In this sermon, the speaker begins with a prayer, asking for protection from Satan and for the message to bring glory to God. The sermon focuses on the concept of abiding in God and cooperating with the Holy Spirit to please God and meet the needs of others. The speaker emphasizes the importance of loving God with all our hearts and loving our neighbors as ourselves, as it fulfills the first and great commandment. The sermon also highlights the power of God to defeat Satan and encourages listeners to pray for the nation and for God to raise up more men to be used by Him.

Greetings, friend. It's certainly a joy and privilege to be able to come to you and share with you the burden of my heart. I want us to just have a word of prayer before I begin the introduction. Our Father, in Jesus' name, I pray your Holy Ghost shall protect us from the wiles of Satan. I pray, O Lord, that you will bring to our mind anything that would be a hindrance to the making of this tape. Lord, I pray that you will magnify yourself in this tape. And Lord, you bring honor and glory to yourself through this tape. O Lord, to the saving of the lost and sanctifying the safe, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well, you wouldn't believe the difficulty I've had in making this tape. I'm not going to share with you all the difficulty, but I believe that this indicates that this tape deals with the very heart of an issue whereby Satan will be defeated in the life of believers and on many, many situations. So I pray that God will enable you to get the message at all costs. Satan is a defeated foe, but we must take our stand against him and see the glory of God in a situation. Well, I just praise God for his goodness. I praise God for the privilege of coming to you each month. And I just trust that you'll pray for a number of things. One I trust you'll pray for is Thy Nation. This is a time that God really wants to move mightily in our country. You pray that he will move mightily in our country. You pray for the men of God that God is using. And then pray that God will raise up men that at this time are not being used but can be used. God wants to use people, and God is ready. So you pray, and I know you will. And it's certainly a joy to be able to come to you with this tape. Now this tape is a tape that was recorded in a revival conference in Mesquite, Texas. Jack Taylor and myself were there in a revival conference, and this was a message that was brought one morning in the morning service. Now some of you may think as you begin to listen to the message, well, I've heard Brother Manley speak on abiding before, but this is another facet of abiding. I've never specifically addressed this particular problem. Now I have hit it, but if you've been on the tape ministry long, you realize that I give seed thoughts of a thousand different thoughts along in messages, and then one day I come back and just blow a particular seed thought out, and it becomes a sermon. And this area that I'm dealing with on this tape is an area I believe will bring some real, real deliverance in the lives of many, many people. I believe it will happen because of some thorough understanding. Now you remember that I'm not a teacher, and I'm not able to teach the truth as a gifted teacher, but I believe I can share the truth on such a level that the Spirit of God can lead you to the truth. And in receiving this truth, you're going to see that you're going to be liberated. And not only that, but you'll be informed as to how to see Satan defeated in your life. And I praise God for this opportunity. Next month I'm going to share some things with you about the building program. You know, some of you are aware that this last three months, well, there's no probably about it, has been the most difficult time in my whole ministry. And I mean, I'm not crying out for sympathy. I am rejoicing in the Lord that God's able to sustain me in such times. And of course, some of this relates to the building. And so you just be praying as I share this situation with you next month. Now you pray for the office year. It seems that the Lord has had a, I don't know, does the Lord have a difficult time? Well, man, I'll tell you, it's been one difficult problem to keep a secretary in this office. I'd say, well, the manly just doesn't pay him enough. I pay twice for a secretary in this office, twice the amount that the average evangelist in this city pays. This is for one person. And I mean, it's super. It's absolutely super salary. But it's not the salary and it's not the work. It's just the Lord has allowed Satan to buffet me, to bring me out and to teach me and grow me up, I guess. But anyway, you pray about this office. Well, you have a precious couple coming from Memphis, Tennessee. We believe that God is sending them here that will not only handle a great deal of the work in the office but the other work that needs to be done. Well, praise God, it's been good to talk to you on a personal level. And I pray that this message shall mean to you what it's meant to me. I'm excited about what the Lord is saying to me. And I trust that the Lord will be able to get through to you and deal with your own heart. I want to talk to you about abiding. I feel that this particular subject has so much to offer us. And, of course, if you're interested in making a real thorough study of abiding, you'd want to begin in the 15th chapter of the book of John, especially the first ten verses. But you wouldn't want to stop there. You would just want to take in the whole chapter. And you would also want to take in 1 John 2.6. This is a verse for your reference. And then I believe you would want to take in Philippians 2.13. Now, most of our time today will be spent in Philippians 2.13. Now, I think you'd also like to add to that verse, all those verses, Colossians 1.29. Because we actually have the scope of life in these verses. We have the whole scope. We have from the beginning of life to the reproduction of life. And that's the swing of the pendulum, so to speak, from one point to the other, from the beginning to the end, if there is an end. But since we're saved by the grace of God, I'm not real