This sermon emphasizes the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit as preached by Ezekiel, pointing to the need for a new heart and spirit through the covenant of peace. It highlights the importance of holding the Holy Spirit to the covenant promises, trusting in His power to break every chain of sin and bring freedom. The message encourages believers to commit their lives to the Holy Ghost, allowing Him to lead and guide them in victory over sin and fear.

Welcome especially to our guests and visitors. We trust the Lord's presence has touched you this evening by the worship and praise and now prayerfully by his word. We return to Ezekiel 18, please, Ezekiel the 18th chapter. Please pray for our team spread all over the world. We have many, a number of teams going to Macedonia. Pastor Carter leaves Saturday to go there for a week also. We pray for him and those that will be with him. Teams going into Russia, please pray for these teams also. Praise the Lord. Ezekiel 18, my message tonight, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, Ezekiel 18, now you won't understand this message until we get a little further into it, where we're going, but you will see it unfold as we go. The 18th chapter beginning at verse 30, Ezekiel 18, beginning at verse 30, therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, this is Ezekiel speaking through the power of the Lord, everyone according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God. Wherefore, turn yourselves, turn yourselves, and live ye. Heavenly Father, take us into your word. We're not looking for some exotic theology. We want the simple truth, O God, of what you have revealed in your word. That which is revealed belongs to us, and Lord, we claim it on the authority of the Holy Spirit and the power of God's word, your promises, that all of these things belong to us, and they have to do with our living and overcoming life. God bring forth truth tonight that will open our eyes and our understanding, that you have not sent us out into the world powerless, but you have given us the Holy Spirit to empower us over sin and hell and death and the grave. Lord anoint me. Let the power of the Holy Ghost, demonstration of the Holy Spirit, come upon me, and let this word go deep into our hearts, transforming, changing, and encouraging, lifting our spirits, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. The indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Now Ezekiel the prophet is deeply grieved at what he sees in the house of God among the children of Israel. He's grieved at the compromise and the backsliding. He sees about what we see in our land today. He sees sin as it has never been as ripe. He's seen compromise on all sides. He sees a backslidden church, and he comes to the church with this message, repent. Turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions. Make you a new heart and make you a new spirit. Turn yourselves and live. Now that's a powerful convicting message, isn't it? It sounds so much like the preaching I did for many, many years. Turn yourself around. Now Ezekiel was one of those many Old Testament prophets that had not only been touched by the Holy Spirit, but he'd had the privilege of entering into the blessing of the new covenant even in the time of the old covenant because the Spirit of God not only touched some of these men, but he indwelt them. He lived in them. In fact, this is the case with the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 2, he said, and the Spirit entered into me when he spake to me. So we know this man is indwelt with the Holy Spirit. So certainly he has in himself, as Abraham did, who saw the time of Christ, all the Old Testament prophets who were touched, David included, they had that inner indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, and they were able to, they had that inner strength to fight sin and resist temptation, but not so with the congregation that he preached to. He's saying to sin-bound people of Israel, why don't you just stop what you're doing? What's your problem? Simply lay it down. Turn, make yourselves change, get yourself a new heart. Just say no to your besetting sins. He says it two, three times. Turn yourselves around. Get yourself a new heart. You need a new motivating spirit. Get one. Get a new motivating spirit. This man who was indwelt with the Holy Spirit could not understand because he's no, no, no, probably not living in their realm, but he can't understand or comprehend why they simply are not convicted by his strong word, why they won't heed his powerful warnings, and just simply say no to their sins and turn around. Now, I know you will admit, you have to admit, God told him to preach that message. This was inspired by God. God told him to, but he did that for a purpose, to set that high standard, to show them that they could reach it. They needed a new covenant. They needed something beyond anything they could reach in the realm of the flesh. Now, folks, I preached that kind of gospel for years. I stood in the pulpit. I so grieved at the sins of the nation. I so grieved at the compromise in the church. I still do. I looked into my own heart. I was not satisfied with what I believe should be total, absolute victory. There were times that I was being tripped up by the enemy. It can be covetousness. It can be pride. It can be ambition, so many things that we hate in ourselves. And so, I would stand in the pulpit and say, why