In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of Jacob crossing the Brook Jabbaq and his encounter with God. Jacob leaves behind his family and faces a rushing torrent to seek a relationship with the Lord. The preacher emphasizes the importance of meditation and waiting on God to renew our strength. He also calls for spiritual awakening in the church and prays for God's intervention to drive out any spiritual opposition. The sermon concludes with a reference to Jesus as the true vine and a plea for God to cleanse and revive the church.

...of your Holy Word. We think of the Apostle writing, that 15th chapter in Corinthians there, where he declares the resurrection that Jesus was seen of women and men, and then of 500 brethren at once. And he says, finally, last of all, he was seen of me also. But Lord, we thank you that right at the end of the line in Revelation you declare it yourself. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and of hell. Lord, our destiny is not in the hands of the government, not in the hands of the politicians, not in the hands of Russia, not in the hands of flu germs or anything else. You have the keys of death and of hell for every one of us. We thank you Lord, you said I am the resurrection and the life. We think how startled they must have been when Lazarus walked out from the grave. How startled they must have been Lord, when you rose from the dead, because it says many that slept, that had been asleep, they rose also and walked around the city. But Lord, we think of that awesome day, because you said everyone shall hear the voice of the Son of God. Whether they were popes or princes or poverty stricken, whether they were savages or cultured, nobody from Adam to the last person before the final trumpet sound would escape. Your word, your voice is the key to every tomb in the universe. Whether it's the great tombs that we had in England of kings and famous people, or whether it's the man that was rubbed out by Moses and pushed under the sand, by the voice of the Son of God they're going to rise. Lord, this world is reeking with injustice and corruption, but we thank you that one day there's going to be a reign of righteousness, that one day Jesus shall reign wherever sand of its successive journeys run. His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and wane no more. How we bless you tonight, that this is true in our lives. What we've already sung is an anthem of praise and gratitude. Years we spent in vanity and pride. We think of others, Lord, in areas tonight, Las Vegas and elsewhere, even many churches full of amusement and sport, still in vanity, still in pride. But Lord, we bless you that there's still a remnant and will be a remnant till Jesus comes, who loved the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. We thank you appointed a place and we thank you that because of Calvary we're able to draw nigh to thee tonight. For the one who at the end of the age he appeared, after millions of bullocks had been slain, after thousands of priests and high priests had died, there came one who became the supreme high priest. He became the altar, he became the sacrifice, he became the priest. We thank you that he made one payment in his own blood. As the writings of the Hebrew says, he hath by himself, we're glad Lord he doesn't need the Virgin Mary to help him or anybody else, he hath by himself, by one man's sin, disobedience, sent into the world and made us away from God, born with our faces from God. But we thank you for a most stupendous miracle that by one man, not the second Adam, but the last Adam came. As one has said, O loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, another Adam to the fight and to the rescue came. O wisest love, that flesh and blood which did in Adam fail, should rise again. We thank you that the last Adam restored everything that the first Adam destroyed. As Isaac Watt says in his hymn, in him in Christ, the tribes of Adam boast more blessings than their fathers lost. We cannot be restored to innocence but we can be restored to purity. We can walk in holiness. We can walk in the same relationship with God that Enoch had. We can cry to the same God Elijah cried to on Mount Carmel. The same God that heard the prayer of Jonah when he was at the bottom of the Mediterranean and he said, from the belly of hell I cried. Lord there are people crying from the belly of hell in Russia tonight, from the belly of hell in Afghanistan, from the belly of hell in China. Lord I thank you for every blood-bought person tonight. Let's see if most of that is a fountain filled with blood. The dying thief, you may be a living thief, but the dying thief rejoiced to see, the dying thief rejoiced to see my precious blood, dear dying blood, my precious blood shall never leave my heart. Till all the ransomed church, till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. We've got a good brother here from, where, where are you from brother, Nigeria? Are you from Nigeria brother? Yes. Well I'm going to ask him to pray. I'm going to tell him not, he could pray all night, but I want you to thank God for the precious blood tonight brother. Thank him for what it means in your life and your people, what it has to mean for our generation, if it doesn't we're damned. We're going to have to get out of our straight laced, straight jackets. We're going to get moved by the Holy Ghost. That word is haunting me today, that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It's not doctrine and creed that we want, God knows, it's stacked to high heaven everywhere. It's the very life of God we need, the life of God in the soul of man. And this dear brother is from a foreign country, they're having blessing there, but I'd love to hear him pray. I'm going to ask him to pray now. If he prays more than 10 minutes I'll say amen. Pray dear brother, bless you. We thank you for your promises that are near and dear. We thank you God because of your kindness and your patience. Because when we look into the world, I do ask questions within my heart. Why is God still presiding over us today? Why are the children of men still alive? The scripture says God does not want anyone to perish, but to come to the blessed family first. Because it is the will of the Lord that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. That is, God preserves you all for nothing else but that they might be saved. Yes, yes. We thank you Lord that when we are still alive, we hear this glorious gospel. Yes. We thank you Lord that we can cry unto you as a father. Yes. Thank you God. We thank you God for the spirit of adoption. Yes. Thank you God for the privilege we have in prayer. Yes. Whenever we come before you, you are the Lord God that was and is and is to come. Yes. You are the Lord God of Jehoshaphat and you are the Lord God of today. Yes. All the children of Moab and the people from other places came to wage war against Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat went into the house of God with the people of Israel and they cried unto God with passion and prayer and God like ambushed against Jehoshaphat. Yes, yes. The God who answered the cry, answered the cry of Ezekiah and God is great the host of Sennacherib. You