sure that we have ends anymore. We have beginnings but not ends. You know, just like this life, it's never going to end with the Lord Jesus. It's going to be forever, and everything that's begun in you that's of the Lord is going to last forever. So I'm not sure that we have endings in that sense, or the word of having endings. We're going to lay down this old physical life one of these days, but we're going to have the spiritual life from the very time it began with Jesus right on through to how can you measure how long it's going to last. So when we come to this word of abiding, we realize that we pick up the Christian life when it starts with the Lord. And we carry it right on through to the individual's ultimate, and that is what I call reproduction. And in these scriptures that I've given you, you find that scope. You find the whole sweep from the beginning to the end. Now, we have a real problem in the country about walking with Jesus, the spirit-filled life, abiding with the Lord, living the Christian life, living the faith life. We have a real problem. It seems when people begin to understand the inner life of the Christian, the inner life, the spirit-filled life, how to walk in the Spirit, they lose their aggressiveness and they become passive. And I think that the problem centers around the fact that we do not know how to cooperate with God. We just do not know how to cooperate with the Lord. And so this morning, as I deal with this matter of abiding, we're going to be dealing with this matter of how to cooperate with God. We have a tendency to become passive. And in becoming passive, what we do is we build a world, we isolate ourselves into a world that we can live up to. And we feel like that we are really living a successful life because we're measuring up to the standards we ourselves set. And the only way that anything good happens to us is some drastic thing like bad health or family problem or financial problem, something like that, just comes crashing in up on that world and just shakes us all to pieces. And we get broken out of it for a while. But the objective in my thinking this morning and my preaching to you is to deal with this matter of how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and please God and meet the needs of man. And that sounds like to me that satisfies the first and great commandment, don't you think? Love the Lord thy God with all thy being. And then the second is what? To love thy neighbor as thyself. And so what I'm interested in is finding Christians that's able to love the Lord their God and our God with all of their hearts and also love their neighbors as themselves. Now how can we do that? Because it's a constant reminder to me every time I see a person that's really walking in the Spirit, they may have a peace within, but they do not have an aggressiveness towards lost people. And then I find the crowd that has a real aggressiveness towards lost people, and boy, they are miserable creatures within. And it seems like a lot of people are saying, you can't have both. But the Bible teaches that you're supposed to have both. You're supposed to have both. Now this little verse, Philippians 2.13, has really meant a lot to me. And my misunderstanding of it has no doubt caused a great deal of conflict in me. And I want to share it with you. Turn with me, please, to Philippians 2.13. And it is in the New Testament, Brother Manley. I think I can find it in a moment. I'm having a difficult time finding it. Now listen to it as I read it, and just ask yourself this question. I'm going to ask all of us the question, and that is this. What does this verse really mean to you? What is it saying to you? For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now, a lot of people have the idea that this verse teaches that God works his will in you and through you, and all you have to do is just let God have it. Become passive about it. Just let God have your life, and God will work his will in you, and God will work his will through you. Just leave it alone. Well, these people that have such ideas, I believe, become very passive in their Christian life. I think this verse of scripture teaches us that there are two promises in this verse. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. And I believe if you see these two promises, I believe we can, you know, get into the problem that we're faced with of this real passivity. The first promise is that God will work his will in you. That's the first promise I see in this verse. And the second promise I see in this verse is that God will work his will through you. Now, what do we mean when we talk about God will work his will in us? I believe it's simply this, that God will work in such a way that we will know the will of God. About every given situation. God will let us know his will. I believe he lets us know his will through the word of God, don't you? Now, I believe this word of God, a word from God could be better said, I believe God will let us know his will by letting us know the truth of God. The truth of God. And the reason I say that is this, God does not condone ignorance. And through a study of the word of God, we become aware that we are supposed to do this and not do this. We're supposed to be certain people, and we're not supposed to be certain people. And we come to an understanding through the word of God of God's will for our lives about our character and about our responsibility. And God just really opens up through the study of the word of God. Now, of course, preaching like this and teaching like this is part of that purpose of God in revealing the truth of God to his people, don't you think? God just uses preaching all the time, like last night. As the messages were brought, I discovered some things in me that was not supposed to be there. And I discovered some things that were supposed to be there. Now, I was responsible. I received light. I received understanding and I therefore had responsibility about my responsibilities, so to speak. And so the Lord lets us know his will through the word of God. For instance, God lets us know his will about being soul winners through the word of God. Now, a