This sermon focuses on the journey of Abraham as he followed God's call to leave his homeland without knowing the destination, highlighting the importance of vision in walking with God. It emphasizes the need for believers to have a vision aligned with God's perspective, rooted in love and compassion, leading to a life of humility, righteousness, and mercy. The sermon encourages a deep spiritual understanding of God's promises, the inheritance in Christ, and the ultimate vision of dwelling in the city of the living God.

First of all, I'll read a few verses from Genesis chapter 15. God has called Abraham already to leave the country of his nativity and to go on out to another land. Where? God says, I'm not telling you. Just go on. So he went. No, I don't know. God said he'd show me. And so that was enough for Abraham. That'll show me. So he went out, and you know the story how he found himself up in Herod with his father, with his nephew Lot. He lived there for some time until God reminded him of the promise. I said, get thee out from my country and from my kindred. So after his father was dead, he moved out again. Where? He didn't know. And so here he was, down in the land of promise. And yet Abraham was still waiting for God to show him the land. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, saying, Turn on, Abraham. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. I want to talk a little bit about vision. Lord willing. I've never had a vision or a meaningful dream that I'm aware of. But it doesn't mean I don't have. I believe God wants us all to have vision. He wants us to see. He wants us to see with his eyes and hear with his ears. He wants us to be aware and to evaluate those things that God evaluates. This is a proper perspective. And Peter says you lack vision. You're blind and short-sighted. If after you have received faith from God you're not adding to your faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, motherly kindness and love, he says you're lacking vision. Now, trust God will burn it into our hearts that the ultimate in all these things that God promises is love. It's not just some good sentimental thing you need to get other things to work, to get your ministries to work, to be effective in ministry. Love is the ultimate. Love is far more powerful than any gift. Far more powerful than any ministry. And God is going to demonstrate that, that just in the love of God pouring forth people are going to be healed. The cripples are going to rise up and walk, not because some powerful ministry stands there with a gift of miracles, but because of the love pouring forth from God's people. Now, we're at the mental institutions where people are demonized. You won't have to take along someone who's a specialist in the journey of evil spirits. I'm not despising that. I know God has used it. But when people walk into those places, they're going to run from those individuals when the love of God draws them. Now, we're going to see great waves of healing through a people who are simply a Christly people filled with mercy and compassion, walking in this world of evil and wickedness and demonized. Because darkness can't stand the light. Darkness and light cannot coexist. And when Jesus, the Prince of Light, comes, the Prince of Darkness is in trouble. The spirits cry out, we're not troubling the world of evil too much because we don't have enough of God yet. I mean, we don't have enough of love and mercy and compassion. Because they're troubled when they come in the presence of Him or His love. A little story comes to me, I think, of a lady up our way. There's a friend of mine who has been working amongst the Native Indians. He was down to a convention of the Natives. And in that fellowship there, Christians, there had been a certain bitterness because one of the children was taken up to the slackhouse to be treated by the medicine man, and the child died. And they started to preach love and forgiveness. And they sat there cold. But as the word went forth, the Lord broke them, and they repented to Him. They said, yes, we forgive them. And there was the Spirit of God transferred. The repentance, everything was lovely. But the next night, the ministry continued. But you've got to love. Well, no, that's... Yeah, we can forgive them, you know. Try to erase it from our mind. I mean, that was the thought that was there. And as the ministry of the Word continued to dwell on that thought, and mean it, and He said, yes, we will. We will love them. And don't forget that. Love is not just a feeling. It's a commitment. And God will help you to fulfill that commitment. If it is genuine. And so they said, yes, we love those people. But they didn't leave it at that. Some of them went up there, I don't know, some miles up there, to affirm not only that they had forgiven, and they went up and they talked to the medicine man, and went back home. Two years later, the medicine man said, He said, no, I really don't care who you start talking about love. The world of darkness knows nothing about that. Not God's love. The only power the world of darkness has is fear, suspicion, doubts, unforgiveness, lack of mercy, darkness. Anything that pertains to the realms of darkness. It's the only power they've got. You say it's awesome power. It is to those who are living in that place. It ought not to be to those who are not. I know we feel the effects of that negative kind of power in the world. Because we're not, we don't have enough of God's love. And when we come into that ultimate that God has for his people, perfect love, cast out all fears. He said, we can match any power you've got. Thank God there's a great movement. They love it. And yet out there in the church, I'm sort of in awe. God, I'm telling you, amongst all you black people, that buys a fashionable shirt. If God does that, it's