...is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit
Series.
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Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
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My message this morning, The Mantle of Elijah.
I want you to go to 2 Kings,
the second chapter, and if you will just
leave your Bibles open, I'll be ministering from
that throughout the course of my message today.
The Mantle of Elijah.
It's good to have Pastor Carter back from
Macedonia and Kosovo, and pray for our teams
that are still there, and our teams that
are ministering around the world.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I have a word that you
put in my heart for the people, and
Lord, I ask you to help me to
deliver it in the grace and mercy of
God.
I pray, Heavenly Father, that you send your
Holy Spirit upon me, and Holy Spirit, as
you abide in me, I pray that you
speak forth the mind of the Lord, the
mind of the Father, your mind, O Holy
Ghost.
Let no one leave this church without having
something, have received something from the work and
ministry of the Holy Spirit, not a dead
letter, but something that has spoken directly to
their heart, I pray, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now, this 2 Kings, second chapter, is the
marvelous story of Elijah and Elisha, the story
of, one of the most exciting stories in
the Bible, about Elijah being carried away in
a chariot, translated to glory.
Now, for our new converts and others, just
to refresh, I want to give you just
a synopsis, a recapping of the story, and
then we'll go back and try to dig
some nuggets out of it for today.
Now, Elijah has been notified by the Father
that his time is up, and that he's
got a day or so left, and he
may have warned him sooner than that, but
he's told that he's going to be translated,
and he has a rendezvous area on the
other side of the Jordan.
So just before he goes, he takes Elijah
on a trip.
He takes him to Bethel, he takes him
to Jericho, and then when they get to
the Jordan River, he takes off his outer
mantle, Elijah does, and smites the Jordan, and
it opens, and they go across some dry
land, and they're on the other side.
Now, Elijah's looking at the mountains, and most
people, many scholars believe that he lived there,
his abode was that area, and they thought
that he just wanted to be taken near
his home.
I don't know the circumstances of that, but
I do know that when they get on
the other side of Jordan, Elijah turns to
Elisha, and he said, you know I'm about
to be taken from you, what is the
one thing you want me to do for
you?
And without hesitation, Elisha says, I want a
double portion of the Spirit of God that
rests upon you.
I want a double portion of your spirit.
And Elijah said, you're asking a hard thing.
And he said, well, that's what I want.
And he said, well, I'll tell you what,
if you can see me when I depart,
it'll happen.
But if you don't see me, then it
won't happen.
And all of a sudden, while they're talking
and walking, I mean, a chariot out of
heaven comes and separates them.
I don't know how that happened, it just
came right between them.
And Elijah gets on board, and Elisha said,
my father, my father, the chariots of Israel,
the chariot of Israel and all the soldiers,
or all the accompanying army.
And suddenly, Elijah's gone, and his mantle drops.
He picks up the mantle, and he goes
to the Jordan.
He didn't say, where is Elijah?
He said, where is the God of Elijah?
And the Jordan opens up, and he goes
to the other side.
And he goes back, recapping, I mean, going
back to all of those towns that he'd
been taken to by the prophet Elijah.
Now, this is miraculous, isn't it?
Can you imagine a chariot coming right out
of heaven and just taking a man of
God away?
One of the most incredible, spectacular, miraculous things
in the Bible.
But what does it mean?
Now, we know from the Scripture that none
of these stories are told, these miraculous stories
are just told to enamor us or cause
us to revere the God of ancient Israel,
and that's not at all.
The Bible says very clearly, Paul the Apostle
said, all these things are written for examples
unto us.
They were written for us, or for our
learning, upon whom the ends of the world
have come.
It's not just a miraculous story.
There are truths here that God, the Holy
Ghost, wants to reveal to us that have
to do with our life.
The whole story is about us.
The whole thing, God didn't have to record
it.
He recorded it in detail that we could
study it and get our spiritual lessons for
our day.
Let me begin by telling you what I
believe the focus of this story is, what
God is trying to teach us.
The focus teaching or the main teaching of
this whole episode that we're discussing this morning.
And it's simply this.
God is always wanting to do greater things
for every succeeding generation.
He's always wanted to do more miraculous.
He wants to give more of His Spirit.
He wants to do greater and newer things
for every succeeding generation, beyond anything in the
past.
Now, it's a wonderful thing for me to
read about God's miracle opening of the Red
Sea.
It's wonderful to read about Joshua and the
Jordan open.
But it's another thing for God to open
my Red Sea and give me the same
kind of miracles.
And that's what this is all about, to
increase and enlarge our faith that we can
believe God for miraculous things in our day.
His desire for our generation that we would
want that double portion, that we could go
through the Old Testament read of all of
His mighty works and say, Lord, I want
more than that.
You said, because I see Elijah here as
a type of Christ in His ascension.
And Jesus said, most certainly you'll do greater
works than I have done, because I go
to my Father.
In other words, you're going to be here,
sin is going to be on the increase.
You're going to face things I have never
seen, Jesus is saying.
You're going to need more power, you're going
to need authority than any other past generation,
anything in the Old Testament.
You're going to need an anointing of the
Holy Spirit.