man doesn't have to sit around and wait for the Holy Ghost to nudge him to win souls when the word of God teaches him that he is to be a soul winner, or the winner of a soul. Now, what I'm saying here is the Holy Spirit takes the word of God and teaches us the truth of God that reveals to us our responsibility. Now, God works his will in us. Another thing is that we can read from the word of God that we're not supposed to commit adultery. And he even goes on and says if you even have the thoughts and lust in your heart, you're guilty of adultery. Now, the Bible teaches this truth. So God lets us know his will about winning souls. God lets us know his will about this matter of immorality out of the teaching of the word of God. And God makes his truth known to us out of the word of God as he teaches us. The Holy Spirit using preachers. The Holy Spirit using you as you read the word of God. And using teachers as they teach the word of God. The Holy Spirit using writers as they write the truth about God. God constantly lets you know his will. So he will teach you his truth out of the word of God. And then the truth goes further than that. There are those times in the word when we go beyond the facts of God that's revealed in the word of God. And sometimes we need to stop and discuss the difference between facts and promises. And I may stop right here this morning and do that after I get through this point. But God takes us out with issues in our personal lives. You know we may have a problem in our personal life. And we go to the word of God for a promise. And the spirit of the living God will lead us to a promise in the word that reveals to us the truth of God about our given situation. And we need to learn that the Holy Spirit does teach us the truth of God about a given situation. It's a joy to be able to face an issue in life and realize that I can go to the word of God and the Holy Spirit will lead me to the promise of God in that word that shows me the truth of God about my given situation. And I'd like to share the story and I will not share it completely but back here recently when Marthy was so ill and I needed a promise from God and the Lord took me back to Psalms 128 which is the psalm that's meant so much to me through all these years of sickness. And that verse was this Psalms 128 2 It shall be well with thee. And I mean when God gave me that promise It shall be well with thee I knew that God had something that would be a blessing to my life and I knew the truth was that it would be well with her. Now I did not try to interpret that I was willing to let God interpret it however he wanted to. But I was willing to believe it. I was willing to trust Jesus with it shall be well with thee. Now what I'm saying here is this God reveals his will through the word of God by revealing to us the facts of God and revealing to us the promises of God. So God definitely reveals his will in us and works his will in us through the word of God. Now we need to learn this if we have not learned this lesson then we are going to be in real real real genuine trouble. In every major crisis in my life I have found the will of God through the study of the word of God. Every major crisis in my life. Now you can go a little bit further than that God works his will in the lives of believers he works his will in the lives of believers by allowing them to have needs. Not only does he work his will through the word of God reveal his will to us through the word of God but he uses needs to reveal his will in every single solitary one of our lives. He's always used needs as a major factor to help people. Right. And I'll tell you he hasn't stopped yet. Now you might say well what is a need? Well I picked up another word last night in this definition and I think it's more appropriate than the word I was using but a need is a providential and that's the word I picked up is a providential appointment with a person with a supplier. Now a need is God's providential happening in your life to get you to the person of Jesus that's already got the supply for your need. Amen. Now I'll tell you I've been preaching this truth a long, long time but it's never got through. That's right it's never, never got through. I'll tell you I believe if there's one congregation ever one day we'll see that every time God allows a need to come into the life of that church or the life of the members of that church that that's God's divine way of letting them know that he already has the supply. I think it will I think it will change the church and the individual and I believe that church will be used of God to shape the world. Let me just take you through this just a little more carefully and then a little more in detail when you have a need God is saying something to you and what he's really genuinely saying to you is I have a supply I have the supply for your need. Now if that was not the case that would mean that you and the devil you through your mistakes have come up with something that God can't handle and that's just not the case and it may not be this morning that you understand God on this level but let me tell you before you were God was and all that God is today and all that God will be tomorrow he's always been and I got to thinking about this last night and got so totally excited which one came along first in your life? The need or the supply? Now just ask yourself that question and let me go back which one came along first according to the Bible? The last Adam or the first Adam? See the first Adam was not the first the last Adam was the first the last Adam was the God of atonement of grace and redemption that's right and when the first Adam came along in sin there was already a Savior to meet that sinner that's right and this establishes a principle that holds true throughout life in other words before the first Adam ever had need of a Savior there was a Savior now that's how big God is God is big enough to have the supply before you ever have need in fact he's not only big enough to do that he's gracious enough to allow circumstances in your life to bring about a need in you so you'll want the supply he's already got for you some of you