are you going to let this sin ruin you? You know God hates it. Get mad at the devil. Get mad at hell. Get mad at your sin and say, that's enough, and walk away. That's good preaching, isn't it? I listened to some of my old tapes, and I said, oh, wow. Folks, I don't reject a single message I preach, because there is a lot of good in that kind of preaching, because I preach law so strong that people realize they could never live it and were driven to the cross and to mercy. I'm one of those men that just drove people to the cross. I can't live to Dave Wilkerson's standards, neither could I. Ezekiel was asking the people to do something that was humanly impossible to do. No way, under any circumstances, under their limited fleshly power, are they going to be able to get themselves a new heart, a new spirit, and just turn away from their sins and their idolatry? He's saying, lay your idols down. Quit your idolatry. Just walk away from it. Just say no to your sin. Turn around. Oh, folks, that's being preached from pulpits all over the world. Some called it legalism, call it what you want, but they could no more create themselves a new spirit, new heart, than they could raise the dead. Absolutely impossible. See, that's the problem with the old covenant, the old problem, the demand for total obedience is there, but the power is not there to fulfill it. That's why God had to make a new covenant, a new agreement with mankind. Now, I'm certain that there were some in Israel that heard Ezekiel preached because they had a heart for God. There was a holy remnant all through this time, and I'm sure they heard this powerful, convicting preaching of Ezekiel. This is true holiness preaching of the time, and they said, oh, Ezekiel, that's what we want. That's what I've always wanted. I don't want my sin. I hate it. The thing that I despise, I do, and the thing I don't want to do, I don't have the power to do. And I want that, but I keep failing. I don't have the power, Ezekiel. I want to do exactly what you're preaching, but I don't have the power in me. Just when I think I have the victory, I fall down again. Well, now, if we're helpless in our flesh in breaking the power and dominion of sin, where is the power? In these last days, under the new covenant, in the day of grace, God's demand of obedience is just as strong as it was under the old covenant in the Old Testament. God doesn't wink at sin, never has and never will. God demands absolute, total, perfect obedience to his word. He does so under the new covenant. He still calls for a new heart and a new spirit. Now, Ezekiel had to have been one of the most discouraged preachers in the Old Testament, one of Israel's most discouraged prophets by what he saw because they were trusting in their own righteousness. God told him, he said, they're trusting in their own righteousness while they're still living in their sins. He said, they're trusting in their own strength. And here's exactly what God said to him about his people that he'd been preaching. He said, Ezekiel, they hear your words, but they'll not do them. For with their mouth, they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness. They hear you, but they'll not obey. You see, the church of his time was in total disarray. The shepherds were all out for themselves. They were cheating the people, living off the fat while the people were starving. The sheep were scattered over all the hills, and Ezekiel said, there are no shepherds willing to go out and find them. He said, they are wounded and there's nobody to heal their wounds. The shepherds are all out looking for themselves. They're all out trying to make it big. They're all trying, they're all looking for success. They're all looking for wealth. They've forgotten the sheep. Folks, that is what I hear from people all over this nation and around the world. Shepherds, the sheep were scattered all over the hills, and Ezekiel said, the shepherds aren't even going after them. They're taking care of their own needs first. And in that dark, dark hour, what appeared to be hopelessness, God shared a great secret of his heart with his prophet. You know, one of my favorite texts, and it's one the Lord gave me when he first called me to preach and said one day he'd fulfill it in my life. And it's been my heart cry ever since I was just a young man when I first started to preach. Psalm 2514, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. I've quoted that almost every day of my life. And in the past number of years, the Lord has seen fit to start opening and fulfilling this promise he made to me many, many years ago. And here's a man who fears God, and God is beginning to open his eyes. He's beginning to show him the covenant. And suddenly, the word of the Lord came to him, and he began preaching a message that must have both thrilled and dumbfounded him. I mean, he couldn't believe what was coming out of his mouth. The Lord was going to take him out of the old covenant time and give him a vision of what was going to happen in the time of the coming Messiah. I want you to go with me now, skip over to Ezekiel 36. And I'm sure that he couldn't believe what he was preaching, what was coming out of his mouth. You know, he just told these people, he'd been preaching, I mean, up and down the land. Quit your sinning. What's your problem? Turn around, get a new heart, get a new spirit. And God suddenly comes upon him by his spirit, and I don't believe he believed what was coming out of his mouth. Look at it in verse 25, beginning to read, when a sprinkle clean water upon you. This is his new message. You shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Will I cleanse you? He'd just been telling him, you cleanse yourself, clean yourself up. A new heart also will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you. He'd just told him, go get a new heart, go get a new spirit. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. Everything he'd been commanding them to do, God comes along and says, by my spirit, I'll do it. Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your father. Ye shall be my people and I'll be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleanness, and I will call for the corn and increase it, and lay no famine upon you. I'll stop right there. Look this way, please. I'm sure after he preached this, he went to God and said, God, wait a minute. Am I hearing you right that you're going to take matters into your own hands? And by your spirit, you're going to do for these people what I've been asking them to do and they can't do? You mean to tell me you're going to put a new heart in these people? You're going to put your spirit in them, and you're going to clean them up? And by grace and mercy alone, you're going to cause them to incline their heart to obey everything God commands in the book? An unbelievable message. It was too good to believe. It was almost too good to believe. He's not preaching, God, by his spirit, God said, I'm going to put my spirit in these people, and I am going to cause them to obey me. I am going to cause the Holy Spirit to fulfill in them every command I've ever made of them, every demand that I've made. I'm going to empower them to do it because I know they will never do it. They don't have the power. They know that now they've come to the end of themselves. And I'm sure the prophet had to say, can this really be true? God, you're going to put your spirit in them and cause them to obey you? You're going to save them for all their uncleanness by mercy alone? And immediately, almost immediately, the Holy Spirit takes him on a trip in the spirit. He takes him out in the spirit, in the vision, and takes him to the Valley of Dry Bones. Turn to chapter 37, you're going to see the Valley of Dry Bones like you've never seen it in your life, my friends. I want you to know he wasn't talking about Israel, natural Israel, not at all. There's absolute proof of this. All of the things that we're going to see now have never been fulfilled in natural Israel. All the things that you see and hear now have to do with the time when David, David had long been dead, the giant slayer. This David is Jesus Christ he's talking about. Isaiah or the prophet Ezekiel knew in his heart he was seeing another time. He was seeing the time of the Messiah. He was seeing the time of the fulfillment of a new covenant. All right, verse 1, the hand of the Lord was upon me. You see, God's going to give him an illustrated sermon now of what he'd been preaching. He's going to just illustrate it to him. The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, full of bones. The bones were dry, very dry. Is that the church you go to? There are very many of them there in an open valley, they're very dry. And the Lord speaks to him and he's out in the middle, in vision, he's in the middle of this just dry, beach-blown bones everywhere, northeast, south, and west. And he's saying, can these bones live? Can these bones live? You know what God would say to him? Ezekiel, this is your congregation you've been preaching to. This is Israel. Go ahead and tell those bones to get up and walk. Go ahead and tell them to walk out of their graves. That's what you've been preaching. That's your congregation. Why don't you all get up and walk? Why don't you get some skin on your bones? You're dead in trespasses and sin, your sin killed you. Get up and walk. Mm-hmm. You know, he said, those bones can't move. There's no life in them. He said, you've been preaching to bones. I preached a lot of bones in my lifetime, trying to get up and walk a holy life. I would scream, walk holy. Why will you let your sin ruin you? Why are you letting your sin destroy you? Why are you laying in your grave? Because I'm dead. I don't have any power. I don't have any strength. I don't have any life. If they could talk, that's what they'd have to say. God changed Ezekiel's message. Now, what we're about to see and hear is a new work of the Holy Spirit that's going to open up his eyes, and I hope it opens up your eyes. I know it's been opening up my eyes in a special way. He's saying to Ezekiel, the only way these bones can walk is if my spirit enters into them and my spirit does the work. It's the only way. It's that simple, folks. This is not complicated. It's not complicated at all. He said, here's what I want you to preach, Ezekiel. He said, behold, I will cause breath, spirit to enter into you, and ye shall live. Now, he's preaching to dead bones, but the Bibles, these bones were able to hear. God says he can make the dead to hear. He can make the dead to hear very clearly because he said, all ye bones, hear the word of the Lord. They're dead, but God's a God of miracle. He can make the dead to hear. You were dead when you heard it. You were dead in trespasses and sins when you heard it. He's preaching these bones. Behold, I will create, I will cause breath, and the word is spirit there in Hebrew, to enter into