This sermon emphasizes the importance of enduring through spiritual dryness and trials, drawing examples from biblical figures like Elijah, David, and Paul to illustrate how even after great revelations, there can be times of despair and doubt. It encourages believers, especially women, to trust in God's faithfulness and seek His strength in times of weakness and uncertainty, highlighting the transformative power of unwavering faith and perseverance.

God bless you this morning. How many believe the Lord is here? We thank God for the presence of the Lord this morning, and we're believing the Lord this morning again to speak to our hearts. We thank God for His presence this morning with us, and we believe and pray that the Spirit of God will speak to us as He spoke to us last night, and will speak to us throughout this day and the rest of this activity. I told you last night that I am very grateful and very happy and honored by the presence of so many sisters among us. And I want you to hear the message this morning, because we preachers are no better than our wives. I mean, beside Christ, that's where our strength comes from. Now, this is a minister's meeting, and if you're single, I'm giving you something for the future. I pray if you're seeking a wife, God will give you one. And you can have something from the Holy Spirit to remember. Let me give you two scriptures from 1 Peter 4, verses 12 and 13. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fire trial which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened to you. Rejoice in as much as your partakers of Christ's sufferings. When His glory shall be revealed, you will be glad also with exceeding joy. Come, Holy Spirit, this morning, and touch our hearts. Do something very special. Not only for pastors, but their wives, and all that are gathered in your name this morning. So don't think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. I was in Dallas, Texas years ago, conducting a conference, and at the conclusion of my message, something happened to me. I just lifted my hands and began to praise the Lord. Three words were coming out of my mouth and out of my heart. Glory, honor, praise. Glory, honor, and praise. And as I was worshiping the Lord, I forgot the congregation. There were many hundreds there. And I got caught up in worship. In one of the most unusual experiences in all my life. I've had wonderful times with the Lord before. I've known what it is to be slain in the Spirit in my prayer room. And for hours, just be caught up in praise. But something happened that night. As I was worshiping, I felt caught up As I was worshiping, I felt caught up It was not in heaven. But it was beyond this earth. A light began to break into my spirit. And suddenly I felt like I was worshiping with angels. It was the most incredible experience. I was thinking, this is the gate to heaven. I could hear the angels singing. And I was just one of the choir. You know, they say in heaven we'll want to see the apostles, we'll want to see our loved ones. And that's true. But I didn't want to see Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. I wasn't interested in the mansion. I wanted just to worship. I just wanted to praise. And I felt caught up in praise. And I fell on my back. And I was carried deeper, further. They say I was there for half an hour. Nobody moved. My wife didn't know what happened to me. I think she thought I passed out. But I was in another world. I touched something in the Holy Spirit. There was a revelation of what it would be like when we're in heaven. And how the praise and how the worship would so transform us. And be in a perfect light where nothing else in the world mattered. I finally came out of that. And I got to my feet. And there was a holy hush. All over the auditorium. Nobody wanted to come near me. It was not because I was holier than I started. There was something happened. And I walked off the stage. My wife wouldn't speak. She couldn't say a word. I couldn't speak to anybody for a long time. And when I went home that evening, I said I will never be the same again in my life. I have seen something about heaven. I will never again doubt God. I'll rejoice until Jesus comes. The next week, I went into the driest time in my life. It's like falling off a mountaintop. I went from the mountaintop to the lowest valley. And if I remember, it was five or six weeks of the hardest time in my life. I was sharing it with a pastor friend. He said, well, that's just God showing you you can't live in emotions. I said, no, nobody can take away from me what I experienced. But in that time that I was down in the valley, it was difficult to pray. It was difficult to get anything from the Word. I knew I was loved. I knew I was right with God. But something happened. This dryness, this emptiness. Then I began to search the Word of the Lord. And I found it all over the Old Testament and I found it in the New Testament. That unexplainable thing that happens. The dry times that follow some of the highest revelations we receive. I don't know how you would measure your spiritual temperature when you came here. I don't know whether you came here in a spiritual high or your medium or your low. I would presume, I would think most of you were up in the mountain. In my human thought, I would like to think most of you are not going through any trials. You don't have a difficult time seeking God. You're always happy. You go week after week and month after month. You never get discouraged. Is that where you are? I don't think so. When you go to the Word of the Lord, you find men of God who are seeking His face. Doing miracles in the name of the Lord. And then you see them come into great tests and trials. Elijah is in a spiritual high on Mount Carmel. He stands against the powers of hell and darkness. He's hearing clearly from God. There are manifestations of God's power in his life. And he brings fire down out of heaven. He said to the