are listening too hard some of you are trying too hard to listen and between me and that little boy it's a little difficult but you could see the frowns on your faces amen gee you're listening too hard you say what do you mean you're trying to understand too much you should relax and just say now Lord teach me what this preacher is trying to really say to us today or trying to say to me before the first Adam was the last Adam was the last Adam being Jesus Christ the Son of God of atonement of grace and redemption and see he was there before the first Adam the first Adam was placed in this world and he sinned but he did not have a problem that there was not a supply already there to meet it and that sets up a law and this is a trite way of putting it but it's so simple which one came along first air or lungs air was waiting around for lungs to get created amen Hebrews 4 first four verses which one came along first need or supply supply so here's what I'm saying to you if God has got the supply and you have a legitimate need it's the will of God to meet it yes sir it's the will of God to meet that need I'll illustrate this brother Rap just for you this what I'm talking about I know this is a little heavy for the normal congregation but I'm going to try it out on you I try it out on people occasionally now and then I try it out on people and so I want to try it out on you I mentioned a few people just occasionally here and there but not many so I'll just start out on it if you can't handle it I'll stop but the Bible says that your body is dead because of sin now you look at your body and you say well it's not dead but Romans the 8th chapter says your body is dead because of sin now the issue comes up immediately what are you going to do believe the Bible or believe what you can see, smell, taste, feel, and hear right but the body is alive because of the resurrected Christ that lives in that person you follow me now you realize that well brother Manley this creates a problem how is it that people are functioning out here then if they're dead well I can't answer all those questions now you realize that well brother Manley this creates a problem how is it that people are functioning out here then if they're dead well I can't answer all those questions but I do know that I can believe the Bible and I better believe the Bible or whether I can answer the questions or not and I do know this that when a person gets sick physically literally gets sick physically this is God's way of allowing a need to come in their life so they will get to the supply that's already there the life of Jesus Christ in them and when they see this then they stop relying on the ability of this body to function they start relying on the ability of the Lord in them to function and beloved they are they come to a greater measure of redemption through suffering than people that do not suffer I wish you could see their faces back there brother but what I'm saying to you is this God allows the need for life to come into this old body because the member the person that's carrying this old body around doesn't realize that it's already dead and they must have the life of Christ to move because they can run around on their own until they get sick and when they get sick and real sick they realize that this old body just can't handle it so they've got to have the Lord so in other words what are they looking for when they want the Lord they're looking for life to take the place of what death and if they're saved by the grace of God before the death is there the life is there and the life is there to function over the death and what I'm saying to you you may have need this morning for physical life well how are you going to get that physical life by realizing you have need of that physical life and the life you need is in Jesus Christ who lives in you so the Lord lets you have a need so that you'll get to the life that he's already got for you how long has he had that life for you as an individual do you have any idea a long time before you ever got here that life has been available since the foundation of the world amen it's just like you getting saved how long have you been saved you would have to ask a question well which side are you talking about God's side or my side amen but long before you ever got aware that you needed salvation on God's side it was settled and paid for and provided amen and one day you discovered that you had need of Jesus praise God and you discovered him and you discovered the supply for your need and the supply had been there before the foundation of the world you still around so you have to get sick now you don't have to get sick to realize that Christ is your life most people I know do but you don't have to if you just discovered that your life your old body is dead because of sin if you saw that by revelation you would immediately turn to Christ for the life you needed without having to go through the crisis of having a need I think I got out on the other bank I know what I said made sense to me but what I say don't make a lot of sense to a lot of people amen did that help you brother Ralph? it helped me when I saw it what I'm saying to you is this your need this morning, your needs is an indication of the will of God I know a boy right now that he needs and I really believe these are needs in his life about a thousand dollars a month to live off of these are needs I really feel like they're needs I've watched him and he's making about $750 what do you think this boy ought to do? I think his needs are really revealing the will of God but you know what he's doing? he's passively sitting by just going in the hole wondering why God won't reveal his will God is revealing his will through his needs you see what his real need is God wants him to wake up get right with God and trust him that's the real need in his life but God has allowed a material thing to be the thing that's worked the problem and you know what he's doing? he's sitting in total passivity right now God's already said in his word that he'd supply his needs God's already said in his word not only that he would supply his needs but he's already supplied