========================================================================
  TIME OF PREPARATION (VIDEO)
  by George Warnock
========================================================================

Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of carrying the burden of
God's heart, highlighting the need for a people who are prepared to
intercede, prophesy, and wait on the Lord to bring forth His purposes.
It focuses on the significance of being in union with Christ, sensing
the travail of God's heart, and being willing to wait and intercede
until God's will is established on earth.

Topics: "Intercession", "Union with Christ"
Scripture References: Isaiah 62:6, Ezekiel 37:1, Luke 2:25, Habakkuk 2:1, 1 Corinthians 2:14

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This sermon emphasizes the importance of carrying the burden of God's
heart, highlighting the need for a people who are prepared to intercede,
prophesy, and wait on the Lord to bring forth His purposes. It focuses
on the significance of being in union with Christ, sensing the travail
of God's heart, and being willing to wait and intercede until God's will
is established on earth.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I felt going around like this, I just started doing this, I felt it
wasn't just a case of, well, coming to give a certain teaching, but I
felt that the Lord would want to impart something to his people. You
could, I could stay at home and write and send your writings, and of
course I've been doing that, but if the Lord sees fit to send us to
God's people, I sort of feel it's for somewhat of a different purpose.
And Paul, when he wanted to go to Rome, he said his desire was that he
might impart unto them something.

And then he went on to explain that, that is, that I with you might be
comforted together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. So
that not only was he desiring to give, but he expressed the desire that
there be a mutual impartation of faith. So I trust that the Lord will,
I've been encouraged where I've gone to feel that the Lord has
ministered something to people, I think gave them something that they
could lay hold on, something to challenge them, something to encourage
them further in the ways of the Lord.

But I believe we've come to a very, very critical hour in the history of
the world and in the history of God's people, a very critical hour, an
hour when we can expect change. And we accept that, I guess. But until
the change comes, perhaps we don't realize how devastating a change it
might be.

So I believe it is a time of preparation, primarily, a time of
preparation. Not that God isn't doing certain things in the world, but
preeminently it's a time of preparation to get a people ready for the
coming of the Lord, not only to get a people ready, but when that people
is ready, that they'll have such a manifestation of the life of Christ
in them, that they will be what Jesus asked for in his prayer to the
Heavenly Father. They would be that people in such union with him that
the world would believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

And Jesus said that's all it's going to take, a people in union with
Jesus as Jesus is with the Father, to make the world know and be assured
that Jesus is the Son of God. That's all it takes. And so rather than
keeping that as our vision and our hope and as our desire and until it
consumes us, you say it doesn't work, of course, it doesn't work, so we
have our own way.

Missionary programs, radio programs, TV programs, outreaches, books,
tracts, because God's way doesn't work. Or if it works, it isn't
practical, or of course it's there in the Bible, but you know. What can
we do? Jesus said when he has a people that are one with him as he is
one with the Father, that the world might believe that he's the Son of
God.

It's so romantic, there's not enough missionaries, preachers, tracts,
books, not enough money. I tell this little story almost everywhere I go
because I calculated this many, many years ago and I mentioned it once
to a former pastor of mine who spoke of the great need for the
missionary program and I mentioned it to him and it literally staggered
him. Before I come, I looked up the National Geographic Atlas I got and
roughly there's around 150,000 towns, villages, cities in the world.

Probably many more than that, but in the Atlas there's at least that
many. So I said, okay, let's start with one Christian in each village,
each town, each city. I don't care how big it is, how small it is.

One Christian with this life I'm talking about, with this union with
Christ and with that power and living reality of Christ in them that
enables them to reproduce their kind. The Church of Jesus Christ is
reproducing its kind, and because we're sterile, dead, ineffective,
that's the kind of Christians we are. You wonder sometimes if they're
really Christians or not, and if they are, they have the same kind of
life we have, which is not very much.

So one Christian with this vital life of Christ, just reproducing his
kind to make two in one day's time, and that work goes on so that the
next day there's two now, and the next day there's four, and we're
starting with 150,000, so the next day there's 300,000. That's all over
the world, I mean, just take your little town, one here, next day two,
next day four, next day eight, by word of mouth, without radio, without
TV, without books, tracts, in two weeks the whole world is one to
Christ. I'm not saying that's what God's going to do, I'm saying that's
the principle of life, that's the principle that operated in the New
Testament church.

3,000 were one to the Lord, and 5,000, and probably within a matter of a
few weeks, 20,000-30,000 people in Jerusalem, the church in Jerusalem,
scattered all over, meeting in homes, scattered, but I mean, they had
all things in common, and in as far as was possible, they would get
together and have a little fellowship in somebody's home, somewhere down
the street, someone in their home, and the word of the Lord grew and
increased and multiplied until they had a great Christian community in
Jerusalem. Occasionally, meeting in Solomon's temple, until persecution
arose, the church was there scattered in Jerusalem, and oh, they
rejoiced in that communal way of life they had, because Christians were
together, they had all things in common, they'd get together in
Solomon's porch, and then they'd go to their homes, and Believers would
be added to them, added to them, added to them, until we read it as
multiply, the word of the Lord grew and multiplied. And then, having
learned the ways of the Lord and come to know him, God scattered the
church.

And that's God's way of causing this principle of multiplication to
work, it's scattering! It's not when you get 30,000 people in Jerusalem,
you get together and try to build a temple to seat them all. It's that
they become the church of the living God. You are the church of Christ
and the earth, and wherever you are, you're the church.

And yet, we can't get away from that concept of going to church. God
wants us to be in the church where we are. Bring somebody to church and
get them saved.

No, you're the church out there, get them saved out there. I realize we
don't have that kind of life. But with that kind of life, one Christian,
just one in New York, one in Los Angeles, reproducing himself and just
bringing two people to the Lord, and that's all he does.

With those two people having this kind of life, they bring each two
people, and in two weeks the whole world is one to the Lord. I'm talking
about the principle of it. And we say it doesn't work, and so what have
we got? A vast machine, a vast ecclesiastical machine to try and reach
the ends of the earth with the gospel.

Especially now we've got radio and TV and satellites and everything. Oh,
how wonderful. And we're further behind now than we were a hundred years
ago.

