In this sermon, the speaker discusses the life of Moses and his encounter with God at the burning bush. He highlights how Moses spent 40 years as a prince in Egypt and another 40 years as a shepherd in Midian before God visited him. The speaker emphasizes the importance of consistently seeking God's visitation and preparing oneself for it. He also mentions the significance of meeting with God and being true to Him and to one another. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the power of prayer and waiting upon the Lord.

For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This message has been brought to you by Manichristian Fellowship, Ellensburg, Washington, area code 509-925-1160. I want to say thank you for allowing me to come and spend this morning with you. In the time last night with the brothers, it is a blessing just to pray together and to share with one another. And we carry the families here upon our own hearts. We pray for you, and we thank you for praying for us. Just six times the Apostle Paul said in his epistles, Brethren, pray for us. And I've learned through the years that if I pray for someone, I will never be able to say something bad about that person, never. Because if there is something wrong in his life, then I say it to God. And God always shuts my mouth to say it to anyone else. And that's often when we are in conferences, people come to me and they say at the door, oh, will you please pray for me? And you know, we so easily can say, yes, I pray. And I don't do that. If someone comes and says, will you pray for me, I take their hand and I say, I pray for you now. And sometimes it's embarrassing to them because I pray for them right there in front of everyone. And I don't know what's embarrassing about that to me, it's nothing. And they say afterwards, why did you do that? I said, I pray for you now so that God can have a free right in the future to burden me whenever he wants me to pray for you. And so we need to pray for one another. And it's for me such a wonderful privilege and a blessing to be able to come in here maybe once or twice a year and to spend a weekend just seeking the Lord. I said last night to the brothers, it would be wonderful if maybe at some point they could come to our campground on a Monday night and we spend three days in prayer, just waiting upon God and seeking the face of God and waiting upon him. And God has been stirring my heart afresh in the great subject of revival. You know, what is it for us to live in a spirit of revival in our relationships with him? And I want to speak to you about that this morning. And then in our second session, I would love to know what God is doing in the families. I would love to know what God is doing in the hearts of the fathers, the husbands, and in our families. And I think at some point if you will allow me to ask you to ask the fathers to get up and share what God is doing in their hearts and what God is doing in their families so that we can pray for one another. Observation affects intercession. You know Isaiah 40 when the Bible says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. We know that when Jesus spoke about prayer in the four Gospels, he gave us eight principles in his teachings on what prayer is all about. And those eight principles are all based upon eight words in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament that is dealing with this concept of waiting upon God. We always need to be in a state of waiting upon God. That is why David said in the Old Testament, the Bible says David sat before the Lord. But when the prophets said, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, I said to my wife this last week, I need at least 45 minutes every morning just really to become quiet before I know where I am going in my quiet times before God. And if you have problems in your Christian life today, it is because you don't have a proper quiet time. You can have a quiet time, but it is very quiet, there is nothing going on. But if you have problems, and let me share with you something, because I spend 90 to 95% of my time with people in so-called full-time ministry. I don't believe in this thing of full-time ministry. If you want to become a Christian, you are in full-time ministry. There is nothing that you can hide, there are no secret departments, there are no dark corners, it is full-time ministry. Because full-time ministry is full-time living for God. But I spend 90 to 95% of my time with people who are in so-called full-time ministry. And I can tell you that 90 to 100% of the times, when we have to deal with sin in their lives, sin, whatever it is, if it is the sin of criticism, or if it is the sin of gossiping, or if it is the sin of slandering, or if it is immorality, or pornography, or lust, or any of those kind of things, 95 to 100% of the time, you know where I trace it to? To their quiet times. They haven't met with God. My brother and sister, I want to say to you this morning, and I have said this to my wife so many times, in fact, I think she is so tired of hearing this, but I say it to her so that I hear it myself. I want to meet with God every day. Every day. And this room where I stayed last night, I didn't know, realize what was taking place with this room right next to me, and there was an elderly man and his wife, and so when I came they opened the door and I just said hi to them and began to talk to them a little bit. And I said, why are you in this town? Oh, he said, I'm preaching in a church tomorrow. And I said, oh, that's interesting, there's so many rooms and here we are next to each other. And I said, which church? And he said, something to Gossip Church. And I said, well, we'll forgive him for that, you know, we can still stay next to each other in the same room. But we began to have a time of fellowship there. And so he began to ask me questions and I just began to talk to him about my relationship with God. And I want to ask you this morning, are you meeting with God every day? I'm not asking if you're meeting with yourself. I'm not asking if you're meeting with struggles. I'm not asking if you're meeting with criticism. I'm asking you, are you meeting with God every day? You see, you can't have an agenda if you meet with God. You can't have one. Because God is the agenda. And in the unfolding of the will of God, the beauty of the unfolding of God's will, will you discover that he's supreme in every aspect of our lives. And I said this to my wife this last week. These times alone with God. You know, brother and sister, we only have one Bible. We only have one Old Testament and one New Testament. And if you and I have learned the secret of devouring this book, just devouring this book. And this morning in my own quiet time, when I felt myself get going and writing out the scriptures, memorizing them, let them break my heart, just plow you up every day. You know, plow your heart up, plow your mind up, plow your emotions up. Just let the word of God plow and plow. And I got to the place where I said to