Discover the sins of his people, not to
gloat over it, but in humility to ask
God to cleanse his house that God might
have this holy temple he's looking for.
Jesus was that expression of God in the
earth that reproved the world of his darkness,
of his sin, of his disobedience.
One man, God wanted a race of people
like him.
I don't know how many thousands, millions, hundreds,
I don't know, but God wanted a race
of people like him.
And so God's decree was that he would
not leave that man in the earth as
one man, but he would ascend into the
heavens and become a high priest on the
throne of glory who would intercede before the
Father for his many other brethren in the
earth upon whom he would place the same
spirit that he had and walked in.
That he might duplicate all over the earth
the life that was in the sun, that
same life that was in the sun.
And yet, decreeing that they would only have
this in union with him, lest God would
have a thousand or a million lesser gods
in the earth.
Oh no, we only come to this in
abiding union with the Lord Jesus Christ and
we partake of all that he is.
If so be we suffer with him, then
shall we also reign with him.
You don't know if you're going to reign
on the throne of glory with him or
not.
You can sing it, it sounds nice.
Paul says if we suffer with him we
shall also reign with him.
Of course this was totally contrary to the
thought of the disciples as well as the
Jewish nation.
But it devastated the disciples when Jesus told
them he was going away.
Little by little he would show them that
his plan, the Father's plan, was better than
their idea.
What good would it do after all?
If he drove Pilate and Herod out of
Galilee and Jerusalem and took their thrones.
Maybe put some of his disciples on lesser
thrones.
If the Nero, whoever it was of that
day, the Caesar that was reigning in that
day was still on the throne of Rome.
What good would that do?
Or what good would it do if he
was able to go to Rome and dethrone
the Caesar and take his place?
Then he'd have dominion over the whole empire.
But what good would that do if there
are still principalities and powers in heavenly places?
So can't we see that God's plan was
much better?
To elevate him far above all principality and
power and might and dominion in every name
that is named.
Not only in this world but in that
which is to come.
Making him the king of all kings and
lord of all lords.
And rule and reign from that throne.
That's where he is.
But the dispensationalists, they so twist the scriptures
that the throne is supposed to be in
earthly Jerusalem.
Israel is supposed to be the holy kingdom
and all this.
That this matter of Jesus reigning on the
throne of glory as king of all kings
and lord of all lords is not part
of the theology.
But when he comes back he'll be that
king.
Let me tell you.
Oh there's many scriptures in the New Testament
that confirm it.
That when Jesus ascended into the heaven.
God placed him on the highest realm of
power and authority there is in this universe.
In this life or in the life to
come.
In this generation or in this era or
in the eras to come.
There's no higher throne ever will be any
higher throne than the one Jesus has.
He's not coming back to reign.
He went away to reign.
He's been reigning these 2000 years.
You say there's so much trouble.
God says do it that way.
Rule in the midst of your enemies.
Why don't we subdue all enemies under his
feet?
Because God said you will do my will
on the throne as faithfully as you have
done it in the earth.
And it was not God's plan to subdue
all enemies under his feet.
The first year, the second, the third or
the thirtieth or the first thousand years.
God says rule in the midst of your
enemies.
But I promised you the time will come
when all evil will be placed under your
feet.
So we're encouraged to believe perhaps we're coming
close to that hour.
I believe we are.
The spirit of God is in his people.
The same spirit that was in Jesus.
To carry on the work that Jesus started.
To do the same things that he did.
Jesus said to be greater but don't get
proud about that.
It's only because he's gone to a greater
throne.
It's not because we're greater.
And Jesus said it's good for you that
I go away.
It's expedient for you that I go away.
It's better for you that I go away.
They couldn't conceive of that.
Couldn't be better Lord.
Here you are.
You can go and take the kingdom.
God said it's better for you to come
to the highest throne in the universe.
But what about my people?
I will send forth the same spirit that's
in you upon my people.
So that not only you but tens of
thousands, tens of millions of my people all
over the earth will have the same spirit
that's in you.
We say that makes for division.
Because I've got the spirit.
You've got the spirit.