you, and you shall live. I'll put sinews upon you, and I'll bring up flesh upon you, and I'll cover you with skin. I'll put breath or spirit in you, and ye shall live. You shall know that I am the Lord. And all of a sudden, he's standing there, and boy, what a noise. What a shaking. Bone, neck bone, hip bone connected to the other bones. And you know the song. What a shaking. What a noise. Sounds like a great revival, doesn't it? A lot of shaking going on. Folks, I'm not putting it down because this is the work of God. God is creating vessels to hold his spirit. These are vessels. He's creating vessels. But you see, what Ezekiel's preaching here is perfect New Covenant Gospel. It's in a nutshell. He's preaching it. He said, all you dead men, just hear it now. The only way you're going to live, the only way you're going to get victory over the very thing that killed and destroyed you in the first place, is that my spirit comes in and takes total dominion so that you can live and never die again. This is the key, the heart of the covenant. The spirit of God will do what the flesh has never been able to accomplish by indwelling us, the power of the indwelling Holy Ghost. Are you beginning to get a little bit of it? That you need the Holy Ghost to live in you and abide in you? Well, there's much more to it than that, though. Ezekiel's puzzled. He sees all of these beautiful mannequins laying undead. I mean, they look like mannequins. They've got flesh. They've got color in their cheeks, probably. They've got eyes. They've got hair, everything. They look good. But the Bible said there was no life in them. There's no life in them at all. They're still dead. What's the point of this? What is God saying to Ezekiel, and what is he saying to the church? What is the point of this whole thing? None of this is here just to tell you a story about dry bones, and somebody could invent a song about it. No, no, no. It's about learning how to enjoy the blessings of the new covenant. Now, I want you to know that these prepared vessels, though they were dead, they were under covenant. The Lord had already made the promise. He said, you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. I am going to come and put my spirit upon you, and you are going to live. No condition whatsoever upon these people. He said, I am going to come, and this is the new covenant. God says, I'm going to come and pour out my spirit. I'll put my fear in you. I'm going to cause you to walk in the ways of the Lord. I am going to create in you a new spirit and a new heart. I'm going to lead you. I'm going to guide you. I'm going to cause you to know the heavenly Father. You're going to bypass your teachers because you're going to know intimacy with me. I'm going to be merciful to your sin. I'm going to be a God to you. That's what he's saying to these bones. He's preaching the new covenant, and he knows it. Now, prove that to you in just a moment. He absolutely knew that he was preaching to another generation. He's seeing another generation. He's seeing the time of the Messiah. Now, see, they heard the covenant, but they were not yet in the enjoyment and the blessing of the covenant. Now, there are many of you that have heard us preach about the new covenant, and it sounds almost too good to be true. You can sit down with people, and you can explain if you see it, even in part, and it sounds so wonderful. And they say, well, how do I get into it? How can I obtain it? How can I reach that? I want that so bad. Now, look, they are prepared vessels. They're laying on the ground. They're lifeless, but they're under the covenant. They've heard the covenant promise. That promise was, I'll put my spirit in you, and you shall live. They had heard it preached. The promise had been given to them, but they still have not entered into it. You can be under covenant and not even know it. You can be under the new covenant and not enjoy it. And the Holy Spirit is coming tonight, and He'll keep coming and coming to this pulpit until you understand it and enjoy the blessing and the favor of it. It is one truth that will forever set you free from guilt and fear and condemnation, where you can walk in victory, come hell or high water. Whatever may come against you, you will be in the covenant, and you will know that you are secure in Christ, and you're going to need that in the days ahead. But people say, well, how do I get into this covenant? How do I enter into the covenant? How can I enjoy this new covenant? There is something we've got to do. Listen to what is commanded of Ezekiel. Then he said unto me, prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy. Verse 9, prophesy to who? The word prophesy, there's preach. He said, preach to the wind. Who is the wind? The Holy Ghost. Preach to the Holy Ghost. Prophesy, son of man, prophesy, son of man, and say to the Holy Ghost or the wind, thus saith the Lord God. Hold the Holy Ghost to the covenant. Challenge the Holy Ghost to the covenant. Now, wait a minute. Does that sound a little blatant to you? You know, my Bible says, come boldly to the throne of grace, that you receive mercy and grace. Come, bring forth your strong reasons. The Holy Ghost loves to be challenged by the covenant. Prophesy to the wind. Prophesy, oh, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God. Come from the four winds, oh, breath, oh, Holy Ghost, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesied, he is commanded, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Here