Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the necessity of experiencing the true presence of God for genuine revival, drawing from Isaiah 4 and the covenant with Abraham. He reflects on the longing for a permanent manifestation of God's glory, akin to the fire that led the Israelites, and the need for believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit continually. Ravenhill critiques the superficiality of modern church practices and calls for a deep, transformative hunger for God that leads to true spiritual awakening. He urges the church to seek purity and a deeper relationship with God, rather than mere numbers or success, highlighting that true revival comes from a heart fully surrendered to God.

Okay, we'll look at the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 4. Isaiah chapter 4, I read from verse 1. In that day shall seven women take hold of one man saying we will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach. In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped to Israel of Israel and it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy even everyone that is written among the living in Jerusalem when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning and the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon the glory shall be a defense there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a cover from the storm last week you remember we considered in part anyhow the prayer of Elijah when he called down fire from heaven as i've meditated over that i wonder the people didn't rebel because they didn't need fire they needed water there's been a drought for years and you get away the again the a prophet never seeks vindication if you read that chapter again it said that elijah said let it be known this day that there is a king a god in israel and that i am thy servant he wasn't concerned first of all about his acceptance or whether they would say a true prophet or a false prophet let it be known this day that there is a god in israel and that's the hallmark of of people who really love god they want his name to be glorified and vindicated now here it tells us that there should be a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night now skip back a little here into genesis 14 sorry chapter 15 after these things the word of the lord came unto abram in a vision saying fear not abram i am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward in verse 6 it says and he believed in the lord and he counted it to him for righteousness and he said unto him i am the lord god that brought thee out of her of the chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it and he said now god has made a promise to him god has committed himself to him he has seen god in a vision he's seen god he's heard god in verse 1 these things the word of the lord came unto abram in a vision there's the vision saying fear not abraham i am thy shield and i exceeding great reward and god has promised him land and an inheritance and verse 6 says he believed god it was accounted to him for righteousness but then he says in verse 8 lord god god whereby shall i know that thou shalt inherit it now we think of these men like abraham as having a kind of a cast-iron faith it never wavered it never had any questions but god has already pledged this omnipotence to him i am thy shield not that i'll put a shield between you and your situation i am your shield not that i'll put gabriel there not that i'll put one of the angels if you like a cherubim or i will be there i will be between you and your enemies and though god has given him that stupendous statement and promise and made a covenant with him he says and how shall i know that i shall inherit this land in verse 8 let's skip down to verse 12 the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon abram and lo a horror of great darkness came upon him and he said unto abram know the surety that thy seed shall be estranged in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they should be afflicted 400 years come on do you love god enough to ask him to lift the veil and let you see what's coming in your life a year from now he's a chosen vessel unto god and god says you your people are going to have for 400 years a great darkness came upon him right after a stupendous revelation he'd had a vision of god and from that vision of god he goes to horrible indescribable darkness there was a great book written years ago i think i have a copy i've never read it and it's called uh the dark night of the soul if i remember it was written by mother teresa well i can get enough depression without reading that kind of thing that those periods come they have to come jesus went into the horror of the darkness of gethsemane as i said often enough and people question it jesus did not die on the cross that he died in the garden that's the result of him dying a man isn't a martyr because he's burned at the stake he'd already died to life a long while before that this proves he's a martyr and yet the lord says and he says verse 8 how shall i know lord god whereby that i shall inherit the land why didn't god say well listen are you questioning me i gave you a vision of myself and my glory you saw me you heard my voice and you still question you're still uncertain no the lord doesn't rebuke him verse 17 says it came to pass but when the sun went down and it was dark behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces in the same day that lord made a covenant with abraham saying unto thy seed have i given this land from the river euphrates unto the great river in egypt what was the sign of god's presence a smoking lamp how shall i know you know when my glory comes in the midst of that