More heathen in the world today than there ever was. You say God's way
doesn't work? There's a way that doesn't work. God's way is that people
simply walking in the anointing of Jesus.

That requires vision, requires preparation. And I believe that God is
preparing that kind of a people in the earth. Whether God sees fit to do
it in two weeks or two months or two years or twenty years, I don't
know.

He's only needs one in your city, one in your village, that's all he
needs. With that kind of a life, that kind of a life can reproduce
Christ in others. God's going to bring forth this kind of a people.

I know we're in end time. I know the Lord is coming soon, but I know
also that he's coming for a prepared people. He always visits a prepared
people.

At any time of visitation in the earth, God has a prepared people for
that time of visitation. He always has a prepared people. Somehow we've
got a doctrine of the coming of the Lord that says, well, we're saved,
we're washed in the blood, you can come any time, Lord.

I'm not saying it'd be lost. I'm saying that God wants a prepared people
to usher in the coming of the Lord, even as he did the first time. Why
did God require prepared people the first time he came? They were ready
for him.

They were longing for him. They were in bondage under Rome. They were
God's chosen people.

They had learned theologians, scribes and Pharisees who had all the
doctrines about the coming of the Lord. They had it down very well.
There was no problem there as to their understanding of the coming of
the Lord.

What need for preparation? We're ready. We're in bondage from Rome. We
want Messiah to come and deliver us.

But God would usher in his Messiah with a great preparatory work,
because the work that he was going to do did not conform to the ideas of
the scribes and Pharisees. God's ways were different. God's ways are
always different than man's ways.

So it was needful if God was going to establish the kingdom of heaven in
the earth, it was needful that God send forth a pure voice that would
prepare the hearts of the people for that day. We've got the same
situation in the world today, the same thought that they had in Jesus'
day, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, we're God's people, we're going
to take the kingdom, we're going to rule and reign with Christ. We've
got the same concept.

But we don't understand the principles of God's kingdom. We just think
one day, whenever that point comes along, 1993, whenever it comes, God
slaps it on the earth. He doesn't do that.

He planted the kingdom of heaven in the earth 2,000 years ago, something
that neither the scribes or the Pharisees or Jesus' own disciples could
understand. That God, Jesus, came to earth to begin to plant the seeds
of the kingdom in the earth, that the kingdom of God might spring out of
the earth, not flop down from heaven, spring out of the earth, and to
grow in the earth until the time of harvest. The kingdom, to grow in the
earth until the time of harvest, which they thought might take 15, 20,
30, 100 years, we don't know what they thought.

Even in Paul's day it seemed that they thought that the day of the Lord
had arrived, the Thessalonians. Paul says, no, there are certain things
that have to happen. So they thought it might have happened then.

God keeps that as a secret. It's gone on some 2,000 years. And the Lord
still hasn't come, because he's been waiting for that harvest to mature.

Only God knows when he, according to his own wisdom and knowledge, says,
the harvest is ready. Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the harvest of
the earth is ready. Only God knows when that hour is.

So all we can do is seek to do the will of God in the earth until that
time comes. I believe it's very, very near at hand. I know there seems
to be much to do, there is much to do.

But according to that little story I told you, God can do it so fast.
When God gets this people, he can do it so quickly. It's staggering when
we think of it.

With that kind of life in a people, without any program whatsoever, just
with that kind of life that's so in union with Christ that we have the
ability to reproduce our kind, to reproduce Christ in the lives of
others. In a matter of days or a few weeks, God can encompass the whole
earth. It's mathematically correct, you figure.

But somehow we get used to the ways of the Church, and we figure, well,
that's the way. And the Church gets further and further away from God
through the centuries until there's hardly any semblance today to the
New Testament Church. The people who simply became the Church of the
Living God, met together wherever there was a place to meet, in homes,
or Paul rented a school house one time, they were the Church.

Because they were the Church of Jesus Christ, according to God's
intention, they were the shining forth of God's glory in the earth. So
that when this Church went, whether it was sent forth by the Lord or
scattered by persecution, where they went, other churches sprang up.
They reproduced their kind in the earth because they were a seed that
was scattered and sprung up.

So that all over the empire, churches sprung up in the midst of great
persecution and opposition. Without radio, without TV, without books,
any of that, the Church grew and multiplied for some 300 years until the
Roman Empire was crippled because of the impact of a little stone that
was cut out of the mountains without hands. It was crippled.

We might have thought maybe the Lord would come now and put an end to
this reign of evil, judge them, separate the righteous from the wicked.
No, somehow, according to his own wisdom, he let the Church go on and on
for almost 2,000 years. And a great apostasy set in, a great falling
away.

The Church had been so weary of the persecution that when Constantine
came along and said, It's all right, I'm a Christian now, and I'm going
to favor the Christians, many of them thought the kingdom of God was
beginning to come. They fell into the trap. They made their bishops who
were the intellectuals, they knew the Roman language, Latin and Greek,
as well as the native language of the country where they were.

So they were the intellectuals, and so they became Presidents and
Governors and Mayors and Prime Ministers of countries. Constantine took
his armies who were once heathen and took them down to the waters and
baptized them. He said, Now you're Christian.

Now we're going to fight in the name of the Lord. Almost overnight, a
great apostasy set in, and we've never been extricated from that
Babylonian captivity, never got away from it. There have been movements
toward that end at times which seemed that there was a little bit of a
withdrawing from Babylon.

Churches never got away from that separation of state and church. Make
it legal, make it a part of the Constitution. Church and state are
separate, that doesn't solve a thing.

We're intertwined with the world, we adopt worldly principles. The
Church is completely taken over with worldly principles. Financially,
economically, the Church growth system is all based on worldly
principles.

If you go this route, you can increase your church, you've got
businesses set up that are set up on a financial basis to go to
different churches and say, We'll come to your church and we'll show you
how you can double your church congregation in so many months or years
if you'll pay us a fee and we'll show you how to do it. You just follow
these principles all worked out by computer, you can do it. One man told
me he was in that.