stands before him now a great army, alive and breathing. The Holy Ghost is in his place. The Holy Ghost has taken possession. And now they stand an exceeding strong army before Ezekiel. He sees them, they're ready for battle. What happened? How did they get the Holy Ghost? How did they enter into the covenant? They're in the covenant now. They're in their strength. Why did the Spirit answer their call? What's the secret that the Holy Ghost is unveiling to the prophet and to us here? You see, Jesus said, your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask, but there's a way to ask. It was not simply, Holy Ghost, come and fill us. Not at all. It was told the prophet, you say to the wind, and you say to the Spirit, and you preach to the Spirit, thus saith the Lord. You hold the Holy Ghost to the oath that the Father made. The Holy Ghost cannot do anything in you any more than Christ could do anything where there was unbelief. He can't do it where there's unbelief, and the Holy Ghost can be in you and do absolutely nothing in the way of deliverance if there's unbelief. Oh, over the years, I have ministered to so many multitudes, including pastors, godly people who love the Lord with all of their heart, who weep and cry over a failure in their life, whether it was pride, a covetousness, a fear of man, a lust, adultery, whatever it may be, something that had their heart and they cried for weeks. Some of them lived for years under the bondage. Spirit-filled, yes, Spirit-filled, talking-in-tongues people who for years carried the battle and said, and as well as said, look, I know that the Holy Ghost abided in me, but I have not been able to see the release of power. If the Holy Ghost is in me, where is the power? Why do I not see the release of it? You say that he has the power, he can embolden me, and I'm full of the Holy Ghost, where is the power? Why isn't it coming out? If there's an intensity against sin in your life, if there's an intensity in you to walk a holy and pure life, if there's an intensity in you against your besetting sin and you say, God, I hate this sin and I want victory, and there's an intensity in you to believe that the Holy Ghost is going to do what is fulfilled, then the holy God himself is calling upon Ezekiel the prophet, and he says, I am telling you, I am telling you to preach to the Holy Ghost, to come and do what he's called to do. You take the Holy Ghost to the oath, because the Holy Ghost was one of the makers of the covenant. He wants you to pray the covenant. In other words, pray it and believe it with everything in your heart. It's not just say, well, you're just coming very meekly, oh, Holy Ghost, come and possess me. No, he said, you prophesied to the wind, you prophesied to the spirit, and you preached to the spirit and said, oh, spirit of the living God, an oath was made to me from the foundation of the world that you would come and enter my heart. A promise was made that you cannot break because you cannot lie. Holy Ghost, you said you would cause me to walk in the spirit. You would cause me to walk in holiness. Holy Ghost, I hold you to the covenant. I had to come to that place in my life where I said, oh, God, I'm going to take you at your word, and I challenge you, Holy Ghost, because I love you respectfully with everything in my heart and with a heart full of love and humility to you, Holy Ghost. You have been ordered, that is your oath, the oath of Almighty God, and I commit my soul to it, live or die. And when the enemy comes in like a flood and some old sin tries to enter in some spirit of covetousness or anything else or pride or lust or anything else, I pray the covenant now, say, Holy Ghost, this is your promise. I've committed myself to it. When I stand on the judgment day before my Savior, I am going to be able to say to a just God, I believe the Holy Ghost, I held him to the covenant, this is his result. I've committed my eternal soul to the covenant he made. My God cannot lie. I don't know how he plans to do it. I don't know how. But I know he made an oath. He swore, and God said, I cannot lie. I will put my spirit in you and I will cause you to walk in the Lord's ways. I'll cause you to do it. I don't have to study for 10 years about the fear of God. I don't have to beg and plead. I go to the covenant because God said, I'll send the Holy Spirit in you and I, the Holy Ghost, will put my fear in your heart. I don't have to figure it out. Glory be to God. He set me free. Oh, he set me free. He broke the bonds of prison for me. Hallelujah. New Testament said, if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. If ye through the Spirit, through committing your eternal destiny in the hands of the covenant of the Holy Ghost, if you will commit it, he said, you will live. He's speaking to people who are humanly alive, but they didn't really live because if there's sin in your life, you really don't live. He said, you're dead while you still live because sin is death. He said, if you'll commit that to the Holy Ghost, if you through the Holy Ghost will allow him to mortify that sin, you're going to know what life is all about. You're going to know what life is. Hallelujah. Now, let me...you say, well, Brother Wilkerson, that all sounds so good. But are you sure Ezekiel is not talking...you sure God isn't talking about Israel in the flesh? Because look down here, let's see, verse 14, and I shall put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then