God, I don't want to come to any service today. I just want to spend the day with you. I trust that you have times like that in your relationship with God. The quiet times. So you say, Brother Gerard, why do I have to do this? You know why you need to do that? Because you have a spiritual constitution. You know what Jesus said in the Gospel of John? He said, As my Father has sent me, so sent are you. As my Father has sent me, so sent are you. As my Father has sent me, so sent are you. So how did the Father send him? The Father sent him and he said, My meat, my drink is to do the will of him that sent me. What did he say? He said, Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God. God broke my heart a few months ago on the subject of brokenness. You know, this thing of brokenness, we think we understand it and then the Lord comes and just takes a little lift of the pot and just gives us a little glimpse in and we don't know a thing of brokenness. Not a thing. And early morning, about three o'clock, I found myself being awakened and God began to speak to me about brokenness and I thought, well, okay, I just go through all those passages again Old Testament scriptures, New Testament ones and it was just that God, the Holy Spirit said, No, no, no, this is going to be different. And I said to the Lord, what is it? And God took me in my quiet time to the moment that Jesus came out of Gethsemane up to the moment that he died on the cross. Up to the moment that he said, Tetzalatzai, in the Greek text. It's done. It's finished. And God said to me, let me show you brokenness. Here is the sinless Son of God who could have called twelve legions of angels, 75,000 In the Old Testament, one angel came and 185,000 Assyrians woke up dead. Jesus said, I could have called twelve legions of angels to come, and he didn't. Now that's brokenness. Because what happened, what he said was All I'm going to do here is the will of my Father. And prior to that, he prayed. And he said, Father, three times he prayed. Let this cup pass away from me. Not as I will, but as thy will. And brokenness is choosing whatever God has in store for you. So that's what he did. And I began to walk from Gethsemane to Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate, the Jews, Herod, everyone. Then to the cross. Until the moment that he died. And I saw brokenness in a way that I've never seen it before. And there was a moment in that morning that I, from my own heart, said to God Stop. Because if I need to see one bit more I don't know if I ever in my life would recover. And if you have ever asked yourself or if you have ever asked God and said, God will you will you bring me to the place where I become a partaker of the sufferings of Christ? We're not talking about physical sufferings here, or emotional, or mental. No, no, we're not talking about that stuff. The spiritual sufferings of Christ. He left the throne of glory. He became man. He identified himself with man. He became the scapegoat. And brother and sister he took it all upon himself. Now why did he do that? So that if there was only one soul in this planet earth only one soul God still would have sent his son to die just for that one person. That's what love is about. So I wonder this morning if I could ask you Do you meet with God every morning? Do you meet with God every morning? It's the most important aspect of the Christian life. Intimacy with God. Do you know what? You read the life stories of people and you say to yourself what was it about them? You read the life story of Andrew Murray So what was it about him? Do you know what was it about Andrew Murray? Wasn't his prayer life wonderful as it was? His commitment to scripture, the greatness of his preaching all the books that he wrote Do you know what is the secret of Andrew Murray's prayer life? It was the secret place alone with God. And I think that's why Jesus when he said He said when you pray He said enter into your closet and pray to your father in secret and your father who see us in secret shall reward you openly the closet What is this closet? It's a secret den That's the meaning of the word in the Greek New Testament A secret den So you say what does it mean to me as a father and as a husband My brother it means that before you look into the face of your wife or your children every day you need to look into the face of God That's the heart of leadership in the family I cannot dare looking into the face of my family if my family have not seen me looking into the face of God That's discipline So brother Gerard what does that mean? That means that you need to be up at least 2 hours before then to the leader of the house and he set the example and I dare to think and I fear to think and I stagger to think what would happen if my family just my wife and one daughter would come into my study in the morning and not sense the presence of God I fear to think what would happen if they come down from upstairs to the downstairs of the house and into my library and the downstairs of our house is not saturated with the presence of God secret den alone with God and I said to myself early this morning I would love to spend time with every one of these brothers and let them ask me the same questions I would love to sit down with Roger and with Michael and with Jason and Doug and every single one alone for an hour or two and say let's talk about our relationships with God and brother Jamie and brother Daniel let's talk about our relationships with God what's going on there are we true to God in our minds are we true to God in our hearts are we true to one another as brothers are we true to one another so what is it it's the closet you say why do you say that do you know why I'm saying this to you this morning every time when I have the privilege of coming into this little fellowship I sense a deeper sense of God and do you know what is happening when that begins to happen the enemy of our souls will kick and try his utter utter most best I said last night to the brethren that we are the policy in our conference ground of no gossiping no slandering I want you to take this upon your heart this morning if anyone in this fellowship comes to you or if anyone in the fellowship and I said this in one of the fellowships some time ago if anyone in this fellowship has come to you in the past and said to you something about someone else in the fellowship you have the responsibility because this is going to rob you of your relationship with God you have the responsibility to go to that brother and say you talk to me about that person that was wrong that was wrong you and I need to go and see that person why do you say that because the Bible speaks about sowing discord amongst brethren and we are the policy in our conference ground that if any of our staff members any of my staff members is disgruntled or grumble or dissatisfied about something the policy is that if it's me they come straight to me and they say brother Gerard you said something at the lunch table and it really troubled me I want to talk