situation a smoking furnace and a burning lamp in the same day that the lord made a covenant with him chapter 17 and i will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly and he fell upon his face and god talked with him saying as for me my covenant is with thee and i shall be a father of many nations but the thing again i want to emphasize is the presence of god is in that burning furnace that burning lamp and that furnace a fire is symbolic obviously of the presence of god and of the power of god well i don't know your heart of course and you don't know mine i'll tell you very frankly i'm getting weary of going to meetings where there's no presence of god the presence of god was there in that shaft of fire over the tabernacle didn't matter where they moved it the pillar of fire was there moses saw the presence of god in the burning bush ezekiel had many many visions of the fire of god it was a call of fire remember on the lips of isaiah that purged him and sent him forth to speak with tremendous prophetic urgency it says here that the cloud of smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night upon the glory shall be a defense there should be a tabernacle for the shadow in the midst of the of the daytime from the heat and for a refuge and a cover from storm and rain okay jump now down into the gospel of john as we say john's interpretation of the gospel in chapter 1 verse 29 says the next day john seeth jesus coming unto him and saith behold the lamb of god which taketh away the sin of the world this is he of whom i said after me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me and i knew him not but that he should be made manifest to israel therefore am i come baptizing with water and john bear record saying i saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him and i knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water the same said unto me unto whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him remaining on him we caught it so often the spirit came upon him but the spirit remained upon him well if he needed the spirit of god upon him every moment of his life i'm sure i need that if the pillar of fire had come over the over the tabernacle monday wednesday and friday the people would have been disturbed there's a permanent evidence of the presence of the living god again i don't know about you but i'm aching for the day when i go into a sanctuary and we don't have to try and work the spirit up and clap our hands and kick the furniture around but the presence of god is so real that i'm almost breathless with his majesty and with his glory that day will come see if i can find the scripture here well it's eluded me for the moment but anyhow there's a promise of the presence of god to the children of israel remember there was darkness in egypt but there was light in the homes of the children of israel the scripture i was looking for it was where it said that the presence of god will be in the homes you know in the welsh revival every every house became a tabernacle where they've been profanity and cursing and fighting and all the cruel things that go on with depravity i talked with some people that went through the welsh revival they said you wouldn't believe the neighborhood there's never any voices raised every house your pastor was singing camaraderie guide me oh thou great jehovah everywhere you went there were prayer meetings people would start bargaining in the shop and stop and suddenly they start magnifying the lord you know that is coming a day in which jesus as isaac watt said in one of his hymns jesus shall reign wherever the sun that its successive journeys run his kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and rain no more you see there was a permanent mark there the spirit of the living god was there evidence by fire now isn't it true in your church sometimes the heat's up there next time you go it's cold sometimes you can feel the throb of eternity the next time you feel you're in a morgue it shouldn't be that way that's not god's desire god's desire is for permanent power a permanent revelation a permanent quickening that when people step into that atmosphere that just as you walk into a room and say oh this room's too hot cool it down that we go into the sanctuary we're overwhelmed awed by the majesty with the holiness of god my heart craves for this and i won't be satisfied until god comes in such awesome majesty until sometimes the preacher won't dare to stand up and interrupt the presence of god even though he may have a burning heart remember they went down the road to emmaus before the holy ghost was given and their hearts burned within them i need the quickening of the spirit of god every moment of my life more when i preach more when i'm commissioned to do something but i need thy presence every passing hour as him writer says because not that thy grace can foil the tempestuous power when i heard about this horrendous thing earthquake that happened almost 80 minutes past seven yesterday morning and it shook some parts of houston even and shook cities 200 miles away i thought of that word in romans 8 that talks about the whole creation groaning actually there's a groaning amongst people there's a dissatisfaction materialism is saturated they can't get any further in it you put a sponge in water and release it it will fill itself but there's a limit to it and there's a limit to satisfaction on the level the human level but where will people go to find life i had a refreshing experience yesterday a man called me and he said i i have an appointment with you at two o'clock i said thanks i've forgotten all about it i had prayed for it but previously i admit that this young man came well he's young