You're going to have to have a walk
with me, stronger than Elijah, stronger than all
of these men of God, because I'm going
to endure you with the Holy Ghost, and
He will enable you to live a pure,
holy, righteous life.
Now, having stated what I believe is the
main teaching of this episode, my first question
in rereading this story was, why did Elijah
take Elisha on this trip?
It's certainly not a sentimental journey.
It's not Elijah going down memory lane one
last time.
Now, we do know that he had started
schools of prophets in both Bethel and Jericho,
but that's not it at all.
He knows he's gone, and he's been training
somebody to take his place.
Elisha has been his servant, but he's been
watching this young man, and he's going to
test him before he goes.
And so, if you follow this story, first
of all, Elijah is continually testing Elisha this
whole trip.
This was meant exclusively for Elisha, and what
Elijah hopes he's going to learn.
And I want to take you through this
trip, and see if you and I are
learning the lessons that God is trying to
teach us in this.
He goes to Bethel, and he takes Elisha,
and he says, Elisha, stay here, Terry, right
here.
And what he's trying to say is, you've
been well trained, you have a spiritual discernment,
now, I want you to stay right here.
Now, he said that after being there and
visiting.
Now, the Bible doesn't give us the whole
dialogue.
The Bible gives us certain highlights.
But I'm sure this dialogue went on a
good portion of the hours that they spent
in Bethel.
And Elijah says, look, I'm going on, I'm
going further, I'm going to be going to
Jericho, I'm going to go to the Jordan,
and I'm going home, I want you to
stay here, you know what is needed.
Now, the prophet Elijah was hoping that his
younger student would learn exactly what he wanted
him to see.
And I'll tell you what he saw when
he went to Bethel.
Just to dare say, after Bethel, remember that
he's going to come back, and there are
going to be 42 children that are going
to be torn apart by she-bears.
Because they're coming out to mock him.
And I want you to know those mockers
were there when Elijah and Elisha first came
into Bethel.
Now, you know that Bethel means house of
God.
You know that this is where Jacob sacrificed.
There's so many things about Bethel that have
to do with faith and with hope and
with honesty and purity.
It had a great heritage, but something had
happened in Bethel.
Remember, Jeroboam had set up a golden calf
there.
They were given to idolatry.
And they had lost, the parents had lost
the whole young generation.
The young generation was given over to skepticism.
They became scoffers and mockers.
And it's an amazing thing that this happens
with 50 prophets there in the middle, having
their headquarters, studying the Word of God.
Unable to affect that society whatsoever.
Now Bethel to me represents, and I believe
that's what the Scripture is trying to bring
to us, represents our evil society.
And what it's become, our society has become
a society of mockery, of everything that's holy
and pure and righteous.
We live amongst scoffers today.
They were given over to homosexuality.
They were given over to lust, sensuality, and
idolatry.
And so Elijah is saying, why don't you
settle here?
You see the need.
You see a society that's gone mad.
You see people that are mocking and scoffing.
They need a revival here, Elijah.
Why don't you stay here and pastor right
here?
Certainly, this is something he has to consider
because it comes from his leader.
He knows he's a great man of God.
But I believe that Elijah is remembering another
prophet that had come into that city and
prophesied to Jeroboam's idol.
And Jeroboam was there when he prophesied.
And he said, that golden calf is coming
down.
That idolatry is coming down.
And God knocked it down right in his
presence.
And the ashes poured out of the altar.
And Jeroboam reaches out to strike him and
his hand is paralyzed.
But he remembers that prophet didn't have what
it took to reach that society because he
was seduced by an older prophet who lived
in Bethel.
And that man ends up being eaten up
by a lion who's a type of Satan.
He didn't have what he needed to reach
that wicked society.
He didn't have it.
And Elijah knew that Elijah didn't have it,
but he wanted to see it.
He wanted to hear it.
Elijah wanted, I know in his heart, to
say, oh, there's something deeper that I need.
There's a greater work of the Holy Spirit
that's needed in my life before I can
ever stand up against the spirit that is
in this city.
God had sent prophets.
These people had been warned.
He said to the prophet, Elijah, I will
not.
I want to tell you something.
We face a society today that Bethel couldn't
even comprehend.
Elijah and Elijah never saw what we are
seeing now here in the United States and
around today.
We have lost our young generation just as
they did in Bethel.
We have kids killing kids.
We have to have now metal detectors at
the school doors.
We have a generation.
I suggest someday if you want your heart
broken, come outside the department.
I live a block from this church.
And listen to the public high school kids
coming by.
And listen to the girls' language.
They can't put three words together without the
F word and without all of the cursing
and the vileness.
They talk like drunken sailors.
Look at the movies that they're pouring into,
the X-rated movies.
Think of a whole generation now given over
to drugs and alcohol and promiscuous sex like
no other generation could imagine.
Now, I'm not condemning the whole generation.
Thank God, even in this church and other
churches in this city, we have godly young
people on fire for God.
And I thank God for the many that
are still taking a stand for Christ.
But folks, even the most liberal, atheistic reporters
in this nation are saying we have backslidden,
we've become immoral, we have no moral guide.
We have lost a whole generation.
And what is it going to take to
reach this lost generation?