He said he was sincerely in it and he thought he was doing the Lord's
will and he said, There's no problem if you want to increase your
church, it's all computerized, we can show you exactly how to do it. And
the Church has fallen into that. So we think it's so wonderful, a church
that seats 2,000 people and now it's crammed full so we're going to sell
it and build on it and seat 6,000.

We're all excited about church growth, bringing in the principles of the
world and there's no life in it. Not reproducing Christ, bringing in
Babylonish methods, bringing in the music from Babylon, bringing in the
philosophies and the culture, some of which even comes from the old
cult, but now it's being incorporated into our textbooks, into textbooks
that are used in Bible schools. Staying in a home where a young man had
loaned me his room, I was staying there for meetings and I just happened
to glance through one of his books.

He'd come from a famous Bible school in Canada. One of his textbooks had
all this philosophy written out. I'd heard about it, you know, that
we're all categorized as, what's some of those, sanguine, and what's
some more? You're sanguine or you're this or that, four or five
different categories.

That teaching went all through that little town where we are and the
young people are excited about it because some teacher came along and
taught them. Here in this book I found that it came from the writing of
a Greek philosopher, Hippocrates. He's the one who started it.

The Greek philosopher knew nothing about God and Paul says the Greeks by
their wisdom knew not God and now their philosophies are in Bible
schools and seminaries and we don't realize that the church has been
completely taken over by the Babylonian system. Economically,
financially, and God's people aren't aware of it. They're just not aware
of it.

So wherever there is a need for a prepared people on this earth today,
God must have this people who go forth in the anointing of Christ in
this hour to put to naught this self-anointing that's on the church, a
self-anointing, an anointing of the flesh which God says you must not do
is anoint the flesh. Nor shall you make any kind of anointment that's
like the one that God has ordained. Neither shall you make anything like
it.

It shall be holy unto you. And God grant that God's people in this hour
will begin to catch the vision of coming into union with Christ and to
realize how far we are from that. For if we don't realize how far we are
from it, we just coast along thinking well, here we are in union with
Christ and we're so far from it.

God is doing that and he wants to stir up our hearts, bring about a
great repentance in his people to say, Lord, we have not gone your way.
We want to. And if we know, and if we are assured it's end time, that
doesn't mean we double our efforts.

It means we stop our efforts and seek God and find God's way. Because
it's end time, double your efforts. Send in more money.

Send out more missionaries. Send out more people from Bible schools to
evangelize the world. The time is short.

God's way is so clear. Come into union with Christ. That's the answer.

It's difficult. You can't do that. Easier to raise money.

Easier to have a TV program. Easier to get millions of dollars rolling
in. Get one man to preach the gospel.

You can't do it. Every passing day there's more heathen in the world
than there was yesterday. Every day that comes.

With the people walking in the anointing of Jesus, though it's going to
mean there's going to be great tribulation, great affliction in the
world, in the process of time, and I don't know how long it's going to
take, in the process of time all the inhabitants of the world will know
that there's a Lamb that reigns on the throne. You read it in the book
of Revelation. The time comes when they say, hide us from the face of
the Lamb, for the day of his wrath has come.

They're not saying it now. You find a hundred scientists to give you a
good scientific explanation for everything that happens. They'll
continue to do that until when God increases his righteous judgments in
the earth and has an anointed people in the earth bearing witness to the
exalted and reigning Christ, the world is going to know that there's a
Lamb on the throne, one with whom they have to stand in judgment.

They're going to know it. God has this people that he's after. God must
have a prepared people for that day.

It's not just something that God says the time has come, here's my
kingdom, that you rejected two thousand years ago, here it is now. Even
the first coming came in with a prepared people. Why a prepared people,
Lord? We're ready.

We're your people. We've got the promises. We know where Christ is going
to be born, Bethlehem of Judea.

They never found him, never saw him. Only those whose hearts were
prepared saw him. Though he was openly revealed to Israel, born in
Bethlehem of Judea, taken down to the temple, dedicated, very few saw
him.

But you see, God had to prepare a people because the coming of the
Christ was going to involve a manifestation of the kingdom of heaven and
the earth that was going to expose the hearts of people. And God wanted
a prepared people so that when that day came, he would have a remnant
who would believe and enter in because of the preparatory work that God
had done. God knew that if he didn't prepare the hearts of their people,
the Messiah would come and there would be no fruit from it unless he
prepared his way.

So instead of just sending Jesus, he sent John the Baptist, who was a
voice of the Lord, crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the
Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be exalted and every
mountain and hill shall be brought low and the rough places shall be
made smooth to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. So John the
Baptist was that clear voice of God for that day and generation, a
clear, pure word from God.

Do you think God's going to let the second coming of the Lord come
without having a people who send forth a pure, unadulterated, crystal
clear word from the mouth of God? God's not going to do that. He's going
to have a clear voice coming forth from the temple. That's why he seeks
to get his temple ready and cleansed, that there might come forth that
clear prophetic voice from the people of the Lord.

As I've said so often, you can read and study everything you know about
deception and seduction. Study it all, get it all down pat. It's not
going to make you and I immune to seduction and deception in this hour.

The only thing that's going to prepare your heart and mind for the
onslaught of deception that's coming over the world and over the Church
is abiding in the anointing. It's the only thing that's going to prepare
you. Look how knowledgeable you are in the realm of the satanic.

Until you come to know God and are walking in union with the anointing
of Christ and abiding in him, you're not going to be immune to the
deception that comes. That's God's antidote for deception, abiding in
the anointing. Read all of these books and you don't see any emphasis on
that.

The anointing that he has given is that thing which abides in you, which
causes you to abide in the Father and in the Son. The anointing. So John
the Baptist came as a clear, pure voice from God.

When God desires to bring forth a change in the midst of his people, he
prepares the ground. He prepares it sovereignly. We could go through the
scriptures and point out how God prepared the way whenever God would
bring about a change.

For when God's people go into apostasy, God may wait many, many years
sometimes. He may wait, but when the cup of iniquity is full, God comes
on the scene with the prepared people. In the days of Eli, God had sent
a man of God to Eli and warned him, the priesthood has become corrupt,
your sons have become corrupt.