all God's. He's got great things in store for his people. Another Native friend of mine, north of Vancouver Alley, God was moving tremendously. And may God, as that work begins, begin to provoke the church to jealousy. So we'll settle back with the thought, we're God's people, this is God's chosen nation. We're rich in the truth, we're good in the show of this. Wouldn't you, God, look at your kind of bankruptcy? Because God has hope for those who are in bankruptcy. He's got everything you need. But as long as you've got your bank vaults filled with all kinds of paper money that isn't worth a thing, what can God do for us? That's just a little bit of passing. God said, fear not, Abraham, I'm thy shield. And I've seen in great reward. Abraham had been getting concerned because God said, I'll show you the land, and I'll give you seed, and I'll make you a great nation. And through you all the nations will be. And the longer he waited, the dimmer the promise seemed to become. Why does God keep us waiting so long? Why does God always wait? From your standpoint and mine. Because we don't see things as God sees them. Our ways are not His ways. And He keeps us waiting. Because His real work is in those to whom He gives the promises. That's where He really wants to do the work. Of course, when you get the promise, you feel, well, fine Lord, when? Well, not today, next week maybe, next month? God doesn't tell us. And so He keeps us expecting every day. But expectation soon wears thin. Lord, you promised this, when are you going to do it? God says, I'll see you Abraham. I'm your shield. I'm your seed and great reward. Yeah, but God, what are you going to give me, seeing that I'm childless, and the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus. But Abraham, didn't you hear? I'm your shield. Strange how we can hear the word of God and yet not hear it. God, the Almighty, the Creator, what are you going to give me? I was telling some of the men, you know, all my life I felt like that call was there from the earliest days of childhood. And so that became my vision. Go to school, I won't necessarily go to university as long as I knew how to read and write. I don't have to learn all that stuff in college. But ministry was, the call was strong in my life. So I just waited. Was it saved? Even better. Waited a couple of years for that. You know, ministry, ministry, ministry. So 30 comes and goes and well, 40 is quite a magic number in scripture. Oh, no problem. What happened all that time? I'll tell you what happened as we go along. What are you going to give me? And so God told them to make the sacrifice because they were going to cut a covenant. And that was the word that they used in those days when they made an agreement. Sacrifice, cut it, lay the parts out side by side. And so God said, well, get the sacrifice ready. A heifer is three years old, there's a down in the beginning. And so in the meantime, what can you do? Wait for God. Abraham lived a life of waiting. But let me tell you, if you're waiting, they shall not fear shame to wait for him. And Abraham had to wait. He couldn't do anything about it. It takes two to make a covenant. And so the carcasses were laid out and the sacrifice was ready. All he needed now was raising, getting ready, everything ready for God to come. And I know God told him to do that. But somehow it looked like he was depending a lot on God. And he had to protect the sacrifices. So he drove the birds away, they'd come down. As he always did, he got there in a week. He gave the promise to a parrot so it would have had a baby. Soon after, there's shame. A seed shall bruise the serpent's head. And they waited. He burned into Moses' heart a promise of delivering the children of Israel. God put it in his heart. And he assumed that the people of God would recognize that God had raised him up to be their deliverer. After all, he was one of them. And now he was apologetic. And he was very much very near to the king. For whatever reason. So when he was in a good position to deliver, he always hoped he would get a Christian president. Maybe there'd be something. But that's not going to use your political system to do what he did. Because we can go directly. Go direct to him. Go through the political channels. It will be, what's the word I'm looking for? It will be a torment. As righteousness flows from Zion. Why do I say that? Because they hated Jesus because he was a man who displayed their righteousness and love and truth of God. That's why they hated him. He said, they can't hate you. But me, they hated. It's because I testify of it. They hated the two witnesses of Revelation because they were tormenting the people with plagues. They say, well that doesn't torment the people of the earth. They were tormenting them because they were standing for righteousness and truth. And the world hates God and it's Christ and truth and righteousness. When you and I come into truth and righteousness, say we're living in a different time. The prince of evil reigns over this. And the God of this world lives. When the light shines, they're going to hate the light and they're going to yield. But we're going to win like that. There's a man who said, we're going to win because God called upon the light of Jesus. We're going to win because he's already conquered. We go into this battle knowing we've already won. Not to find out whether we'll win or not. So we need that kind of vision. Anyway, just He waited and waited until the sun was down. As it was going down, Abraham fell asleep. A deep sleep fell upon him. Abraham and Noah. Horror of great darkness fell upon him. A deep sleep and a horror of great darkness. And God said to Abraham, Noah, be sure that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them for a hundred years. Also that nation they shall judge and afterwards they shall