In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of not looking back and instead focusing on moving forward in faith. He highlights the faithfulness of Moses and how his obedience allowed Joshua to learn the ways of the Lord. The speaker then discusses the promised land that God has prepared for His people, a place where they don't have to build or labor but can enjoy the abundance that God has provided. The sermon also touches on the idea that sometimes God allows hardship and trouble to prepare His people, and the importance of walking in harmony and union with Him.

We've been talking for a few sessions on new beginnings, because God has many new beginnings in the Scripture, but from each one I believe we can learn much, not only by way of learning but by way of preparation. And I trust we all recognize that it isn't just in the knowledge of it, of what God is going to do, but in the seeking-to-walk in it, that God might prepare our hearts, it's only in that that the knowledge God gives will be of any value. I use the expression, God wants to translate the knowledge we have into living truth. And I believe that's right. He tells us things, not, well, there's areas there that I don't know and I'd like to know about, but he only tells us the part, in fact, a very small part. We know in part, and it's not that we lack a little in knowledge, it's that we only know a little. And he shows us what we need to know, that we might have vision and expectations and hope and press on towards the goal. And it amazes me that the Apostle Paul, having traveled through some of these same countries that we're talking about today, and I'm not just sure Bulgaria was a part of it or not, but traveled through those countries, lit a fire and went on, because that's God's way. Not that you just have to stay there 50 years to establish a church, but when God is in charge, the light has sparked, and he could go on and come back, and here was a church that needed to be further established in the things of God. Those things are tremendous, and we can't help but rejoice in what God is doing in these countries. But after, I never did find out exactly, maybe 20 or 25 years of that, he says to the Philippians, I want to know God, and I might know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. Paul, didn't you know him? If I just knew God one-tenth the way you know him, I'd settle for it, wouldn't you? He says, I want to know God, and I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his resurrection. And so every time God moves afresh, it's so tremendous, so wonderful, so glorious, it never drops into our heart unless God by his Spirit makes it real to us. It's just the beginning. God has much more. God has things that I hath not seen nor e'er heard, which have not entered into the heart of man. He's prepared for those that love him. And unto us, Paul says, God hath revealed them by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the depths of God. And so, whenever God moves in a new way, right in the victory song of the new thing God is doing, he plants the seed of a new working that God wants to do, plants the seed of a new working in the very victory song of what he's doing today. There are the seeds of truth that God has implanted for still another working. We find it all through the scriptures. So they come out of Egypt, all with a mighty hand of God. We talked a little bit about it. God was bringing them into something, but to bring them in, he had to bring them out. I bring you out to bring you in. Let's never forget that. And as he brought them out, the joy of it, the victory of it, Miriam took a tambourine and led the ladies in dances before the Lord, the horse and his rider, being thrown into the sea. One of Moses' songs, then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song, Exodus 15. But right in that beautiful psalm of victory, there are seeds of God's intention of what he's really trying to do. It wasn't all in that. God wanted to do something else. Exodus 15, verse 2, I will prepare him a habitation. Oh, yes, I know, but forget that. God has destroyed Pharaoh and the Red Sea. Right, we've got to rejoice in everything God has done. Paul said, writing to the Hebrews, I fear, lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should come short of it. Without going into that in any great detail, just catch what Paul is saying, let's not fall short of God's intention. God helps that we will not fall short of it, because they received a message that in God's intention was designed to lead them not just out of Egypt, where they were now, in singing the victory song, but would lead them into a prepared place in God, a prepared place. I will prepare him a habitation. Verse 13, Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed, thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. God wants to lead us into his holy habitation, where God dwells in us, not just is in us, dwells, lives there, that's his home. God wants to make you people his home, where he shall go no more out, where we shall go no more out. Verse 17, Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place which thou hast made for thee to dwell in. God wants to bring us to a place where God is dwelling, and dwell in him in that place. In