It's going to take men and women with
a double portion of the Holy Ghost, something
no other generation has had because we face
a generation unlike any other generation when it
comes to sin mounting to the heavens.
Elisha represents that holy remnant saying there is
more.
There is a remnant who says I am
not going to go out and face this
generation until I know I've been touched by
the hand of God.
Preachers who are not willing to go out
and just do it because it has to
be done, not just because there's a world
of wickedness out there, but because they've been
shunned in with God and they say there's
more.
And when I go out on the streets,
when I go out into this city, I
want to know that God's going to work
for me and through me.
I want to be able to stand up
against every demon and devil in hell and
not be shaken.
I'm not going to be devoured by a
lion.
As the Lord liveth, Elisha said, I will
not leave thee.
So they came to Jericho.
Now Jericho, the meaning of the word Jericho
is a pleasant place.
But Elijah and Elisha come upon a situation
of barrenness, dryness, deadness, emptiness.
There were no trees.
We'll come back to the reason for it
a little later in my message.
There were no trees, there were no pasture,
there was no fruit.
Everything had dried up because there was a
poison stream coming through Jericho at the time.
And this represents the dead, dry, barren church
of these last days.
It's the sardish church that has a name
that it lives, and yet God said it's
dead.
Now we know that at Jericho they visited
the school of the prophets that Elijah established
there because they'd come to Elijah and he
says, do you not know that your Lord
is going to be taken from you today?
Do you know that you're going to lose
your master?
Now, these were some upstart young men because
Elijah had to cut them right off and
said, be silent.
In other words, keep quiet.
I know it.
You see, they were students of the word
of God.
They knew the theology.
They even had a streak of prophetic vision.
They somehow knew that Elijah was going to
be taken that day.
But you see, these young men of God
were going to be those that sent out
across Judah and Israel to minister to that
society of young rebels that we've just discussed.
And I picture Elijah standing by.
Elijah knows what's in the heart of these
young men.
And he's wondering if Elijah is going to
see where the ministry is headed.
And he's standing by to see if he
has discernment, if he picks it up.
And Elijah says to Elijah, why don't you
stay here?
You see, these young men, they are students,
but they are totally ignorant of the ways
and the moving of the Holy Spirit.
Because they know that Elijah is going to
be translated.
And when Elijah comes back alone, and they
know the Spirit of the Lord is taking
him up.
They meet him on his return trip from
the Jordan, through the Jordan.
They say, Elijah, we know God's hand is
on you, and we know the Spirit of
the Lord carried your master away.
But we've got 50 strong young men here
going to go back over the Jordan.
And we're going to go search for him
in case the Holy Ghost dropped him on
the mountain.
Or in a valley.
That's total ignorance of the ways in working
of the Holy Spirit.
And that's where many churches are today.
These young men, if you talk to them,
they can talk about the ascension.
They can preach theology.
They can tell you about the miracles.
They know the history.
And that's the reason he would not stay
at Jericho.
Because he knew if he became their teacher,
if he became a pastor to these young
men, all they'd be talking about was Elijah.
Tell us, how many hours a day did
he pray?
What time did he get up?
What kind of meals did he eat?
Tell us more about his miracles.
See, they'd be living in the past.
I know theologians who've been studying past revivals
all their life.
I know two or three who've written books
who spent their lifetime trying to resurrect some
method of the past.
And he knew that if he's there, all
they're going to talk about is the past.
They're going to talk about Elijah and want
to know about him.
He's going to send out 50 little Elijahs
trying to recreate his miracles without the power
and authority of the Holy Ghost.
Oh, we've got them all over the country
today.
You know, man of miracles, signs and wonders.
You really don't know, have never been visited
with the Holy Ghost truly to probe the
depths of sin in their lives.
You know, Elijah said, if I ever come
back here, if I ever pass through here,
I'm going to come and I'm going to
be talking about some miracles in the past.
I respect my father.
I respect the fathers and the spiritual giants
of the past.
But God wants to do a new thing.
He's gone and I'm here.
And I have to have the touch of
God myself.
I'm not going to talk about the past.
Oh, folks, we have people trying to resurrect
New Testament patterns.
We have people studying revivals and trying to
get the keys to revival.
No, no, no.
There are no shortcuts.
You see, we talk about the past because
we'd have nothing to care with when we
ask about revival.
All my life I've heard people and pastors
and churches talk about we need a revival,
a Holy Ghost revival to sweep across the
nation.
What many are saying, we want the Holy
Ghost to do what we ought to be
doing.
They don't want to witness.
They want to sit in a church and
seek God and have the blessing of God
and have an anointing of the Holy Spirit
in their own life and let the Holy
Ghost do the evangelizing.
No, no, no, no.
Elijah knows he's going to face wicked spirits,
Bethel.
He knows that he's going to be dealing
with the deadness and dryness of the church.
And he says, I need greater power, Elijah,
even that you had.
Under Elijah, those revivals never came.
God picks up a young man and he
does a new work.
And just the way he's doing it now,
Bethel to us represents that wicked, awful society.
Jericho represents the dead church.
And so, these young men were destined to
build schools.
They were destined to build the church of
the future and to live by faith.
But something was missing.
We have fallen into the same snare in
our day of looking to the past and
not having faith to believe for miracles today.
