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 WORLDCHALLENGE PO
BOX 260 LINDALE, TEXAS 75771 or calling 903
-963-8626.
None of these messages are copyrighted and you
are welcome to make copies for free distribution
to friends.
I do want to say hello to all
of those.
We are greetings to the Annex.
You know, some people say, well, it's just
like watching television.
No, it's not.
It's not like watching television.
I don't know what you're watching, but that's
not like watching television.
That's strictly a vehicle.
Just as sure as this is a book
that you open it, you read it, and
you look at it.
It's just a vehicle.
And it's nothing more than a video wall.
And the presence of God is powerful there.
Powerful downstairs in a little rotunda, wherever it
at.
We're just trying to handle the people.
I want to talk to you this morning
on the power of God's presence.
The power of God's presence.
Heavenly Father, I ask you to give me
a special anointing this morning to proclaim the
wonderful word of the Lord.
Lord, we thank you that there's so many
people gathered this morning that are hungry for
the word and for the truth.
And Father, we know it's truth alone that
sets people free.
Lord, whether we're here in the main auditorium
or in the little rotunda or in the
Annex, the same word, the same power.
God move wherever this word is heard this
morning.
Let the power of the Lord Jesus be
manifested.
Oh, Holy Ghost, come now.
Don't let anybody sit comfortably, Lord.
Stir us, shake us, do whatever you have
to do, Lord.
And then bless us because we receive your
holy word.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
I want to talk to you this morning
about the almighty power of God's presence and
how to lay hold of that power.
Remember Moses when he spoke face to face
with God and he said, God, if your
presence goes not with me, don't carry me
up hence.
In other words, he said, God, if I
can't have your presence, I'm not moving.
I'm not making a move.
I'm not going to take a step unless
I have the assurance that your presence is
emanating from me and that you are with
me.
And the Lord in turn promised Moses, my
presence shall go with you and I'll give
you rest.
He had learned that you don't attempt anything.
Everything is out of order.
Everything is useless.
There is nothing that's going to work unless
you have the presence of God with you,
unless you have his presence, because all the
hills melt like wax at the presence of
the Lord.
It was the presence of the Lord in
their midst that set Israel apart from every
other nation.
You see, Moses didn't care how they ran
their affairs, all these other nations.
He didn't care about how they ran their
government.
He didn't care how they got their guidance.
He didn't care how they operated in their
armies.
He cared not about all their new weapons,
their swords and their gold shields.
He said, all I need is the presence
of God.
All we need, and that sets us apart,
because when we have the presence of God
upon us, we're invincible.
God said, my presence will go with you
and I will give you rest.
When you rest in the power of my
presence, you don't have to worry about your
enemies.
You don't have to worry about guidance.
You don't have to worry about your psyche.
You don't have to worry about all of
these things, because my presence is the power.
The power of the presence of God.
Moses could say, let all the people have
their armies, let them have their chariots, their
skilled soldiers.
Give us, as Israel, the manifest presence of
God in our midst, and we'll not worry
what our enemies do.
They can't hurt us.
Now, saints of God, I want you to
hear for yourself this great promise of God.
My presence shall go with thee, and I
will give you rest.
That promise is for you, and it's for
me as well.
If you have the presence of the Lord
in a church, for example, that church is
going to be a church where there's rest,
and you know it when you walk in.
There's a quiet confidence.
That doesn't mean that there can't be loud,
exuberant praises.
We have that here.
But where the presence of God rests on
a ministry, for example, there will not be
striving in the flesh.
People will not be running around helter-skelter.
You will see a divine order.
You'll see a calm and a peace on
the staff, in the choir.
You'll see a calm everywhere you look.
You'll see it in the hearts of the
people.
If you have the presence of God with
you, there'll be an order in your life.
God never intended that any family that knows
Jesus be dysfunctional.
He never intended that the family be out
of order.
Not at all.
He says, you can have divine order in
your home.
You can have it in the church as
long as you have my presence.
You have order.
It is the presence, the manifest presence of
our Father.
There are churches today that are totally out
of order.
They have three songs, long announcements, a short
sermon, and you're gone.
In and out.
That's not divine order.
That's not divine order whatsoever.
I believe that when the Spirit of God
rests upon a church, the presence of the
Lord there is a comfortable, quiet rest.
I thank God for the manifest presence of
Jesus in this church.
We've had many, many walk in here, and
the building was empty, and conviction fell upon
them.
Others came in and just began to pray.
Others tell me they walked in here and
began to weep because of the presence of
the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Now, I want you to follow very closely
this morning because I have a lot to
say.