are the Lord God who heard the cry of Esther and Mordecai and the whole Jews and the flood of Haman was prostrated. Heavenly Father, you say you are the Lord, you change not. Oh. We trust in your grace, we trust in your power, we trust in your love. We do not decide with God, we trust in the Lord God. Yes. We know that through our cry, our prayer, through the, because of the serving, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in our time we can move mountains. In our time we can turn the Red Sea to pass. In our time we can close the mouth of lions. In our time we can spread the serpents and scorpions and over all parts of the enemy for it is written that the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. So we believe that the whole earth belongs to God. Because of this simple fact, father, thou the king of the nations, thou the head in the kingdom of men, we gather here tonight. We pray, first of all, that you look into our hearts, you are holy God and who cannot behold sin, sin cannot stay with you. We pray, we pray that for Christ's sake. Yes, in his name. For Christ's sake, Lord, let a new walk be wrought in our hearts and in our lives. That's right. We do not want to shed crocodile tears, we do not want to cry hypocritically, we want to be sincere, we want to cry as you will answer. Yes. Because you are a loving God, because you are a kind God, because you are a patient God, we pray that you walk in the path of every person that is present here tonight, that our request, our plea, our prayer will come up to thee. That wherever we ask you to walk, you will begin to walk right from this night. That wherever we ask you to close the door, you will close the door right from this night. That wherever we ask you to open the door for the gospel, you will begin to open the door from this night. Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray that you cleanse every heart, we pray that you forge our own lives, we pray that you kindle the fire of revival within us, because we want to pray for others, before we pray for others, that I must be fully resurrected, Heavenly Father, Almighty God, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, look down on us this night, with the eyes of mercy, with the eyes of compassion, and cleanse every heart, and forge our own being, in the name of Jesus Christ. You know where we are at, you know where we have gotten licked like fire, you know where we are blind, you know how little foxes are eating up our vines every day, you know where we are careless, we are blind, we are deaf, you know where we are ignorant, but God, thou the only white God, we believe you can make us white, you can open our eyes to see, you can open our ears to hear, you can open our heart to understand, in the name of Jesus Christ, as your hand was upon Ezekiel, and your spirit in him, you took him to this body that was full of dry bones, and he prophesied to the dry bones, and the dry bones came to life, we believe you can do the same in our lives this night, in the name of Jesus Christ, visit us again in this place, visit us oh God in the name of Jesus, we need you in our life, we need you in our home, we need you in our church, we need you in our ministry, we need you from morning till night, we need you throughout the night, we need you every day, every day, to resurrect our lives in the name of Jesus Christ, to resurrect our lives and make us alive indeed, in the name of Jesus Christ, as I could understand, this is a mountain, Moses went to the mountain, he did not remain the same, Joshua followed him, he was not the same, all the people that went to the mountain came back changed, we want to leave this house, change this life, my hope, Father in the name of Jesus, we pray before we begin to spread our prayer to outsiders, to people outside their home, before that once in our whole being, right from the head to our toes, in the name of Jesus Christ, visit us afresh in Jesus name, Father, this flesh, we don't know what, we can call it, but you know, you are too low, that when we walk in the spirit, we shall not fulfill, Amen, good, Father, we want this flesh to be totally crucified, we want it to be totally dead, we want to move by the spirit, not the flesh moving us, not the flesh controlling us, not the flesh directing us, if the spirit is directing the body and the soul, which I did in the covenant of your will, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, this is the miracle, this is the surgery, the surgical work we want you to perform in our lives, let it be done this week, this time, this day, in the name of Jesus Christ, I have said, I read in the scriptures, that those people that are going to be martyred, they say, Lord, it is evening time, advise the doctors, for thy church, it is evening time, the devil is out to do his work, he is working every day, he has a lot of his ambassadors, who will represent you, God, if you don't work in our lives, if you don't lift us up, if you don't raise us up, if our eyes are truly open, we shall be able to say like Isaiah, here am I, Lord, send me, in the name of Jesus Christ, we beseech you, God Almighty, that you resurrect our lives totally, in the name of Jesus Christ, I remember, when Elijah was transmitted to them, Elijah followed him from Gilead and Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, from Jericho to Jordan, and all the sons of the prophets were laughing, you know that so and so is going to happen this day, Elijah said, I know all your fears, I don't ask you stories, I don't ask you anything, Elijah knew what he was pursuing, he knew that Elijah was about to go, but he wants to succeed Elijah, Father in heaven, we must be successors of your fortune, we must represent you here, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, have mercy on us this night, we want you to perform a miracle in our lives individually, in the life of every brother, in the life of every sister, that our eyes will see clearly and start from on high, we depend on us, that our eyes, our faces will not be able to deny, will not be able to hide, but we shall, we shall be what you want us to be, in the name of Jesus Christ, let it be so, this night, this day, let it be so, this night, oh God, in the name of Jesus Christ, many times, some fire of the spirit is quenching within us, within a short time, is quenching it, we are beseeching you heavenly Father, we are expecting the fire that will be quenching, and it will not quench it, it will be burning, continue burning, burning, our homes, it will be known everywhere, when Elijah comes back from where Elijah was translated, the whole sons of the prophets, they came and they bowed down before Elijah, they said Elijah has got the spirit of Elijah, Father, Father, opposed to Paul is no more here, opposed to Peter is no more here, Stephen is no more here, we are the ones to have the same spirit, the same vision, the same power, the same body, the same compassion, which they have got from their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord, Lord, as you speak, so the grave of Lazarus, the Lazarus comes forth, and Lazarus came out of the grave, may you speak to our lives this night, in the name of Jesus Christ, that