We go to our Bible studies.
We go to our Bible and we read
of these great, fantastic miracles.
And all along, God is saying, I've offered
you something better.
I've offered you something greater.
I want to do miracles in your life.
I want to change your home.
I want to do miracles.
I want to fix your marriage.
I want to save your unsaved.
You're going to face your own Red Sea.
You're going to face your own Jordan.
I want to do it for you.
Hallelujah.
That's something that ought to be rising in
all of us in this last day.
Folks, we're facing the perilous times that are
coming.
They're right at the door.
And we're going to need more than some
of us have right now, including myself.
Again, he says, I'm not leave you.
I'm going on.
Thank God for those who are going further
and deeper in the Holy Ghost.
They're not satisfied with what they have.
I don't ever want to be satisfied.
I want to stay hungry and thirsty till
Jesus comes or till they bury me.
Now they're standing at the shore of the
Jordan.
Been to Bethel, been to Jericho, now they're
at the Jordan.
Now, why did Elijah insist on a miracle
passing rather than a natural passing?
Now, there's 50 young men right there, strong
men.
They could have built a raft in two
hours.
They're strong enough to have taken them under
the shoulder and swum them across.
Swum, swam, swam.
They could have carried them across.
Why did he insist on a miracle?
Think about it for just a minute.
There's no word that it was a swollen
river at the time.
And really, the Jordan was not that wide
or that deep.
But he insisted on a miracle crossing.
In part, it's the same lesson that God's
trying to teach.
Elijah is saying to Elijah that the miracle
crossing of the past, the Red Sea, the
Jordan.
In fact, this miracle that I'm showing you
now, this is what God wants for you.
This is what God wants.
He wants you to believe for a miracle.
I'm going to be gone soon.
And you're going to come back over the
same way.
I want you to come back the way
that you're going now.
I want you to believe God for the
miraculous in your life.
I want you to believe.
He knew his mantle would be left.
Folks, that mantle has no power in it.
There is nothing.
It's a piece of cloth.
There's no power in it.
If you believe there's power in that, then
you've got to believe that there's power in
that cross that somebody has, claims to be
a piece of wood from the original cross,
and they want to touch it as if
there's some power in that piece of wood.
It wasn't in the piece of wood, the
cross, not the wood itself.
It was the Christ who hung on the
cross.
What he's saying, when you go forth now,
Elijah, I don't want you to talk about
mere miracles.
I want you to talk about the miracles
you've seen and experienced in your own life.
Hallelujah.
Now, over the Jordan, Elijah says to Elisha,
we go back to it now, says, Ask
of me, what shall I do for you
before I go?
Now, he's not acting the part of a
genie that's popped out of a bottle and
says, I'll give you three wishes.
You can't compare it to that.
That's not what it is at all.
Because, really, he's limited in what he could
do.
He was not God.
There's no way he could give of his
spirit.
Only the Holy Ghost can do that.
He couldn't do that.
He was penniless.
What could this man do?
Now, place yourself in this scene, and this
great man of God, this miracle worker, has
raised people from the dead, and he says
to you, I'm going, what do you want
me to do for you?
Now, I know what I would have probably
done.
I would have said, well, look, I've been
to Bethel, and I've seen this society that's
going to hell in a handbasket, and it's
getting wicked, it's unsafe to walk the streets,
and I'm tired of this battle against sin
and the devil.
Take me with you!
Oh, come on, folks.
If the Lord told me tomorrow, listen to,
God told me to mark midnight here on
51st, right here, 51st Street, He's going to
send a chariot after me?
How many of you would like to go
along?
You have just proven the point of my
whole message.
God doesn't want you now!
He doesn't want me now!
Because he's still bleeding for those in Bethel.
He's still weeping over his dead church.
He's got to have somebody that's still here.
So forget the chariot.
You ain't going anywhere right now.
I know the Bible said that we're to
say, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
We're to continue to look for his appearing.
But folks, many in the church have become
absolute escapists.
They want Jesus to come right now, only
to lift them out of the horror and
the shame around them, and all the trials
that they're going through.
They just want to be delivered so they
can just kind of go to heaven and
lay their pillow, head on a pillow and
relax and get rid of the stress in
their life and have a nice easy eternity.
And forget a city of wicked and vile
people.
Forget the people around them.
They're going to go to hell.
Not so for Elisha.
Elisha knows his master's work is done.
He knew he's got to have to stay
and the responsibility is going to be upon
him.
And he said, now look, Elijah, you know
what I'm going to face.
You know the problems.
You've just shown me the world.
You've shown me the condition of society.
You've shown me the condition of the church.
You know I'm going to need more than
anyone has ever needed.
I'm asking for a double portion of the
Spirit of God on you.
Elijah says, if you can see me when
I depart, it shall be done unto thee,
but if not, it shall not be.
You've asked a hard thing, he said.
Hard for who?
Is it too hard for God?
No.
It is too hard for Elijah because he
can't give of his spirit.
But no, it's hard because of the cost
to Elisha himself.
The hardness has to do with the young
man he's talking to and he's training and
this is his last lesson.
He said, you know, you read this.
Nevertheless, if you see me when I'm taken
from thee, it shall be done unto thee,
but if not, it shall not be done.