his needs God is revealing his will through his needs you see what his real need is God wants him to wake up get right with God and trust him that's the real need in his life but God has allowed a material thing to be the thing that's worked the problem and you know what he's doing? he's sitting in total passivity right now God's already said in his word that he'd supply his needs God's already said in his word not only that he would supply his needs but he's already supplied his needs amen, that's the truth of God about his situation now God's allowed this issue to come into his life to really work an issue in his life and you know what he's doing? he's sitting by passively and there's no telling how many people this morning are sitting by passively in this building taking what the devil is letting ease through rather than claiming what God has provided and that's not only in the material things, that's in physical things and it's not only in material and physical things most of all it's in spiritual things amen boy this helped me it's helping me it's really working me over so much that I'm not getting too loud about it but I guarantee it's helping me the other way God works his will in believers is by changing them by his grace changing them by his grace that to the point that he can give them the desires of their heart in other words the third way God works his will in each of our lives is to so change us by his grace that our desires are his desires praise God for a God that can change us by his grace to where our desires are his desires what are you talking about John 15 7 if you abide in me and my words abide in you he said ask what you will and I'll give it to you yes sir God reveals his will in our lives by our desires Psalms 37 4 says delight thyself in the Lord delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give you thee what the desires of your heart that means he's brought you to the place in your Christian experience that your desires are his desires so he can give you your desires what marvelous grace what matchless grace amen so God reveals his will by our desires in fact if your desires are not the will of God you need to repent not God and you need to repent until you come to the place that your desires are his desires and I want you to know something when you get to the place that your desires are his desires you are going to be one successful happy Christian amen you can never a person the the height the depth of their human ability to take in God is measured by their desires you will never enjoy anyone more than you have the ability to desire and I want you to know you get your desires right with God and you can have the desires of your heart only God can enlarge those desires and you know what God says he'll do for you he'll give you abundantly above what you ask or think in other words he'll just blow your desires to smithereens amen but I'm telling you this morning that your desires stand as a means by which God reveals his will to every single solitary one of us now that does not mean that your desires do not have to go to the cross they do what brother Jack said last night was so true there's no glory there's no resurrected life without the cross but I'm saying that you can go to the cross and God will work the cross in you in such a way to bring you to the place that your desires are his desires where you can have your desires and it all takes place at the cross but your desires should reveal the will of God let me put it like this I believe Norman Grubb was the first one to confront me in this level and I've had a hard time accepting this but many many times I've seen the very desires of my heart to be the will of God and it so shocked me that I could hardly believe it have you ever had that happen it blew my mind but Norman Grubb said this if there's no controversy between you and God the desires of your heart should be the will of God that's hard to take in isn't it amen we all have a complex that we believe that God somehow is punishing us and that what we really want is the will of God amen I mean we're all plighted with this problem don't you think I know I am I know I am but I do know this that in these three areas God will work his will in every one of us he works his will in us and he works his will in us for our purpose and that purpose is for us that we might have the truth before us that we might make a revelation basis decision to cooperate with God for we are his co-laborers when we see the will of God when we see the will of God we then have the ability and responsibility to make a choice whether we will cooperate with God or we will refuse God and if we make the choice that we will cooperate with God instead of refusing God then we release God out of our spirit into our soul and into our body and into our environment so the spirit of God can not only work the will of God in us but work the will of God through us and boy when he starts when he's released to work his will through us then the weak becomes strong out of weakness comes strength it's not man's strength it's God's strength then we see the supernatural working through the natural and we see the glory of God and we find ourselves living out the truth of God I trust that God has really some way somehow dealt with you today because I really believe that the most Christians I know are living a very very passive passive Christian life because they are sitting around waiting for God to do it all when God is actively at work working his will in everyone of us working his will on us so he can work his will through us but we stop him at the gate he works his will for us or in us and we do not discover it and cooperate with him so he can work his will for us we stop God would you bow your heads with me please Lord Jesus I'm aware that you have dealt many many times with me and I wasn't aware that you were really wanting to get through to me I was just aware that you had done something but now Father today I pray since you shared this truth with me that oh God that I will be sensitive and obedient and cooperative with you to see you well done not only in my life but through my life in Jesus name I pray