the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. And so, if God gives us the right spirit, his desire is that every time we see something new in God, a new place, a new beginning, a new start, that he would open our eyes to see what is he saying about what's coming next. Oh, you say, forget that, this is good enough. I'll tell you why it's not good enough. Because God says, I can't rest till I find a habitation. Oh, you say, God doesn't need a habitation, he dwells in the heaven of heavens. God could never find a home in the universe he made, could never find it. Thus saith the high and lofty one, and inhabiteth eternity, I know he does. I dwell also in the high and holy place, but with him who is poor in contrite, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one. God says, I dwell there. And to Israel he said, Where is the place that you build unto me? Where is the place that I might find a rest? Because we get the notion so often that God is finding his rest in something that he's already done, something that we're doing, that God is finally delighted in it. God says, Build me a house. We talk much about building God's church, and God's building his church in the earth, and he uses his people to be co-neighbors together with him, and all that's very wonderful. But we must beware lest we think that we're building a church to present to God, because when we get that attitude, like the Israelites had, We built this temple for you, Lord, aren't you happy about it? God says, Where is the place of my rest, if not my hands made all these things? I made it all, you said, you didn't do it. But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my word. And so he brings us back to that, he dwells with the humble, he dwells with the contrite. And why? Why God? Because God will not give his glory to another. Contrite means, look it up in Dr. Strong's, bruised, broken, broken so much that he's useless, smashed. Why does God want to dwell there? Because unless he breaks the vessel that we've been preparing for him, he cannot be glorified until he smashes it and brings forth a new creation for his own glory, for God will not give his glory to another. Let me thank the Lord for every mighty working of God, every victory of man. A new day had come, they'd crossed over, they'd been delivered from Egypt. But even as they do that, they're reminded, God is guiding you to his holy habitation. He's going to bring you in and plant you in the mountain of his inheritance and the place which he made for us to dwell in and the place that he made for himself to dwell in. And so the story is, out of Egypt and into Canaan, that's what God wants, not just out of, but into. But it had to be through a wilderness, which he didn't tell them about too much, because he had to take them through there to prepare them for Canaan. They never did understand, they never did understand why God would have taken them through the wilderness when he promised them to bring them into Canaan. He promised Canaan, he brings them to a wilderness. How devastated we've been at times when we saw the promises of God and embraced them, and the first thing you know, we're in a wilderness. You get a little foretaste of it, even in the wilderness, you get the foretaste of the land, because God is faithful to give us a little taste of it so that we know what it's all about. So they bring back the grapes and we taste it, and we know it must be good, and we hear the report, yes, it's a land flowing with milk and honey, but somehow we can't learn to so walk with God and to so partake of that heavenly manna that we come to know God's ways. So that to the people of God who came out of Egypt and sang the victory song and danced before the Lord because of the victory he had given to them, he said, these people have not known my ways, and I was grieved with them for 40 years, and I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my habitation. That's this frightening thing that God, the God who blessed a nation as he's never blessed any nation on the face of the earth with his abiding presence hovering over them by day and by night, feeding them with manna faithfully every day, a food that had every ingredient in heaven that was needed to make them to be healthy and strong and vital, something we don't know today in the Church. Bless them, give them water over the rock, the abiding presence of God over their tabernacle. Not once, if it happens once on this continent, it becomes a matter of something we can write about and we remember it for 50 years. It happened up in Canada at a convention they used to have about 60 or 70 years ago, the glory cloud of the abiding presence over the tabernacle. People coming with their horses and buggies, they say, there it is, there's God's presence abiding over the tabernacle, and it's something that you'll remember, something that happened once and that happened to Israel for 40 years, day and night, and God says, they have not known my ways or not my heart's been grieved with them, and I swear my wrath they can't enter into my rest. What does God want? He wants a place to live in, and he can't find it in the heavens and he can't find it in the churches. So he's building a church, he's building a habitation for himself, and that's