The Old Testament is filled with accounts of
the wonderful blessings that have come upon those
who had the abiding presence of the Lord
in their life.
God's presence was so evident in Abraham's life,
even the heathen recognized it.
Abimelech, for example, said to Abraham, God is
with you, Abraham, in all that you do.
What a testimony to the abiding presence of
God on a man's life.
Abraham, there's something different about you.
God preserves you.
God protects you.
God goes before you, and he makes your
way.
He guides you.
There's something different about you, Abraham.
Abraham knew what it was.
God says, I'm with you, Abraham, as your
shield.
It was the abiding presence of God in
his life.
God promised Joshua that no man on the
face of the earth could stand against him
when God's presence was with him.
There shall not be any man be able
to stand before you, Joshua, all the days
of your life.
For as I was with Moses, so I'll
be with you.
I'll not fail you nor forsake you, so
be strong and be of good courage.
Beloved, when you have the abiding presence of
Jesus Christ, which is the Holy Spirit, the
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, when
you have that abiding in your life, you
can be strong and have good courage, and
no enemy, no weapon formed against you shall
prosper, the Bible says.
God said, told Gideon, Gideon, the Lord is
with you, you mighty man of valor.
He was actually a coward, but the Lord
was going to show him what could happen
if the presence of God was with him.
You mighty man of valor, go in this
thy might, and thou shall save Israel.
What is this thy might?
It was the presence of God.
God said, I'll be with you.
If God be for us, who can be
against us, the scripture says.
God warned Jeremiah that the whole nation was
going to rise up against him and reject
all of his prophecies.
But God said to him, they shall fight
against you, but they shall never prevail against
you, for I am with you to save
you and deliver you, saith the Lord.
He said, it doesn't matter if the whole
country turns against you.
If everybody turns against you, what's the matter?
I'm with you.
My presence is with you.
In Isaiah 43, 2, we have this great
promise.
I've loved you.
When you pass through the waters, I'll be
with you.
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow
you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall
not be burned.
The flames shall not kindle upon you.
Fear not, because I am with you.
When God's with you, you go through floods,
you go through fire, and you survive.
Now that you survive, you are blessed and
favored by his presence.
Beloved, the Old Testament Scriptures to me are
not a dead letter.
Now I thank God with all my heart
for what I read that God did by
his presence for Abraham.
I delight in what he did for Gideon,
for Joshua, and for Jeremiah, for Isaiah.
I thank God for the miracles they saw
through the manifest power of God in their
life.
But folks, that's not just a dead letter
to me because I've got my own testimony.
And you should have your own testimony.
In fact, folks, I've seen God do such
powerful things through the presence of God in
my life at times that I really believe
that I've seen some things that are just
as great as anything in the Old Testament.
You say, what a boast.
I believe this with all my heart.
I boast in the Lord.
And you should have the same testimony.
Because he's not a dead Savior.
He's still alive.
God's still to work in the world.
God's no respecter of persons.
I know what it's like, and you sit
in this theater and you worship, because I
know what it was like to be on
my face, and I'm going to tell you
how you get the presence of God.
And I was on my face, and I'll
tell you, when I came to New York
City, the presence of Jesus emanated all over
my body.
I remember walking into the theater owner's office
here on Broadway, just a country preacher, walking
into a Broadway producer's and the owner of
this theater walking into the office, trying to
get an appointment and have a secretary sneer
at me and all the underlings say it's
impossible to get.
Who are you anyhow?
Why would he want to see a preacher?
I know what it's like to just stand
and say, Lord, this is your business.
Your Spirit's upon me.
And have him walk out into the lobby
where I'm standing, about to be kicked out,
and have him say, come on in, Reverend,
come on into my office.
And I know what it's like to sit
in a man's office, and a man doesn't
even know why he's given me an hour
of his time when he's so busy.
And I've been in that office again when
I went back until finally the second and
the third and fourth visit, yes, Reverend, walk
right in, because the presence of the Lord
was there.
I know what it is to sit there
and watch him sign away his flagship theater
for a church, and
to get up out of his chair and
turn around and look, he said, I don't
know why I'm doing this.
He said, I'm giving away the best theater
in Broadway.
And I know what it's like a year
later to sit in the same office and
have a whole group of lawyers try to
buy this building back from us.
And you'd have thought I was the king
of the world.
I know what it's like to talk to
a man when we have this other place,
and for a while nobody would let us,
would talk about us.
And I've seen God open that 75,000
square feet.
I saw the man become one of my
best friends.
I saw God move hearts.