Eli was a good man, but he didn't know what to do about it. He was not
prepared to deal drastically with the situation, and so corruption
abounded in the priesthood. And all the while, the time came when God
says, I'm going to have to wipe it out.

Before he wiped it out, he prepared a people for God's new order. He
prepared a people for it. He knew the story of man.

He cried unto God for a man-child. Perhaps she didn't know all the
implications of the burden of her heart. All she knew that as a woman in
Israel, it was a reproach not to bear a man-child.

She cried unto God for a man-child, and seemingly God didn't hear. And
Penina, of course, she had children and sort of persecuted Hannah,
because she was fruitful, and why aren't you? And so she sort of had
pride of heart, because somehow the Lord enabled her to bring forth
children, and Hannah, well, you know, God must be displeased with you.
But God loved Hannah.

Because he loved her, he kept her barren. You say, that doesn't sound
like God. I know.

There's a hand of people in the earth whom God has kept barren because
he loves them, because they love him, and God loves them, and there's a
mutual relationship, but they're not effective. It doesn't seem to them
that they're being effective in the earth. They can't boast about having
accomplished anything.

They can't point to results that they have, like so many others. And if
you'd just do it the way we do it, you'd have results. But these people
just know that they want God with all their hearts, and they want to
walk in the anointing.

They want to walk in truth. God doesn't seem to help them. They remain
barren.

So Hannah kept crying unto the Lord, crying unto the Lord, until she
came to a place of desperation. When she went down to the temple to
worship with Elkanah, once again that burden was heavy in her heart. But
somehow God put it in her heart to pray a special prayer on this
occasion.

And the prayer was, O Lord, if you will hear the voice of thine
handmaiden, will give thine handmaiden manchild, then I'll give him unto
you, and he'll be yours all the days of his life. And when she made that
prayer and meant it, and God knew she meant it, God heard it. And Eli
said, Woman, you appear to be drunk.

Put away the wine. She said, No, my Lord. I'm speaking as a woman of
deep grief and sorrow, because only her lips moved.

That's how humble her prayer was. She couldn't even pray an effectual
prayer, a loud prayer, just her lips moved. Eli says, Go home, and the
Lord grant your request.

She took it as a prophetic word from this man of God, for he was a man
of God. But he's at the head of an apostate system that didn't know how
to deal with it. God was going to deal with it.

Eli was not prepared to do anything drastic. I believe there's many good
men out there in the Church, but they're just not prepared to be
drastic. In a time of apostasy, it takes a radical.

In high places, if there's a man in high places who would dare to become
a I believe God would do something. But that might cause the boat to
rock. That might cause some schism in the system, and we don't want
that.

So God has to come in with a mighty hand and smash it to pieces. He's
going to do it. So when she had made that commitment, Lord, if you'll
give me this son, I'll give him to you, and he'll be yours.

So there's a people praying the same prayer, Lord, if you'll just bring
forth this man-child, this corporate man in the earth, we will not claim
him, we'll give him to you, he'll be yours all the days of his life.
God's going to hear that kind of a prayer. But I have to say that we've
got to come to that place of desperation where we'll begin to pray that
kind of prayer.

How, you say, can we come to that place where we'll pray those effectual
prayers? I know of no other way than to walk in such union and such
harmony with the Lord that you'll feel the impulse of his own heart. As
you and I begin to feel the longing and the impulse of the heart of God,
then we partake of God's desire. Otherwise we declare the word, give
good teachings, have a nice meeting, do the best we can for the Lord.

But when we begin to touch the heart of God, then that which is the
burden of God's heart becomes my burden. And it will be heavy upon you
as it is heavy upon God. For there's a heavy burden on God's heart.

God says, I'm like a woman in travail, he says, I'm in anguish to bring
forth. God is in great travail, there's a burden upon him to bring forth
a people that will show forth his glory in the earth. And so Isaiah
said, for Zion's sake, I will not hold my peace.

And as I read that one day, I said, no, it's not just Isaiah, it's the
Spirit of God, for he wrote by the Spirit. It's the burden of God's
Spirit saying, for Zion's sake, I will not hold my peace. And for
Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go
forth as brightness and the salvation as a lamp that burneth.

It's the burden of the Spirit of God. He says, I can't rest until the
righteousness of Zion goes forth as a lamp that burneth. God can't rest,
he's burdened, because he doesn't have a true representative of people
in the earth.

That's why he made man to begin with, that he might have one like his
counterpart in the earth, one in his image. This man in the earth might
truly represent the God that created him. We know the story of the fall
and we know the story of redemption, but how many of us realize the
implications of redemption, that God might after so many years of human
failure, eventually bring forth another man in his image, the perfect
Adam, the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, you say he's done that. I know he's done that, but because he
loved him so much, this one, this Christ, this one in whom was all his
delight, he says, I want a family like him. That's why he didn't leave
Jesus in the earth.

God had found the total delight of his heart in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why didn't he leave him here these 2,000 years in this world that is in
such turmoil and chaos? At least there might be one man on the earth
that loved God with all his heart, mind, soul, spirit, one man on the
earth who walked in truth. The reason he didn't leave him here was
because God had a better plan, that in enthroning him at his right hand,
he might be able to bring forth a family in the earth like him, a family
like him, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.

God will not rest until this happens. God doesn't find any rest in the
works of our hands. He finds no delight, no true joy in this great
religious system in the world.

He finds delight only in his Son. Only as we come into union with God's
Son are we going to delight the heart of our God. So John the Baptist
came to prepare the Messiah of the Christ.

It's going to be so strange, so different, so totally unlike the
ecclesiastical system of the day, that if the hearts of the people were
not prepared, they would not be ready to greet the Messiah of the
Christ. It's going to be totally different. We're inclined to think that
when God moves, he'll just move in the church somehow and lift it a
little higher.

But as he has dealt with the church, so he dealt with Israel. He had to
find a prepared people. We're not in the mainstream necessarily of the
religious order of the day.

If God wanted to change the system, do away with the apostasy, he'd have
to move beyond that and find someone through whom he could work. He
found Hannah, brought forth Samuel, who had a clear, pure word from the
Lord. I'm emphasizing that.

That was back in the days of the law. That was back in the dispensation
that Paul says, had no glory at all, by reason of the surpassing glory
we have in the new covenant. No glory at all.