Look.
This is the end of side one.
You may now turn the tape over.
In other words, if you see me before
I go, you're going to get your blessing.
If not, you're going to leave disappointed and
all this is going to be in vain?
No way.
In the original, there are two words that
are not, in fact, they're in italics in
your King James.
And that is when and am.
When I am taken.
That is not in the original.
In fact, that's been corrected in the revised
edition.
In context of the whole teaching of this
chapter, there's only one conclusion.
When you see me as being gone, it's
something that has to happen in you, Elisha.
When I go, you can't build me a
memorial.
You can't be preaching about what I did.
You have to see me as gone.
When you see me, in your mind, in
your heart, that the past is dead and
gone.
Elijah was a humble man.
He didn't want him going around building schools
in his name.
He didn't want them to be talking about
what God did through him or who he's
raised from the dead, Elijah.
God wants you to raise the dead.
He wants you to do more than I
ever did.
But you've got to see me as gone.
And when I go and it dawns on
you, you stand alone.
He's gone.
Here I am, Lord.
This is all you've got to work with.
And you lay hold of that by faith.
The Holy Ghost will come upon you.
Suddenly, Elijah's gone and there's his mantle.
He tears his own clothes in two.
And he picks up the mantle, puts it
on his shoulders.
He goes to the Jordan and he says,
Where's the God of Elijah?
He smites it.
And the Spirit of Almighty God was on
that man.
The waters opened.
He had received that double portion.
The prophets of Jericho had seen it and
they bowed for him.
They said the Spirit that was on Elijah
is on.
Not the Spirit of Elijah, but the Spirit
that was on Elijah is now on Elisha.
And what does he do?
He retraces his steps.
He's ready now to face a dead-draught
church.
He's ready now to face a society that's
gone mad.
Because he's had a touch from God.
He has the Holy Ghost revealed to him.
He knows his ways now.
The Holy Ghost.
He had gone further than any man had
gone with the prophet.
He went deeper.
He paid a price.
Now, I know this salvation is free.
But, folks, if you're going to know the
ways of the Spirit and the true intimacy
of Jesus Christ, and know the ways of
the Holy Ghost, you're going to spend time.
You're going to go deeper into the closet,
farther into the Word.
You're going to walk closer than any other
man or woman has ever walked through the
power of the Holy Ghost.
There'll be a hunger to cry in you.
I can't stop.
I will not let God go.
Until he teaches me his ways and gives
me the spiritual authority I need to go
out and witness for Jesus Christ and change
lives.
He comes to Jericho.
And the 50 prophets meet him.
And they said, Now, you know this is
called a pleasant place.
But look around.
There's death everywhere you go.
Now, I told you to go to 2
Kings.
And I hope you have your Bible open
there.
And I want you to go to 2
Kings 2, chapter verse 18.
He's on his way back now.
He's retracing the steps.
Verse 18.
And when they came again to him, for
he tarried at Jericho.
Now, remember Elijah had asked him to tarry
there.
And he said no.
He knew he wasn't ready.
He wasn't prepared.
Now he's tarrying at Jericho.
He said unto them, Did I not say
unto you, go not?
And the men of the city said unto
Elijah, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of
the city is pleasant.
That's the name of the city, really.
As my Lord seeth.
But the water is not, and the ground
is barren.
And he said, bring me a new cruise,
and put salt therein.
And they brought it to him.
And he went forth to the spring of
the waters, and cast the salt in there,
and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have
healed these waters.
There shall not be from thence any more
death or barren land.
So the waters were healed unto this day,
according to the saying of Elijah, which he
spoke.
Look at me, please.
Fifty men of God.
Fifty students of theology.
Fifty students who could talk about ascension.
Could give you all the details and miracles
of men of God of the past.
But they're totally helpless.
Totally powerless.
To stop the poison that's creating the deadness
and the barrenness.
Representing the church.
They said there's a problem here.
There's a poisoned well, and it's bringing polluted
waters, and it's killing everything.
Killing everything.
Now you see, until this man had been
alone with God, and crying out for that
double portion of the Holy Spirit, and getting
to know Him, and yielding himself fully to
the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit,
and not to the flesh at all.
Now he has the Holy Spirit upon him,
and working in him and through him.
He has his own touch of God.
He has his own vision.
His own anointing.
And now he knows.
Here comes a man with the answer.
And what is the answer to the pollution?
What's the answer to deadness, dryness in the
church of Jesus Christ?
Where did the pollution come from?
It came from the wellhead.
From the pulpit.
Men of God, who have never dealt with
their sins, and full of iniquity, and there's
poison, there's a disease in the heart.
It can be pornography, on the internet, it
can be almost anything.
Now I'm not indicting the whole ministry.
I'm indicting those ministers who have killed their
churches.
Literally caused death.
Because they can't preach against sin.
They have polluted everything that comes out of
their mouth, because the stream is polluted.
They that bear the ark must be holy
and clean and pure, the Bible says.
Those that handle the things of God.
And out of this...