I've talked to businessmen who wouldn't even give
me the time of day and just stand
still and see the presence of God melt
hearts and move hearts.
That's the power of the presence of Jesus
Christ.
Now, there's a condition of getting and maintaining
the presence of God in our lives.
It's found in second Chronicles 15.
I want you to go to second Chronicles
15, please.
How do you get the presence of God?
It's so powerful.
Folks, let me ask you a question.
Wouldn't you like to go on the job,
on the subways and everywhere you go, enveloped
in a cloud of the presence of God?
Let me tell you how that happens.
Just leave your Bible open to second Chronicles
15, but I'm going to set the stage
for this.
Please, look this way if you will.
In the 14th chapter of second Chronicles, King
Asa had just led the armies of Judah
to a great victory over a million-man
Ethiopian army.
The victory was given because Asa had sought
the Lord for his presence.
And I'm reading to you from second Chronicles
14, 11 and 12.
And Asa cried unto the Lord his God
and said, Lord, it's nothing with thee to
help, whether with many or with them that
have no power.
Help us, O God, for we rest on
thee, and in thy name or thy presence
we go against this multitude.
So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa.
All right, now look this way, please.
Asa has just defeated a million-man army
because the presence of God, according to his
own confession, the presence of God had scattered
the enemy.
The manifest presence of God in their midst
was the presence of God melting the hills.
Asa now is coming back with the army
loaded down with the spoils of the enemy,
a great spoil, all kinds of wealth, all
kinds of goodies are coming back.
And as this procession enters the gate, we
pick it up in chapter 15, Then the
Spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son
of Odem.
And he went out to meet Asa and
said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and
all Judah and Benjamin.
Here it is, the secret of getting and
maintaining the presence of God in your life.
And the Lord is with you while you
be with him.
And if you seek him, he will be
found of you.
But if you forsake him, he will forsake
you.
Now, look at it.
He just did a point-blank to prophet
Azariah, no holes barred.
God is saying to Asa, now look at
the next verse.
Now for a long season Israel hath been
without a true God, without a teaching priest,
and without law.
But when they in their trouble did turn
unto the Lord God of Israel and sought
him, he was found of them.
Now that word found is masal in Hebrew,
which means God's presence coming forth to deliver.
That's what it means in Hebrew, God's presence
bursting forth or coming forth to deliver.
God said, you seek with all your heart
and you're going to find God's presence bursting
forth to deliver you.
It's that simple.
It is not a complicated theology.
But the prophet is saying, Asa, you're not
going to forget.
I'm not going to allow you, God says,
to forget how you got the victory.
Because before you came to power, there was
total disorder in the camp.
Everybody was doing anything they chose.
Every man was a law to himself.
It was all disorder.
But you turn to the Lord with Judah.
You begin to seek God with all of
your heart.
And God's presence came upon you.
You defeated your enemies, and he's here to
remind you.
Asa, the rest of your life, as long
as you seek the Lord as you did
now, as long as you stay hard with
him, he will be with you and he
will always be found of you.
In other words, you will always have God's
presence bursting forth in your life to deliver
you and guide you.
If you will be a seeker after God,
Asa, what a picture of many lives today,
this third and fourth verse, without a teaching
priest and without law.
How many homes supposedly Christian, whether it's either
a believer as a wife or a husband.
I tell you, there are so many homes
without law and disorder and dysfunctional.
And why is it?
God said, look, Asa, before you begin to
seek me with all your heart, and found
my presence bursting forth and delivering you.
There was no law.
There was no order.
Everything was out of kilter.
He said, don't you understand it?
Don't you see where the order comes from?
It doesn't come from any scribing in the
flesh.
I know one thing that if there's a
praying wife or a praying husband, this laying
hold of God becomes a seeker after God
daily, pouring out their heart.
You are going to have the presence of
God break out in your life and affect
your family.
It's going to affect everything around you.
It's going to affect your job.
It's going to affect everything because you're going
to have the presence of Jesus Christ emanating
from your body.
God's word is unchangeable.
The Lord is with you.
While you are with him, if you seek
the Lord, he will be found of you.
In other words, you can have the abiding
presence of the Lord if you will seek
for it with all of your heart, if
you will go after it.
Now, according to the scripture, I believe that
our chiefest concern in this life should be
that we are sure to the presence of
Jesus in our daily walk.
Not just in the house of God, but
in our daily walk, wherever we go.
Now, there is a covenant of grace for
all believers.
This covenant of grace is based on the
covenant promises of God in this book.
For example, God says, Jesus, I'll never leave
you, I'll never forsake you, I'll go with
you to the end of the world.