to you about it they don't go to someone else and say you know brother Gerard said that thing there at the lunch table do you think that was right do you think this and then they began to talk do you know what it does it creates an atmosphere and it creates an atmosphere of dissension and we don't do that we don't allow that and so you say what do you do if I do something if I say something wrong if we were part of this fellowship maybe you would say well maybe I don't want you to be part of this fellowship you know that's fine but if we were part of this fellowship and you would have come to me and tried to ask me it's not going to work because I would just take you and say okay let's go we're going to spend time with this person we're going to pray this thing now let me tell you something this morning and I said this in one of the fellowships some time ago because this sort of fellowship is very dear and near to my heart and I know God wants to bless you if you have been caused of any criticism or slander or gossiping in any way and I'm speaking to myself if you've been caused of any of those kind of things you're going to need to put it right you're going to need to put it right and if you're going to continue to do this you shouldn't be part of the fellowship like this see why do you say that Christ loved the church and he gave himself for it why did he do that the Bible says so that he might sanctify it by the washing of the Word sanctify it by the washing of the Word and I'm asking you this morning as a brother and I'm not saying it just here in Ellensburg I'm saying this in every place where I go you know why I'm saying this to you because we find this everywhere everywhere in many of our fellowships and I'm saying this to you this morning as a brother that we need to live in the presence of God with clean hearts and so where do I get it all sorted out what's the secret of it it's the closet the secret den Robert Murray McChang used to say how can the Holy Spirit in me how can the Holy Spirit in me criticize the Holy Spirit in you how can he do that the closet, the secret den do you know what it means it's a storehouse a storehouse you know the Spirit of God is relevant to my heart and my life the Word of God is always fresh the Word of God is always fresh and when we come to this storehouse of God from the storehouse of God, we've got these two dogs at our conference ground and they love water they are golden retrievers and golden retrievers love water and last year a lady came and she said I want to take the dogs and I want to bath the dogs for you and spend hours washing these dogs and everything and oh they were just like new, you know if there would ever be animals in heaven they were ready to go and I was ready to kick them in you know, but they just looked like brand new and rusty the brother the male, he's a beautiful dog about 90 pounds just beautiful and he came back from this place where this lady has washed him and he was just perfect humanly speaking and because he's a retriever he came running onto the conference ground and we have ponds with fountains and little fish and it's full of algae and sometimes dirty and rusty when he came out of the truck he just was looking oh isn't he beautiful and he just ran and as he was running I knew what was going to happen he jumped the fence and he just plunged him down in the old dirty pond and I thought, you know you're a dog but you know it's a great thing when we are clean and there's no pollution and sometimes we have a history you know if we've come through something in our past and there has been a behavior pattern it's so easy to succumb to temptation because we know that temptation is not sin what happens when temptation comes? Temptation comes to the mind now if the mind has been polluted and the mind is not clean, that temptation comes, that arrow makes contact and you can't be tempted to something that you don't know anything about but when it makes contact in the mind you begin to think about it and think about it let me share with you one of the disciplines of prayer because I've come through we all come through things through the years and there was a time in my life when I went through something that I really struggled with of someone that has done something to me and you know what he did it began to infiltrate into my prayer life and it began to pollute my prayer life and I get up in the morning and the first thing I think about is this thing of what this man did to me and I couldn't get away from this and I try to go now to my choir time and there it's there again and I try to read the scriptures and there it's there again and I wrestle and I wrestle and I went for counseling the man who became my spiritual father a man with the name of J.B.B. Friend in South Africa and I said Mr. Friend I need help I said someone has done this thing to me and I told him what it was and I said I'm struggling with these bad thoughts and I'm struggling about this criticism and I said the moment when I wake up in the morning and I get on my knees to have my choir time this thing is there and he shared with me a discipline in the Christian life and he said to me the only way that the secret in this quiet spot the only way that you're going to get victory is that when the word of God comes you spend time in this word and what the word of God is going to do is to set it aside set it aside and he said when the word of God set this aside you're going to create a special room it's like on the email you create a file and you see he said you put that hurt into that file in that special room that doesn't mean you don't give attention to it but in your mind in your heart you discipline yourself that it does not interfere with your time in the word and in your time of prayer but every morning you come and you step into that room where you've been hurt or where there has been criticism and you can't get the victory you step into that room and the moment when you step into that room you close the door behind you and in your prayer life you are in that room and there you are seeking God about it and every morning you come to the altar of God in that room and you lay this thing on the altar of God and you pray it and you lay it on the altar of God and every morning you say God give me a promise that I can put between the altar and this door so that this is on the altar for God and when you pray about it and you pray and sometimes you can pray for a long time but that room is everyday there to share with you there is a room like that in my life it's the room of the salvation of my brother been praying for him for 28 years last year in Africa three times spoke to him about Christ every time it was as hard as nails number of months ago he phoned me and he said I want to talk to you and I said about what he said my wife is dying of cancer she is in the last days of her life God is dealing with my brother and I go into this room where I am with God and Him and pray it through and then walk out of that room and the promises close