you should know that I, the Lord, have spoken and performed it, saith the Lord. You say, doesn't that nail down that that's the natural Jew, natural Israel? Not for your life. Not one I owed. No way. Every prophet knew what Isaiah knew, that the land was something spiritual. And the word here in the Hebrew, by the word, is a place of solid ground. I'll bring you to a place of firmness, an unshakeable place. That's what it means. I'm going to bring you to a firm place. I'm going to bring you to a place where your faith is founded, where nothing can shake you. And that's what the covenant does for us. I'm reading to you from Ezekiel 62, 4. Thou shall no more be called forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be called desolate, but thou shall be called Hephzibah, and thy land shall be called Beulah, for the Lord delighteth in thee, and the land shall be married. Beulah here means a wife whose husband is her master. That's the land. I'm going to bring you into Beulah. I'm going to bring you into a firm place. And that firm place where you're unshakeable is when you're under the full control of the master to whom you're married. That's Christ. And you can't bring yourself under master. You can't do it. The Holy Ghost said, I'm going to enter into you, and I'm going to bring you under master. I'm going to bring you to Beulah. There's a song, Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land. Well, you're all too young to remember. You don't know that. Further proof, and David, my servant, shall be king over them. Verse 24, they shall all have one shepherd. My servant David shall be their prince forever. You know, King David of Israel was dead at the time. This is the seed of David. This is the last David. This is Jesus Christ. And all of this happening here in Ezekiel 37 happens at the time with this prince. This is the ruling and supreme, and there's one shepherd over them, and that's Christ. Folks, this is our time, Ezekiel, seeding. Face it. Face it. Deal with it. I dealt with it. I am so totally convinced. And by the way, there's not one single prophecy that's ever been fulfilled to natural Israel yet, not one of them. Nothing you find in this 37th chapter or the 36th chapter has ever been fulfilled to natural Israel. Zerubbabel had just a tiny taste of it, but that was all. They have never had a prince forever. They have never had one shepherd over them. It's never happened. Now, folks, I'm not preaching replacement theology. You know how deeply I love and appreciate Israel. That's why we started a church there. That's why we finance, and that's why we send missionaries, because we love Israel. Hallelujah. Give me five more minutes. Listen, saints, this gets so good. Not because I'm preaching, but because Ezekiel is preaching it. But I want you to go to Ezekiel 34 so we can do a little more shouting. Chapter 34. Now, folks, again, if you just read this chapter, this is the time when King David, the one great shepherd, is ruling. This is the time of Messiah, the last days. This is the day in which we're living now. This is the New Covenant times, and this is what God told Ezekiel to preach, and this is what I want you to hear. I want you to start verse 22 with me. Therefore, will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey, and I'll judge between cattle and cattle. God says, you're never going to, again, be a victim of the devil. Not after I send a Holy Ghost on you. Not when I give you the fullness of the Holy Ghost, and you lay claim, and you start laying the Holy Ghost. You start challenging the Holy Ghost by covenant, by the oath of Almighty God. He said, I'm going to save my flock. There'll no more be a prey, and I'll judge between cattle and cattle. I'll set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant. Who? David shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. Now, what happens when Christ reigns on the throne, our day, through the covenant? Because Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant. He was the seal of the covenant. And I, the Lord, will be their God, my servant David, a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will make with them a covenant of peace. You know what a covenant of peace is? When all the evil beasts are gone, and you're dwelling safely in the wilderness, you're able to sleep in the woods anywhere else. There are no more ghosts. The ghosts are all gone. All the past memories that try to haunt you, and the devil tries to bring up. You see, before, in the covenant, the devil could scare you almost, and then go, boo, and you'd run. You wouldn't even go near the woods. You can go anywhere now under the new covenant. Hallelujah. Lord said, I, the Holy Ghost, am in you. You can sleep in any woods anywhere. I'm going to give you a covenant of peace. Folks, when you rest in the work of the Holy Ghost, the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost, and when you say, Holy Ghost, I completely commit my eternal soul, my destiny, into this covenant. And you fully believe Him, you release the power, because He can't do anything where there's unbelief. And the only thing that holds us back from ending the covenant is unbelief. We can't believe that He could do such a wonderful thing because we have been taught, and we have lived for so long in this idea that I have to help the Holy Ghost. And folks, I want to tell you something. You can focus so much on the victory of the cross. Now, listen closely. Now, that's