The covenant promises say that he died for
us and became a curse, that we not
have to bear the curse.
The Bible makes it very clear that he's
taken on himself the iniquity of us all.
Now, these are covenant promises for every believer.
Folks, let me tell you something, and listen
very, very closely.
There are special promises to those who set
themselves to seek God with all their heart.
Because there's a law of God's presence in
the book.
There's a law.
It's very, very clear.
And if you abide by that law, you
are going to have the presence of God
in your life.
There's a law of his presence, and it's
purely conditional.
It's not one of the covenant promises for
every believer.
It is for every believer, but only a
few believers enter into it.
Only a few believers ever come to it,
because most believers understand the works of God,
but they don't understand the presence and the
glory of God.
They go after his works, but they don't
go after his presence or his glory.
And that's where we're headed this morning.
We're not speaking now of being saved or
making heaven.
Those are yours under the covenant promises of
God.
But this is about being so given to
God, so having your heart set on seeking
him, that he becomes especially for you.
He becomes your cloud of presence.
His awesome presence is poured out on you,
and it is known and seen by all.
Now, let me show you this law or
rule of God's presence and the condition that
goes with it.
Now, you can mark it down, but don't
turn there yet.
1 Samuel 2.30. Don't turn it, but
let me just give you the history and
the story.
God revealed the law of his presence to
an unnamed prophet who came to Eli.
Now, Eli was backslidden and lukewarm, and the
Lord had been talking to him, and he
was despising the word of the Lord.
Remember, he was allowing sin.
He compromised with sin.
And the prophet, this unknown prophet, in fact,
when I get to heaven, one of the
first after I meet Jesus, I want to
meet this man.
He's unnamed.
This prophet who had such power and such
discernment, he goes to Eli, the high priest,
and he says, The Lord God of Israel
saith, I had said indeed that thy house
and the house of your father should walk
before me forever.
But now the Lord says, Be it far
from me, for them that honor me I
will honor, and they that despise me shall
be lightly esteemed.
Now, that lightly esteemed has to do with
God lifting his presence, just lifting his presence.
It doesn't mean that the man is damned,
but the man is going to walk in
the flesh.
The man is going to do everything in
striving and sweating.
There's going to be disorder in his life
because the presence of the Lord is not
there.
The prophet said, Eli, God intended to bless
your house to favor you, that you would
walk forever with the blessing and the presence
of God.
But because you've scorned me, you've been easy
on sinning your life and the life of
your sons, and now I'm going to take
my presence from you, and that's where Ichabod
came from.
Now, God is not a liar.
He changes not.
His word is everlasting.
But I want you to know that though
his promises do not fail, they're conditional.
His promises are conditional.
Them that honor me I will honor.
The Lord is with you while you are
with him.
If you forsake me, I will forsake you.
This idea that somebody can come to Jesus
Christ with one burst of faith, and come
and say, I believe, and it's one burst
of faith, he's going to ride that burst
of faith the rest of his life.
He's going to live like the devil.
He's going to cheat.
He's going to commit adultery.
He's going to do everything that his flesh
pleases.
But he said, I believed in God.
I am saved.
That's a hoax.
That's a lie.
That's a delusion.
The Bible says you neglect him.
Days on end you forget to seek him.
You won't pray.
You don't seek his word.
You live carelessly.
You forsake him, the Bible says, and I'll
forsake you.
Now, I'm not saying God's going to turn
his back on you.
He's never going to take his love from
you.
I am saying that his presence will not
go with you.
That's exactly what he told Moses.
My presence is not going to go with
you.
I'm going to send an angel to go
with you, but my presence will not be
in Israel.
It will not be there anymore.
Your life will not be an instrument of
his powerful presence.
You will be operating in the flesh, striving,
floundering, with no power and no guidance.
Now, let me attempt to describe to you
or tell you how the importance of seeking
God's presence in your life, the importance of
it, of seeking it.
Now, folks, we've been having three weeks of
prayer now, around the clock.
Two thousand people signed up so far, twenty
-five hours a day, praying, seeking God.
Now, folks, that's just because God is trying
to give you an instrument to remind you
of it.
But I'm going to ask the Holy Ghost
to be that instrument now to remind you
of the importance and why it is so
important that you have a quality daily time
of seeking God.
And not only an hour or two, but
all day long, subway, wherever you ought to
get, your mind always reverts to the Lord
and always calling on his presence, worshipping.
You're praying without ceasing, in other words, the
Bible says.
And by the way, as you've heard me
say many times here on the subway, on
the job, in New York City, you can
pray out loud and nobody's going to look
at you because everybody thinks everybody's crazy anyhow.