So we all let of the spirit and
so we do different things.
We don't walk in harmony unless there's one
that's in control.
Let me tell you the Lord Jesus on
the throne of glory is that one.
And those who are going to move with
him in this corporate body in the earth
are going to be a people who are
so one with him that as members of
your body, of a healthy body, every member,
every organ functions according to the intricate workings
of God in that mind, that brain that
God has given you.
Jesus has the mind of Christ.
We only have the mind of Christ as
we come into union with the head.
And we have his mind.
Oh, we're so far short of appropriating the
fullness of it.
I say it again and again.
But if this is God's intention, it will
happen.
It will be fulfilled.
And it doesn't have to take a long
time.
Though it's taken us two thousand years to
come as far as we have and we're
inclined to think it'll take another thousand or
so.
I don't know.
But God can do it very quickly.
He will do it very quickly.
For God declared in Psalm 110, the kingly
psalm, the psalm that's quoted several times in
the New Testament as pertaining to the kingdom
of Christ here and now.
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou
at my right hand till all enemies are
subdued under your feet.
Thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek.
Thou shalt send forth the rod of thy
strength in the day of my power.
My people shall be willing in the day
of my power.
Are you willing?
Well, we hope we've got some willingness there.
God says in the day of my power,
I'm going to have a people that are
willing to go my way.
So, I don't get bothered about that.
I don't get troubled about that.
God the Almighty says in the day of
my power, I'm going to have a willing
people.
But let me make it clear.
He's bringing about this willingness in His people
by a living word from His heart.
I'm not here just to give you another
teaching of sonship or something.
The time is here when God wants a
willing people.
And I'm praying, have been for the last
year or so.
God, I don't want to go out ministering
until there's an impartation of what we've been
talking about.
Because the New Covenant is not all these
doctrines.
That's the letter of it.
And we rejoice in the doctrines and we
have to have them.
Just as you have to have the blueprints
before you build a building.
Those blueprints aren't the building.
It shows you what the building's to be
like.
This is not the building.
This is not the ultimate.
This tells us what God's going to have
in the earth.
When God, the architect and builder, reveals it
to us, we'll discover that these blueprints portray
a people in the earth in union with
the sun and the image of God transcendent
with beauty and glory.
A holy bride coming down from God out
of heaven adorned as a bride for her
husband.
The city of God that has foundations whose
builder and maker is God.
The hope of all ages.
The hope of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He saw it in faith.
We're told that's why he dwelt in tents
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of the
same promise because he caught sight of a
better city than Hebron.
That's the city.
Come to the city where the Lamb is
the light.
There's no other temple in that city for
the Lord God Almighty is the temple of
it and the Lamb is the temple of
that city.
Where do we come in only if we're
in union with the Lamb?
Only if we're joined unto Him.
As truly as your fingers join to your
hand, your hand to your arm, your arm
to the rest of your body.
So God is having a body that will
live in the simplicity of a body of
life controlled by the mind of Christ.
Let's not lose that vision.
That's the only reason He gives us these
doctrines so that we'll realize where we are,
where God wants to bring us and show
us the way to get there through much
repentance and heart searching.
Not just by ourselves, but by God the
Holy Spirit penetrating our hearts so deeply that
even the soul and spirit is divided.
We don't get discouraged or troubled when we
see soulish things and spirit things because there
hasn't been that sword sharp enough to cut
us under.
But He's raising up a people who so
learn the discipline of the Holy Spirit that
when they speak, it'll be a sharp sword
out of their mouth that will cut asunder
the soul from the spirit, the joints from
the marrow and discern the thoughts and intents
of your heart.
Oh, are you saying we should have discernment?
We need more discernment to know what's right,
what's wrong.
I know it bothers me.
God wants to give us more, but He
wants that discernment to spring forth as a
quality of fruit out of love.
For He said to the Philippians, when I
found that, when I start praying for more
discernment, God reminds me of that, that your
love may abound yet more and more in
knowledge and in all judgment, that you might
approve the things that are excellent, that you
might bring forth fruit for His glory, that
your love might abound unto the place where
you know what God loves and you know
what He hates in knowledge and in all
discernment.