every one of us may be resurrected, which has come forth from my grave, which has come out of my weakness, which has come out of my weakness, all of my jealousy, all of my sluggishness, all of my ignorance, to wake us up in the name of Jesus Christ. Yes, yes, thank you Father, yes, thank you, yes. Son, we thank you, Holy Spirit, we thank you, yes, Holy Spirit has said that we know that when we ask anything according to the will of God, He hears it all, yes, so we believe you have asked, we believe you have started working, glory be to your God, glory be to your God, glory be to your God, now by faith in the name of Jesus Christ, we can go on, we can rise up against the devil, not by our minds, not by our power, not by our principles, not by our methods, but as you finish the work of redemption on the cross at Calvary, where you can tell the devil, you have no place to stay here, we belong to God, and He has given us authority over you, that we should resist the devil and he will flee away from us. Father, we are much concerned about our nation, about our country, even the people of Minnesota, where the devil is really working, blinding people are there, closing people are here, they don't hear the cry of the needy, they don't see there that the devil has locked in his cage, they don't have the mind, the heart to grow and to weep, Father in heaven, we call this night against the devil, against principality and power, against every work of darkness, against all the representatives of the devil, in the name of Jesus Christ, be gone the devil, in Jesus' name. Wherever you have built your stronghold, we remind you this night that the weapons of our warfare are not cannons, but powerful in the living God, to break down strongholds, therefore the strongholds of the enemy, Satan, he mainly touches in our time, we begin to pull them down, in the name of Jesus Christ, stronghold of worldliness, stronghold of carnal living, carnal Christian life, easygoing Christian life, say, I am weak, I can't do that, I am weak, I am weak, when Paul says, I can do all things, where do we get our philosophy of weakness? Weakness, weakness, weakness becomes free, weakness becomes fast, weakness becomes rich, weakness becomes in the Bible, weakness of everything, in the name of Jesus Christ, all forces of darkness, that are responsible to weakness, to carnality, to worldliness, in the name of Jesus Christ, we are pulling down strongholds of the enemy, in Jesus' name, we pray that the spirit of God, through God's revival, in different churches, in different times, that they will see the true spiritual picture of our nation, of our country, they will see the true spiritual picture of every land, how the devil is covering the land, here and there, all the day, Father in heaven, we are praying for the spiritual awakening of churches, Father, let it be so in Jesus' name, we believe you can do it, we believe it is your will to do it, our heart is to speak to you, our heart is to pray, our heart is to decree, our heart is to long after you, and so we are doing by your special grace this day, we pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, that you enter into churches, and you enter into the temple, we do say, and when you enter the temple, you will be there that you are selling, that you are buying, and there that you are making exchange of money, and you say, what? In my father's house, my father's house that we call the house of prayer, you couldn't endure it, you may look to what is happening on the street, on the marketplace, and you will look, but in your temple, you can't endure it, you say you will, and you will out those that you are selling, that you are buying, so we are spreading our hand of prayer tonight into churches, where the devil is selling and buying, where the devil is keeping people under delusion, many thousands of church members are sitting on the fence, they are neither for the kingdom of God, and they do not accept that they are yet sinners, they don't agree that they are still lost, Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, we beseech you, that you send your Holy Spirit in our time, into all these churches, that you be leading to God's spiritual awakening, spiritual awakening, in every path, right from the church leaders, pastors, reverends, evangelists, church workers, and so on, that you be leading to God's spiritual awakening, in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord, I beseech you, you can do it, you have power to do it, your spirit, for an hour, an hour, in the church, you can make all the enemies of the country tremble, your spirit, in our churches, for one week, can make many, many representatives of Satan resign, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, which I offer to you this night, have mercy on thy church, because you redeemed this church with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, we are no more of our own, we are born with a friend, so we pray that in the time of wrath, remember mercy, forge thy church, revive thy church, in the name of Jesus Christ, all the forces of darkness, we pray that you drive them out in your mighty power, in the name of Jesus Christ, because spiritual awakening in the heart of everyone, every member, every minister, every elder, in the name of Jesus Christ, let it be so, oh God, let it be so, almighty Father, let it be so, Jesus Christ our Savior, let it be so, Holy Spirit our Father, please be every church, and God's spiritual awakening, in the name of Jesus Christ, let it be so, when the spirit of revival comes down, it is something people cannot deny, it is not possible. Let's sing a chorus, thank you Lord for saving my soul, and then let our brother pray after. Thank you Lord for saving my soul. The meeting, or at least the beginning of the prayer meeting, not casting any aspersions on this brother, I love him so much, but what we need to do is, it's better to pray two short prayers than one long one, we get tired maybe, and some of us pray a long while, like Spencer and myself, and it's good to have, this dear brother has a heart for God, I hope he doesn't lose his power and vision while he's here, he doesn't get Americanized, or Englishized either. I'm just going to pass some thoughts on from John 17, some of the writers have said that this is the longest prayer that Jesus prayed, I'm not sure that's true, it's the longest recorded prayer that Jesus prayed, but maybe he prayed hours and hours and hours, the scripture says as it was his custom he went into the, he went into the mountains to pray, while they went somewhere else. This is a magnificent prayer. Somebody has called the gospel of John the holy, what do you call it, the holy place, and someone else said that John 17 is the holy of holies. I've asked you sometimes, if you could live just one day with Jesus, see one thing that he did, what would you do? Usually students say, I'd like to see him walk on the water, I'd like to see him raise Lazarus from the dead. If I could relive one day, it would be the day when Jesus prayed this prayer. In the 13th chapter there's been the Lord's Supper, in the 14th chapter we have those amazing promises, at the end of the 14th chapter he says, arise, let