he's 45 everybody under 50 thinks they're young anyhow and then we sat down he began to cry he said i've waited four years i've prayed since i got your book why revival tarrys and i got revival praying and he said i still get up at two and three o'clock in the morning and read the chapter why revival tarrys then read something from the prophets and i go to my room and weep or i march up and down the tabernacle with my hands raised and magnify the lord he said brother ramiel there's something burning in me there's something that won't keep quiet and yet my people don't want to hear they're relaxed you know the theme right now is relax and be raptured and i'll tell you what if we knew the lord was coming at the end of the week most of us would put our house in order he said there's something burning and i've offered god he said here's my wife she'll tell you i've offered to lay my ministry down we're building a lovely home i have no money but i'm building a home the church isn't building it i'm building it by the help of god and he said i'm prepared to lay this church down i got it from the grassroots god gave me a touch of revival in the community and i've got favor with the community speaking naturally i have everything i want but i haven't i haven't got it he said i don't know god i'm not intimate with god i want to be able to touch him i want to be able to hear his voice yes i'm not satisfied with a crowd i'm not satisfied with my wages i'm not satisfied to be accepted he said you know a while ago he said i was going down the road he said i've made records i have a good voice i've traveled as a singer and i was going down the road and i put your tape on the judgment seat and he said you said well what will you say the judgment seat some of you will say i made records he said that slew me i pulled the car off the road and repented and nothing wrong in making records it's wrong when they become your idols it's wrong again when they become your satisfaction i said well again you know the key to the whole thing according to jesus who is the greatest master of all he said blessed is the hunger and thirst he said well i've got a perpetual hunger i can't feed enough well i said if you know that we sing that hymn guide me oh thou great jehovah and we turn the last verse around feed me till i want no more i'd like to eat like that so just one meal and not spend time eating the rest of my life spend it in prayer and quietness if you find a secret like that let me know dale or betty betty does the cooking all right sometimes no i can't be satisfied physically by one meal and jesus christ is the bread of life and he's the satisfaction it's a paradox but everything in the christian life is a paradox if you're going to go up you go down he that exalted himself shall be amazed he that humbled himself shall be exalted save your life you lose it lose your life you'll save it now that's not logic by anybody's reasoning it's totally paradoxical but how true it is john wesley said what i had i gave and what i kept i lost i discovered that early in life he said determined to give away everything i'd live at the absolute minimum which he did but you see there's a permanence with the abiding spirit of godliness but you see the spirit comes not to glorify me to help me to preach help me to sing help me to do something do exploits the supreme work of the holy spirit is to make me more like jesus christ by whatever means he does it if the fire has to burn more fiercely so be it you know it's easy to sing all to jesus i surrender it's doing it that matters isn't it when god begins to strip when he takes this away when he takes that away and he's not touching somebody else wasn't it somebody came to jesus one day and said tell my brother to do this jesus said what is that to thee follow thou me god is making me i told the young man yesterday god isn't concerned about your ministry my he stared at me and his wife looked sideways as much saying are you crazy i said no he's not concerned about your church you're not concerned about your ministry he's concerned about making you a man of god he is concerned with making you equal commensurate with the situation that lies in in front of us no i don't want the horror of great darkness i'd rather not have it but if going through that great darkness going through that gethsemane means death and then death means resurrection so what is there any alternative there's a hymn that says it is the way the master went should not the servant tread it still and that's all he is the fire leader it's easy to say i want the faith of abraham do you want the trouble abraham had and the trials and the testing but one thing i got out of that you know is this when he said well how will i know you'll do it he's seen god he's heard god and he still doubts god how will i know and god says well i'll let you know when you divide that sacrifice there'll be a burning fire a lamp of burning go right through my presence is fire i suppose the hardest thing in life to bear really is loneliness unless it's ridicule you know when you decide you're going to lay all on the altar and live entirely for jesus christ the folk you thought loved you most will turn against you easiest the apostle paul i think the greatest man has ever lived after jesus himself he got together a group of men all full of the holy ghost but his pace was so quick his fasting was so long his zeal was so strong they wouldn't put up with him they quit it all men forsook me nevertheless the lord stood by me when he lost everything he gained everything we want to give a limited amount to god and expect him to pour his bounty unlimited blessing for a minimum deposit god says not so i gave my all in my son i expect your