the door and you close that door the discipline of prayer until you prayed it through and you know what is beautiful when the day come when you and I have prayed this thing through and God said now it's safe to open the door because all has been dealt with do you know what you do you raise an ebony easer and you say he that you has a and that's how we grow spiritually in our relationships with God let's stand for prayer and then return to the scriptures our father as we come to you this morning we are so tremendously thankful and we are so grateful for the great privilege of what the word of God is all about we thank you today for the depth of your word we thank you this morning for the precious blood of Christ that we have been singing about we thank you today for the redemption ground that we can stand on we thank you this morning that your word is said to us that Christ paid the price so that we can have life and abundance of life and Lord I have found that such a privilege once or twice a year to come in amongst these families that have become so dear and near to my heart and yet God I have become conscious in the last number of months that this little fellowship that we are going to be under attack because we want to live out and out for God and father thy word is said to us that when the enemy shall come in like a flood the spirit of the Lord shall rise up and stand against him you have said unto us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and the powers of darkness you said unto us that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world father you said to your servant Joshua and to Moses stand still and see the salvation of the Lord the battle does not belong to you but the battle belongs to God father we can't face the onslaughts of the evil one if it's from within or from without but father we know this Sunday morning that in the place of prayer God will be able to help us to systematically pray and Lord I pray for the brothers this morning these men have become very precious to me and Lord I love him with the love of God and some of us are struggling with our quiet times and some of us are maybe struggling with evil thoughts and some of us are struggling with issues and God the only way we are going to be able to survive these onslaughts is when we become men and women of prayer and men of purity and men of passion and men of power and unction and this morning father it's the burden of my heart that every single one of these brothers will become such great men of honour and men of unction and we ask that you will begin in our lives as brothers father we want to draw a circle around ourselves today and ask that you will pour out your spirit in this circle and that you will do something very deep and Lord if there are hidden agendas in our hearts if we have secret plans I pray this morning in Jesus name that whatever the judgement needs to do that God will come and decisively deal with us in our relationships with you and Lord I'm speaking about myself if there's any wicked way the Psalmist said search my heart, search me and see and find if there is any wicked way and so this morning we pray that you would keep the sanctity of our fellowship clean Lord we really want to walk with God and so we ask that it will be relevant in our lives as brothers those of us that are struggling with our quiet times some mentioned last night in their times of prayer father it broke my heart this morning we climb underneath the burden of our brothers heart and we ask that you will make these times vivid in the presence of God a relationship with our wives these precious ones that you brought into our lives O God we pray that it will not be a relationship of criticism or a relationship of slander or gossip but that you will give our wives the courage as you've done with my own precious wife to look me in the eyes and say daddy that statement is not of God and I found myself becoming broken because of the one that you brought into my life face me up with issues that I need to know about and I pray this morning that you will take our sisters and make them women of God we thank you for our children bless them we pray help us to protect them from anything that is evil learn us and teach us the principle of Job that he sanctified his children on a consistent basis just in case the enemies somehow got in and tried to do something to them now father as we turn to your word bless this word to our hearts in Jesus name Amen I would like you to turn with me in your Bible if you will to Acts chapter 2 Acts chapter 2 Acts chapter 2 verse 1 Bible says in when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all of one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them clovered tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all full to the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance and there were utterance in Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven now when this was noise abroad the multitude came together and they were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language and they were all amazed and marveled saying one to another behold are not all these which speak Galileans and how here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born partners in the Medes and the Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia and Pontus in Asia Phrygia, Pamphylia in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome Jews and proselytes Cretes and Arabians we do hear them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God and they were all amazed and they were in doubt saying one to another what mean of this others mocking said these men are full of new wine but Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said unto them ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem be this known unto you and hearken to my words for these are not drunken as ye suppose seeing it is but the third hour of the day this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel and it shall come to pass in the last day say of God I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out on those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs in the earth beneath blood and fire and vaporous smoke the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved now verse number 37 now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles men and brethren what shall we do and Peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and to all your children and to all that are afar of even as many as the Lord our God shall call with many other words did he testify and exhort saying save yourself from this untoward generation then they that were glad to receive his word were baptized the same day they were added unto them about three thousand souls and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine with the fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and all that believed were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parts then to all men and every man at need and