You show me a church where a pastor
is in the pulpit, who doesn't believe in
the inerrancy of the Scripture, he doesn't believe
in the virgin birth, he doesn't believe there's
a heaven, there's a hell, he doesn't preach
against sin, he doesn't expose the sin in
his own life, he's comfortable with what he's
doing, he's not going to deal with sin
in the congregation, and I can show you
a dead church, and a man who's sending
people to hell on the left and on
the right.
And what's the answer?
What's the answer?
He didn't go to the stream and try
to rebuke it.
He said the answer, a new vessel, a
clean vessel, full of salt.
We'd call it a salt shaker.
But he said, this, I want a new
one.
That's the new heart.
Sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
Salt.
By the way, folks, what is the water?
The water is the Word of God.
It was polluted.
The deadness in the church is caused by
a polluted gospel that's going forth.
He said, get me a new vessel and
pour salt in it.
And he goes to the spring, not to
the river, he goes to the spring where
it started, the wellhead, and he pours the
salt into the river and it's cleansed.
From that day on.
Folks, that salt is the gospel of purity.
It's the gospel of righteousness of Jesus Christ,
preached through clean, holy vessels.
You show me a man or woman that
shut in with God, hates and despises anything
in their life unlike Christ, and goes beyond
what others are willing to go, shut in
with the Lord, saying, oh God, fill me
and anoint me with the Holy Ghost, that
when I speak, I speak your mind.
I don't speak the flesh, I speak your
mind and your heart.
You, Lord, put the salt in me.
You let me live that life.
Let me have that savor in me of
Jesus Christ.
And I'm telling you, that's a rebuke to
the whole world.
And that's something that no dead church can
stand up against.
And that's the only cure.
It's not for sharper young entrepreneurial pastors that
have a lot of head knowledge.
No, no, no, no.
And folks, I see this now.
God's raising up young men, especially, and young
women.
They've been sending me their literature.
They're sending me their notes.
And I was four hours yesterday just reading.
I got so excited about what some young
lady sent.
I got her on the phone and started
listening to what God's saying to her.
She's a housewife.
And God is revealing things I have never
seen or heard in my life.
I said, how did it come?
She said, 12 years being shut in with
God.
Took a whole year off just to pray
that I would get to know Jesus.
And God met my needs, and He began
to reveal Himself to me.
And she's saying things.
And I believe there are going to be
books coming out of this woman's pen.
Incredible.
In fact, I was working on this message.
I'd go and call her and say, what
do you see in this chapter?
He goes back to Bethel, this corrupted society.
Look at verse 23.
And I'm going to close in just a
minute here.
Verse 23.
And he went up from Jericho to Bethel.
As he was going up by the way,
there came forth little children out of the
city and mocked him.
And said unto him, go up, thou bald
head.
Go up, thou bald head.
I see people looking at heads in front
of them everywhere.
And he turned back and looked on them
and cursed them in the name of the
Lord.
And there came forth two she-bears out
of the wooden chair, 42 children.
There were more than 42, but the ringleaders,
the 42 of them, were torn by she
-bears.
I don't know whether they were killed or
not, but they were torn by she-bears.
And people who read that say, how cruel!
How terrible that this man Elijah, just touched
by the Holy Ghost, should go in a
fit and a rage and curse children because
they called him baldy.
No, folks.
No, no, no, no.
This man was moving under the anointing and
unction of the Holy Spirit.
His life had been touched in such a
powerful way.
You see, these children had committed an unpardonable
sin.
You see, they knew.
They had been told by their parents.
Their parents had mocked it, ridiculed it, made
fun of it.
The story of the work of the Holy
Spirit.
That was the work and ministry of the
Holy Spirit to take Elijah.
And now they are mocking the work of
the Holy Spirit.
That's an unpardonable sin.
And you see, God had sent prophets to
Bethel.
He had sent all kinds of prophets.
Now, folks, there are 50 young men there.
And I wonder what would have happened if
those young men, instead of just staying in
their church, studying theology, I don't know if
they made an effort at all to warn
those kids, you keep up the way you're
going and you're going to pay a price.
Did they ever go to the parents and
say, look what's happening to our city.
You see, I don't know what they tried,
but I know what they're trying today in
the church.
I know what young prophets are trying to
do to try to reach them.
They're bringing the very music into the church
that caused them to rebel.
They are having rock and roll concerts.
They're letting them dress like demons.
They're going out as young men and taking
polls to find out what a rebellious society
would like to see in the way of
a church to seduce them to come in.
And folks, when God has dealt and dealt
and dealt with the society, He's sent pastors
and preachers, He's preached mercy, He's preached grace.
There comes a time, if you know your
scripture, that God says enough.
Enough!
And then He says, I have to have
men full of the Holy Ghost that are
not afraid to proclaim judgment upon their society.
This was the message of judgment that came
out of a merciful soul.
That was the work of the Holy Ghost.
Folks, we've been warning and warning and warning
and I'm at the place now, I honestly
don't care.
I'm not a prophet.
I've said that a thousand times.
But I am one of His watchmen.
And one thing I am sure of, I'm
in touch with what I call this Elisha
Company.
All over the United States.
Out of the hundreds of thousands on my
mailing list.
And folks, I'm in touch with the Holy
Remnant and so is Pastor Carter.
And we're in touch with people sudden with
God.
This Elisha Company that are not satisfied.