Well, for this time, I think we'll leave
it at that.
Before you get up and go anywhere, I
want to say a few things.
Heavenly Father, I just pray that You will...
We thank You for gathering Your people together,
Lord, in this hour.
We believe it's because You want to speak
to their hearts.
You said, Lord, that You would bring them
into the wilderness and speak to their hearts.
Because when we come into wilderness ways and
the springs dry up and the foliage turns
brown and there's no fruit or no water,
we're able to hear more clearly what You're
saying.
And over and over again You say to
the churches, he that hath an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit says.
To the churches, because we're still dull at
hearing, because we're doing pretty well, because we've
got great ministries and great gifts and wonderful
blessings from Your hand, and so we're blinded
by the blessings instead of being humbled by
them as You intended when You gave them.
We pray, Lord, Your Spirit will continue to
hover over us and leave us not to
our own selves, that even in the time
that's left in this two days and three
days of gathering, Lord, that You will penetrate
the hearts of Your people, divide soul and
spirit asunder till we see as You want
us to see.
And be willing to let the old go
for the new, not to fear about the
dissolution of the old wineskins, but to know
that You want to give us a new
heart, a new mind, put a new spirit
within us by Your creative power.
Let us not think it's some hard thing
because we think in thinking about it, we
think we have to do it, but cause
us to know, rather, it's the beautiful work
of the Spirit of God within us who
by His precious Spirit forms the mind of
Christ within us as we're prepared to forsake
the old.
And gather together this evening again, we pray,
be our will to hear words from Your
heart.
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Just reflect upon these things before we rise
up.
Ask the Lord, dear Lord, to penetrate our
hearts with these things.
Let it not be another good teaching, but
may it be as the songwriter said, begin
a revolution within us.
That in the end of the revolution we'll
find the old torn to pieces and the
new wine skin of the Spirit coming forth.
That Jesus might be glorified in all things
in His name highly exalted, not only in
the church, but amongst the heathen who are
now blaspheming Your holy name because they look
at the church and say, if that's God,
I don't want it.
Hasten the day, Lord, when they'll say the
Lord is doing great things in the midst
of those people.
God's holy name might be magnified in the
earth.
Heaven's more than a dream.
And I trust that that is our desire
to reach heaven.
But there's something more than heaven.
There's hell too.
And we need to let that sink in
our hearts that there's a hell and heaven.
But Jesus died for us.
And we all know, I'm sure everybody here
knows the plan of salvation, but there's something
more than that.
And I really appreciate how Brother George brought
that out this morning.
There's something more than being saved.
And what is that?
It is more than just having the manifestations
of the Spirit.
It is to worship God.
He wanted fellowship.
He formed us.
He created us in His own image.
But I believe that the Lord wants in
this last day, there's one thing that He
wants to see more than anything else, and
I believe that is to see a people
filled with such a burning desire and such
a love for Him, a love that lays
its life down for the brother, that esteems
the brother, the brother that we work every
day with, to esteem Him above our own
self.
And that is a real test.
Our group there in Libby, we experienced many
things in the last couple of years.
The Lord was so gracious to us.
But the Lord is wanting to bring forth
a people very shortly that is filled with
His Spirit.
And we are filled with His Spirit.
A lot of us are.
I have a small measure.
And there's a lot here that have been
walking in the Spirit for years.
I just stand here trembling in front of
you because I love you and I need
you.
I need every one of you brothers and
sisters.
I really do.
We need you.
As Amish brothers, we need you.
We came out of some very religious settings,
but we don't want to lose what we
gained.
We don't want to throw out the good
with the bad.
The Holy Spirit needs to come into our
lives to convict us of sin.
Whenever a revival breaks forth, a resurrection takes
place, it always comes from repentance first.
So that is my plea that we would
just seek the Lord in repentance and come
before Him in humbleness.
It's bringing us together.
We have fallen so far.
We have fallen very far.
And we need to realize that.
Lord, I need power.
I need Your Spirit.
Not just the power, but I'm talking about
power to lead a holy life.