the Canaan. We can't get there until he deals with the old life, and that's what the wilderness is. When God was trying to deal with our old life so they could come into Canaan, they blamed God for it. And God was leading them through the wilderness merely to reveal to them the state of their own heart. So they'd no sooner come out of Egypt, and the beautiful song of victory that must have thrilled them, to see a million people there or more, maybe three or four million rejoicing of the victory God gave them for their enemies, and talk about dancing before the Lord. And a few days later, God led them to Marah, and they were thirsty, they had nothing to drink, because they'd gone three days without anything to drink, and they saw the pool and they ran to it and looked down and took of it and drank, and just bitter they couldn't drink of it, and called it Marah, bitter, bitter waters, and to the victory song. Three days later. Why wouldn't they blame God? How could you help but blame God when they're famishing and he leads them to bitter waters because they didn't know his ways, they didn't understand, it never penetrated their hearts that the God who opened up the Red Sea was able to make every bitter experience to be in his will. They didn't know that that pool of Marah was God saying, this is what you're like, you're born in bitterness, you walk in bitterness, you're filled with it, this is what you're like, taste it and see what you're like. The first thing they'd see, because it wasn't a running stream, it was a pool, the first thing they would see is their own face. God was showing them themselves, and they drank of it and it made them embittered, trying to drink fountains out of the bitterness of their own hearts. Moses was baffled, I guess, but he looked around for God's direction, God showed him a tree up there in the banks, cut it down, threw it into the waters, and he did, and the waters were sweet, and they drank thereof and were refreshed. I mean, all through the wilderness, and there were 41 different stopping places before they got to this one. We can't go into all that today. All through, God was revealing to them the inherent bitterness, sin, corruption of their own life. What for? That in this wilderness which we are, God might plant his garden, that the wilderness in this solitary place would blossom as the rose, that we are that wilderness, and they didn't understand that. We are the wilderness, because it's here that God wants to live, it's here that God wants to build his sanctuary. This is the place that you have ordained, O Lord, as a place for thee to dwell in. This is the only place. He couldn't find anything else, because he didn't make anything else that was compatible with him. He made a man in his image. He made a man to be his image in the earth. What about other planets? I don't know, but the totality of God's eternal purposes are to be found in the man that he made in his image. There is no other place, and I know it's in this human family. I know that because Jesus came into this human family, not taking on him the likeness of angels or other celestial hosts. If there are, you know, who knows? But our Lord Jesus came into this humanity, he became an atom, that in this last atom God might restore that image that he might finally have found for himself this habitation that he never did find in any degree of fullness before, even though in the first atom he had a foretaste of it. God never gives up on his vision, his dream, his plan, his purpose. You and I can. You can call it far-out things, if you like. I know it's far-out, things that I haven't dreamt of, I haven't thought of, I haven't heard of. Paul says, God's prepared for those that love him, and so he led them on, and he showed them the tree at Manah that made the bitter waters sweet. And so, what's your complaint? What's your bitterness? What's the thing that's bothered you? I sense that, with most of you at least, I'm sure that God has made every bitter thing sweet. If he hasn't, find the tree. It's always there in the banks of Manah, it's always there. It's the cost, I know, but you have to find that application of the cost in your life for any bitterness that you discover in your own life. Now, we just touched on this morning, but God is leading them on, on and on, to another beginning. I wish you could realize that this is a journey, there's nothing new, I'm saved, baptized with the Holy Ghost, I speak in tongues and prophesy, there's nothing new. And settle down, it's a journey. And the New Testament Church, before they coined phrases to describe something that God does, and when the New Testament Church got walking with God, it was called the way, this way. They didn't know anything about the way. I used to wonder about that until I realized it is a way, we're on a journey, we're not to be stagnant, we're not to settle down. Thank him for every good thing he does, every blessing he gives, every victory he gives us, but it's a way. And all along the way, there are new experiences that pose trials, perplexities, problems. So they arise from Manah, having had their thirst quenched with fresh water, and God says, is this to say, don't you know what I'm teaching you? If you will walk in my ways and obey my statutes, serve me, I will