us go hence. And then you get the 15th chapter, which is one of the most popular chapters in the whole of the word of God, about the vine. And according to tradition, when Jesus came from the supper room, the upper room, or supper room, he walked down the valley that was flanked on either side with vines. And he immediately cast their mind onto the fact that Israel had been a vine, that she'd run wild, but he was the true vine. He says, I am the true bread, I am the true light, I am the vine, the true. But then also there's that beautiful gate at the temple, one of the, I think about 60 feet high, it was very ornate, and then it was woven the vine again. Now Jesus says here, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, I think he's still outside. I suppose that posture has something very emphatic to say. We read when he went into the garden of Gethsemane, he walked in, he knelt down, and then he prostrated himself. But here he lifts his eyes up to heaven and says, Father, Moses never said that, Abraham never said that, David the king never said that. This is entirely new. But can you see the difference? If you come down the street, you would have seen the high priest of the day in garments of glory and beauty, the word of God says. With a bell and a pomegranate at the bottom and so forth. Just dignified and respected. Jesus here has no garments like that. He builds no altar, he sheds no blood. Immediately he cries, Father, the hour has come. I think, I didn't check that today, I think this is the seventh time in this gospel that he says, Father, the hour has come. His disciples wanted to go somewhere, he said, No, the hour has not yet come. Mine hour has not yet come. But then he says later, for this hour I came into the world. And now remember from here he is going to Gethsemane. Father, glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify him. That has given him power over all flesh. That he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal. What is it? A creed? A dogma? A formula? No, this is life eternal. What is it? That they may know thee, the only true God. You know, there's this menace threatening America right now, is this New Age movement. Maybe we can get some copies of it. It says in one clause, I read the other day, the New Age movement says, Well, let me go to Turner. Turner, the multimillionaire, billionaire maybe, that owns all the TV stations. He's made all his money in America, but he says America is the stumbling block, the one stumbling block to a world government. Well, I hope she is, and I hope she'll be so. But you see, the New Age group says we have to get rid of one obstruction. Obstruction number one is the Church of Jesus Christ. We're not going to be free much longer. We're going to be sent to countries like this, brothers, from asking them to pray for our freedom. We don't value it. You know, if we knew God's timetable, this place would be packed out tonight. We don't know God's timetable. We're presuming. We're presuming on grace. We're presuming on mercy. But God says, My spirit will not always strive with man. Now, Jesus says, I came into the world not to save you from hell, not to do miracles. I came to tell you this, that you may know the living God, the true God. How many times do you stop in the day and think of millions of people around the world bowing down 2,000 years after Jesus died? And there are thousands of billions of people now bowing down every day to gods of wood and stone. They have the slightest idea who the living God is. I remember a friend of mine years ago, before China fell, he went into a temple there and he picked up some little Buddhas that were on the, was it Buddha that they have there or whatever God they have? And he picked up these little China things. There were thousands of them around the building. He picked them up and it said underneath, Made in Birmingham, England. I'll tell you what, he was blazing mad, he was shocked. So you see, they've got these people, they're not just in bondage to a strange God, they're terror strikers. They're fear of power, demon power. Oh, we think our country is so good, thank God for it. A lady here told us tonight, she came from Oklahoma yesterday or today and there's a little town up there, no bigger than Lindale. And recently, wasn't it recently? This week, this week they found somebody just going to sacrifice a child and somebody rushed in the room and cut the little thing that was strapped up, cut it down before they sacrificed it because there's a church there that worships Satan. I understand the Church of Satan in California, they don't begin till midnight and the service goes on till six o'clock and they laugh about the blood and they walk on the cross and they fast and they pray. I understand they have a league of prayer every Wednesday, praying for the overthrow of Christianity in America. You see, we're up against the wall, as our dear brother said, principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness. I'm asking God to launch us this winter into prayer that we've never prayed the like of. This precious brother goes to meetings where they pray for hours, no wonder he prays. I think we're going to leave all the prayer meetings open-ended in the future, let these fellows get going and really pray. It's not the length of prayer that matters, but you can't have a man like that and not be aware of the fact he's touching God. He has a burning compassion to see strongholds pulled down. Africa is going to be one bloody mess from one end to the other unless there's revival there. People are already being killed there. But Jesus here lifts his eyes up to heaven and he says, Father, the hour has come. He came into the world to save sinners, he came in the world to reconcile us to God, he came into the world that we might know the true God. Remember there were vast religions in his day, there were false Christs in his day. People asked John the Baptist, art thou he that should come or look we for another? It was expectant that messiahs would come and yet he's concerned that they may know the living God. How many people do you know who know God? We know about God, do we know him? He says that they may know thee whom to know is life eternal. We've made this thing so simple, a nod of the head, a simple prayer. I think the biggest advantage the devil has in America tonight maybe is evangelism. It's so false, it's so empty, just say a word, nod your head. What about repentance? Sin broke the heart of God, shouldn't it break my heart to confess it? That I've been a rebel against him so long, rebelling against his love? Rebelling against conscience? Every steeple you see on the church will one day rise up in judgment against us. Every Bible will rise up in judgment against us. But Jesus says I want them to know thee, the only true God. I'm going to leap that back now to where we were last week and the week before, where Paul in his letter to the Philippians chapter 3, he says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being may conform the one to his death, that's verse 10. Remember, where is, I said first of all remember his position, where is he? He's in a filthy maritime prison, a prison they won't let dogs live in