A holy life that is pleasing in the
sight of the Lord.
The hidden things are revealed, exposed.
The hidden evil intentions of my heart, because
they are very evil.
I am a very evil person, but the
Lord is so gracious to me.
So we need to let the Lord deal
with that.
But I know we can talk to people.
I don't think the Bible says that most
of them are going to hell, which is
a very sad thing.
So there might be people that we meet
that aren't going to turn their heart to
the Lord.
But I just want to share what the
Lord put on my heart about this.
The power we still need, the Spirit we
need, the brokenness we need, because the Lord,
He doesn't move through doing a lot of
things.
He moves through brokenness.
But that's all I have.
God bless you.
We love you.
And we need your prayers.
Pray for us.
We'll do likewise for you.
I need to speak a word.
What I have seen tonight is one of
the greatest miracles that I have witnessed in
my whole lifetime.
These are my people.
This is my history.
This is my background.
This is my heritage.
I have sat in meetings in a large
barn where the meeting went on and on
in a religious way.
I looked around at the young people.
And I had to weep because they had
no interest.
But they were bound and they were trapped.
I said, Oh Spirit of God, when are
you going to visit these people?
They would have a forum, but they don't
have you.
Anyway, my dad had a visitation like this.
And they put him in the mental hospital
and they gave him shock treatments.
He suffered his whole life because of it.
But God is faithful.
And he hears the prayers of those who
pray for their own people.
I don't know if this isn't right, but
I just feel I'd like to leave a
little word with my Amish brothers and sisters,
if I may.
I just know the pressure, the confusion, the
condemnation all around.
It's a whole culture.
It's super enclosed.
The way we think, what we do, our
sense of worth, who we are, is totally
part of it.
Anyway, I know one of the things that
you're considering is how do we go on
as far as meeting?
What do we do in our meeting?
We don't want to do the old way,
but we don't want to throw it all
away.
Like the brother said, what's the good and
what's the bad?
From my experience, I have to say there's
no recipe and no pattern.
Only Christ himself is the recipe and the
pattern.
People always get in trouble when they think
they've finally found the way to have the
church.
And then they go after that, and they
lose Christ.
But one day it came to me, there
isn't a pattern, but there are windows.
It's like a big building, and every once
in a while, a scripture passage is a
window to look into what the church should
be like.
It's not all of it, but it gives
us a ceiling whether or not we've got
it.
And one of the windows I'd like to
share with you is in John chapter 12.
This is a wonderful story.
In John chapter 12, here is a window.
And it starts out, and Jesus, six days
after the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany where
Lazarus lived whom Jesus had raised from the
dead.
And here a dinner was given in Jesus'
honor, Martha served, while Lazarus was among those
reclining at the table with him.
Dear ones, when you come to a meeting,
the first, the central, the focal person must
be Jesus.
That's why we come in the first place.
We need to stop coming to a meeting
for anything else.
We need to stop coming for a performance.
We need to stop coming there to sing.
We need to stop coming there to preach.
We need to come there to be with
Jesus.
And Jesus, first and foremost, who else is
there?
Lazarus.
Who is Lazarus?
He that was dead and was made alive.
Once you have people who were dead and
were made alive and Jesus is there, you've
got the church.
That's it.
Isn't that amazing, wonderful?
We once were dead and now we're made
alive.
Well, of course, there's some things go on.
And the main thing that goes on is
a dinner.
A feast.
An enjoyment.
A bringing together of what the Lord has
given us that we serve Him as He
serves us.
And we have a feast of celebration.
Bringing in that which the Lord has given
us in our daily life and experience.
And if we're so filled with the Lord
in our walk and in our coming to
the Word, the meeting will overflow.
I don't know if we'll need a preacher
or not, but we just all will have
something to offer the Lord.
Don't come just to receive.
Come to bring something.
And, of course, it tells us that Martha
was there and she served.
I guess there needs to be some arrangements
made, although that's the lesser part.
But listen to this.
Then Mary took a pint of pure nard,
an expensive perfume, and she poured it on
Jesus' feet and wiped His feet with her
hair, and the house was filled with the
fragrance of perfume when we pour out our
love to Jesus.