Now, listen to me, please.
If you believe the scriptures I've just quoted
to you, that if you seek him, you'll
find him.
And finding him, remember, it says that God's
presence will burst forth in you to deliver
you.
In his presence coming upon you, it is
only when his presence is upon you and
with you that you will ever behold the
glory of God.
You cannot—the glory of God is always associated
with his presence.
This has to do with the pillar and
the cloud.
And by the way, the pillar and the
cloud were the one and the same thing.
You'll find that in Exodus 14, 19, and
20.
The pillar, it was a cloud by day,
and that cloud became a fire.
At night, it was the same cloud.
It was a pledge of the presence of
God.
Everybody knew that that represented the presence of
God, and that covered the tabernacle.
Now, the first benefit of that cloud of
presence was absolute total guidance, absolute direction for
every move.
They never made a move till that cloud
moved.
The cloud moved, they moved.
The cloud stayed, they stayed.
The Bible said he guided them with his
eye and led them with his counsel.
And they rested in confidence.
They didn't have to figure things out.
They didn't have to have committee meetings.
Just look at the presence.
When the presence moved, I move.
Do you see it?
Do you understand it?
That there's a cloud of presence in a
secret closet waiting for you to envelop you?
And when the presence of God is upon
you, you seek him, the presence of God.
You walk in that cloud.
That protecting cloud, you don't have to figure
things out.
The Holy Ghost will speak to you.
He'll guide you.
He'll say there's a voice behind you, say,
this is the way walk in.
Folks, I know what I'm talking about.
I live that way.
You should be living that way.
Pastor Carter lives that way.
Most of those who have the presence of
God walk that way.
You're not left to your own devices.
God help us if we were left to
our own devices.
My life would have been a mess long
ago.
Presence, the cloud of his presence hovers over
every secret closet.
Now that secret closet is hard to find
in New York City when you're in a
one room efficiency apartment.
Has to be maybe the bathroom.
But you know that that secret closet can
be on the subway.
Well, you just shut everything out and close
your eyes and say, Lord, this is my
closet.
This is my time with you.
I've got an hour till I get to
my job.
Holy Spirit, speak to my heart.
Jesus, I love you.
Begin to worship him and let the cloud
envelop you.
Hallelujah.
It'll help shut out the noise and the
cursing and everything else.
Now, it's a wonderful thing.
Listen to me.
It's a wonderful thing to be shut in
with God and to develop a daily consistent
prayer life.
Because you're promised that you will soon behold
a breaking forth of God's presence in your
life.
But, folks, there is something even greater that
happens as you become a seeker, as you
become a praying saint.
There's something even more glorious than just having
the presence of God in your life.
Now, you've got to follow me closely now.
His presence will lead you into a revelation
of God's glory.
There is a difference between his presence and
his glory, though the glory never appears except
where the presence of the Lord is.
In Exodus 40, 34, we see the cloud
of presence covering the tabernacle.
The Bible says, and the glory of the
Lord filled the tabernacle.
This is the end of side one.
You may now turn the table.
You've got to follow me closely, please, because
I know that this is a divine revelation
and it's been so blessing my heart.
I want it to bless your heart this
morning.
These Old Testament truths are patterns.
They're examples.
They're types.
For things that we're to understand in our
lives today, things that are for us in
this time.
Our bodies, according to Scripture, are what?
The tabernacle?
Paul made it clear, my body is a
tabernacle.
In fact, he said, know you not that
your body is the temple or tabernacle of
the Holy Ghost, which is in you.
And I'm going to say to you, if
you're a believer, when you become a seeker
after God, and you get the presence of
the Lord and it's manifest in your life,
one day, and it is in the here
and now, you are going to see the
glory of God.
You're going to understand it.
It's going to come forth.
The cloud of his presence will cover you
just as sure as it covered the tabernacle
in the Old Testament.
Now, in a previous message, I told you
of the revelation God gave Moses concerning his
glory.
In Exodus 33, 16, Moses is seeking God,
remember, for a manifestation of his presence.
Listen to me closely now.
He said, that I might know you, this
is verse 12 and 13, that I may
know you, that your presence go with me.
And God said, my presence is going to
go with you.
Now, you would say, Moses, that's enough.
What more do you want?
You have the presence of God, you have
guidance now, and God's Spirit is upon you
now.
He's moving and affecting the hearts of your
enemies.
You've got the cloud of his presence to
go before you.
It's wonderful.
What more could you want?
But Moses was not satisfied with that.
There was more.
You see, having the assurance of God's presence
is not enough for Moses.