God raises up a man who had such a pure, clear word, that God didn't let
one word fall to the ground. He spoke a pure word from God that all
Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that this was the voice of God. If God
isn't going to do that today, it's going to come through the travail of
a people who long to see God's glory more than anything else.

When God sends forth his glory, they will not begin to tamper with it
and touch it and lay hold of it and try to take it to themselves. So
once again, there was to be a great change in Israel. The Messiah was
going to come and all Israel knew that the Messiah, his appearing was at
hand.

We're told that everybody was in expectation of the Messiah. God says,
I've got to raise up a pure voice. Once again, he chose a barren woman,
Elizabeth.

He used her to bring forth his Son that would be the instrument that
would prepare the hearts of the people for the coming of the Messiah,
for if their hearts were not prepared, they would miss him. So they
would come to him, the religious people, the publicans, the sinners, the
soldiers. They'd come to the Prophet.

He was thinking of this soldier in the armies of Rome. He somehow
believed in the Jews' religion. He recognized that God must be working
there.

He heard about this Prophet. He got leave of absence. He wanted to go
down to get a word from the Prophet.

And the other soldiers may be scoffing at him. Where are you going? I
want to go and get a word from the Prophet. Who's that? John the
Baptist.

Oh, that guy that lives out there in the wilderness, that maniac, living
on locusts and wild honey and dressed with camel's hair. Well, I think
he's got the word of the Lord. How many miles does he have to travel to
come to John the Baptist? What do they do? Don't hurt anybody.

Be content with your wages. But I came to hear the word of a Prophet.
What's the word for you? Do violence to no man and be content with your
wages.

Seems so insignificant. What's that got to do with the coming of the
Lord? Very much. Because when this Messiah come, he wouldn't start
driving out the Romans and setting up the children of Israel under their
own vine and fig tree and giving them places of prominence and making
them rich and wealthy.

He was going to tell them that the poor were the ones that he came to
preach the gospel to. And he was going to declare the same message, if
you've got abundance, share with those who don't have any. Oh, we don't
want to hear that.

We want to hear a message that encourages us to get rich and increased
with goods, become prosperous. That's the kingdom. No, it's not.

And so we have the same deception over God's people today that lingered
in the minds of the Israelites. When Messiah comes, he'll drive out the
Romans. We'll have a kingdom like they had in the days of Solomon,
perhaps, or at least in the kingdom of David.

We'll have that glory back again. God was not going to do that because
God has always been interested in bringing man back to his own heart.
Though he established these kingdoms and these various orders throughout
the history of his people, his ultimate desire was always to eventually
find for himself a temple in the earth in whom he might live and move
and walk and have his being.

Be content with your wages. Don't strive after earthly things. Be
content with what you've got.

Publicans would come to him. We want a word from the prophet. Don't take
any more than what's coming to you.

Others would come. You've got two coats. Give to one who doesn't have
any.

There doesn't seem to be much depth in it, does there? But God was going
to establish a kingdom, and the principles of the kingdom were going to
be so different. But to that was proceeded from the religious order of
the day that God had to prepare the ground. Hear the Lord Jesus
enunciating the principles of the kingdom, Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

So different because the kingdom of God is primarily righteousness and
peace, joy and the Holy Ghost. That's the kingdom. ...brought forth the
true joy of the Holy Spirit.

And so to Elizabeth, when Zechariah was born, this John the Baptist,
ordained of the Lord to rise up in Israel and give them a pure, clear
word that nobody could mistake its meaning. And all the people, the
common people, recognized him as a great prophet from the Lord. You
think God isn't going to raise up a clear voice today? He's going to
raise up a clear voice, but it's not going to be just in one man.

It's going to be in this corporate man. He had the one man, John the
Baptist, and the one Messiah, Christ. But God wants a family like Jesus
in the earth.

Like him. And I say like him. I don't mean having that same office that
he's got.

I mean having the same nature. So Paul says, He that sanctifyeth, and
they who are sanctified, are all of one, all of one nature, all of one
kind. Therefore, he that sanctifyeth is not ashamed to call them
brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst
of the congregation while I sing thy praise.

So he that sanctifyeth are ascended Lord and high priest, and those who
are sanctified in the earth are all of one kind, all of one nature. He,
of course, having the highest office in the universe, he'll always have
that. A name that's above every name, but a people in the earth, drawing
from his very life and being his true brethren in the earth, are takers
of his same nature.

That's why God took him away, because he knew if he took him away, he
could send forth the spirit that he had into a corporate people in the
earth. And so God had shepherds ready to see the Messiah the night he
was born. Their hearts were prepared, not because they knew all the
scriptures, but because they were humble.

The humble shall see thereof and be glad. God revealed to them where the
Messiah was. And then, 40 days later, he was taken down to the temple,
to be revealed in the temple.

The temple, that's where the religious people were. That's where the
scribes and Pharisees held sway. That's where the learned theologians
were.

Surely they'll see the Messiah. When Christ is taken right there into
the temple, but no, they couldn't see him. Why? Their hearts were not
prepared.

They knew the scriptures. The wise men said, where is he that is to be
born King of the Jews? Oh, down in Bethlehem, five or six miles down the
road. Quoted the scripture for him.

Never went down to investigate. Why should they? The Messiah comes,
he'll come to the temple. We'll herald him as our Messiah.

He came to the temple. They didn't see him. There was a few in the
temple whose hearts were prepared, and they saw him.

One man by the name of Simeon. Well, there was a man in Jerusalem whose
name was Simeon. Simeon, you know, was one of the twelve sons of Jacob.

Means hearing. So Simeon had this name, hearing. I think it was probably
prophetically given to him.

Because he would be a man who would hear from God. Say man was just and
devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was
upon him.

And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see
death. Before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And so here was a man,
Simeon.

We don't know what he performed by way of good works. I'm sure he was a
good man. It says he was just and devout.

Doesn't tell us of any programs or any ministry that he performed. The
important thing was that he was waiting for the consolation of Israel.
And the Holy Ghost was upon him.

And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see
death. Before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And so he might have done
some wonderful things.