today. And here is the prince of men outside of Jesus Christ in a stinking prison. But why in God's name isn't God wasting the man? This man raises the dead, this man casts out devils, this man does all the miracles that other people are aching for. And here he is rotting in a prison. Is God wasting him? He did far more than that. Paul says that I may know him. He knew him. He met him on the Damascus road face to face. Isn't that enough? No, he said it isn't. And what did Jesus say to him? Saul, why persecutest thou the church? No, why persecutest thou me? Why? Because Christ is the head of the church. Everybody you slander, every Christian you hurt, you hurt Jesus Christ first. If somebody steps on your toe, if you have an anesthetic, you won't feel it. But normally if somebody stamps on your toe, your mind breaks, this is immediately. Immediately we hurt the body of Jesus Christ. It telegraphed to heaven first. We hurt Christ first. And Paul on the Damascus road, his face, Jesus says, why persecutest thou me? He met Jesus Christ first in confrontation. When you read his account of his testimony to Agrippa in Acts 26, he says he did so many horrible things. What would have happened if God hadn't met Paul on the Damascus road? Can you imagine? He would have been another Pharaoh. Already he was tearing families up. His bloody hands. He stood there and heard the crunching bones of a young man, maybe not 20 years of age. They put him in a corner and stone him. And he hears the crunching of the bones. He doesn't do a thing about it. Not long after, he's in the same position. And nobody comes to his help. I think he must have relived the fact when he never even stirred a hand to go and release that young man. But the fact is again there. Who were watching? A crowd of people, the hierarchy of the church were there. And they thought, well now we're doing something. This is the most adventurous, zealous young man there is in the Christian church. His name is Stephen. Tradition says he wasn't 20 years of age. Anyhow, they stone him to death. What happens? The heavens open. What does it say to those unbelieving men who crucified Jesus and said he's dead and done with? And he says, I see Jesus, he's risen. That must have staggered them, shocked them. It didn't make any difference to the Apostle Paul. It doesn't say Paul saw him. You see, sometimes when you're getting stoned to death it's so you may see Jesus Christ. Nobody else will see him. Stephen needed to see him. He's dying. His ministry is cut off. His life is finished. He's no friends. He's nobody at all. And there he has been destroyed. And yet the heavens open. My dear wife has reminded me a couple of times this week about these men who really had a relationship with God. Let me say this then. Paul on the Damascus road. First of all he has a confrontation. And then he not only has confrontation but he knows again that he's guilty of shedding the blood of men and women. But he not only has a confrontation there. He rejected the testimony of Jesus Christ. But also there's the fact again he says in Romans chapter 6 I am crucified with Christ. Now that really is justification if you follow it through. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And then you go to identification. Where he says in Galatians 2 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. It's identification by the indwelling of the Spirit of God. In Romans 7 where the preachers love to leave everybody. He says at the end of Romans 7 there what? It is no longer sin that dwelleth in. I hear preachers and I get pretty angry about it. They excuse sin and come out of it. We're only human. Who's only human? Man if you're born again you're a child of God. You have an indwelling spirit of how to deliver God to the world of flesh and the devil. And if it doesn't we're not born again. We're seeking ecstatic experiences. Is there anything more revolutionary than being born again? Of passing from death to life. From the power of sin to the power of God. When young preachers come to me I say every day, somewhere in the week read Isaiah 41 right through. Or 40 and see the majesty of God. He sits on the circle of the earth. I like to hear these stuffy little politicians or electricians. No what do you call the guys that study the stars? Astrologers, that arrogant guy from California. Oh he talks you know about the creation. And he says we're just discovering through a new telescope there are bigger suns away there in infinity. You can put what is it 1500 worlds into the sun. And there's some suns you can put a thousand of those suns into. He says you know there are billions and billions of constellations and each one has billions of stars. Glory to God that gives me a kick. What joy do I get out of it? Because it says in Isaiah 41 that he counts the name he knows the name of every star. If holy father wanted to do it tonight he could recite the name of every person from Adam to this moment. Billions and trillions and quadrillions. What is it to God? He has no limitations. We need to see this God in his majesty, this God in his glory. We've such a teeny weeny God. It's time for us to rise up in power and in the anointing. But Paul says that I may know him. Why do you think I need to know him? He's the most unique character in the world. Outside of Jesus. I say he saw Jesus under the mask of Israel. He saw Jesus. He went to heaven and had a few days vacation up there. I don't know why he came back. I won't once I get in there. I'm not coming back to this dump. I'm going to stay. What about you Grace? You're going to stay if you get there. We'll make it by the grace of God. So there's two of us. If you aren't coming it's your business. But we're going and we're going to stay. And yet who did he see? He must have seen the Christ of Isaiah 6. Remember when Isaiah saw him? He says when I saw him. What did he say? He was on a throne above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six rings. What did he do? He cried woe is me I'm undone. You know when people really see God they don't just come and say I'm behind in my prayer life. I'm not as kind as I should be. Good Lord you can say that all the days of your life. But when you see yourself as God sees you say I'm undone. I'm unclean. It's summed up in those two words. It's paralyzing the church today. We're undone. We're unclean. I was reading another scripture there today where Paul says in the Philippians isn't it? I tell you even now weeping their enemies are for the cross of Christ. The cross not of Christ but the cross of Christ. And he says whose God is their belly and who mind earthly things. Most of our Christians are tied up with earthly things. We come to eternity Sunday morning and go back to the world Monday. God is looking for the people who are totally yielding. Capitulating completely to Jesus Christ. So this is the same man. He says that I may know him. He's seen him on the Damascus road. He's been to heaven and seen him in glory and majesty. This man has such awesome power though. I said again I believe every main street in hell I will sign up for the demons to read. Beware the apostle Paul is going to move here. He's going to move there. I want to be on the devil's list of most wanted men. That's my one ambition. I'm too old to want anybody else anything else. I want to be known in hell. I believe that's the greatest compliment. And it's not just for men it's for women. We've been reading about Holy Ann that little woman in Ireland that prayed. There was a woman in this country. What was her name? Henry. Henry I think somebody. I don't remember Martha. No. Anyhow this woman in America. I have a book on her. When she prayed people 50 miles away were affected. God changed things because this little woman decided by the grace of God to have a life of intercession. So Paul has all these blessings. He's seen Christ on the Damascus road. He's being caught up into the third heaven. He knows Jesus by revelation. He knows Jesus by confrontation. He knows Jesus by inspiration. No wonder that little man's in prison. What's he doing? He's giving birth to all these marvelous marvelous books. 