they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house they ate their meat of gladness singleness of heart praising God and having favored with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved the day of Pentecost the day when the church was born the day when the spirit of God came and those early disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and when you look at the Acts of the Apostles we know that the first seven chapters of the book of Acts is dealing with the establishment of the church from chapter 8 onwards to chapter 12 the church was expanding into Judea and Samaria from chapter 13 to chapter 28 the church extended unto the outermost parts of the world 31 years of history and the then known world was evangelized for the Lord Jesus Christ now Jesus turned to them in chapter 1 and also at the end of the Gospel of Luke and he said to them I want you to tarry unto Jerusalem until you are induced with power from on high and the word tarry is a wonderful word Christ looked upon them and he said to them I want you to sit down I've been in revival twice in my life and this chapter is dealing with revival when the church was revived I've been in other movements of the spirit of God and people say oh that was revival and I say no I don't think so it was drops of the visitation of God we were in a move of God some time ago in a very conservative church for a week of prayer and we started this Sunday morning and went on and spent the mornings in prayer and spent the evenings afternoons in prayer and seeking God and the Wednesday morning at the men's breakfast meeting the spirit of God broke in amongst the brethren and one of the elders in this fellowship got up that morning and he looked at the men who sat there and they were I don't know maybe 25-30 men who were in this men's prayer breakfast meeting and he said there was a time in my life when I had something against each and every one of you and I just sat there and I thought oh and so I didn't know what was going to take place and he came to them and he said to them I want to ask you all this morning to forgive me and I want you to hold me accountable that this won't happen again while he wanted to leave and I got to him and I put my hand around his shoulder and I said Steve he was self-employed I said Steve you're not going to go anywhere today and he said pastor what do you mean I said Steve the pastor and myself are spending the days in prayer I want you to phone your business and tell them you won't be there today because you're going to spend the day in prayer with us and he spent the day in prayer with us Wednesday morning or rather Wednesday night the spirit of God broke into the church now the problem was we had only about 50% of the people that were coming to the services the other 50% come on a Sunday morning and you don't see them again on Sunday night and it's possible but many of them maybe do not have the witness of the spirit of God that they are born again I tell you what happened God broke in Wednesday night into the service and God met all of us in that service I would never forget that Wednesday night because I was half way through my little message when I couldn't speak anymore it's wonderful to come into meetings where you try to preach and God just put the lid on and you are so broken up and smashed up you can't open your mouth because as you look at people people were weeping all over the church and the congregation went on their knees and that meeting went on for quite some time as people were seeking God husbands and wives and families were praying together but it was only 50% of the church so after Wednesday night the pastor said oh brother Gerard this is wonderful and I said no there is 50% of the people there that we don't know what's going on we are just beginning to scratch the surface so he said what do you think we should do? I said we are just going to keep on praying Thursday we intensified the prayer we spent Thursday morning in prayer Thursday afternoon in prayer and Thursday night came and when Thursday night came God was moving in a deeper way now you know what happened by Thursday night word got out amongst the people that God did something on Wednesday night so by Thursday night we had more people than Wednesday night so God was doing a deeper work on Thursday night and the people that came on Thursday night met with God that Thursday night and so Thursday night the pastor said so what now? I said we are going to go deeper and so Friday we intensified the prayer Friday night again we had more people out because God was doing something in the fellowship and so after Friday night I would say we may be at maybe 65 70% of the congregation on Friday night and so the tide was rising and we knew something was happening and so the pastor after Friday night said so what about tomorrow? I said tomorrow Saturday we are spending a day in prayer and fasting and tomorrow night we are having a half night of prayer and he said why? I said we are going deeper because I saw something was coming and I have been to the Revival twice and I thought maybe God is going to come and visit us again it would have been the first time in Canada and so Saturday we spent a day in prayer and we sought God Saturday night we had a half night of prayer 3 o'clock on Sunday morning the Lord woke me up and I was wide awake I only slept for about 3 hours and I was wide awake and it was as if God whispered into my ear and said today it's going to be different today God is going to come to church God is going to come and visit Sunday morning I came to the church we prayed together before the service came to the service and as we came into the sanctuary Sunday morning I was sitting there in the pulpit and the pastor was sitting on the other side he was a very conservative German fellow and sat on the other side and as we sat there and people began to move there was a hush of the presence of God in the church you know it's wonderful when you can come into a building and there's no people but the place is full the place is full of God and it was very interesting as we sat there and people began to come in people that were in the services the previous days they began to come in and sat and there was a silence there was no talking no whispering they just sat there just like in my own country my own people when they come to church on Sunday morning they quite often half an hour before the service starts and they just sit and it's quiet absolutely no one said a word because of reverence for God it was just like that and so people come in and come in and people that were not in the services brother and sister they came in and they don't say a word and I look over the congregation and people were wiping their tears from their cheeks and I knew God was in here that was before the service started so the pastor sat there and he said to me what is this I said it's the presence of God it's an awful thing today people can't discern the presence of God anymore and he came to me and he said to me what do you think we should do and