest of
us that don't, this is what it says
in revelation, pray, because you may be poor
and naked and blind and not know it,
that's what he said to the lukewarm church,
but if you go for the poor, if
you go for the blind, if you go
for those that nobody else wants, they know,
they know, and it says, that the servant
came back and he reported to his master,
and then the owner of the house became
angry, and he ordered the servant, go out
quickly, go out quickly, it is quickly, when
I first went to wall city, it's a
strange thing, you know I was, I was
happy to be there forever and see nothing,
I really was, I was because I loved
it, and I knew the scriptures, that said
whatever you do in the name of the
Lord Jesus is not in vain, I knew
there would be a harvest, I just didn't
know I was gonna see it, so when
the scripture says be patient, there will be
a harvest if you faint not, this is
what I discovered, the opposite of patience is
not impatience, the opposite of patience is unbelief,
you see we are to be impatient, as
well as patient, I can stay forever and
see nothing, and I know the Lord will
work, because I've loved with his heart, that's
all we're to do, the results are up
to him, there may be a huge harvest
over there, and you may see nothing over
here, but there will be a harvest if
you faint not, just somebody else might reap
it, that's fine, that's fine, I don't need
my name in magazines, I'm not counting up
soul scalps, I'm there to share the heart
of the Lord Jesus, and I will stay
until they see it, he says
go quickly
into the streets, the reason I'm impatient at
that time in the world city, was I
said Lord I'm very happy to wait forever,
and see nothing, I couldn't understand when Christians
visited Hong Kong, and they said Jackie I'm
praying about what I should do, and I
thought haven't you seen the world city, would
you not like to be there, in this
dark place, I thought it was most wonderful
place on earth, you see that's why I
always say to people, find the darkest, the
light shows up the best, do you not
want to go into the darkest, it's easy
to see the light when it shines, so
I was happy to stay there forever, I
also was saying to the Lord, if you
don't touch these people, they'll die before they've
lived, a hundred at a time in a
heroin den, doing what's called chasing the dragon,
and I watched the girls that sat with
them, the little girls who'd sold their lives,
and thought they loved the man, until he
sold them and used them, and lived off
them, the little girl holding up the man,
so he could take his drugs in the
den, and then in the morning the bodies
were piled up, by the only toilet for
a hundred thousand people, Lord, if you do
not quickly do, what you said you would
do, they'll die, and please dear Jesus, it's
worth my whole life, and I really believe
this, if you'd use me to save just
one, and by the way I don't need
to know who, just let me be part
of what you're doing, and so in this
story he says, go out quickly into the
streets and alleys of the town, bring in
the poor, the crippled, the blind and the
lame, sir, the servant said what you ordered
has been done, but there's still room, there
is still room, there is still room, quickly,
quickly, quickly people, there is still room, and
he says my house must be full, my
house must be full, go out to the
roads and country lanes, compel them he says,
compel, that's what the scripture says, Christ's love
compels us, because we are convinced that one
died for all, and therefore all died, that
those who live should no longer live for
themselves, but for him who died for them
and rose again, the compelling love of Jesus
Christ, I prayed for the power of the
Holy Spirit, and once I began to pray
in tongues half an hour a day, I
saw miracles happen, now that's the cheating sort
of quick, quick, quick, quick, everybody wants the
quick way, okay, all I have to do
is get the power of the Holy Spirit,
pray in tongues and it'll work, well not
really, you see sharing, sharing your bread, sharing
your house, sharing your time, actually all it
is is sharing his heart, this is what
we're supposed to do, anyway I call it
ordinary gospel, after four years, the second gang
leader, his elder brother was the big one,
he had about 22,000 in his gang,
he said we've watched you, and he said
many missionaries come and they stand on platforms,
and they fly away again, they have guitars,
they take photographs of us, what does that
mean to us, nothing, they still have their
air conditioning and their pictures, and they raise
money for us unfortunate people, and we're still
here, when you were here four years, we
thought maybe you meant what you said, I
thought wow, they're watching, he said we don't
care if you're offering us judo or ping
pong, we don't mind if it's noodles or
hymn singing, what we want to know is,
are you anything to do with us, do
you care about us, when I prayed for
the power of the Holy Spirit, it was
on the day that my little room had
been broken up, I'd started a youth club
in the wall city, and I got a
phone call, I was living outside at about
four in the morning, and they said they've
thrown sewage all over the walls, they've broken
the window, it's a very small little room,
and this is where we used to play
ping pong and darts, and then I'd take
them out for picnics and things, and when
I got down there, I found that it
had been smashed up by my friends, I
don't know why, it just, so I thought
well I can go back to Britain, we