This morning or afternoon or whenever it was,
when the sister came up here and professed
her love to Jesus, this room was filled
with sweet perfume.
To me, that was worth more than a
two-hour sermon.
Pour out our love to Jesus, and it
fills the place with fragrance.
But something else happens.
One of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, was there,
and he said, What's going on here?
What a waste.
That could have done a lot of good.
But he said this because he had the
purse.
But you know what?
His motives got exposed.
If we gather together, and Jesus is the
center, and people are there who were made
alive, and the love for Christ is poured
out, the Judas in all of us will
get exposed.
And anyone else who doesn't know this Jesus,
something will be exposed.
But Jesus took charge.
Notice, not one of the disciples.
Jesus took charge, and he said, Leave her
alone.
Well, I don't want to take too much
time, but finish looking at this passage, and
you'll see that people began to come to
see Lazarus who had been made alive.
People are going to come to your meeting
to see what on earth is going on
here.
How come these people I've made have been
made alive?
But if you read a few verses down
later, it says, even though they came to
see Lazarus, it says many of them, of
the Jews, were going over to Jesus and
putting their faith in Him.
I think when they came in and said,
Where's Lazarus?
What's going on here?
And they looked to find Lazarus.
You know what they saw Lazarus, and you
know what he was doing?
He was pointing over to Jesus.
Don't look here.
Look to Jesus.
Folks, don't look at us.
It's Jesus.
Even though they came just to see what
was going on, they ended up believing in
Jesus.
Anyway, may we all have such gatherings when
Jesus is the center, the focus.
The love is poured out.
Anything against God is exposed.
And even though people come just to find
out what the world's going on, they end
up meeting Jesus.
And they end up believing in Him.
We trust that the Lord would grant us
this experience more and more as we gather
in His wonderful name.
God is miraculous.
Loped in here.
And I think as a native people often
we have so many friends amongst them.
I don't know if there's any of them
here.
But how God is raising up powerful native
ministers and seeing these truths and cherishing them
and pressing on toward the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus, which
is nothing more than...
Well, Paul said, he declared it, that I
might know Him and the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being
made conformable unto His death if by any
means one might attain unto the resurrection out
from among the dead.
The focus is Jesus.
The focus is the Lamb on the throne.
All through the book of Revelation, the focus
is the Lamb on the throne.
All through the book.
People say, oh, what about the Lion of
the tribe of Judah?
Nobody saw a lion.
The angel said, weep not, John.
Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah
hath prevailed, and He will open the book
and loose the seals thereof.
And John looked, and it was the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world.
King of all kings and Lord of all
lords.
And what God is emphasizing all through the
book, 28 times He's seen as the Lamb
reigning on the throne reminding you and I,
especially those who are power-minded, that the
power is in the Lamb.
The power is in the cross.
The power is in the blood.
It's in the death of Jesus.
What's that song about?
Blessed be the fountain of blood for a
world of lost sinners.
Blessed be the dear Son of God.
We felt to bring out some of these
old hymns, and I noticed this morning so
few people know them.
The last two or three generations.
I suspect the enemy wanted to be clouded
the issue of the blood of Christ and
the cross because he knows he was defeated
on the cross.
Oh, dear Lord, I just pray for Your
people, Lord.
Gather here tonight.
I pray, Lord, for some who might have
been hurt, Lord, because of what happened.
Lord Jesus, as I said this morning, they
might receive it as the precious ointment on
their head which will not hurt them.
Whether I was right or wrong, Lord, it
won't hurt them if they receive it as
the precious ointment.
God, You know my love for You and
for Your house.
One thing have I desired of the Lord,
that one thing will I seek after that
I might dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life, to
behold the beauty of the Lord, to inquire
in His temple.
Purge us, O Lord, purge our desires from
all evil desire.
Purge our beings, Lord, from all selfish interests
and agendas.
Purge us, Lord, with hyssop, and we shall
be clean.
Wash us, and we shall be whiter than
snow.
You said I desire truth in the inward
parts.
In the hidden man will I discover wisdom.