I said I don't know I don't know what to do and I'm afraid for the presence of God you know we do little things and criticize and gossip and stuff you know I tell you I was memorizing Acts the first twelve chapters of Acts a few years ago and I I phoned my wife five o'clock one morning I was speaking at the Bible Institute and I phoned her five o'clock one morning and she thought there was something wrong and she said what's going on I said my darling I'm memorizing Acts chapter five Ananias and Sapphira and she said what about it and I said yes they kept that part to the price and do you remember what happened God struck them and they were dead and she said what do you think and I said Janice I said if we were living in Acts chapter five today there would be very few Christians who would be alive I'm afraid of the presence of God I'm afraid of the presence of God I can take you to a spot in the revival in Zululand seventeen years ago in a little fellowship like this of missionaries where there was one missionary and God was dealing with him about something in his life and he was holding back and he was holding back and God was dealing with him and said you need to surrender this you need to put this right you need to surrender this and God was dealing with him and one morning just a little missionary organization about the same size as this they were German missionaries and one morning he stood up in this prayer meeting and he began to pray but there was this thing that he was holding back from God this thing that he was guilty of and he was holding back and he began to pray and he just stopped in his prayer and he said there is something that is piercing me there is something that is piercing me the first time when he said there is something that is piercing me he dropped down dead and they carried him out I'm afraid of the presence of God I'm afraid of the presence of God I want to tell you something this morning I've had the privilege of seeing God working in the revival and it has nothing to do with me I can tell you that if you knew how God dealt with me and those movements of the spirit of God I tell you you wouldn't believe it but I want to tell you something this morning if God will come into this little church this day and pour out his spirit upon us I want to say to you my brother and sister none of us would be able to get out here maybe for days and we don't do strange and funny things do you know what will happen to us? we will be under some of these pews and in corners all over this place and we will be sobbing when the greatness of the presence of God came so you say what happened that Sunday morning in that church well let me tell you what happened the pastor said to me do you have a message and I said I'm not sure I think so but it feels pretty rotten and we didn't know what to do and the church is full of people and I just got up and I went and I sit down on the pulpit just like this and I said to the people God is here today he's in our midst today and they sensed it and God laid it upon my heart and this elder that met with God the Wednesday morning he was a lovely man highly respected in the community he had a testimony but you see he was guilty of slandering and stuff and so God met with him and I sat there and I said Steve you need to come and I didn't warn him or anything and I will never forget he came and you know when the presence of God is in the midst of the place it's like what brother Denny talked about the charity those early days when God was moving almost in the blessing of revival and when God did some amazing things and I will never forget that man he came and he was almost staggering afraid he was a self very confident man but that morning it was different because God was there and he came and he stood there and I said brother Steve I said I think you should tell the people what God did in your life and I will never forget this elder he just came and he stood behind the pulpit like this and he was shaking and he grabbed it like this and I watched it less and they were just shaking but here is this confident man and it seems he's got everything together he didn't because now God has come and he looked over that congregation that Sunday morning and he just said that's all he said he said God has met with me and so many we were in the midst of it you say what? I don't know but there was such a brokenness all over the place people just got on their knees and they got on their knees and people began to come to the altar of the church and this church was maybe about 300 people or so and they would come all over and I heard them sobbing and I saw old Christian men crawling over to the other side and put their hands around another Christian man and said brother will you please forgive me will you please forgive me and it went on and on and on and on it went on for 6 hours God damn it you know what I was in that church about 6 weeks ago God is still working you know what the pastor said to me he said brother Gerard and I could only give him Sunday morning and Sunday night all I could do and Sunday afternoon when we spent the afternoon prayer he was pleading with me he said brother Gerard he said do you think we can just have another few nights of meetings he said maybe God will come and visit us again and I said no Marvin you can't schedule these times of the visitation of God you can't schedule it's revival so what is it in Acts 2 listen to this it was the importance of the time listen to what the Bible says the Bible says when the day of Pentecost was fully come why was it Pentecost Pentecost Pente stands for 50 because the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament and the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament you will discover that what happened on Pentecost has got a beautiful connection with what happened in the Old Testament when God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt brought them out of Egypt brought them through the Red Sea and he brought them to Mount Sinai and for 11 months and 19 days the people of Israel were camping at Mount Sinai and the will of God was unfolded through the law, the way to God was appointed through the tabernacle and the walk with God was revealed through the book of Leviticus and it was at Mount Sinai on around the 50th day when God came and he visited the mountain God said sanctify the mountain and he visited the mountain do you remember what happened? here on the day of Pentecost the Bible says when the spirit of God left there were tongues of fire that came and sat upon each and every one of them this is similarity the time of the visitation of God so what did they do? oh they sat at Jesus' feet for three or three and a half years possibly those early disciples, now Christ was taken from them, he died he was risen, he ascended and he sat at the right hand of the Father and what did he say to them? listen, you know Jerusalem I've been rejected, this is the place, this is the place that crucified me, this is where I was to be now listen, because it's