congregation, Everything I do, I've heard from God. And he walked in that majesty. He slew the prophets of Baal. He had power with God. He called rain out of heaven. He called the heavens to open. He outran Ahab's chariot to Jezreel. He's on a spiritual high. Everything is going right. He's enjoying the blessing of Almighty God. Full of revelation and full of zeal. And that very day, Jezebel threatens him. And he falls into a great pit of despair. And he falls into a great pit of despair. Now I'm going somewhere with this message. And the Holy Spirit's made clear where I'm going. I'm asking every sister to listen closely. Because the Holy Spirit's going to minister to you this afternoon. He's going to minister to you within the next half hour. Because you see, many of you that are called of God, you may be like my wife. I'm speaking directly to our sisters. There are times my wife has said to me, I don't think I'm much use to God. I can't preach. I can't sing. I just can't do some of these things that I see others do. But I know something about my wife. And I know the spiritual battles she's fought. And I've been with her when she's been on the mountaintop. And I've seen her when the enemy comes after those great movings of the Spirit. And I'll talk about it a little more at the close of my message. Elijah is now plunged into depression. You see the same thing at the Red Sea. A whole nation. Experiencing one of the greatest miracles in history. Can you imagine walking through the Red Sea and high walls of water on both sides? No greater revelation of God's power than then. No, no, no. They get on the other side. And the waters come crossing down on the armies of Pharaoh. They see hundreds of wheels coming off of chariots. And their enemies are destroyed. They see the bodies of the soldiers washed up on the side. Miriam and the women of Israel start dancing and playing their tambourines. A great revival of praise and worship. Three days later they're accusing God of neglecting them. They're at the waters of Mara that are bitter. They say, God, you brought us out here to kill us and our families. Por qué nos trajiste a matarnos en medio del desierto con nuestras familias? And the Bible said, and they complained at the Red Sea. These are the exact words of the Scripture. And they murmured at the Red Sea. Then it adds these words. Even at the Red Sea. Aún en el Mar Rojo. God is saying this. Imagine that they could murmur after being so high in the Spirit and so blessed and they murmur even at the Red Sea. Aún a la orilla del lugar donde hubo tal milagro. You know, writes this David. He's a man after God's own heart. God takes him on a spiritual mountaintop. And he says to David, I'm going to make your house and kingdom to be established forever. I'm going to establish your throne for eternity. And following these words, the Scripture says after this, after this revelation, no man in history has had a greater revelation other than maybe the Apostle Paul. Everlasting kingdom. A son of yours shall forever rule. Speaking of Christ. And after this, the Scripture says that he had an anointing. He secured all the borders of Israel. God's blessing was on this man. And then the Bible says after this, after defeating his enemies, after this great revelation, David falls into a time of testing. He went into a spiritual drought. This is what he ends up saying. I'm cast down. My joy has departed from me. And in many words he's saying, where is God now? My prayers are not being heard. How many in the church today, even in the ministry, have been getting doubts The enemy has implanted doubts about God answering their prayer. How long have you been waiting for God to answer something that has been in your heart and you've cried out for so long? A dry spell, a dry time. When our prayers don't seem to be getting through. Let me stop here and say something about this. I am convinced after 50 years of preaching, 55 years of preaching, the very moment we think our prayers are not being heard, the very moment we are on the brink of despair, is the very time God is doing most behind the scenes. If God could pull back the curtain, if God could show you the little steps, the things that he's doing, you may have somebody in your family not saved. And you have fasted and you have prayed. Could be your father, your mother. Somebody close to you. And you have done everything according to the word of the Lord. And it looks so hopeless to you right now. But you don't know. God is sending somebody to them. God said I couldn't answer you two weeks ago. I couldn't show you a month ago. Because I was doing something in that heart. I had to bring them lower. I had to make them see how helpless they are. And if I had answered prayer when you wanted me to, and when you gave me deadlines, it would not have been a complete healing. They would have backslidden. They would have gone back to their old ways. Because the Holy Spirit has to have time to do his work. Daniel set his heart to seek God. He had the great revelations in the book of Daniel that we read. What follows that great revelation? He goes into the lion's den. He ends up on his face. He said my strength is gone. And some of you sisters are sitting here and even many of you pastors. This is how you really came to the meeting. My strength is gone. My strength is weak. And you were discouraged. And you prayed a prayer before you came. And you said oh God, when I go to this meeting, will you do something for me? Will you give me strength? I'm telling you, he is the God of strength. He said I give my strength to my people. And he's here this morning to pour strength into your soul. And not the strength that lasts just through the meeting. But strength to face anything that comes into your life. Paul the apostle is taken into the third heaven. And he sees things that no other man has seen. He saw things so great he can't even speak them. He follows, he comes out of that great revelation. And he faces