He may not. I don't know. But the Holy Spirit didn't see fit to record
it.

This was what was important. That he was full of the Holy Ghost. And the
Holy Ghost was upon him.

And that he had a revelation from the Lord. And because of that
revelation that he had from the Lord. That revelation had become a heavy
burden upon his heart.

We talk much about illumination, revelation. And I know it is a day when
God is giving revelation. But it will not profit us.

Or anyone else. Until that revelation becomes a burden. Upon us.

Not just something we know. Until it becomes a burden upon us. And so
when God gave Isaiah, revelation became a burden.

And he says, I can't hold my peace. Isaiah is saying that. But because
he was one with the Spirit, at least in that anointing.

He was just sharing the burden of the Spirit of God. So he shared God's
burden. You ever wondered why? The prophetic word that came to the
prophets of the Old Testament.

Was often called the burden of the Lord. The burden of the Lord. Jonah
didn't have the burden of the Lord.

He had a prophetic voice. But he had no burden. And God failed to
fulfill his prophecy.

Which he was wishing God would do. Nothing Jonah liked better than for
God to destroy the Ninevites. Because they were rising up as a great
threat to Israel.

And God didn't fulfill his prophecy. He pouted. He didn't have the
burden for the people.

He just wished God would wipe them out. And that's why he ran away.
Because he said in his heart.

I know Lord you must have some sneaky thing in mind. If you're sending
me down there to preach to the Ninevites. The chances are you've got
some motive in mind.

When I preach to them. Maybe they'll repent and you'll spare them. And
you won't wipe them out.

I'm not going to do it. Wipe them out. He didn't have the burden of the
Lord.

But God used him. Brought him down. Very low.

So that when he went to Nineveh. He went with a prophetic word. From the
heart of God.

Hoping that God would do what he said. Only to find that the people
repented. And God repented.

To Jonah's horror. And to Jonah's anger. Pouting because God didn't wipe
them out.

But most of the prophets had a weight of God upon their shoulders.
Because of the word God gave them. The burden of Habakkuk.

The burden of Amos. What am I saying? That God is requiring of this
people. Whom he is joining to his heart.

To draw so nigh to him. That we'll begin to feel and sense. And know the
burden of God's heart.

So it'll become our burden. And when it becomes our burden. All we can
do is be filled with the Spirit.

And walk before the Lord. And wait. For God to do it.

Wait for God to do it. For God won't let you and I tamper. With the
bringing into being of this corporate man in the earth.

Any more than he would let anybody tamper with that word that came to
Mary. The Holy Ghost shall come upon you. And the power of the highest
shall overshadow you.

Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you. Shall be
called the Son of God. Nobody can tamper with that.

All she can do is say. Be it unto me according to thy word. God won't
let any apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher.

I don't care how great or mighty he is. Tamper with this work that God
is bringing forth. And structure it and order it and arrange it.

And control it. That's why he has to move away from the ecclesiastical
system. Because if God does it in there.

They'll tamper with it. He has to do it with the people. Who are saying
Lord Jesus we wait for you to do it.

There's nothing we can do to produce this anointing. Only to hear your
word and seek to be filled with the spirit and walk in the spirit. And
wait for the Lord to do it.

You see we've been waiting so long. The most grievous thing perhaps that
God's people have ever had to undergo. Was God's tardiness.

God is always so slow. A nephew of my brother-in-law. Had a little son.

I think five or six years old. And he was in deep trouble. You know how
little children get in such deep trouble.

Dad says well just pray about it. Oh he says I have prayed about it. But
God's so slow.

And his grandpa says I can relate to that. That's the way we feel.
That's the way David felt.

That's the way Hannah felt. That's the way some of the psalmists felt.
That's the way Habakkuk felt.

Lord you're so slow. You know Lord that the time is now when you must
act. God seems to keep silence and so well.

God isn't doing it. We better do it. God isn't doing it.

We've got to do it. And of course we're encouraged by most people in the
church. Most people in the church will say well quit waiting for God.

God's waiting for you. He used to tell me that. I sort of got under the
condemnation of it.

I guess maybe they're right. One day I'm going to look up the
concordance and see if God waits for man. No I found that God wants man
to wait for him.

Wait on the Lord said David. My soul wait on God. I know that doesn't
mean sitting around folding your hands.

It means being so attentive to God that whatever he says we do it but we
don't do anything else that he doesn't say to do it. We get weary of
God's tardiness. Habakkuk said.

Habakkuk had the burden of the Lord. He says Lord I don't understand it.
He says I'm going to utter some complaints against the Lord.

And he says I know I got to be careful because you know we got to watch
how we complain against the Lord. Because if we get in the wrong spirit.
We'll be like the children of Israel in the wilderness.

But if we're in the true spirit of the Lord we can complain in a
righteous way. And God knows our hearts cry and he knows what we're
saying and he understands. We're just saying simply saying Lord you just
know that the world's in such a mess.

The church is in such a mess. Why don't you come forth and do something
about it. Unwilling Lord.

Send me forth up. We're you know we're just anxious for God to send us.
And then we just like to hear a word of a prophet maybe go forth or we'd
like to feel in our prayer closet.

But God is saying arise now go forth and I'll be with you and I'll
anoint you. Somehow we can't convince God to send us forth. And so we go
the knowing.

So the cry of Habakkuk the burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
His first words were Oh Lord how long shall I cry. And thou wilt not
hear.

How long am I going to have to cry unto you God and you won't listen to
me. Better be careful when you say things like that to the Lord. God
I've been praying all these years and why don't you answer me.

Because the burden of the Lord was on him God saw the true intent of his
heart and he saw pure heart. He knew what Habakkuk was saying. And he
knew that Habakkuk didn't understand that God had ways and times and
seasons which we can't comprehend.

And so he asked many questions. Why dost thou show me iniquity and cause
me to behold grievance. For spoiling and violence are before me.

He says the enemy has made total devastation of Israel and why don't you
do something about it. How long am I going to cry and you don't hear.
Wherefore lookest upon those that deal treacherously and you don't do
anything about it.

Make as men like the fish of the sea as creeping things that have no
ruler over them. They take them up in their net. We your people they
catch us in their net.