14 epistles if you give him Hebrews. And you know what? He never gathered any royalties on them. Won't that be wonderful when he gets to heaven and gets his royalties? Dear Lord his house will not only have bricks it'll have gold knobs and gold everything on it. Out of one life. But how did he get there? He went through trial, persecution, affliction, tormenting. He knew Christ I say by revelation. He knew Christ by persecution. Isn't it? Isn't it in Ephesians? Is it in Ephesians? I think it is. Let me just look at it and then quit. I thought it was in Ephesians 3. I've got it mixed up somewhere. Oh verse, yes Ephesians 4 verse 1. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. Not the prisoner of Caesar. Not the prisoner of circumstances. Not the prisoner of the devil. I'm here in a divine plan. Otherwise how in the world do you think he'd dare to write Romans 8 28? That all things work together for God. He said you wave to me as you go past my prison. I don't care. I'm living in heavenly places. I'm not here. I'm seated with him. My flesh is here. My spirit is there. You can't torment my spirit. You can torment my flesh. But he was wise enough. He moved into a living identification with Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ doesn't get moved around with all the junk that's round about. You'll only get moved as once you get tied in with world systems. World styles. World customs. But when we're living and related to him. We do get moved. But not in the same way. Paul says I want to know him. And the power of his resurrection. And as I told you that word resurrection in the Greek is only once. It's not anastasis. It's ex-anastasis. It says going to be here are the dead. And out of the dead the church is caught. And out of the church another group are caught. He says I by any means I want to attain. You don't have to attain the resurrection. It's automatic. You don't have to work for the rapture. Whatever theory you have of it. It's automatic. But he says I want to attain it by any cost. By any means. And he says I press toward the mark. Come on where is he? He's in prison. He's got his back to the wall. His knees on the ground. And he's looking up. He has a home eternal in the heavens. There's going to be a select group. I believe that means the bride of Jesus Christ. The overcomers. Jesus says well Jesus is the king of kings. A king has a queen. Who is the queen? The overcomers. They're going to sit with him on his throne. And Paul says by any means I want to attain. I don't care what it costs. You know God has some remarkable people on this earth today. He's always had them. But again the cost to the apostle Paul. He lost everything. What did he say? Is of the tribe of Benjamin. A Pharisee of the Pharisees. He's inherited a lot. His father was a Pharisee. He's a Pharisee. Of the tribe of Benjamin. Of the seed of Abraham. Everything that everybody else was grasping for. He says I count them but dunk. They're junk. Put them on the cart and take them to the nuisance place. Put them on the garbage thing. All of my distinctions. The Jew amongst the Jew. A Pharisee amongst the Pharisees. A scholar amongst the scholars. They're nothing. I can't sing that hymn that we sang tonight. Very comfortably. Except I think of the apostle Paul. Isaac Watts wrote that hymn. When I survey the wondrous cross. All the vain things that charm me most and help me least. Do some homework. Go home. Isn't it the things that charm you most that help you least? The things you can see. You can value. You can treasure. They help you least. If you have a 10 million dollar ring. You may feel nice when it goes somewhere and show it off. Does it help you in trouble? Does it help when a cop wants to give you a ticket? You say look at my ring. He made me take the ring instead of the fine. The vain things that charm us most. Paul says the world is crucified to me. Now I finish quickly here. As I say people would go at six o'clock to see a man crucified. You could take rocks, rotten fruit, filth. Once he's nailed to a cross he has no rights. And friend once you're nailed to the cross you have no rights either. Neither have I. At six o'clock they'd howl and laugh and scorn. At six o'clock in the morning the birds were there before morning. They pecked out the eyes. Those big things I saw from this height in India. And they have bills about this length. And long scrawny necks with no feathers. They're hideous things. They got to the cross. They went on the arm of the cross. They reached down and ripped the belly open and began to eat. And the blood ran down. They pecked out the eyes. Nobody went at six o'clock in the morning to see a corpse. It's the most hideous rotten thing in the world. And Paul says the world system is crucified to me. It's bleeding. It's rotten. It's corrupt. Everything's corrupt. We're discovering how corrupt politics are. We're discovering how insincere lots of these people are. And yet there's a corruption in the church. There's a carnality in the church. Communism isn't holding up revival. The church is holding up revival. We're playing games. I love to... Somebody told us this day... Usually... What's his name now? Jacob is here. He went to have a meeting. Somebody said he's having a good meeting the other morning. Twelve hundred people gathered for prayer at six o'clock. That's great. Sunday morning services, I'm not concerned. You can go to church in Dallas. Three, four, five, eight, ten thousand people. How many does he have at the prayer meeting? The devil fears prayer. We don't pray except in extreme circumstances. We're going to have to pray. In revival we don't pray for what we need. We pray because of what we've got. So Paul says... Now I rush here. He says the world is crucified. It has no more attraction to me than that bleeding corpse there. With all the entrails hanging out. With all the blood on the floor. It's not attractive to me. It's true. I'm crucified to the world. They think I'm silly. There's a man with a super intellect. The Apostle Paul. He could have been the high priest and he gave it all over. But you see there's a price to pay if you're going to reign. Martin reminded me yesterday. Well what about Joseph? He goes down, down, down to the very bottom. Sure, sure he does. He comes back into blessing. His brothers