all to be given to me it's a lonely way it's a hardly work hard way that young man looked at me and waited a minute he said you mean to say that my ministry doesn't i'm not saying your ministry doesn't count i'm saying it's not number one thing in your life in the sight of god are the deficiencies in your life yes i've moved up in my prayer life but i've not got the groanings which cannot be uttered i don't know anything about traveling i don't know anything about tears essentially when i go i discover in the center of myself i have some self-pity i have some restraint there are things i'm holding on to well until you let them go and you really sing as the hymn writer says nothing in my hands i bring simply that i you can't grasp something if your hands are full you can't learn of god if your head's full you can't learn of god if your heart is full of something else it's the stripping that's the problem we want to be clothed but who wants to be stripped and then it's god's way with us it's the only way you wouldn't think the backside of the desert will be the place where god's going to reveal himself but he did that to moses again in that defense we have that marvelous defense of stephens and he begins to tell the fathers and the elders of israel there our father god revealed himself to abraham in mesopotamia that's like saying you're going just walking through las vegas in a nightclub and suddenly the holy ghost came god doesn't do it that way anymore but the only way that he could get to abraham was to get to him in in a place that wasn't much more than a forest of idols and hedonism and superstition and darkness and yet a merciful holy god came and presented himself there in the midst of all that idolatry i dare to think that every day in some part of the world god is revealing himself where there's no sanctuary where there's no building where there's no priest where there's no bible that some people are making discoveries of god today in prison cells they've been there maybe 10 years 12 years and this was the day when god came as a result of their faithfulness as a result of their intense desire for god and he said last week this amazing man john came in the wilderness after 400 years of darkness and no prophetic light then he comes brighter than haley's comet a still no voice and suddenly his voice he came with a message which is so badly needed in the day in which we live you hear people saying well of course the last word of of jesus was to the church in which he said go into all the world that's not true it's not the last word of jesus that was the last word of jesus to the disciples the last word of jesus is given about six or seven times in revelation repent repent repent repent that's it that's the mission that word to the church the church has halted somewhere between the upper room calvary in the upper room we're trying to capture the attention of the world with something we have instead of something he has we've got to the bottom of the barrel the different things we're doing in these days a lady called me the other day she's in our town the leading evangelical church in the town so-called they've had aerobic dancing for women and now they got women and men aerobic dancing that'll be some sight anything to try and capture people bring them in but again there's nothing more fascinating than fire and there's nothing more fascinating than the fire of the holy ghost again in the world's revival when the spirit came on those blaspheming miners some of the roughest men in the world they take their lunch in a little basket or sometimes in a handkerchief they call it their snap when it came to lunchtime or snap time they said instead of talking football and talking sport and talking all that you'll hear all that in bible colleges if you go all they do is talk about the latest films about the football teams about the baseball scores but when it came to the world's revival the spirit of god came all over the coal mine there were groups of men they'd be singing come around and guide me oh thou great joke then they quit and they start praying and all over the mine you could hear the surging of the voice voices of men crying for revival that revival did not stay in wales i think it was seth joshua that was one of the leading figures and he and one or two other men had been anointed in that revival and they asked for this very same thing the spirit of the lord remained upon him stay upon us stay upon us it meant loneliness it meant fasting it meant weeping it meant isolation but they went from there to the cyclops hills in india and had revival there praying hyde was a key figure there too the fire was permanently there from there they went to china and they had an amazing revival in china and when the fires were lit all over the country they said we're going to korea and the chinese people said never never they're too phlegmatic it's like trying to set water on fire but they went and had the same fire because it was the same holy ghost because the hearts had the same need there was no profit making nobody was trying to establish a denomination they didn't even ask for offerings they went and poured out their hearts in prayer in intercession god is going to bring us back to that i'm sure of that you may think i'm overboard that's all right you stay on board i'm still believing god is going to send a holy ghost fire in the tyler area i don't care where i don't care if we have to take a storefront shop sometime if he can't get in anywhere else let's make a place where he can get in it's blessed to have nothing paul said he had nothing and he possessed all things now we've all things and we've got nothing when we've no self-esteem when we've no goal except his glory when