Dear Lord Jesus, I know Your people have
come here from many hundreds of miles, some
of them.
And I don't think it was to have
just a convention going over all the different
doctrines.
I believe it was to discover You in
a new dimension.
And I pray again, Lord, that they will
not go home disappointed, but that they will
go home having seen Christ in a greater
dimension of His love and truth and grace
and mercy.
That Christ shall have been magnified in their
hearts and lives.
That You will have wrought within them a
new work of cleansing and purifying.
Because this is the day, we believe, when
You are purifying unto Yourself a holy people,
a glorious church.
That You might present it unto Yourself holy
and without blemish, You said, by the washing
of water by the Word.
We pray that Word, O God, that living
Word, that Word from Your heart will continue
to wash and cleanse Your people from all
defilement of flesh and spirit.
We think, Lord, of Joshua the high priest
standing there in vision.
Zechariah saw him clothed with his dirty garments
and in vision he heard the accuser saying,
burn him, destroy him, he's fit for burning.
But God stepped forth and said, is not
this a bran plucked out of the fire?
Take away the filthy garments from him and
clothe him with change of raiment.
God, we desire that there be such a
quickening Word going forth even this today and
tomorrow, Lord.
That somehow there be that Word coming from
the courts of heaven saying, take away the
filthy garments of My people and clothe them
with change of raiment.
Put a fair mitre upon their head that
they might be priests unto God in My
house.
That God's house might be glorified and sanctified
and made pure and holy.
That God the Lord of glory might come
and dwell in it with all His fullness.
We believe this is Your intention to so
cleanse and purge Your house that You might
find a habitation fit for Yourself where You
would feel comfortable and at home.
Therefore, the prophet said, for Zion's sake I
will not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's
sake I will not rest.
God, You said You would not rest until
the righteousness of Zion went forth as brightness
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth.
We thank You, Lord, that You're not going
to rest until this happens with Your people
who are longing for that rest.
You are longing for that rest.
And so, You're finding a habitation in them
even now because Your heart is compatible with
them.
And so, You declare You set watchmen upon
the walls of Jerusalem who will cry unto
thee day and night saying, give him no
rest till he establish until he make Jerusalem
a praise in the earth.
Thank You, Lord, that You've put the burden
of Your heart on ours.
We thank You that in some small measure,
Lord, we've found something compatible with You.
You're longing for a holy people.
You're longing for a righteous people.
You're longing for a people in whom will
radiate the light of God that the nations
might see that light.
Lord, we thank You for showing us Your
heart and Your desire that we might pursue
that desire.
And we pray You will give us grace,
much grace to pursue the desire not of
our hearts, but of Yours.
But then, the desire of Your heart, let
it be ours.
Let there be no distinction, but let Your
will, Lord, be our will.
Your desire, our desire.
Your work, our work.
Your words, our words.
Your life, our life.
For only then is the world going to
see Jesus revealed.
Hasten that day, Lord.
We feel the stirrings of it in the
winds of God.
We feel that stirring, Lord, that You're saying
the time has come when God is arising
in His church and therefore He says to
His people, Arise and shine for Thy light
has come.
The glory of the Lord has risen upon
Thee.
Even as darkness covers the earth and grows
darkness to people, the light is arising upon
His people and His glory is beginning to
shine upon them.
God, we pray that You will be very
present in the remainder of this service, Lord,
tonight and tomorrow in such a very real
and vivid way that there will be an
impartation from Your heart that the Spirit of
truth will be given full authority in our
midst that He might take from You and
impart it unto us.
For therefore, You left Him in our hearts
and lives that He might reach out to
Your heart and reveal the living Christ and
all His glorious virtues, excellencies, that Your people
might be appraised in the earth.
We ask it in Your name, Lord Jesus.
Let all the people say, Amen.
Lord, You remind me that we've just uttered
Your name.
You said, I am the Amen.
Your people have said, Amen.
They agree with You, Lord.
For Thou art the Amen.
And, O God, as we have said, So,
Lord, let it be.
So, You're the Amen who says it's going
to be.
For that's my name, it shall be, even
as I have said.