have civilized Bible studies there, I don't have
to play ping pong with people who don't
want me, and that was when this stranger
came to the door, and he leaned against
the door, and he said have you got
any problems, and I said no I'm fine
thank you, and I'd spent the day sweeping
up the rubbish and the sewage, and he
said if you've got any problems, you just
let me know, and I said who are
you, and he said well Koko, Koko is
the name of the big gang leader, he
has sent me, and I had never met
Koko, but I used to send him messages,
like Jesus loves you, so I wasn't sure
what this was, and he said Koko says
if anybody touches you, or touches this place,
we're going to do them, and I said
thank you, that's very kind of you, could
you please go back to Koko and say
I refuse his offer, because Jesus is looking
after me, now his job this man, his
job in the gang was to fix fights,
and decide whether it was bottles or choppers,
and or knives or whatever, so he knew
who controlled the streets, and I anyway even
though I refused protection I got it, every
time I came in or out he followed
me, he was under orders from Koko, so
I told him about Jesus, and which he
didn't want to hear, but then he told
me about his friend, who was a drug
addict, of course it was him, and could
I find a place for his friend, and
I said oh it's really easy to get
off drugs, we'll just lock him up in
a room, and if he lives after three
days he'll be off drugs, the problem is
when you open the door, his feet will
walk back, I only know one man who
can settle a man's heart, and it's Jesus,
because this is a problem of the heart,
so after a few weeks I said to
him, do you want to come in, he'd
come into my little room, he'd never come
in, I used to have Christian meetings in
there, that was me and the father and
the son, and the Holy Spirit, and no
nobody ever, nobody else ever came in, and
so he said okay, and he came in,
and he started to sing the only song
he knew, which he'd heard me singing, which
is a very good one for an opium
addict, it goes give me oil in my
lamp to keep me burning, so he started
to sing that, and then he started to
pray, asking Jesus to help him, the Holy
Spirit fell on him, he prayed in tongues
for half an hour, and he was off
drugs, and I thought oh good, so I
always expected something like that, I mean of
course I did, and so I said goodbye,
see you at the Sunday meeting, there's going
to be five of us now, and at
the Sunday meeting he came, and he said
I was in the opium den the other
night, he said they offered me free opium,
and I really wanted to take it, but
then I remembered, oh wait a minute, I
believe in Jesus now, so I knelt on
the platform, which is filthy, it's full of
everything that comes out of a man's openings,
everything, and he said I sang to them,
give me oil in my lamp to keep
me burning, praise God, and I said no,
this is not praise God, you can't go
into opium den, and pray for strength not
to take opium, he said I live there,
I'd just done the whole James thing, be
fed, be clothed, be warmed, go your way,
and he had no way to go, no
home to go, I tried to find him
a place to go, this is opium den,
not a good place to start a new
life, and then finally I took him into
my home, and then all his friends knocked
on the door, said okay if Jesus can
change him, I'll believe in Jesus, and I'll
live in your house, they thought it went
together, and I do think it does, and
that's how hundreds and hundreds came into the
kingdom, that's why we end up sleepless, I
used to wear my clothes for tomorrow the
night before, because I didn't know if it
would be police, or who at the door,
there were always so many, there were women,
but you know the most wonderful thing about
this whole story is that those who've come
in to the feast, Christ's love has compelled
them, those are the ones who go out
to share, and we're in several different countries
now, we've got people who are helping girls
who've been sold into slavery, in the Philippines,
when the houses have been all blown down
by the typhoon, and by the earthquake, and
burnt by the fire, we've had a group
there who've been living where they live on
the graves, they actually built their houses on
the graves, for many years, and dozens and
dozens and hundreds have come to know the
Lord, we don't just have meetings, we share
our homes with them, we take them into
our homes, our people are always tired, but
it's good, it's a good way to be
tired, because they're spending the heart of the
Lord Jesus, and one of the girls who
was rescued from slavery, it's very, the easiest
bit is to get them out of the
brothel, the hardest bit is then to look
after them, because it needs people who are
going to spend their heart, and spend their
heart, and it's every day, it's every day,
it's every day, our helpers live with our
people, and this little girl went with one
of our teams during a typhoon, after the
earthquake, we went to make houses, we were
building houses in the Philippines, one day houses,
now we've got to the two day house
now, but the one day house was emergency,
so we took chainsaws, and water, and prayed
for the sick, and thousands of people came
to listen to scripture, because there were a
million displaced people, with no electricity, so we've
got machines that play scripture, and they all
would gather at night, and then they prayed
for them, and the girl who'd been rescued
from slavery, prayed for an old lady, she
prayed for her leg actually, but when she
prayed for her leg, her blind eye saw.