we're not after some denominational label when we're not seeking to out bid somebody else in sunday school numbers i think today when david numbered israel god rebuked him but boy it's a numbers game these days isn't it how many numbers in sunday school how many buses are you running it's numbers numbers numbers i think we ought to get out of numbers into exodus make an exodus and maybe god will come with fire on us you heard me say this often enough i'm going to say it here then we're going to pray i read and read and reread hebrews 11 those amazing people who subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness obtained promises stopped the mouths of lions women received their dead raised to life tell you what it's going to be a wonderful thing at a judgment when these people have never been listed the unlisted heroes we don't know who they were they wandered around in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted and tormented where when was it i don't know i don't care but i know god has a record of it one day we're going to find these people marching up to the front while some of the big tv evangelists are still trying to get into heaven but they're going to go up to the front to be honored with the lord jesus christ nobodies who became somebodies and exalted when they get into the presence of the eternal king why because they obeyed god they were obedient to the heavenly vision i was thinking of that him a favorite of mine anyhow i've got about 3 000 favorites john wesley's favorite it was written by a pretty petite little french lady a hundred years before wesley was born come savior jesus from above assist me with thy heavenly grace empty my heart of earthly love that's where it starts jesus won't be rivaled with anything in your life whether it's success money position social standing or intellectual power come savior jesus from above assist me with thy heavenly grace empty my heart of earthly love and for thyself prepare a place nothing very dramatic about that but then she says nothing on earth do i desire that thy pure love within my breast this only this will i require and freely give up all the rest wealth honor pleasure and what else this short enduring world can give tempt as ye will my soul rebels for christ alone resolve to leave thee will i love and thee alone with pure delight and inward bliss to know thou takes me for thine own oh what an happiness is this henceforth may no profane delight divide my consecrated soul possess it thou who has the right as the lord and master of it all now wesley said that not only said it he did it but an outstanding scholar in his day laid his scholarship at the feet of jesus his parents i'm i've read were the most important people in england after the royal family and he surrendered everything to become an outcast one day he met a young man by the name of george whitfield and he said mr whitfield you don't preach in the sanctuaries you don't preach any longer in the cathedrals he said no sir did jesus preaching cathedrals no well mr wesley why don't you come with me into the streets and in his diary john wesley says i condescended today to become more vile and i preached with no roof over my head and i preached without stained glass windows i preached with no bishops around me i preached but i preached again as a dying man to dying men as later was said in the well i've been said before that actually but he said from that moment there burned in me a fire an irresistible fire a burning a life cold from off the altar it's an amazing thing that this brilliant scholar was taken to the coal miners in bristol they used to go ahead george whitfield at five o'clock in the morning you can get people listening for five dollars each at that time not two or three thousand they worked in the coal mines all night they came up and whitfield was there with his holy anointing the man who said every time i preached i saw the fires of hell waiting to consume my congregation a lady saw him standing there he was a portly man even when he was young and he tears rolled down his face and bounced off his tummy onto the little woman standing there and she said mr whitfield three times i've heard you today three times this day and three times i've been wet with your tears why do you weep because then you don't weep my heart breaks for that heart of yours that won't break the miners listened to him at five o'clock in the morning and they said the tears made tracks through the dust i've been in the coal mine in wales and i've seen the coal miners there and they have all the dust they sweat and then the dust the black dust of course sticks to their faces and the tears just streamed down their faces made tracks until they looked as though they've been chalked with white and george whitfield who was raised in a tavern went to the ladies that wore their silks and satins in the beautiful castles and mansions of england george george whitfield did that wesley was born of their god took him to the other extreme and then each of those men confessed they were burning charles wesley wrote a hymn in which he said refining fire go through my heart illuminate my soul scatter thy life through every part and sanctify the whole my steadfast soul from falling free shall then no longer rove while christ is all the world to me and all my heart is love i forget who it was there's another great hymn that says see how great a flame aspires kindling by a spark of grace you know on the day of pentecost the two most potent forces in nature were married wind and fire do you remember earlier this year one of the great fires out on the west coast that consumed i don't know how many hundreds or thousands and thousands of acres we listen to the news at 