so difficult here in Jerusalem go to Samaria or go to Judea or go to the uppermost parts of the and wait there and I'm going to pour out my spirit upon you there in the churches Jesus did not do that, he said to them I want you to carry in Jerusalem in Jerusalem in Jerusalem you see brethren and sisters, this is why we're talking about these circles this little circle my own relationship with God, this next little circle, my relationship with my loved ones my relationship with my wife my relationship with my children the next little circle my relationship with my fellowship, my relationship with my brothers I don't know how well you're familiar with the works of John Wesley the Methodist but they were called Methodists because they had methods every Friday was a day of fasting for them, they had accountability meetings, they would look at one another and they would say to one another brother, what has God been doing in your life this week? have you been guilty of criticism? have you said anything about someone else? and they had these Methodist meetings that's where Methodism comes from it was the little Jerusalem Jerusalem can I ask you this morning, what's happening in Jerusalem? what is happening in Jerusalem? the Christian life someone once said, it's not difficult, it's just not easy, but it's Jerusalem and do you remember what Jesus said? he said, you shall be witnesses in Jerusalem, now brother and sister we say, oh you shall be witnesses, so we say, oh there's the responsibility, I need to witness responsibility is my response to God's ability, I need to witness, no no no no, when he said you shall be witnesses, the first thing that he was speaking about, was not telling people about Christ, it was the spirit of God witnessing to their own spirit, that they were rightly related to God so it's the spirit of God witnessing witnessing my spirit witnessing you know I've been in places and I know you won't misunderstand me that when I talk to pastors and churches and we are in these different places, you have a wonderful privilege, I tell you, you've got a wonderful privilege, you are a group of families here and you know and I often when I go away here I find myself weeping and I say to God in my heart as I drive down the road back to Seattle, they don't realize their privilege that's why I'm so passionate that sin or Satan or us should not become instruments of of dividing one another because you don't realize the passion the beauty of families that believe on separation families that believe on separation from the world but we can be so separated that we are not separated unto God but I realize the privilege that if I take you to some of the places where I need to go and preach you will say, oh brother Gerard, I don't know how I would be able to survive it, you know I often say and you know what, I meet with scores of pastors and we meet together and I talk to them about God breaking through in meetings and you know what happens brother and sister, they come to me and they say, I don't have a clue what you are talking about I don't have a clue you shall be witnesses it's the spirit of God witnessing to your own heart your own heart witnessing witnessing let me ask you a question this morning when asked if you have been broken unafraid of unbroken men, Christian men brother I tell you they know how to hurt they know how to hurt and I have dealt with them through the years but I have to confront someone a few nights ago who was talking to me and as we were back and forth I just stopped and I said you know what's your problem, you've never been broken you've never been broken, never been broken Fatshmini speaks about God breaking this inner man this inner life breaking me breaking me, what is it how did I try to gather you as a hen her chickens and you would not this little place where I stayed I mentioned last night it's a canal I went for a walk last night to pray alongside this canal I saw this mother duck with I don't know 7, 8 or 9 little ducklings and they were all swimming around there and of course she was afraid that I would do them harm and because I love animals and we brought up on a farm this morning in this motel where I stayed they have a continental breakfast and so I went and I got 3 buns not for me but for the ducks and so when I went to pray I was looking for these mother ducks and the wee ones and I want to give them this food oh what a waste of food I probably should have asked God to forgive me for giving the ducks food but I didn't eat it anyway but I was looking for them to give them this food and I couldn't find them and I thought oh my what has happened to them did I chase them away did I do something to them it's just the beauty of trusting God to have a sensitive conscience in the witness of the Spirit of God in my heart how did I try to gather you as a hen or chickens if Jesus tried to gather us as a hen or chickens then we have the same responsibility same responsibility the time of the visitation of God brother and sister when last did he visit you in your own heart when last did he visit you I think of the church about four or five weeks ago in Edmonton Alberta where on a Sunday morning God came to visit us, just the time of the visitation, it was a revival, no it was just God coming to visit us, even Robert used to pray and say God bend the church and save the world every morning when I pray with my wife we have our quiet time separately and pray together and pray alone and then she comes into my office and we spend some time in prayer together and every morning I knelt right there next to my wife and I ask God every morning to break my heart for my wife do you ever ask God to break your heart for the families in the church are we praying for one another brother and sister serving God with broken hearts it's Jerusalem it's Jerusalem it's right here the time of the visitation of God do you remember the Old Testament the times of God's visitation when he came to visit Moses, Exodus chapter 3, 40 years he was the prince in Egypt 40 years he was the shepherd in Midian after 80 years 80 years God came and God visited Moses do you remember when God visited Moses, God said to Moses there was this little bush that was burning and Moses was used to little bushes burning I mean he was the shepherd for 40 years and out out God and as he was there the bush was burning and it was not consumed and God said Moses take off your shoes from thy feet because the place that thou art standing on it's holy ground holy ground the time of the visitation of God and if you and I have learned the secret of consistently saying Father prepare me for the time of your visitation you know I pray that on a consistent basis because I need to meet with God on a consistent basis you say brother Gerard why do we have to meet with God why do we need this Jerusalem this place where God meet with us listen brother and sister in Acts chapter 2 you remember what happened to them the Bible says they were all full to the Holy Ghost and what happened they spoke in 16 known