This Elisha Company that knows that God's going
to do a new thing in the last
day.
Along with judgment and through judgment, He's going
to have mercy.
His very judgment will be an act of
mercy.
To save a society from going absolutely over
the brink into hell.
I can assure you of one thing.
That everyone that I know that's been shut
in with God.
Everyone that's seeking God and for this double
portion of the Holy Ghost, they're all hearing
the same thing.
Judgment is at the door.
He returned to preach.
To show the awesome judgments of God.
They're about to fall.
I don't know how close we are.
The stock market this past week has dropped
a thousand points.
I don't know how close we are, but
it's right at the door.
That's what I hear.
And that is confirmed by people from all
over the United States shut in with God.
They hear the same thing.
The Lord is speaking and warning very, very
powerfully.
And Pastor Carter told me that he was
told by believers over in Kosovo and Macedonia.
That the Holy Ghost had warned that judgment
was coming.
They were clearly warned.
He has warned us.
Let me tell you now, in closing, what
I get out of this story.
And what it means to me.
It means this.
I have told God the same thing that
Elisha told Elijah.
But I've made it even stronger.
I've said, God, I've set my heart.
And this happened in an incredible way just
a few years ago.
I set my heart to seek God.
And I looked in the face of my
Heavenly Father and said, I will not let
you go.
I'm going to seek you.
I'm going to fast and pray.
Not for any merit.
Not for any good thing in me.
But I have to have more than I've
ever had.
I don't have enough of what I need.
Of your Holy Spirit.
I want more of your Spirit.
I want more of your Holy Ghost authority.
Not to curse people.
Not to hurt people.
But to stand against the devils that are
in them.
And take authority in Jesus' name.
I want that with all my heart.
But at the same time, I'll preach mercy.
I'll preach grace.
But I'm not going to be a wimp.
Facing this in-your-face generation.
God has not called us to be wimps.
He's told you and He's told me.
If you have the Holy Ghost on you,
you're going to tell the whole world.
You're going to tell your neighbors.
You're going to warn everybody.
Judgment is at the door.
You think right now.
Right here in our museums.
Right now, the mayor of this city is
trying to shut down this terrible called art
show in one of our museums.
Sponsored by our tax money.
A picture of the Virgin Mary splattered with
elephant dung.
Another museum just up the road here.
They have there, it looks like it's going
to be a permanent display.
And it's the cross of Jesus Christ in
a vat of urine.
And it says, Urinate Christ.
That's the title.
I gave you the gentle word.
Think of the militant homosexuals who march up
and down with their signs, Christ was gay.
You think of where our society is going
now.
And there has to be something rising up
in you that the Holy Ghost is telling
you.
And that you have to announce, God said
enough.
And one of these days soon, God is
going to smite.
The man who created the cross in a
vat of urine was stricken with AIDS and
died in his 40s.
You watch the judgments of God begin to
fall.
Folks, I don't know if you see what
I see.
I see hurricanes coming.
And I see floods everywhere.
And bugs, mosquitoes with encephalitis here in New
York City for the first time.
And you see things happening all over the
United States.
Don't you say God is doing something?
God is trying to speak.
God is trying to say something to this
nation.
And yet I hear preachers say, Oh, God
is going to bless America.
God has great things ahead.
He does for the church, yes.
But for God and the society, no.
The sea bears are coming from the woods.
God, raise up some pastors who are not
wimps concerning this wickedness in this last day.
Not afraid to stand up and proclaim the
awesome judgments of God.
Not out of wrath.
Not out of judgment.
But out of the love of Christ for
a lost generation.
Will you stand?
How many confess that you need more of
the Holy Ghost?
Raise your hand, please.
You say, Oh, I've been baptized in the
Holy Ghost.
Are you walking in the Spirit?
Are you moving in the ways and the
works of the Holy Spirit?
Listen to me in closing.
If you go to Times Square Church, you've
been here months or years.
You've been fed and fed and fed.
You ought to be able to go to
your neighbors or anybody in the job that's
sick.
You could share a little bottle of oil
if you want.
Or you can just believe God and speak
the word.
Every single one in this church needs to
be an evangelist.
You don't need papers.
You don't need ordinations or license.
All you need is a hunger for a
greater anointing of the Holy Ghost on your
life.
I'm not talking about the anointing some people
call the anointing.
For more money and for riches and things
like that.
Or to be able to go out and
read people's minds.
No, I'm talking about the anointing that produces
godliness in you.
And produces purity and holiness of Jesus so
that you can speak a pure word that
gives life.
And it doesn't produce death.
Because death produces death.
Oh, no, no, no.
You should be praying for the sick.
You need to be every place on the
subways and in the bus.
You need to turn to one on the
right or the left.
If all you can say is, do you
go to church?
I know a good church.
And all you do is hand out a
card.
Whatever you do to strike a conversation on
the job wherever you are.
As you walk in these streets.
Do as I do.
Do as Pastor does.
I pray and I weep over this city.
I cry and pray and say, Lord, lead
me to somebody that's hungry now.
But more and more God is saying, hear
me please.
I've given you the Holy Ghost for a
purpose.
To go back over the Jordan.