God had just given him this promise, my
presence shall go with you, I will give
you rest.
You say, well, if I've got rest in
my soul and I've got assurance, what more
can you have?
I've heard people say, well, by the way,
let's go and look at this again at
Exodus 34 about the explanation of God's glory.
I want to remind you of it before
going any further.
You still with me?
Exodus 34, starting with
verse five, please.
And the Lord descended in a what?
Cloud.
That's the cloud of his presence and stood
with him there and proclaimed the name of
the Lord.
The Lord passed by before him.
Now, this is God revealing his glory to
Moses.
The Lord God, merciful, gracious, long suffering, abundant
in mercy, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin.
Now, don't look at the rest.
I'll finish.
I'll show you the rest at the close
of the message.
But you see, look at me, please.
Here is a revelation of the glory of
God.
When God showed Moses his glory, there was
no thunder.
There was no shaking of the earth.
There were no supernal lights.
There was nothing more than a simple revelation
of the nature of God, who God is.
Who God is.
That was the glory.
And when Moses saw the glory of God,
he saw a revelation of the goodness and
mercy and love and compassion of the Heavenly
Father.
This was the revelation.
I've heard people say, you know, I've been
to church and I've heard people say, Boy,
the glory of God came down on our
church.
I mean, people were shouting everywhere.
People were falling under the power.
It was so wonderful.
We didn't have any preaching.
Now, that's the saddest thing you could ever
say about a church.
There was no preaching.
Now, there have been times the glory of
God came down here, but we always stood
and gave a word.
Because God always makes, if the Holy Ghost,
he makes a way for his word.
But you see, that is not a manifestation
of his glory because it has nothing to
do with something that is emotional in itself.
You say, well, what about the transfiguration when
Peter, James and John are on the mountain,
they see the bright light and they see
this shining light and they see Moses and
Elijah.
Listen, the glory of God was not on
Elijah, it was not on Moses.
It was not just in the great light
because that light was in the face of
Jesus Christ.
This is the wonderful thing.
God embodied all his glory, the thing he
revealed of himself to Abraham, his mercy, his
grace, his long-suffering.
He created in a virgin, in a womb,
a body.
And he put in that body, the scripture
said, the fullness of God bodily.
He put in him mercy and grace.
He said, here is a living picture of
who I am.
This is Christ, my son.
This is my glory.
You're looking for some shot, you're looking for
somebody to knock you down.
It's looking in the face of Jesus and
being changed from glory to glory.
It's a revelation of the deeper knowledge of
who God is in Christ.
Nothing more, nothing less.
I've heard people say, oh, if God could
only give me a vision of the horror
of hell, I'd never forsake God.
Oh, if God could make me just smell
the flames and I could hear the cries
of hell, I'd last forever for Jesus.
There have been men that have testified when
they were near death, they had those horrible
pictures, and one man said, I lived for
God for a whole year.
The vision died, went back to his old
ways.
No, that will not keep you.
That is not the glory of God.
What keeps you, and I'm going to prove
to you beyond any shadow of a doubt,
that only a vision of who Jesus is,
of the grace and mercy of Christ, that
he is the glory, that is the only
thing that will keep you from besetting sin
and break the power of sin and mortification
in your life.
No other thing.
Hallelujah.
Jesus Christ is merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant
in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression of sins.
You dare not say, oh, that this is
enough.
Jesus is with me, he preserves me, I'm
at rest, he guides me.
Oh, that's not enough.
Do you know his glory?
Have you yet tasted of his loving kindness?
Have you had a picture, have you had
your eyes opened yet to who he is?
The riches of his glory in the inheritance
of the saints.
Now, why did Moses so desperately seek a
vision of God's glory?
Because of something God said to him, listen
to me, about the cleansing power of his
glory.
God had said something, and I'm going to
give you one of the most amazing verses
in the Bible.
It has transformed my life.
You say, brother, you always say that.
Doesn't the Bible say we're transformed from glory
to glory, becoming more and more like him?
I'm on good scripture grounds.
Please go to Exodus 29.
Now, folks, look at me, please.
If you have it, just open it.
Don't lace down trying to find it.
You'll never find it.
Only I know where it's at.
Right now.
You're going to mark this, and it's going
to be a blessing to your heart.
But first of all, see, the Lord has
given them all the orders to get everything
in order.
They're seeking God now.
The temple, the tabernacle is built.
Every piece of furniture is in place.
Everything is according to the mind of God.
Now go to verse 43.
And this is what made Moses so desperate
to see the glory of God.
And there I will meet with the children
of Israel.