different languages you count them they were 16 now why did they do that this is all the stuff that we hear about today no no no no there is no counterfeit for the true fullness of the Spirit of God they spoke in 16 known different languages you say why did they do that you know why did they do that they say there were about a million people around Jerusalem coming from 16 different parts of the world and when the Spirit of God came they didn't preach they spoke of the glorious things of God and so when the Spirit of God came and they spoke in these different languages and they never did that ever again those early disciples this happens on plenty cars and they spoke in those those different languages that was the manifestation of the coming of the Spirit of God upon those early disciples but you know what was wonderful it was not just the time of the visitation brother and sister it was the place listen to what the Bible says the Bible says when did the Pentecostals fully come they were all with one accord and one place one accord and one place I mentioned earlier on about the revival amongst Zulu people in my own country 17 years ago in the south coast of Africa you know where the revival came those Zulu missionaries those German missionaries came together and they were at evangelistic services and very little happened in these meetings and then they said to themselves there is something wrong and you know what they did they began to study the Acts of the Apostles and some of them began to memorize the Acts of the Apostles in German and they were studying the Acts of the Apostles and studying it and they got to the place where they said to themselves there is something wrong with us you say why because they saw the standard of Christian living and the Acts of the Apostles and they said as they look at the standard of Christian living and the Acts of the Apostles and they said we look at our own lives we knew that there was something wrong and brother and sister those times of Bible study became times of sobbing in the presence of God and times of prayer, when I came to and I went to Mapamulakwasi Sabantu and the revival by that time they were in the midst of the glorious workings of the Spirit of God and you know what happened I went to ask him I stayed in the missionary's home and we sat down and I talked to him and I said what happened why did you weep why did you do that and he said you don't understand he said God came and he lifted the standard of Christian living amongst us and he said we were so moved by the Spirit of God he said for months and for months he said brother Gerard we just wept I've seen people like that you know I've seen people like that I remember a man that turned up at my campground some time ago that I've been counseling and helping in his Christian life and he came out of a church that was divided and hurt him and did everything that you could think of and he came and I began to counsel him and he phoned me one night he said I need to see you very early tomorrow morning and I said I'll meet you at 6 o'clock at the campground and I said we're going to pray Paul and he came that morning and this thing happened God came and he was lying on the floor flat on his face sobbing hour after hour after hour just sobbing sobbing meeting with God and I ask you this Sunday morning what is preventing you from meeting with God you see sometimes we settle for the second best brother and sister the greatest enemy of the best of God is the good of God and sometimes you and I sit in a gathering like this and you know what happens to us we can't even see our need we can't even see that God needs to do something deeper in our hearts we are so blinded by our own ideas and our own perceptions and our own concepts we can't see that we are in need of God you say what needs to come you know what needs to come God needs to come and just turn us upside down just turn us upside down I was reminded last night because we were brought up in Africa and it was different and when the winter months come Papa would come with his gun in the farm we were in a large cattle ranch and every winter we would slaughter an ox or a cow or a heifer or whatever and and a sheep and a pig and we would prepare it for the winter months when it's cold and when when Papa would come and kill this this ox the African people and ourselves would come and we would hang it up in the tree and get our knives and we began to skin it and open it up and clean it out and then I was just a young boy it was fascinating for us and then the skin of this ox would be taken and they put it down there on the ground on the farm and they would have these wooden picks and they would pick it in you know nail it into the ground the whole skin is nice and wet and then they would bring rough salt and sometimes half an inch or or an inch of salt and they would sprinkle it upon the skin and if you don't know Africa you think my what are they doing so they sprinkle it upon the skin and it would be thick and then for days two or three or four maybe five weeks as time would go the salt the sun would come and burn into the salt and burn into the skin and the salt would infiltrate and sometimes they wet the salt so they'd infiltrate the skin and after five or six or maybe eight weeks they would take the the skin is so hard I mean you can't do a thing with it it's useless it's useless you can't you can just maybe burn it or throw it away you can't do it and then they would say now the process is going to begin and so then they would put it in vinegar and water and soften the skin and we would hang it up into a tree and ask if they'd hang it on a bottom they would attach a big stone to it and they have a long pole and they put this pole in just above the stone and the African people they would come and walk around and walk around and walk around and they would tighten it and tighten it and tighten it up to a certain point and then they would pull this this this this this pole out of it and it would swing until it's there and then the process and for days that's what they would do and then they'd check it all the time water it sometimes again wet it sometimes again sometimes after 3 or 4 or 5 weeks of just working with it they would take it off and we as children we would come and we would feel it they'd put it around us it's so soft and so nice and I would say to the African people you can sleep under it tonight you can stand on it we can trample it they ask you this morning where you are you see some of us we've wanted the salt but you know what has happened to us we've become so hard lying in the sun no use God wants to come and he wants to turn us turn us and you know what we do, we kick and we kick and we kick and we kick and we kick ourselves to death and in the process of kicking we're kicking everyone else around us and hurting and because we're not willing for God to just squeeze us and I'm speaking to myself where are you? Salt but the salt of lust is saviour where shall it be salted? we need God, you know, to pray