come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace and thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And came to pass that when the sun went down it was dark. Behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces. While Abraham was asleep, with a sleep that God put upon him, God went through the pieces as a burning lamp and a smoking furnace. God was saying to Abraham, I know, but I'm doing this and you're having nothing to do with it. You're the recipient of it but otherwise, I know there's a sleep of death, there's a sleep of lethargy, but there's a sleep when he is determined that man will, no man can say, well I helped. Again he was in a deep sleep upon his face when the angel visited him. Adam, God put him to sleep when he would bring forth a bride. Adam longed for that bride. He looked about and saw nothing in all the works of God's hand that was compatible with himself. Wondered a little about it because every creature had its mate but he couldn't see anything that appealed to him till God put him to sleep. Help me, Simon, while Adam slept. God brought forth this beautiful bride to be his. Help me, this comfort part. God did the same with the last Adam. He did the same and is doing the same because the bride is not yet fully born. Put the bride into sleep. And there as Jesus slept in the sleep of death, God was bringing forth out of his wounded side a holy bride totally compatible with himself. Not the work of man in any sense but a new creation after the hand of God. My substance was not hid from thee, David said. And I used to read that. David was saying it and he knew. He knew he was speaking of something. When I was made in secret and curiously locked in the lowest parts of the earth, thine eyes did see my substance yet. And in that book all my members were which in continuance were fashioned when as yet every one of them it is vain for you to rise up early and sit up late. What's that preceded by except the Lord build the house say laboring men and women. It is vain for you to rise up early and say you are wearing yourselves out to build God's house. God says I'm putting you to sleep when I'm in my house. With the sleep that God puts upon us. In other words, God is working tremendously right now in his job and we're not aware of the intricate working intricately wrought speaks of fine needlework of that cloth by God's own handiwork for we are God's creation. We are God's new creation. You and I know very well that only God can cast the galaxies and stars and planets but we're going to wonder more in the church of Jesus Christ and then we'll know it's God's creation. And then we'll know that it had nothing to do with that God by his own intricate works was in the lives of his people. Out of the old creation take a look a look of the old Adam his holy bride a new creation totally comparable with the Lord Jesus Christ not inferior totally like Jesus isn't that the way we want it? Always something to Jesus. So this movement then to make man and woman equal as God made the order woman, man, Christ and don't put another mediator in there like some are doing woman, man, the men the apostles or the prophets or this covering or that order Paul doesn't put that in there minister that all of God's people might have free access to God so minister the truth to God's people that you and your own free access to show God is coming to church these ministries apostles, prophets evangelists, pastors that are perfecting of the same for the work of ministry true ministry so minister Christ to the people that they become ministers themselves I'm not talking about clergy clergymen I'm talking about having a function in the body of Christ which you all that's what ministry is for apostles, prophets, evangelists so minister Christ that every individual will bud forth in that particular ministry that God will eventually all come unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God and I don't waste my time analyzing the word perfection it means maturity it means coming to fullness but Paul describes exactly what it means describes exactly what it means mature you don't lose man as easily as you used to even have departments in the government they are very concerned about measurements they've got a standard a foot is so much and you mustn't vary from that you put out I suppose millions of these tapes ten, twenty, thirty foot long and they've got to meet that standard that is the standard and the standard is the measure of the stature of Christ the fullness of Christ it's too much for us because we think we have something to do with it it's God's creative word that's going to do it when God formed man pardon me when God formed man dust was the ground formed the man he breathed into him the breath of life he became a living soul and stood for his feet crushed from the hands of God he didn't evolve God created him the way he is and then like we said when he made his bride his counterpart he put Adam to sleep to bring Eve out of Adam and it might always be there one the one coming out from the other out from his side to be always by his side a new creature and yet one with the man from whom she came we don't find that too difficult nor have we heard until recent times that Eve and Adam were equal after all had equal opportunity equal rights same kind of rights and nature same kind of human character that God established in order for the benefit of the human family for the benefit of Eve herself for the benefit of her children and so you can see as this equality spreads throughout the earth how families are just being broken and there's families who have made such anarchy through this false notion that we just evolved in the through some kind of a process of evolution we are where we are now and must go on and on until you know man becomes his own God in a way I didn't intend