And the tabernacle, what, shall be sanctified by
my glory.
The Hebrew word there, sanctified, is shall be
made totally clean.
Now, what is going to make you clean
is a revelation of the forgiving, loving, healing
power of Jesus Christ.
That you come every day, bow before him,
seeking him with all your heart.
And as you get into his presence, and
his presence comes upon you, suddenly the Holy
Ghost is going to teach you.
You're going to look in the mirror.
This book is the mirror, and you look
into that.
Change from glory to glory means an ever
-increasing revelation of who Jesus is in his
grace and mercy.
And that is what cleanses.
That's what keeps you.
In your worst hour, when you're down and
the devil says you're defeated, you'll never make
it, you're a liar, you're a cheat, you're
an adulterer.
He will bring lies to you.
You say, I have a high priest.
I have a man in glory.
Hallelujah.
And I've seen that glory.
I've tasted of that glory.
I hate my sin.
Holy Ghost taught me to hate my sin.
Lord, I'm going to study this book.
I'm going to be cleansed by the glory,
the vision of the glory of God, the
glory of his blood.
That's the glory.
Would you quit looking for a sign somewhere?
Would you quit looking for something to come
and shake the building?
Would you quit looking for somebody to zap
you?
Folks, I want to see him.
I want to know him.
That's what kept Moses all through his suffering.
Oh, God is merciful.
This is the revelation of Christ.
Now, the whole revelation has to be seen.
And that full revelation is in the next
verse.
I will by no means clear the guilty.
In fact, it goes, I will visit their
sins to the second and third generation.
You know what God's saying?
If you despise my glory, if you excuse
your sin by misappropriating my mercy.
In other words, you seek my face and
I give you my mercy.
And all of these things, my nature that
I've revealed to you, and you take that
for granted.
You despise it.
And you don't allow this vision to lay
hold of you and transform you.
Then the scripture says, I will not clear
the guilty.
And in the Hebrew it means, I will
not cleanse you.
In other words, your temple will not be
sanctified by my glory.
And you will bring condemnation on you, your
children and your grandchildren.
Because you knew the way it was revealed
to you.
And folks, I believe this with all of
my heart.
Your family, if you're married, your children, your
grandchildren depend upon the presence of God in
your life.
Depend on your vision of God's glory.
It's up to you.
God's place, that's the condition.
How could God make it simpler than this?
If you seek me, you're going to find
my presence.
And when you find my presence, in my
presence, I'm going to teach you by the
Holy Ghost, the glory of God that is
in Christ Jesus.
And you're going to be changed by that.
And when you see how loving and merciful
he is, you're going to become more loving
and merciful to your fellow man.
It's going to come out in you.
The Lord is with you.
While you be with him.
And if you will seek him, he will
be found of you.
But if you forsake him, he will forsake
you.
See, we hold the future in our own
hands.
Now, here's the scripture I close with.
For the eyes of the Lord run to
and fro throughout the whole earth to show
himself strong on behalf of those whose heart
is perfect toward him.
And that is a heart that seeks after
him.
Folks, do you understand now why we ask
you to pray and seek his face?
It's not just that the money of this
church would increase or that crowds would increase
or that the crime rate would go down.
But that you would have the presence of
God in your daily life and you would
be a people walking in the glory of
God.
Hallelujah.
Glory to you.
Let's stand.
Hallelujah.
We think he is Lord.
He is risen from the dead and he
is Lord.
He is Lord.
He's risen.
Listen to it.
Pray over it until you you get it.
I know when I was preparing this message
and had my notes, I read those notes
over and over and over again.
Said, Oh, God, make it a part of
my life.
Not just a sermon, but a part of
my life.
Can we sing this, please?
He's Lord in the annex and wherever you're
watching.
Let me tell you what the Holy Spirit
just said to me.
And I know it just as sure as
I know my name and that I breathe
his breath.
Lord told me to open this altar and
give an invitation for those who have to
honestly confess before him that you've neglected him
in prayer.
You've neglected him.
You love him deep in your heart, but
you've not made or found time to seek
his face.
You've neglected him.
And I'm also calling for those who have
to honestly admit, Pastor David, my life is
not in order.
My life is not in divine order.
Things are it may not be out of
control, but you see signs of of of
it unraveling.
Your life is unraveling.
That's clear evidence that you've not been seeking
God.
Now, I'm asking those two who don't know
Christ or others who have walked away from
the Lord and grown cold and lukewarm to
follow.
These are going to be coming in the
annex.
Go to the back of the auditorium and
come down the stairs the same way you
came.
Come right in the main door.