lay upon you none of the diseases that I have laid upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. God is saying that having rooted out all the bitterness of the old life, as we begin to walk in covenant union in relationship with him, he is going to fulfill the promise that his church will walk in physical as well as in spiritual health. After I wrote the Feast of Tabernacles, I went through a wilderness of my own, because God was revealing those things, even while the rest, by and large, the majority of Latter-day Churches were caught up with the gifts of the Spirit and healings and prophecies and mighty movings of God, and there were missionary outreaches and going to nations, and it became a worldwide movement. But even at the beginning, God said, the reason I'm restoring my gifts of the Spirit to the church is that I may prepare that church, that I will make of them one body to prepare me for my appearing. God never lost that vision, though the majority of the people in what became known as Latter-day Church did. God is moving, it's raining, it's raining, it's raining, and healing evangelists didn't come out of that movement. But God raised up great healing evangelists. At that same time, God was pouring out his Spirit all over this continent in one way or another. We had 8, 10, 12 great healing evangelists with their big tents, filling them with people, not only to be healed, but to see the mighty works of God that he was doing in others. It went on maybe ten years, and then they all folded up. We wonder why. It's because God cannot let his people rest, nor will he rest until he finds the desire of his heart. And that's a people walking in total harmony and union with him, where we dwell in God and God dwells in us. That's his desire, he won't forsake it. And if we forsake the vision, God just leaves us, that's all. Having done great things and giving us victory over Pharaoh and sweetening the waters at Marah and all that, God must have a prepared people to go into this prepared place. So after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead, now therefore arise. Oh, they lamented over the death of Moses. We always lament over the end of a past era. But we shouldn't if we know God's ways, because when God does a mighty thing through his people in the very thing that he is doing, he sows the seeds of what he would do next. God intends that that will be our vision then. Oh, how people lamented when Ladder Rain petered down. I don't think it lasted too long. In my own experience, I felt that maybe two or three years, the impact of it bothered me, troubled me. Not only that, but God was closing down the healing ministries. It flourished there for 8 or 10 years, and it seemed to be petering out as well. I'd even take a book off my shelf sometimes and read it to get a little encouragement. It was a book called The Feast of Tabernacles. But I thought, why did I write that anyway? I remember two or three times taking it down and reading it, why did I write that? Nobody wants to read that. It lay around for 2,000 copies that were printed originally, I think it took about 10 years. But it's been encouraging these days to run across people who read it then when I was in a wilderness and got help from it, and got out of their wilderness. So I'm assured that the vision is right. God hasn't forsaken his vision. He won't settle for something less just because you and I are quick to do it. He will not rest until he establishes, until he makes Jerusalem a place on the earth, until the salvation goes forth as the shining, brilliant light. That's what God said. And because he said that, he shares the burden of his heart with his people. And in Isaiah 62 he calls them watchmen that he set on the walls. And watchmen have various duties. One was to warn the enemy, warn the people of God of the approaching enemy. I know that. But another purpose of the watchman is to cry unto God day and night and to give God no rest until he establishes and until he makes Jerusalem a place on the earth. Because that's God's vision, and therefore he puts that vision on the hearts of his people, his watchmen, not everybody. But those whom he calls watchmen on the walls, I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, who shall not hold their peace day or night, ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence and give him no rest until he establishes, until he makes Jerusalem a place on the earth. God declared that was his vision in verse 1 and 2. He says, This is my vision. I can't rest until it happens. So he needs helpers. We call them intercessors, or people who come into union with God. Because we come into the yoke of Christ, we carry the same burden that he carries. He carries the main load, I know, but if we're in his yoke, we'll feel the burden of his heart. And remember that. You can only carry a burden that's of the Lord as you get in his yoke. Others will try to lay yokes upon you, because they feel that's their yoke. If it is, that's good. But God has a burden for you as you come into his harness, and it'll be the burden of God's heart for you very individually. And so you don't shrug that off because you like what somebody else is doing. It looks more appealing, it looks more wonderful, there seems to be