10 o'clock at night we think we've contained the fire it's died down almost everywhere it's gone next morning it was blazing with flames 20 30 feet high oh the wind came in the night and caught hold of the sparks and fanned it into this blaze the hymn writer says see how great a flame aspires kindled by one spark of grace god doesn't raise up denominations he raises up men he didn't raise up lutheranism again he raised up luther he didn't raise the wesleyan church we became the methodist church he raised up wesley he didn't raise up the salvation army he raised up this marvelous young men half jew and half gentile william booth and he put a banner up i still i think they still have the banner i don't think they have what it stands for and on the banner it said blood and fire and he marched people through the streets singing thou christ of burning cleansing flame send the fire thy blood-bought gift today we claim send the fire look down and see this waiting host give us the promised holy ghost we want another pentecost we need it you think we dare pay the price for him to make our weak hearts strong and brave send the fire to live a dying world to save send the fire oh see us on thine altar lay our lives are all this very day to crown the offering now we pray send the fire and people left castles and mansions and wealth men who inherited get industrial plants left because fire is attractive they've gone into the formalism of the church of england been frozen to death almost and here comes william booth with a tattered amalian crowd of ragged people poor people no personality people but people on fire as i've said before i don't think there was anybody equal to john wesley in his day they were not equal to him intellectually they didn't need that they were equal to him spiritually they were equal to him with hunger for god they were equal with him with with longings for revival and england at that time was as bad as she is now or even worse but god came in answer to intercessory prayer and he'll come again in answer to intercessory prayer we're not going to organize something for god to bless he's looking people that have lost all confidence in themselves confidence in their ability confidence even in their message confidence in their eloquence the right down to rock bottom and say god almighty we're bankrupt unless you come we have no power is is america gonna die we can't live much longer as we've lived i heard a horrible thing this week reported there are thousands maybe tens of thousands of men with aids in the nation they've openly said we're going to go and donate blood we won't even admit we've got this thing we'll go somewhere nobody knows us we're going to pollute america with aids how diabolical can you get the fellow that runs the church of satan out on the west coast i'm told he's ordered that every one of those stations which they have across the nation now every wednesday they're going to fast and pray for demon power to invade christian homes in america and destroy it fasting and praying they meet at midnight and pray and worship their devil their demon till six o'clock stand on the cross and blaspheme the name of jesus christ the cults are running wild why why do you think you think the devil is going to interrupt his own work they've got all the power of the devil behind them he doesn't block them he doesn't resist them he fights the evangelical testimony he tries he fights the truth of god and heresy is strangling our nation every day we live i thank god every day i live for that mercy is extended another day without sin sodom without sin gemara but people are going to be attracted by a star singer putting on a show they're going to come when the holy ghost comes with such burning again people did not not listen people did not go to church to get saved in the new testament they went because they were saved they were saved by what they saw in transformed lives they saw people supernaturally changed they saw men who had demon powers in them converted and they wanted what they saw people don't want what we have we're not radiant enough i made up my mind i'm going to read some part of revelation every day of my life now i want to see the king in his glory i get a bit weary of people saying remember jesus walked on the dusty roads of galilee the name of jesus of nazareth he's not jesus of nazareth what did paul say of him he says already he is the immortal invisible the only wise god he's already exalted he has no victories to win what he's trying to get through to us is to how to enter into his victory there's no kingdoms to pull down there's no devil to trample underfoot he did it on the cross he said it is finished and it was finished but we haven't entered into that whether we're individuals or churches or denominations we get to a plateau side two we're no longer feel the lash on our backs but they got stuck at kadesh barnia it should have been a gateway it became a a terminus it should have been a thoroughfare but they settled there and the church is much like that today i don't care what the label is if you went in a pentecostal church most of them you wouldn't know it was pentecostal if they didn't have a label outside anyhow where is that surging surging power i say i need a permanent resident holy spirit in me jesus said he shall be in you i know the variation various manifestations of that sometimes i need to be touched with holy anger and i do i get blazing mad when i pray sometimes i had just yesterday a precious girl this pastor told me one of the most beautiful girls in our church was saved and baptized with the holy ghost when she was 11 she became like a star shining in the sky her parents would go to that pentecostal church said now wait