Come down any aisle.
We'll pray with you and minister to you
here.
If you're in the low rotunda, come up
the stairs, the balcony, go to the stairs
on either side and come here and we
will pray with you.
Don't walk out with an on without an
honest confession before the Lord.
Lord, you found me this morning.
The word struck at my heart.
I've not been seeking you as I should.
I've been lazy about my walk with you
and Lord, I've seen the results.
I've seen the disorder.
I've seen the unraveling of things in my
life and I want things back in order.
I want you to get out of your
seat only when the spirit deals with you.
But we sing it again and I want
you to come.
We're not looking for numbers.
We're not trying to swell the numbers here
at all to us.
This is life and death business.
God wants to bring order into your life.
He wants to change you.
He wants you to have in your life
a hunger and thirst for God as you've
never known before.
If you feel the Holy Ghost urging you,
wooing you, step out and follow these that
are coming up in the annex.
Just go right now.
Just go right out the door and come
down and I'll wait for you.
We'll wait for you and we'll minister to
you here in the main auditorium.
There's room here yet.
Come right now.
I'll talk to you for just a moment.
If I were to ask you now, what
is the glory of God?
Many of you would say, well, you just
said, Brother Dave, it's Christ, it's Jesus.
But folks, that's not enough answer.
That's only half an answer.
The answer is the glory of God is
Jesus revealed with the nature of God.
It's Jesus revealed as mercy, grace, long suffering,
readiness to forgive.
You have to see him in his glory.
It's not just Jesus.
It's Jesus in his glory.
It's God's nature in Christ.
What he said to Moses, the revelation he
gave to Moses, he's given it to us
in a greater form.
He's given it to us in a physical
body.
Now, he's still a physical body, though.
He's God.
He's spirit.
Right now, he's in glory and he's interceding.
That's the glory.
Hallelujah.
That we have a man in glory right
now who's touched with the feelings of our
infirmities.
He knows all about your temptations, your trials.
And in spite of all of that, he
loves you.
He loved you when you were the worst
vile sinner.
And I'll tell you what, you may have
been a goody goody sinner, but that's just
as vile as anything else.
And he loved you.
He loved you.
How much more does he love you now
that you're coming to him with an open
heart and say, here I am, Lord?
Oh, that's wonderful.
Would you let him love you then?
Would you let that revelation of his glory
just come in and say, Lord, I want,
I have to say this.
Please listen.
You cannot become a seeker after God in
your own strength.
You can't even pray in your own strength.
We don't know how the Bible says.
And I'm a preacher, and I know that
the work that he's called requires a lot
of prayer.
But I'll tell you, I have to say
it honestly, many preachers don't pray.
Because they still have not understood that you
have to seek God even for the desire
to pray.
For the hunger and for the thirst that
he gives.
But he said, if you ask, I'll give
it to you.
I ask him every day for hunger, for
thirst.
I pray, God, don't ever let me get
slothful.
Don't let me fall into a pit of
sloth or laziness.
God, if I do that, I'd rather die.
So you have to come, Holy Ghost.
And he's faithful to his word, and he'll
do that.
So I want you at this altar, as
you pray, that you would not only trust
his forgiveness for you.
And that God would open your eyes.
But that you would ask him now to
make you a seeker after God.
He said, if you seek me, you will
what?
You will find me.
And what do you find?
His presence breaking forth to deliver you, to
guide you, to lead you.
So you don't have to call a counselor
every day.
You don't have to get on the phone
and call a friend.
You don't have to see a pastor all
the time.
Because you've got the glory of God in
you.
You have the presence of the Lord.
Hallelujah.
By God's grace here in New York City,
God, the Holy Ghost is trying to build
a strong people.
He's trying to build people that are rooted
and grounded in him right now.
I want you to pray this prayer with
me from your heart, if you will.
Jesus, thank you for your presence.
And I ask you now, because of your
loving kindness, your readiness to forgive, and the
crucifixion by which you gave your body and
your blood to cleanse me and keep me.
I give you my sins.
I give you my doubts and fears.
And I come by faith.
Lord Jesus, I ask through the Holy Spirit
that you make me a seeker after your
own heart.
Holy Ghost, I ask you, create in me
a hunger and a thirst for righteousness and
to pray and to read the word of
God, a supernatural wooing, urging from God.
Holy Spirit, thank you for your power and
your presence in my life.
I love you, Jesus.
Now, raise your hands and tell him that
in your own words.
Just raise your hands and tell him how
much you love him.
Lord, I love you.
I worship you.
I praise you.
I give you glory.
Hallelujah.