more success in it. You have to bear the yoke that God has laid upon you, whether it be a sower of the seed, a plowman and a sower, or one who waters it, or one who goes and reaps the harvest. You want to be one who reaps the harvest. I always did. I never wanted to sow seed, I wanted to be an evangelist. But it's not of my choosing. Why did I want to be an evangelist? Because I was brought up in Pentecost, and the only man that was really doing anything effectual for God was the evangelist. Teachers, you'd hear them say, I remember once, they didn't know I was listening, but, yeah, I think George would be a teacher, I don't think he'd be an evangelist. Boy, you know, you urk under that, teacher, because in those days I never sat under a vital teacher of the gospel, go through studies and dry, and I don't want to be that, Lord. I want to see signs and wonders and miracles, and I want to see souls come in. I still want to see that, but I'm a member of a body, and it's happening. It's happening in the body of Christ, in measure, but let's not settle for it yet. When can we settle? We can't settle for it until God settles. And God says, this is what I've been looking for, this has been the dream of my heart, a holy bride without spot or blemish or any such thing will be presented unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and she's going to come to that place. I always want to remind people, because they've always got this crazy notion that we just live in sin and imperfection down here, and then we're translated suddenly, we're the beautiful bride of Christ. It's by the washing of the water, by the Word, that he's going to prepare this holy bride. Moses, my servant, is dead. Don't look back now. Moses was faithful. That's good, and we're glad he was faithful. Because he was faithful, Joshua learned the ways of the Lord as he walked with Moses. But he says, now Moses is dead. Go into the land now and take it. God had prepared it. He called it his land. His eyes are upon it day and night. How be it? There are in that land abominable nations that God says you've got to subdue, seven abominable nations. God says, it's your land and it's a prepared place, so you don't have to go in and build the houses. You don't have to go in and plant the vineyards. You don't have to go in there and irrigate the land with your foot, like they used to do in Egypt. They had sort of a crude irrigation system and a pump that they had made that they had to pump away there with their foot to get a little trickle of water out of the Nile, because God was going to have streams flowing in that place. But we like the old pump better, don't we? Pump away, try and get a little trickle of water. Thank God for the little trickle of water, but pumping away until you're weary. God says the rivers are flowing, the houses are built, the fruit trees are yielding fruit. It's all prepared. You just have to go in and confront these enemies, and God will put the fear of God upon them so that they'll yield readily. They'll be terrified at your presence. The thing that ran through my mind this morning, as I heard these tremendous testimonies of God's mighty working in Bulgaria, is that God used the communist system of 40 years to prepare this land. It's a prepared place. And then the fearful thought came to me, God, how long must we know hardship and devastation and trouble in this land before we'll be a prepared people? Forty years? I don't think so, because I know God can do a quick work in the land. But your country or mine are not ready to receive the fearful brethren that went to Bulgaria and to see the same things happening amongst them as happened there. They were prepared through persecution. And while the Church sends delegations to Washington or to Ottawa, do something about human rights in these countries, because the Church is persecuted. Do something about it over there. And I was told, as for a fact, they're praying, God, do something about America by way of persecution and hardship that they might come to know you. I've only been off the continent once and went to Kenya. One man told me that God was going to send him to America. I think he was itching to come. I tried to discourage him on it, to know for sure God's timing. But he said God showed him that he was going to send lights from Africa to dark America. We used to talk about sending a light from America to dark Africa. And that's his vision. He's anxious to get over here, but I don't think he was really ready, and I don't think America's ready yet. But you're going to see it, I believe. Missionaries come to this land. You say, we don't need it, we've got all kinds of Bibles. I know you have all that, but you're not a prepared people yet. And these people don't have the Bibles and the understanding and the knowledge, but it's a prepared land, prepared by persecution, prepared by an evil system. You say, how can that be? The land that was flowing with milk and honey, cultivated, gardens planted, houses built, was done by people who hated God. The seven abominable nations of Canaan. They don't get any credit for that. Because of their wicked and abominable deeds, God wiped them out. Nevertheless, he used them in the meantime. God always uses the devil, you know, to fulfill his purposes