to get into that either but we have that vision that God's going to do what he says and that when God declares his word in the earth sends it forth he will not take it back but it performs the intention of his heart I didn't finish that thought the other night and I mentioned how that Jesus became the word the incarnate word the ultimate word that was faithful unto death to do the will of God and though when he came to the hour when the burden the rest of the time oh I don't think of this so much but the fact that in that the burden and the weight of this a cup that was too heavy too poisonous for him to drink so it seemed but he was faithful to do it and because he was faithful to do that faithful to be the seed that would go down to the ground and die God raised him up and then thrown him in his own right hand in the heavens he left the world the father because he finished the word he was the word that God sent God said I can't take that word back he said I finished it I finished the word and so the father took it back but he sent forth that word again this time not a man incarnate but the spirit inhabiting a people in the earth and that spirit was the same spirit that was in Jesus Jesus was I am the way the same spirit comes forth when he was suspended he finished the word the word went to abide in the earth in the earth he finished the word the word he finished the word he finished the word he finished the word he finished he finished he finished the word he the word he finished the word he finished the word he finished the word he the word the word he finished the word he finished the word he finished the word he the word he finished the word he finished the word he finished the word he finished the word he finished the word he of ministration by the Spirit of truth and wisdom and knowledge, workings of God by the Spirit. We might speak of these various things as our inheritance in God, but if we find a lot of success and a lot of enjoyment and gratification, fulfillment in these areas, the vision that God wants to bring upon us might be in the back burner. So he says to us, over and over again in the Scripture, in one way or another, I fear that some should seem to come short of it. I fear that some might come short of my promise. Now God says that, you and I. I don't want you to come short of my promise. But God brings us into some new realm in the Spirit, and it's so wonderful what I've just stated. And it's good that God leads us there first season, to enjoy that new realm of the inheritance. Sooner or later we're going to discover, I don't care where we are now, that there comes a dissatisfaction, an unrest, a sense of, no, this is really not true fulfillment, a sense of, oh, there still must be something more. But it's God who causes that, too, in one way or another. It might dry up for spring because it's what blessed you so much. It might send trouble, tribulation. It might send all kinds of difficulties. To work in your heart and mind is only a pleasure that we might lift up our eyes and see something greater than where we are now. And so tribulation and work is patience, but you say, that's not, that's not indivisible. Gloria, who wants tribulation and patience as we go through it? No, we don't, but God does. Because God's been going through a lot of tribulation all through this. God says, I get tired of turning to people. I don't think we understand the heart of God too well. God is pained with the pain of his people. God said, I've been in pain. He says, it's going to change. I feel, God says, I feel, no, like a woman that's a male. I'm going to arise and cry. I'm going to arise and destroy the evil that's in the world. It hasn't been easy for God all these years. God had to do that because God's a long-suffering God and he wants you to, oh yeah, let's do it quick, Lord. I'm patient, yeah, let's do it right now. God's a God of long-suffering and a face of patience and a face of all kinds of difficulties. God's a God of long-suffering and a face of patience. Merciful to people who don't deserve it. God's that way, you know it. He wants you to be that way. Do you want to be like Jesus? Or do you ask, I want to have that power in your head to heal and be miracles, maybe walk on the water, that would be more divine enablement to manifest patience. And long-suffering to those who don't understand you, misunderstand you, abuse you, afflict you. You want long-suffering? Yeah, but Lord, you know, only so far. And God won't cause us to be. He will with the test to clarify our nations. And it's not gifts, it's not ministries, it's not fulfilling an apostolic or prophetic ministry. It might give you almost nothing to become an evangelist. And so only God by His grace is able to change that vision that becomes so big in our eyes. But I'm leaving you with some ways that are perplexing and strange, with frustrating ways that when you try to reach the vision, you do feel you've got it, but God does not want your vision to be anything you do for Him. A ministry or a service of any kind must not be your vision, but a duty that God gives you, a precious duty that He gives you. Get out of that country and wait for the kingdom of Jesus. There's terrorism, terrorism, terrorism. God says do not even mind your own. As I saw God earlier this week about, I don't know, 50 years, 60 years ago, Lord, I know you put that call there. What do you really want? I want to know what to do, Lord. I want to do your will. And for, oh, I think a week or so, I think I forgot out of a promise box what it is. What a man does the Lord require of thee that thou doest justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God. Nice scripture. You hear it, Joel? Same scripture. What a man does the Lord require of thee that thou doest justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God. Oh, I forget how