a messenger of Satan. To harass and buffet him. And after praying three times, God said no. I'm going to make you a man of grace. You're going to have a testimony of my power and my grace. This is going to see you through. And I want you to know this. That when you seek God with all your heart, and God has chosen you to a work, and he gives you revelation, you begin to see things in the words you've never seen before. If you're a praying man or a praying woman, and you're hungry for the word, and you have a burden from the Lord, especially if you're a pastor, and you are a true man of God and not a hireling, you will never go into the pulpit without seeking God for revelation. Because you'll go to the church and you'll have something from heaven. I've been in churches, and I've listened to men, sometimes large congregations, and I know they have not sought God. It's a little speech. It's just an empty word. In New York City, when the towers were destroyed, the terrorists flew airplanes, our two towers fell, and in Washington, one of our government buildings was hit. That happened on a Tuesday, and on Sunday, the churches were packed, and people came. They wanted to ask questions. Was this God? Did God do this? Did the devil do it? Was it an accident? They went anxiously to the churches, expecting to hear the pastors explain it. There was no word from the pulpits. We heard it told that people were getting up right in the middle of the sermons, interrupting the pastors, and saying, We don't want to hear that. We want to know. Is God speaking through this? Tell us. There's no other place to go. I remember a week later, a delegation of elders came from a Pentecostal church. They flew in just to see me, and they were broken. They said, Pastor Dave, and this was Assembly of God group, they said, Our pastor got up on that Sunday morning, and he was preaching on a series about morality, and he preached that Sunday morning, on the sexual behavior of Christians. We were sitting there weeping. There was fear in our hearts, that there was no word of God. My point is this. Six months later, a survey in the New York Times, said, Fewer people go to church from that explosion. They asked the question, Why did you quit going to church? They said it was dead. There's no fire in the pulpit. There was no revelation on what was happening. Folks, that's not the way it should be. There should be revelation in our pulpit. There should be men and women of God, who know what's happening, who know the times. Now, I'm not getting off of my message. I'm saying this. If you seek God with all your heart, if you want that revelation, there should be a prophetic word that comes from the pulpit. But if you go for that, if you seek that, you're going to become a marked person. And I bring it all to this point. If you are here this morning, and you know in your heart, that you stand in your pulpit, and you bear the word of God, and you've got it on your knees, and you got it from seeking God, and you got it spending time in the word, and in your books, and if something is changing you, you will become the target of the devil. He'll try to bring despair and discouragement into your heart. Jesus goes down into baptism. The Holy Spirit comes on him like a dove. And suddenly a voice comes from heaven and validates him. This is my beloved son. What a wonderful moment. But where does he go from there? Into a wilderness to be tested and tried. I read a lot of books. And one of my favorite authors is Austin Sparks. He's gone with the Lord. He preached in London. He was so strong in the word of God and so full of revelation. I have most of his books. People used to move from all over the world to sit under his ministry. The great Watchman Nee was one of his students. In this past year I received a letter from a woman from the United States. I received a letter from a woman. She had sold her home in the United States and moved to London just to sit under his ministry. She wrote me this letter. She said, I sat under the ministry of Brother Sparks. She said, I became a disciple of the ministry of Brother Sparks. Great revelations came. Every revelation that he received and this is a confession he made in his congregation. He said, after every revelation I go under attack. Gastric pains in my stomach. Sleepless nights. He said, after every wonderful truth I receive pain and discouragement follows. After that what follows is pain. Anxiety. Anguish. He said, I found this out after many years. When we think we come into the fullness of God's revelation. Sometimes when we think we're really growing. We're beginning to see things clearer. And then suddenly everything comes to nothing. He said, we go through experiences of desolation and emptiness. And God allows it to take us into deeper revelation. He said this. A history of repeated desolation always are followed by this. Greater, fuller revelations of Jesus Christ. If you're in a dry time if there's a spiritual emptiness, a spiritual dryness in your life God is doing something. You're not to panic. You're not to fear it. And the purpose of my message this morning is to prove to you like a lawyer does I've given you case after case and I've shown you from the Bible from my own experience from the godly Pastor Sparks that it's normal Christianity. It's normal Christianity. It's an experience of those who truly know God. There will be times you will feel you have not grown. There will be times your revelation doesn't seem to be there. There will be times of great discouragement. You will feel as dry as a stick. But in those times those are growing times. God is taking you somewhere. You're on a path. What does the Bible say about going through the Red Sea? Now folks, this is not a stretch. This is not just imagination. God demanded God made it possible that they pass over on dry ground. They went over the Jordan on dry ground. On dry ground. They were on a path. They were going somewhere. They were going