come into blessing. They prosper with him. They share prosperity. But only Joseph sat on the throne. They didn't sit on the throne. He went to the very bottom. He was stripped of everything. Lost his family. Lost everything. Goes down, down, down. Down into Egypt. And finally the Lord begins to turn the thing back again. You get Jacob there. I was reading that 42nd chapter. Which I won't read to you because of the time anyhow. That 42nd chapter. No pardon me. The 32nd chapter. In the book of Genesis. And it says in verse 30. And Jacob called the name of the place Penial. For I have seen God face to face. What? That's what it says. How did he get there? Well he got out of that messed up situation with Laban. He's pursued by his brother who has 400 men coming to destroy him. He crosses over the brook Jabbok. It's dark. It's lonely. And we don't like dark places. We don't like loneliness. The thing that kills most of us in our spiritual life is. We don't know how to meditate. We don't know how to wait on God. To renew our strength. Well he gets up and he goes across the brook Jabbok. Then he gets up the hill there. And then he begins having his relationship with the Lord. And the glory of God comes down. But remember he's left behind his wife, his children. All his kinsfolk. He's left the nearest and the dearest. He pushes over that rushing torrent. It's not a nice little stream. He goes through the rushing torrent. It's half wet through. He goes up the hill. He waits in the stillness. Then what happens? God comes. What happened? A miracle. He prayed. What did he get for it? I'll tell you what. God took away strength and gave him weakness. We're seeking strength. Many of us need weakness. What happened? God touched him on his thigh. He wrestled. He didn't know who with but he wrestled. And he tried to get away and he couldn't. And then he realized that it wasn't just some ordinary person. This is a manifestation of God himself. He hangs on. And then the angel tries to get away and he can't get away. Charles Wesley has a hymn in which he says, Wrestling I will not let thee go until thy name and nature know. And this man hangs on now. He tried to get away from the angel. He couldn't make it. Now the angel tries to get away. He won't let it. He hangs. So what does the angel do? He touches him on his thigh. Now any man that knows anything about wrestling, you need to be strong in your thighs there. But he touches him. What does he have after that? He has a leg that he drags everywhere the rest of his life. I can imagine people say, Do you know he got that limp? He got it in a prayer meeting. Isn't that something? Well hallelujah. If God gives you a limp, take it. If he has to break something in your life, let him break it. He'll make it greater and better after in your life. But you see we don't want to surrender. The vain things that charm me most. Some of you may have to give up playing racquetballs. You spend more time doing that than praying. And you enjoy it more. If you enjoy anything more than prayer, anything more than God, then you've got an idol in your life. I don't care whether it's TV or it isn't TV. And God isn't jealous, God. But all these great men, look at Moses. If you read the 7th chapter of Acts, it will tell you there that Moses was mighty before ever God touched him. It says he was mighty in what? In word and in deed. He wasn't a mighty orator because he stammered. He was mighty in word. He was a statesman. And then there came a moment of revelation, I don't wear, maybe it's a banquet. What happened? It was when this man, when Jacob recognized it was an angel that suddenly let everything go. And yet he clung on and said, I won't go, I won't leave this place as I came. Bless me, bless me, and God did. You see Moses, he was going to be the next pharaoh. Maybe Ramesses III or something. And yet there he is. Somehow revelation comes to him. How? I don't know. Ask Brother Bracey, he'll tell you. What does it say about him? Here he is in his costly apparel. People bow down to him. He goes down the street and everybody pays homage to him. What happens to him? Well, it says what? In the epistle to the Hebrews, it says, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, esteeming the reproach of Christ, not the kingdom of Christ, not the crown of Christ, the reproach. What does he know about the reproach of Christ? I don't know. God revealed it to him. You can't stay in this setup and be a multimillionaire, and have power and authority, and at the same time have my anointing. What did he lose? Not a thing. He wrote the first five books of the Bible. He meets God on the back side of the desert, the last place you'd think. Or the seventh chapter of Acts again says that when Stephen's given his testimony, he says, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham where? In Mesopotamia. I couldn't get the word. Mesopotamia. It was one super nightclub. It was full of devilish, yet God appears to him in the middle of all that corruption and carnality and rottenness. I think so where he stopped and said, Lord, I can't go on like this. The God appeared to Abraham, and he says, it's going to cost you a family. It's going to cost you a kindred. It's going to cost you everything. But look what happened. He becomes the father of the faithful. He's the only person in the word of God called the friend of God. I'd like to be there. Would you, Bracey? God says, well, can I do this? I can't do this without talking to my friend. We see what a friend we have in Jesus. I wonder if Jesus thinks I'm a friend. What can he disclose to me? He can't disclose to you. You've got a precious lady here tonight. She's, what was it? Bethany Fellowship when we were there in 51. And a brave little lady. She went through China in 1984, just two years ago. She's going to Norway, and then possibly from Norway to Hong Kong. Then getting a traveler's visa and going into China for three months. She speaks Chinese. She was born in Peking, as a matter of fact. And yet she's brave so much when she's been there. Hazards. A frail little lady. People look at her. This strange woman. What are you doing in our country? She sits in the trains and elsewhere. You know, God's got some marvelous people. They've done all the front page of Charisma magazine or some other junky thing. What do they do? They're walking in the light. They're walking with God. This is God's will for me and I'm going to do it come hell or high water. There's going to have to be some more sacrifice. We're not living where we should live. We're living in easy street, comfort street. If God can't get us one way, he'll get us another. That's all there is to it. But going back again. Moses says, okay, what did he have? Did God pull the curtain on one side? Because he said he esteemed the reproach of Christ. Christ? Who'd mentioned Christ? Well, before that you have Enoch. He walked with God. And what does he do? He says the Lord will come with 10,000 of his saints. He says that thousands and thousands of years before ever he came. No one in the book says the secret of the Lord is we then not fear him. We're not fidgeting and itching for something else. We say, God, I want more of you. I want more of your glory. I want