at times. And God never gives the devil credit for it. Because the devil is out to subdue and to destroy and to defeat and to conquer, we know that. But God, and it's all in the cross, it's all in the teaching of the cross, God revealed to us the glory of your cross, that here was a man defeated in the natural, in the appearance, devastated, persecuted, harassed, slain by the enemy, by Satan. Satan not knowing that what he was doing out of the blindness and darkness of his soul, God was working it into his purpose that he might be our Redeemer. And that in his crucifixion, he was literally, though being crucified by the wise of this world who didn't know God, in God's purposes, he was destroying these principalities and powers, making a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross. Not long ago, that Jesus was defeated on the cross, that that was defeat, it was his resurrection that was victory. I hope that he was just using terminology that wasn't quite correct. It appeared to be defeat. But the cross, and not the resurrection, it was the cross where he destroyed Satan. Because just as we, well, I think I digress a little again, but it wasn't a case of Jesus saying, I must go to a cross and, oh, Father, you'll have to arrange somehow that people will crucify me because I must die for my people. He was the light shining into the world. He was God revealed in the flesh. He was truth. He was the very expression of the heart of God. Nothing that was in God was lacking in Jesus, and yet he came as a man that it wouldn't be something, that deity wouldn't be something in the realm of which he would walk. He would be secluded in his humanity and he would live as a man in total dependence on the Father, doing nothing because I'm God in the flesh, but because I'm a man in whom the Father can live and move and direct and to whom I must be totally obedient. So that he did what he did on earth as a man, and that's tremendous, because I know in my early days it always seemed to me he was half God, half man, and so when he needed to be God, he stepped into his deity and walked in the water or turned water into wine or said, peace be still, because he was half God and half man, until I realized he was totally man as well as totally God, but his deity poured into humanity, making him weak. God taking on flesh, making him weak, humbled, emptied himself in the original, emptied himself, becoming weak, becoming poor. In that state of humanity, weak humanity, but perfect, without sin, in that humble state, God could show forth his glory and his power, that he would be a servant, he would be a doer. When I saw that, then I realized he is my example. He is my example. But you say, yeah, but he has sin, he has no sin, we have sin. And that's why he comes to bring us redemption. He who had no sin became our perfect sin offering, he had to be without sin, just as that lamb had to be without blemish, that he could be our sin offering, that we could come away from that embracing of the cross that our sins dealt with, so that now he is bringing us up to his level as an Adam free from sin. So now we're on his level, if you understand what I mean. As far as nature is concerned, he's always our Lord and Master. But because he took not on him the nature of angels, but took on him the seed of Abraham, and was in all points made like unto man, and tempted in all points, sin accepted. He's not ashamed to call us his brethren, saying, Behold, I am the children whom thou hast given me. I just emphasize that, because now he's our example, because he dealt with our sin, and he's our example. And so Paul was able to say, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something he should strive after, but emptied himself and was made in the form of man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself still further. To become incarnate was a great step of humiliation for Almighty God, just to take upon himself human flesh, because that made him weak. It made him finite. It brought him into the realm of need. He hungered, he thirsted, he grew weary, he got tired. That was humility, just to become a man. But he didn't become a king or a prince. He became a doulos, a bond slave. He took the lowest place in the world by reason of the fact he became a man and laid aside that glory and became a doulos, and faithfully in the realm of humanity as a slave, as a bond slave, he did the will of God. It became his total delight and God was well pleased and exalted him to the highest throne in the universe. Paul says, have that same mind that was in Christ that caused him to go that route. Humble ourselves. Take the place of a servant, one who serves another. Take that place. And that will determine the measure of glory that he has for us. That will determine it. Not necessarily the apostles or the prophets or the teachers or the evangelists. Not necessarily them. But that humble man, woman, child of God who has become a true doulos to the Lord Jesus. And we're going to be amazed in the day of Christ when we stand before him and to see the weak and the poor and the impoverished not only in the natural but in spirit. People whose names we know nothing about even in church history. Stand there rewarded with the highest reward that God could give in