a minute wait a minute you're still young you know you need to see something of life you see she was shaming them with her devotion with her prayers she wept at night she fasted she groaned and her spirit-filled parents got mad about it and they said well you don't need to go this like this you need to take a little bit of liberty she did and now she's 18 17 years of age and pregnant and they go to the altar every night they have a meeting and weep and weep and god god why did it happen well why did it happen you said your daughter was getting too spiritual i know a place where a man fairly wealthy man says of his daughter who's a charming girl she started walking out with a pentecostal boy i'd rather she went to hell than marry him she didn't marry him she's pretty well on her way to hell though is it amazing what people will do i'm longing to see well this young man said last night i listened to your tapes i never knew there was a woman called the mara shawl until you said it i want to read her life story did you ever see i said yes i ate with her talk with her preach with her to think at 17 years of age she could step into paris to the underworld with no financial backing and preach and see people people come from the sorbonne and the universities and from the gutters and got saved why aren't the people like that today i said you answer the question i said the difference today between presenting pentecost and the early days is this the stress is in acts 15 8 and 9 where the holy ghost is recorded as coming to the house of cornelius and he purified their hearts by faith we're not concerned about purity it's power we want and much of it is selfish it's to endure us and let me preach better let people be attracted to my oratory let them be attracted to my ministry no no no no no purifying their hearts they didn't have electric lights in the tabernacle of old no you said they had oil lamps what were they filled with olive oil no no no they were filled with pure oil it says the desk was made of beaten gold no it was made of pure gold the garments of the priest were pure everything that god used in that tabernacle ministry was pure he's still looking for purity he's still looking for people who want to be i was going to say scourged scoured we would say in england until every part of us which is unclean is totally removed and every part of our being is filled with that divine love that love which is a fire that burns again that precious little woman as i finished that little irish lady amy wilson carmichael wrote that verse give me a love that leads the way a faith which nothing can dismay a hope no disappointments tire a passion that will burn like fire here she is weighing about 96 pounds let me not sink to be a cloud make me thy fuel flame of god and the only way for me to burn is everything in me is burned out all the dross all the impurity all the self-seeking all the self-interest i can only testify for myself i'm getting more hungry than ever to see god to see something which is unquestionably sovereign power of god holy power that's pure of anything purified of everything i'm aching in my spirit god is my witness i do wish i could live without eating i do wish i could live without sleeping if the temperature doesn't ride in the church any more than we have it now america's going to go to hell in less than 10 years we can't get more disease we can't get more venereal disease we can't have more babies put down the job we can't have more rebelling against god he won't put up with it his spirit will not strive with men forever he won't strive with individuals forever he doesn't strive with nations forever and i believe we're tempting the lord nobody is more mutilated and merchandise merchandise the gospel than america look what we do sunday mornings begging screaming for money i've said this and quit i said for so long for years that because of the mounting iniquity in the nation the church is going to suffer for the sin of america i don't believe that anymore i mean i believe america is going to suffer for the sin of the church the uncleanness the pride the covetousness the worldliness we're mesmerized by materialism doesn't mean if you sell your house and everything you have that tomorrow you'll be a superstar in god's kingdom not at all but you see the penniless prophet jesus christ could you think a holy man like him would be betrayed would you think a holy man like him could be doubted they didn't all make well even out of the 12 and so if you suffer some of that thing remember it's the way the master went i say again i can't transfer my despair to your heart in one sense i'd like to i can't but there's a despair in my heart for god god brought us here for some reason we're not the greatest people in the world dear martha and i we got went back in our lives the other day we were lived in england in a beautiful place went to an island lived in a more beautiful place and from there we went to bethany fellowship from bethany fellowship went to new york worked with dave wilkerson 20 years ago from there we went to live for three years in the beautiful bahamas then god brought us into louisiana then he brought us over here why did we stop here tyler isn't the most beautiful place on earth i don't think it's a lovely place i dare to believe god has a reason for me being here i believe he has a reason for you being here and he says to israel you remember upon me he said to jerusalem oh jerusalem thou that killest a prop if you knew the day of your visitation isn't it amazing they were celebrating the passover in the temple and crucifying god's passover in the very same day and didn't even know if you knew the day of your visitation the walls are going to come tumbling