And then they rejoice and give praise to their gods because they've been
able to persecute us. Habakkuk said it's not right. And then having
poured out his heart in these grievous complaints.

He says now I've got to stand back and wait and see how the Lord's going
to answer me. When he sees fit to reprove me. He sort of felt God was
going to have to reprove him for sort of blaming God for not hearing not
answering prayer.

He says I'll stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and I will
watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I'm
reproved. The Lord answered me and said write the vision and make it
plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet
for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie though
it tarry.

Wait for it. And that's God's answer to you and I. How long oh Lord when
are you going to do it? Get the learned men to calculate schedules.
They're coming up with schedules for 88 and 90 and all that.

Study them out and get very knowledgeable in that area if you like. But
God doesn't go by any schedules that men are able to figure out. And
even if you hit the right year when God's going to reveal himself if our
hearts aren't prepared we won't see him.

If the vision tarry wait for it. For it will come it will not be
delayed. We're so near the end I know that prayer of Jesus a beautiful
prayer and we've worked on it for 2,000 years and somehow it still isn't
fulfilled.

So we'll have a great ecumenical gathering we'll get all the church
denominations together and we'll have a great hallelujah time. And we'll
have the gifts of the spirit in our midst and there'll be prophecy and
tongues and healings and God will be blessing and that will fulfill the
prayer of Jesus that they all may be one. There's no unity there there's
no unity of the spirit there for Jesus didn't pray that we'd all be one.

Pray that we might be one with the son as the son is one with the
father. That's what his heart is after. And so bearing the burden of it
will enable us to be prepared for that.

My concern is my prayer is that God will begin to send forth a word to
his people that will cause them to feel and to sense the burden of the
heart of God for this hour. For his people to sense the extreme burden
that's on God's heart to bring a people into union with Jesus where it's
heavy in God's heart. We can't do it nevertheless if we embrace the word
of the Lord that word if we have truly embrace it.

Draw an eye into God that word will become a burden and eventually a
travail that will bring forth the intention of God's heart. Simeon had a
very simple burden. I don't know if he performed any other good works.

The Holy Spirit doesn't see fit to mention the kind deeds that he
performed or how he might have talked to someone about the Jehovah God
of Israel. The Holy Spirit sees fit to mention only that God had laid
upon him a burden. That all he could do was to wait.

And in waiting walk in the spirit. With the promise that he would see
the Messiah before he died. But it became a burden upon his heart.

I gotta live to see the Messiah. I sense from what he said that he was
getting pretty old. Sensitive he's getting old and weary of life.

Feeling futile feeling useless. Wanting to die but God had said you're
not going to die until you see the Messiah. Say what's that got to do
with the eternal purposes of God.

You and I don't think the way God thinks. We don't walk in ways that are
consistent with God's ways. That's what Isaiah discovered.

God said to Isaiah my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not
your thoughts. We rationalize so much when we get into some kind of an
ecclesiasticism. We rationalize.

Didn't God give me a mind to use? And we rationalize. God wants us to
know that when it comes to spiritual things we cannot. Cannot.

Understand the simplest principles of the word of God. No matter how
intellectual we are. We cannot understand.

Except by the revelation of the spirit of God. The natural man cannot.
Receive the simplest principles of God's word.

Except by the spirit of God. Receive it not the things of the spirit of
God. For they are foolishness unto him.

Neither can he know them. For they are spiritually discerned. What's our
mind for? Carry on in this natural life.

Even then. Even carrying on in our natural life. God wants to change
that mind.

Transform that mind. Until we have the mind of Christ. And until we come
into that transformed mind, we're not going to be that people in the
earth that God wants.

Thank the Lord for a sound mind. Understanding. But when it comes to
spiritual things, we cannot understand the things of God.

With that natural mind. It's got to come by a renovation of our mind.
It's got to come by a spiritual revelation.

The gulf is too far. Between us and God. Between God and man.

I studied Greek a little once for a few months. Never got into Hebrew.
Found I didn't have time to continue in either one.

And I sort of felt I was going to miss out on a lot. Because as a
teacher of the word of God, I felt it was going to be essential to know
Greek and Hebrew. Until the Lord reminded me.

That Saul of Tarshish knew Greek and Hebrew to perfection. But in the
midst of it all, Saul did not have an understanding of the ways of God.
He didn't know the true God.

He didn't know the Messiah. With all that knowledge. God began to show
me that.

Sure, there's a gap between English and Hebrew. English and Greek.
There's a gap there.

An inch long. But the gap between the language of man and the language
of heaven is infinity. That's the gap that has to be bridged.

I'm not downgrading intellectualism. I think God has raised up some
intellectuals in the church. I enjoy using a concordance.

I thank the Lord for these men. I believe many of them God gave them
that simple task to do. To write out these concordances and what not.

What I'm saying is, that as far as understanding God's word and as far
as coming into that place where we can be a vital instrument of Christ
in the earth, we are totally dependent, not on wisdom and knowledge in
the natural, but on the anointing of Jesus. Simeon had the burden of
seeing the Messiah. That's all.

And he's prepared to die. What importance is that? It's exceedingly
important in the mind of God. He was going to be a part of that small
company that was going to usher in the Christ.

And right there in the temple, when Messiah came to the temple, Simeon
was there in the temple that day. He had to be. Because he was walking
in the Spirit and the Spirit was taking Jesus to the temple and Simeon
was walking in the Spirit.

There had to be the fulfillment this day of what God, the burden that
God had laid upon his heart. I don't call it the promise, I call it the
burden. He wanted to get rid of it.

As Austin Sparks points out, he says, Lord, the word is this. Yes,
but... Referring to the Lord as one who has total and absolute control,
not just to the Lord, you know, I love you, Lord, you're Lord of my
life, but the Lord who has total control, a despot. For all these years,
we don't know how many, he had waited and waited for the Messiah and he
saw him passing by, perhaps 20, 30, 40 little babies, all looking the
same.

Nobody saw anything different in any of them. But Simeon saw the Christ
and was released from the burden that God had laid upon his heart. He
said, Now, Lord, now, despot, let me depart in peace according to thy
word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared
before the face of all people.