many times I've got to that. I knew God was speaking, but I didn't exactly feel like it. It's still the same with me and the boys that are getting it. It took a long time, maybe 25 or 30 years, to realize. And at the same time, there was nothing greater in this life than to love mercy, do righteousness, and walk humbly with God. There's no greater call in this earth or in the land to come but with God. And then why this trembling all through your life trying to fulfill something that God said, you know, he's going to give you a ministry. And why struggle? I just want you to walk humbly with me. The only reason I can figure out now why I never found rest in those early days was to be able to walk with God. When you're a young man, right? You're eloquent. Walk with God. You've got your diploma. You've got your talents. You know, I'm not making fun of young men in the I am saying that God admires your patience. Old or young, whatever age you are, it matters nothing no matter what. And the world is waiting for that kind of a people. It's what they're waiting for, waiting for. Walking in his steps, in union with the sun, that's nothing more than to the manifestation of the sun. The son of God might be revealed now as the weathered man, weakness in poverty, humility, all that is part of becoming a son. It's God's going to reveal in the day of his power. A naked, humble, and contrite people, poor in spirit, weak, lowly, suffering with the sufferings of the church, persecuted for righteousness and the sake yet all the while, knowing the canopy of the Lord Jesus resting upon them, always bearing the heart and the body of the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our minds. And so on the sun. And furthermore, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers are raised up by God for this purpose, to produce this kind of a people. A means to an end. One day they'll fade away, like Moses and Elijah faded away. We're going to see Jesus already. The ministry fades away in the crowd. Immersed in the cloud of God's glory. Yes, they're still there, immersed in the cloud of God's glory. But Jesus alone is seen, the Lamb reigning. With regard to vision, I say let God clarify, purify the vision we have. Give us clear eyesight that we might see what God wants us to see. That's why he keeps us waiting. That's the reason for the perplexity. That was the reason for the perplexity of Abraham, that he may come to understand what God meant way back there, when he said, fear not. I said, I'm giving you myself, Abraham. What more do you want? I think Abraham, when he was called to go to a place which he should have to receive from the inheritance, he was living in a bogey, and he went out. Not long later he went. But notice this. I think he went out to find the place that God had promised. When he found it, he found himself a foreigner in the land. I never noticed that clearly until a short time ago. He went out to a place which God had given for an inheritance. He found the land of promise. And he sojourned in the land of promise with the Holy Spirit she's mentioned here. Because Abraham said, it was no big deal to him. I wish I longed for the day when the true gospel would go down. Telling them, yes, God has given you this land, that's all very wonderful, but God's got something better than this. Abraham, your forefather, he was here, he dwelt here. The land is much more beautiful than it is. A good land, but Abraham, he found the true inheritance because that city is nothing less. John said, come hither and I will show you the bride of man's wife. He saw what? The holy city. And that was what God was doing in meeting Abraham as a stranger. Even when he found the land of promise, he didn't even have a place to bury it. They wanted to give it to him. He said, no I won't. He said, I'm going to be a foreigner. I see something better. Not made with hands, but as bright as most glorious. John saw no temple in that city. For the Lord God made the temple in the land. The people of the living God, the church of the living God proposed that men and women from all parts of the city make God's preparation. Let that be our vision. Zion, the city of the living God, that's the inheritance we've come to. For God is the light thereof, and God is the King thereof, and Christ and the inhabitants of that city are holy and just and pure by the blood of the lamb. And they're going to worship and adore the lamb, throw it on his hand and his side. Not as infirmities. They used to think, why didn't God give those wounds? Until they realized those wounds were not an infirmity, they were the tokens and powers of overcome. If we follow the lamb, whether she's Lord, we pray that she would take away the skin from her eyes. We might see those things that you want us to see. We might set our hearts upon those things which are above, not on things which are from the earth. And we have stand as far as this To God, the judge of all, this is the city of the living, for the blood of the lamb cleanses us from all sin. Make real to us, we pray, by giving us vision, Lord, to see the glories of your redemption. Cause us to know where our real inheritance lies in you. God said to the priests in Israel, we shall have no inheritance from your brethren, for I will be theirs. Be our inheritance, Lord, and make your inheritance in us. Help us to abide in you that you might be our inheritance and take us to be your inheritance. For so it is written, abide in me and I in you. Cause us to know, Lord, that in a way such as we've never imagined, for we were just quoting the scripture, but that there's a place in God where we live in God who walks in us and abides in us and becomes the fount in the springs. Bless you, Lord, Lord, transform it in the hearts of your people and cause it to work in those who believe, even as you have designed it.