down before long again while you and i sit here in our ease there are people under debris they're trying to keep away the dust so they won't choke on it buried under buildings in agony all they know is despair and darkness death to them there's no risen exalted christ there's no eternity of glory they've been deceived and lied about and there they are and when our economy comes tumbling down and other things there's going to be despair over the nation and the only people that will lift their heads up will be the christians and we better be pretty well sold out to god by that time there's fire and the mark of residency of the holy spirit again was the pillar of fire it was fired on the lips of elijah of uh isiah elijah said let there be rain no no no if it rained the people of bell would say it rained because we cut our breasts and beat our heads and screamed to god but he made it most difficult though they wanted rain he said send fire that's a symbol of god the god that answers by fire let him be god i believe the world is still waiting to see that holy fire manifested in his people so there'll be something burning that you can't explain and i can't explain in our hearts it's going to come there are so many people praying for tyler we meet them in different places that tell us we're praying for tyler that's great i'm not saying the fire will only fall in tyler i'm telling you out of my despair tonight i'm honest with you i thank god for the fire that's in me i know there is a fire burning but i know there's still more that god wants to reveal there came a rushing mighty wind from above there came fire from above it didn't come down main street it didn't go through the temple it didn't go past the house of the high priest it came directly from heaven to those men there and the next time it comes it will come the same way it's not going to be manipulated by the headquarters of the assemblies of god or the headquarters of the nazarene god's going to display his sovereign right and no man will get the glory and that's what we need i want you to pray about that fire tonight for your own life if you have to and i'm sure all of us could do with more anointing more holy zeal more holy love more holy courage more holy determination to do the god and then again pray again for this community that god will come not only here maybe you have a burden for india africa i don't care you know when you think it's it's terrible to think that if in the next 12 months we had a revival in the world that swept 1 billion people 1 billion people into the kingdom that was still 4 billion for the devil to have and that's too much last time you were in ireland we went up into donegal where they make that lovely donegal tweed and they've got hills there and got rocks on the side of the hills and there were old men there with little sides they were cutting the wheat and all over the place there were grandpas and grandmas cutting like that i come over here and i see these great combines doing more in one hour than those people are doing a whole year i see that as evangelism and revival evangelism is doing little bits revival is when god comes with a great outpouring of his spirit and disturbs the sleep of death and people know that it's god it's not man it's not evangelism it's not a star personality young men are going to see visions and all men dream dreams and on god's servants and handmaids not his bishops not superstars not bishops not presidents on my servants and handmaids that's where he began he didn't go to the temple and ask the high priest there who are the best most spiritual people he went to a fisherman down there he went to a tax gatherer he took the most ordinary men and made them extraordinary and he's still in the business and if you're a candidate for it cry out to him tonight say lord i want the greatest purging i've ever had i want the greatest anointing i want this to be permanent i don't want to be running to the altar every week good lord we've got altar tramps they think there's something magic about kneeling there no i went to an altar once and i remember what it was and i died to self that night i knew my problem was pride it was ambition it was jealousy i remember going to that altar and crying and saying god the man that came to deal with me said what do you want i said i want god to do romans 6 7 you mean romans 6 6 no i don't well romans 6 6 knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should i don't that's not what i'm asking for what do you want next verse what's the next verse he that is dead is freed from sin i want to die tonight i went to enter a death where there'll never be any renewal i'm not saying there's no trial after it no difficulty after it i'm saying there's a place where permanently with god can cut us off from all vain ambition cut us off from all worldliness worldly interest worldly sports worldly achievements everything is cut off and we're completely lost in him the lovely chorus says that we never sing but maybe we'll learn it sweet will of god still fold me closer till i am wholly lost in thee sweet will of god still fold me close till i'm wholly this i have no eyes for anything else i've no interest in anything else you'll tempt me i'm not interested tempted dead miser with money and he'll not reach for it tempt a man who really dies out to jesus christ here and after this it won't be easy coasting the devil will be after him for sure but he'll have supreme victory because he has the total indwelling of the spirit of the living god these are the men god's looking for these are the women god's looking for we'll go to prayer and again as i always say you feel free to go anytime you want to go i'm sure we'll pray at least another hour