into the promised land. And they're walking on dry ground. There's nothing to show them that there's relief. Other than those walls. God was taking them somewhere. And God is taking you to a place of faith. That no matter how the heavens may seem closed to you no matter how despairing or depressed you may be no matter what the difficulty is God is still there. He's taking you to faith. So you don't live by your feelings. Until you come to this place Oh God I am not seeking you like I believe I want to. I don't seem to have the revelation I want. I don't feel like I'm in the place I want to be. And I only have one thing left to give you. Not my righteousness. I have no righteousness of my own. But one thing you want one thing I have one thing I give you is my faith. I will believe you. And I will trust you. No matter what I see. No matter what I go through. I'm going to trust you. I'm going to trust you. And I'm going to hang on your word. I'm not going to preach much longer. I have to share something. I've asked my wife to give me permission. I've been married 55 years. And my wife and I have been through a lot of suffering. Gwen has had my wife has had 28 operations. 5 for cancer. This past week just before I left to come here I noticed on our bedroom dresser two journals. And I just opened one. I realized it was my wife's journals kept over the years. And just opening them to see what they were I was shocked. What I was reading. And I realized it was hers. And I went to her and said what are these? She said they're my journals. I said I read a few of the first pages. I said I read a few of the first pages. Would you allow me to read some more? She said yes. I went into my study. Now you see my wife's quiet. She doesn't pray when I'm around. She gets alone. When she reads the word she gets alone. She almost seems to hide it from other people. And I remember years ago thoughts from the enemy. Maybe she's not a prayer warrior. Maybe she's not a prayer warrior. She doesn't seem to read the bible like I read it. I opened her journal. I couldn't believe it. Before every operation she said I was down. I'm afraid. But this is the passage the Lord gave me. Here was the word. At the bottom of each page the fear is gone. In every trial we have two daughters that have cancer. And there's a page poor Debbie 95 pounds all curled up in bed pain and cancer. Lord I can't take it anymore. But then here came the passage. God spoke to me. And strengthened me. I had a wonderful time in prayer. Page after page Bonnie in the hospital being bombarded with radiation. And I went into the hall and pounded my fist on the wall. But then I went to the word. And I turned to the Lord in prayer. And God has given me assurance she's coming through. Then came a page 12 year old granddaughter we heard she has brain cancer. Lord you know all about it. Give me a word. And I found out that my wife was the true prayer warrior. My wife knew the word. She was in the kitchen and pardon this personal experience that is so fresh in my heart. I put my arms around her. I said Gwen I'm so sorry. After all these years I didn't know you. You see pastor our wives hold things inside. And most of the sisters that are here I know you don't tell people what you're going through. But most of you are not even known by the one you live with. And Holy Spirit put on my heart today to minister to the sisters in this congregation. Many of you are carrying a burden. So nobody knows what you're going through. Some of you see things in the church. Some of you have family problems. Maybe marriage problems. And the Lord wants to heal you. He wants to heal you in this service. In prayer this morning I said oh God these meetings don't mean anything unless you change us. Unless you heal us. I'm too old. I don't want to do this. I don't want to travel anymore. Unless I can see your hand. Unless the Holy Spirit comes. And He heals. And He changes. And that's what He wants to do right now. God wants to lift every burden from you sister. He wants to bring you into a new faith. And a place of rest. Not just that you can be a comfort to your husband. And your children. But you enter into a new walk of faith for your own life. It's time God blesses you. Then you'll be a strength to the others around you. Will you stand please. I'm going to invite those sisters here to whom God is speaking. You need healing. In your spirit. Your spirit needs heal. I want you to get out. Yes sisters. We're going to believe God for a miracle in your life. We're going to pray. And we're going to pray for a miracle in your life. Health for your body. Health for your spirit. And health for your soul. Also around. In all this space sisters. Here. In all this space. Also on this side. You can get closer. Around the whole altar. You can get closer. Lift your hands and say Jesus help me. I need help. I want you to call out on God. Touch me Jesus. Touch me right now. I need your touch. Just call on his name now. Lift up your voice. Invoke. Even more. More. Even more. More. Even more. More. God is going to be faithful to you, God is going to be faithful, how many believe that? Hallelujah, I want to pray for you, that Lord lift the burden, and assure you of his great love, and give you faith to stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. And while you're still standing here, tell God that you're going to trust him, until the victory comes, and that one thing you're praying about, God has already heard you, he's going to answer. We're going to pray. Precious Jesus, you see all of these wonderful sisters, standing here, with their hearts open to you, O Holy Spirit, bring peace, and confidence, and rest, that God has everything under control, everything is under control, thank you Jesus, for your faithfulness, heal every sick person, everyone who needs a touch, let this be the day, that they claim victory, and the promise of God's faithfulness, now thank God with your hands, please, thank you Father.