A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people, Israel.
Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him,
and Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this
child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a
sign which shall be spoken against. Yea, his sword shall pierce through
thine own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

The manifestation of Messiah was not to set up some kind of a temporal
kingdom where everything would be lovely and nice and beautiful for the
chosen people, but to deal with the hearts of men. Jesus came into the
world to deal with the hearts of men, to change them, that he might have
a people through whom the salvation of God might go to all nations. So
he had to expose the hearts.

And that's what the coming of Jesus was all about, to expose the hearts,
to prepare a people for the Lord. And the work wasn't finished during
those three, three and a half years of his ministry. God never intended
to be finished there.

He intended that that work would go on in his Ascension. So now he's the
Ascended Lord. It's the purpose of the Holy Spirit and his people to
carry on, continue the work of the Lord.

The work which Jesus started in the earth to expose the hearts of
people, to prepare a people, to cleanse their hearts, to unveil and
cover, root out all uncleanness, and prepare a people for the glory of
the Lord. So we have a great prophet, a man with a burden to see the
Christ revealed. And we have one Anna, a prophetess, who spent her time
in the temple in intercessions.

People that probably not considered of any great importance. These were
the key people to the revelation of the Messiah. One Anna, a prophetess,
the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher.

She was of a great age and had lived with her husband seven years from
her virginity. She was a widow of about four score and four years. She
was 84 years old.

Unless some believe she was a widow for 84 years. I don't know. She
departed not from the temple but served God with fastings and prayers
night and day.

And so we have the thought the Lord is coming in a certain day, we're
ready, we're charismatic, we're filled with the Spirit. And here is a
poor widow woman who lived in the temple who had the burden of God. She
knew the Lord was coming too because we're told that all Israel lived in
a state of expectation.

But because the burden of the Lord had become a part of her being, she
literally lived in the temple with fastings and prayers crying out unto
God to come forth in the earth and reveal the Christ. Christ would not
come into the world apart from these mighty intercessions of Anna. She
was a part of God's purpose in preparing the way, bearing the burden,
bearing the travail of it that God might bring forth.

Declaring these things, trusting, knowing, believing that there will be
a people who will catch the burden of God's heart until it becomes heavy
on them. Even as Isaiah declared by the Spirit, I will not rest until
the righteousness of God go forth as brightness and the salvation
thereof as a lamp that burneth. So the prophet went on to say that
because that's the burden of God's heart, he was going to have a people
who would share that burden.

And so he says, I've set watchmen upon the high walls of Jerusalem which
shall never hold their peace day nor night. Ye that make mention of the
Lord shall not already sit. I will not be silent and I will not rest
until this happens.

But because he said that there's a people, there are his watchmen who
hear what he said and they touch the heart of God and so they have God's
burden in the earth. God wants the burden of his heart in the heavens to
rest upon a people in the earth that he might bring into being the
desire of his heart. So God says, I'm setting watchmen they will not
rest day nor night.

Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence and give him no rest
until he establish, until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. God
will not do anything until there's a people who get the burden of his
heart that will cry unto him to do it. But he's going to have that
people.

And the word that goes forth that lights upon the prepared people will
get that burden. Until the time comes when the voice of prophecy is no
longer just the, thus saith the Lord my people. And sit down, I gave a
word from the Lord wasn't that wonderful, that prophecy.

But that word of prophecy must become so much a part of us. But the time
comes when having declared with the prophetic anointing God's desire to
his people, the prophet realizes what's going to happen. Oh yes, the
bones came together bone to his bone and flesh came upon them and sinews
I'm not saying nothing happened.

There was a noise and there was a shaking and bone came to bone and
flesh came upon them and sinews and all that but they were still dead. I
think that's about as far as we've got. In the early days of revival
Revival, the 48th Revival, which became known as Latter-Rain.

I don't call it that, except by way of identifying it, because Latter-
Rain is associated with a lot of kingdom building, a lot of carnality,
we know all that. But there was a pure word come forth and the Lord
would emphasize that prophecy in Ezekiel that God was going to raise up
a prophetic voice to his people, calling the dry bones of God's
scattered spiritual Israel together, and there was a noise and there was
a shaking. Bone came to his bone, flesh, sinews covered them, but there
was no life in them, and that's where we are.

And we'll continue that way until somehow there's the burden of the Lord
that cries out unto God to do that which he has declared. You say, if he
said he'd do it, why do we have to ask him to do it? It's simply that
God wants a people in the earth who are united with him, and if it's
God's burden, he wants a people in the earth that'll have that burden.
So Ezekiel turned his eyes away from the dead carcasses laying out there
in the sand, turned his eyes to heaven, and he says, come from the four
winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live.

He prophesied to the wind. He began to, those words that once went to
people went up to God, do it, Lord, prophesied to the wind. The same
prophetic anointing that caused the bones to come together and be
covered with sinews, that same prophetic anointing in mighty
intercessions went to God to say, God, come from the four winds and
breathe upon these slain that they may live.

I believe that's coming, and I believe God wants to send forth a word to
prepare his people to so sense the burden of God's heart that we will
not sleep night or day until God establishes and makes Jerusalem a place
in the earth. Glory to your name, glory to your name, glory to your
name, glory to your name, glory to your name. The name above all other
names, glory to your name, the name of Jesus.

You've given us wisdom and righteousness You're our hope, You're the Son
of Man How worthy is the Lamb Glory to Your Name The Name above all
other names Glory to Your Name The Name of Heaven and Earth speaks to
Yours Honor and power forevermore By Your Spirit and through Your Word
You lifted Your Son over all the earth Glory to Your Name The Name above
all other names Glory to Your Name The Name of Jesus Through Your death
and the blood You shed You've given us wisdom and righteousness You're
our hope, You're the Son of Man How worthy is the Lamb Glory to Your
Name The Name above all other names Glory to Your Name The Name of Jesus
Glory to Your Name The Name above all other names Glory to Your Name The
Name of Jesus Glory to Your Name The Name above all other names Glory to
Your Name The Name of Jesus

========================================================================
Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/BKtFPqPmUkM.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/george-warnock/time-of-preparation-video/
========================================================================