more of your humility. I want more of your love. I want more of your power. I'm not satisfied with clothing, with eating and drinking and going around and being a nice guy. I have to be a bloody man. I have to have scars like the apostle Paul. He's got a bruised, broken body. And yet he goes on where other men feared. He knew Christ in persecution because he says, I'm in this prison for Christ's sake. But here's another thing that's very difficult. I'm through with this. This amazing man had an apostolic band with him. I don't believe he had a man with him that didn't do miracles and signs and wonders. They were filled with the Holy Ghost. What happened? There came a place when he was too sacrificial. He prayed too much. He fasted too much. What did he do? They all dissolved and left him. He says, all men forsook me. Nevertheless, the Lord stood by me. You know, that one thing you're hanging on to is the thing that's keeping you from getting victory. God can't give you revelation. You're preoccupied with this one thing, something that's a darling in your heart. And the Lord says, I want that. Wasn't it the great, uh, it was F.B. Meyer that said, I was in a meeting. They sang all to Jesus, I surrendered. He said, I visualized my life was a bunch of keys. And he said, I'd just slip one off and put it in my pocket and said to the Lord, Lord, I'll give you the whole bunch. He said, no, it's the one you want, I want. Give me the one in your pocket and you take the rest. Well, I'll tell you what. I believe we're in for some tremendous days in every way. And I believe God wants the church of Jesus Christ to come forth as she's never come forth before. But it's going to cost something. I'm glad every Friday night here we pray for the young people. I'm glad for all church witnesses, but I'm longing to hear of a church in Tyler where young people are gathering. I remember I went to the pastor of our church. I was 17. I said, pastor, there's a bunch of us young people. We'd like to come to church Friday night. You don't use the building. We want to come at seven o'clock for what? To pray. Oh, who's coming? Young men and young women. Oh, uh, is it, is it, uh, uh, is it, uh, kind of seamless to have young men and young women? I said, come and supervise it, sit and watch. We're not going to play dominoes. We're going to pray. Well, once they got blazing, we went to church at seven o'clock Sunday morning and I lived on the edge of town. I had to walk there. There was no conveyance. We had no car. I might ride my cycle. But you know, God is looking for young men and women. The devil's got such a monopoly on them today. There has to come a revival amongst the youth. We old codgers will be gone before too long. You've no excuse at all. The same resources that made out Madam Guillaume, the resources that made, uh, what was the lady that went to India? Amy Wilson, Carmichael. Those same resources are ours. But I've said to you again, if we live another thousand years, God isn't going to add another word to this book. He said it all. As a hymn writer says, what more can he say than to you? He has said to you, you who for refuge to Jesus have fled. My daily prayer now is I want to know him more and more and more. I don't care who else I know. I get a bit upset when fellows come in my office and say, you know, I know so-and-so. I say, I'm not interested, you know. But don't you know he's number one? I don't care who he is. I'm not interested in men that are listed. And are pre-eminence. God is looking for men who have nothing. Paul says, I have nothing. But he possessed all things. He had no home, he had no title, he had no rights. They were all consumed. He said, I have nothing, but I possess all things. I'm going to move in that area. I don't know much about it. But I do know that God, Jesus Christ, never died for a church as crippled and sick as the church of Jesus Christ is today. We have to put signs on the church because nobody knows we're around. But that's not true when there's revival. I've been reading about the Welsh revival. And it staggers me that the Spirit of God would come. And again, the fellow that led it was 26 years of age. And the record says that at 26, he had been praying for 13 years. So he was 13 when he got a burden. Jesus was 12 when he said, look, my father's business. What do your 12-year-old kids know, or children? Are you 13s or 15s? Do they have a revelation? Do they realize, I'm eternity bound? I'm not going to go even like my daddy. I had a wonderful daddy, a hellfire street preacher. He embarrassed me to death. Before I was saved, I used to walk around the blocks. I wouldn't hear my daddy yelling at the street corner. But boy, once I got saved, it was a different thing. But you know, it's a bit late. Somebody said to a preacher, well, how was your meeting? He said, oh, I had a good meeting last night. He said, well, how many were saved? He said, two and a half. He said, oh, two adults and a child. He said, no, one adult and two children. He said, two and a half. Well, he said, yes, two children were saved. Well, what's the other half? He said, he already lived half of his life for the devil. So there's only half of it saved. Why didn't he get the covenant with God and say, my children are going to be ordinary children, extraordinary children. We laid our little Paul on the bed where David Livingstone was born and prayed over him when he was three weeks old and said, Lord, take this boy, make him a missionary, don't let him live. And God has done that. The world's going to be turned upside down with some new men that are still heading away. God has been talking to me about a womb this week. A womb is a dark place, but a womb is a quiet place. But a womb is a place of life. A woman has power over her eyes. She can do what she likes, but she can't power over her womb. Another life must come in. And I believe lots of people in captivity today, in darkness. They've lost their money. They've lost this. They've lost that and the other. I believe they're in a womb. God's going to create something new if we'll be still and wait and know that he's God. I want to know him. I want this generation to know. As you've heard me cry often, I don't want to die before God Almighty comes and does something in Tyler. Not that the young people will point at the pastor at the judgment and say, if you'd really cared for my soul. You never disturbed me about hell. You never disturbed me about conscience. You never disturbed me about eternity. They don't sing about it. So when we all get to heaven, we sing Jubilee songs. It's time to get down to blood. It's time to get down to the cross. It's time to get down to eternity. This man was eternity conscious all his life. So nothing affected him. God wants me to know him. I want to know him. That they may know thee, the only true God. Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And you have Jesus coming from the glory with this very mission. Not dressed like a priest, a very ordinary looking man. And yet God anointed him. Jesus of Nazareth was anointed. That's something we can't buy. Well, there we are. I guess our time's about through. But we're going to pray. I hope you'll stay to pray sometime. Part of the time.