God is pleased to use the foolish, and
the weak, we are very weak people, and
I want to ask you to stand, because
I want to encourage you, to bring the
kingdom of God, you may not have to
go to gangsters, I, the other night, I
had a nightmare, they told me that this
happens in Jerusalem, it was the enemy, you
know what the enemy was doing, and I
ended up sobbing, because somebody was going to
steal my inheritance, and I know my inheritance
is the lost, always in these dreams, I
dream it frequently, about once a month, I
dream of walled city, it's gone by the
way, they took it down, it looks like
the city of God now, it really does,
it's the most beautiful part, but in my
dream, always when I'm looking for a room,
I'm always looking for a room, one more,
one more, one more to rent, to live
in, to send a team, to put the
poor in, one more room, one more room,
and in my dream, a rich Christian group
gets there first, you see, none of our
people are paid, but it's wonderful, I mean,
God provides for us, we just share everything
together, that's why, because we have no budget,
we can do lots more, because we're not
constrained by the budget, that's why we could
look after 20,000 Vietnamese refugees, because people
with a budget, of course, couldn't, but as
we have no budget, we could, this is
how it is for us, there's always room
for one more, but in the dream, the
rich Christians get it, and I say, oh
God, oh God, oh God, and I wake
up and I think, no, that's not true,
that's yours, it's mine, God isn't giving it
to someone else, because the reason that I
feel so bad in my dream, is that
I always think, and right now, I'm just
asking that you will, as Lauren Cunningham said,
go out, and compel people to come in,
just your neighbor, just the one, my heart
is terribly small, you know, I can't understand
cities, though the whole walled city changed, but
it was just one man by one man,
one woman by one woman, one old prostitute,
let me pray for you, in Jesus name,
I bless you, to be part of the
last in gathering, the last, so we can
celebrate the feast of tabernacles, as the last
in gathering of souls into the kingdom, that
the Lord Jesus might come back, I bless
you to go out, and with Christ's love
to compel them, the poor, and the lamed,
and the crippled, and the blind, if you
will do this, I tell you the rich
will come in by themselves, they're so jealous,
that's what Paul said, I'll preach to the
Gentiles, that they, the people of Israel, may
somehow be aroused to envy, and perhaps some
of them will be saved, this is how
it works, if you go for the poor,
the rich come in, because they see that
the poor have become rich, and they want
what they have, I'm
sitting in the place where Jesus walked, that
Bible is alive, it's alive, all
the nations are here, we want to tell
Israel you are not alone, we are starting
with you, this is a process of heaven,
come up to Jerusalem, God
has given me such a revelation of Israel,
I don't think I'll ever look at the
Bible the same way, I don't think I'll
ever preach the same way, there is a
great anointing here, I've met people from all
over the world, that have a desire to
see God's kingdom be manifested, listening to stories
and testimonies from Israeli pastors, get to know
them, and to know what God is doing
in this holy land, I've seen things that
I've only read about, and I am so
grateful for this opportunity, I thought I knew
something then, but I've learned so much more
now, it's just a blessing to be here,
it has been very good discovering our roots
as Christians, and we are taking this to
our church, we are going to teach them
about Israel, Envision
is enriching, it brings it to life, a
blessing, it is fantastic, it is life changing,
you have to go, it will take your
life with Christ to a new level, I'll
never be the same, come here and see,
and experience what Yeshua is doing.
Israel, it is the heart of the Middle
East, the most important country in all of
human history, and the single most influential place
that's impacted your life, it was the home
of the prophets, the location that once held
the holy of holies, and the birthplace of
the gospels, the connection between this land and
your heart is undeniable, but you can also
be a blessing to this nation by partnering
with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, now is
an exciting time to be a part of
what God is doing in Israel, biblical prophecy
is being fulfilled before our eyes, the Jewish
people are returning to their homeland from the
four corners of the earth, and the light
has returned to the land itself, and the
Holy Spirit has been moving on the heart
of Christians just like you, to be a
part, and ICEJ has been there, for more
than 35 years, ICEJ has been the direct
connection to the land of Israel for Christians
all around the world, and together we are
helping the needy, providing shelter for Holocaust survivors,
integrating new immigrants, supporting minorities, mentoring youth at
risk, and have actively helped 120,000 Jews
come home to Israel, these are just a
few of the people groups ICEJ has impacted,
and with a reach of over 170 nations,
the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has become a
leading voice of Christian support and friendship to
the Jewish people, so get involved and be
a blessing to the nation and the people
of Israel, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, your
embassy, your voice, join us today.