wonderful. That's the heart of the gospel. But if you forget the continuing work of the Holy Ghost in us, you've only preached half the gospel. There has to be that focus also on the work of the Holy Spirit in completing the work that Christ finished in us till it becomes a practical thing. It's not just the gospel we preach, but in our lives, it's a practical thing worked out by the Holy Ghost, the indwelling Holy Ghost. And there's not nearly enough preaching in these last days about the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit that makes the victory of the cross a total victory. Hallelujah. Well, look, let's go on. Stand while we read the rest of it, if you will, please. Verse 26, and I will make them and the places round about my heel a blessing. I will cause the shower to come down in his season. There shall be showers of blessings. We tasted some of them tonight. The showers of blessing, that's just the Holy Ghost coming upon us corporately as he is taking control individually. The tree of the field shall yield her fruit. The earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land. What's land? That's good land. They shall be safe under the mastery of Christ through the power of the Holy Ghost. They shall know that I am the Lord when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them out of the hand of those that serve themselves of them. Those are those old habits, the demon powers and the lies of the devil that have kept you, and you were a prey to this, and you were tossed to and fro. God said, that's all over. And who did it? Who did it? I have broken the bonds of the, and I have delivered them out of the hand of those that serve themselves of them. They shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land. The beast of the land in the Bible represent demon powers. Neither shall the beast of the field devour them, for they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. For I will raise up for them a plant of renown, that is Christ, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land. Folks, he's going to satisfy your hungry soul, he said. Neither bear the shame of the heathen anymore. Thus shall they know that I, the Lord, their God, am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, that's the spiritual house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord. You're my flock, the flock of my pastor are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God. I am your God. I will keep covenant with you. Raise your hands and just thank God for his covenant of peace that he has made with you, he's made with me. Father, we thank you for the covenant of peace. We thank you for the Holy Ghost that you have sent. We thank you for the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost in us. Oh, Holy Ghost, what a power you are. We challenge the covenant by faith. We come boldly to the throne of grace. Heaven allows violence, and violent, take it by force. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Oh, blessed be the name of the Lord. Folks, the battle's been won. Hallelujah. The battle's been won. Please don't judge the covenant promises by your own experiences. You say, oh, Brother Wilkinson, I've tried and failed. I have done everything I know to release the power of the Holy Ghost. Well, you don't release the power of the Holy Ghost. You just trust the Holy Ghost. You trust your life in the hands of the Holy Ghost. And then when the enemy comes in like a flood, when that lust or whatever it is comes toward you, you call upon him, but you call upon him with all authority, standing on the covenant promises of God. And God will not fail you. God has not failed me. He's not failed any of your pastors. He's not going to fail you. He's going to deliver you. That's his promise. Now, folks, if that's not true, then this whole thing would be a lie, which is impossible, for God cannot tell a lie. Hallelujah. When I trust the covenant, I've come to this. Lord, I've told the Holy Ghost, I trust you. You have got to come according to what God says. You have been ordered. You have been commanded. You are under oath. When you enter into my body and you take possession, you are under oath to do for me what you promised and what is promised in the covenant by the Father. It's there. And, Lord, because I've believed it and because I've committed my eternal soul and destiny to it, I'm going to be able to stand. If you're just God, I'm going to be able to stand before you. And I'm saying what you see, Father, is what the Holy Ghost has brought me to because I have trusted in his work. That's a place of security, folks, that you know you can stand before the judgment seat of Christ, knowing that you have fully committed your life, your future, your habits, your sins, everything, into the hands of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. Folks, it's time to just quit talking about the Holy Ghost and singing about the Holy Ghost. Let's get him loose. Let's loose him by the covenant. Hallelujah. Oh, Father, your word thrills our heart. Your word builds faith. But, oh, God, don't let us just hear it and then go out and forget what we saw and heard. Holy Spirit, I call you and hold you to the covenant. I know that's what you want me to do. You're looking for that kind of violent faith. You're looking for that kind of commitment. And when you see that, when I call, you will come. Lord, cause this people that hear me tonight and all who hear this