Back to this deadness and back to this
and make changes.
God, help us never to just come into
this church and soak it in.
Because those waters soon get stagnant.
That's why we have to stir them up.
If you've ever seen a pond with all
the junk on it.
Rains come and the flood comes and pushes
all the junk over the dam.
We need another outpouring of the Holy Ghost
as we've never seen.
Father, I thank you for truth that sets
us free.
Lord, I want to hear.
And I know you want to hear from
many, many people here.
We have to acknowledge.
I wanted to go further.
I wanted to go deeper.
I wanted to know more intimacy with Christ.
I wanted to walk more fully in the
power and unction of the Holy Ghost.
But somehow I got stopped.
Somehow I'm not moving ahead anymore.
I'm not growing.
I don't know what happened, but I've slipped
back.
I'm not making progress.
I'm not growing.
There's some kind of death that's crept into
my life.
Oh God, in Jesus' name, change things today.
Holy Spirit, come forth with new vessels full
of salt.
Hallelujah.
Sanctify us, purge us that the savor of
Christ may come forth from our hearts and
our lives.
If you're here in this main auditorium and
I'm speaking, those that are in the annexes
and the other auditoriums watching on the jumbotrons,
Holy Ghost doesn't bring a message like this
just to intrigue you.
And it's not for you to go home
and say, well, that was interesting.
Or, that was different.
No, no, no.
He's trying to teach you and He's trying
to teach me something.
God has something far beyond what you've had
or experienced.
If you're satisfied with what you have, God
help you.
There ought to be a cry in your
heart right now, oh God.
I'm so far from what I want to
be in you.
There's so much more that I need.
If you have an unsaved family, husband, wife,
or children, it's evident things haven't changed, so
it's evident that you need more of His
power and more of His anointing in your
life and a closer walk with Jesus.
If God's dealt with you this morning in
the annex, I want you to go not
to the screen, but between the screens.
Just step forward in between the screens.
The pastor will be there and take you
into another room and pray with you.
Here in the main auditorium, come forward only
as the Holy Spirit moves.
We're going to ask God to do a
new thing in your life.
If you're unsaved, if you're not right with
God, if you're back, join these that are
coming.
In the annex, the same.
In all the rooms, just go between the
screens.
Just step forward right now.
And up in the balcony, go on stairs
on either side and come down any aisle.
Please move in close to make room for
those that are coming, if you will, please.
God's going to do a new thing in
many lives here now.
Here's what I want to say to you
in closing.
And listen closely, because here's the key.
After he went to Jericho, then to Bethel,
the Bible says in the last verse, and
he went from thence to Mount Carmel.
Why would he go to Mount Carmel?
He went there to say, Holy Spirit, thank
you for the miracles.
Thank you for the work you're doing in
my heart.
Thank you for using me to raise the
spiritually dead.
But, oh God, more than anything else, I
want you.
He went to Mount Carmel to shut himself
in with God.
Because, you see, even after the miracles and
after God answering prayer, he said, Lord, it's
all about you.
I just want to be with you.
And if that's in your heart.
He didn't come here just to see miracles.
He didn't come here just to have your
Red Sea open or your Jordan crossed.
That all is a part of it.
This great new thing he wants to do,
a fresh new work in your heart.
But there has to be something in your
heart that says, above all of that, oh
God, I want to be a man or
woman of prayer.
I want to continue seeking your face.
So much so that if I don't even
see a miracle, if I didn't see anything,
I know I have a place with you.
Do you have your Mount Carmel that you
can escape to, that you can go to?
He went to the very place where the
fire once fell.
He went back to where Elijah had seen
miracles.
But now there are no miracles, just a
man on his knees, worshipping.
Oh God, bring us to that place.
God, we have a whole nation that when
I preach about miracles, and we talk about
miracles, that's all they want.
They want signs, wonders, and miracles.
Lord, we'll get our signs and wonders and
miracles because you want to do for us,
exceeding, abundant, above all we could ask or
think.
But oh God, more than anything else, you're
trying to draw us to yourself.
You give us the Holy Ghost to walk
in the Spirit, but that walk in the
Spirit is directly into your presence first.
The Holy Spirit will always lead us to
Carmel, to pray and seek the face of
God.
You pray this prayer with me.
Jesus, I want you more than I want
your gifts.
I want you more than miracles.
I want you more than anything in my
life.
Draw me closer to you.
Forgive me for being so busy and preoccupied
with the things of my own life.
Now Jesus, cleanse me, forgive me, pour in
the salt of your holiness into my heart
and cleanse the stream that comes out of
my mouth and out of my heart that
will be pure and righteous and holy because
of the blood sprinkled on my heart because
I believe you, Lord, that you've given me
the Holy Ghost.
You've put the Holy Spirit in me to
love the world, to minister to the lost.
Father, forgive me if I have been selfish
and kept all of this to myself.
Open the doors for me, Lord, to witness
for you.
Give me the power of the Holy Ghost
and authority of the Holy Spirit to speak
the word and to know that God will
work with me.
Now raise your hands and just thank Him
now.
Just give Him thanks.
Lord, I thank you.
I give you thanks.
What a faithful God.
God is faithful, loving, kind, merciful.
Hallelujah.