becoming a habitation of God. The place, the one that God wanted, the one that he desired many apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders, deacons, healers, workers of miracles will be looking around to see where they are and what kind of honor they're receiving. I believe that's true. Sometimes it bothers me when sometimes women whom God has placed in subjection to man become irksome over it. Don't you, man or woman, long to be in subjection to the Lord Jesus? And so a godly woman who is married she loves that relationship. She loves to be under the headship of her husband just as we love to be under the headship of Christ. And some of them feel, you can't deprive me of ministry. I can be a minister just as much as a man and quote scripture for it. Well, I'm not denying that. I'm just saying, just becoming a great minister doesn't mean that you're in a superior position. To become a bond slave is the highest position for man or woman. That's the highest thing you can do. I mean voluntarily because we're born to be sons and children of God. We're not born to be slaves. But being a son and having privileges and rights it's a high order to say, yeah, I know, I'm the king's son. And so they're teaching, you're God's kids, live it up. God's kings in the spiritual realm desire to be God's slaves. Because God's kings though they know they are that because the Word says so made us to be a kingdom of priests. They love their Master so much that they say, just let me be a servant in your house forever. And with his ear pierced with the awe, that's the sign. I just want to hear his voice and then I just want to do what he says. I don't want to be free anymore. In the sense, you know that I can do as I will. I don't want that kind of freedom anymore. Because if you have that attitude the time comes when you realize I'm free to do as I want, to go as I want. Go and come, go preach or go get a job. I can do what I want, I'm free. When you become his bond servant you find you're not. You must learn to do what he wants. Which might be preaching but don't think that's the highest order in God. The highest order in God is to walk with God. You know for one time 40 years ago I guess I was getting concerned about my ministry because I was getting up around 30 or so. So you can if you're good in arithmetic you know you can. I've got to tell you this. I hope Steve doesn't mind. One day he says how long have you known the Lord? I said oh let me see, 56 years. A year or two later we're sitting at the table and he says when did you come to know the Lord? How old were you? I said what was it? Whatever it was, 19 years. Anyway it comes to 74 in case you're wondering. But I said Lord you know I know you want you've called me to ministry. I knew that from maybe I was 5 or 6 years old. I hear I'm 30, 32 and what do you want me to do Lord? So I opened up the scripture and you know I don't do that very often but I was just sort of fumbling through and I hit upon that scripture in Micah. What O man doth the Lord require of you but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God? Well fine I just accidentally come across that and yeah that's good scripture. But that wasn't really what I was wanting to know. I wanted to know about my ministry Lord. And so that might have been the end of it but I'd be opening up there every day for 3 or 4 days. Sort of felt God must be talking to me but I never heard what he said. Never really heard what he said until one day maybe 30 years later suddenly realized there's no higher calling for you or I in this life or in eternity but to walk with God. Took me all those years to learn that. That's all he wants. And you might be an apostle and not walk with God. You might be a prophet and not really walk with God. You might be a teacher and still not walk with God. But you can be a farmer and walk with God. You can be a carpenter and walk with God. You can be a tinsmith and walk with God and God wants people to walk with him. And his lament with the children of Israel whom he had redeemed with such a mighty hand was that they don't know my ways. They haven't followed me. They never discovered my ways and I swear my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. What's he saying? I won't be able to find my home in them. God needs rest? Yes, God needs rest. He needs a home. God needs a home? Yes. Because by nature he's loving, gentle, kind, compassionate. By nature? By nature he's a father. Christ had to come because God is Father. That's why every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named after the Father. Because he is inherently what he is he must have a family compatible with his own heart. Like him. Of people in his image. Just not an arbitrary thing. He must have that because he's Father. So Paul said I find it in my heart to pray unto the Father that you might be strengthened with all might by his spirit in the inner man. Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith. See what he's saying. God's desire as we read it, as we quote it, it increases with its intensity. It's not one thing maybe, but it's step by step by step until we come to the fullness of what he's saying. Strengthened with all might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to apprehend with all saints. I caught that once when I wanted to apprehend this that I'm talking about with all saints. So I came to realize I would not enter into it apart from the church. I couldn't go into it on my own much as I would have liked to because I'm an isolationist. I'm a loner. I like to get away from people. But God says it's with all saints. And if you enjoy some of what I'm saying these days and someone told you that you did, you have to know it's only because God has confined me and made me to know I won't go any farther in God except as I bring the people of God further. And I don't say by that that I'm ministering for a selfish motive. It's just the way God has ordained it because that you might be able to apprehend with all saints what is the length and the breadth and the height and the depth I'd shout it but I ruin my voice if I get too excited. And to know the love of Christ which asks us knowledge that you might be filled unto all the fullness of God. You might be filled unto all the fullness of God. That's what Jesus was when he was here. But he went away that he might distribute his gifts, his blessings, his nature upon his church that with all saints we might be filled unto the same fullness that was in Jesus. Praise the Lord. And so he told them how they were to go into Canaan. The priest will take it in. The priest will open up the way. The priest will carry the ark of God. And when you see the priest of the Lord going before you, carrying the ark of God, you'll go after it. Go after it. The ark. They're to carry the ark but you're to go after not the priest but the ark. There's too many people going after the priest. They have a high and holy calling and that is to bring the presence of God on ahead of the people. That the people might go after God. They might follow after the Lord. And while when they touched the waters, God said the waters would divide. It's a new way. Another new beginning. They'd already crossed the Red Sea. It's a new beginning. They sang the victory song. God said I'm bringing you into Canaan. But to go into Canaan they had to come through the wilderness. To be stripped. To be weakened. To know the frailty of their own flesh. To know what was in them. God had to root that out. That God might have a prepared place for a prepared people. The priests go ahead. God's kings are really priests. The king of all kings and lord of all lords. To him it was said thou art a priest forever. After the order of Melchizedek. Thou art a priest forever. We get caught up in the word kings. Failing to realize it's God's priests that God wants to anoint with kingly authority. God's priests. And that were to reign as kings alright but only in virtue of the anointing oil. In virtue of the priesthood. And besides the priests when they went down into the bottom of the Jordan with a wall of water on each side no doubt remembering what happened to their what was it cousin or second cousin or something Nadab and Abihu when they did something that seemed to be insignificant but it wasn't a light thing in the sight of God when then they went into the holiest of all and offered up fire which the lord hadn't ordained God slew them on the spot. Now here they are at the bottom of a river and the water on each side don't you think there was a fear of God in them? And a discipline on the people of God that they could march right on by without standing to admire their beautiful priestly garments what a wonderful man of God he was that they marched right on by and went into Canaan stopping for a while at Gilgal which I hope to deal with a little this morning stopping at Gilgal and only when they had got over and across the river could the priests come up behind take their place with them Paul says I think God has set us the apostles back at the end of the line last of all as men doomed to death because Paul says always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in your mortal flesh he knew the dying of the Lord Jesus just because you're sick or afflicted or dying or die he's not talking about that he's talking about the dying of the Lord Jesus which is a death that Jesus suffered because he walked in obedience to the Heavenly Father and then at Gilgal just before the conquest of Jericho God says go and circumcise the whole army not on the other side of the Jordan where they have a little bit of security during the time of their infirmity right there under the noses of the enemy God crippled the whole army one day crippled them totally exposed to their enemies and what did God do to look after that the fear of God came upon the inhabitants of Jericho and they locked the gates and barred them because here was a crippled army brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand wonderful what God's doing especially in other countries we've seen nothing yet God have mercy on us here and when I say here I refer to our country I know there's a line across there but we're one people who've known so much of God had so many opportunities so much teaching so much knowledge but not yet a prepared place that God will prepare us that we will have the commitment God we don't care what it takes we want to be a prepared people that we might come a place where you can find your habitation God bless this word dear hearts