on tape or video, wherever it may be, I pray, oh, God, that they pray this covenant to pass in their lives. They pray the understanding of it and enter in now by faith. No other way but by faith. Hallelujah. And, Lord, they don't even have to work it up. Just pray it. Holy Spirit, I hold you, Holy Ghost, to the covenant. I hold you to the oath. God, why would you give us an oath and a covenant unless you wanted us to hold you to it? Glory be to God. I've come, my people, to give you peace. Peace beyond human understanding. Peace beyond anything you have known or experienced. But it can come only to you as you rest in my word. I've honored my word far above my name. I have given you my word. And I will give you the very Spirit that was in Christ, who is the very Spirit of Christ, the Son of the living God, who shall lead you and guide you and hold you in the stormy days ahead. And he will come and cause you to walk in the ways of the Father. And he will hold you to the Father so that you will not forsake the Father. He will hold himself to you and he will hold you to himself. And he will not fail to do what the word has said will be accomplished. Stand by faith. Speak the word of faith. Come as the widow with great importunity and say, I will not let go. I will stand on this word. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. We will stand on the word of God. Folks, I don't have a single word about this altar call. All I'm going to do, we're going to sing a song, and that's not to create some kind of psychological mood. It's just, I'm just going to say this to you. If the word touched you and there's some reason for you to come down here, maybe you don't know Jesus. Maybe you don't know the Lord. You haven't been saved. And you say, this is all new to me, but my heart's been stirred. Once you get up on the balcony, come down either end, and come down any aisle and meet me here, and I'll pray with you. All those who are here backslidden, all of those here fighting a losing battle against some overwhelming sin, you say, I want to enter this covenant by faith. If God's speaking to you and you need to come down this aisle, and you feel, say, Brother Wilson, pray for me. God will tell me what to pray, but I don't know who you are, and I don't know why you need to come. But I'm just going to turn it over to the Holy Ghost and let him do what he wants. If you feel that you need to get up here, get something right with God, you get out of your seat and let's just do it. Upstairs, the Holy Ghost is moving. You move when the Spirit moves you, and you obey him. He's right here now to deliver you and set you free. He wants you to walk out of here as free as you've ever been in your life, never to return to your bondage again. He wants to break every chain that binds you. He wants to set you free, in other words. He wants you to leave this house rejoicing tonight. He wants you to lay hold of the covenant by faith. He wants all unbelief out of your system. Folks, all unbelief has to go. Hallelujah. Holy Spirit, come and make yourself manifest. Oh, Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit, we call upon you. Holy Spirit. Lift your hands. Everybody came forward. Just lift your hands. Call on the Lord right now. He knows what you need. He knows exactly. Say, Holy Ghost, come and touch me right now. If you need forgiveness, ask. Lord, forgive me. Cleanse me. Forgive me, Jesus. Touch my life. Lord, we take authority over every habit, every sin through the power of the Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit, by oath now, we commit you to this. We're committed, Lord, to the oath. The promises of God, you will break every chain, break every habit, cast out every lust. You will do what we cannot do. Do it for us, Father, in Jesus' name. Give him thanks right now. Just give the Holy Ghost thanks. Lord, I give you thanks. I give you praise. We give you praise. We give you thanks. We give you thanks, oh, Lord. Hallelujah. Holy Spirit, I ask you to remove unbelief. I ask you to put your fear into the hearts of those who come hungry to you. I ask you, Holy Spirit, now, upon the power and authority of the word of God's covenant, an everlasting covenant, an oath of almighty God who cannot lie, that you will come now and cause our hearts to turn to you, cause us to turn from our iniquities. God, put a new heart in us. Put your spirit in us. Fill us mightily with your Holy Ghost. Oh, God, send the Holy Spirit in power. We prophesy to the winds, come, oh, wind of God, come and breathe in us. Oh, breath of the living God. Break every habit. Break every lust. Oh, God, you will put your fear in our hearts. You will keep us from falling. Lord, we come to your grace, to your mercy, and to your covenant. Hallelujah. God who cannot lie. God who cannot lie. Blessed Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit. Oh, Holy Ghost. Come on down. Come on down, Holy Ghost. Come on down. Come on down, Holy Ghost. Come on down. Hallelujah. Come on down upon us, Holy Ghost. Fill us mightily with your spirit and your power. Hallelujah. He wants to fill you right now with his spirit if you just let him. The Holy Ghost is moving on some of you. Let him move upon you right now, Holy Ghost. Move upon me. Holy Ghost, touch me. Let the Holy Ghost touch you right now. Let him have possession. Hallelujah. Holy Spirit, take possession. Build your habitation here in our own hearts. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah.